When Science Meets Missions: How Environmental Psychology Positively Impacts the Church

I’ve always loved science. There was always something attractive to me in uncovering truth about how the world works. In many ways, Theology is very similar. We uncover truths about God, and his creation. Then we share those truths with others and call them to worship and serve God as Creator and King. So, it was only natural for me to want to find a way to somehow combine both in my work in missions. I wanted to see science and theology come together to plant churches. Specifically, I wanted to know how environmental psychology can serve Christian mission. To answer this question, we need to understand what environmental psychology is, and how it relates to the Church.

The natural sciences are producing exciting research showing how environmental factors influence the development of biological life. In a similar way, the field of environmental psychology is showing how social environmental factors influence the development of human cognition and behavior, and factors that influence some individuals toward change. For those of us in the church, this influence impacts us in our spiritual formation. Our goal is to become more conformed to the image of Jesus. So, understanding how we are influenced toward change can make us better equipped to change. It also benefits those of us engaged in church planting work. It provides an understanding for how the Church can, as part of fulfilling its mission, influence non-Christians toward salvation, and work for justice in society.

According to environmental psychology, individual effort connected to an environment tends to be a core aspect that influences change. When a Christian’s individual effort is connected to a specific Christian community, there is the ideal combination for spiritual formation. Regarding Christian mission, the ideal context for non-Christians to be influenced toward salvation is by a Christian community to connect with them. Christian community is a context and vehicle for redemption, restoration, mercy, forgiveness, and peace to be expressed as a way of life. It is a place where peace and justice live and work in harmony. This serves for the spiritual formation of the Christian, and a source of influence to the non-Christian. In other words, what church planters can learn from environmental psychology is this: the more connected people are to Christian community, the more effective influencers on people and society we can be. And effective influencers plant churches.

An Environment of Influence

The fields of ecology and evolutionary biology are demonstrating that all of life is not merely the product of genetic code. Environmental factors also influence the vast and complex web of life at every level. From gene expression to immunocompetence, and endocrine disruptions to population shifts, environments influence life. Slight changes in the environment can result in dramatic changes in organisms. Recent studies have found that a given environment influences gene activity, developmental life cycles, and population dynamics. Identical twins raised in separate social and familial environments develop significant physical differences.¹ Certain organisms rely on environmental cues, both biotic (microbes and nutrients) and abiotic (temperature, light, and chemicals), to control key life-cycle transitions.² Reproduction rates in rabbits have been shown to increase or decrease given certain environmental factors.³ Since environment influences the development of biological life at every level, it only makes sense that it would also be true at the psychological and social levels.

Cornell University professor Urie Bronfenbrenner developed an ecological model of human development that sees individuals being influenced by their environments. Every person is influenced by their social microsystems. A microsystem can be a family, school, church, community organizations, etc. Parents, relatives, close friends, teachers, pastors, scout leaders, youth directors, coworkers, spouses all can be a part of a person’s microsystem. These are people who participate in influencing the life of a person on a regular basis over a period of time. Sometimes, these microsystems overlap. But overall, these environments are what shape and influence a person’s thinking and behavior.  

It is still widely debated whether environment or person has the primary role in human development.⁴  However, increasingly, there is evidence to show that personal development is primarily driven by both combined factors; person and environment.⁵ Researchers are beginning to see that both the environment and the person play a relatively equal role in shaping human behavior and development.⁶ This is significant because it tells us that a Christian community can be a place of effective influence. The Church community can be influential toward the spiritual formation of other believers, and the conversion of non-believers.

By connecting to a Christian community, believers are influenced toward Christ-likeness, and non-believers are influenced toward Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul makes an astonishing analogy. Paul equates the Christian community with a body; a biological ecosystem. He states:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  For the body does not consist of one member but of many… If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Paul draws an image of connectedness for the Christian community. No part of the body is seen as dispensable, but all parts are esteemed as valuable. Each part of the body can influence another part. If one part of the body suffers, they all suffer together. If one part of the body rejoices, they all rejoice together. Paul makes no qualitative distinction between members of the body. When he closes this section with the statement that God has “appointed” and given various kinds of gifts for the Church, the implication is that those gifts are meant to be used for influence. Those gifted to teach are uniquely equipped to train and disciple. Those gifted to evangelize are uniquely equipped to share the gospel in a way that non-believers understand and respond, and so on. Together with the myriad of other gifts, the Christian community comes together as an environment of influence.

An Environment of Connection

Clive Hamilton, a Professor of Public Ethics in Australia, said, “People need a sense of belonging. We all need to be recognized as having a place, a respected place. There is no worse fate than to be rejected from society.”⁷ Fitting in is something that every person wants. Beginning with elementary school, people want to feel like they fit in. People like to feel a part of a group. At the bottom of all of this is a simple concept: connection. For many people, their “greatest fear” is rejection, and greatest needs is a life of connectedness. Seemingly, connection may very well be the single most influential factor in a person’s life.

In their book, “Connected,” Christakis and Fowler use the illustration of the 2008 elections in which Barack Obama won the presidential election.⁸ Obama’s “secret” to victory was his ability to connect with voters. Voters in the 2008 election felt a connection to Obama and believed that they were a direct part of not only what was happening with his campaign, but also with being a part of history. Moreover, Christakis and Fowler go on to point out that though in different political parties, congressmen and senators who cosponsor each other’s bills show greater success rate of passing bills. These co-sponsorships are greater indicators of deeper social networking and relationships.⁹ In short, the people we are connected to have great influence over us, and vice versa. Similarly, when the Church connects to the world, it can exercise influence in ways that promote the advancement of the gospel and the growth of the Kingdom of God. It can influence people toward salvation, and society toward justice.

Using Influence for Mission

The Church is a community that is called to influence the world. The great commission of Jesus is a call to make disciples of all nations. Disciples are made through influence. No place is this more clearly seen than in the book of Jeremiah. In the days of the prophet Jeremiah, Israel was living in exiled captivity to the Babylonians. The Babylonians sought to influence Israel to move into the community and lose their spiritual identity. They called them to integrate into the culture and become just like the Babylonians. The false prophets of the day were telling the people of Israel to remove themselves from the Babylonian community and its influence. They wanted Israel to withdraw from Babylonian influence. However, the prophet Jeremiah calls the people of Israel to go into their Babylonian community and influence it for God’s Kingdom.¹⁰

It wasn’t enough for the people of Israel to call the Babylonian community to come and join in Israel’s community. If Israel’s community was going to influence Babylon, it was going to have to enter the Babylonian community. God commands the community of Israel to enter and influence Babylon in Jeremiah 29:4-7,

Thus, says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

God calls Israel to connect to their host community. In so doing, they can exert influence in the community, and bring life. In following Israel’s example, the Christian community can bring the new creation work of redemption to fulfillment. It can exert gospel influence in its social and geographical community. In so doing, it influences believers toward spiritual growth, non-believers toward saving faith, and society towards justice.

Environmental Psychology has much to offer the Church in its fulfillment of its mission. Most notably, the Church can fulfill its mission through a recognition and practice of the importance of influential connection. A church community connects to other believers for spiritual formation and discipleship. In so doing, the believer participates in the growth of spiritual life, as well as the building up of the saints. Moreover, a community of believers connects to the world. Such a connection allows for the community of believers to exercise gospel influence. The exercising of gospel influence on the world leads to a fulfillment of the new creation work of redemption. Non-Christians repent and put their faith in Jesus, and injustices in society are made right. When church communities connect with other believers, and the world, it can effectively accomplish its mission.