Illyn is executive director of Restoring Eden www.restoringeden.org, a ministry rooted in La Center, Wash., whose goal is to make environmental stewardship a core Christian value.

"Our message is simple. God is a good God, God made a good earth, and God calls us to be good stewards," Illyn told "Charisma" magazine in the July issue, out now. The full article on Illyn can be found in the magazine.

In 1990, Illyn traveled 1,000 miles on a four-month sabbatical through the Cascade Mountains. With Bible in hand and two llamas by his side, Illyn said there he discovered his calling to preach a message of environmental stewardship. He describes the experience as being born again, again...

Restoring Eden stemmed from Christians for Environmental Stewardship, a group Illyn founded in 1996 to support the Endangered Species Act. In 2001, the group became an independent, nonprofit organization and was renamed Restoring Eden to reflect its mission to protect endangered species, ecosystems and indigenous cultures.

Increasingly, Christians are talking about the environment, with the National Association of Evangelicals stating in October that caring for creation is part of every Christian's duty and that government should protect its citizens from the impact of "environmental degradation."

"Peter [Illyn] is helping people understand ... that you may not think this is related to yourself as a Christian, but the Bible says that it is," said the Rev. Jim Ball, executive director of the Evangelical Environmental Network, which has 23 partner organizations, including Restoring Eden. "If Christ's blood reconciles all things, how can we be harming and extinguishing what Christ died to reconcile?"

Illyn said it's a mistake for Christians to assume God made the earth for people. "Psalm 24:1 says, 'The earth is the Lord's and everything in it,'" Illyn said. "It's not like a credit card I give my daughter and say spend it as you please."

Illyn noted that loving the environment does not mean worshiping it. "We get accused of putting nature before people and that is not true and not fair," he said. "I think the church today is scared to love nature; that somehow loving nature is the beginning of a slippery slope to worshiping the earth."

Illyn, who was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer two years ago, likens his health battle to the one between man and the environment. "Cancer is when part of my body says I will not live within the boundaries that God intended me to live within," he said. "It's the ultimate of corruption. What we're saying is that uncontrolled human development is similar."