Welcome to our blog series of Q&As with our staff. As our team has grown in recent years, this is a chance to get to know some of our stories and quirks. Caring for creation and equipping others to do likewise is so much more meaningful—and fun—when done as a team!
Photo caption: A Rocha USA’s Nashville Conservation Coordinator Noah Guthrie (furthest to right) with members of our 2025/26 Nashville Churches of Restoration cohort.
What drew you to A Rocha?
My first experience with A Rocha was as an intern at the Brooksdale Environmental Centre in Canada. I was about 19 years old. That experience was formative in introducing me to the largest community I’d ever encountered of people who 1) deemed environmental work worthy of full-time attention and 2) pursued that work as a form of Christian ministry. This struck me as a unique and meaningful aspect of A Rocha’s work, and I’m grateful to continue engaging with that form of ministry through A Rocha USA.
When did the connection between faith and environmental work first “click” for you?
As I grew up, my main religious teachers (including my parents) affirmed God’s care for the material world. Still, I think I more fully understood God’s care for physical things in middle- or high-school, when I encountered N.T. Wright’s reflections on how the promised resurrection is both spiritual and physical. Later on, somewhere between reading Wendell Berry and doing more eco-theology readings for A Rocha Canada and A Rocha USA, I came to realize how all of creation is bound up in Christ’s work of healing and reconciliation.
What’s your favorite species and why?
My favorite species is the pangolin. I love how beautiful and strange it is, being the only fully scale-covered mammal in the world, and having something of the appearance of a polite, bipedal dinosaur.
Temminck’s Ground Pangolin (Smutsia temminckii), by David Brossard, on Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
What places are near and dear to your heart?
The neighborhood where my parents live, in Nashville, Tennessee, is close to my heart. Though it’s technically a suburb, a lot of it is forested. Its residents include possums, foxes, raccoons, bats, wrens, a wandering family of turkeys, and a host of summer fireflies that wreath our lawns in stardust.
What training/background do you bring to this work?
As a member of our communications team, I bring my background in English and creative writing. I’ve written stories since I was very young, and I majored in creative writing in college. The word-craft I’ve applied to fiction, poetry, and creative essays, I now apply to blogs, newsletters, and other forms of storytelling that A Rocha creates.
What are the most challenging aspects of your work?
A lot of my role with A Rocha consists of computer work, which can be hard to motivate myself to do sometimes. I’m grateful, though, that God can do great things through small acts of faithfulness, even when they happen online.
What are the most rewarding aspects of your work?
Through the Churches of Restoration program, I facilitate the growth of a diverse and mutually-supportive community of creation caretakers. It’s encouraging to give and receive from a good community doing good work.
What are some ways you see A Rocha’s work bringing life to your local ecosystems?
In Nashville, we’ve offered support to nine churches in their creation care efforts. Some of their successes include invasive plant removal, native plantings, pollinator gardening, animal blessings, and increased crop yield on a sustainable farm, the latter of which contributes to local hunger alleviation.
What keeps you going when faced with all our overwhelming ecological problems?
It’s encouraging to know that, even as species and habitats deteriorate, all of them are somehow bound up in Christ’s purposes to reconcile “all things, whether on earth or in heaven,” to God (Col. 1:19-20). What exactly this means for species that go extinct, or habitats that fall apart, I don’t know, but I know that Paul’s Greek phrase in that passage, ta panta (often translated to “all things”), encompasses all things in the universe.
What is a little-known but fun fact about you?
I’ve done a successful aerial hoop routine to a song from “The Greatest Showman.”
What would be your creation-oriented book recommendation?
Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a poetic and profoundly theological reflection on the created world, marveling at the wonders of nature, wrestling with its horrors, and celebrating the small epiphanies that draw us into the present moment. Dillard also knows how to be goofy now and then, which is refreshing.
What is your favorite creation-oriented song?
One of my favorite creation-oriented songs is “Brother Moon,” by Gungor – a tune with a hopeful and ethereal tone, and a lovely flute intro.