Structure & History

CCSP is an integral program of the Center for Environmental Leadership (CEL), which is a synergistic ecosystem of creation care programs that also includes The Project for Placemaking and The Association for Christian Sustainability Professionals. CEL is incorportated under a 501(C)3 non-profit organization entitled Christians for Environmental Stewardship (CES). To learn more about CEL click this link.

Now over twenty years old, CCSP built its first campus in Belize in 1995, and ran its first semester program the spring of 1996. CCSP New Zealand was founded in 2000, and for the first two years it ran only spring semester programs. In 2003 CCSP started operating both spring and fall semesters in New Zealand. 

In 1996, CCSP started with the approval of ten Christian colleges and universities.  Entering its third decade, CCSP is now approved by over twenty five Christian colleges and universities in the USA and Canada, and it continues to grow its base of supporting schools.  To see a list of CCSP approved schools go to this link.

In 2015 Northwestern College, IA (https://www.nwciowa.edu) became CCSP's School of Record. Having a School of Record means new schools can more readily approve CCSP because students are able to receive an accredited transcript directly from Northwestern College for CCSP courses (whereas in the past each school independtly reviewed and approved the program).  

Our Partners

To achieve its twin goals of helping individuals, institutions, and communities act on their convictions to care for creation, and educating the next generation of Christian environmental leaders, the Center for Environmental Leadership convenes strategic gatherings to explore critical environmental issues and practical responses; offers topical, practical open-enrollment seminars, workshops, and courses; and trains and educates future generations of Christian environmental leaders through the Creation Care Study Program.

CEL's Project for Placemaking is a founding partner of the Urban Shalom Society, whose mission is "to be agents of God’s shalom though active participation in the global thrust to design and create (and in some care re-create) cities, towns, and neighborhoods that are conducive to human thriving and care of God’s creation."

In recognition of CEL's global evangelical leadership in the area of creation care, CEL's director, Dr. Chris Elisara, was invited in 2012 to found and lead the World Evangelical Alliance's Creation Care Task Force that developed in 2019 into the WEA Sustainability Center.  After several years of fruitful collaboration, the WEA Creation Care Task Force and Lausanne Creation Care joined together to co-lead one unifed creation care network entitled the Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network (LWCCN).