Praxis: Turning toward creation - the ARO journey
Recap of the Eco Church Partners Kōrero, 23 October 2025 with Murray Shearer of Praxis.
At Praxis, creation care is not a side project; it is becoming part of the organisation’s DNA. As a national NGO that trains youth workers and runs an alternative education school in Pōneke, Praxis has been asking a simple, searching question: what does it look like to turn toward creation as followers of Jesus, and to weave that into everyday formation, governance and practice?
That haerenga is captured in their ARO framework. In te reo Māori, aro means to face or turn toward. It is also the name of Praxis founder Lloyd Martin’s mokopuna, Arorangi - a living reminder to steward a better world for the next generation. ARO also names a practical pathway:
Assess your impact
Reduce the harm you can
Offset what you cannot yet reduce
From there, Praxis got busy. Each year they set aside a percentage of their budget to support projects with material environmental impact. Examples include mangrove restoration in Papua New Guinea (mangroves are carbon-sequestration powerhouses and protect against coastal erosion), community gardens, riparian planting, and tree planting on reserve land. They also hold an annual ARO Day where the whole team puts devices down, steps away from screens and gets hands-on with practical conservation activities such as river and beach clean-ups, earth-building, and visits to recycling facilities.
Culture change shows up in small, repeatable behaviours too. At a recent five-day block course in Akaroa, 95 people produced just one small bag of landfill rubbish through intentional systems, daily reviews, and shared responsibility for waste streams. Every Praxis student cohort completes a community project with a measurable environmental benefit. Partnerships, including with local marae and Adventure Specialties, help reconnect young people with the created world through simple, transferable outdoor skills and service.
Underneath the practice sits a grounded theology. Praxis has been moving from “we will escape earth one day” toward the biblical picture of God renewing creation - the river of life and the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Revelation 21–22). They have embraced an ecological conversion and done the organisational work: board alignment, policy development (with input from A Rocha’s Eco Church team), and mainstreaming creation care across programme design. “Care for creation” is now one of Praxis’ core Praxis Ideas that every staff member signs up to.
Why does this matter for youth work? Because it meets young people where they are. The twin pressures of tech-saturated lives and climate anxiety are real. Praxis is finding that embodied, outdoor practices help young people reconnect with creation, with each other, and with the Creator. That is a hopeful and healing witness to the good news of Jesus.
Watch Murray Shearer share Praxis’ creation care journey:
Learn more:
Praxis overview: praxis.org.nz
Praxis ARO Project: praxis.org.nz/aro-project
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Are you an organisation keen to integrate creation care into your kaupapa?
Explore A Rocha Eco Orgs and get in touch - we’d love to help you assess, reduce, and offset in ways that fit your mission and context.
And join us for our next Eco Church Partners Lunchtime Kōrero!