Clarke Scheibe is the director of Canadian L'Abri and has been involved with L'Abri since 2007. He graduated from the University of Mississippi with a B.A. in Literature, with an emphasis in creative writing, and from Regent College in Vancouver, Canada with an M.Div. He has a wide variety of interests such as baking, short stories, art, biblical hermeneutics, cultural studies, and early blues music. He is married to Julia; they have two children, Samuel and Sarah Beth.

Calvin B. “Cal” DeWitt is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and member of its graduate faculties of Environment and Resources, Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development, Water Resources Management, and Limnology and Marine Science. With his specific appointment to address "the fragmentation of the disciplines” Cal developed a program of teaching, research, and service ranging from local to international. His service includes his design and development of Au Sable Institute to provide 60 evangelical colleges and universities in North America, India and Africa with courses and certificates in earthkeeping and caring for Earth’s living fabric. Among hundreds of his lectures are the Kuyper Lecture at Fuller Theological Seminary, Spurgeon Lecture at Denver Seminary, and Francis Schaeffer Lecture at Covenant Theological Seminary. His honors include the National Wildlife Federation’s “Connie” Award for making “a huge difference with his life in bringing his work as an environmental scientist and ethicist to bear on the church’s role in caring for the environment.” He is author of Earth-Wise: A Guide to Hopeful Creation Care, is elder-at-large for Creation Care at Geneva Campus Church in Madison, Wisconsin, and a past-President of the Board of Christian Schools International. His website and further biographical material is accessible at: http://faculty.nelson.wisc.edu/dewitt/

Matthew Dickerson is the author of several books including works of fiction, creative narrative non-fiction, apologetics, spiritual theology, and explorations of the writings of C.S.Lewis and J.R.R.Tolkien with a special interest in environmental themes.  His most recent published books include: The Salvelinus, the Sockeye, and the Egg-Sucking Leech (which explores river ecology and environmental threats in Alaska’s Bristol Bay with a lens of fly fishing), Disciple Making in a Culture of Power, Comfort, and Fear, and (coming out in early 2024) Aslan’s Breath: Seeing the Holy Spirit in Narnia.  He is a faculty member at Middlebury College in Vermont, and has served as artist-in-residence (focusing on narrative non-fiction environmental, nature, and outdoors writing) at Glacier National Park, Acadia National Park, and Alaska State Parks. He and his wife Deborah Dickerson have lived in Vermont for 34 of their 35 married years, and are the parents of three adult sons. 

Ben Keyes has worked for the past 20 years at L’Abri in Southborough Massachusetts where he and his wife Nickaela are branch directors. Ben has a BA in ethnomusicology from Brown University and a Master’s degree from Regent College in Theology and the Arts. At Southborough he has lectured on a variety of musical and biblical topics. Ben also loves to write music, work in the woods, carve wooden birds and watch real ones. 

David O'Hara is Professor of Philosophy, Religion, Classics, and Environmental Studies, and Director of Environmental Studies and Sustainability at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dr. O’Hara's research and teaching center around clean water, prairie ecosystems, the complex relationships between fish and forests, and the differences between what we claim to believe and what we actually build. He and his students build outdoor classrooms, urban vegetable gardens, prairie restoration gardens, orchards, student greenhouses, and apiaries. He teaches and conducts research in the forests of Guatemala, the reefs of Belize and the tundra of Alaska, and he teaches environmental humanities courses in Greece, Spain and Morocco. His most recent book is Downstream, (Cascade Press, 2014) about brook trout and the ecology of the Appalachians. He is also the author of Narnia and the Fields of Arbol: The Environmental Vision of C.S. Lewis (U. P. Kentucky, 2008).  O’Hara earned a B.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College, M.A. in liberal arts ("Great Books") from St. John’s College, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University. 

Dr. Mike Sugimoto is a professor of Asian Studies with a focus on Japanese history and culture at Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA. He worked directly with the Schaeffers at the Swiss L'Abri for several years, overseeing their move to Rochester, MN in 1984. He and Carolyn have two boys, Michael and Jack. He taught in Pepperdine's abroad program in Lausanne, Switzerland for two years and co-directed a pilot program in Kyoto/Tokyo in May 2023.

After almost four decades as a civil engineer working in large and small private sector consulting firms, primarily designing and permitting water resources and solid waste projects, and assisting with environmental data management and documentation on responses to freight train derailments, Beth Keister stepped back from the professional engineering world to “complete her liberal arts education” and take on a role as an adjunct professor at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, teaching an entry-level environmental science course and getting to know the next generation.

Arend J. Poelarends is the director of the Center for Faith and Learning at Anselm House, a Christian study center serving the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities). He received a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and an MDiv from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis (MO). Prior to moving to Minnesota, he taught Physics and Astronomy for 11 years at Wheaton College (IL), where he thought deeply about questions at the intersection of science (cosmology) and the Christian faith.

Duane Otto is the Founding President of Ithaka Fellowship, an agrarian study center that helps people abide in Christ for the sake of creation, culture, and conscience through biblical coaching and teaching forums. Duane earned his BS degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Illinois, Master in Divinity and Master in Counseling from Covenant Theological Seminary, and Doctor of Ministry degree in Spiritual Formation from Northern Seminary. He is a fifth generation farmer and has recently rejoined the staff of Christ Church, PCA in Normal, IL as Pastor of Soul Care. He is the husband of Julie and together they have been blessed with six children. For solitude and rest, they go where the sky touches the sea. 

Bringing together churches and non-profits to develop perennial food forests, local composting, and creation care education on church properties.

At the Southborough L'Abri we recently hosted a 3-day artist retreat. The theme of the retreat was 'the inspiration that trees offer.' In this workshop we will engage with some of the same ideas. When we make art, how might tree-knowledge help us to do more justice to Creation's particularities? How can a tree function as a prompt for our art-making? What kind of metaphorical resources can a knowledge of trees provide? 

How is it that Amazon (the company) is worth billions of dollars, while the Amazon (the rainforest) is worth nothing until it is destroyed for logging or agriculture? (paraphrased after Dr. Andrew Basden, the John Ray Institute). The sad reality is that the market does not care about the state (or the destruction) of the environment, the living conditions of the poor, the care for widows and infants, or finding meaning in work and a flourishing society. Almost always the sole indicator of the general health of the economy is found in the growth rate of the GDP -- no more, no less.

In many of his writings, the Dutch-reformed economist Bob Goudzwaard calls for the idea of an "economy of care." Based on the biblical idea of stewardship, Goudzwaard argues that the foundations of our economic models need renewal and should focus on "the caring administration of what has been entrusted to us." And that means a reorientation to living within our means (with restraint, meeting the basic material needs at home and around the world, instead of an insatiable desire for more), a commitment to environmental sustainability for ourselves and future generations, and an interest in meaningful work, justice, care, and non-commercialized art and culture.

“All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.”

    - Bilbo Baggins

It may be a fool’s errand for the Miller family to be trying to build a Shire-like environment on their 30-acre vegetable farm. But even from their early wanderings into farming, Daniel and Hannah have been driven by a strong desire to reconnect with the ancient paths of land, family, and the local Church. While many folks today are very busy attempting to live digitally and disconnected from the natural world, the Millers see more and more families seeking out counter-cultural alternatives. Some are even seeking out largely abandoned lifestyles like small-scale farming. This kind of movement certainly involves material sacrifice and heavy-lifting. But when it is centered on Christ, it can also be fertile ground for shared family work and earthy reminders of our Lord's redemptive action in the world. Come join a discussion of how we all might find ways to help to feed the deep roots of caring for creation, building tight community, and raising up capable workers for the Kingdom.

In our broken world, how can we design and build places that demonstrate God’s redeeming work on earth? We will explore how God invites us, as co-creators, to participate in redemptive placemaking - the art of creating places that extoll the dignity of being human and foster relationships for community flourishing. You will discover the ways that contributing goodness and beauty to our neighborhoods through placemaking is an act of stewardship and obedience to the biblical command to seek the welfare of the city as we await the full restoration of creation. 

Evidence is presented that human flourishing, environmental improvement, and aesthetic beauty go hand in hand if the emphasis is on climate resilience.  All are undermined when the focus is on Net Zero CO2.  Mitigating hindrances to development from extreme environmentalism inspired by Malthusian ideology is proposed.

Working with a variety of organizations like schools and IBM to help young people create low-tech and high-tech tools. Better to work on solutions than to lament the problems!

Every Fall and Spring billions of birds take to the air to migrate, some of them for thousands of miles. While this has been happening for millions of years, an accurate human understanding of bird migration is relatively recent. Ancient people hypothesized where the birds went in the cold weather, and ornithologists studying bird migration today still have much to learn! In this workshop we will explore God's wisdom in creating birds that migrate. We will briefly cover three topics: how a bird's physiology enables it to migrate, how birds are able to navigate over long distances, and how in the world did people come to discover these secrets? 

This workshop examines the recent conversions to Christianity or a range of religious sympathies voiced among those prominent in New Atheism, such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Colin Wright, Bret Weinstein, Melissa Chen. In a related development, TV shows such as Succession and Yellowstone will be analyzed as showing the rise of agnostic conservatism in popular culture.

Beth’s presentation will be a bit autobiographical, explaining how persistent curiosity led to a transition from practical professional work designing and permitting a rural composting facility to a teaching job and other academic pursuits.  Then we will delve into the fascinating world of soil biology (where I am still a student) and soil as part of God’s gift of creation, and the blessing of farmers and of American agriculture, both small-scale and industrial.  

Beginning with Psalm 148 and informed by Francis Schaeffer’s Pollution and the Death of Man, this workshop strives to offer an entry point into thinking Christianly about creation care. Essentially, we will raise and respond to four questions: What do we bring to a conversation like this? Why has there been so much hesitancy by Christians around this topic? Where might the Bible shape us to address creation care? And What kind of personal and congregational practices might we consider adopting? 

This workshop explores how the belief that humans are made in the image of God impacts artistic expression and creativity. It delves into the theological understanding of humanity's creativity and how it intersects with various forms of artistic expression.