Kevin Browning—known for his warm welcoming smile, his artsy style and his work in both the wood shop and environmental science—has had a relationship with Biola for a decade.
Browning attended Biola University in 2012, focusing in Biblical studies and assumed that his future would be in the pastoral or missionary field. He married his high school sweetheart and after graduating in 2016, began to hone in on where the Lord was calling him to go. While serving in the mission field overseas, he reconnected with God through creation, and rekindled his childhood dream of following in the footsteps of wildlife explorers like Jane Goodall and David Attenborough. Browning dove deeper into his faith, discovering what it meant to be loved by God, to love God and to love himself as God loves him. Through this, he discovered the calling that the Lord had for him was more than his studies. He felt an encouragement to seek after the desires of his heart – to love and to steward creation.
Browning went on to study biology, and received his masters in Conservation Biology at Miami University in Ohio. He later received a job working at the Los Angeles Zoo, and was blessed with an opportunity to care for wildlife until 2020, when COVID-19 hit and he lost his job. While he was in this place of stagnation and waiting on the Lord, a job came up to work at the woodshop within the Art Department at Biola.
Although this job seemed appealing and fun, Browning was hesitant to return, but after prayer and a few encouraging conversations with his stepfather, Dan Callis, Browning agreed to take on the job. He found himself surrounded by a loving community of faculty and friends in a space where wounds could heal and questions could be answered.
During his time at Biola, Browning has connected with the Biola garden and began a conversation with the university on how the Biola community can translate their values of caring for God’s creation into practice. He believes that Biola should speak more on the importance of caring for creation in classroom environments, in chapels and conference sessions.
Today there is a Creation Care Club, a marine biology club, “garden days” events and Browning even revamped the environmental science class and taught that for 5 semesters. He also recently demonstrated his experience as an ambassador for creation care as a delegate at the United Nations Climate Summit (COP28) in Dubai. Browning spent two weeks engaging on the international stage with international leaders as they worked together to formulate equitable and just climate solutions from a faith-based perspective.
Browning holds a passion and desire to restore the broken relationship between the ever-quickly developing human world and the natural world of creation. He lives with the firm belief that science can be a way to understand how God works and moves in creation. Browning shares his favorite passage in Scripture to be Job 12:7-10, which reads:
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you;
8 or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you;[b]
and the fish of the sea will declare to you.
9 Who among all these does not know
that the hand of the Lord has done this?
10 In his hand is the life of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind.”
He continues to ask questions such as, “What does God have for me? Is [it] my desire to be here and continue to love this place and share my heart with this place, or is it time soon to hand this torch off to others?”
“If we’re going to take care of nature, the closest piece of nature and the closest piece of creation to us is our own bodies…If we can take care of ourselves, then we’ll be a model for taking care of creation to others,” said Browning. He has a special heart for students and desires that they learn how to connect with nature, themselves, and how to connect with God through nature. Today, Browning works to help others understand how they can reconnect to the natural world, and find ways to integrate their faith into the environment and world around them.
