Wild Journey: Going Beyond Church Outside

Doing Wild Church

By Mindy Braun

 I have found God in nature for as long as I can remember. The tiny wildflowers would speak to my heart and reassure me that God sees me, just as He sees the hidden face of the flower. I also felt a sense of gratitude from God and the flower that I had the eyes to see them, notice them, appreciate them.

 It was through my grandparents, Bob & Barbara Stevenson, that this church of the wild experience really got established in me. They heard and answered God’s call to move from Coalinga, CA to Calvin Crest Conferences near Oakhurst, CA. Calvin Crest was established by the San Joaquin Presbytery of California in 1954. They moved their family of six up to the camp, where my mom spent her high school years. Our family would spend holidays there and I became a camper at Calvin Crest when I entered elementary school.

 The mountain and forests of Calvin Crest (which is on the homelands of the Miwok Indians) were midwives to my spirituality and connection to God. Calvin Crest’s outdoor church was my favorite. My heart could truly soar in worship underneath those pines.

 I’m now 48 and am rediscovering a deep connection to God through this beloved earth and all creation. For years, my heart has longed for church outside again. I was able to get a taste of it during Covid-19 when my Presbyterian church, The Cove Fellowship, began to meet outside when the weather allowed. I confess that at times I may have listened more to the goldfinches singing in the trees than the sermon.

           When a fellow spiritual director told me about a book she was reading, my life and heart opened up in a new and exhilarating way. I began reading Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz. It’s her story of being a spiritual director and pastor, longing for something beyond her experience of church. When she writes, “I longed for church to be a place where Mystery is experienced not explained…” I heard my own heart echoed.

 I soon visited Wild Church Petaluma and pretty much wept through the entire time. “This could be church?” I thought. I signed up for Wild Church Network’s six-week leadership course for those who were feeling the call to start a wild church in their watershed. Wild Church Petaluma is part of the Petaluma River watershed and I lived in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed just north.

 I quickly realized I was kind of “doing wild church” already. I had been leading God in Nature Hikes for the past four years through Journey Center Santa Rosa, for which I serve as Executive Director. We are a Christ-centered contemplative spirituality nonprofit for those seeking to encounter the Sacred. We have various pathways to encounter the Divine and one of them is God in Nature. I had been leading groups where we started with a scripture or poem reading, walked in silence together for 20 minutes, then stopped along the trail to share what we had noticed. Then the rest of the hike was in conversation with one another.

After telling others in the Journey Center community about wild church and seeing there was a resonating “YES!” in people’s hearts, Wild Journey was born in December 2022! This is the description you will find on our webpage:

 

Wild Journey is an emerging community of those who are returning to nature as spiritual practice. We are Christ-centered AND welcoming to all spiritual paths. We are not led by doctrine or dogma, but by the Divine Mystery that dwells in us all. We meet outside in various locations within the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed and seek to reconnect with the sacredness of earth, honoring the Divine Presence in all beings.

 

Our gatherings offer opportunities for contemplation, grief and praise, movement and song, solo wandering and wondering, advocacy, ecological restoration, and activism on behalf and in collaboration with the beloved others in our watershed. Children are welcome to participate or play nearby. All are welcome.   

 

We meet once a month within the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed; usually the first or third Sunday of the month. Wild Journey is an expression of Journey Center Santa Rosa and is a part of Wild Church Network.

 

There are four movements within our time together:

·       Gathering & Grounding – Welcome, Invocation of the watershed, introductions and gratitude, 7-direction prayer

·       Reading & Reflection – Reflections on the season we are in and poems to ponder

·       Wandering & Wondering, - 30 minutes to wander and listen to nature speak

·       Sharing & Sending – return to the circle to witness how the Spirit moved in each other and then a closing song to send us out

 You will find on the Wild Church Network website this beautiful description of the movement that is drawing people to love, protect and preserve this precious gift of Mother Earth:

 

“Popping up all over the land, like wild mushrooms after a spring rain, Wild Church communities are responding to a call from deep within to change the way we relate to the natural world, moving  ‘from a collection of objects, to a communion of subjects’ – Thomas Berry

 

In this age of mass extinctions, we feel compelled by the love of Christ to invite people into intimate relationship with some of the most vulnerable victims of our destructive culture:  the land, waters, and creatures with whom we share our homes.  

 

New Wild Churches are emerging all the time, offering invitations to reconnect with the natural world. As kin. As sacred. As beloved co-participants in a larger story of grace and inter-being.

 Wild Journey continues to grow and welcome those who are longing for connection to God and nature in community. I am in awe that this indeed is church and would dare to say it is a much fuller expression than I have ever known.

 

Mindy Braun is the Executive Director of Journey Center Santa Rosa. She graduated with the 2021 Cohort of the Journey Center Association’s Spiritual Director Formation Program. Her passion is to create safe, sacred spaces for all people to experience love and belonging.