about the network
The emergence
of Wild Churches
The Wild Church Network is an emerging community of eco-spiritual leaders, organized to nourish the spread and growth of Wild Churches.
A Land Acknowledgment
This work is done in many places throughout the world, in countries made by colonized violence. We understand that intimate spiritual connection with the land was and continues to be held by countless tribes of indigenous people long before the modern eco-spirituality movement. We seek to honor and learn from their stories and wisdom and intend to avoid appropriation.
Art Acknowledgment
Illustrations throughout this website
by Manne Green.
It began as a phenomenon of isolated pastors and spiritual leaders, taking prophetic and courageous steps in their radical vision to leave buildings to connect with the natural world to restore sacred relationship. As we began to find one another and connect, "wild church" blossomed into an organic, spirit-led and collaborative movement.
We are a network of "churches" affiliated with many denominations. Some don't call themselves church at all, as the word itself can trigger wounds. Others find the word church to be nourishing as it becomes something very different outside of literal and theological walls.
In 2016, we began to meet monthly via Zoom, to encourage one another, sharing ideas, celebrating and commiserating, we began to recognize through our diverse stories that we shared some radical, foundational visions, values and practices. By the end of that year, when we launched the Wild Church Network website and directory, we sensed we were part of something larger than our small communities gathering on the outside edges of our local "villages."
By 2019, when a group of wild church leaders gathered in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin for the first time, we could feel the energy of our participation in a radical shift, initiated by the Spirit or Earth herself, a reformation, desperately needed in our faith traditions and in our cultures.
The old paradigm of "nature as other" is shifting. Wild Churches don't just "meet outside," they gather to recognize and learn to participate in the kindred interconnection of all beings, elements, and places. It is a relationship, rooted in love, that the ancients described as Logos. A sacred conversation with all-that-is.
Whenever a radical shift in nature or human systems occur, it happens through a process that organizational consultant, Margaret Wheatley, describes as Emergence. Emergence has a life-cycle, she says, that
"begins with networks, shifts to intentional communities of practice and evolves into powerful systems capable of global influence."
The Network is in a new phase of global emergence and influence as more hear the call to start a wild church. Wild Church is like a wild dandelion, seeds blowing where they will, crossing oceans and planting themselves on other continents.
As the growth of the Network exceeds the ability for two part-time paid staff members and a few volunteers to manage, the Wild Church Network seeks partnerships, donations and funding possibilities to be faithful to our vision of supporting staff with a living wage who are in service to this earth and all her creatures in this time of Great Change.
While diverse in expression, style, and particulars of theology, we share a united sense of calling, purpose and rootedness in the earth as sacred and alive.
