Why a Wild Church Membership?
There’s a reason you were led here. Perhaps a calling that swells in your heart to start a wild church. As the old story of the separation of nature and spirituality crumbles, new and ancient ways of being and doing "church" are emerging on the edges of what was, and YOU are called to join the movement. Welcome, edgewalker!
In times of so much profound change in the world, many are seeking grounding and meaning. Starting a wild church—a decentralized, nature-based, and often non-traditional spiritual community—can be a resilient response to times of disorientation and change. Anyone can start a wild church - pastors, not-pastors, spiritual guides, teachers, parents, space-holders, bee-keepers, farmers, lovers of nature. Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, other religions or no religion, interspiritual, interfaith. Anyone who feels the call, out of love for the wild world and wild hearts.
Joining the Wild Church Network is a first step in bringing your vision of what-could-be into the world. Or, if you've been doing this for years, a way to join with others on the path as part of a powerful and emerging movement.
By becoming a member, you are supported and nurtured by a network of leaders who are led by the same core vision of an emergent spiritual movement rooted in kinship relationships with all beings. You are part of a movement bringing reverence, compassion, and communion with spirit and with earth. With humans and more-than-humans.
Small communities gather together to re-member a spirituality grounded in the sacred earth, rooted in the larger community of a global Network.
Benefits of Membership
Membership includes your participation as an active agent of change in a web of relationships with other Wild Church leaders around the globe who, together, are changing culture. As a member, you will be supported in your work and find kindred others on the path. Membership is a way of saying “yes” to being a responsible and integral part of a mycelial emerging movement. Your membership includes the following:
Relationships with other Wild Church leaders through monthly Zoom calls to share, co-learn, and grow together
Your Wild Church on our global map and online directory so folks can find you!
Weekly 30 minute online eco-spiritual practices
Monthly and seasonal events like book studies or webinars
Access to member-led initiatives and resources
Monthly online Wild Church gatherings
Use of the Wild Church Network logo on your website and social sites as a member community
Online platform for connecting and sharing
Being part of something larger that is changing culture from the ground up!
Membership Tiers
In a changing paradigm, the way money is used and viewed in an interconnected world needs repair. To bring balance to the haves and have-nots here in the Network is to acknowledge differences of access of each individual and what is needed for the whole. Since the Network is a mycelial organism, it makes sense to turn to plants and trees for guidance.
Every plant or tree has different patterns of growth, timing and abundance, blossoming or fruiting early or late in the season, or not at all. This doesn’t make them any more or less valuable to the ecosystem. All have their respected way of being part of the whole. Our new membership tier system is modeled after three very different plants.
You are part of an ecosystem and circle of reciprocity, with differing cycles and abilities related to financial abundance. Membership invites you to consider your investment into this wider ecosystem that holds wild churches together through mycelial connections rooted in our shared vision. At this point, membership fees fund our entire organization.
Read each membership payment level below and feel what is most true for you, knowing that to live in a reciprocal relationship, to care about the whole, asks us to be relentless truth-tellers. Whether that means letting go a bit on the tight grip you may have with money for your sense of security or if it means healing shame around how much you don’t have.
Wild Fig Tree
Wild Fig roots run deep, tapped into all the rich nutrients which bring abundance. This allows for the ability to gift more toward the ecosystem, the network in which they are connected.
In human terms, you earn enough (or have enough) to have a savings account. You can mostly afford what you need and want. Perhaps you eat out or buy coffee or tea at a cafe’ regularly. This amount is closest to what it costs to keep the Network healthy and to pay staff a living wage.
Azalea
Azalea's roots don’t reach as deep, so their growth takes place over time, unfolding more abundance as they age. Their beauty shines and their value cannot be compared to Fig or any other. There is just have less to tap into.
In human terms, you’re making ends meet okay without a lot of need for more. You live simply and are able to give to others without it hurting your budget. You value being part of a network that also sustains the whole.
Cactus
All of the abundance of Cactus is stored in their stems and their roots don’t go deep to draw in a constant source of nourishment. They live in harsh environments, adapt, and are resilient. Sometimes they go without. What they have stored away in their stems is just enough.
You may have less access to what you need on an ongoing basis, and nothing saved up. But you have a big heart to share with others, and are realistic about what you can and can’t give based on your circumstances.
For those who may not have the time or energy to engage with others in the movement for support, conversation, and resourcing, you can still have your Wild Church listed on our global map and online Directory. We invite anybody out there who is using the name Wild Church or any kind of forest church or other outdoor eco-spiritual gathering, please join us! You are part of this movement!
