Wilderness for All – The Interruptive Space Where God Reacquaints us with Real Life

by ashley | Abraham, Exposure, Rhythm of Retreat, Solitude, What is Wilderness Ministry?, Youth Ministry

“The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life — the life God is sending one day by day.” ― C.S. Lewis

The wilderness is a special interruptive space that God has used throughout human history to transform people. We often talk about “wilderness” as a metaphor for describing difficult times in our lives. But the wilderness is much more than a metaphor. It is an actual place where you can go to meet with God by disconnecting from the distractions of city life. The noise and pace of the city can create a brand of self-centeredness so pervasive that our human problems become like giants whereas we perceive God as smaller and smaller and smaller.

The wilderness has always been one of God’s spiritual gymnasiums for strengthening the heart, by quieting our soul into deeper God-trust. Then in that truly safe place he starts pruning. He uproots our selves from the center and orients us properly toward Christ who is truly the center.

THE ALLURE OF THE WILDERNESS IS GOD HIMSELF

As you turn the pages of Scripture you see a profound theme – that God uses the wilderness to allure his people back into relationship with him (Hosea 2:14). He uses both the beauty and the remoteness of the wilderness to expose our unbelief and lack of faith in Him. Then, through adventure, challenge, and awe-inspiring terrain, He promotes true faith and deep trust in Him, which resets the trajectory of our lives with God at the center.

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her. –Hosea 2:14

When I was a high school kid, God did just that in my life. He used a wilderness trip in the Canadian Rockies to jolt me out of my extreme spiritual loneliness and it was in the wilderness that the light bulb came on in my heart. I finally understood the Good News of Jesus by grasping how much Jesus actually suffered for me on the cross.

Since that point, with many ups and downs of course, I haven’t been able to shake the passion he gave me for developing student ministry leaders who will go to the extreme to introduce young people to Jesus and help them grow in their discipleship. And although most outwork happens 24/7, 365 days of the year in the normalcy of city life, we also believe that a rhythm of regular retreat into the outdoors is an incredibly effective strategy to reach the next generation.

WILDERNESS MINISTRY IS AN ANCIENT, INTERRUPTIVE STYLE OF MINISTRY

It is common in business circles to hear about “interruptive” cycles or ideas that break stagnant models out of a rut and create new catalytic streams of creative production. This seems to be a cycle within nature and human spiritual experience as well. God interrupts whenever he wants change. And the wilderness has often been a space he has used to disrupt worship-dulling doubt and disengagement in his people. Wilderness ministry is an ancient idea that we are simply trying to recapture in modern urban society.

In the Bible we see God using wilderness to transform leaders like Abraham & Sarah, Moses & Joshua, and so many of the prophets who were drawn to the wilderness to discern God’s message for his people. Then we see immediately after Jesus’ baptism, he is sent off into the wilderness for 40 days to be prepared for his 3 years of ministry which would culminate in the greatest suffering any human has endured, on the cross, and then the victorious resurrection which created a path for all humanity to escape our wilderness of sin and rebellion against God, and to be reconciled into a new life as adopted sons and daughters in God’s eternal family. Jesus used the wilderness very often as a tool of transformation with his disciples and we even see God using a wilderness experience with the Apostle Paul to interrupt his misguided persecution of the early church and to set him on a course instead to evangelize the known world at the time. Paul was interrupted in the wilderness of Damascus and then spent possibly up to 3 years in the Arabian wilderness—relearning the Scriptures to see that Jesus Christ was indeed the Messiah.

WILDERNESS MINISTRY INSTITUTE

Today we continue this legacy of wilderness transformation. By God’s grace we are working in dozens of countries, helping local youth workers learn the heart and skills of wilderness ministry so they can safely and effectively introduce young people in their culture to Jesus and help them grow in their discipleship through guided wilderness adventures.

One of the ways we are helping start-up wilderness ministries is through our ministry within Nexus International called Wilderness Ministry Institute. This is a targeted ministry to help equip indigenous youth workers with the heart and skills to safely and effectively lead young people on creative camping trips. We also help indigenous youth ministries overcome one of the largest barriers to effective camping which is decent equipment. By God’s grace we seek to provide needed equipment to get these young people into the outdoors.

HIGHEST QUALITY EXPERIENCES AT THE LOWEST POSSIBLE COST

One of the core values of Wilderness Ministry Institute is to provide the highest possible camping experiences at the lowest possible cost. Those who support WMI will help us dramatically expand our ministry into places around the world where little to no training like ours exists.

Here is just a sampling of some of the countries where we have helped start or support wilderness ministries:

Serbia, Colombia, Honduras, Ecuador, Turkey, Kyrgystan, Japan, Romania, Nepal, New Zealand, Argentina , Costa Rica, Australia (Tasmania), Greenland, Czech Republic, and Italy.

If you would like to join this growing community of people who are pioneering new paths of mission in hard to reach places through outdoor ministry please