A Wild Faith

In John 3 we read:

You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it’s headed next. That’s the way it is with everyone ‘born from above’ by the wind of God, the Spirit of God.

At SEARCH we have been experimenting with the phrase 'rewilding the church' as a way of summing up our current approach to resourcing churches here in Hull. But what does 'rewilding the church' mean in practice?

In his book 'Rewilding the Church' Steve Aisthorpe writes:

A word that first graced the pages of dictionaries in 2011 is ‘rewilding’. As happens with new-born words, its meaning continued to evolve. To begin with, it referred to the process of restoring an area of land to its natural uncultivated state. It became associated with the reintroduction of species of wild animals that had been exterminated in the past. In 2013 a widely acclaimed book entitled "Feral" by environmental journalist and activist, George Monbiot, suggested that rewilding ‘is not an attempt to restore [ecosystems] to any prior state, but to permit ecological processes to resume’. Critiquing traditional approaches to conservation as seeking ‘to manage nature as if tending a garden’, he points out that much of what we cherish as natural landscape is actually a manmade desert compared to what would occur if the processes of nature were allowed to have their way.

The writer Nora Bateson puts in like this in her poem ‘Wild’:

De-mapping = unclaiming

De-harvesting = allowing fertilizing to occur

De-modelling = untying from existing establishment

De-strategizing = allowing unimagined possibilities

Wild underground unsaid unknown undefined = a possibility zone.

The system cannot change the system.

Below is an inspiring video about a 'rewilding' experiment that happened at Knepp, here in the UK, and gives a wonderful flavour of the life and vitality that rewilding can bring:

For us at SEARCH, we recognise that there are many ways to understand 'rewilding the church', but below are a few different ways that the phrase particularly resonates with us:

1)     Get Messy!

There have been streams within Christianity that have emphasised the “transcendence” and “otherness” of God, so much so that at times this has given the sense that God has nothing to do with our messy bodily lives down here on this wild earth, that God is only accessible inside immaculate sacred buildings or through strict and ordered holy rituals, led by anointed priests garbed in pristine white robes.

However the poet and farmer Wendell Berry writes:

There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

'Rewilding the church' challenges this idea of a far off God and points to a God who may be far more intimately present in our everyday lives than we dare to imagine. It tells us to get outside more often, to get our hands in the soil and to meet God in this messy, material world.

And in this year celebrating the 800th anniversary of the death of Francis of Assisi, 'rewilding the church' invites us to take Francis as a model and guide, as one who knew the sun as his brother and the moon as his sister, who felt a deep solidarity with brother wind and sister water, with all creatures great and small, and met God in sister-mother earth:

2)     Embrace Being Out of Control!

In our modern world, we human beings strive to control life like never before. We fell wild forests and hunt wild animals, driving untold species to extinction. We create systems that mean that our lives are now dictated to by our clocks and diaries, with data being collected from every action we take. Nearly everything we do is risk-assessed and managed, squeezing the life-blood out of any adventure and spontaneity.

Control, control, control, everywhere we turn.

Throughout history churches have too often succumbed to the temptation to control, policing free-thinking, discouraging the expression of passion and emotion, and condemning anything that might shake the foundations of the status quo. 'Rewilding the church' reminds us to be careful whenever we see ourselves succumbing to this temptation to control life, instead calling us to lean into "letting go and letting God", opening up room for experimentation and exploration and emergence.

3)     Unlearn Something New Every Day!

The first step in 'rewilding' is to stop the destructive patterns and practices that have been in place, putting a halt to what is currently wounding and destroying the land. In that same spirit, writing thousands of years ago, the Taoist sage Lao Tzu wrote:

One who seeks knowledge learns something new every day. One who seeks [wisdom] unlearns something new every day. Less and less remains until you arrive at non-action. When you arrive at non-action, nothing will be left undone.

In our world that prizes knowledge and busyness above all, 'rewilding the church' calls forth a counter-cultural readiness to “unlearn” as much as to “learn” and a willingness to embrace uncertainty and “not-knowing” as much as grasping at “certainty” and “knowing”. It calls forth simplicity and the stripping away of anything cumbersome (or "ecclesiastical mercy-killing” as the Quaker writer Richard Foster puts it!).

Likewise 'rewilding the church' calls forth different ways of being and doing that are not frantic or forced, but organic, effortless, emergent, so that we might “work from a place of rest”. As Jesus puts it in Matthew 11:

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.

4)     Nurture Healing and Wholeness!

While there have been strands within Christianity that have focussed heavily on “sin” and on future "salvation" from eternal damnation, it can be helpful to remind ourselves that the root of the word salvation lies in “salve” or “healing”. Just as 'rewilding' seeks to heal much of the damage done by intensive monocultural farming and extractivism, 'rewilding the church' reminds us all that we are all in need of healing and a deeper experience of wholeness, in our own lives, but also in our families, communities and world.

In this spirit, the theologian Carol P Christ gives a brilliant example of the kind of healing ethos the 'rewilding the church' invokes for these challenging times:

nurture life;

walk in love and beauty;

trust the knowledge that comes through the body;

speak the truth about conflict, pain and suffering;

take only what you need;

think about the consequences of your actions for seven generations;

approach the taking of life with great restraint;

practice great generosity;

repair the web.

5)     Celebrate Diversity!

Unlike bland, monoculturally-farmed fields, 'rewilding' looks for vibrant, diverse, sustainable ecosystems, full of wildflowers, bugs, birds and creatures of all kinds.

In the past, churches have tended to try to maintain unity through enforced uniformity, often controlled from the top and centre, resulting in relatively monochrome expressions of faith, not dissimilar to monoculturally farmed fields. 'Rewilding the church' calls forth a more “de-centred” celebration of difference and diversity, more akin to a wildflower meadow than a monocultural field. It reminds us to celebrate diversity and particularity and uniqueness, whilst also looking for the common ground from which unity can grow.

6)     Risk Change!

And lastly, while certain streams of Christianity have tended to resist change at all costs (somewhat ironically forgetting that the beginnings of Christianity were defined by seismic shifts and rapid changes), 'rewilding the church' reminds us of the inherently dynamic and ever-changing nature of life. It reminds us that it is pointless burying our heads in the sand like an ostrich, or futilely forbidding change like King Cnut sat at the water’s edge. Instead it calls us to remain agile and light on our feet and to find ways to move and play with change in creative and fun ways.

The Jesuit priest Anthony de Mello put this 'rewilded' approach beautifully in his poem 'The Exposure':

Life abhors security:

for life means taking risks,

exposing self to danger,

even death.

Jesus says that those who wish to be safe will lose their lives;

those who are prepared to lose their lives will keep them.

I think of the times when I drew back from taking risks,

when I was comfortable and safe;

those were times when I stagnated.

I think of other times

when I dared to take a chance,

to make mistakes,

to be a failure

and a fool,

to be criticized by others,

when I dared to risk being hurt

and to cause pain to others.

I was alive!

...Life goes hand in hand with change.

What does not change is dead.

I think of people who are fossils.

I think of times when I was fossilized:

no change, no newness,

the same old worn-out concepts

and patterns of behaviour,

the same mentality, neuroses,

habits, prejudices.

Dead people have a built-in fear of change.

What changes have their been in me

over the past six months?

What changes will there be today?

So, these are just six ways that “rewilding the church" speaks to us at SEARCH.

But, more importantly, does "rewilding the church" resonate with you?