Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - Visions of a Deeper Wilderness Ministry
Last month the week before we left for the All-Brazil conference I was able to take three of my young people out to run the wilderness survival course. It is always a great time, I never know quite what to expect, but it is always greatly used by the Lord to challenge the guys to live on a deeper level.
Wilderness ministry has been effectively used in a great many places and different contexts. There is something about the wilderness that opens people up and makes them teachable. There is an incredible interpersonal dynamic at work that makes the job of teaching and interacting with others wonderfully efficient. Jesus Himself often led his disciples off into the wilderness, and He didn’t even have a cell phone. Life is stripped down to the basics and every decision and action has immediate consequences. You couldn’t ask for a better learning environment.
At the All-Brazil conference, Bruce McDonald challenged us in his first message about returning to our first love, getting back to our passion in ministry. The experience of leading three guys through the wilderness course was fresh in my mind. I hadn’t had time, correction MADE THE TIME, to run the course this year. I had let some of that passion slip away in the flood of the urgent that rules my life.
I decided that passion is important. It is a gift from God to take the drudgery out of life and ministry. It breaks up the routine and allows us to recharge and approach life from a fresh perspective. I am determined to take the wilderness course to a deeper level and truly understand that dynamic that makes it so effective.
Recently several people I got in contact with via the internet have helped me greatly in this effort. Ben Wilhite from Pilgrimage sent me a pile of information from their WILD training program. Marcus Andrusko of the Boundary Waters Experience sent me his masters’ thesis. Ashley Denton of the Wilderness Ministry Institute showed me where to download his doctoral thesis as well. I now have a load of information to draw from in rewriting my own curriculum. I am really excited about this project. Other people involved in wilderness ministry have also offered to act as a sounding board for me in developing this aspect of my ministry. There are a lot of people out there who know what they are doing.
Thank you to all who share in this vision of using God’s general revelation to focus young people on Christ, and have helped me closer to making this happen here in Central Brazil.
Mac
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