Church in the Wild
On November 9th, we invited Rev. Corey Turnpenny to the Multifaith Climate Cafe to talk about Church in the Wild. The conversation ran across tradition lines of faith, place, and means of worship, spiritual expression and what it means to be ‘church.’ But mostly, the conversation was a flowing one with Rev. Turnpenny sharing the story of how Church in the Wild came to be, about wrestling and inspiration, and about worshiping in a place with “huge pine trees surrounding you.”
“…you go down a dirt road with huge pine trees surrounding you and come out to this opening with the lake and there's a beautiful lodge, so it's really sacred space for a lot of people…people love this place…”
—Rev. Corey Turnpenny
(Photo: An attendee at Church of the Wild at Sky Lake Camp in Windsor, NY, participates in Sunday Service among the pine trees in October this year.)
A Journey to a Wild Church
For many of us the idea of worshiping wild among the pines might seem like the easiest possible thing to do. But while standing in the Spirit and basking in the experience or calm or magnitude of nature may be as easy as going for a long walk, to start a church that meets surrounded by pines is another type of endeavor all together. Churches are spiritual entities, but also legal ones. They uplift us, but also require us to pay rent, musicians and insurance. They spring from our hearts, but also our minds as there must be planning, preparation, and place. And while they may call to us in the wind, those so called must also call others, bringing others in to begin, learn, grow, resource, and form a new church community—a church plant—together.
“God was like, ‘well you know, you could start your own church.’”
Rev. Turnpenny is an Ordained United Methodist Elder, meaning she attended seminary and walked the decade(s)-long path to being ordained as ‘reverend’ in the Methodist Christian tradition. As a pastor, Turnpenny knew she had a call to serve the church, but which church? The United Methodist denomination has been embroiled in a painful fight for years over inclusion of LGBTQ people. It is also at times stuck in an institutional focus out of touch with a growing majority of people, young and old, who have left to seek a ‘spiritual’ life elsewhere.
A young clergyperson, Turnpenny understands this frustration with the institutional church. And like many others, she also sees a path of wide opportunity to “dream about what our denomination could be and look like in the future.”
Her own journey to began in June of 2019. Says Turnpenny, “I felt like I was kind of having a conversation with the divine, just feeling like ‘you know it's starting to be time for me to think about what's next.’” Turnpenny at first rejected the idea of starting a new church. “…church planters are notoriously workaholics and that's not something I'm interested in…” Turnpenny was determined that “if I was going to do this, I was not going to do it the way that it had been done.” As the nudge to start something grew, Turnpenny says “I wrestled with what would it even be and then I heard myself say the words ‘I just want to be the pastor at Sky Lake.’” Sky Lake was the childhood camp she visited growing up. It was this inspiration that stuck. “It was like the fireworks went off and I knew that's where we needed to have church.”
Turnpenny took the next steps, forming a small group to start, incorporating in the state of New York, and gathering their first few together. They weathered COVID-19 and launched worship among the pines in June of 2021.
“We have five wooden crates those are the whole possessions of our church…everyone goes and gets something from nature and brings it back And puts it on the altar.”
—Rev. Corey Turnpenny
(Photo: Altar setting with water pitcher and lantern at Church in the Wild, September 2021.)
Wild Church Worship & Community
Church in the Wild is a vision for a future church that embraces the creation, as well as environmental and social justice. The gatherings are spiritual, with members drawn to community together from different faith and wisdom traditions. Turnpenny explains that the majority of their community are ‘nones and dones,’ those who have been hurt by, or left, or never connected with traditional churches. Rev. Turnpenny is a Christian pastor trained and ordained as Methodist, but she says, “we don't expect people to become Christian. We don't expect anybody to have to believe the same things that anyone else does.”
It was important to her to form a community that stepped aside from creeds or traditions in order to embrace a wider vision of community, a vision that might ultimately be far more faithful to the redemptive teachings of the New Testament. For Turnpenny, the hope is to “flip the script” on all that is “destroying our souls and our planet. …We want to help people connect with and care for creation and how we do that best is by bringing people out to be in creation. We know the more time we spend in nature the more we're going to care about it and the more we're going to live our lives intentionally to have a softer footprint on the planet.”
“We’re still a tiny little sapling. And maybe we’ve moved from the greenhouse to being planted outside, but we’re about to weather our first winter.”
The church setting is beautiful, but it is also practical. Turnpenny’s inspiration to be a pastor at Sky Lake took her actually, literally, to the Sky Lake camp of her childhood. She made arrangements with Sky Lake Camp and Retreat Center to allow them to meet there. They don’t pay rent, but they do help with maintenance of the camp. They also help bring prayer, worship, energy and a new vision for the utilization of camp spaces that often have plenty of welcome to share. Says Turnpenny, “I am not aware of another church that meets at a church camp, which does kind of blow my mind because it makes so much sense.”
“These beautiful things in nature make us stop and think big thoughts.”
—Rev. Corey Turnpenny
(Photo from Church in the Wild, September 19, 2021.)
While Church in the Wild is unique as a church plant, the idea of ‘wild churches’ is one that is spreading across the globe. Connecting with nature is a powerful antidote to planetary destruction, and the faithful across borders and traditions are lifting age-old teachings that speak to the value of earth/creation.
Turnpenny has advice for those inspired to get out of the building and into the pines. She says, “My suggestion would be if there's a beautiful space somewhere, just start taking people there. …Whatever beautiful place there is in your area, meet everybody for coffee there or a picnic lunch, or whenever you have a meeting start gathering people just to hang out. Just start getting people to those places and see what happens, because there's lots of ways to do this. …I think there's a huge need and desire for it, as we've seen in in just our first five months.”
There are also networks growing around the wild church movement, such as The Wild Church Network. Turnpenny connected with others involved in outdoor church as she developed Church in the Wild. It was disheartening at first, networks cost money she didn’t have, and she didn’t at first find an example of anyone doing it full time or starting an actual church. But all things grow from such beginnings, and Turnpenny found much to learn and people to connect with. “I discovered The Land in Colorado that was planted by Stephanie Price. I was following them for a while on on social media and then learned that they are United Methodist and so reached out. Stephanie grew up in the Binghamton area and so we had this amazing connection. She started a wild church in Colorado, it's about 7 years old now so she has such wisdom and experience.” For The Land Church in Colorado, they were gifted land on the prairie where they now have services. The Land uses tents for shelter, developed a garden, and brought about a thriving community space.
“We're just out in nature and everybody's at home here, you know? We can help everybody get to a point where they feel at home.”
—Rev. Corey Turnpenny
(Photo: Rev. Rich Hanlon worships with Church in the Wild as a nature guide, leading a ‘nature moment’ during Sunday service. September 2021.)
Big Conversations
Perhaps because the bigness of their space, the worshiping community has big conversations, as well. At Turnpenny’s church, they draw wisdom from a wide range of traditions, and have honest discussions about the violence that humans have committed in the name of Christianity. During a Sunday service, you may not hear Jesus mentioned by name. You may instead hear words like spirit, love, grace or peace. Says Turnpenny, “incorporating from other traditions using quotes and wisdom and poetry within our worship that is outside of Christian scripture is enriching, exciting, and challenging and it just makes everybody feel like they're okay to be there.”
While some appreciate the range of teachings incorporated into worship at Church in the Wild, others do not. Some have left feeling that they didn’t hear enough of a Christian message. Turnpenny understands. At her church, they are trying to break away from a churchy language that some might find familiar, but others experience in the context of present and historical harms. Even the word ‘church’ is triggering for some in her congregation. “It's been hard for a lot of the people we serve to get past the fact that the word ‘church’ is in our name. That is a sticking point for some people, but it's one that we want to try to reclaim.”
“We’re not everybody’s favorite flavor of church and that’s okay. ...we can be that one that’s just outside of the norm that people have been looking for.”
Turnpenny tackles these big conversations and addresses the historical harms as a pastor seeking to further connection and healing for those who attend her church. She is strong enough in her Christology to speak openly to the evils that humans have committed in Jesus’s name. She sees this sort of truth-telling as ultimately redemptive and restorative, allowing people to come together from different places, experiences, and points of view. “People have a lot of grace,” Rev. Turnpenny explains. “We're allowed to be who we are, which is so beautiful and the true vision of the kindom, I think, even if most of the people there wouldn't call it that. It’s okay if we have different words for these things because that's how we're going to help connect people.”
Worship at Church in the Wild
“Welcome, beloved creature.” Rev. Turnpenny shared a typical Sunday Worship with us:
Sunday Worship starts at 4:00 p.m. on Sundays.
The altar is comprised of the five wooden crates. Added to the crates are items from the natural world that are added by Turnpenny and the congregation before and during worship. The altar has two liturgical items on it, a pitcher of water and a lantern. This then, together, comprises all the elements, fire, water, earth, and air.
They begin by singing ‘The Tide is Rising’ by Rabbi Shoshana Meira Friedman and Yotam Schachter.
They read a poem, then spend three minutes in silence “just listening to the earth and the creatures around us, which includes our children,” says Turnpenny.
More singing—their main accompanying instrument is an acoustic guitar. They sing secular songs generally and the lyrics are printed on a half sheet of paper.
There is a ‘nature moment’ featuring a nature guide. This is like a ‘children’s moment,’ but for everyone. It is interactive.
The have a short reading of Wisdom, this can come from the Bible or other cultures, traditions, or from everyday life.
Turnpenny then offers a message in a style that is conversational.
Next is a guided meditation, usually sitting but sometimes walking.
Then they set their intentions for the week with word or phrase.
An offering of blessing, using the Celtic Blessing Deep Peace.
Then an upbeat closing song, with attendees invited to pick up an instrument and play along.
Deep peace to you.
Find Church in the Wild on the web, on facebook, instagram, and on twitter. Find Rev. Turnpenny on Twitter, too.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. She organizes the Climate Cafe Multifaith as a co-leader of Faiths4Future. Find her in real life in Southern Oregon, working as Steward of Climate with the nonprofit Circle Faith Future.