How fitting that a new faith community is launched on Pentecost! On Pentecost Sunday, Bishop Trimble, Resident Bishop of the Indiana Conference, and Lore Gibson, Superintendent of the Northwest District, blessed this new faith community that is using the “wild church” model of Fresh Expressions.
Rev. Craig LaSuer, one of the founders of the group, says that the book Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred, by Victoria Loorz, has been very helpful in guiding the design of the new faith community. Wild Souls Church is meeting in an old chapel at Battleground, Indiana. A group of nearly twenty people gathered at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. They began with a time of spiritual centering and then were invited to go out into the beautiful grounds for a time of silent meditation and listening to God. After thirty minutes, they returned to the chapel to share their experiences. The group’s focus is “Developing a deeper relationship with God’s Spirit found in creation and community.”
The chapel, the group is using, is near the site of the Battle of Tippecanoe where William Henry Harrison and the U.S. Government defeated Native Americans living in the region. It also was part of a Methodist Campground that started around the Civil War. The former North Indiana Conference was still operating the camp in the early 1970’s. In fact, I attended the camp when I was in the 7th grade. So, in a sense Wild Souls Church is reclaiming land that had experienced both the devastating defeat of the Native people and sacred moments for the Methodists, including some that I experienced over fifty years ago!
So, let’s keep this ministry in our prayers. And why not consider starting a wild “outdoor” church in your community! I’d love to talk with you about it!
— Ed Fenstermacher, Associate Director of Church Development
P.S. If you live in the Delphi-Lafayette area, consider attending a Wild Souls Church gathering in the future!
Making Disciples, Transforming Communities 