Forest Church: A Field Guide to a Spiritual Connection with Nature by Bruce Stanley
/REVIEWER: Dave Bookless
BOOK: Forest Church: A Field Guide to a Spiritual Connection with Nature
(Anamchara Books, 2014)
‘Forest Church’ is one of several names for the diverse, growing trend towards connecting together with God outside in creation. Despite the name, this book is not just about forests or woodland, and aims to be a practical guide to help anybody anywhere who’s wondering about the ‘why?’, ‘what?’, and ‘how?’ of outdoor Christian worship.
The broader movement that Forest Church is part of flows from several sources including environmental activism, greener lifestyles, Celtic Christianity, Fresh Expressions and earth spirituality. It's the latter end of the spectrum that Bruce Stanley is closest to, and conservative Christians may find his language close to neo-paganism at points, but it’s worth persevering. Whilst some rituals and activities the book suggests are adapted from Druidic or pre-Christian practices, Stanley says, ‘Our style could be classed as pagan, but the content is Christian’ (p.143). I broadly concur with that assessment, and there is much that is valuable in this book.
There are many, many people today alienated by traditional Christianity, yet attracted by the person of Jesus and spiritually sensitive to the natural world. Worship that gets outside the building and connects with the sense of beauty, interdependence, and awareness of something bigger and mysterious can be a wonderful stepping-stone towards Christian faith. We often forget that Jesus did most of his teaching outdoors, using nature’s wisdom to teach down-to-earth truths about God’s Kingdom, and urging us to contemplate the birds and the flowers.
‘Forest Church’ is an adaptable toolkit with everything from research on food systems and nature-deficit disorder, practical checklists for outdoor safety, guidance on facilitation and group dynamics, through to examples of outdoor activities for each month of the year. You probably won’t warm to every idea, may be irritated by some of it, might be critical of the sometimes vague and ambiguous theological assumptions, but you will also be challenged to rethink and try something different. Whatever you do, don’t just sit in an armchair and read it. Get outside and try it out!
Reviewer: Dave Bookless
Dave Bookless is the Director of Theology for A Rocha International