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About Pocket Wilderness Weekends In 1977, Drew Arnold received the original vision for SROM while he was studying for a Hebrew exam during seminary. He took a break, dropped to his knees and began to pray. Drew had always been passionate about using the wilderness as a context for ministry. But graduating from seminary in the late 70’s typically led to becoming a pastor. He asked God what to do with this longing in his heart to use the wilderness as a place for evangelism and discipleship. In the midst of his prayer, God gave him a vision of the globe with points of light encircling the world. He asked what the lights were. The Holy Spirit spoke to his heart that these points of light would be both wilderness ministry bases and people who had been influenced and equipped through wilderness ministry to be points of light in their circles of influence.
That original vision is still the guiding direction for SROM.To that aim we’re sharing a vision for the future to equip and establish more points of light around the world. We’re “casting the net” to those of you in our circle of influence to determine if there’s a desire and passion to facilitate and lead local Pocket Wilderness Weekends in your home area. We recognize there are people who may never go on a SROM course in Wyoming, but who would benefit and enjoy a focused time in God’s creation. If this is interesting – even exciting – please read on for more details about our vision for Pocket Wilderness Weekend experiences… |
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The Vision
The vision of Pocket Wilderness Weekends is to encourage believers and seekers alike to draw away to a wilderness place for a time of rest, repentance, prayer and divine encounter. It’s a simple, yet profound purpose. Jesus Christ Himself, while ministering on earth, modeled a pattern of withdrawing to the wilderness to pray to His Father. Biblical history has established wilderness as a medium for God’s transformational and renewing presence in the lives of His people. Luke 5:16 “As often as possible, Jesus withdrew himself to the wilderness and prayed.”
Mark 6:3 “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest for a while.”
It’s our passion that “biblical wilderness” be revived in the lives of His people: A spiritual pilgrimage within a small intimate community seeking divine encounter with God.
We believe God is highlighting Pocket Wilderness Weekends, calling Wilderness Instructors and drawing participants into a time of “biblical wilderness.” He wants to refresh His people and kindle points of light around the nation and even the globe. The Mission
Pocket Wilderness Weekends will be designed to empower God’s people to build the disciplined rhythm of:
We want to equip each participant with the confidence, skills and passion needed to establish the discipline of “biblical wilderness.” The Goal
In order to provide a quality, biblically-based wilderness program, we’ll need to equip and establish a unique core group of instructors to lead each Pocket Wilderness Weekend. These instructors will excel in facilitating withdrawal to “biblical wilderness” and be established as trained Wilderness Instructors. What is the end goal of the wilderness weekend?
Pocket Wilderness Weekends will infuse scriptural meditation, prayer, solitude and intimate community into each person during their time in the wilderness.These weekends will make it easy for participants to venture into “biblical wilderness” without having to think about the logistics themselves. They’ll be able to give the time, energy and focus to completely engage in their personal journey. |
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How can you be involved?
Are you interested in becoming a Wilderness Instructor for Pocket Wilderness Weekends? Here’s what it’ll include: Facilitating the physical journey: Instructing and facilitating weekend journeys into local or regional outdoor settings. Empowering each participant to return to the wilderness again and again. Promoting active stillness: Teaching the Gospel of Christ for life application. Modeling Christian solitude, contemplation, fellowship and prayer. Framing of spiritual solitude: Framing times of spiritual solitude and providing opportunities for divine encounter. Establishing authentic community: Building a fellowship of authentic community through encouragement of intentional time with God, self and others.
Are you getting excited about this? Here are basic expectations and next steps:
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I would do this just to hang with Jim Yancey! What a great guy.