WILDERNESS MINISTRY TRAINING FOR CHURCHES
You already know God forms people in the wilderness. We'll show you how to build the ministry.
We train your leaders in the theology, trip design, and safety systems behind an outdoor ministry that reaches your neighbors and goes deep with your congregation. Backpacking to birdwatching, and everything between.
TRUSTED BY CHURCHES LIKE
Central Community Church • Seattle WA
Bel Air Church • Los Angeles CA
Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole • WY
Faith United Methodist Church • Issaquah WA
From the lead pastors
“I came to Wilderness Formation already convinced that the wilderness is one of the most powerful environments we have for spiritual formation. What I needed was someone to show us how to build a wilderness ministry that was theologically grounded, operationally excellent, safe, sustainable, and deeply integrated into the life and mission of the local church. John Wayne and Wilderness Formation gave our team exactly that.
This isn’t simply training in how to take people outside. It’s an apprenticeship in creating environments where people encounter God, one another, and creation — and then learning how to build the leadership, systems, risk management, and culture necessary to offer those experiences faithfully over time.
If you’re a pastor or church leader who already senses that the wilderness matters but doesn’t know where to begin, I can’t imagine a better place to start.”
Drew Sams
Lead Pastor · Bel Air Church
“Wilderness ministry is something we had done prior to creating a formal program in our church but John Wayne has helped give us more vision, structure and strategy to what we are doing so that we can reach people who may never step inside a church building. Using the majesty of God's creation to point people to Christ and connect them to the community of His followers is such a powerful and effective way to do outreach in a world that is increasingly becoming more skeptical of organized religion.
I would encourage other pastors and church leadership teams to entrust John Wayne with their pulpit and teaching platform. John Wayne provided exceptional teaching and equipping to our volunteer team and also shared the vision of Wilderness Ministry with our broader congregation and lay leaders.”
Ben Pascal
Lead Pastor · Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole
What an outdoor ministry does for a church.
Front door ministry.
Wilderness ministry creates a new front door for your community. Neighbors who won't come straight to a Sunday service will eagerly join a day hike, a backpacking trip, or an afternoon trail run. Rubbing shoulders with congregants, neighbors, and friends creates natural onramps to finding a home in your community.
Deep discipleship.
Through experiential training, we equip volunteers who will open the Scriptures in the outdoors, ask questions, build community, and help folks read the text of creation. Congregants discipling the congregation. The worst-kept secret in wilderness ministry is that the leaders experience the richest formation. As they plan the trip, lead folks outside, open up Scripture and ask questions of peoples stories, they're the ones being transformed. People go further and deeper in the extended time of an outdoor trip versus a season of small group.
Activated leaders.
With every church we've trained, congregants who hadn't found their place to serve found it in the wilderness ministry. Meeting people in the middle of their passion and calling creates a highly engaged and committed leader community.
Custom training for your community.
Annual immersion in the Ancient Paths program.
WHAT WE OFFER
Two distinct ways to work with us, built for two distinct audiences.
CUSTOM • BUILT FOR YOUR CHURCH
Wilderness Ministry Training
Starting at $1,850 · One weekend → five days · At your church or Snoqualmie Pass
✔ Custom-scoped to your church's stage, team, and theology
✔ Theology, formation, trip systems, risk management
✔ Hosted onsite at your church or with us at Snoqualmie Pass
✔ Discovery call to design the right scope
ANNUAL COHORT • WITH RICHARD DAHLSTROM
Ancient Paths Certification Week
$450 per participant · 5 days at Snoqualmie Pass · August 10-14, 2027
✔ The full Ancient Paths curriculum
✔ Co-led by Richard Dahlstrom (founder) and John Wayne Seitzler (director)
✔ Cohort of individuals and small teams from multiple churches
✔ Certification + lifetime content library access on completion
“
Teachable moments, trip logistics, stewardship and creation ethic, intro to risk management, trip and content creation, these sessions were fantastic.
Haley E.
Core Lead Wilderness Volunteer • Outdoor Central • Central Community Church, Seattle
Churches putting the methodology to work.
PROOF POINTS
Real churches, real training, real leaders facilitating encounters with God in Creation.
FLAGSHIP CASE STUDY • SEATTLE, WA
Central Community Church → Outdoor Central
One beloved annual backpacking trip transformed into a front door ministry with a thriving, intergenerational, year-round, multi-modal wilderness program serving 150 participants in its first year.
RECENT ENGAGEMENT • JACKSON HOLE, WY
Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole → Wilderness Together
A three-day ministry launch: leaders trained, congregation taught, vision preached from the pulpit. Wilderness Together leaders planning a full summer of outdoor ministry.
Tested across generations of ministry.
BUILT BY PRACTITIONERS
Wilderness Formation is a nonprofit with deep roots. The organization was founded in 1989 as Alaythia Fellowship by Richard and Donna Dahlstrom, beginning as an outdoor Bible school in the North Cascades that used God’s creation as its classroom.
John Wayne Seitzler was voted in as Executive Director on September 20, 2021, and renewed the work as Wilderness Formation to bring this same tradition to churches and communities across the country and beyond. John Wayne brings his own wealth of experiences: guiding sea kayaking expeditions, leading mountain guide teams, and directing the Wilderness Ministry at Bethany Community Church in Seattle. Richard, Founder and Emeritus Board Member, continues to train and write alongside us.
The frameworks, systems, wilderness ministry practices, and Ancient Paths rites of passage we teach were developed across two generations of rooted ministry filled with genuine encounters with God in the classroom of Creation.
THEOLOGY OF WILDERNESS
We believe that the wilderness is God’s choice classroom to sow seeds of transformation into the lives of people.
Christ longs to take us and our communities into a new depth of relationship through formative experiences in the outdoors.
Start exploring before you commit.
FREE RESOURCES
Free tools, teachings, and primers used by hundreds of leaders considering wilderness ministry for their communities.
DOWNLOAD
Theology of Wilderness Primer
A 12-page introduction to wilderness ministry theology.
READ
Spirit Soul Body
Long-form writing on faith, formation, and creation from Richard Dahlstrom, WF's founder. Now on Substack.
DOWNLOAD
Gear List
What we actually stock for participants. A gear closet starter list.