U.P. Wild Church
Marquette, Michigan
U.P. WILD is a diverse faith community that cultivates the roots of Christianity, recognizing that the wilderness has always been and still is a place of holy connection, revelation, wonderment, & healing.
They also recognize that many have been hurt by church and won't step back into one. U.P. Wild meets outdoors and their gatherings are marked by different levels of spiritual language. You can choose any gathering that you feel comfortable with & be met on your journey.
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Marquette, MI
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Average Weekly Attendance
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Community Challenges
BE together.
U.P Wild offers community meet-ups (coffee, mindful mending, social group for seniors, and story groups for healing trauma), wilderness walks, wild church services, community partnerships, virtual services, and more.
In this era, holy experiments are necessary. Many of us feel isolated and disconnected from each other - which is why reconnecting to each other and our natural outdoor surroundings is so critical especially at this time. U.P. Wild invites you into relationship and into community.
AWAKEN the wonder in our lives.
The world entices us to consume and divide while faith teaches us to be mindful and loving of all. Churches have an agenda that can hurt us, while nature freely teaches us about our Creator. Where do the misfits go who have a spirituality? Where do the church-goers go to supplement their spiritual practice? Where do the lonely go to find community? At U.P. Wild, it is as if Spirit is stripping us of our man-made divisions by reconnecting us to the soil, the watersheds, the oak tree, the caterpillars; as if there, we will find ourselves again.
PRAY in new ways.
U.P. Wild features many beautiful prayers on their website, including the prayer of the bee:
“God, let my small span of ardent life melt into our great communal task; to lift up to Your love this temple of sweetness, a citadel of incense, a holy candle, myriad-celled, moulded of Your graces and of my hidden work.”
Mission
Because caring for creation is a matter of faith. Gathering together we bear witness to the holiness around us & place ourselves as God's stewards within a living breathing eco-system. We challenge the emptiness of our culture of consumption and experience the fullness of living in right relationship with the Earth and our Creator.
Values
U.P Wild is a community who openly prays for the healing of the land and our hearts, allowing for open conversation on cultures of consumption, embracing holy wisdom, and celebrating varied personal experiences. Their intention is to provide space in which each person is able to express how they experience Creator. They listen to each others' stories, backgrounds, and language; knowing they will be different, rather than judging- each listens and resonates in their own ways. They aim to walk Jesus' way of love and transformation and especially strive to listen and respond to the spiritual needs of those outside of traditional church contexts.
The leaves have not suddenly changed their colors at this moment, nor has the sky been transformed. All that beauty was already there. What changed? We did. This splendor was there, but we did not notice it. We became a beholder and we see what is there to be seen (M. Himes). When we step out of ourselves (ego) and into creation (eco), we begin to notice the love which supports all that exists. God is the Mystery which has created all things; for God is love and love is a relationship of which, we are called into daily.
