Our Mission

Hwa Yung, a mission leader in Singapore, recently described the problem of leadership in Asia: “There is almost a total vacuum here….  Because there is a dearth of older and wiser leaders in this part of the world, there is insufficient modeling and mentoring of younger leaders."

The Wilderness is a Special Place for Transforming Leaders

Throughout history, God has used the wilderness as a special place for transformation.  The Biblical text indicates that God’s strategy for developing mission-focused leaders has often involved transforming wilderness experiences.  This is an integral part of God’s design for apprenticeship. Yet today in our increasingly urbanized world young people are less able to experience the wilderness.  In developing strategies today for recruiting, training, sending and sustaining young leaders as cross cultural or local youthworkers who can effectively introduce the young to Jesus Christ, we must re-emphasize this ancient apprenticing method which produced leaders such as Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Moses, Ruth, Jacob, David, Peter, James, John, and Paul.  Each of them were profoundly called and shaped by the God in the wilderness.

Wilderness and the Missionary Spirit in a World of Poverty, Religions,Violence, and Clashing Civilizations

Throughout biblical history, there has always been an essential connection between wilderness experiences and the missionary spirit.  It is clear that Jesus modeled for His disciples a rhythm of engaging people in missions then retreating for rest and reflection in the wilderness.  This model is especially crucial as the peoples of the world continue to migrate to the city.  Young people today are unsure how to engage a world of poverty, religions, violence, and clashing civilizations.

Raising up Confident and Competent Young Leaders

As we look afresh at the experiential nature of Jesus Christ’s teaching and training methods, there are many contemporary implications for recruiting, training, sending and sustaining leaders in urban mission movements today.  Whether from developed or undeveloped nations, there is a need for raising up more young mission leaders who have the character, confidence, and competence to engage their local mission field.  Outdoor adventure is a proven training ground for developing these kinds of leaders.

Vision:

That young people in every culture will personally encounter Jesus Christ and have an opportunity to grow in their faith through transforming wilderness experiences.

Mission:

Developing outdoor leaders who are committed to local relational youthwork, who are humble in the heart, and who will excel in the skills of safely and effectively introducing young people to Jesus Christ through outdoor adventure.

Values:

• Developing indigenous leaders
• Relational approach
• Lifting up the young and the poor of our world's cities
• Providing young people the highest quality wilderness experiences at the lowest possible cost
• Developing technical outdoor leadership skills equivalent to international standards
• Team approach to leadership
• International partnership and collaboration among outdoor leaders and youth workers

Why is there a need for WMI?

Interested in our Statement of Faith?  Click Here...

What We Do

“[You will not] get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea.  Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.”   --C.S. Lewis

Develop Indigenous Outdoor Leaders who are humble in heart and who excel in the skills of safely and effectively introducing young people to Jesus Christ in the outdoors through a relational approach.

Build Sustainable Outdoor Programs:  Initiating, developing, and evaluating Christ-centered, outdoor ministry programs worldwide that are committed to providing the highest possible quality outdoor experiences for young people at the lowest possible cost.

Equip TESL Teachers/Missionaries:  We are working to train TESL teachers in creative access countries to develop outdoor education programs that can be offered to students as a non-threatening platform for sowing seeds of the gospel through adventure in the context of Creation.  We emphasize training in the art of asking questions and crafting meaningful journeys in the theater of Creation to cause deeper thinking among young people regarding the design of Creation and the character of their Creator.

Casting vision for local relational youthwork in places where it is lacking or does not exist:  We believe that outdoor ministry and local relational youthwork go hand-in-hand.  Outdoor ministry is a tool to enhance ongoing local youthwork.  In collaboration with our umbrella organization, Nexus International, we are currently engaged in training local indigenous youthworkers in over 20 countries.

A World of Possibilities in Outdoor Adventure...

Wherever you might be, from Asia to S. America, from Oceania to Eastern Europe, from Africa to N. America, God's Creation is a classroom just waiting to be used ... to lead young people to Christ, and/or to develop young leaders for local and cross-cultural missions.  We would love to help point you in the right direction to get you started in your little patch of the world:

Backpacking, Tramping/Hiking, Sea Kayaking, Surfing, Mountain Biking, Snow Boarding, Rock Climbing, Rapelling/Abseiling...

Some of our activities include:

• Relational Youthwork Training:  Equipping young leaders and pastors to 1) cast a vision for the opportunities in their communities to reach lost young people, 2) equip young leaders in churches and organizations to effectively make disciples of young people, 3) build a foundation for sustainable youth evangelism and discipleship.
• Outdoor Leader Training & Certification:  We offer outdoor leader training courses through Outdoor Leadership International.
• Helping churches and mission agencies develop their own outdoor guide staff and wilderness ministry programs.
  
  
  

Who We Are

Ashley Denton:

With 19 years of youth ministry and outdoor leadership experience he has a passion to see every young person, in every culture, have an opportunity to meet Jesus Christ through local incarnational youthwork and ongoing outdoor adventure ministry.  He has a D.Min. in Missions and Cross Cultural Studies from Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary.  Ashley is an adjunct professor at Denver Theological Seminary, teaching Theology, Theory, and Practice of Outdoor Leadership.

Kathleen McCormack:

Provides administrative experience and a broad range of skills to train outdoor leaders in North America and Japan.

Patrick Crossland:
Is our research assistant and publications editor.

Thomas Haines:

Has a deeply embedded love for the outdoors, which has lead him on various climbing ventures around the world, one of his more notable achievements being Everest.  In 2003, Thomas joined adventure based ministry, RMR, as a guide leading youth into the heart of Colorado's wilderness. "The power of this community and seeing what God is doing with youth on these trips blows my mind. God uses the wilderness to wake us up. When chaos and distractions are removed, life becomes simple, there is clarity, suddenly light becomes sharper, sounds are richer and you are filled with the deep, powerful presence of God."

Jonathan Hoppin:

Has always had a deep passion for kids and the outdoors.  He has ten years of ministry experience and is passionate about sharing his leadership expereince with others.

Our Profiles

Our History

We are definitely a work in progress, but here is a brief history of how we fell into this vision of developing outdoor leadership as mission.

Ashley Denton on the coming of age of outdoor leadership as mission...

After having guided at Wilderness Ranch from 1991-92, my wife, Becky and I had a vision to introduce some kids in a church youth group in Colorado to the wilderness.  In the next couple years we saw amazing transformation in the lives of those kids, to the point where it really effected the ethos of the whole church.  Soon after that, we saw a need to start a backcountry ministry to serve more kids in Colorado, and that vision quickly came to life serving over 300 kids each summer; involving 24 trained guides each year.  Rocky Mountain Region Backcountry (RMR) continues today as a vibrant ministry in Colorado.  In 2000 we began to serve internationally, training leaders in India, the Philippines and Japan to help them develop wilderness ministries with their young people.  We also served as the national director of a youth ministry in New Zealand where we continued to discover vast mission opportunities among young people who do not know Jesus Christ.

We began to notice that many of the kids who went on wilderness trips with us were the ones who became catalytic leaders with a serious commitment to relational evangelism and missions. Fueled by our desire to see every kid have an opportunity to meet Jesus and grow their relationship with Him, we began to look harder at what it would take to introduce this kind of ministry to kids all over the world.  Over the course of a few years, two discoveries came to the surface. First, that most young people today whether in the developed or third world do not feel confident about engaging a world filled with poverty, religions, violence, and clashing civilizations.  Our second discovery, is that missions today is in transition.  And most missiologists agree that we need new and creative mission strategies to reach the young people of our world.

These two realities led me to pursue a doctoral program in Missions and Cross Cultural Studies at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston, MA.  My goal was to develop a theological framework for understanding why wilderness experiences are so effective at developing character, leadership qualities, and mission-commitment in young people.  That chapter of my life culminated in a dissertation entitled:  Wilderness and Missions:  A Theology for Developing and Sustaining Young Leaders in Mission.  I was mentored by Timothy Tennent (Author of Christianity at the Religious Roundtable), Robert Coleman (author of Master Plan of Evangelism), and Peter Kuzmič (Distinguished professor of Mission and European Studies at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts.   He is also the founding president of Evandjeoski Teoloski Fakultet in Osijek, Croatia and is widely regarded as the foremost evangelical scholar in Eastern Europe).

As we have led groups in the wilderness encompassing over three hundred days of living with young people in the context of community in the outdoors, we have observed that although the how, what, and why of Jesus’ teaching is vastly important, it was often the where, to whom, and when, of His teaching that fueled radical change of heart.  In other words, being aware of the setting in which Jesus taught is just as important as understanding the form of His teaching.  Timing and environment are critical elements in the learning process.  And a large majority of Jesus' apprenticeship with the Disciples occurred in outdoor settings, filled with adventure.  Yet most contemporary paradigms of teaching focus heavily on style of communication.  The emphasis is on acquiring speaking skills to be able to effectively capture people’s imagination through intelligent rhetoric.  Yet the weakness in this paradigm is that most teaching today happens in contrived settings, i.e. a church building, Sunday school class, through television or video programs, etc.

Our vision for raising up young mission-committed leaders through wilderness adventure continues to grow and expand today where we have open doors to develop this type of ministry in over 20 countries.  Who knows where the Lord will take us, but we are stoked for each set of waves He brings along.  We know we'll wipe out along the way, but that's part of the adventure, ay!

"The mountain is not meant to teach us anything, it is meant to make us something"--Oswald Chambers

If you are a leader in a church, para-church or mission agency, or a TESL english teaching Mission Organization and would like to learn more about how wilderness ministry can be an effective tool for evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development, feel free to email or give us a ring.  We'd love to talk with you.

Brett DeYoung on the history of wilderness learning...

Wilderness learning is an educational process that was rediscovered by Dr. Kurt Hahn, a German Christian educator, who implemented these principles into his schools and eventually started Outward Bound in Wales, in 1942.  This process was a discovery of the educational principles used by God to prepare men and women for leadership.  It is a process involving the acceptance of responsibilities: of focusing on reachable challenges, of spending time in contemplation and reflection, of experiencing deprivation, of examining values, of developing compassion for others, and of testing one’s faith and character.

David Cowles on Young Life's wilderness programs...

Young Life’s first wilderness program, LaVida, began in 1970.  It was designed to take inner-city youth into the Adirondack Mountains to learn to think and act in ways that were socially responsible and congruent with Christ’s Gospel…. Parroting the successful High Roads venture that Wheaton College started with Outward Bound, a decade earlier, Christian camps from Florida to Alaska developed ‘stress’ programs.  Marathon runs, dawn-to-dusk days of hiking, and ‘solos’ became well-used tools to teach kids how to deal with difficult situations in their lives and increase their faith.

Emily Cousins on Outward Bound's development of expeditionary learning...

Given fundamental levels of health, safety, and love, all people can and want to learn.  We believe Expeditionary Learning harnesses the natural passion to learn and is a powerful method for developing the curiosity, skills, knowledge, and courage needed to imagine a better world and work toward realizing it.  Learning happens best with emotion, challenge, and the requisite support.  People discover their abilities, values, ‘grand passions’, and responsibilities in situations that offer adventure and the unexpected.  They must have tasks that require perseverance, fitness, craftsmanship, imagination, self-discipline, and significant achievement.  A primary job of the educator is to help students overcome their fear and discover they have more in them than they think…. Learning is fostered best in small groups where there is trust, sustained caring, and mutual respect among all the members of the learning community….  All students must be assured a fair measure of success in learning in order to nurture the confidence and capacity to take risks and rise to increasingly difficult challenges.  But it is also important to experience failure, to overcome negative inclinations, to prevail against adversity, and to learn to turn disabilities into opportunities.  --Emily Cousins