Nature brings man closer to God

[fgoodwin]

Nature brings man closer to God

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-relig_wilderness_07sep07,0,1483586.story

http://tinyurl.com/32gkmv

 

A dog-sledding adventure turned into a spiritual one for an Evanston man, and now he leads wilderness excursions for all faiths

 

By Ruth Fuller

Special to the Tribune

September 7, 2007

 

Standing on a frozen lake in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, on a February day with temperatures at 25 degrees below zero, John Lionberger couldn''t understand why he suddenly felt like he was being bathed in warmth.

 

The Evanston man was on a weeklong dog-sledding excursion with Outward Bound, a 50th birthday gift from his wife, Jane, in 1995. As a lifelong agnostic, or "borderline atheist who was hedging his bets," Lionberger said he did not want to believe he was feeling God''s presence.

 

Lionberger, then a successful advertising sales executive, would spend the next 18 months denying he had been visited by God. "An agnostic doesn''t give up his disbelief easily," Lionberger said.

 

The thought that he should enroll in a seminary kept creeping into his mind, but he asked himself: What church would have a man who not only did not know what he believed in, but also had a deep distrust, even disdain, for organized religion?

 

Lionberger was sitting in the Evanston Public Library one day in 1997 thinking about the message when he mouthed the words: "What am I going to do with this?"

 

"You idiot, you are going to take people into the wilderness for what you got," Lionberger said God replied.

 

"It was weird but not threatening," Lionberger said, still a bit embarrassed to tell people that he heard God''s voice. "It seemed so absolutely right, I felt it was something I had to do."

 

After a stint at the Chicago Theological Seminary in Hyde Park, Lionberger founded Renewal in the Wilderness, a non-profit, interfaith wilderness ministry that takes men and women out of their normal environments for one to eight days of wilderness travel to experience and discuss their relationships with God.

 

The canoeing and camping trips, he said, are "an intentional blend of the spiritual and the physical, the serious and the fun." Lionberger leads four or five excursions a year to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, the Kishwaukee River in Illinois, the Wisconsin River in Wisconsin, the Yellowstone River in Montana and the Rio Grande in Texas.

 

"The nice thing about John''s trips is that they are open to people of various faiths," said Rob Davis, 54, a publishing executive from Evanston who took a weekend trip with Lionberger in 2005 on the Wisconsin River. Raised Catholic, Davis said he no longer belongs to an institutional religion but felt he fit in well with the group anyway.

 

"We were able to share our experiences without getting into the nitty-gritty and fighting over religion," he said.

 

Lionberger said his time at the seminary, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, allowed him to ask his questions and address his doubts about religion. As he did so, his wife began studying at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston.

 

Jane Lionberger, who was raised in a devout Presbyterian family, said she struggled with her own faith even before she met her husband. But after the couple had their children, Annie, 27, and Jack, 21, she said she decided it was time to return to God.

 

"I think John witnessed my struggle with spirituality and that really drew him in," she said.

 

Jane Lionberger is now an associate minister at Kenilworth Union Church, a non-denominational Christian church in Kenilworth. But when John Lionberger finished school in 2001, he decided not to become an ordained minister until he could work through his issues about organized religion.

 

"I knew that organized religion does a lot of good, but I chose to focus on the ills of the world brought on by organized religion and I was quite sure I didn''t want to be a part of it," he said.

 

Lionberger is head chaplain at the Three Crowns Park retirement community in Evanston. On Sundays, when he is not preaching there, Lionberger said he attends the First Congregational Church of Wilmette.

 

Though he continues to wrestle with concerns about organized religion, Lionberger said he has concluded that religion was created by humans and is thus understandably flawed. He hopes to be ordained in the United Church of Christ, a denomination he chose in part because of its history of social action, including the ordination of women, African-Americans and homosexuals.

 

Lionberger said he doesn''t regret the years he has spent questioning religion and the existence of God. In fact, if he could counsel his younger, agnostic self, he would tell himself that doubt is good, he said.

 

"Doubt is the platform for faith," he said. "I would tell myself to doubt all you want, but be open to other possibilities. Open your heart, because the heart has a deeper universal knowledge if you listen to it."

 

In June, Lionberger published a book, "Renewal in the Wilderness: A Spiritual Guide to Connecting with God in the Natural World." In it he explores teachings about wilderness in the writings of various religions -- including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism -- and discusses how a person can grow through shared and individual experiences of being present in nature.

 

"Maybe the wilderness experience is one we can all share and speak about without shedding blood," he said.

 

But though he certainly recommends it, Lionberger doesn''t tell people they have to go into the wilderness to commune with God.

 

"You can do this walking around the block or at your neighborhood park," he said. "As long as you go with an open heart and mind, you can connect with God anyplace with nature."

 

For more information, visit http://www.renewalinthewilderness.org

[BadenP]

Nothing new in this article, after all God created all of nature and humans created the church building, so which is truly God''s work?

[rkfrance]

John Denver said the same things in "Rocky Mountain High" which is a song I hear in my head almost every time I go into the Great Outdoors.

[GernBlansten]

When one wants to worship God''s work, go into the wilderness. When one wants to worship man''s work, go into a church.

[eisely]

I can relate to this. I am among those whose feelings of piety tend to vary in direct proportion to the square of the distance to the church. The further I go into the back country the closer I get to god.(This message has been edited by eisely)