Breaking Out of Institutional Pens
Celebrating Human Wildflowers
I have been coaching religious leaders inside the walls of the church on how to cultivate community outside their walls for over thirty years. As I rapidly approach my 60th birthday and reflect on these past three decades, I have to admit that it has been far more challenging than I expected.
When I wrote my first book, From the Sanctuary to the Streets, I truly believed it was possible to reimagine the church’s role in the community and for the church to follow the wild spirit out into the community. I believed people in the church truly wanted to love their neighbors and not simply bring them into the fold.
In 2018, I expanded my approach and started working with other institutional groups, including health departments, local governments, schools, and non-profits. I knew if these different sectors worked together, we could help cultivate places of belonging and purpose in every community. Again, a task that has proved more difficult than I expected.
What I did not understand was the hold institutional agendas have on all who have not experienced community in the wild.
George is Still Speaking
Last week, I posted a story of my new friend George the cow. George is a rebel. He left the herd and slipped under the fence to join me in a field of buttercups. George showed me many things, and like an onion (or an ogre) with many layers, my experience with George has been working deeper and deeper into my soul, revealing new levels of meaning.
I have trained thousands of individuals in how to dismantle institutionally constructed barriers to authentic relationships, not to capture community members and drag them back behind an electrified fence, but to cultivate places of belonging and purpose beyond the walls of the institution.
George was the only member of a cow community of thirty members who was curious enough and courageous enough to try something new. That is about the same ratio of human boundary breakers who leave the comfort and security of institutional spaces.
Initially, I found this statistic deeply disturbing. However, there is something beautiful in the small. Had the whole herd come crashing through the fence, I likely would have run away in fear. Had a dozen or so left the pen, I never could have learned all their names and given each of them my full attention. My intimate encounter was meaningful because it was unique and personal.
The same is true of the human boundary busters I have had the privilege of walking with over the past thirty years in deep and meaningful ways. The success stories that I am most inspired by are not stories of institutions that finally got it; they are stories of individual rebels who broke the rules and cultivated community on the community’s terms.
Some left the comfort of their corporate positions to launch their own community-strengthening effort. Others found the courage to do what they knew was right and were prepared to face the consequences. Many of these inside-out change agents found that the results of these unsanctioned efforts convinced those in power to let them color outside the lines.
Celebrating Human Wildflowers
When I chose the name Walking with Wildflowers for my Substack publication, it was because of the double meaning it has for me. I love how wild encounters in the natural world open up pathways of wisdom. I love working with individuals who, like George, follow the wild untamed spirit out of the pens of institutional and cultural conformity into open pastures to meet strangers they otherwise would not have met. To me, these boundary-breakers are wildflowers – rugged and offering beauty in unexpected, uncultivated, and untamed places.
Through my work as a coach, I have been blessed to walk alongside dozens of these innovative, non-conforming, beautiful souls as they left the fence, fearful and uncertain. Some have excelled, and others have struggled. The one thing they all have in common is that once they taste freedom, they are forever liberated.
This fall, I am launching a new monthly podcast series celebrating these human wildflowers. The focus will be on what led these brave souls to escape institutional captivity and what lessons they have learned during their time in the wild. Most importantly, we will explore how they are creating pathways for other non-conformists to find each other and cultivate communities of meaning and purpose beyond institutional walls.
Lessons from Ruth’s Journey Beyond the Fence
This past week, I had a chance to celebrate one such wildflower named Ruth Perry. Ruth felt called to start a podcast at her publication The Beautiful Kingdom Builders. In her final episode, I had the privilege of interviewing her about her first season, which included 22 inspiring interviews with individuals who were engaged in unconventional forms of ministry. Her insights helped me name who my own publication is for. It is not for the masses; it is for the rebels who, like Ruth, follow the wild spirit into uncharted territory.
There were a few threads in this interview with Ruth that are worth noting.
Ruth had a very clear vision for what kinds of conversations she wanted to explore through her podcast.
Ruth’s project tapped into her own experience of feeling alone in her spiritual journey, which was leading her beyond the boundaries of her inherited faith tradition.
Ruth’s boldness in asking others to join her on the journey led to the success of her first season.
Every wildflower that I have walked with has shared these three qualities: clarity about what they want to create, a calling that is rooted in their lived experience, and courage to ask others to join them.
Are You Walking Through Fences?
If you are a rare soul who seeks to connect beyond artificial societal or institutional boundaries and longs to run free through fields of buttercups alongside other rule-breakers like George the cow, then I am so glad you have found my publication.
I would love to know more about your adventures in the wild.
What do you long to create beyond the boundaries of institutional conformity?
Is this creative energy rooted in your own lived experience?
How can others join you on the journey?
If, like me, you love wildflowers, I hope you will subscribe to my publication.
Additionally, we have a Mighty Network community that is free and open to all.
If you are interested in cultivating community beyond the walls of societal and institutional borders, we offer our Power Shift Training series as a learning cohort, a self-guided course, and a guided co-learning journey.
If you are a subscriber and would like to explore whether Power Shift or individual coaching is right for you, we offer a free 45-minute virtual call. Send me a private message, and I will send you a link to schedule a call. You can learn more about my training, coaching, and consulting services at Embrace Communities.
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