This is a guided meditation works best for a small congregation, youth group or home group. It is designed to help participants think about the way God appears to biblical characters in the great outdoors – the setting, the scenery, the time of day, the weather, their relationship with him, and his message to them.  It is written for two readers – one to read the normal text, the other to read the bible verses in bold text. 

Bring the outside in by making your church/hall/meeting room look like a campsite. Put up a couple of small tents, scatter picnic blankets around and use rucksacks, wind-up lanterns and maps as props. Get people to make themselves comfortable on the rugs, as if they were sitting around a campfire. Serve hot chocolate if you want to be really authentic.

This works well in the middle of winter when it’s dark outside and balmy summer evenings on camp are but a distant dream …  Follow the Great Outdoors guided meditation attached as a PDF.

Chloe Axford lives in Devon with her husband Nick and their very new baby girl. They are volunteer worship leaders at their church and run an alternative worship stream in the evening service called Creative Space. Chloe spent two years working in creative arts ministry at a church in London and now works as a journalist (when not dreaming up imaginative uses for tea lights, post-it notes and stones).

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