Wilderness Formation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit equipping churches and faith communities to build thriving wilderness ministries. The work is older than the name. The methodology is older than most of the people teaching it. And that's the point.
In 1989, Richard and Donna Dahlstrom founded Alaythia Fellowship, a small Bible school in the North Cascades of Washington State. The classroom was the mountains. The texts were Scripture and creation, taught together. People came from cities to learn. They left changed.
Over the decades that followed, Richard developed what would become the Ancient Paths curriculum: a framework for Christian formation in the wilderness rooted in rites of passage, intentional solitude, the convergence of creation and text, and the conviction that God still speaks through the wild places God made.
This wasn't theory. It was practiced. With urban people who'd never spent a night on a mountain. With pastors looking for renewal. With seekers whose faith had run dry in the city and needed the silence to hear God again.
On September 20, 2021, John Wayne Seitzler was voted in as Executive Director of Alaythia Fellowship. The organization had been quieter for some years. The vision hadn't gone anywhere. It needed someone to carry it into a new season.
John Wayne renamed the work Wilderness Formation, with Richard's blessing, to make the mission immediately legible to churches that had never heard of Alaythia. He brought his own experience to the work: sea kayaking expeditions, mountain guide teams, and a current role as Pastor of Wilderness Ministry at Bethany Community Church in Seattle.
The renewal kept the substance the same. The Ancient Paths curriculum. Richard's theology. The conviction that wilderness is one of God's primary classrooms. What changed was the reach: a focused effort to equip churches and faith communities across the country to build thriving wilderness ministries of their own.
Richard Dahlstrom developed the Ancient Paths curriculum across decades of guiding leaders, congregations, and seekers into the mountains. John Wayne Seitzler helped build it into the program it is today, sharpening the trip systems, the risk-management practice, the leader-development pipeline, and the way it lands in a local church context.
Today, Richard continues to teach alongside John Wayne at the annual Ancient Paths Certification Week at Snoqualmie Pass, and continues to write at his long-running publication, Spirit Soul Body, now on Substack.
This is a lineage, not a brand. The frameworks didn't come from a textbook. They were forged across two generations of real ministry, in real terrain, with real people, season after season.
We believe faith is an experience, not just a set of doctrines. Christ longs to reveal Himself through the text of God's good creation.
Christ longs to take us, and our communities, into a new depth of relationship through formative experiences in the outdoors.
John Wayne serves as Pastor of Wilderness Ministry at Bethany Community Church in Seattle. Bethany Community Church and Wilderness Formation are independent organizations. The relationship is one of practice, not partnership. Bethany is where John Wayne's wilderness ministry work lives day-to-day, and many of the rhythms we teach at WF are tested there first in weekly, year-round practice.
That feedback loop, of train, test, refine, train again, keeps the curriculum honest. It also means everything Wilderness Formation teaches has been used recently, in a real congregation, with real people, by the person teaching it.
A small team carrying a deep lineage forward.
Voted in as Executive Director on September 20, 2021. Renewed Alaythia Fellowship as Wilderness Formation to bring its tradition to churches across the country. Background in sea kayaking expeditions and mountain guide teams. Pastor of Wilderness Ministry at Bethany Community Church in Seattle.
Co-founded Alaythia Fellowship in 1989 with Donna Dahlstrom. Developed the Ancient Paths curriculum over decades of teaching. Continues to co-lead AP Certification Week annually. Writes at Spirit Soul Body on Substack.
Co-founded Alaythia Fellowship in 1989 with Richard Dahlstrom. Helped shape the original North Cascades Bible school and the formation work that grew from it. Continues to serve as an Emeritus Board Member.
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We at Wilderness Formation acknowledge that we work and play on the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, people who are still here. We express our respect and gratitude for our indigenous siblings and their Elders and for their care and protection of our shared lands and waterways.
| Legal name | Alaythia Fellowship |
| Doing business as | Wilderness Formation |
| EIN | 91-1461881 |
| Headquarters | Seattle, WA |
| Founded | 1989, as Alaythia Fellowship |
| Renewed as Wilderness Formation | 2021 |
Two ways forward: a Discovery Call for churches and ministries, or registration for the next Ancient Paths Certification Week cohort.