jonnybaker

under the hood

underthehood - campaign to stop scapegoating young people

a couple of ambient tracks

a couple of tracks by treefinger - a guy i met in nashville last year...

worship trick 27 [second series] - father/son/spirit

home in sheffield have posted pretty much an entire service exploring the trinity with a section of worship and then stations for father/son/spirit.

i notice they use the excellent video reign by U.N.K.L.E. with its amazing images of fire and water - i got this on creative review's latest dvd for magazine subscribers.

i liked andrew pickering's poem kiss -

we have kissed you in many ways

we have kissed you like a lover kisses her beloved
like the prostitute who kissed your feet overwhelmed with adoration
kisses mingled with tears
kisses begging forgiveness

we have kissed you like a mother kisses her child
like the virgin mary who kissed your head as you grew from child to man
kisses that feared the future
kisses willing protection

we have kissed you like a friend kisses her companion
like the disciples james and john who kissed your hand as they realised who you were
kisses that wanted a place in heaven
kisses wanting reward

we have kissed you like a betrayer kisses her betrayed
like the disciple judas who kissed your cheek filled with remorse
kisses fuelled by impatience
kisses provoking action

we have kissed you like a child kisses her father
like the children who kissed your face while sat upon your knee
kisses given out of joy
kisses acknowledging acceptance

we have kissed you like a:

lover

mother

friend

betrayer

child

each time you have kissed us back

more passionately

more longingly

more desperately

more graciously

more wildly

more

Technorati Tags: trinity, worship tricks, alternative worship

40 artists 40 days

40artists40days

the risk must be taken

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feeling is to risk exposing your true self.
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd, is to risk their loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To live is to risk dying.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
But the risk must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love, live.
Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave, he has forfeited freedom.
ONLY A PERSON WHO RISKS – IS FREE

via mark waddington

living with tension

wisdom in honest struggle as ever from richard. the tension he outlines is one i think we will have to live with for quite some time, but i'd rather have the tension than ditch the institution or creative edges.

mike radcliffe show

mike radcliffe is opening his studio for one night to show his art work

the studio will be open from 6.05pm to 9pm on thursday 9th June 2005

it will be in the tower of st. matthew's church, westminster,
20 Gt. Peter Street
Westminster
London
SW1P 2BU

it will be a simple evening with free wine/beer.

for a flavour of the work, please seewww.artbizness.com... (although mike says that the website is hopelessly out of date, so don't expect too much)

mike is a member of moot and a regular at greenbelt

monks in alternative worship ritual

having been away for a few days i caught the last of the monastery on video last night. what a great series it has been - i have found it compelling. someone described it to me as reality tv with soul (which is of course a refreshing change). it was very moving to see transformations of various degrees in the 5 men who had spent 40 days and nights in the company of the benedictine brothers. tony's story was particularly touching, especially the scene where the brother presented him with a white stone and prayed a blessing on him and he was overwhelmed by the Spirit. the white stone ritual made me smile -  it's something various alternative worship groups have done (e.g. vaux) - monks have clearly been on to this stuff a lot longer!

the series has got me thinking about benedictine spirituality. i have a friend who is a benedictine oblate ( a member of the community but who lives a regular life ). she has given me two books to read which i am enjoying - the cloister walk and the rule of benedict:insights for the ages . it also struck me how good an experience it was for the monks to encounter 5 men from the outside world and realise the transformative power of christian spirituality and the benedictine way. i am really pleased to see that they have taken the opportunity to develop a good web site with advice on meditation, bible reading and offering weekends for people interested to get a taste of what they have watched... lectio divina | tips to meditate

Technorati Tags: monastery, benedictine spirituality, meditation

congrats to the reds

congrats to the reds who won the european champions league final yesterday having been 3-0 down at half time. i confess that like many others i wrote liverpool off at half time saying that chelsea would have done a better job. but a sensational 6 minutes in the second half turned it round. dudek's antics in  goal in the penalty shoot out had us in hysterics - i expect we'll see plenty of impressions in comedy routines for the next year but it was certainly effective...

all you liverpool fans who follow the blog (seem to be more than chelsea fans) will be pleased to know i pretty much lost my voice cheering for them by the end. great to see an english team european champions. enjoy...

worship trick 26 [series 2] - morph communion prayer

this communion prayer was written by theoldbill, inspired by leonard cohen's poem 'god is alive'. it's incredibly simple but that is part of its beauty...

Word becomes flesh
flesh becomes bread
bread becomes body
body becomes word

God is bread
bread is broken
pain becomes wine
wine becomes joy

Wine bursts the wineskins
God bursts the tomb
bread bursts into song

Holy, holy, holy. . . .

Technorati Tags: communion, liturgy, worship tricks

is it possible to get a church of england diocese to change?

this week i am on a few days away in shropshire with the cms team i am part of. had a shaky start when we drove into the back of a car in front and knocked a horsebox off the road (fortunately the cows that had been in it had already been dropped off at the market!)

today was a visit to telford where cms is partnering with the diocese of lichfield. this was a really interesting day reflecting on mission shaped church and how in practice one diocese is responding to it. i haven't got the statistics to hand but as in many areas of the country the overall pattern has been one of steady decline in church attendance (and therefore income). the diocese has had to reduce expenditure by laying off clergy and group parishes together etc. i have previously said on several occasions that what i think mission shaped church has done is shift the culture in the church of england to one of a culture of permission (which is great news) but it hasn't generally been prepared to go for the reallocation of resources. somehow lichfield diocese has had the courage/vision/balls in a situation of decline to address the resourcing issue as well... i have only got a short window into the story. i hope to come back to this and find out some more because i think other dioceses struggling for a way forward and other parts of the world might find some insights or clues for their own contexts and challenges. these were a few of the threads i picked up that may have contributed...

• a bishop who was up for it and made some key appointments
• the diocesan missioner - mark ireland - he did a lot of patient leg work of visiting all deaneries, listening hard and then developing a growth strategy with practical achievable goals.
• a strategic focus on how to help the diocese become a learning organisation
• taking mission shaped church seriously - all groups in the diocese have to reflect on it and mark was saying for example that he was due in a few days to meet with the diocesan architects to reflect on what the implications might be for them - (mission shaped architecture)...
• piloting an emerging church - church without walls - in stoke on trent including investing in the leadership post for 7 years. the encouraging signs from this have created interest in pushing forward in other areas.
• the decision to develop an innovations fund of a million pounds, the profit of which can be used in grant making to support initiatives in mission year on year.
• when the archbishops council allocated funds for mission several years ago the diocese used two thirds to go into the black hole of clergy salaries but since then when money comes like that have decided to ring fence it for mission and not spend it on maintenance
• a wonderful global passion and investment that has involved interchanges with malaysia and other parts of the world. this includes a trust to enable young people to take gap years there and to host young people from there to have gap years in the diocese
• being prepared to make sacrifices for mission (being prepared to lose clergy posts to invest in mission posts)

mark ireland shared with us some of the fresh expressions of church going on in the diocese which range from conventional church plants, youth congregations, a punjab christian community in walsall, a church plant that bought a butchers shop and named it the place to 'meet' which is reaching an elderly community, an emerging church in stoke and so on...

the latest venture is an emerging church in telford which cms is partnering in. this starts in september 2005 with a full time paid job. the appointment has been made and there is funding for 7 years for the post with the aim of becoming self financing, self governing and self replicating by then. it will be great to see how it develops. i don't think i am permitted to say who has the job yet but will say more when i get the ok. i was with a few people who had a wander round one part of telford (wellington) and we interviewed a few people to get a feel for the area, and the issues concerning 20-30 year olds.

but the overriding impression of the day is that it is possible for a diocese to change even when it's in decline. it is possible to do more than just give permission for new expressions of church if there is the will and vision to develop a strategic plan of action. as i say i hope to do some more to research what has happened and is going on here so i can tell the story and what we can learn from it...

vj loops

solotanz | raser | paint - all from eyetrap

recycled tv - from ben hanbury

(thanks craig and vj village)

free photos

where to find free photos (via darren)

grace dreaming

this weekend is a grace dreaming and planning weekend (and a lot of eating and hanging out together)... whenever we do anything whether it is worship services, going for a drink in the pub or whatever it is guaranteed that someone will have either a camera or a video camera out and be snapping or filming - reminds me of ricky in american beauty - life distilled through the lens. well steve gets the prize for uploading his photos from the day yesterday the quickest. it was a really good day - one of the grace team knew someone with a huge house in the country with tennis court, swimming pool and hot tub who kindly let us use their house for the day. looks like we now have the bones of a more fluid structure that will hopefully break some of the stuckness in the planning process.

we were invited to bring something we loved about grace and something we felt was missing as part of the creative dreaming process. for the missing pile i brought this picture of smashing things up because i feel that we need to risk breaking some of the good structure that has enabled us to do wonderful things. anyway we've ended up looking like we are going to do that so let's hope it leads to new life. while i was thinking about it i put the grace logo on a tv image and made it into gracetv.mov (only 100k)

i love grace - it's home base in terms of faith and christian community and the creative things that have come out of such a small motley crew is amazing... we ended up back at our house with the chimney going and the obligatory belgian ales in the garden.

metaphilm

came across metaphilm via luke who has written a playful comparison between toystory 2 and augstine's city of god...

what i like about the site is that it wants to interpret film and it is packed with meaty stuff. this is what it says in the about page...

Serious, absurd,
    sacred, profane,
    simple, complex:
    We absorb, filter, review, and interpret cinema
    for your     entertainment and enlightenment.

 

We strive to fulfill the creed of our
  patron saint, Robert Bresson:

 

Make visible what without you
  might perhaps never have been seen.

media paranoia about hoodies

there's a crazy media frenzy going on about teenage yobs wearing hoodies. it is completely ridiculous. i was thinking of ranting about it but noticed ben bell has said pretty much what was on my mind and i love paul's thought of the monks from worth abbey showing up at bluewater shopping centre and not being allowed in...

images of jesus

bill has gradually been compiling a photo album of images of jesus - at the last look there were 100 images there...

pentecost grid blog :: revisited

a few people were wondering what the pentecost grid blog :: was all about. part of the idea was that after it you can type pentecost grid blog :: into google and see a range of reflections on pentecost from round the world and hopefully a bunch of creative ideas as well. having had a quick trawl through i think jonathan finley's video is neat. i also love josh's digital flame and suspect his video is brilliant but i couldn't work out how to see it... (update: have just checked back and it is now here ).

i am making the pentecost grid blog :: worship trick 25 so that i have a record of it - i think it's a neat concept (you may also remember the advent grid blog)

it wasn't part of the grid blog but the story that i liked was every tribe and tongue

Technorati Tags: pentecost, worship tricks, alternative worship

del.icio.us - fab tool and don't switch off if you think it's for bloggers or geeks

jordon cooper has written an article for the ooze on del.icio.us

i confess i hadn't even heard of it but figured that if it was a tool that organised jordon's prolific web knowledge it must be worth a look. i was waiting to blog about it until i had properly got my head around it but jordon has blown my cover !! so i'll blog out of ignorance.

what does it do?
it helps you organise web sites you come across into categories you choose (and probably a whole lot more). if you are like me you are forever finding a site and thinking i must remember that but there are only so many bookmark folders you want. del.icio.us gives you a post button that goes on your toolbar in the browser so whenever you find a site you like you simply click on that and then add it to your list of sites with whatever tags you like. so for example i was just trying to get my printer to work. i found an article on the apple site that resolved the issue for me so i put the tabs printing and mac so when i have the same problem i will think to click on printing in my list of tabs to find it again. obviously part of the beauty of it is that it doesn't matter what computer you are on you can still add to your list.

a lot of web tools are rather geeky or of interest if you run a web site or blog but this is really useful for anybody who uses the internet. i showed jen the site last night - she is a writer and is forever researching for articles etc. - this could be a great way of keeping track of sites for her? it is also an easy way of making this kind of information public so others can share in your discoveries. jordon's del.icio.us page for example has an amazing array of articles linked to. i kind of intended to do something like this with my list of articles etc on my blog but the truth is it is way out of date because to update it i have to be bothered to get into the interface etc so i always leave it for later whereas with this it is one click and so much more likely to be kept up to date.

anyway i'm waffling now. just go and read jordon's article on it which has a whole lot more info and you'll be away... my page is pretty lame at the moment as i have only just started adding links but you'll get the idea at http://del.icio.us/jonnybaker

and popular is a page rammed with goodies under all sorts of tags. if you follow the web via a newsreader all pages have rss feeds as well...

protest 4

Protest4 is an open collective of individuals and groups in emerging culture responding to the issues of injustice in our world. the first issue being reflected on and campaigned about is human trafficking. si says:

Protest4 will hopefully simply act as a convergence point for anyone wanting to open source their knowledge, experience and projects tackling any and all issues of justice. While human trafficking is the first issue being looked at by various people, the court is wide open for people to converse and kick off conversation and action on a host of justice-related issues. So, if you're feeling so inclined, do register and add your voice, skills and passion.

the site drop down menus don't currently work in safari or explorer but do in firefox. this should be fixed shortly...