jonnybaker

linkage and worship trick 31 - sunday

a few news/link type things...

mike morris has started blogging.

beyond church has had it's first worship gathering that looks like it was a lot of fun. and their next event should be hilarious with the brilliant comedian milton jones...

ian adams is branching out into other creative areas and projects offering spiritual direction amongst other things

moby gratis is free music from moby for non commercial ventures. it's film score type stuff - ideal for worship background?

20 questions to use in a small group to get to know people

and darren wright has a whole worship experience called sunday that is free and downloadable. it was originally used at the australian black stump festival. i am making that worship trick 31

vaux

vaux seem to be threatening to rise from the ashes...

if you haven't come across vaux check out their archive, greyspace and pictures on smallfire

ealing photo blog

some of my snow pics have been added to april in the ealing LIP photo blog

the best looking blog...

bruce stanley is someone whose creative abilities inspire me - he is a genius. i love pretty much everything he does. well true to form he has revamped embody completely and it looks amazing. in fact i think it's the most unique looking blog i have seen for quite some time. and i am thoroughly envious...

peregrine julie

julie wilson has started blogging - go and say hi...

the missional journey

i have been asked to contribute to an allelon blog the missional journey along with a number of other collaborators. allelon is run by alan roxburgh and i like what they are up to. i guess i'll be posting once or twice a month...

pete rollins site

pete rollins has a new site and location for his blog. i see he has a new book out the fidelity of betrayal in may 2008

grace lent

so lent starts today...

have just got back from norway where the youth ministry training i did seemed to go well (reflections on that to come...)

but a quick mention that the grace lent blog 08 starts today so add it to your reader and follow along.

also this is a bit late for today but jenny is leading a course on desert journies at st marys for six wednesday evenings. no need to book you can just turn up.

we are picking up on two of those desert journies at the next two graces. first up this saturday is hagar.

time for a change...

i have made a few changes to the blog for the new year.

i have been through the posts for the year and made sure i have added them to the right categories. categories are a really good way of organising information with typepad. if i ever want to find something i usually just click the relevant category in the left hand column.

i have rearranged a few bits in the sidebars - most significantly, i have lost the articles by me and articles by others lists. instead if you click on the category articles on the left hand side you will find links to any articles. and i have then added a new page my writings that is linked to on the right hand side so i (or you) can easily access stuff i have written. typepad's pages is a great feature that helps make blogs an easy way to build a web site as i have blogged about before.

and then i fancied a bit of a change of look. it began with a new header and then that didn't work with the blue background so that blue that i have used even on my old blogger blog has gone for the first time in 5 and a half years and i am going with more of a black and white and vibe. if you can't see it or the new header just refresh a few times and it will appear.

let me know what you think...

and to sit with the new colours here's another of the fog photos. it looks like this is done with time lapse taking 4 shots of one bird but it's not. it's 4 different gulls taking flight at the same time i.e. what you see was there at the same time (kind of goes with the iffley and brighton flights).

i hope your dreams fly in 08.

ten years of blogs

according to bob blogs began 10 years ago! i'm sure this will be contested soon and i have no idea if it's true. but i thought i'd say happy tenth anniversary anyway to blogs. for my part my first blog post was on april 18, 2002  so i have been blogging for 5 years and 8 months. that kind of shocked me that i have been blogging that long. the reason i started blogging was because i had met andrew jones and he was enthusing about it and told me i should start one. looking at those early posts is quite amusing and my third entry describes what i was thinking when i started the worship tricks series that have proved popular. this is what i had to say.

one of the things i want to do via this blog is to share with the world [or at least with those few people in the world who are a) reading the blog and b)interested] what i'll call worship tricks. now i've written that term i think it may not be brilliant but it will do for now. one of the things i love about alternative worship is the way groups use the stuff of life and popular culture as the building blocks for worship rather than using churchy language and stuff that no-one outside the subculture really relates to. i've expanded more on this in an essay - see the links to articles i've written at the side. these tricks might just be called ideas, but i like tricks better because often there's some sort of dynamic thing that happens when ideas are used in worship that makes them worthy of a better name than idea. i'm going to number these tricks and see where it leads. so if you have some tricks let me know. some people think they are on to a trick when they are using multi media, but there's an overdose of naff powerpoints with sunsets and predictible words. i'm after stuff that's either got an edge, is cool, is a good building block, is beautifully crafted or simply works. it may be as simple as using a particular tune or image in worship to reframe it or it may be a ritual or it may be a link to a piece of liturgy or a flash animation online. we'll see. anyway trick no 1 will be in the next post....

i think i particular noticed this because the january issue of youthwork magazine has an article on creative worship that without naming me slams my blog and worship tricks as being trivial and a sell out to consumer culture!!!! i haven't got the article in front of me so can't quote directly but i have clearly rattled the author's cage. ho hum...