jonnybaker

tearfund prayercast

my friend ben is behind the tearfund prayercast, a daily prayer podcast of about 10 mins, which was launched yesterday...

space and time and contemplative prayer

i have put together a movie with jon birch to go with our track space and time. it's a pretty simple idea - photos of empty seats, chairs and benches to invite the viewer to sit in god's presence and take some space. we made it thinking about lent being a time to focus on prayer. i also thought it would go well as part of my exhibit but having put it next to the photo have decided the photo is more powerful on its own.

jenny is doing a national series of training days for urban saints on contemplative prayer. and so we've recorded three tracks of her leading prayer/meditation exercises - an ignatian examen, a stilling exercise and a breathing prayer. these go to make up the contemplative prayer EP.

these are this month's proost releases and ideal for lent. you can watch and/or listen to samples in the media player. check the list of ideas on the front page of proost for other ideas.

am off to norway tomorrow for the first time for a couple of days to do some youth ministry training. looking forward to it...

prayer for riches, direction and wholeness - worship trick 15

bruce stanley strikes again with some downloadable prayer sheets on rejesus...

prayer for riches

prayer for direction

prayer for wholeness

worship trick 200 concluding the second series

so the second series of worship tricks comes to a close. the 200th worship trick is a series of dekhomai spiritual exercises. next week we are back in action running a dekhomai stand at the london mind body spirit festival. we will be offering a space for welcome, listening, healing prayer, massage and other ways of praying from the christian tradition. we'll be using the jesus deck for the first time - more about that another time. we have a set of 5 postcards to give away that a few of us have worked on (ian, jen, gareth, me). 4 of the images are my photos which is kind of neat. anyway i am making these 5 cards and exercises worship trick 200. the next question is what next - series 3?! we have also been invited to lead a meditation session at the festival for the first time - jen will doing this on saturday 5pm so pray for her...

the 5 are:

prayer beads

the examen

blessings

labyrinth

forgiveness

worship trick 97 - thin places exercises

on the subject of inspiration another blog that always inspires me is embody by bruce stanley. amazing stuff...

he has started a series of thin places exercises which i am making worship trick 97. the first two are

mountain prayer
desert prayer

and you can even learn how to make a meditation stool....

worship trick 82: until god's realm comes

hope steve is having fun at nosh downunder... cheryl has written this beautiful prayer for it, perfect for an ending to a worship service/gathering.

maybe in this there has been a glimpse of the kingdom
a foretaste
a hint
a promise
let it hold you and let it send you
so you will never be at peace
until all are fed
until all know home
until all are free
until justice is done
until peace is the way
until grace is the law
until love is the rule
until God’s realm comes
until God’s realm comes
until God’s realm comes…

Amen.

worship trick 74 [series 2] - set sail

last week at the cms residential mark berry led a couple of worship/reflections. one was based around his recent pilgrimage inspired by saint brendan. it was fabulous... mark makes all his stuff available free via his blog. various componenets that went to make it up are
deep calls to deep (mp3 about 6mb) | st brendans prayer | st brendan meditation | sir francis drake prayer

together with his filming of the place where brendan set sail mixed in with other things on arkaos this was inspirational stuff... i love the drake prayer and am taking the liberty of pasting it in here so i have a record of it.

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

sacred space - worship trick 70

as ever rejesus are producing good stuff. no idea how long it's been there but the sacred space is really nicely done and has some great ideas. there's a downloadable pdf for reflecting on how to create sacred space at work. i loved the QWERTY prayer... (though i thought the desk altar was naff - well not the idea more the cutout thing)... it's free and of course the ideas could be applied elsewhere. nice one. this is the blurb...

This product is a PDF document containing a host of fun experiential exercises, suggestions and ideas to encourage you and your workplace to make room for the sacred or holy or spiritual; to make space for God and God's love. Examples have been taken from Jesus's life and applied to the workplace. Make an altar, watch a film, create a sacred library, give thanks and pledge online are just some of the transformative ideas.

contemplative youth ministry

an encouraging trend in youth ministry over the last 5-10 years has been the growth of contemplative practices in youth ministry. one of the real pioneers in this in the usa has been mark yaconelli who developed and ran the youth ministry and spirituality project for 7 years. the question he wanted to explore was what would happen if you took youth groups in a range of denominations and worked to introduce them to ways of contemplative prayer. would this have any transformative effect? the results were dramatic... youth ministers and young people that learned how to pray were transformed.

mark has written a book contemplative youth ministry (which has just been published in the uk) in which he shares his insights and approach. it is a wonderful book. if you are involved in youth ministry you must get it. i actually think you should get it and read it if you are in any kind of leadership in church. this isn't really another model to buy off the shelf as the latest quick fix solution which is probably the last thing we need. it goes much deeper than that.

mark says that

contemplation is being with god within the reality of the present moment. contemplation is about presence. it's about attentiveness, opening our heart's eye to god, ourselves, and others. contemplation is an attitude of the heart, an all embracing hospitality to what is...

and so contemplative youth ministry is simply being with god, and learning to be attentive to god's presence in the lives of young people. mark suggests that youth ministry needs to slow down.

i have observed too many churches and youth ministries who embody a sense of urgency that communicates a god who is either a relentless taskmaster or completely incompetent... this is the endless parade of duded up rock stars, hyperactive activities, word heavy programmes... there is a tangible sense that god must be dressed up or hidden behind high energy music, and charismatic speakers. our churches and ministries seem to be deathly afraid of any kind of downtime. all silence and stillness is eradicated for fear that young people might find god disappointing, boring or absent. it's as if our church and ministry leaders have an anxious suspicion that god has left the building and so they stall with jabbering words and meaningless activities in the hope that the crowd won't become restless. in contrast jesus isn't afraid of doubts, or downtime or disappointment or boredom - in fact i might even claim that he finds doubt, boredom and disappointment critical to spiritual growth! ... jesus asks us to stop, he invites us to come away to quiet and deserted places. he asks us to be still and know. he calls us to take a moment to do nothing. he calls us to turn our attention away from our anxiety and busyness and just simply notice the work god is already doing.

the book is full of encouraging stories and it's very practical. as well as outlining some specific practices of prayer mark suggests how to help a church start from scratch to build a youth team, help that team learn to practise discerning god's presence and voice in their midst, and then to begin to introduce that attentiveness to god's presence with the young people. this includes a simple outline for running meetings mark devised called a liturgy of discernment that looks very easy to use but shifts the emphasis of planning quite significantly. the last section uses a threefold approach taken from spiritual direction as a framework for working with young people - noticing (helping young people become aware of their experience of god), naming (helping them find a language to describe it), and nurturing (helping young people develop practices that deepen their understanding and relationship with god). the journey is as much about us changing and learning to pray and be attentive as it is about the young people.

if you think this is a consumer choice or personality type thing i.e. your young people won't be into it, don't dismiss it so quickly. it's really not about stopping having fun and just engaging in prayer and being serious all of a sudden...

the purpose of integrating contemplative presence in youth ministry is not to form kids into monks, nor is it to make us experts in contemplative prayer - it is to deepen our (youth and adults) awareness of god and others and self so that we might become fully alive.

what is encouraging about the stories and process that mark used in the youth ministry and spirituality project and written about here is that the churches that used this are not your uber cool ones. they sound like bog standard denominational set ups, in some cases with no youth ministry to speak of. and from the descriptions those with a call to get involved with young people don't need to be young and cool themselves.

this complements other books such as tony jones soul shaper, jenny baker and moya ratanyake's tune in chill out and kenda creasy dean's practising passion. together these are opening up a very hopeful way forward for youth ministry. i think it especially opens up very hopeful possibilities for youth ministry in traditional and denominational settings. it has sometimes felt as though the only way offered to do radical stuff with young people has been to get them into charismatic worship where they experience god. that is transformative for some groups but problematic for others. there are lots of traditions and groups of young people for whom that just isn't what they are looking for or going to get into or it cuts them off from their tradition. it may also be for more charismatic groups that this will open up whole new possibilities as well.

scary/happy tale

so my son harry gets his phone nicked, follows a stranger on a bus somewhere in london he doesn't know, and it all ends like...
encounter with god