jonnybaker

spotify collaborative playlist - worship trick 67

matt who co-ordinates the DJs for the grace cafe each month came up with a fun idea for last week. he created a collaborative playlist on spotify and then invited a few of us to contribute in the week. you simply drag and drop tracks into it. then at grace the soundtrack in the cafe was that playlist on random play... collaborative DJing! worship trick 67 series 3. apologies if you are in a country where spotify isn't licensed!

in the spirit of collaboration i have created a jb blog readers collaborative playlist. so if you are a blog reader of mine and want to drop some tunes you are listening to on spotify in there then here's the http link and the spotify url

wii bell choir - worship trick 66

alt worship has always loved playing with technology in worship. here's a new one - a wii bell choir (QT movie) at COTA. worship trick 66 series 3.

community sermons from 'average bunch of people not particularly overgifted in any direction' church

i don't really know much about ashley church other than that i have liased with sue rockhill who is part of it through the wonders of our connected world online following her being at spring harvest. anyway we liased about the labyrinth meditations but it came up in conversation that they were being used as part of a community sermon. i immediately liked the sound of it - anything is normally better than one person speaking with the rest listening as far as i am concerned. so i asked sue to tell me a bit more about it and in her words...

we were a fairly average bunch of people - not particularly overgifted in any one direction, so apart from odd bits of brilliance we are working from ordinary lives in a fairly bumbling way.

Community sermons happen about once every school term. The congregation is given the title and the date and left to bring what they think will add something to the subject. Recent Community Sermons have included; writing the story of Christmas in 30 words;describing bible characters and the work of the Holy Spirit in them through limericks (that was a lot of fun!) And the most recent, called In the Gap was a look at what happened between Easter and Pentecost. There are very few rules - probably none actually. Even 'Christmas in 30 words' was modified by someone of artistic leaning to be Christmas in thirty strokes of the brush.  The most recent was the most energetic Sermon, since it involved walking a labyrinth, but everything is optional and there were paintings to look at and writing people had done on the subject, as well as quiet corners to pray in and of course the coffee lounge, where we think God is most likely to be hanging around. Community Sermons demand a lot of flexibility from the leader, who will turn up on the morning perhaps knowing that one or two people have mentioned that they have something to bring, but will not know whether there is anyone else with something or not. Ours is a fairly relaxed church and if there was really nothing we would probably go and have coffee, but so far there have always been people with things to say or show, so it has never come to that!

i don't want to start a new fad (god save us from that) but i do like the notion of bumbling church or average bunch of people not particularly overgifted in any direction church. of course so called average does as sue says allow people to express their gifts and one of the pieces in the last sermon was a lead cast plaque! i am making this worship trick 65 in series 3 . the notion of the community creating worship/sermons out of the community and their gifts is what worship is all about - the work of the people and all that...

guerrilla worship - trick 64

in the comments on the via luminosa post nic was toasting the new itinerants, the new walkers, the new turn in the organism formerly known as alt worship that is seeing it wandering in public spaces.

well on that tip dream held a geurrilla worship flash mob. they have a video of the event and describe it as follows:

We began scattered among the shoppers. At the signal, we all stopped and took off our shoes ... an ancient sign that this is "holy ground". God lives in shopping malls as well as churches!
We then made out way to the park at the centre of the mall where we sat together to form a cross ... and prayed silently for a few minutes. We remembered Easter and the cross. We prayed for the current economic situation ... for those who have lost jobs ... and for God's blessing on our city ... we prayed for hope.

i don't know what you call this turn or trend but i am going to make guerrilla worship (it was called spontaneous worship at greenbelt) a worship trick - no 64 series 3.

easter vigil - worship trick 63

grace fire logo from jonny baker on Vimeo.

i have posted a set of photos from the grace easter vigil on flickr. it was a wonderful service. in case you have not come across it (and i hadn't been to one before) it begins with an easter fire - adam had drilled a grace logo in the side which looked brilliant. after some opening words and prayer then the paschal candle is lit and everyone takes a candle and lights it from the paschal candle. people process around the church three times before entering the church. it was drizzling with rain but somehow that made everything more beautiful with the reflected light off the wet surfaces. there is then a period of waiting and reflecting with readings and meditations. at the gospel reading everyone stands and the lights are turned up. baptism vows are renewed - adam had created a sprinkler so that everyone got wet. then at midnight(ish) the bells are rung and fireworks let off to celebrate easter. prayers and the order of service will get added to the grace archive which i will link to then...

i have added some videos to my vimeo page - easter fire | vulnerable flame | grace fire logo | flickering grace

i am making the vigil a worship trick so i have a record of it - i will come back and add the detail... that is number 63, series 3

all is lost

ian adams' painting from the oxford stations of the cross - all is lost: christ is lain in the tomb. this is a smply stunning painting - go and tell him if you like it as he doesn't do much painting! i think ian is going to produce some large prints of this at some point. a perfect image for this day - easter saturday.

if you want some words for this day then you'll do no better than visiting cheryl's when hope goes to hell - a vigil she is leading in prison. i am making her stations/service worship trick 62, series 3.

We wanted a God who would take away hell and banish it forever
Instead we have a God who enters it.

12 stations meditation freebie - worship trick 61 [series 3]

it's good friday so we thought we'd throw up one of proost's pieces for free. this is party because there was a glitch in the file we uploaded originally so some people have had problems downloading it so we feel bad for messing a few people around. and because we felt like putting something out there on good friday anyway. to view this i have embedded it full size so stretch your browser window so that the whole animation is in there and then you click through the slides on the bottom right. if your window is too small, download it - see below. the movie 12 stations is a great accompaniment if you haven't seen it. thanks jon for agreeing to give the meditation away. if you've paid for it already and feel hard done by e-mail me and i'll create a coupon for you to download something else. if you are a proost subscriber you could access this anyway. you can download it here and use it either with flash player or open it in a browser if you want to use it offline.

i had a scroll back through the worship trick series and these are other things i noticed related to the season. if you have things you have come across leave a comment and i'll take a look

bitter journey
seven sayings - which has now moved to here
three days
ecce homo
a couple of animations
tenebrae
dead man waiting
good friday stencil
graffiti stations of the cross
easter liturgies
shooting jesus images
holy week reflections
passion pictures

if you were at spring harvest...

if you came to the teaching that joy and i were doing on the theme of apprenticeship/discipleship i have uploaded our slides for you to download as a pdf file apprentice. i really enjoyed working with joy - we were very different stylistically (- spot the difference in our slides!) but i think that difference brought very different edges.

if you came to the sessions i led on prayer, my wife jenny is better in this area than me. a few resources you might like that she has written are tune in chill out, and heart soul mind strength. you can download the breathing prayer here and there are a couple of examens here. sleeping with bread was the book i mentioned on the examen.

if you came to the worship we led, we loved having you there. grace has an archive of prayers and liturgies some of which we used - see wounded and slow for example. and i run a series of worship tricks - 1 | 2 | 3  which you can scroll through for ideas. if you had to describe the worship i guess it was contemplative but it comes out of a movement known as alternative worship. i have co-written a book or collated a book called alternative worship. and in recent years proost is a web company i help run that has a ton of resources - music, books of liturgies, and movies. harry was amazing this week and people loved his poetry, half of which was written on site. he goes under the name dubb and is on myspace here. i think we invented a new genre of worship mixing chants with rapped invocations! we will be putting an album out on proost of his stuff in the summer. laurence keith goes under the artist name harronell - his music is beautiful and he has an album harronell on proost that you can buy to download. listen to the track archangel on his myspce - one of my favourite tracks of last year.

if there was anything else we did that you want to know where to find it let me know in a comment or e-mail.

i work with cms and chatted to lot sof people about the current exciting shift to community

it's the first time i have been at spring harvest for 7 or 8 years i think. for those of you who haven't come across it, spring harvest is an evangelical mainstream christian festival. it caters for families really well with a very good childrens and youth programme. then there's a mix of bible teaching, seminars, and a celebration in the big top with lots of singing, preaching and all that (i was in the bar last night having my own celebration as chelsea beat liverpool so brilliantly at anfield!!). it won't surprise those of you who know me if i say it's not where i am most at home these days. in fact i feel like i hardly connect with this world - i don't even know any of the songs. and it seems pretty similar to when i was last here. the worship we were doing was on the edge, an alternative - always a place i feel more at home. called reflective readings we attracted a crowd who really didn't like the big top either because of taste, or because it was simply too noisy. we ended up with an older crowd but we so enjoyed them - they didn't have any of the usual postmodern angst!! a highlight was an evening where we went and lit a fire and built a cairn on the beach...

twitturgies - worship trick 60

i have been friends for years with gerard and chrissie kelly. we shared a house many years back together when our kids were little. having drifted in different directions it's been good to bump into them a bit more and i hope it continues. gerard has always been a wordsmith and i have mentioned his poems before now . he is now tweeting liturgy in less than 140 characters (of course). if that sounds up your street go and follow him at twitturgies ...

i'm not planning a ton of twitter worship tricks but if you know of any worth a look leave a comment on this post. here's today's

You hide the path you want for us under the path we walk. You bury wisdom in the places we pass. Give us, God, the determination to dig.

this is worship trick 60 in series 3

breathing prayer - worship trick 59

thanks to anyone who showed up last night for the worship at LST. if you are interested in any of the prayers and liturgy etc most of it is here - wounded in all the right places...

mike led an opening prayer exercise to help us focus and quiet down. he used a breathing prayer that i really liked so asked where he found it or whther he had written it. it turns out he came across it following some of the lent link i have posted! it's a breathing prayer written by christine sine whose really becoming a fantastic leader in spirituality and creativity and is collating a ton of resources through her blogging, tweeting and so on. anyway mainly because i'll want to remember where this prayer was at some point in the future i am making this a worship trick in series 3 - number 58.

it goes like this...

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your cares and concerns

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your doubts and despairs

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your fears and frustrations

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

Breathe in the breath of God

Breathe out your tensions and turmoil

Breathe in the love of God

Breathe out your haste and hurry

Breathe in the life of God

Breathe out your work and worry

We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation,

We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s wombs

We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being

improvisation and trickery at the netzer co-op - worship trick 58

i absolutely love this solving of a problem that paul soupiset has posted on his blog. in a worship service at the netzer co-op in austin where bri and tim are (hi if you're reading) the challenge was how to run a presentation on a laptop from a distance when you've forgotten your remote... i'll say no more. go and see for yourself. it's definitely a worship trick of sorts though probably not one that will be repeated much elsewhere but i am adding it to the official list as it's so brilliant - no 58 is series 3. we've had a few moments like this over the years.

there's nothing like pressure to fuel creative thinking using whatever is at hand to solve a problem - tinkering i guess. imposing constraints or limits can actually help the creative process - there's less other stuff to worry about. so if you want to be creative, intentionally throw spanners in the works like this and see what happens...

worship trick 57 - new year labyrinth

looking back through the blog i realise i never added anything about the new year labyrinth at grace.i was reminded of it because we had a group of students visiting from calvin college who recorded a short movie and sent me a link. anyway i thought i'd add it as a worship trick as it seemed to work well, was very low tech, and may be useful for other people...

it's all written up in the grace archive page. we used the st paul's labyrinth cloth which has inbuilt stations and the themes were:

stillness
reflect
thanks
sorrow
holy space
gift
hope
fear
presence

the backdrop on the screens playing silently (st mary's where we meet has now got three projector screens) was the movie by st etienne finisterre which is a beautiful hour of footage of a day in london.

have this gift because...

have this gift because..., originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

this was part of last night's grace exploring the theme of gift. the next grace is also on the theme and we have film, storytelling and discussion evenings through lent on it as well. the service outline is (probably with a few bits to be added) here. but it sort of went like this...

the space looked great with a huge pile of gifts, an enormous cat's cradle type installation with gifts tangled in it and a table at the far end. babette's feast was silently playing on the screen, a parable for the night.

sit and talk about gifts and experiences good and bad. then take a label and write on it what the real meaning was behind a gift and tie it to the pile of gifts. this was really good - some really good meanings and some scary ones!

then on to the installation exploring the idea of gifts with ties that bind positively or negatively. find a gift and trace it to an envelope which is the tie/string attached! mine was this message above...

give your gift to someone else without the tie...

then cut the strings down (adam scissorhands?)

gather round the table and reflect on how god gives and how we respond. the response was to pour rice until overflowing into peoples hands and then they could leave some grains as a token of relationship with god. relationship not obligation... i was doing this bit and we read psalm 50 that i then rewrote/improvised for grace as follows:

Grace listen...
I have no complaint about your sacrifices -
you certainly put the creative effort in to your worship.
But I do not need your art installations, stations, movie loops, ambient tunes, apple macs, ipods
gas masks, photography, font selection, stories, good taste, creative liturgies and new technologies.
All the silicon in the valley is mine
I know all the art in the whole world
The creation is my gallery
I made imagination!
Make thankfulness your sacrifice to God
out of friendship and not obligation
That's what it's about...

then finally a blessing having reflected on gifts we have that are for giving on behalf of the community before the usual cafe which had an abundance of danes, wine and cakes!

the photos i took are in a slideset gift and there will be more no doubt in the gracelondon flickr pool.

the inspiration for the service was lewis hyde's book the gift and for me, sigur ros' film heima which we will be watching in lent.

i have made this whole thing a worship trick - it was all so good! no 56 in series 3...

sky lantern prayer for the city - worship trick 55

sanctus 1 released a sky candle with prayers on over manchster for epiphany with a cheeky go on jonny make it a worship trick at the bottom of the post. ok guys!!!! follow the link to see their photos...

you may remember i photographed some of these at the big chill festival a couple of years ago - they are in this set. i particularly like this photo

worship tricks 1 million - i've been ASBO'd!

i've been ASBO'd

advent icon

nadia's community created a wonderful icon for advent from christmas advertising - a simple idea, often the best... worship trick 54

christmas ambient tunes - worship trick 53

i was looking on jon hopkins web site (perhaps my favourite artist of the moment) and followed a link to sound asleep records who look like a label worth keeping an eye on if you like your music ambient or electronic - i guess a little in the vein of kranky records for those of you who have discovered the delight of the incredible dead texan album.

anyway it turns out they have a free 8 tracks of their artists doing christmas songs. i am not sure how long this offer is up now christmas is over. you can link to it from their front page or this is currently the direct link. there are a couple of tunes here that are gems including an amazing 11 minute ambient silent night and they will no doubt be providing a soundscape to some alt worship in ealing next advent...

this is worship trick 53, series 3

no 203

had a day out on brighton yesterday - dropping some christmas presents off to family en route and then visiting the beyond advent beach hut calendar in the evening (which was why we went as far as brighton) - see their blog for photos. it was brilliant to be able to visit. no 203 had opened up their pink interior and decorated it in response to the carol silent night with stars hanging from the roof and candles lit. mulled wine, mince pies (is this the beach hut communion now?!) and some homemade no 203 beach hut biscuits were consumed round a christmas fire and carols sung.

i asked martin how they had got enough people involved and he simply posted letters through all the beach hut doors back in june and got 20 responses and it snowballed from there...

advent prayers

sunday papers has a few advent prayers (from james hawes i assume)...

why wait?
give god a hug today
advent grace
advent affirmation of faith

[worship trick 52]

advent abundance... worship tricks 48,49,50, 51!!

well as ever people are doing wonderful things to celebrate advent.

here's a few...

1. have a look through my category advent to see things from previous years which include some wonderful prayers and reflections

2. the advent beach hut calendar is now under way - check the blog for photos. seems like the heavens were re-aligned for day one!

3. ben bell always produces a wonderful image for advent - i was half expecting him to come up with something and sure enough light of the world is simple but brilliant. contact him if you want to use it. i am making his images worship trick 48 - see mary set and card, wait

4. the church of england has  produced a creative site why are we waiting. i am not actually sure who is behind the site though it says copyright archbishops council (!) but rowan williams gives a reflection on a plasma screen over the fireplace and there is a calendar window to click on each day for a reflection to create space. you can also sign up for a daily e-mail through advent. worship trick 49

5. cheryl lawrie is prolific when it comes to advent. she makes me smile because there is a build up saying she has no ideas or energy and then wham! an overflow of liturgical and creative genius lands. i have not counted but i am sure cheryl is listed under more worship tricks than anyone else but all her new pieces which are bundled as a pregnant pause can get added as worship trick 50. the pieces are here here here here and here. i am looking forward to hearing how christmas in the basement goes which i received an invite to but sadly won't be attending!

6. advent windows is something i found via following a link from no 4 above. it is in london and is again so simple. created by st alfege in greenwich it's a community advent calendar where a literal window is opened every day. the first one was at the tourist information centre! there's a blog which will follow the windows. this is worship trick 51. i was thinking what we could do in ealing in a similar vein to the beach hut idea and hadn't thought of windows. i can see this idea taking off in lots of communities in future years. must pay it a visit. i love the way people are taking worship and the christmas story into public rather than church or private space...

7. cms produces a service share the light each year for advent. (i forgot this yesterday but it was on my list...) which has resources and stories from cms for an advent worship service

feel free to add any things you have come across in the comments...