jonnybaker

north

i can't resist a north sign ever since describing the charism of pioneers as true north. this one is from ireland and was painted on a rock. i was reminded of it as i have just landed in cumbria for a couple of days to hang out with friends at the northern mission centre. on arrival it was straight into viewing bake off because abbi is one of the contestants and lives in cumbria and is known to the guys here. one of the places i stay when i come up is with abbi's family and have sampled the delights of her amazing cooking on many an occasion so will be cheering her on!

a quote

i read this quote in subversive mission earlier this year and it has stayed with me since. it sums up pretty neatly the issue of whether christianity is foreign or relatable on the basis of its cultural form. it became a bit of a quote of the day at the london pioneer school on saturday.

halo

i called in to see halo, an installation at st stephens walbrook as part of the london design festival. a pendulum loops round henry moore's altar with a light that moves up and down completing loops. a long exposure photo creates the halo effect. above are ambient projections looking like the northern lights. it was well done. for what it's worth my own take was that it would be interesting to expand this project conceptually by exploring notions of the sacred elsewhere - locating the halo outside the church walls.

i took a video of halo in case you want to see the pendulum in real time as it were or get a sense of the ambient projections overhead.

the good samaritan

i was leading the first day of london pioneer school today, one the cms pioneer hubs. it was an introduction to pioneering mission. one of the things we did was to look at the story in john 4 of the woman at the well as an example. on the way over on the train i wrote a liturgy as i wanted to end the day by revisiting that story. it's not that polished and whether it makes sense if you weren't in the discussion i don't know but here it is. i'll add it as a worship trick.

Disturbing Spirit of God
Lead us out of our comfort zones
From Jerusalem and Judea
To Samaria and the ends of the earth

Show us Samaria in our locale.
When we are tempted to walk round it
Give us courage to walk through
When we feel safety in a big group
Help us get away from the disciples
And like you
Choose vulnerability

Remind us that you are ahead of us
Help us to join in with what you are doing
Show us the wells in our community
Lead us to the woman at the well

Where others see sinners
May we see saints
Where others see heretics
May we see god seekers
Rather than play host
May we be guest
Rather than give
Help us receive

For those who are thirsty
Pour out living water
May we worship the Father
In Spirit and truth

When we are invited to stay in Samaria
Let’s say yes
Surprise us when
You do it from the inside

The harvest is plentiful
But the labourers are few
Send us to Samaria
To find apostles like the woman at the well
The good Samaritan

and here is the mottley crew of 19 setting out on the course. three were online in africa in case you were wondering why someone is holding a laptop.

the weekend before i was in birmingham on the first weekend of the newbigin hub, the cms pioneer hub there - fun times!

slackline and heron

the blondin exhibtion was up for BEAT but will say up now for several months in blondin park. if you are passing do take a look. as well as the promotion photo i have a couple of photos in it which i thought i'd post here. the exhibtion explores the park and its surrounds.

trickster in the bible

in a previous post there are lots of african names for god in the invocation. i stumbled across a new one today - the great trickster! i was following a trail in a footnote that mentioned an article called tricksters in the bible by carole fontaine which of course caught my attention. if you know me, you'll know i love the trickster myths and character. anyway i managed to track it down to an episcopal church magazine called witness in 1998. wonderfully it is online in an archive here. the article is by carole fontaine who i don't know much about but like immediately! i have taken the liberty of lifting out that article so you can take a look here but i found the whole magazine pretty interesting with articles by the likes of walter wink.

"When the power-brokers simply will not listen, when the center forgets the margin — well then, a trick may be in order."

presence in the city

ian adams is leading a retreat day in london - presence in the city which i am sure will be good. it's on saturday 4 november.

theology brewed in an african pot

it's the beginning of term. a new year is always both crazy busy but hugely energising. at cms in oxford we have around 100 pioneers doing some training with us at undergrad, post grad and doctoral levels. it's such a joy and privilege meeting them and encouraging them in who they are, their sense of vocation, their learning and practice. i teach a couple of modules at undergrad level. one is an introduction to practical theology and reflective practice. we had the first day of that yesterday where amongst other things we discussed theology as a quest, as faith seeking understanding, as conversation about god, as something for everyone and not justan elite educated crew, as something lived, as something contextual and local and intercultural, as something global and not just western and so on. one of the ideas we came back to was theological homelessness (scroll through this edition of anvil and you'll find an article by me and cathy ross on it). 

as you would expect, for every module there is a reading list. one of the books on that is theology brewed in an african pot by agbonkhianmeghe e orogbator and an essay option is 'what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community?' which i think is a fun title (i am not so sure students think it's fun writing essays mind!). i have always loved learning from other cultures and contexts and putting my western learned sense of things in conversation with that - it's a gift cms has given me. it's such a relief to find that wesrern theology (ies?) are a local theology rather than universal and will be enriched in conversation with other theologies. i'll never forget john mbiti sharing names of god he had collected from his travels in africa and he had over 300 names. orabator has various prayers and liturgies in the book, one of which is inspired by john mbiti. it's called an african invocation of divine names and i found it online here and am taking the liberty of posting it below (largely because i have learned over the years of blogging that links eventually don't work!). what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community i wonder?

Ancient deity,
Unbreakable stone,
Consoler and comforter providing salvation,
Grandfather who alone is the great one,
Watcher of everything who is not surprised by anything,
Piler of rocks into towering mountains,
Divider of night and day,
Response: We praise You!

Sun too bright for our gaze,
Eye of the sun,
Artist-in-chief,
Drummer of life,
Owner of our head,
Large and deep pot,
My feathered one,
Mother of people,
Response: Bless us!

Great nursing mother,
Great eye,
Great rainbow,
Great personal guardian spirit,
Unsurpassed great spirit,
Great source of being,
Great mantle which covers us,
Great leopard with its own forest,
Great healer of eternal life,
Great water-giver,
Great well,
Greatest of friends,
Great spider, the all-wise one,
Response: Enlighten us!

Controller of destiny in the universe,
All-powerful, never defeated,
Father of laughter,
King without blemish,
Possessor of whiteness,
Whiteness without patterns,
Caller-forth of the branching trees,
Unique great one to whom one can take petitions and requests for counsel,
Response: Hear us!

The first who always existed and will never die,
The only one bull in the world,
The one who sees both the inside and the outside,
The one we meet everywhere,
The one who is in all ages, everywhere and at all times,
The one who turns things upside down,
The one who has power to destroy completely,
The one who makes the sun set,
The one who gave everything on this earth and can take everything away,
Response: Guide us!

Axe that fears no thistle,
Hoe that fears no soil,
Ram of majestic sinews and majestic carriage,
Hero who never flees before the enemy,
Big boundless hut,
Victor over death,
Response: Protect us!

Compiled from John Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (London: Heinemann, 1975); Robert E. Hood, Must God Remain Greek? Afro Cultures and God-Talk (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990); Joseph Healey and Donald Sybertz, Towards an African Narrative Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996), and other sources.

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator - Theology Brewed in an African Pot

i am adding this as a worship trick - yes i'll be getting those going again sporadically.

blogging and socials - full circle

i have been pondering the various social media worlds over the last couple of decades and how i have interfaced with it.

at one stage there were a number of bloggers around the world and it was very energising to engage via conversation that took place in the comments of various blogs. it was easy to keep up because there weren't that many! prior to that, the conversation had taken place via email discussion forums.

then with the arrival of facebook i was eventually persuaded to join (in a bar in austin). at one level that seemed a lot more democratic - lots of people got involved and it suited lighter touch posts. the thing i never liked about it was that it didn't archive anything so if there was an important conversation it was hard to go back to.

twitter had its evangelists and the same thing happened - i was persuaded to join. i kept the blog going but found the conversation had moved to multiple places and people were less likely to visit a blog so you needed to repost everything or work out what to post where. that was fine and i rationalised it by saying you need to go where people are. it felt at times like there were flows you needed to spot and jump on. 

i am a photographer so instagram was appealing to post photos and i have enjoyed that space although i was late to that, though i have still kept my flckr account going where i really post my photos.

whatsapp has also become a useful tool and a hungry monster all in one!

the challenge is that it all gets a bit exhausting to feed the various socials. that is compounded by having various pioneer spaces to communicate in with cms and trying to puzzle out what should go where. inevitably the blog got less attention over time. the second challenge is that the companies running the socials are horrible. we all kind of knew that but it has become more and more obvious. the number of ads, the way the socials have fuel fake news and take zero responsibility beyond making as much money as they can and so on. so there is a sort of widespread disillusionment but a reluctance to bail. i have no idea what that means. 

but i have been reflecting that i am really glad i have kept this blog going against the odds, hanging in there as a landing page and an archive of sorts of the last twenty years or so. it's a funny mix -i have always fused things in my own life with mission, culture, pioneering, photography rather than having a disciplined sharp focus. and i have decided that i am going to go back to posting more on the blog - that will include short things, links to something (that might have gone on twitter), and longer reflections. i hope to up my game by posting most days or at least a few times a week. i will link things across to twitter and where appropriate post in facebook but mainly it will link back. i am not expecting a resurgence of conversation in comments on the blog or anything and a lot of people can't be bothered with an extra click. but i am going to give attention to the blog and less to other spaces. i suspect instagram may be the one i hang out in a bit more as i do love images and quite a few photographers post there. 

this is just me thinking out loud and describing what has already happened - i go to twitter and facebook less - once every few days. i'll keep doing that though perhaps that will wane too - i am kind of over them.

 

we are ready for grace

it's a new season of grace. in november grace will be 30 years old. put nov 11 in your diary if you'd like to join us for that celebration. but the next two we are looking at the theme of grace itself. sept you are invited to bring something - a poem, song, prayer, photo or whatever. see you there.

sign

i went to greenbelt festival this weekend. it was celebrating 50 years (or fifty festivals or both?). i have been to over 40 so it's been a very consistent part of the landscape of my life ever since my village youth group leaders took us in 1981. i have been shaped by it  and am so grateful it exists. t's been a joy to be part of, to make friends there, to be challenged, uplifted, contribute to the programme in multiple different ways.

the image above is a lino print by sarah kirby that is in the book fifty: a festival lexicon. we helped crowdfund it - it is a beautiful book with 50 vignettes by different authors (i assumed it was fifty but i think it may be 52) around words that capture the spirit of greenbelt - like home, festival, portal... i was thinking what word i would pick if i were asked (and not wanting to pick one used). i landed on 'sign'. for me greenbelt is a sign of hope in a world that seems to have lost its way, a sign that another world is possible it's also a sign of what the church can or could be be at its best, a prophetic sign. the book was available at the fetsival but i don;t know how you get hold of it now - i am reading a section or two a day, i imagine we'll use it to reflect on life together round the meal table with friends. look out for it.

this year my favourite music moment was dancing to the latin soul funk of sam redmore whilst being passed a hip flask of a fine single malt from a friend i bumped into there. it was joyous. bruce cockburn was a close second. i also loved hearing martin shaw's tale of an encounter with the holy maker of all things after 101 days in the woods - mesmerising stuff. the gathering of pioneers hosted by cms was a buzz as ever and it was especially lovely to meet four visitors from korea. a lot of people told me how moved they were by one of harry's poems which was clearly brilliant and high on the vulnerability stakes - sadly i missed it! we (cms britian hub team) were co-hosting the exchange which was a venue focused around social enterprise, business for good, finance and alternative economy. all the sessions were full which was great. it's all part of the healing of all things (aka mission). i stepped in for someone to host a panel for those who have broken up with church and are working out life and following the way of christ beyond gathering in that way. it was packed which tells you all you need to know and i loved chairing it.

the best parts are still the gaps - bumping into friends old and new, and family. here's me with one brother and two sisters. come along next year! 

if you read my earlier post it turns out i was over confident when i said the app we are creating would be launched - it didn;t land in teh app store. we have some things to sort out so watch this space for that. 

blondin - exhibition in ealing

blondin is an outdoor exhibition from the photography group i am part of. it is blondin park and explores the park and things that caught our attention there or related to it. i have a couple of photos in it. it was installed today. you are probably aware that charles blondin was the french guy who walked across niagara falls on a tightrope - he lived locally at some point. so as a nod to that i photographed a local tightrope walker who uses the park. but in the photo i took i noticed the tree behind him looked very like the one used by ealing council across it's signage for parks. so i asked my friend jon birch to blend the two images together and that is now the image promoting it and on the intro board which i am really pleased with.

the exhibition will be up for brentford festival, BEAT weekends and then a few months. it's slightly strange that i am now exhibiting in ealing in two outdoor exhibitions as unlocked has never been taken down! 

there will be an opening evening on sept 6 in the park by the boards at 7pm. do come along that evening to say hi if you are local and have a drink  and a look at the photos. being a park and outdoors you can see it wen you like of course.

this  gives you an idea of the boards in the park (this photo was taken by group member angelika berndt)

see you at greenbelt

it's greenbelt's fiftieth over the bank holiday weekend - I have been to over 40 of those which is a weird thought. it's one of the most consistent things in my whole life. and my life is the better for it in so many ways. hope to see you there!

if you are there CMS are helping run the exchange venue - so come and find me there. love to catch up for a coffee or beer. we are hosting a gathering for pioneers at 6:30pm sat night so consider yourself invited.

i am personally taking part in two things - first up i have been developing an app with fellow conspirators jon and joel as our second getsidetracked project. the app will (i am 99% sure) be in the app store by greenbelt and will be called getsidetracked - i am searching on that every day expecting it to land any moment). it's a fun app on creativity designed to help spark the creative process - i'll blog about that separately once it's live. i am on a panel called tech for good in the exchange on friday at 12 noon and will be talking about the app. out of that panel we will taking an idea forward to a hackathon to be coded so that all sounds good fun.

the second is that i am on a panel on sun evening chaired by martin wroe at 7pm in treehouse called it's not me it's you and the blurb for that is as follows:

How come so many of us have broken up with church? We take part less and less often. Or not at all. It used to be part of our lives… until it wasn’t. What’s your story? Why did you call time on the institution ? Was it you? Was it ‘church’? What do you do instead? Marika Rose, Dave Tomlinson, Jonny Baker and others listen to your stories and reflect on your experience.

a view

it was great to have a week's break in ireland. we stayed in ballyshane which is in the south not far from cork. this was the view from our cabin. there is an album of photos here - ballyshane.

barbie

all the buzz around barbie reminded me of this photo from a student graduate show back in 2007!

street colour

divine tango

on the pioneer practice tour we encouraged people to share ideas they had percolating. in portsmouth catherine shared that she loved the argentine tango and found dancing was a spiritual thing too. she had an idea of a day with dancing in the cathedral in the evening but a workshop in the day. well it turns out that idea has got legs and is happening in portsmouth cathedral in a couple of weeks - the divine dance:tango at portsmouth cathedral

triptych

at the ealing lip photography group ray presented some triptychs and issued a challenge to thr group to have a go at producing some. this is one of my attempts using some abstract photos from lou baker's social scaffolding.

a table, a kettle and a curtain

scottie reeve (who i visited when in new zealand) has written a lovely piece suggesting that all a church needs is a table, a kettle and a curtain. this is pitched at those starting new communities or planting churches. his point is keep it simple and suited to the size so don't burn yourself out!

"Many church-planters feel the pressure to become a “real church” as soon as possible. They become structure-heavy, volunteer-heavy, and bloated by brand and buzzwords before they have truly learned to be family. Their leaders are exhausted within a year because they are maintaining something built for 100, while there are only 10 of them. On these days we need to remember that, at its inception, the Church was founded in homes and houses - little rooms with not much more than a kettle and a table."

(thanks dave crampton for the tip off)

lay pioneering and thriving in mission

lay pioneering and thriving in mission is a new grove booklet by james butler. it's the result of reaearch in focus groups with a range of lay pioneers. it's very well done and super interesting what surfaces. it's hopeful and a reminder that pioeering arose as a result of a lay movement of the spirit in the world. he explres some of the challenges and inevitably this leads to some discussion on the relationship with local churches. for me it confirms some of my hunches and ponderings about the way church is constructed and how it simply does not work for huge numbers of people. so perpetuating the idea that if we do it better or do more of them the church will grow may well be a bit delusional. or may be one among many things that might be worth experimenting with. or at least it will work for a natural fringe only. lay pioneers are world facing and inhabiting the neighbourhood or parish differently. with a little bit of imagination it's not hard to see how wonderful that is and how it is good news and the yeast of the kingdom. anyway all that is to say have a read - grove booklets are about 8000 words usually and very accessible. i explore some of my own thoughts on reimagining church in the chapter 'leap over the wall or perish' in imagining mission with john taylor - this reminded me of that, which is still one of my favourite chapters of things i have ever written. have a read. and thank you james butler.