jonnybaker

baker's dozen

between september and december i wrote thirteen posts reflecting on twenty years at cms. well cms have turned them into one long piece with edited down versions of the post if you missed them first time round

julian opie vr exhibition

if you are in london anywhere near paddington swing by the lisson gallery and see the julian opie exhibtion. the main feature is a vr headset experience of a virtual exhibtion. it's pretty well done. i am a big fan of his work - just the simplicity of it. if you've got kids and are looking for easter holiday things to do for free then i think they'll love this. btw this photo is not the vr part of the exhibition!

grace saturday - praying with a lump in our throat

continuing our grace lent we have a prayer focused evening on saturday with a series of stations praying with and for those at the edges. do join us. the title is inspired by claudio carvalhaes book that we are reading through lent.

nick cave and sean o hagan on the sacred

the sacred podcast interview with nick cave and sean o hagan is really remarkable. i have seen nick cave many times and love his music. i have been intrigued by or drawn to the spiritual quest that seems to infuse his song writing in places. seeing him and warren ellis at the royal albert hall last year was a spiritual experience which ended in prayer or a kind of blessing. he wrote an intro to marks gospel in the canongate series some years back. his letters to the community that rallies around or towards him are honest and searching pastoral letters of a sort. some have called it the church of nick cave! i have also been blown away by the films of the last few years especially one more time with feeling which is the most raw thing i think i have ever seen on grief, grief for the loss of his son arthur. 

the podcast explores the themes in the book faith hope and carnage (which i have not read but now will definitely do so) and the theme of the sacred. it is so interesting to hear nick suggest that it is easier to find the sacred in the world than in religion - the natural world, wild swimming, music and art, and so forth. i find the same to be true. but he also loves church spaces and the sense of mystery that is there. i found myself strongly resonating with the notion that christianity has diminished god with its certitude and stridentness which makes it so difficult for those reaching towards god. it's a beautiful conversation. there is a transcript on the podcast page but i do recommend listening.

breakout - a new spare room

i have had a desk either under the stairs or in our bedroom in the loft for 20 years or so. that's been great but we decided to change a spare bedrooom into a space i could have a desk in with a sofabed so it can also be a spare bedroom when we have guests. this is the result.

it's a space for creativity and ideas - the whole feel of it is playful and the lightbulb is a reminder.

it's a space for breaking out or beyond the norms - the mural is called breakout by pippo lionni copied from an old book i have of his pictograms. it's also my zoom backdrop now!

trickster coyote is tucked under the desk to remind me to be subversive.

a few pirates are knocking around to remind me to be more pirate!

yes slightly mad perhaps but also very me. thanks to jon birch who took my ideas and put a design together including colours, the suggestion for the amazing bookcase, and designed the vinyls. i am pretty pleased with my paint work on the mural which had a few moments where i wondered why on earth i thought it was a good idea but i got there in the end. and we had an amazing builder who took the ideas and built the bookcase and did everything else we wanted. fun times!

if you click on the photo above there is an album of a few photos. 

jb - new blog header

for some reason i thought it was time for a new blog header. this photo is of some old typesetting letters on my desk with a gorillaz character. that was the basis anyway and it felt like coyote needed to make an appearance... the blue and yellow is a nod to my new room to work from - photos of that coming shortly. let me know what you think! 

imagining the possibilities in post christian britain

i wrote a baker's dozen blog posts looking back and reflecting on the last 20 years. at the end of that i said 

now time to look forward...

so i intend to write some blog posts a bit more future facing especially in relation to the work i do at cms. to kick things off i have some news which i realise i have not got round to sharing on the blog. i have a bit of a changed role at cms. we have been through a refounding process over the last few years. i think it's been really good even if a bit painful to do.

as part of that i was invited to lead a team to write something that captured the essence of what cms is about which was quite a daunting but exciting task. it became a refounding document (gerald arbuckle you would be happy!).

having done that and got feedback and rewritten through talking to stakeholders we then asked the question of how to use the resources we have and create a structure to serve that vision. that all landed about a year ago. the big shift there is to have several focused areas of work round the world rather than a general supporting people in mission round the world. 

that then involves changing the resourcing model so that it is fit for this new world.

then the next phase has been to think how to talk about all that in a way that makes sense to people.

i'll elaborate on those things in some posts. that was 3 years work to make that change by the way and it will take a few years to land so it is quite a big deal.

but all that is a lead in to say that one focused area of work is mission in post christian britain (of course connecting to other similar contexts). my changed role is overseeing the work in britain - and i am still one of the directors. it includes the pioneer movement, training and all that but also now includes church facing work which is really about calling the church forwards in mission, helping and encouraging her. and then cms has some mission partners doing great stuff who previously were in a different team. all the cms work in britain is now in one team which makes sense.

i wrote a piece for the cms magazine and web site on what i mean by post christian and indeed why that is a context full of imaginative possibilities. the link to it is here - imagining the possibilities in post christian britain but i have also pasted the text below as i have realised that the only sure way to guarantee a future for blog posts is to do that as links disappear over time elsewhere!

Fewer than half of people in Britain said they are Christian in the latest census, the results of which were published in November.¹ This has dropped dramatically in the last 20 years. Britain is most definitely now in a post-Christian era.

The next largest response is now the “no religion” box or what some call the nones. We should be slow to leap to the conclusion that those people are atheists. In Linda Woodhead’s research into that group she found that only a few are militantly secular, and less than half considered themselves atheists.² The largest group were made up of maybes and doubters and don’t knows and a group who believe there is “something there”. Interestingly, the younger the cohort, the smaller the proportion of atheists. So paradoxically Britain might also be post-secular!

At the risk of too many “posts”, the other one that is worth a mention is post-Christendom. Christendom describes the time in Europe when church hierarchy dominated the landscape in its alignment with political power and empire. The cultural memory and cultural presence in Britain is still there and we still have a state religion, but it is a faded reality.

An exciting context

Some reactions to all this are quite gloomy, but I find this quite an exciting context for mission. CMS intuited this was coming back in the 1970s, when members discerned through a vote that God was calling CMS to mission in Britain and Europe.

We are a minority-Christian country in which lots of people have not experienced Christianity at all. That could be positive, as they might well come across it as fresh and new rather than having been put off by negative experiences of formal religion. Christianity might be discovered as gift rather than obligation.

Sharing from the edge

It can really help us to move away from sharing faith in a dominant way if we can see ourselves as a minority, so we are sharing our faith from the margins, not from the centre. We may well find ourselves alongside and in solidarity with others in marginal and minority positions. Stories of being strangers or exiles might be rich and fertile ground for mission.

Rather than focusing all our energies into attracting people to our churches, we might do better to focus on nurturing communities of missionary disciples, who follow the way of Christ to be present with and among people as salt and light, sharing faith where opportunity arises in these borderlands.

The vast majority of people in Britain do not go to church. I was interested to discover that of those, 85 per cent say they are unlikely to do so. And yet so much focus in mission seems to go on trying to do church better to attract people to it. Let us go to and be with these people where they are instead!

This is why we are here

That is exactly what we train pioneers to do and they are doing it in such brilliant and creative ways. The Partnership for Missional Church training helps churches to develop mission practices that will help them to innovate in this changed context. And mission partners in Britain are all situated in spaces sharing the love of God with those at the edges. Jesus was always found dwelling at the fringes. We hope to follow in the way of Christ and see where God is at work and join in.

This is our edge in Britain – the post-Christian borderlands in which we seek to join in with what God is doing and share God’s love.

---

1 Office for National Statistics, Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021

2 Linda Woodhead, The Rise of ‘No Religion’ in Britain, Journal of the British Academy

grace open table

the next grace is on saturday - an open table. the blurb is as follows:

Join us for Grace where there will as ever be an open table.

We have always been inspired by Christ’s welcome of all around the table, especially those at the fringes. We will be gathering to continue that practice, and remember him.

You are of course welcome!

this tees up our lent. lent has always been a season which we enjoy as a space to dig deeper into something related to following in the way of christ. this year's reflections are inspired by claudio carvalhaes book praying with every heart which is possibly the best book on prayer i have read (it's not cheap though reasonable on kindle and is on perlego if you use that). we will focus on praying from the edges and there will be conversations around those at the edges due to sexuality, empire or race who we will endeavour to pray with and for with a lump in our throat as claudio would put it. i am really looking forward to all of that. maybe see you saturday...

we cannot go back

i am exhibiting in the london independent photography 34th annual exhibition - vitality. it only runs for a week. the opening is this thurs. if you are in that part of town and fancy going let me know.

it's one of the interventions from our trickster exhibition. in walpole park, like many parks, there are benches with quotes from the good and the great on them. but there are plenty of benches without! amazingly this intervention is still there so either the park crew like it or they haven't noticed or they don't mind. it does blend in rather well.

pioneer practice portsmouth feb 18th

delighted to say that we are taking pioneer practice to portsmouth on 18 feb - info and tickets available here

 

mountain retreat

i go on a retreat every year. in terms of my life, headspace, wellbeing, imagination, relationship with god it's one of the best things i do. i tend now to go somewhere quiet, alone, silent. the last couple of years that has been in the wood. but group retreats are also great. i have done a few of those. last year johnny sertin and paul rose ran a mountain one for pioneers that sounded wonderful. they are running one this year. places are limited so book early if you are interested. book here

labyrinth - grace next saturday

it seems to have become something of a tradition to walk a labyrinth for the first grace of the year. do join us. it will be simple, meditative, with a soundscape of ambient tunes followed by a cafe - saturday 14 jan 8pm st mary's ealing

a blur

i had fun messing around at kew before christmas slowing down the shutter speed to blur the light. i like this one - because it is a laser you get a crisp light pattern blur with the backdrop of blurred trees.

true north

this is the thirteenth of a series celebrating twenty years at cms

see  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms | 5. worship tricks | 6. mission shaped church and fresh expressions | 7. pioneer ministry | 8. church planting | 9. red tape | 10. doing the imaginative work | 11. post colonial mission | 12. for goodness sake

this is the final reflection. 13 makes a baker's dozen after all! 

once the pioneer training started, a few years in i was amazed at how wonderful it seemed - it felt like something precious was going on. religious communities sometimes talk about a charism or gift that is at the heart of what they are about. i went on a retreat in 2015 and wrote in my journal what i thought the facets of the charism we were seeing at cms with pioneers might be. i called it true north - true north being a metaphor for god's mission which is the big orienting factor, joining in with the healing of all things. and then i came up with 9 facets of that gift. several years on i think they still name something good. i don't think i have ever posted that on the blog. so it seems a fitting way to end this series of reflections.

there are actually two versions of it.

the latest one is in pioneer practice (use discount code in january of HAPPYNEWYEAR btw to get it for £10) which is somewhat distilled. you can download it here - true north v2

and the original is simply those 9 facets written out with a short explanation - you can download them exactly as they were first written here - true north v1

i would love any feedback on that - do leave comments or how you see it. if i were to rewrite now i would add something on the gift of community and diversity i think which we are feeling our way towards. there is a talk of me elaborating on it in germany in 2017 if you want to know more.

so there you go. that is my baker's dozen celebrating twenty years at cms. now time to look forward...

• 1. gold
• 2. emerging church
• 3. blah
• 4. new forms
• 5. worship tricks
• 6. mission shaped church and fresh expressions
• 7. pioneer ministry
• 8. church planting
• 9. red tape
• 10. doing the imaginative work
• 11. post colonial mission
• 12. for goodness sake
• 13 true north

HAPPYNEWYEAR - pioneer practice discount

looking back on 2022 one of the highlights was getting out and about post COVID to tour pioneer practice with gav mart. we did around 20 dates i think. thank you to everyone who came - it was so good to connect with people, hear stories of what is happening and glimpse sparks of ideas that are yet to emerge. to celebrate we have set up a discount code for pioneer practice to run through january. the code is HAPPYNEWYEAR and will get you a print copy for £10 or download for £7. order at gestsidetracked.co 

if you have not come across it pioneer practice is a full colour book (more like a chunky magazine really) with a mix of stories and practical short pieces on everything related to getting something started. it's accessible, you can dive in anywhere, and is beautifully designed - we are super proud of it.

do pass on the code - oh and HAPPYNEWYEAR

we quit

i have so much respect for those putting their bodies on the line to protest the climate crisis and the government's continual ignoring of the gravity of the situation. i got the latest email update from extinction rebellion and they are making a change of tactics away from disruption of the public and to prioritise attendance rather than arrest and relationships over roadbloacks. see we quit. put april 21 in your diary to be in london. 

the big issues for 2023 are the climate and wealth inequality - we don't have to organise our world the way we do. a new imagnation is required. 

tunes of the year

i love music and i seem to like putting together a playlist so as is my habit here are two playlists for the end of year.

the first is a very ambient one - 2022 horizontal [apple music] or 2022 horizontal [spotify]

and the second more a mix of genres of some of the tunes i have enjoyed through the year - 2022 tunes [apple music] or 2022 tunes [spotify] . they are all tunes released during the year.

enjoy and do leave a comment to let me know what you think!

the light shines

wonderful to visit christmas at kew this year. there's a set of photos here - christmas at kew 2022

keep it simple

wise words from a church notice board in brooklyn

adaptive church - webinar in january

i have got more and more interested in system change. the reason why is probably obvious. i work with pioneers who see new possibilities and create paths to make the possibilities happen. but they work in a bigger structure - usually the church but maybe a charity or organisation. and it turns out that if you want to see genuine newness and innovation you really have got to pay attention to both or you can get derailed. so i was really interested to come across dustin benac's research published in his book adaptive church. he researches two organisations or what might better be described as movements in the north west of america and does a deep dive on what is happening in the change process there. there are some really interesting insights and reflections - for example he maps what a range of leadership looks like in movements which i have not seen before. and the big takeaway really is the significance for a diocese or denomination of having another organisation that can help call them to the edges, to the future, to change. 

the good news is that dustin is doing an online session for us at cms on january 18 at 3pm. it's free and you can sign up here. i am looking forward to it. i think it's particularly relevant if you are leading at that system level (director of mission or ministry in a diocese or a fresh expressions enabler) and if you are working or leading in a community or organisation that works with churches to help them change and adapt in mission and i also think it would be really relevant if you are involved in allocating funding for mission or growth in denominations or organisations.

you can read details and register here.