jonnybaker

surreal cup final viewing...

i searched long and hard to find if there was anywhere in denver i could get to see the cup final between chelsea and liverpool being televised. i eventually stumbled across an irish pub that was showing the england ireland rugby game in one half of the pub and the football in the other. due to the time difference the action started at 8am.  it was quite surreal to be surrounded by a crowd who emerged from somewhere sporting either liverpool or chelsea shirts.

i was beginning to wonder if i should have stayed in bed when liverpool scored after 43 seconds. but chelsea then dominated the game and finally managed to score after 80 minutes.  two more in extra time and a final score 3-2 to chelsea - up the blues!!!

worship trick 13 [second series] - the examen

at grace in january we had a visitor from the london meditation centre who led us in an ignatian examen of the previous year. it really was wonderful. julie dunstan kindly sent us a copy of the examen. adam posted it as his lent blog post and has added it to the zine section of the grace web site. you can adapt it to make it a weekly, daily or occasional examen.

julie says this about it...

St Ignatius, in his teaching of the Examen expected that God would speak through our deepest feelings and yearning, what he called consolation and desolation.  Consolation is whatever helps us to connect in love to ourselves, others, God and the universe.  In his language - whatever leads to an increase in faith, hope and love.  Desolation is whatever blocks that connection...

So what follows is this - if we can reflect upon what in our life connects us to Life, love, faith, hope, peace... the qualities of the spirit... we can track where it is God is most available to us - or, more precisely, where we are most available to God.  And the opposite - if we can see where it is we are being drained of life - and then think about how we block God in those areas...  This is not the same as feeling merely good or bad.

if you want to know more about the examen a great and easy to read introduction to it is the book sleeping with bread.

the big 4 0

40 today! the rockies is a pretty good place to celebrate...

have added a photo album of the trip so far

loveland

today was the first day of the youth ministry retreat/summit jen and i are doing at group in loveland. it seems to be going pretty well so far (not much time to blog though).

group are the company that published the labyrinth/prayer path in the US. we (proost) have developed two new resources for group that are coming out in june this year. both are multi media installation/worship experiences. part of the retreat is that one of these was set up for participants to do today. it's actually the first time it's ever been run so it was exciting to see this dream becoming real. i'll blog in more detail about it when it comes out... it's called worshipping the creator and is a series of stations on the days of creation. it's a guided journey by narration/meditation on CD with tracks at each station. each station has a poster and various interactive things to do. the photo is of one of the days. (we are going to be running it at grace in easter week in london).

it's been great meeting new people and catching up with friends at group...

hotel rwanda

we went to see hotel rwanda last night. it is an incredible film. it tells the true story of paul rusesabagina a hutu hotelier, and his family who sheltered about 1200 refugees during the genocide of 1 million people in rwanda in the 90s. it is in the same sort of vein as the killing fields, cry freedom, or schindler's list. don cheadle and sophie okonedo are brilliant - both are nominees for lead actor and supporting actress oscars. this film will stay with me for years... go and see it.

create your own worship

my COTA CD arrived the morning I left for the US, so i quickly added it to the ipod... i have now listened to it a couple of times. there's some nice stuff on it. i had a weird moment this morning of listening to it in bed (woke early due to the bodyclock being 7 hours ahead) and then as i was listening to it reading about darren's copy having arrived and him listening to it - small world...

i guess the thing that i was thinking most was about how brilliant it is when communities create their own liturgies and worship. i liked that in doug pagitt's book about solomon's porch and i thought the same thing when i visited eden recently - their blend of band and alt worship and ritual and some of their own songs had a very unique vibe. somehow creating your own stuff is so much better than consuming someone else's (using other stuff isn't necessarily uncreative but i hope you get what i mean). it made me think that we should really start to think about publishing something else from grace in the next couple of years...

bishop and complexity

the bishop of london reflects on the complex christ in a letter sent to his staff

another home blog (this time sheffield)

worshiploops.com - haven't studied it in detail yet but the idea of downloads at low prices is a good one

off to denver today...

worship trick 12 [second series] - 40

today is my turn to post on the grace lent blog. i thought i'd post here as well and make it a worship trick...

si smith has done a comic strip 40 of jesus journey into the wilderness. this was used by revive at greenbelt last year. i missed it there but first saw it at the IASYM conference in january when simon hall led some worship. he used the comic strip in a powerpoint presentation played over a track off revive's first album beautiful day (can't remember which one). si used to be part of the group that has become maybe (an understated name if ever there was one) in oxford, though he has now moved to leeds and joined revive.

maybe are posting one of si's illustrations every day during lent which is a wonderful idea. by the end of lent you will be able to download them all...

a slight warning - the images haven't been that compressed for the web so if you are on a phone dial up, as lent goes by the page will take a while to load - worth the wait though. add your suggestions for an accompanying music track in the comments...

pete rollins day - marks of the emerging church

Blah... will be back in action in its London evening format in the summer. In the meantime we are partnering with Moot in the study day below which promises to be a good one.

Marks of the Emerging Church: 12th March 2005 10-3.30pm

Pete Rollins from the Ikon community in Northern Ireland (a group which describes itself as iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging and failing) is a philosopher who has come to believe that the emerging church presents a singular, unprecedented opportunity to transform the theological and moral architecture of the Christian community. By combining his research into mysticism and post-modern theory, alongside his development of an emerging church community, Pete promises to present what he believes is a vital message concerning both the possibilities and dangers, which the emerging church currently faces. His challenge is as simple as it is profound… if we do not become theologically self-aware the emerging church will end up as little more than the latest attempt to make church cool.

Pete gave a provocative seminar at Greenbelt last year that presented a theology for the emerging church. This is a good chance to catch up with Pete in London.

The study day is hosted by moot, the central London based alternative worship community in Westminster, at St Matthews Conference Centre.

Date: Saturday 12th March, 2005
Cost: £5 for the day including lunch and drinks through the day.
Venue: St Matthews Conference Centre, 20 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2PU
Map: see moot.net
Stations: 12 mins walk from Victoria Stations, 9 mins walk from Westminster tube, 5 mins walk from St James Park tube

Plan for the day
10.00 Tea & coffee & introductions.
10.30 - 11.30 How (not) to speak of God
11.30 - 12.00 Tea & questions
12.00 - 13.00 Lunch
13.00 - 14.15 Inhabiting the God shaped hole
14.15 - 15.30 Tea & final questions

This information is all at moot.net  and you can download a booking form(PDF) from there.

emerging church is not a discussion reserved for white folks

matt glock linked to a great post by todd burkes entitled post modern african folk...

Developing church for the post-modern or emerging culture is not a discussion reserved for white folks. To think that this is not a discussion that concerns those of African heritage (and all other cultures, for that matter) is not only wrong, it is hazardous.

rock and roll fonts

rock and roll fonts

a couple of chilled mixes...

a couple of chillout mixes by DJ river (you'll need broadband)...

ambient chillout mix 3 summer04 | ambient chillout mix 4 winter05

column 4: emergence in the global south

column 4 for the christian herald:

The conversation and re-imagining of church in response to the emerging postmodern culture is mainly happening in Western circles - the stories I have touched on in the columns so far have been from the UK, Australia, and the USA. But actually the church is always emerging all round the globe. The real vibrancy and growth in the church is in the Global South.

Colin Smith, a CMS mission partner in Nairobi sent me a story of The Bus Stop Church in Banana on the outskirts of Nairobi. It is a wonderful example of an emerging church in Africa. This is church with a difference: an unselfconscious expression of what it means to be the body of Christ in a very untraditional way, pioneered by local vicar Susan Ndungu. The congregation is made up of matatu drivers and touts, the purveyors of Nairobi's notorious and anarchic transport system. These are the people you don't find in church. But this is their church, out in the road amidst the diesel fumes and the passing traffic. About 70-80 men gather at the bus stop at 8am on a Sunday morning for about 30 minutes for prayers, testimonies, a song and a short sermon. Here is a church stripped to the bare essentials, meeting people where they are at, a sign of the kingdom on route 106.

CMS and the Indian Evangelical Mission recently facilitated a gathering in Bangalore of leaders of indigenous mission movements from round the world. These are movements such as Al-Bashir reaching out to muslims in New Delhi, or Friends Missionary Prayer Band in South India that in the last 37 years has grown from one to 1500 missionaries and evangelists, and planted hundreds of churches with 200 000 believers now in its care. Mark Oxbrow, a CMS director who attended came back very excited. He said 'God is doing a new thing in his Church and he is doing it from the global South, from Africa, Asia and Latin America, from the poor - out of sacrifice and vulnerability - to the rich.'

One of the things I love about working with CMS is having my eyes opened to the global body of Christ and what God is doing in his world. Good mission is always contextual – i.e. the gospel and church is related to and grown in the soil of the local context/culture. It will have very diverse expressions. The ‘emerging church’ we often talk about is church in response to a changing post modern context. The ‘emerging church’ elsewhere in the world will of course look very different. Jesus will be more fully known as we see his many emerging faces round the world.
 
Bus Stop Church story is on http://www.emergingchurch.info/
Download an article (pdf) on the indigenous mission movements gathering from CMS

matrix conference follow up

i was at the matrix conference last week and several people asked about resources and liturgies etc. so this post is for them...

1. The book Alternative Worship by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay has a collection of liturgies including several bits that we used. The accompanying CD ROM has about 15 video loops, images, music tracks, etc. It really is a good resource. You can order it from amazon or proost
2. I run a web site (a blog) at http://jonnybaker.blogs.com/ - on that I tend to upload liturgies and things that I come across related to worship. In particular I run a series of worship tricks – the first series of 100 can be seen by clicking on the right hand side image that says worship tricks. The second series is underway and can be seen by viewing the worship tricks category of posts
3. There are a lot of resources on the web. One good portal for alternative worship is www.alternativeworship.org
4. I have outlined details of music tracks etc on the Thurs morning service (or one very similar) before. The one thing not mentioned there is the parable of the sower that you can view and download at jon birch site (you will need flash player plug in or stand alone to view it)
5. A similar liturgy to the communion service and where the component parts are from is in a previous post on the mayc event
6. I have uploaded the liturgy for the ash Wednesday service (word file)
7. The videos in the Robert Beckford session were Cats and Dogs (creature comforts) - I got this on a DVD with Creative Review magazine. Not sure where you’d find it. Massive Attack Angel and the reading after it are outlined in worship trick 18
8. The late night silent DVD worship isn’t available yet but may well be by Greenbelt 05.
9. The software I use to present is called arkaos. You can download a 21 day trial from www.arkaos.net (huge so you’ll need broadband). I have described arkaos more here.
10. The morning prayer activities are from either Transforming Prayer by jenny Baker or Tune In Chill Out by Jenny Baker and Moya Ratanyake (has a CD ROM packed with great stuff too).

grace minor prophets - worship trick 11 [second series]

grace last night was our minor prophets service. it was brilliant. 12 people had taken a minor prophet and had a space under their head (which are sculpted in stone around the church) to offer their interpretation, reflection, ritual or whatever. i took a photo of each station and each head and have added them as a photo album. we will collect the written pieces and add them to the grace web site eventually i am sure... but this is an idea that any group could use even if you don't have the luxury of having the minor prophets heads in stone in your church. get 12 volunteers and away you go...

world press photo awards 2004

world press photo awards 2004 - some amazing images once again....

the winners gallery | 50 years gallery

[thanks sanctus for tip off]

ordo - apostles worship CD

COTA have produced their first worship CD - ORDO. i love it when communities create their own expressions of worship out of their community/context. i have ordered it and am looking forward to hearing it. karen says this about it on her blog:

church of the apostles first full length MUSIC CD is now available. it is called 'ORDO' (music for mass/eucharist). featuring mostly original songs from our community.  the CD also contains pdf LEADSHEETS of all the songs and permission to sing/use/perform the music under our creative commons licence. sale proceeds support our nu monastic urban mission work in seattle.

you can order it from the COTA shop and listen to a couple of tracks...

photo opportunity...

i couldn't resist this photo opportunity at the matrix conference. it is a conference for full time youth ministers. have had lots of great conversations with people. last night there was a jazz band playing with the bar open. i noticed i could get a shot with the centre for youth ministry banner in the background with the old boy in front playing the vibrophone! i haven't had much time to blog. ian has been much more diligent.

grace lent blog starts today

grace lent blog 05 starts today. every day in lent someone from grace will post a thought/reflection/image/prayer. it's new and improved - you can leave comments. on sundays no one will post this year - we're taking the 40 day line this time with sundays as feast days. join us in our journey through lent...

have a look at the lentblog 04 and lentblog 03 if you want to see previous offerings...

darren is also starting a lentblog downunder

today i am off to the matrix conference where jen and i are chaplains and will be leading worship - tonight will be the imposition of ashes - might be a shock to anyone expecting a knees up...

music...

the new lemon jelly CD 64-95 arrived yesterday. i also got the DVD which has the most fantastic packaging ever on a DVD (haven't got round to watching the content yet!)

i got an e-mail from someone in london who enjoyed the dead texan folloiwng my recommendation. in turn he has recommended i check out Stafrænn Hákon. i did a search on google and came across this site 3hive that collects legitimate links to mp3 downloads for all sorts of artists. so i have now downloaded 6 tracks by stafraenn hakon to listen to... thanks andy...