jonnybaker

feb 4 - creative worship training day

Create | Saturday Feb 4 | 10am - 4:30pm | Christchurch Baptist Church | Welwyn Garden City

myself, gareth and gill are leading this day on creativity in worship which will include experiencing and creating some worship, teaching, ideas, resources and workshops on music, visual images (video, still and art), writing and prayer stations. it's being hosted and organised by mwf (music and worship foundation).

more details here

church of england approves ordination of pioneer ministers

the house of bishops in the church of england approved the new pathway to ordination of pioneer ministers - i blogged about it here before...

netlag video - worship trick 57

thanks to bob and jon for the heads up on Netlag - a video which is the world made up of flickering images. i've added it as a worship trick. i haven't used it but be ideal for background to prayer/intercession. the direct url to the movie is Netlag.mov (15mb). if anyone knows where to get a higher resolution copy let me know.

it's worth a look at the rest of the films on pleix.net - i've got a couple on either creative review dvds or onedotzero dvds or both. ben hanbury has also blogged about this with his faves. sometimes is excellent - would have fitted well with our september grace where we smashed a mirror and plates and wanted images of empires collapsing. though for that we used radiohead's go to sleep followed by lemon jelly's shouty track which were also stunning...

Technorati Tags: onedotzero, pleix, radiohead

dropping knowledge

dropping knowledge (link via barry)

christ of the indian road 3 - a bunch more quotes

just to recap the book christ of the indian road by e. stanley jones is a classic mission text/story. see christ of the indian road 1 | christ of the indian road 2 for my previous thoughts...

when i read the book i went through it an jotted down a bunch of quotes that i liked for my own reference. i put some of them on the blog in those first two entries but never quite finished off so here goes for some others. they highlight a range of issues in mission -

• the importance of christ being separated out from western culture in order for indians to be able to think through what the christ of the indian road might be like and mean rather than feeling that to accept christ would be to become western.
• keeping a healthy distance from church culture in mission realising how easy it is for an agenda of mission to be subverted. his tactics were often to not meet anywhere near a church building and to get his discussion evenings hosted by hindus and muslims on their turf instead. he describes his approach as follws: 1) Be frank 2) Announce that there will be no attack on anyone's religion 3) Allow questions at the close 4) Get the leading non Christians to chair the meetings 5) Christianity must be defined as Christ  6) Christ must be interpreted through experience 7) drop term Christianity from language, and Christ must be in an Indian setting, Christ of the Indian road (p26)
• looking for/identifying resonances and common ground with hinduism as a starting point for relationship and dialogue rather than looking for differences and creating opposition.

these are what i'd call his mission instincts. whenever i read stuff like this i'm always asking myself what the equivalent is in the culture(s) i'm in. what does this mean for the emerging church? anyway here are the quotes...

Have we not often in the past led India and the non Christian world to think that our type of civilization in the West is the issue? Before the Great War was not Western greatness preached as a reason for the East becoming Christian? This was a false trail and led us into many embarrassments calling for endless apologies and explanations. (p14)...

... But standing among the shadows of Western civilization India has seen a figure who has greatly attracted her. She has hesitated in regard to any allegiance to him, for India has thought that if she took one she would have to take both - Christ and Western civilization went together. Now it is dawning upon the mind of India that she can have one without the other - Christ without Western civilization. That revelation is of tremendous significance to them - and to us. "Do you mean to say" said a Hindu lawyer "that you are not here to wipe out our civilization and replace it with your own? Do you mean that your message is Christ without any implications that we must accept Western civilization? I have hated Christianity, but if Christianity is Christ, I do not see how Indians can hate it". (p17)

A friend of mine was talking to a Brahman gentleman when the Brahman turned to him and said "I don't like the Christ of your creeds and churches". My friend quietly replied "Then how would you like the Christ of the Indian road?". The Brahman thought a moment, mentally picturing the Christ of the Indian road - he saw him dressed in Sadhu garments, seated by the wayside with the crowds about him, healing blind men who felt their way to him, putting his hands upon the heads of poor unclean lepers who fell at his feet, announcing the good tidings of the Kingdom to stricken folks, staggering up a lone hill with a broken heart and dying upon a wayside cross for men, but rising triumphantly and walking on that road again. He suddenly turned to the friend and earnestly said "I could love and follow the Christ of the Indian road". (p32)

The tremendous question presses itself upon us: Will the present Christian Church be big enough, responsive enough, Christlike enough to be the organ through which Christ will come to India? For mind you, Christianity is breaking out beyond the borders of the Christian Church. Will the Christian Church be Christlike enough to be the moral and spiritual center of this overflowing Christianity? Or will many of the finest spirits and minds in India accept Christ as Lord and master of their lives but live their Christian lives apart from the Christian church? I believe in the Christian Church with all my heart and believe that in it has centered the finest moral and spiritual life of the world. , but here is a new and amazing challenge, for this outside Christianity is going straight to the heart of things and saying that to be a Christian is to be Christlike. This means nothing less than that ancient rituals and orders and power at court and correctly stated doctrine avail little if Christlikeness is not the outstanding characteristic of the people of the churches. If Christianity centers in the Christian church in the future it will be because that church is the center of the Christ-spirit. (p70)

We have had as chairmen of our meetings members of legislative councils, judges, lawyers, generals, college presidents, professors, and leading Hindus and Mohammedans of every type. We have had the meetings in the open spaces in the cool of the evenings, in Town Halls, Hindu and Christian college auditoriums, Theosophical society halls, and even in Hindu temple compounds. The reader will probably note that I have omitted Christian churches from the list. There is a real prejudice against them, so we seldom or never have meetings for Hindus and Mohammedans in them. (p89)

India can now take from Christ because she is able to disassociate him from the West but she finds it difficult to take from the Christian Church or from missionaries, for in these cases the disassociation is not easy. But even here Western missionaries may lose their Western identity so to speak and so merge their lives and endeavors with India that they are no longer part of the dominating influences but take their place as serving friends and brothers. (p109)

This Christian spirit scattered here and there in many Indian hearts must express itself in some kind of corporate relationships. Some kind of church will be the final outcome. We will put our Western corporate experience at the disposal of the forming church in India and say  to her "Take as much as you find useful for your purposes but be first hand and creative and express Christ through your own genius" (p162)

In the customs and forms of Hinduism I think there are five living seeds:
1. the ultimate reality is spirit
2. the sense of unity running through things
3. there is justice at the heart of the universe
4. a passion for freedom
5. the tremendous cost of the religious life (p182)

Every nation has its peculiar contribution to make to the interpretation of Christianity. The Son of Man is too great to be expressed by any one portion of humanity. Those that differ from us most will probably contribute most to our expression of Christianity. (p204)

emerging churches available in the uk

emerging churches is now out in the uk published by spck - the best book yet on the emerging church

big chill 2006

have got tickets for the big chill 2006 for me and joel... - can't wait

grace postcard from the edge

steve taylor's series of emerging church postcards continues.

we sent one from grace with a (fortunately small) photo of some of us in the hot tub...

church and cultural change

jay vorhees has written a very interesting article on the church and cultural change which should lead to...

an expansive image of God, a God who is big enough to embrace all expressions of faith that seek to carry out Christ’s call to love God and love our neighbors. This image of God understands the beauty in the diversity of creation rather than attempting to limit God’s revelation only to those who believe or practice as we do. Some among us will resist, holding on for dear life to old notions of church, and maybe even playing an important role in society, just as the Amish play for us today in their countercultural stance. However, like the media companies running scared today, they may find themselves overtaken by these new practices of faith, and pushed to the margins by those who would not be controlled. Our role is to mediate between the old and the new, neither jumping on the cultural carousel nor sticking our heads in the sand regarding the new realities of life in this new world.

feb 4 - creative worship training day

Create | Saturday Feb 4 | 10am - 4:30pm | Christchurch Baptist Church | Welwyn Garden City

myself, gareth and gill are leading this day on creativity in worship which will include experiencing and creating some worship, teaching, ideas, resources and workshops on music, visual images (video, still and art), writing and prayer stations. it's being hosted and organised by mwf (music and worship foundation).

more details here

how (not) to speak of god

how (not) to speak of god
pete rollins is doing a weekend with the othona community in dorset june 11-13. more details here.

looking forward to pete's book of the same title later this year.

osbd redesign, barry taylor blog, and free stuff

one small barking dog have completely redesigned their web site. as well as having the resources that you could buy before, they have also gone the way of offering clips/rushes/stills as individual downloads which makes sense.

there is a section of the site called shuffle which has a mix of articles, reviews and so on. it is edited by none other than barry taylor, an inspiring thinker/commentator on theology and pop culture. i hadn't realised he was blogging before so that has been a great discovery.  i have added his blog never mind the bricolage to my list of blogs, newsreader etc...

i know some of you just want free stuff - and there is a section called play that has a whole bunch of still images and video loops that are free. i'm adding play as worship trick 56.

there is also a feature coming soon called 99 god moments which you can read about in the play section where they say:

An experiment in spirituality using video phones.

We are looking for genuine 10-30 sec clips that reflect an epiphany moment in your experience/encounter with God. You could re-enact that moment or just simply tell the story to the camera. So, get your phone and get filming.

After transferring your film to computer save it onto CD and send into OSBD clearly marked 99 God Moments.

frosty morning

amazing frosty morning today. january seems so grey so it was nice to see the sun shining... this was gunnersbury park this morning. see flickr for a few more snaps...

tour de france in london 2007

tour de france is going to start in london in 2007 - fab...

audiomission - cms podcast

audiomission is the new cms podcast. the easiest way to follow a podcast is to paste this feed into itunes or the equivalent

In this very first edition of Audiomission you’ll hear a special extended report from BBC Songs of Praise presenter Pam Rhodes as she discovers how CMS has been involved in the relief effort since the Asian tsunami struck. Anita Matthews, CMS’s national children’s work adviser, will bring you a faith reflection on the tsunami, and you’ll hear the latest CMS news headlines from Trevor Smith.

later in the year there will also be a youth podcast

ReSource underway

just back from the first ReSource weekend (i have just managed to survive a weekend with no internet access!). there are about 30 people doing the course from a range of backgrounds/churches/contexts. the first weekend focus was on mission with teaching from andrew jones, roger ellis, cathy ross and simon hall along with plenty of discussion/coaching in groups, and worship led by different groups/communities - including revive, kairos, home. each weekend is in a different location - this one was at st thomas curch in sheffield. i enjoyed meeting kate pickering from home and seeing her art in residency where she is trying to get the church to reflect on the relationship between faith and art. next stop is multi-cultural birmingham in march with the focus for that weekend on culture.

i led a short session of worship which was a reworking of some things we have done in grace - a few people asked where they could get the bits i used so  here goes:-
the film with the three rituals - we have decided not to die (it's also on the dvd onedotzero vol 4)
the liturgy bits i used (scroll down the post)
the music track a few people asked about was far i have come far i must go - that's from the album press play by the idjut boys.

if you are new to the blog all these are part of a series of posts i run called worship tricks - have a look through and you'll find a load more ideas/resources for worship...

coldcut album launch

went to the launch party of coldcut's new album sound mirrors at cargo in london last night. it's a great venue and was a treat to see coldcut mixing up their music and visuals behind a bank of computers and gadgets. they played several of the old classics - timber, people hold on, revolution, atomic moog... as well as a few off the new album. the new album features several guest vocalists which i suspect is why they didn't do more of it. house legend robert owens turned up to sing...

the evening had several technical hiccups which was vaguely reassuring. a highlight was actually a freestyle hip hop encore which included some sharp witted battles between the night's two mcs. feels good to attend the first gig of 2006!

Technorati Tags: coldcut

spoken worship - gerard kelly blogs his poems

gerard kelly has created a blog for his poems - spoken worship. we worked together many years back (and our two families shared a house for a few years). it was around that time that gerard began writing the poems that were subsequntly published in the book rebel without applause . his poems are poignant, thought provoking, and often brilliant for use in liturgy/worship. the poem that gerard wrote for me when my father died of cancer (which appeared on the blog this time last year) was such a gift at that time and i know has helped many other people.

there are a dozen or so poems up including ones for wedding, dedication, christmas, funeral and so on. this blog is a wonderful gift. each poem could be a worship trick in its own right but i am just making the lot worship trick no 55. having just blogged about plogging or blooks or whatever we call self publishing via the likes of lulu , this is the kind of stuff on a blog that lends itself to publishing. i actually think that plogging may change the way people think about blogs - in other words a blog is suddenly a very real way of writing a book over time. a poem of gerard's i have used many times is on the blog. i have taken the liberty of posting it here (hope you don't mind gerard?)

the very thought

I love the very thought of Heaven:
Where angels sing
In perfect, perpetual choir practice.
Where Father, Son and Spirit rule
Unchallenged
And are honoured in full measure.
I love the very thought of Heaven:
But I was not made
To live there.
I was not made
To walk on clouds,
And bask eternally
In immaterial splendour.
I was made for this green planet:
This tight ball
Of aching beauty,
Alive with the unending possibilities
Of his creative power.
I was made for the sunshine
That blazes through the veins of a leaf
And glints on the tiny, perfect back
Of a ladybird crossing my arm.
I was made to be human
In this most human of places.
I was made for earth:
The earth is my home.
That’s why I’m glad that God,
More than anyone,
Is a friend of the earth:
Prepared as he was to die
For its release.
And that’s why I’m glad
That the magnificent, jewelled foundations
Of the mighty pearly gates
Will be anchored
Deeply and forever
In the soil of earth.

by gerard kelly

Technorati Tags: poetry, poems

plogging

kester told me about lulu when we went round for a meal before christmas and i checked it out then. a very cool idea to add to the huge opportunities there are for self publishing. i've been waiting for kester to blog about it - but not only has he blogged about it he has gone and used it to publish his blog in a book format with comments and all. it looks great. obviously it's all available online for free but nice to have a personal record and maybe there is a blog or two you love so much you would buy as a book?...

it does seem quite a lot of work though so not sure yet whether i will follow the certain to grow trend. though it might be a good way to keep a hard copy of particular posts. quite a lot of my posts have very little content and are just linkages to other peoples interesting posts! one of the weaknesses of course is that you immediately lose the hyperlinked nature of the text that you get online. but it might be a good way to publish a hard copy of the worship tricks say? or stories on emergingchurch.info? but then there is so many other peoples stuff in there.... who knows...

kester is calling it plogging. jason suggests that word is taken and asks for other ideas. i thought an obvious one for kester would be for sale blogging - FLOGGING - ha! ok so it doesn't quite work but you can see where i was heading ;-)

way to go kester - nice one...

Technorati Tags: plogging, lulu, publishing

create your own music stations - worship trick 54

jonny m sent me a link to pandora - you type in a music track or artist and on the basis of that it creates a station for you to listen to. as each track plays you can add to the intelligence of the station - i.e. yes more like this or no thanks and the station develops to your (impeccable of course) taste. inspired by jonny i typed in the dead texan to see how it might work with something obscure but it's clearly an impressive playlist and database because not only did it play a cool dead texan track but also selected some wonderful similar music i had never heard of. it is simple but absolute genius...

i am making it a worship trick. you'll need to be in a location with broadband but if you are like karen ward and made wireless internet the first thing you did when you started a church you'll be fine. or if you meet in someone's home or whatever. this selection playing now would be a wonderful soundscape for contemplative worship. if you didn't like a track just have someone click next! (thanks jonny for the discovery)

Technorati Tags: radio, pandora, dead texan