jonnybaker

on greenbelt...

this is an encouraging reflection on greenbelt - such a change to get away from the usual negative media portrayal of christians. occasionally it's good to realise that actually there are some things about christianity and the church that are unique and brilliant!

speaking of church just a reminder of what the church is not from asbo...

theo hobson's piece in the guardian a very english revolution is another really interesting piece, suggesting that greenbelt is brilliant but largely unnoticed. he suggests that it is not about trendy vicars trying to get in with the kids but...

it is more about the trendy kids growing up and awkwardly realizing that Christianity matters to them, despite the backward naffness of church culture. They sense that a new crossover is possible between Christianity and forms of culture that people actually like, that they themselves actually like.

he wrote that in response to the piece an athiest goes to greenbelt which he felt was unsypmathetic. i actually quite liked the piece and good to see that attending naz and co's serum was a positive experience at least. and a wonderful reminder of the power of silence and space, rare things in our culture...

oh and i am looking forward to the world cup - can england really have qualified so easily - where's the usual last minute agony?!

coming up...

prismatic mission on 3/4 november with gerard kelly looks really good.

cms regularly have a missiologist in residence. arriving shortly is steve bevans who has written some brilliant books on contextual theology and mission. i am looking forward to him being around. anyway there are a series of evening presentations, lectures and workshops in oxford including a couple by steve. download the details here. Download Cms lectures

worship shaped churches - get over them

i liked this piece by david muir on the share blog - food for thought. and maybe alt worship has tripped up over this worship style question. in grace we recognised this problem about 5 years ago and developed a different way of thinking about who we were shaped by an ethos which includes mission (for us captured in the word engage) at the heart of who we are. we've a long way to go but this reminded me of the challenge. here's a quote

The problem with worship-shaped churches engaging in mission is that they find it very hard work. It is like introverts going to parties, or extroverts going on silent retreats – it's just not their 'shape' or their inner style. They can do it, but it drains them because their membership is not 'gathered' around this purpose.

i love elvis - worship trick 70

andi mac was a discovery on proost two years ago as one of our unusual suspects. it's been exciting to see his movie making/animation going from strength to strength. at the proost events at greenbelt he showed a new movie he has made i love elvis, another contemporary parable. you may remember sea parable in a similar vein and he has done clouds, vampire love and a movie for last year's nine on proost (see the movie section of the site). well the good news is that it is available free from the guys at kore to download. i'm hoping that we will be able to add it to proost as well at some point, at least for subscribers but the main thing is you can find it and it's free!

...talking of free just a reminder if you haven't to check out the freebies for a taster of proost

over the wall

over the wall, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

this photo has been getting a very positive reaction on flickr and has now been selected for the flickr scotland blog so thought i'd add it here...

the table - grace new season begins...

grace kicks off next saturday with the table, a community meal with worship intertwined throughout. sept is our start of year and re-commitment to god and one another and the ethos of grace. do join us. if you do please

• let us know you are coming so we can cook for you
• turn up on time
• bring a bottle - soft or alcoholic - to contribute to the meal
• don't eat first

if you want to help cook in the afternoon let me know

worship trick 69 - the long worship liturgies and fridge magnet liturgies

the worship at greenbelt this year was really wonderful. i can't think of anywhere else you could experience such creativity and diversity in worship. well done to ben, pete, michael and anyone else who put the programme together...

grace took part in a day long worship with feig, safespace, and dream. i wasn't involved at all as i was busy with other things. it went amazingly well. there were lots of interactive stations that built up through the day interspersed with some liturgies written by mark berry. people dropped in and out as they wished - around 1000 visits were made. mark has added the long worship liturgies to his blog. there's a rumour that the various standing in the long now (greenbelt's theme) liturgies may get knocked into a pocket liturgy book sometime in the next few months - watch this space . mark's liturgies also include instructions for the fridge magnet liturgies. this was a very simple idea but worked brilliantly. 840 words that had been gathered from discussions within safespace were printed on postcards and then people selected words to create liturgies on the wall which were read out at various points. there are some photos in the monday set of greenbelt photos

anyway these liturgies and fridge magnet liturgies worship trick 69, in series 3

come to the edge they said

come to the edge they said, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

this is the harbour at st monans in fife where we stayed on hoilday. obviously i used a tripod for these and set a long exposure (anywhere between 5 and 20 seconds i think). i have a few more night shots -

st monans harbour | st monans | gentle motion

love to know which you like if any.

training weekends and course for the year ahead - resource

sept is often a time to think about training for the year ahead. well ReSource is running once more. but it's new and improved! the title of the web site reflects some of this shift - resourcemission.com . this is to broaden out the training to people involved in mission projects, mission communities and so on, not just church planting. there are four weekends this year including one hosted by grace and moot in london with a focus on mission and worship. you can download a general leaflet on ReSource here, and info on this year's weekends here. you can book online. the course works as a whole sharing the learning journey with others. but you can buy into individual weekends and we have reduced the cost of each weekend below £100 now. this is the blurb kate wrote about it which i can't better really...

In the midst of this drizzly British summer, ReSource have been busy gearing up for the next ReSource course: Creating Church in the Emerging Culture.
 
It has been a summer of many changes for us here. Notice our email change to [email protected] . This change reflects a general shift in language for those who have come on ReSource. This new language seeks to include those involved in missional communities, pioneer projects, new expressions of church as well as church planting.
 
This year sees the addition of some new weekends, visiting new places and exploring new themes. Where we have previously run a similar syllabus year to year, we now plan to expand the number of topics covered by varying the weekends on offer each year. Some weekends will appear each year, some will change. This will enable you to revisit ReSource in the future as new themes arrive. It also means the weekends you see here may not come around again next year. If you are drawn to a specific theme, make the most of the weekend while it is running.
 
The weekends are designed as a whole course and we recommend signing up for the whole year. This approach means you can go on a longer learning journey, explore the ideas further and be accompanied by familiar faces. We appreciate that not everyone can commit to a whole year so each weekend is also available as a stand-alone event focused on a specific theme. Each weekend begins on the Friday night and runs until early afternoon on the Sunday.
 
We appreciate that money is tight for many people especially at the moment. We have been working hard to reduce the costs of running the course so that we can pass this saving on to you. This year the whole course costs just £380 for four weekends where last year cost £400 for three weekends. One weekend costs £95 to attend where last year it was £150. This covers all your food but not accommodation. We wouldn’t want cost to be a prohibiting factor so we have managed to secure funding for a number of bursary awards of up to £200. This bursary is available for people wanting to attend the whole course who cannot afford the full fee subject to application. If you would be interested in applying for it please see the application page on the website for instructions.
 
We have set up an on-line application process on our website; you can pay for a deposit, pay for the course up front or book in for a specific weekend. If you are unable to complete the form immediately for whatever reason, it is helpful if you let us know that you are intending to apply. We are only able to accommodate for a small number of last minute applications.
 
We will see a new website launched in the next few weeks to better reflect all of these changes. In the meantime the old one is still running with more details available there.
 
We look forward to hearing from you
The ReSource Team

a new season begins...

august is always holiday season for me so the blog reflects that by being pretty inactive but today i'll gradually kick back into action and that includes getting the blog going again. big chill, family holiday in scotland and greenbelt are now all over. photos from scotland will be appearing shortly but (shock horror!) i didn't take a camera to greenbelt as i find i am doing so many things i just can't give taking photos the attention it deserves.

greenbelt was wonderful as ever - it's such a great festival, a hopeful sign on the church map. i didn't actually get to much but the proost events were a real highlight and i must confess i loved inflicting my taste in tunes on people in the wine bar for two and half hours on sunday night!

speaking of festivals here is a movie i made of sky lanterns being let off at the big chill festival - if you are at the start of the year what are your dreams, hopes, prayers? i'll say more about this in a couple of weeks when it has fully landed but it is a bit of a new season for me at cms with some team changes and a shift of focus to more working with training pioneer mission leaders which i am really looking forward to.

sky lanterns magically float across the big chill festival from jonny baker on Vimeo.