jonnybaker

greenbelt tv

greenbelt have just mailed out their latest newsletter and in it is a link to greenbelt tv youtube channel which includes a bundle of video short talks (around 8 mins) from people speaking at the festival. one is me talking about worship. the way these were put together was that a booth was set up and the media team contacted people on site on the day to come and give a talk. i was asked and foolishly said yes and even more foolishly had no time to think about what to say until i stepped up. fortunately what was at the time embarrassingly stop start and incoherent has been edited into something at least vaguely coherent. apologies to anyone in the audience in that particular session! - but go watch the likes of dave andrews on the beattitudes, mark vernon on friendship or clare short on palestine and many more...

natural mesh

natural mesh, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

congratulations harry - champion d'europe du slam!

following his trip to france before christmas for the european poetry slam, there was an online competition of all the finalists which has been running a few weeks now. and harry has won - the peoples vote or something like - amazing! from the site...

Congratulations ! Harry Baker is the European slam champion with his performance “The Sunshine Kid”. He was one of the 12 finalists of the 1st European slam competition in Reims in December 2010.

if you're in london harry is headlining on feb 3 at bang said the gun - we'll be going along.

upptäcka press - new kid on the block

a friend chris has started a new home spun publishing company uppttäcka press. the upcoming books look lovely. i have ordered the first. amazing what you can do these days with self publishing especially if you design your own covers rather than use the rather naff off the shelf variety. proost have now self published 15 books via lulu which i can't quite believe. got something to say? it's surely never been easier to publish and get your voice out there...

a day of silence - photography and contemplation

grail-8, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

on saturday a few of us went to the grail, a retreat centre nearby to spend a day in silence. this was mainly inspired by watching the tv series the big silence. i found it a really good experience and i hope it's one we repeat. the lounge there was full of books. in a section called spiritual writings i was looking at a few by thomas merton. i vaguely knew that merton was a photographer which was somehow close to his being a contemplative. but i stumbled across a chapter in a book called thomas merton: a master of attention by r waldron which has a chapter on merton's photography. i had taken my camera with me because for me it is very suited to silence or contemplation - it is about paying attention, it helps me look at things. so i was re-assured to know that my own sense about photography was shared. i jotted down a few quotes from the book...

to become a contemplative one must develop the spiritual eye of attention and what in modern life symbolises more fully and exactly what the life of a contemplative life entails than the camera

solitude and silence are the sine qua non of being a contemplative. in fact a photographer is a contemplative in his own right: he too must become a master of attention

if we had to reduce merton's 'a vow of conversation' to one theme it would be 'learning to see'

for much of the world's beauty we have only one chance to look

all that by way of an intro to this set of photos a day of silence - i took these in the silence on that day trying to capture something of that silence and attention. no idea if they succeed...

consuming youth

a friend rick bartlett who i used to work with maybe 20 years ago is one of the authors of consuming youth. i always welcome books reflecting on what it means to follow christ in conusmer culture - that's the water we are swimming in, and in that sense it's the six million dollar question. and there don't tend to be that many focused on youth ministry - graham cray's grove booklet, tom beaudoin's work, branded, liquid church, practising passion are ones that spring to mind. and then there are others like tom sine, al and debra hirsch, vincent miller who have written more generally about faith and discipleship in consumer culture.

the thing i liked most about the book is a section that suggests working with young people vocationally - helping young people discover who they are, what their gifts and contribution to the world could be and dreaming how that might happen. and suggesting that this comes out of an alternative imagination, or what the authors call an alternative script to that of the western dream. i'd like to see more youth ministry doing that. i was talking with someone yesterday working with young people who seem to feel very hopeless and who are not dreaming of the futures they could contribute to out of who they are. this approach seems a perfect fit for that.

the thing i liked less about the book is that consumer culture and the media are portrayed as the bad guys manipulating and controlling and dominating youth. in cultural studies this would be close to the take of the adorno school of thought in the 70s - big bad culture industries duping and manipulating the masses. very few people subscribe to that view any more at least in the world of cultural studies. there's a lot more negotiation gong on and a lot more meaning making that is possible that is counter to the media industries intentions. i don't for a moment want to underestimate the power of the worldviews of consumer culture. and i think we need to reflect hard on how faith relates to culture, help young people be discerning and learn how to practice faith in this culture. but it's the posture towards culture writ large that i struggle with. i made exactly this point when i reviewed al and debra hirsch's book. from a mission perspective discipleship has to be worked out in the culture and we should pay attention to how god and spirituality are mediated and flow in the culture. this is what we learn about good practice in mission in other cultures - where is god present and how do i join in with what god is already doing? you don't start by rubbishing the culture and saying everyone is manipulated! every culture has good and bad aspects of course but connect positively in mission and background judgement. engagement and resistance are both important reflexes but knowing which to do and when and about what is not so easy. i sound like i'm a fan of consumer culture and i'm not - it has huge problems and i think paying attention to the scripts and so in is important. it's more the tone or posture towards culture or that the book seems solely focused (as evangelicals are won't to do towards pop culture) on resistance...

anyway i'm in danger of getting in trouble on this issue again. but the book is definitely worth a read, opens up some good suggestions on working positively with young people around vocation and should be a good tool to catalyse a conversation about the culture we are all in which is so often invisible to us because it's the water we're swimming in.

ways into small missional communities

ian's list of ways into small missional communities keeps growing - now up to 20!

34th man tour

CMS sets off on a tour this weekend with alf cooper and one of the chilean miners who will be sharing his testimony - the 34th man tour . dates and venues here . it's proving very popular!

curation conversations

cheryl lawrie is setting up an online community to share learning about curating. the idea is this...

I think the group would do the following:
-

commit to a ‘program’ of regular reading and reflection on books, articles, videos etc

be involved with intentional conversations exploring how transformation happens in public spaces, focussed around questions like this:
 what kind of events create spaces where transformation might happen
? what kind of transformation can ‘art’ effect? 
how does transformation happen?

share practical ideas and wisdom, building up a database of knowledge

The intention of the group would be to have fun, to network people with the intention of collaborations, shared imagination, action / reflection, and to create a bank of wisdom and resources

clayfire curator is another new online space focused on curation and worship - this time a US based one coming out of the evangelical lutheran church. i actually know very little about this one but thought it worth giving it a shout out... mark pierson, the godfather of curating in relation to worship (who has a book out the art of curating worship which i haven't got round to getting yet) is going to be blogging on that space for 12 weeks.

curating worship - seems like an idea whose time has come!

shadow catchers

jen and i headed into town today and finally visited shadow catchers - camera less photography at the V and A. it is really worth going to if you get the chance. it features the work of 5 contemporary artists who make images on photographic paper but not using a camera. they cast shadows, and chemically treat the paper and generally experiment. it's really quite magical! there were also 5 short films - i often skip that part at an exhibition but found myself drawn in to watch all five. and they are all online here which is wonderful. i loved these quotes from the video with adam fuss which i meant to write down when i was there so was very happy to find them online

the dark room is the shadow place - that's where you make discoveries where you are creative - it's more in there than in the light...

...if you don't create you die

some of the effects were easy to work out how they had captured the image like the one above by floris neusüss - briliant in its simplicity and shape...

but others were quite complex - this image by susan derges for example involved capturing a pattern with ink in water onto paper, printing it onto transparency, placing it under a container with water and ferns with photographic paper underneath that then exposed that paper. this was then photographed, stitched together and blown up to make a huge image. a lot of effort but quite stunning. she also captures images of rivers submerging photographic paper in rivers at night using the moon and flash to create exposures to amazing effect.

and some pieces i simply have no idea what happened to produce them but they were absolutely lovely like this piece above - the night cell by garry fabian miller

it's on for another month

won't you come on down to my rescue

won't you come on down to my rescue, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

asbojesus gets a new look...

remarkably jon birch is heading towards 1000 cartoons on asbojesus - the site has had a makeover...

pioneer training open days - march 1 and 2

as you (probably) know i am now running CMS pioneer mission leaders training - we're currently in our first year of the course and it's going really well. it's a foundation degree (and you can also do modules or a certifcate) - download the last newsletter here for more info and that links to all the other newsletters. we have an open day on march 1 for interested students and an open day on march 2 for selection and training officers or sponsoring church leaders. here's a leaflet - do come along if you are interested and would like to find out more. and please do pass it on to anyone you think may be interested.

reaching up

reaching up, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

st mary's ealing [where grace meet] at night. there are some stars up there honest. if it was in the countryside they would have been crystal clear on this crisp night!

new monasticism book launch london and manchester

on feb 1 there is a launch of ancient future faith: new monasticism as fresh expressions of church in london. the first book in this series was excellent. the contributors look like a good collection from the uk and us. it's edited by ian mobsby and graham cray. for details of the launch click on the link above. and even though it's free sign up as it helps to know nos. there is also an event in manchester on feb 3.

curating worship article in liturgy journal

i have an article on curating worship published in the journal liturgy. the article is online but only accessible to subscribers - sorry! i haven't actually seen a copy of this journal before so am looking forward to being sent one. the issue this article is in is focused on liturgy and the emerging church.

first grace of 2011 tonight - blessing

blessing

how do you start from nothing?

becky garrison has another book out - starting from zero with $0: building mission shaped ministries on a  shoestring. first up this is one of the crucial issues in the whole area of fresh expressions, emerging church etc - what you might call sustainability - how do you create sustainable projects/communities when you have nothing to start with?

the book has around a dozen stories of creative passionate people who have done precisely that - started from nothing in a host of different ways. i confess i expected a few more answers to the overarching question but maybe that was either naive or overly optimistic or too much a mindset of looking for models. but what the book does offer is a mix of stories of projects and churches who have started and kept going and struggled along the way - and if you read between the lines there are a number of ways that they became sustainable ranging from being run entirely by volunteers (as we do in grace - cheap to run!), through to getting individuals to support a leader, bi-vocational ministry (that is part time work, part time ministry) and raising monies through business and grant making bodies.

the book has some gems in it - i think my favourite story was common cathedral probably partly because i hadn't come across it before. this grew in response to debbie the founder's concern for the homeless and she simply went where they were and ended up taking worship services on boston common for people disconnected from church and a community and range of things just sort of emerged/evolved from there organically for which they fundraised along the way. both grace and proost are highlighted in the book.

i liked the reflections on the way forward at the end by karen ward, andrew jones and tom brackett. what becky does well is seek out good stories and let them speak for themselves - you can make of them what you will. those different voices in the book are good but they also make the book a challenge as a whole - it ends up feeling qute piecemeal. but it's a welcome addition to the conversation around an important question...

we'll certainly be addressing this question in the pioneer mission leaders training at cms - especially in the missional entrepreneurship module next autumn.

climbing up the walls

climbing up the walls, originally uploaded by jonnybaker.

1000 resolutions

no i haven't gone mad and decided to make 1000 resolutions myself! this is a cms initiative for the new year - encouraging 1000 people to make 1000 resolutions between now and the beginning of lent. the easiest way to jon in is probably through the facebook page...