jonnybaker

looking for a turtle with a moustache

i follow the blog lateral action - mainy because i am a big fan of anything that involves creative thinking. i always need challenging and encouraging to come at things creatively. i was struck by a recent post  are you looking for a turtle with a moustache? which by the way doesn't exist! here's a section of the piece that will give you the idea...

When you want to be a great novelist, but you can’t face sitting at the laptop day after day, struggling to get the novel written, you are looking for a turtle with a moustache.

When you want to be a great actress, but you avoid auditioning because you can’t face rejection, you are looking for a turtle with a moustache.

When you want to be a famous artist but you think your art should sell itself, without any effort on your part, you are looking for a turtle with a moustache.

Or when you want to have a thriving business, but don’t want to get your hands dirty with sales and marketing.

Or when you love someone but wish they would change a few of their irritating personality quirks.

Or when you want to be a successful blogger, but don’t hit ‘publish’ because you’re afraid of criticism.

Whenever you want the juicy reward without paying the price, or facing the unpalatable truth, or doing the hard work, you are looking for a turtle with a moustache.

Whenever you think your work exists in some kind of pure spiritual dimension that has nothing to do with the grubby realities of life, you are looking for a turtle with a moustache.

we probably all find ourselves caught in this from time to time but i guess i was reflecting on it in relation to mission and pioneering. maybe it's something like...

when you want to be a pioneer but don't want to engage in issues of sustainability, ongoing support and structures - turtle with moustache!

when you want to take on a role paid for by the church as a pioneer but don't want to engage in church politics - turtle with moustache!

anyway you get the idea - add your own in the comments whether to pioneering or whatever else it is you are doing...

a head so full of busyness that stillness eludes me...

i was chatting with a woman at the mind body spirit festival on friday whilst massaging her feet (as you do) and we were talking about silence. she had been on a few 9 day silent retreats and was encouraging me that i need more silence in my life. she's right i'm sure. i did a silent day earlier in the year and a few silent mornings on a scottish island recently where i began to lean into silence. i carry a memory of literally leaning against a rock gazing at the sea with the sun on it for a couple of hours doing my best to just be and i close my eyes and picture that when i feel the need to lean into it again. but in our fast paced crazy life in the city it's so difficult to do such a simple thing as to be still, quiet down, stop.

i don't know if it's self indulgence, inevitably what every photographer tries, or alleviating boredom when i should be simply being still beacuse i am so restless (!) but i took a few self portraits and quite enjoyed the thinking behind it. i shared one last week - longing. so here's another succinctly titled a head so full of busyness that stillness eludes me

on the subject of busyness i find when i am really busy, which has been the case this year, that images become more important to me than words. i often then simply blog photos so apologies if you are looking for wisdom in words in those moments! and if i have been given a book token i'll most likley buy an art or photography book and stare at a few pictures though equally a poem might do the trick...

harry is back from his US travels...

andy freeman joins cms team to develop hub for pioneers in the south central region

andy freeman has been appointed to develop a hub for pioneers in the south central region. you can read more here. what is exciting about this is that it's the church in the area saying we need to do some work in this area of pioneering both in networking, training and crucially policy making and that cms is the natural place for developing that sort of hub. so andy has been seconded to work as part of the pioneer team at cms that i lead. the role is 9 hours a week.

dekhomai - back in action

dekhomai is back. we're running a stand for 6 days at the london mind body spirit festival . this must be about our fifth year. what we do is simple - meet, listen and pray with visitors and seekers offering the gifts and resources of spirituality from the christian tradition. this includes prayer, beads, blessings, lectio divina with the jesus deck, healing prayer. but the energy is strong in our booth only if the risen presence of jesus is among us. please pray he will be...

jon hopkins and king creosote

off to see jon hopkins and king creosote at union chapel tonight - can't wait...

longing

freedom - tunisia murals

this photo set of tunisia murals in the guardian is wonderful. prophets and artists share a similar imagination i think. it's why regimes like to silence artists and kill prophets...

myrrh prayers - worship trick 3 series 4

i love this installation on clayfire done for good friday by ted hatton for the des moines intentional eucharistic community. the earth rests on 40 jars of myrrh lit from underneath by led lights. people are invited to pour myrrh on the world to pray for its healing...

resource weekends next year - spread the word [please :-) ]

i love resource - simply visiting other communities and hearing what they are up to mixed with a bit of teaching and lots of food and conversation is a wonderful way to learn!

i have mentioned before that next year (sept to july) weekends and themes are decided. they look great! you can book oinline at the resource web site and there is an A4 pdf flyer which has details. if you are in any networks please let others know... ta!

life is...

asbojesus resource pack

jon birch has reworked over 200 asbojesus cartoons into a format that is downloadable and printable or projectable - i.e. each image is 300dpi - if that means nothing it means they are large enough! you may (or may not) remember a while back that jon had a burglary and computers stolen so this has meant a lot of painstaking redrawing and reworking. the resource pack is available to download on proost. (if you are a subscriber it's in the download section).

these drawings are simply brilliant - provocative, questioning, cheeky, celebratory and lamenting and jam packed with theology.

on unknowing

chris  goan has written a lovely piece on standing in a place of (un)belief. the journey of faith has many stages and in some ways my experience is that the older you get the less you know! i remember mike yaconelli saying many years back that theology brings us to the shore of mystery... if you are in a place of unknowing have a read.

a six year old writes a letter to god

this story has been around a few weeks now but i only just came across it -

a six year old writes a letter to god and the archbishop of canterbury answers

open day next week for cms pioneer training

just a reminder that next thursday we have an open day for the pioneer training course on may 19. details here .

this could be relevant to you if you are involved in mission leadership, you are starting something or have recently started something. you can do a foundation degree spread over 3 or 4 years whilst you are 'on the job'. you could do half of it for a certificate. or you can opt in to individual modules. it doesn't matter what denomination or age you are. and it doesn't matter if you are lay or ordained or if those two words mean nothing to you! do let us know if you are planning to come.

you can download a prospectus if you want to know more about what we are up to.

 

grace this saturday - god's not fair

god's not fair [ht: si smith for the illustration]

eilean mor photos

i have added a set of photos of the trip to the isle eilean mor which is part of the mccormaig isles off the bottom of jura in the western isles of scotland. it was a magical trip. this is a view from there across to jura.

being communities around whom people see differently - notes on rowan williams talk

it's very rare for me to take substantial notes in a talk but i found myself wanting to write down pretty much everything archbishop rowan williams said at the fresh expressions day yesterday. in case it's of interest to others here are my scribblings:

where does church begin? at pentecost? resurrection? in jesus' life and ministry? in his identification with the history of israel as god's people?… or back to creation? after all church is about what god wanted from before beginning of world (ephesians) - to be god's friends, god's invited. it's always going to be a bit difficult to identify where it begins and that's fine. and that's also fine with how we approach mission. we need to push away the notion of church as something that people sign up to in one way - discovering how complex peoples journeys are towards the heart of church, as it is related to journeying towards heart of god's purposes.

if we read gospels the church begins where jesus is with others. exactly how it then shapes up is quite a story but it begins with that encounter. we see a huge spectrum of encounters in the gospels: those that jump in feet first (peter), those that review their lives and start out on a path stumbling (matthew), those who start out frightened but reach out for a moment and touch jesus (woman with flow of blood), those who are interested and nervous who come to jesus by night and hear things that stick (nicodemus). which of those belong to the church? it could be confusing and that may be good that it is! we tend to assume that the feet first model is the authentic route but nicodemus for example does prove to be a follower. there's a spectrum of belonging with jesus. what holds them together is simply jesus - specifically jesus as suggesting, opening up newness. the landscape gets to look different when jesus is around. there's something rather basic and central in seeing things afresh, newness. we see that is the resurrection accounts - looking in the tomb becomes observing becomes seeing. the landscape reorganises as they 'see'.

fast forwarding to today and isn't mission about being people and communities around whom people see things differently - themselves and god? people see what they have never seen - possibilities. we need countless enterprises of local vision where people are enabled to see what they hadn't seen before. the pace, timescale on which people move is hugely varied. sometimes there is a rapid timescale in jesus' encounters, and sometimes a meandering long conversation. patience comes in - "i'll do my best to introduce you to jesus and see what happens. who knows what happens yet but we'll be there." this is difficult to explain to funding authorities who have tight and tidy timescales and outcomes. if we force the pace people feel invaded and manipulated and run. but sometimes we also miss the moment to ask the hard question. discernment is important.

leadership is about helping people see (not march in a straight line) - vision. of course helping people see presupposes we are alongside them and not in front - nudging, encouraging, suggesting, learning.

there is a question about sacramental life of church in lay communities? baptism and communion - one old understanding of them is that they are about being illuminated. we have seen the true light, our eyes have been opened. it makes me think that the sacraments are about celebrating those flashpoint moments when we see more than we expected - we get a glimpse of the landscape. in communion you see the rock split and the dead rising! how then do we approach these rhythms? and not stick with rigidity or pretend they are not big things? i have no glib solutions…

what kind of church do i imagine in the future?
it will be looking far less homogeneous in a couple of decades. its heart will be in small groups working at their relationships and their understanding - the cell - mutual formation of life and possibilities in the sort of group where people really trust one another. building personal face to face relationships - trust and friendships - is key across inherited and fresh expressions - informal mentoring, exchanges of experience with people who are different. at the other end of the spectrum - the big event, festival and celebration - has also grown in exciting ways. maybe these two poles are where the future lies? most of our communities are somewhere in-between which is ok but maybe clarity about those two ends will help. need to go on thinking quite hard about the small intentional and the large festival (interestingly this is why cathedrals have a part to play into the future). this i think is how i see the mixed economy working. context in which there is a flow of communication, good news, stories being shared - all held together by jesus and what he helps you see - the landscape transformed

[update: the talks from the day and the actual transcript of the talk are now uploaded here]

changing the landscape

off to the fresh expressions day in oxford today where we'll have a stand about the cms pioneer mission leadership training - if you're going come and say hi!

a moment of play