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Posted on August 29, 2012 in photos, scotland | Permalink | Comments (1)
Posted on August 29, 2012 in greenbelt, mission, newness | Permalink | Comments (0)
proost catch up with jon birch to chat about his latest three old southern gospel albums as reverend jon birch
Posted on August 29, 2012 in Music, proost | Permalink | Comments (0)
well that's the theme of greenbelt next year as she turns 40 and looks back and looks forward. this year greenbelt as ever was a delight - a hopeful sign of the kingdom of god and what the church can be at her best - creative, searching, diverse, hopeful, honest, celebratory, learning, welcoming, human, spiritual, on the way to a better world, healing. my favourite moment i think was hearing bruce cockburn sing 'lovers in a dangerous time' with that immortal line - you got to kick at the darkness til it bleeds daylight. showing my age but i probably first heard him sing that getting on for 25 years ago. greenbelt was the muddiest i can remember since the year goldie was DJing in a tent next to one where grace were leading quiet worship! greenbelt was also the moment i think i will have transitioned into being 'harry baker's dad' as he rocked greenbelt with his sensational poetry off the back of his edinburgh shows - so exciting to see...
seemed like an appropriate blog post title too. after greenbelt it always feels like the chilled summer season is definitely over and the mayhem is about to start! i am gearing up for a new intake of students later in september on the cms pioneer mission leadership training including our first intake of pioneer ordinands and the addition of a new MA in pioneer ministry. we'll also be switching accrediting body to the university of durham over the next two years which whatever way you look at it will create work. so time to get cracking...
thanks to everyone who bothered to get up and come to the session i spoke at on monday morning - i was amazed anyone was there! if you liked the content you might like this series on newness -
1 the adjacent possible | 2 the new belongs elsewhere | 3 dissent | 4 refounding |5 darkness and unknowing | 6 connect don't protect | 7 imagination grief and amazement | 8 mission community beyond lose networks
and this series of talks which is an expanded version really of what i was sharing about another world is possible.
Posted on August 28, 2012 in greenbelt, newness, pioneer | Permalink | Comments (4)
hope to see a load of friends old and new at greenbelt 2012 in cheltenham... no doubt you will have your own schedule of stuff to do but here's a few things i'll be doing.
in gloucester cathedral for a gathering tonight - always a highlight...
on the cms stand and meeting people to talk about the totally wonderful pioneer mission leadership training - find me there or in the tiny tea tent if you want to chat about it
doing a talk called another world is possible on monday at 9:30am in GTV (i think) - here's the spiel...
There are always those in power in empires, organisations, cultures and churches who have vested interest in the status quo. Business as usual serves them rather well. In the midst of this stuckness there are those who see, imagine, speak and dream a new world. Through this gift brought by prophets, dissenters, poets and artists newness emerges and another world is possible.
cheering on world slam champion harry baker as he brings his 5 star show to greenbelt 7pm sat night in the performance café - solas were two years ahead of greenbelt on this one but hey they've caught up with the forward thinking scots and given him his own slot now!
watching joel's pechakucha (presentation of 20 slides lasting 20 seconds each) - no idea where or when that is?
taking part in grace service god's not fair which will be in the art gallery saturday 3pm using si smith's amazing images on job, and attending grace workshop sun 7pm - what we've learned now we are eighteen
going to the beer tent saturday evening to meet with pioneers for a rendezvous (see here for other slots) and bucaneer kester brewin who is celebrating his self published book mutiny on all things piratical (is that a word?!) and his big 4 0 ! i read the book on holiday and really enjoyed it whilst raising an eyebrow or too at the rewrite of the prodigal son as a dark tale, christianity as ever the bad evil empire, and god as the wizard of oz who is not there when the curtain is pulled back (or torn in two)!! will try and review at some point it though my best intentions of reviewing books get overtaken by too much work to do these days (and i am still waiting for kester to review curating worship ;) )
taking part in the annual photoswap
Posted on August 23, 2012 in greenbelt | Permalink | Comments (1)
we took part in speed of light at edinburgh festival. it was a night walk of 3 hours up to arthur's seat in holyrood park overlooking edinburgh with walking sticks that had a a light at the bottom end to help you walk and a gizmo that emitted ambient sounds at particular altitudes. groups of runners in suits with lights on them ran across the adjacent hill to the walkers, creating a mesmerising effect. whilst it was called speed of light it was actually a slow meditative experience raher than a fast one. it was designed and put together by NVA. if you are in edinburgh book yourself in. clearly a challenge to photograph so i took up a tripod and grabbed a few 10 second or so exposures which look rather beautiful in their own way. this is the base of walkers light sticks (sabres?!) as they walk past. this is a moment at the top to pause and look over edinburgh and this gives a sense of the light sticks.
if you want to see a much more amazing set of images than mine (!) this slideshow at the guardian is brilliant...
Posted on August 19, 2012 in art, photos, scotland | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: edinburgh festival, nva, speed of light
"one of the greatest things i've ever seen" - that's how harry's show proper pop-up purple paper people was described on radio one ths afternoon and given a 5 star rating! who knows how but chris who picks out a show to review each day for scott mills landed at harry's venue and loved it (if you want to listen on iplayer it's about 1:23 in to the show). joel rang me as he was in the car and had radio one on at the time and was somewhat surprised to find harry being reviewed... the show is in a small basement at the royal oak so expect tomorrow to be packed!!!
Posted on August 14, 2012 in family, life, poetry, scotland, spoken word | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: edfringe, edinburgh festival
yes that's probably a true statement but it's also the latest album from the reverend jon birch! i don't know if you caught it earlier this year but jon released an album which took old southern usa gospel samples which are over 90 years old and so out of copyright and created tracks around them. well he enjoyed it so much he has now made two more albums. there is something about gospel music that has such a wide appeal and is joyful and uplifting. the characters he has found include the likes of blind lemon jefferson - what a great name! anyway all that is by way of saying that this world's in a hell of a fix and witness are both available on proost this month. if you are a subscriber you can download them as part of your subscription... enjoy!
Posted on August 10, 2012 in alternative worship, emerging church, faith, fresh expressions, Music, proost | Permalink | Comments (1)
yes jen and i have been married for 25 years today :)
i'll spare you the photos
[in case you were wondering the RGB for silver is 133, 136, 139 which is the colour of the letters here!]
i'm guessing the title of the post might have got some of you thinking i was blogging about the olympics and victoria pendleton but i wasn't .... but i might as well add in a WOW to teamGB's incredible cycling performances in the olympics now i have started thinking along these lines.
i have been glued to the cycling. after the road race and time trial the velodrome has been incredible - love the venue, love the sport, love teamGB, love the kit, love the ministry of marginal gains, love the giggling laura trott, the tearful fragile lightning quick victoria, the quietly brilliant jason kenny - to be honest all of them and the coaches and the commentary team! i suspect the rest of the world want to knock teamGB off their considerable perch right now and so they should... i honestly can't believe the medal haul.
yesterday though big congrats to anna meares who got her tactics spot on to psych out victoria with the mind games and physicality and i hope australia went nuts about it - she is a great cyclist and it meant a lot to her - that was obvious... though proud of victoria bowing out as the greatest woman track cyclist ever surely. chris hoy's ride was just awesome to finish things off. what am i going to do tonight now the cycling is over? oh yes i've got an anniversary to celebrate ;)
Posted on August 08, 2012 in family, life, sport | Permalink | Comments (6)
following last year's debut fringe show, harry is back for three weeks with a new show - 'proper pop-up purple paper people' with a bundle of new material. we're on holiday in scotland next week so will be going along and looking forward to it. this runs for three weeks before he takes it to greenbelt festival for a solo show. he is also repeating last year's amazing adventures - birth of a champion show for 10 days from 13 august so you can catch him twice!
Posted on August 07, 2012 in family, scotland | Permalink | Comments (0)
we have four ReSource weekends lined up for 2012-2013. we've been running these for about 8 or 9 years now i think. i always love them. a brilliant way to learn about mission. they work best in my view if you do all four in a year...
you can download a flier here, see how to book here, find out more info here
Posted on August 06, 2012 in emerging church, faith, fresh expressions, leadership, mission, pioneer | Permalink | Comments (0)
i made my way in to london with jen to watch the women's triathlon and we joined kev and sky draper (sky is a teamGB junior) and dean. this was my third free olympic event... i continued in the black and white photos vein and have added a few pics here. in this photo teamGB's helen jenkins is being dropped from the lead group and just couldn't pull it back. spirig went on to win decided by a photo finish...
Posted on August 04, 2012 in life, photos, sport | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tags: london 2012, olympics, triathlon
i have had a couple of requests recently from blog readers who would like to be able to receive new blog posts via e-mail. so i have scouted around and found a way to add that option in. scroll down the right hand side bar and you will see the option there...
Posted on August 03, 2012 in blogs | Permalink | Comments (1)
it was soooooooooo exciting today to be out in teddington about 2.5k from the finish of the time trial to see bradley wiggins win gold and chris froome bronze medal - wow!!!! wiggo (as he is now known) winning on the track over the years, coverting to the road, winning the tour de france and now the time trial gold - i just can't believe it. he is now the british olympian with the most medals ever - again wow! it's also fantastic to have the olympics in london, to be able to get on the bike and watch this historic moment for free... i think i'm on a high...
it's also an absolute treat to be able to take some photos at something like this and i love the challenge of it - here's a black and white set (again). i may do a set in colour at some point...
GETSIDETRACKED is an app on creativity with a series of 54 prompts. you get a random prompt when you shake your phone. think of it like a deck of cards. search getsidetracked in iphone or android app stores. see here for more info.
the latest book is a full colour coffee table type book which is the first published by new venture GETsidetracked - pioneer practice