jonnybaker

the possible world

very exciting today at cms to have the possible world course being delivered. this is a new course on mission which takes a focus on prophetic mission - prophets are people who grieve over the way things are and see new possibilities against the odds and then help people create that new possible world. 

it has seven sessions:

One: Jesus, a prophet. Me, a prophet?
Two: Hospitality: All right for some?
Three: Consumer culture: I want to live simply…but I like stuff
Four: The environment: For God so loved the world
Five: Human suffering: How can I show I care?
Six: Injustice: So many issues, so few of us
Seven: Now what? Joining the prophetic and the practical

a 50 page booklet which looks great and a dvd with some very inspiring pioneering people who are creating new possibilities where they are.

a colleague debbie james has been working on this for a couple of years and done a wonderful job - it's been road tested and reshaped accordingly. ideal for a church, home group, missional community, or any group that want to explore together how another world might be possible. if you are planning ahead how about using this for lent? (or advent if you're quick!).

you can order it here

good news from the upper room

good news from the upper room who have realigned with a bishop's mission order (a piece of legislation to enable a community to be part of the church of england if they don't fit the parish model).

alt.advent - 26 movies!

i am excited to let you know that we have a new resource on proost for advent - alt.advent - it's 26 movies animated by jon birch telling the advent story. here's the first as a sample.

these are ideal to share round the meal table with a family or household or to share in a community or church. they look great on a laptop or ipad. the cost works out at 50p a movie which can't be bad. enjoy!

we do of course have several other wonderful advent resources - quite a few are featured on the home page but scroll through the advent and christmas seasons on the site.

you can access all of this content when you like for a year if you subscribe for the ridiculously low price of £60.

we have a proost twitter account and are running a twitter prize draw for a free subscription. all you need to do to have a chance of winning is to follow @proosttweets before 20 december.

open day this next tues

we have an open day for the pioneer course this tues

real men

i got a text from jen reminding me it is international mens' day today - i can't say i knew or noticed any difference in the air but i thought harry's poem real men is as good a piece for today as i could think of...

it was buzzing!

thanks to everyone who came to the day of research presentations and conversation about pioneering mission. it was a wonderful day - really buzzing! there is a write up and some photos here. it was such a treat to have doug gay, beth keith, gerald arbuckle, anna thompson, andrea campanale, and jim barker involved. we'll be adding a few video interviews online with them and there will be a book next summer with some of the papers and some others. and we will be back with another day next year. to be honest i am still on something of a high. next week i'm off here - tough life eh?!

where are the women?

jenny reflects on the line up of women speakers (or not) at christian conferences in a blog post where are the women? . it's brilliant as always. jen says she is picking up on just one issue.

so let me pick up on another... when you are running a conference it's simple - decide to have approx 50% men and 50% women speakers (without being dogmatic about it - 40/60 or whatever would be fine). all it takes is sensitisation and intentionality - i.e. you need to be aware of it, and i realise that in itself is a massive leap as there is a lot of invisibility around it. and then just do it. we had a conference this week for pioneers and had 3 men and three women speaking at it. we would actually have had 4 women but one dropped out at the last minute who would have been one of our plenary speakers. we simply decided and it wasn't a difficult decision or even a big one. it was just obvious to us on the team as i guess there are enough people sensitised to it.

quote of the day

organisations who kill their rebels gain peace but lose their future

so said gerald arbuckle at yesterday's day on pioneering mission. it was such a great day! thanks to everyone who came and who presented. as we said we will be publishing the papers and a series of others in a book some time next year. and we will be back with another day next year...

greenbelt has a new home

greenbelt has a new home in northamptonshire - boughton house

day on pioneering mission tomorrow

really looking forward to the day on pioneering mission tomorrow

for those of you who live in last minute world book now - it's not too late!

if you are coming some of us will be going for a curry afterwards in oxford so do jojn us - we'll give out details...

haarig harry

last weekend it was fun to go and visit harry in hanover where he is doing a year as part of his university course. i can report he is alive and well and is more haarig than when he left!

happy birthday to you!

grace is 20 years old today! i have been part of it for 18 of those. here's the first ever flier. we have grace XX sat night to celebrate - looking forward to it. wow...

thinking about space and what it says about how a community is organised

steve has also posted a piece called triclinium and tribune (catchy title?!). i love the way he thinks about space as an architect and then asks a series of questions about how that might reflect the values, leadership and relationships in the community (or not!). i am making this worship trick 42 in series 4

elijah complex

i posted a piece from the last grace - you grace is enough. the bulk of the service was reflecting on some of the stories of elijah the prophet. steve created a reflective piece on what he termed the elijah complex which i noticed he has posted on small ritual. i will add it as well to the liturgy post below so it appears in the list of worship tricks.