jonnybaker

future of the church summit

looking forward to seeing old friends at group publishing this week as i take part in the future of the church summit in colorado... it's been a long time since we first published the labyrinth as the prayer path with them.

i'll try and blog properly about these but a few other upcoming things i am taking part in...

at the cms pioneer conversations day mission is... i'll be reworking the do it from the inside material from the chicago lecture - i am taking part in oxford on nov 7 and chelmsford on nov 11.

i am taking part in the new parish conference in birmingham on nov 9-10 doing a couple of sessions - Get Yourself Connected: Beyond the Small World of the Local Church and You’re Not Alone: Wisdom from a Granddad Pioneer (!)

and i am in brighton taking part in curating worship and pioneering liturgy on dec 2 hosted by martin poole

who is my neighbour?

as part of faith in the world week harry was commissioned to write a poem who is my neighbour? which aired on radio 2 this morning - you can watch a video here. as ever it's fab!

home community cafe launches

i was at the opening of home community cafe in earlsfield last night. it was wonderfully done and such a joyful celebration. this idea has been 3 years in the making. i got to share in the story because meg whose dream it has been and whose work has made it happen trained with us at cms on the pioneer course for a year. she brought this idea to make good, a module we run on missional entrepreneurship, 3 years ago. so it was wonderful to see this dream realised and it will be a great hub for community gathering and transformation i am sure. it was actually the same week that clean for good was brought to as an idea so it's been so exciting this month to have the joy of going to two launches of projects we have seen develop from idea to reality. well done meg!

we run that week in november and april each year so if you have an idea to work up come along - it's an amazing week.

we are very fragile

i am just back from a week in chicago where i was giving the annual louis luzbetak lecture at catholic theological union. it was an honour to be invited and i really enjoyed reflecting on mission. i called my lecture 'do it from the inside' and used john taylor's wonderful book the primal vision from the 1960s as a conversation partner to discuss mission in western contexts. it was a sort of john talylor meets pioneer ministry meets insider movements. it will at some stage be published in a journal i think.

it also meant jenny and i got to hang out in chicago for a few days which was great - i have posted some photos here - chicago 2017

i took this photo at the museum of contemporary art where an exhibition was being set up which is nothing to do with fragility but the alignment of words caught my attention...

Congratulations!

a joyful day on saturday celebrating chris and clemmie getting married!

clean for good launch

it was so brilliant this evening to be at the launch of clean for good. clean for good is an ethical cleaning company paying cleaners the london living wage and committed to treating them well. the idea for this was thought up by miriam goodacre and guy treweek when they were at st andrews by the wardrobe church in the city. they had noticed how poorly cleaners were being treated and figured that it would be good news to create a different kind of business. miriam brought the idea to the cms pioneer missional entrepreneurship week 3 years ago (now called make good) and from there a team have worked on the business plan, gaining investment, setting up a board and so on. they have their first managers in place and first cleaners on board with contracts up and running. we heard from a couple of cleaners who told tales of ppreviously being paid around 4 pounds an hour and working 72 hour weeks. through clean for good they now have a fair wage and a contract. so simple but so good. a fuller article is here

if you are in london then have a think about your company or church or whatever and ask yourself if you know #whoismycleaner and see how they are paid and treated. time to shine a light on this sector and do some good!

the photo above is a mix of the team who dreamed it up, the people running it and the cleaners. 

[update: good to see the guardian published a piece on it]

showing photos in artisan coffee ealing in october

it is a fun time in the ealing photography group at the moment with lots of action. we are about to kick off a three-month long exhibition by ten members with three smaller groups alternating to exhibit each month in october, november and december. i am part of the october group and will be showing a couple of photos from my trip to japan last summer.  

Runs 5 October – End December 2017
Open Mon-Fri, 7:30am-5:30pm; Sat 8:30am-5:30pm; Sun 9am-5:30pm

Artisan Coffee
32 New Broadway
Ealing
London W5 2XA