jonnybaker

proost finds a new lease of life

it was so great at greenbelt to see proost in action. a while back aad, jon and i who dreamed up and ran proost, a small publishing company for grassroots alt worship resources, felt it was time to let it go and pass it on to someone or some people who could bring fresh vision and energy to it. it took a while to find but that person turned out to be andy freeman. it has proved a really cracking decision as he has done exactly that.

this year at greenbelt proost were running several events, a stand, and have a revamped web site. they also have published future present which i am involved in and which you can now order through the web site. and on top of that there is a new poetry colletion reaching for mercy. as with the first, learning to love, there are loads of poets.

the book is organised into themes and there is quite a community of proost poets growing now. i picked up the book at greenbelt and t looks great. i also have a poem in the book - it's possibly the only poem i have written (though i have written loads of songs over the years). and it amuses me to be able to say to harry now that he is not the only published poet in the family!

we didn't shout about the change in proost when it happened - it seemed better to just let it happen but it's great now to see it gaining momentum and being carried forward - way to go andy and the team involved in reaching for mercy.

the name proost came about because when we set it up we were in a pub drinking beer and aad (who is dutch) said 'proost' which means cheers and we decided that was a good name. so andy 'proost'!

 

oblique strategies - i am taking part in an exhibition in ealing

if you are anywhere near ealing do come along to oblique strategies, our latest group exhibtion. it is part of the wonderful local art trail BEAT. each photographer had to respond to an oblique strategy drawn at random from brian eno's card deck of that name. it's fun! if you would like to come to the opening that is next weds night - here's an invite - i'd love to see you there. 

as with last year's exhibition grace on the saturday night 8 sept will incorporate the exhibition and on sunday 9th i will be preaching at st mary's on oblique strategies using the images which could be a challenge!

austria photos

i have added a photo album from a holiday jen and i had in austria earlier in august - at a place called fieberbrunn. we'd never been to austria before but loved it - the combination of mountains, lakes, cycling, and simply stunning scenery. jen has blogged about all the lakes we swam in. if you follow me on instagram you will have seen several of these already and a lot more woodpiles! it's funny how technology changes things - i do really like instagram but i still use flickr partly because i know if i ever lost my photos at home i'd have a good backup i could access...

greenbelt coming up! hope to see you there...

i love greenbelt - i must have been to about 40 festivals now i reckon which is quite a scary thought. but it always evolves and changes and moves with the times and questions in the wider culture. i always tend to be working at it one way or another but it's also a great time for catching up with friends and family (and camping with grandkids which will be a highlight). 

the last few years it has been really good to meet and chat with people around pioneering mission - and i have contributed various seminars, conversations and even had a book launch of the pioneer gift there a few years back. here's a couple of things i am involved in this year - 

alt worship fri evening 6:30 - grace and proost are combining to lead an alt worship service riffing on greenbelt's theme of acts of imagination. this will be a great way to kick off the festival. that's in the shelter venue

future present - really excited that future present is now out and we are seeing greenbelt as it's public launch in that it will be available in the bookshop. and we have a panel at 9:30am on monday in the leaves venue which i will be chairing and steve collins, anna ruddick, and rachel griffiths who have contributed to it will be joining me to explore the ideas

then if you are a pioneer or interested in talking about pioneering and if you are interested in finding out about the pioneer training at cms then i'd love to meet you. go to the cms stand and they can get hold of me or come along to one of the following:

jesus arms pub 8pm fri night i.e. after the alt worship service above

tiny tea tent saturday 4pm

jesus arms pub 8pm sunday night

tiny tea tent 11am monday i.e. after the future present panel we'll head over there

greenbelt has a free app which has all the programme on it which if you haven't looked at is really worth downloading. hope to bump into you there. i'll also be proudly cheering on joel baker in the silent disco as he is djing and cheering on harry baker who will doing spoken word and harry and chris show stuff. 

and the weather is looking pretty reasonable - maybe a shower fri night but dry pretty much all weekend - yay!