jonnybaker

the power of a simple diagram

i was really pleased to see mark berry and philip mounstephen have written a grove booklet on mission and community. it gets a hefty review here if you want to know what it's about and that saves me writing too much (!). i am particularly pleased because it's part of grove's mission and evangelism series and cms has become a partner in that series contributing a couple of booklets a year - at least that's the plan. this is the first. it used to be the evangelism series but we were keen if cms were to be involved that it become mission and evangelism. i have read it and really recommend it. it's the kind of book you read and think 'of course!' but then realise that what seems obvious often isn't.

the thing in the book that i thought was very neat and powerful was a diagram. they draw on robert warren's missionary congregations book which i really liked when it came out and that had three interlocking equally sized circles in a venn diagram of worship, mission and community saying that all three were important and that in the intersection you'd find the heart or spirituality of a congregation. i remember drafting what grace was about years ago and having those three sections on an older version of the web site.

what mark and philip do is redraw the diagram showing the reality could be very different in practice to warren's nice equal version. it seems quite shocking - community is small and mission is isolated. but the more i have thought about it the more i think that diagram nails something with truth in it even if it is exaggerated.

it's at least worth pondering if you are in a congregation or church what the balance is and where all the church's time, money and effort goes. we have been thinking about this at grace recently and realising that in our case community has grown in importance over the years and we are reflecting on what mission looks like. i guess worship has always been a reasonable size as we grew out of what was then known as alternative worship. i'll blog again in a separate post to say a bit more about this with a diagram we drew for grace. 

 

good - grace next saturday

Jeremiah 29:7: Work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.

Proverbs 11:11: Good people bless and build up their city, but the wicked can destroy it with their words.

What does good look like, in Ealing, in London, in the world? How does Grace support good and how do we support one another as we do good? What is God saying to us at this time? Join us for Communion, conversation and prayer.

grace retreat

did you know that there is an ignatian centre in london that hosts a retreat day on the second saturday of every month open to all? 

next grace we are joining them for the day - see here for info - so if you are planning on visiting grace next month it will simply be a cafe with a prayer space in the evening as the day is the main focus this month.

the god of unwelcome

Unwelcome!

God is here
His Spirit is with us
[but not with them]

so opened last night's provocative liturgy at grace responding to the usa and uk climates of fear and shoring up borders to those from other countries. the start was a liturgy of unwelcome which included the unveiling of an icon of the god of unwelcome which was a reworking of rublev but with the faces of trump, pence and bannon - it was disturbing! we had scriptures reassuring us that god is on our side and will destroy enemies and sang a song to the god of unwelcome which included these verses...

Excluding God
Excluding God
You love me
but not my neighbour
Excluding god

Unwelcoming God
Unwelcoming God
Close the door
Ring fence the table
Unwelcoming god

we then had take two which was a liturgy of welcome and included similar things. the highlight for me was meg wroe's amazing rework of rublev's icon with the three as migrants. we discussed together when we exclude and seem to follow a tribal god rather than the god of the whole world and all peoples recognising that there is a judge or pharisee in all of us as well as someone longing to be christlike with an open home and table. here is a link to the service in the grace archive including the unwelcome icon! and here is a pdf of it for anyone interested - it draws on several prayers, songs liturgy from other grace services. i really enjoyed and was challenged by the experience both of planning and then leading grace. and i long to follow in the way of the god and christ of welcome rather than whatever unholy gods seem to be centre stage right now. i am making this liturgy a worship trick - 69 in series 4.

[massive thanks to jon birch for the icon of unwelcome and meg wroe for the icon of welcome]

[email protected]

next week i am in germany taking part in [email protected], a gathering of pioneers in hannover - looking forward to it...

grace - feb 11 - unwelcome

in light of the mood of escalating unwelcome for those in the margins in britain and the usa, february’s grace will be a space to revisit the story of jesus and see what light that might shed on how we might respond. bring your troubles, questions, conversation, anxieties and prayers. there is room round the table.

saturday february 11, st mary’s ealing, 8pm

progress - join us for first grace of 2017 on saturday

this saturday is the first grace of 2017. come and join us as we progress from the challenging 2016 to look with hope to the year ahead. it's something of a tradition now that chris read curates january - at least it's the third year in a row he has taken on the mantle and harry baker will be joining him. no idea what has been dreamed up but it will doubtless be inspiring and i guess flock will be performing their unique contemplative poem/songs (is that a pong?! or a soem?)

seeking light - it was dark!

i have been meaning to add this since the last grace but don't know where the time has gone...

anyway it was a lovely grace advent service and i know next year is a way off but you could easily repeat this idea so tuck it away somewhere. grace was inspired by ian adams reflections for advent seeking light - which you can get from proost. we printed them off a3 size and suspended them from the balcony in the church space with nylon thread. we used about 20 in total i think. it was handy that having done an exhibition there before we still had the stuff from that. to straighten them out we just clipped a strip of card behind each sheet.

then apart from a central candle and a few candles highlighting the step at the far end the church space was completely dark - we had moved benches from the main space. a set of tunes played quietly in the dark around the theme of seeking light (see below). then the bulk of grace was 45 minutes where people were given a candle to take into the space and read the reflections by candlelight. they could sit quietly in the space or read through them all as they wished. we simply topped and tailed that with an opening and ending prayer/liturgy. these have been added to the grace archive here . it was very simple. the candlelight really made it a magical evening...

the playlist i think was:

lovebleeps - laura b
incense - andy thornton (from labyrinth)
o come o come emmanuel - sufjan stevens
blackout - heights of abraham
shine - dave gahan and soulsavers
a change is gonna come - the fugees live
anthem - leonard cohen
young death - burial
open the light - boards of canada
gathering light - detriot escalator co
searchlight - jon hopkins
the light - album leaf
a light to guide you - clem leek
near light - olafur arnolds
into forever - eat lights become lights
to believe - cinematic orchestra
jesus alone - nick cave
since i - jono mccleery
lighthouse - patrick watson

i have added this as a worship trick - no 68 in series 4

grace advent service - sat dec 10 - seeking light

join us next saturday for a contemplative grace for advent on the theme of seeking light, inspired by and riffing on ian adams proost resource seeking light (thanks ian!)

apollo christmas - new movie on proost

there's a new movie on proost from jon birch - apollo christmas. the latest u[pdate from proost has links to various advent and christmas resources but here's what it says about this movie...

This week we launch Jon Birch's wonderful Apollo Christmas movie.  On Christmas Eve 1968 astronauts orbiting the moon made an amazing broadcast.  With incredible visuals, euphoric electronic music and the words of the three astronauts - this movie takes a different spin on wonder at Christmas.

discordant zine

discordant is a new venture, a creative zine or journal with a DIY ethos inviting contributions from anyone engaging with christianity and culture. it's part of the proost family. the idea is to participate so go and take a look and get involved. the first theme is wonder and you have until february to contribute. there is an example here you can download for free which also has a sampler of 6 tracks free too. love it!

hope is near - proost and advent

proost is actually organised slightly earlier than usual this year for advent season. and there are some great new resources. i think we are likely to use seeking light at grace (though yet to be discussed). anyway here's the proost update with info and links

As we approach the season of Advent we are reminded again that we wait for God to come to us.  We wait in hope for we know that the presence of God with us - that we remember in the birth of Jesus - is transformative in ways that we can only begin to imagine.  We wait in hope.

Writing his seminal book 'God in the Manger' Dietrich Bonhoeffer considered the amazing hope of the birth of Christ.  

"God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” 

Sometimes we cry out to God 'How Long Lord?" as we wait for him. But we wait in hope.

Sometimes we wait expectantly knowing that God will be with us. But we wait in hope.

Sometimes we wait in confusion.  Unsure what will happen next. But we wait in hope.

All of our writers here on Proost know and share these emotions and experiences.  We are all human beings.  We know suffering and we know joy.  We hope the resources we share on this website may bring hope to you in whatever you face this Advent.

We are pleased and thrilled to share 'Seeking Light' by Ian Adams.  The latest in his series of season reflections - this time focused on Advent, Christmas and Ephiphany.  If you've not encountered Ian's work before then do have a look.  If you have then you'll know this will be a wonderful accompaniment to Advent.

We are also thrilled to share two new pieces of work from Tim Watson.  Journey to the Inward Wild is Tim's second in the Hymnal to the Wild series.  Bursting with beautiful poems it's an honest, vulnerable and hopeful read.  These poems are perfect to accompany your own devotionals and worship or to read for pleasure or share with others.  We are also pleased to share a free resource Advent Thoughts - a series of simple slides taking us through the season.  This is free so what do you have to lose ! 

Advent is a season where Proost has featured many resources to help with your own journey to Christmas.  These are available in our back-catalogue and through the Seasons button in the menu.  On the frontpage we feature three highlights - Alt.Advent (Jon Birch), We Who Still Wait (a collaboration of Chris Goan, Si Smith, Ian Adams and Steve Broadway) and then People Walking in Darkness (a movie from Grace.)  Do check these and other Advent items on the site.

Lastly the best way to access the site remains our Get it All subscription, still only £60.  Perfect for you but also as a gift to someone else.  Take a look.

Thanks for reading.  May your advent season be filled with hope. 

stranger in a strange land - next grace

next grace stranger in a strange land is next saturday nov 12 8pm st mary's ealing - do join us

How does change challenge our identity? How do we handle situations in our lives when things familiar seem no longer so? We in British society are coming to terms with a future Brexit. Come and hear from those who have had to face even greater change, both individually and for their society.

proost - new resources

news from proost on new resources and old resources bundled together! i am a massive fan of si smith and have tried to get hold of his rage despair hope work for a long time so glad to see it finally land!

As October rolls into the beginnings of Winter so it's time for us to ramp up things here at Proost.

In the coming weeks you'll be seeing our Advent resources featured and you can look out for new material from Ian Adams amongst others.  We're also busy completing our first Proost Fanzine - a downloadable PDF or EBook sharing poetry, prayers, ideas and features as well as some surprises.  Watch out for more here soon.

So as this time we have some things to finish off and some features to share.

We've focused this summer on receiving and encouraging material from new artists.  Many of you have sent in material which we're looking through and hope to feature some of in the New Year.  We've also published some artists new to Proost.  Rage, Hope, Despair is the amazing multimedia resource looking at Job and created by Youthscape.  If you've not seen this yet do take a look as it's one of the most dynamic things we've ever hosted here on Proost.  It also features illustrations from Si Smith.  

We also featured new poetry from Kiwi Mark Laurent and we've been thrilled to hear your responses.  

Today we launch creations from two new Proost artists.  Openings by The Many is an amazing collaboration of music, prayers and ritual first premiered at the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, USA in 2016.  We are thrilled to work with Gary Rand and see this resource on Proost.  

We also are launching Poetic Justice by Rachel Edge.  Rachel contacted us in the summer and we loved her poems - she has a gift for the metaphor and creates a wonderful collection of poems which we think you'll love.  

Finally we were amazed by the recent UK reaction to our Box Sets of physical books and so have launched one more .... the Proost Poetry Box Set.  These four physical books feature some of the best of Proost poetry including our best seller Learning to Love and work from Chris Goan, Ned Lunn and Tim Watson.  Stock is limited so let us know if you want one.  Due to postal costs this is a UK offer only but if you're from outside the UK do email us at [email protected] and we can let you know costs of postage to your location.

 

take hold of the unknown

grace last saturday played with the metaphor of an iceberg where a large proportion of it is not visible, is below the waterline. it was a simple service but really profound too. the prayers and liturgy have been added to the grace website here. we explored ideas of what is hidden and visible in relation to the grace community, faith and god.

steve collins wrote a final prayer riffing on one by mark berry. i am making this whole exploration a worship trick - no 67 in series 4

welcome

to what you cannot see
to what you cannot control
to what you cannot put numbers to
to what you cannot ignore
to what you cannot hide from

it welcomes you

welcome

the surface is open
the sea has room
the food is plentiful
the water is cool
the company is warm
the rest is undisturbed
the shelter is total

they welcome you

welcome

the welcome is universal
the entrance is free
the invitation is open
the hand is extended
there is no time limit
the time is now

they welcome you

welcome

to hidden generosity
to gentle undercurrents
to subtle nourishment
to unspoken prayer
to inarticulate longing

we welcome you

welcome

to actions beyond words
to help without asking
to provision without measure
to hospitality without price
to risk without fear

they welcome you

welcome

take hold of the unknown
accept the unconditional
let go of limitation
give up the guidebook
trust what you cannot question

god welcomes you

welcome

whether you deserve it or not
whether you think you deserve it or not
all are welcome
you are welcome
they welcome you to their mystery
their depth from which all creation springs
come and swim with them

they welcome you

the father that only the son has seen
the word that no-one recognised
the spirit that intercedes without words

they welcome you
world without end
amen

under the iceberg - grace next satuday

love the flyer for the next grace! the idea for it came out of a day we had back in june reflecting on grace and what we are up to - we realised that the visible parts of grace are supported by a whole set of other practices, friendships and hidden things. so that's what we'll be exploring. here's the blurb...

The lower part of the iceberg is invisible, immeasurable - and yet it supports everything that we see. How do we measure the worth of the hidden parts of our communities, our faith, our lives? All are welcome to join us in an 'underwater' exploration.

a little child will lead them

leading the communion service at greenbelt for several thousand people is a challenge - the scale of it but also doing something that is both creative and appeals to a wide range of people - i know as i have led it a couple of times! this year was one of the best all built around the simple idea of children leading it. this included the sermon slot where the archbishop of canterbury was aksed questions by children on his role and on the passages. the favourite question seemed to be who would win in a fight between him and the pope! anyway greenbelt and andrew graystone (who put it together) have made the liturgy and resources available here - a little child will lead them - thank you greenbelt! i am making this a worship  trick. 

do have a look at one day - a piece of liturgy that managed to be profound and hilarious at the same time...

and this is all worship trick 66 in series 4

grace seeds - confession, affirmation, communion prayer

last night's grace was on the theme of seeds and a lovely communion service. these are a few of the prayers that those of us planning it wrote - and i am adding them as a worship trick - 65 in series 4...

a confession:

Gardener God

Forgive us for the times we have kept our seeds in the packet

For the times we’ve been too scared to risk, too selfish to love, too embarrassed to try

Gardener God, have mercy on us

 

Forgive us for where we have let weeds grow in the soil of our lives

For the times we have forgotten to pray,

for the days when we don’t bother to listen,

for the moments when we neglect the stirring of your spirit

Gardener God, have mercy on us

 

Forgive us for when we have trampled on the seedlings of others

Through careless words or outright criticism,

through envy or feeling threatened,

through being insensitive or wrapped up in ourselves

Gardener God, have mercy on us

 

Forgive us for when we think it’s all down to us

When we forget that to grow we need the earth of our community,

The water of other people’s contribution,

The sunshine of your favour,

The nutrients that come through conversation and challenge

Gardener God, have mercy on us

Amen

affirmation (based on the grace ethos/values create, participate, risk, engage):

We believe in the Creator who imagined this world 

And then made it with all its earthy glory

Who made us in God’s image

With the same gift of imagination

Made to CREATE

To look after the earth and develop its resources

 

We believe in Jesus the Son of God

Who most perfectly embodied that God like image

He was able to see what God was doing and join in

Participating in the overflow of God’s love for the world

Who call us to PARTICIPATE

In the the same love for the world

 

We believe in the Spirit of Life 

Who animates us with the breath of God

Who assures us that we are God’s children

Who calls us to RISK 

To offer up the gifts we have been given

 

We believe that one day God will make all things new

While we wait we will ENGAGE

In our communities, our neighbourhoods and our workplaces

Bringing foretastes of that new creation now

Sharing the good news of God’s wonderful Kingdom

Amen

communion prayer:

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground a dies it remains a single seed 

but if it dies it will produce lots of wheat. 

 

Wheat is ground to make flour 

Flour is mixed with water, salt and yeast to make bread.

 

Bread is your body

Your body is broken

For healing

 

Unless a grape pip falls to the ground and dies it remains a single seed 

but if it dies it will produce lots of grapes on the vine. 

 

Grapes are crushed to make juice

Juice is mixed with water, yeast and sugar to make wine.

 

Wine is your blood

Your blood is poured out 

For forgiveness

 

Thank you so much for gifts of bread and wine to remember you by

Thank you so much for being the seed that fell to the ground and died 

that we might have new life

Send your Spirit on these gifts

 

Come to the table 

You are welcome if you are waiting 

You are welcome if you are buried

You are welcome if you are hidden

You are welcome if nothing’s happening

You are welcome if you are growing

You are welcome if you are flourishing

All are welcome at God’s table,

especially those who know they are poor, weak and broken.

God is here, the One who makes the seed grow

Amen

grace seeds

a new season of grace starts on saturday sept 10, 8pm, st mary's ealing. do come and join us as we look forward to the year ahead. there will be communion and a café afterwards. i really like september - it always feels more like new year than new year if you know what i mean. 

words of hope

i have read a stack of books this year and always mean to mention them on the blog and don't seem to get round to it so alongside editing photos from the summer in the next month i'll add a few books i have read that i think worth a mention...

first up words of hope from amos trust is a collection of prayers and liturgies and reflections - it's delightful and poignant. amos trust is small human rights organisation challenging injustice and cultivating hope. the words capture their spirituality wonderfully well. it's such a refreshing change to read words that you can echo an agreement to in your own heart. i find the arriculation of spirituality in much contemporary worship is either very focused on individual relationship with god or on proclaiming how great jesus is on a throne in the sky. it's harder to find songs and prayers of longing and anger and hope that relate to the world we actually live in.

the book is available here

this book is a reminder to me of the importance of communities and movements articulating a mission spirituality not just in mission statements and branding and in news stories but also in prayers, liturgies, poetry, art and longings that are expressed soulfully. it is of course what proost has been about and is about for years!