jonnybaker

jb - new blog header

for some reason i thought it was time for a new blog header. this photo is of some old typesetting letters on my desk with a gorillaz character. that was the basis anyway and it felt like coyote needed to make an appearance... the blue and yellow is a nod to my new room to work from - photos of that coming shortly. let me know what you think! 

cms twenty: mission shaped church and fresh expressions

this is the sixth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms | 5. worship tricks 

what age do you become mature? we certainly celebrated our two lads birthdays at 18 in crazy style as that felt a moment of transition into adulthood. i had an email this week inviting me to something to celebrate fresh expressions of church becoming eighteen - wow! where did that time go?

looking back on my time at cms it was couple of years in that mission shaped church was published. here is my blog post when it landed on my doormat. this was a church of england and methodist report published in 2004 which was in response to the wave of new things bubbling up round the edges of the church. two members of cms were on the group that produced the report - chris neal and gill poole and i am proud that cms were involved in what was a seminal report really. it is very rare that a church report becomes a best seller but it caught the moment and maybe even a wave of the spirit! it said it was catching up with what was already happening through the likes of the emerging church. it coined a new term - fresh expressions of church - drawing on the declaration of assent where the church says it will proclaim the gospel afresh in every generation. there had been an earlier report called breaking new ground so this was a build on that actually. graham cray chaired it and there was a foreword by rowan williams in which he wisely described a mixed economy of church to suggest that the new and the old were all part of the church's household and he came up with a pretty radical definition of church which has not been bettered since in my view. you can dig it out to find the content but it was generous in what was welcomed into the mix. and it was brave - there would be a lot of work to do in the church of england around culture change if this was to have legs.

the report had a series of recommendations and the then archbishop rowan williams gathered together some people who got behind resourcing it as i think he realised he probably needed to bypass the central funding structures to act quickly. he was an absolute legend, an authority dissenter who was loved to bits by the movement that followed. it's so fun to read the blog post of that evening at lambeth palace which I was at telling the story of grace as an example of a fresh expression and the blog entry is titled bring on the angliCAN church . a fresh expressions team was appointed and they got to work speaking, develioping training, sharing stories and setting to work on policy such as creating a pathway for ordination , changing the regulations around church planting across parish boundaries and so on. the tenth anglican church planting conference that june 2004 sold out. cms were one of the sponsors. but reading my blog post on it you get a sense of the energy that was around. along with notes i took on rowan williams wisdom. it's also weird how small photos were then on blog posts - but i loved this one of steve collins, ben edson and adrian riley . other denominations joined in (urc, baptist, salvation army) and it was picked up internationally. for example i visited korea where it was translated and inspired new expressions. the relationship with emerging church was interesting - if you know the diffusion of innovation curve emerging church was in the early adopters but fresh expressions was more working with the early majority - at least that is my sense of it and stephen croft and i had a discussion at greenbelt one year to that effect i remember. and it really did diffuse to a significant degree over 18 years thus far.

in july 2019 it was 15 years on from the mission shaped church report and at general synod it was reported that this had been the single most effective thing the church had done to reach genuinely new people (at least for a long time). it was also futuring the church in its forms. a motion was adopted to encourage every parish to consider a contextual expression of church (contextual means that it is creatively related to the culture of the place it is in). others would know better than me how theior denoiminations hgave responded.

the diagram above i sketched at one of the later fresh expressions gatherings and jotted down what graham cray reflected on as the facets of its charism.

the weird thing is that it is at a funny moment right now. covid has been difficult for lots of things which is one factor. another i think was a change of archbishop so the funding changed perhaps rightly to things he was passionate about. but several people used language of it being embedded as if to say we've done that - which i think was pretty naive looking back. my own take is that the church has always needed a combination of its structural way of organising and a movement way of organising (the jargon for this is modal and sodal). if you just leave something like fresh expressions to the structural it will likely slide back into more internal agendas. you need those groups with particular focus and energey to help and continue to call the church to its edges. i also think that the nature of fresh expressions was broad church and ecumenical and it worked hard at that with book series in the sacramental tradition as well as the low church end. the more recent developments are located in a much narrower stream or at least that is how they are perceived. that inevitably means some people get on board but others simply won't. the church of england also stopped its central funding contribution to fresh expressions. it is now an independent charity. it's still doing good things but much smaller. i actually feel we're at a bit of a critical juncture to see what the way forward will be for the mission of the church in this regard. i am not saying we should turn the clock back, but in retrospect i think the church has not made the most of the huge opportunity that it was on the cusp of in july 2019 because it thought this was embedded enough. 

the good news is that all sorts of newness has bubbled up and multiplied. the church is most definitely looser round the edges. and cms and church army and other groups who were there before fresh expressions are still here and passionate about and involved in encouraging the mission of the church. we (cms) always seem to be perceived at the more radical end of things (which i don't mind) but actually we have been engaged front and centre in lots of ways. it has honestly been an absolute privilege to have been able to be part of that era and movement and i think cms was great in encouraging and helping resource it. we funded a couple of people on the fresh expressions team (bob and mary hopkins) for a good season as well as carving a furrow in the pioneer end of things (more about that later). fresh expressions is still going in a smaller format and we will carry on! i am so grateful to have been part of cms that has kept investing, kept at the table, kept drawing on lessons learned about contextual mission elsewhere, and shared stories internationally to help fuel this adventure of the imagination. ht to everyone involved. it has been a huge joint endeavour. 

cms twenty: worship tricks

this is the fifth of a series of short reflections celebrating twenty years at cms

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms 

as well as being at cms twenty years i had another twentieth anniversary this year which somehow passed me by. that is how long i have been writing a blog. i was persuaded by andrew jones that i should write one and began on blogger and my first entry was in april 2002. one of the first things i started was a series of worship tricks. the name is a bit naff but they were creative ideas, installations, rituals, liturgy, videos that i came across that could be shared. back then search engines were not so good so having linkages was helpful. it also helped me catalogue things i could return to. there are 4 series - see the sidebar for links to them on the right. they have completely slowed down over the last few years (or decade even) but occasionally i add another. the thing that interests me about them looking back is that i have always loved creative, soulful, artful worship. i have published more in that area than anything else i think - alternative worship, curating worship, chapters in other books, labyrinth kit, the pocket liturgy series with proost, various albums and so on.

fresh expressions and pioneering (more on those in later posts in this series) rightly brought different start points from alternative worship - listening, being present, getting involved in community things. growing a community of disciples and finding ways to express worship come a lot later. so it interests me how i have carried that thread right the way through. i still think it's important - there is something magical about an experience or expression of worship that feels like it is on the inside of a culture, that you can be totally at home in. and at some basic level i think i have also been passionate about it because i struggle with expressions of worship that are done by the book or have blocks of singing with songs you can predict and make no connection imaginatively with the context, or that simply feel alien. the added value at cms has been learning from the global church and seeing places where indigenous expressions of worship and liturgies emerged as opposed to imposed western ones. the description of the mass with the masai in vincent donavon's christianity rediscovered blew my mind i seem to remember.

i haven't checked but i expect many of the links in worship tricks are broken or disappeared (and i have no intention to fix them) and the worship tricks are dated though no doubt some still ring true. but the delight of those creative moments and offerings is still there and i hope to stumble across many more going forward and i long for more people to have the courage to create. i have taught the worship module for pioneers at cms and that has been a great joy too seeing them explore what worship could look and be like in the communities they are among.

it has been incredible to be a part of a small creative church all the time i have been at cms - grace in ealing. there are so many beautiful prayers and liturgies and rituals that have nurtured my theology and faith that have then made their way into worship tricks, been shared at cms with pioneers, been picked up round the world. what a gift that has been. i have always thought the church's liturgy should be open source - downloadable, able to be remixed and uploaded for others to rework. i hope that's what people do with the worship tricks. the availability of communication technology has certainly made that possible though on balance i find the church still seems to prefer control to trusting its people and the creative process.

woodland ecosystem + church mixed ecology

the church of england vision has mixed ecology at its heart which i really like - it's a rich evocative metaphor. i was invited to write a blog post for the church of england on that idea. i have learned a lot about ecosystems over the last three years through managing a piece of woodland. so perhaps inevitably that's where my thinking went. have a read - what i learned about church as an ecosystem by looking after a woodland

i first had this idea and develop it in imaging mission with john taylor. i think that chapter might be my favourite thing i have ever written.

you will find us on the periphery

footnotes on life is a blog by kate fox robinson. it's a mix of poetry and reflections. i really loved this reflection on the edges which includes this poem you will find us on the periphery

You will find us on the periphery
In the land of the mapless unknown
You will find us at the edges
Where the wild things grow

You will find us in the liminal space
Where no one knows what to expect
You will find us where the sea meets the shore
And no one knows what will wash up next

You will find us among the hedgerows
Gathering what delights are growing there
You will find us with the bees and butterflies
Connecting over here with over with there

You will find us on ours knees
With the beetles and the ants
Living all together
Without a lot of thanks

For our humble jumbled life
And our muddy handed style
But we would invite you
To come a stay a while

In the land where the wild things are
And the place where the periphery reigns
You may learn things here that serve you
When you return to your pathed way.

Kate Fox Robinson

the farm - a parable from paul bradbury

paul bradbury is writing pioneer parables - two down so far. i really love this latest one the farm which he explains over on his blog and it's inspired by the book wilding by isabella tree.

There was once a farmer who managed a large arable farm on behalf of the owner. The farm was losing money and its future was uncertain.

The farmer invested in the best machinery and used the best fertilisers. The farm was amalgamated with neighbouring farms to reduce costs. The farmer did all these things and worked day and night every day of the year. But the farm continued to lose money.

Then one day the farmer said ‘I know what I will do – I will stop growing crops and I will listen to the land. The land is dying and everything with it. We will work with the land and with the God of creation and see what happens’. And she let the land breathe and allowed herself some rest.

Then the farmer called a meeting to communicate her plans. She sold all the machinery and laid off all the staff.  The staff were angry and said the plan was crazy. Other local farmers heard about the plan and shook their heads. Word reached the landlord about the plan and he wrote an angry letter saying ‘The farm needs to pay its way!’ and that the farmer wouldn’t have his support if she carried on in this way.

Then the farmer said ‘I know what I will do – I will introduce ancient breeds of cattle, horse and pig to graze the grass, and to trim the trees and to till the soil.’ These breeds had been largely forgotten but some in the farming community still knew about them. They managed the land naturally and fertilised its soil and new life began to return in amazing and surprising ways.

So the land continued to heal. The trees began recovering. Insects returned; butterflies, moths, beetles, bees. Birds began to nest and thrive.  The call of the turtle dove was heard once again.

And then the farmer welcomed people onto the land. They walked its paths and sat under its trees, they listened to the bird song and witnessed clouds of butterflies.

And many of them went home and became like the farmer. They listened to their land and worked with the God of creation. And watched to see what the future brought.

getting responsive

my blog is now responsive. there you go! 

a couple of weeks back a friend said "when are you going to make your blog responsive?" to which i looked quizzical and said "eh?". in my ignorance i had no idea what that meant but it turns out it means it adapts well for different devices especially phones. 

i have had a 3 column design for a long time (and was rather fond of it) but to make it responsive i have changed to two columns and found a way in typepad to make that happen. it actually means i am in a beta testing format to do so in the theme builder thing i use to design it so we'll see if there are any snags but hopefully if you are accustomed to looking at it on a phone or something it will look better.

in looking over the blog i found some things linked to hopelessly out of date. in particular i was amazed how few of the people i linked to over the years no longer have their blog or site going. so the links page is massively reduced but no doubt i'll add to it. if you feel like you should be linked to leave me a comment. i have to say i am so glad i have kept the blog ticking away even if it's trod water at times. it's fine having all the other flows on twitter, instagram and so on but to have your own web page/site seems to me like a good thing though that may also make me sound old.

i was in a conversation with a couple of friends the other day and writing books came up in conversation and it made me think i should have a better page of stuff i have published so there is now a page listing publishing at least the things i can remember - books, articles, music. 

i have also added a new blog header which i can't work out if i like or not - it's a bit less cool but a bit more playful. anyway if you have any thoughts on any of it leave me a comment.

and i hope the friend who asked me the question will be pleasantly surprised next time he looks at my blog on his phone.

real men

loving jen's blogs on equals. the last two have been so interesting...

the latest is on men and the church around which there is so much nonsense spoken (in my view!). i remember a talk by jen at greenbelt a few years back where in response to the suggestions that church is not such a great place for men she suggested it was also not such a great place for women who have also left the church in droves over the last decades! i totally hate the notion that we need more so called 'real men' in church... boxes boxes boxes. perhaps if church was a place for men and women to be friends, equals, to enjoy partnership together it would be possible to flourish differently?

i also really like the idea of catching the sayings and doings of gender. it's often quite tricky to know how to talk about but this attention to its performance seems to me to open up possibility for conversation that can be really constructive. it's developing a practice of seeing and noticing what is going on in oursleves and around us together as men and women. and then pointing them out and talking together - simple eh? by way of example i have noticed that when our family gets together we always say 'ooh you like nice' to a niece but say something completely different to a nephew not related to appearance. a small thing but it's the saying and doing of gender. having notcied it has helped me think about it, talk about it, affirm the appearance of both nephews and nieces and try and shift the conversation. anyway jen says more...

help me to see

i have written a piece for jenny on her series of reflections on equals - help me to see

competitive women and collaborative men

wise thoughts from jenny baker

posterous to close

well the writing has been on the wall since twitter bought posterous but it all ends on april 30. this is a shame as their blogging was so neat and simple - i persuaded several people to start blogging with posterous and have used it for the ealing photography group blog... 

the narky nazarene

andrew brimms has published another free book. you may (or may not) remember i blogged about his last one unintended consequences. it's called the narky nazarene and is by andrew and nat. it's a similar style - cheeky, provocative and really good! i assume it was compiled over time as a series of discreet reflections on jesus and what it might mean to follow him. the image above is one, or another page simply says -

downward mobility: he came down from heaven to earth - what's your next move?

it's simple, honest and direct. for me it captures something of jesus the prophet which is an edge that sometimes goes missing as the church prefers jesus the king or jesus the priest. there's a link from andrew's site to download it for kindle. i don't have a kindle so asked andrew to send me a pdf which he kindly did. on a second glance i think it may not be free now - it could be the bargain of 75p. either way it's worth getting...

refresh

every year i like looking back through blog posts and photos - it reminds me some of the year gone by. i have updated the recycled section on the right hand side to 20 posts from 2012 that i like. here they are...

• 5 things i've learned
• changing britain is still simple really!
• may you...
• pioneer training annual report 
• two gulls
• wake up!
• GOLD!
• bradley wiggins has won the tour de france - wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• wonderful
• world champion slam poet - harry baker!
• all togged up off for tea with the queen
• finally!
• the way
• found and lost
• ten years blogging
• stations on skin
• new proost web site launched!
• how to blaze a trail
• on poets and prophets
• it's a yes - approval given for cms training pioneer ordinands

i also then got into relooking at the blog and have tried to refresh a few of the pages, created a new header (may take a few refreshes to find), but it's basically still the same... i was sad to say goodbye to the another world is possible header from 2012's blog header but i like a change each year. the main challenge will be finding time to blog as ever.

we are all unequal

jeremy woodham, a friend and colleague at cms, is also a bit of a wordsmith and poet. he is a member of the lounge, a small christian community in ealing, and was a member of vaux back in the day. he let slip yesterday that he has been quietly starting a blog - take back the poetry. there are already some wonderful pieces on there. it really is good! i love this piece we are all unequal and am adding it to the worship tricks series - no 30 series 4, but do go and have a scout round and add it to your reader. i'll definitely be revisiting. try supper stories and lord's prayer for example...

We come together

because things are not right
because we don’t know what to make of the world
because we are bewildered
because we need shelter

We come together

because peace has not come
because your kingdom is a long time coming
because your will is hardly clear
and yet brutally clear
because we are threatened on all sides
because we have lost our way

We come together

because we notice the gap
between who we know we are
and who we want to be
and we feel giddy on its edge

We come together

because Jesus said, Come to me and I will give you rest
I will give you living water for your soul
I am the bread of life
because Jesus turned on the crowds
and had compassion on them
that wanted to be fed

We come together

to set the stage
to act as if it might be true
that we are loved
to love each other
to treat each other fairly
to see each other for who we really are
to allow others to see who we really are
with no shame and no fear

for we are all unequal
we are all disabled
we are all addicted
we are all dying

We come to pretend

that what we dream for tomorrow is true for today
that we live in a strange kingdom
where nobody is standard
nobody is predictable
nobody is average
nobody is unacceptable
nobody is judged
and nobody is judging themselves

where advertising does not standardise our dreams*
where our view is only filtered through God’s eyes

where instead of punishing each other for our own failings
we act with justice
love with mercy
and walk humbly with each other
and with our God

receiving blog posts via e-mail

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...

mark berry is back blogging and has started a new role as cms community facilitator

i've been so busy i forgot to blog this news... mark berry is now working with cms as the community mission facilitator which is exciting. cms has been a religious community for a couple of years now and it will be mark who helps us work out what that means, how to live it out and fuel a life of mission. he is creative, a pioneer, loves community, and is definitely someone who is future facing. he was always a really good blogger - i often linked to posts of his so it's good to see he has decided to re-emerge in the blogosphere

he's still in telford, and the community safespace will keep going and no doubt shift its pattern of leadership somewhat

church as network

i was asked to write a guest post for boats without oars, a blog run by someone i met in austin earlier this year. he asked if i could come up with something using a metaphor for church so church as network is the result which is a reworking of a couple of posts from my series riffing on clay shirky's here comes everybody...

ten years blogging today!

today i have been blogging for a decade! i started because andrew jones persauded me - i didn't really know quite why or what the point was at the time but it has been a wonderful adventure.so happy blogiversary to me! i confess i don't know how to celebrate but i will be drinking a chimay in the new inn in ealing tonight whilst watching chelsea v barcelona - so come and share a drink with me there if you are a blog reader nearby or alternatively pour yourself a glass at your computer - and virtually cheers!

anyway a massive THANK YOU to any of you who have 

• read posts 
• commented
• looked at my photos
• joined in conversation
• followed on facebook
• followed on twitter
• linked
• retweeted
• argued
• been inspired
• been annoyed
• been made to think
• found hope
• smiled
• developed ideas
• used or indeed given a worship trick
• connected
• become friends
• shared the journey

my first ever blog entry is here - scroll to the bottom of the page

ancient history - remember that blogger template and dial up?! there were about 10 of us blogging then...

here's ten blogging experiences over the years - anyone else recognise these?!

1. being at a meal with people and all your conversation is old hat because people have read it on your blog - 'you got any new conversation?!'
2. looking at everything in the world as a possible blog entry
3. being invited to other countries through people who know you through your blog (usa, canada, denmark, norway, france, australia...)
4. making wonderful friends - is there a name for meeting someone online and then in bodily form?
5. blogging anywhere
6. realising your wife can steal your thunder any time she likes -  jenny did one blog post for me which became the one with most comments i had ever had and subsequently started a wonderful blog herself which won a blog award while i came runner up - she must increase, i must decrease…
7. composing a blog post and in your head imagining the world's astonishment at your insights, posting it and waiting for the comments and there being total silence
8. posting a trivial link and the conversation takes off and you wonder why bother with depth or originality?!
9. blogging something too quickly out of a hot head and regretting it
10. wondering if there is actually anyone out there at all

it was actually blogging that got me into photography again as i wanted to be able to post images to the blog so that's also been a great spin off...

anyway it's a habit i can't seem to shake off so here's to the next decade of the stream of consciousness i will no doubt inflict on the world - a mix of stuff that randomly flows between personal, family, mission, culture, faith, art, photography, the zeitgeist, creativity, pioneering, book reviews, music, proost, links and whatever else springs to mind!

update: i am highly honoured to have had an asbojesus cartoon drawn to celebrate this momentus occasion - thought i'd add it in to the post here...

imagination, creativity and mission - interview on churchnext.tv

chris yaw contacted me a month or so back and asked if he could interview me for churchnext.tv via skype. we explored imagination, creativity and mission. the interview has just been posted. i've not met chris but he is buidling up quite a collection of interviews around mission, church, culture and so on on churchnext

stories of empowerment

sophia network are currently running a good series of stories of empowerment