jonnybaker

billionaires

we have a tradition in our family that jen started a few years back of giving books as easter gifts. mine this year was billionaires by darryl cunningham. it is a graphic book i.e. the stories are told in pictures like a graphic novel but it's not a novel. he tells the stories of three super rich - rupert murdoch, the koch brothers and jeff bezos. it is brilliant! it is a surprise in that you wouldn't expect a graphic book to be able to get under the lid of the issues in the way he does.

i find the whole financial systems confusing and when i have read books on economics i don't usually make it to the end especially if they are as fat as piketty's capital which i bought and never read. but super crash his previous graphic book was the most undestandable book i have read on the finance systems.

my own naive few is that the society we have allowed to exist where an individual can accumulate the level of wealth these guys do is absurd. it would be simple to deal with through taxation and creating limits and the money could be invested in society in different ways. but the obssession with not interfering and the ideology of the free market seems to stop that sort of intervention. it find it disgusting. it will be interesting to see if the current situation changes our societal view.

murdoch i knew about and the book confirmed what i thought. the koch brothers are unbelievable - i ended that section wondering how they are not in prison for the abuse of the environment. but the really disturbing thing in both of their stories is the collusion with government and media and what is essentially manipulation of power through their wealth that buys political influence. the level of cosying up should be illegal. and make no mistake these guys are hugely powerful. jeff bezos story is interesting - i genuinely like his drive and innovation but in the end his drive doesn't play out so well for workers and the stories of tax avoidance are well reported and the jury is out on what he will do with his wealth. but that is the point - why should we as a society wait for these individuals to be good philanthropists? they should never be in that position. 

share communion in your own home and resist the power of religious control

when christ dies on the cross the curtain in the temple is ripped from top to bottom. that curtain guarded the way into the place that only the priests could go. it is a sign that the religious power controlling access to god is ended. the way is open. in some mysterious way christ’s non violent resistance disarms the powers including the power of religious domination.

while in new zealand i read binding the strong man by ched myers. it is a brilliant commentary on mark’s gospel story of the life of jesus christ. i found it compelling. he sees jesus’ life as one of non violent resistance to the powers that oppress and dominate people. in the foreword to the twentieth anniversary edition hendricks describes it as nothing less than a project to rewild the church. i should have read it years ago.

there are two powers that jesus contends with - the imperial power of rome and the religious power of jerusalem.

myers tees up the narrative by saying that these two powers are highlighted in stories where people are oppressed by an evil spirit. the first is in the synagogue where an unclean spirit says to jesus ‘why are you interfering with us’? this is a pretty perceptive question because within the first few chapters of mark jesus has interfered with the way the religious world is controlled and organised by breaking laws of the sabbath, healing people, suggesting that god has come to those who the religious world deems unclean - touching lepers, eating with ‘scum’ tax collectors, touching a woman who is unclean through bleeding, blind beggars, gentiles and the list goes on. he messes with what is clean and dirty. within three chapters the heavies from jerusalem have been sent up to investigate and accuse jesus of being possessed by the devil. and so it goes on from there. jesus does not mince his words when he confronts the religious authorities about how they burden and oppress people. his stark warning to his followers is ‘beware the yeast of the pharisees’. this all eventually comes to a head in jerusalem where jesus turns the tables in the temple which is the heart of the religious ordering and system which is ripping off the poor, and while the disciples are admiring the building he says that within a generation it will be destroyed. and sure enough that is exactly what happens. as myers puts it “jesus now offers a vision of the end of the temple-based world, and the dawn of a new one in which the powers of domination have been toppled.”

the second story is where jesus crosses a lake and encounters a man who is oppressed by ‘legion’. myers says that can only be heard as a reference to roman military power by readers that somehow dominates this man’s life so that he is in chains. jesus frees him from this domination. jesus is ultimately executed by this state power. it’s hard to say how much they perceive him to be a threat. today is good friday when we remember christ’s death which was at the hands of the imperial state and the religious authorities who colluded together. but my own take is that the real anger and drive for it came from the religious authorities. it was their world that jesus threatened so much.

the opening lines in mark’s gospel are about a way - preparing a way. jesus life shows a radical alternative way. i have always found this way amazing and inspirational - i have often noticed how many people like jesus but are put off by the church. in my own clunky way i want to follow him in that way. and i have been stirred up by this notion that to follow in that way is to live in a way of non-violence, of activism, and of resistance to the powers of domination. it is a way that has at its heart a vision for a different kind of world (kingdom as jesus calls it) of peace, of cancelling debts, of love, healing and non judgement, and fairness for all that welcomes those who the powers exclude precisely because all are god’s children. god is not the preserve of the wealthy, powerful and religious.

i was thinking about these powers in relation to colonialism while i was in new zealand and i will come back to that in another post. but today i am thinking about religious powers of domination and control in the church and in particular the church of england of which i am a life long member and a lay pioneer minister.

in a previous post i suggested we need more imagination and less control especially as people seek to be creative online in how they worship and pray and do community. these are challenging times and as i said in a previous post there is a lot of good work and practice going on. but the lockdown has brought home to me just how far we stray at times from the way of christ in the church. it is the sharing of communion in particular that has vexed me this week. 

jesus instituted a meal with friends where bread and wine are shared and people have done that ever since in homes and churches to remember christ. jesus life was one where he was always in trouble over meals - he ate with the wrong people who were always welcome at his table, though he usually was round theirs.

fast forward to coronavirus and the church is holding online eucharist services with guidelines that the only people who can share the bread and wine in their homes are bishops and priests. everyone else can watch apparently! so for easter day for example which is a day when all are encouraged to take communion suggested activities are:

Some bishops and priests may wish to celebrate Holy Communion in their homes.

Practising spiritual communion as this is a day on which all ought otherwise to receive Holy Communion in church.

spiritual communion is explained here - and is for situations where you can't share bread and wine. in many cases i suspect and indeed i hope that those leading the service will not have it but use the absence of sharing bread and wine to reflect on this moment of separation. and some will choose not to have services of communion which is probably a good option if you want to obey the guidelines. the idea that just the priests would have communion i find unbelievable both in itself and that it could be in print in public - i did a double take to check i was reading it right. this makes it both exlusive and a rite of exclusion! surely the obvious thing to do and what everyone will want to do and i hope will do is to share bread and wine in their own homes to remember christ. it saddens me that the church has not got the imagination to say this is healthy practice. there is a regulation in the canons of the church (scroll down to b5) that gives discretion to ministers for unusual circumstances to lead worship that is different. for example they may...

on occasions for which no provision is made... use forms of service considered suitable for those occasions and may permit another minister to use the said forms of service.

we are in such an occasion surely! so i hope ministers act anyway.

the church has a lot of regulations about communion - what prayers, who can preside, where it can take place and so on. in grace we have found these frustrating and sought permission to use other prayers and write our own which we have done over the years. we have respected having someone preside who is ordained when we meet in st mary's church as we are part of the church of england. one curious regulation is that a place needs to be authorised if it's not a consecrated building like a church. so whenever we meet in homes we regularly share bread and wine in a simple informal way usually as part of a meal and concluded those ordained should not preside because the buildings have not got the permission - i know it's nuts. bishops are likely to have had to give permission for priests to lead communion from their homes online i suspect! i have written about grace's approach in the introduction to making communion if you are interested. the church of england says on the one hand that it values creativity, that the shape and integrity of worship is what is important and not the words in themselves and we need new ways of doing things but in practice it is still extremely controlled and locked down.

the church has various justifications through sacramental theology and other clever sounding ruses. but really it is an issue of control. these are things the church has constructed, made up, nothing more and i can't help thinking they are in direct opposition or at least massively out of kilter to the way of christ. how do you get from what he did to what the church is saying at this time? it's completely baffling. beware the yeast of the pharisees. the curtain in the temple seems to have been stitched back together. the central structures of the church of england have somehow created a scenario in which there is a priestly caste who control access to god because it is only through their magic actions that people can have communion, bread and wine to remember christ. if one of them is not in your home tough. it's absurd! the religious power of domination is alive. 

i refuse to collude with it. it’s power was disarmed by christ’s death on the cross. i will be happily remembering the story of christ and sharing bread and wine online with others in grace and in my own home with jenny. this is we note from the guidelines not going to be an official church of england communion. but we will be making communion. i hope there are homes and indeed vicars up and down the country who ignore the church’s guidelines on this. i get to go to various meetings in the church of england where the rhetoric is that the church is committed to mission, to lay ministry (that means people who are not ordained) and the vision of the church is to empower all of its people with a vision called ‘setting god’s people free’. how are we supposed to take that seriously?!

some years back at another time when i was bumping into the religious power of domination in the church of england in another way, i made an art installation called red tape in which i ring fenced the table with barrier tape and bound the bible in red tape and wrapped a dog collar in red tape. i couldn't help thinking about it again today...

from my experience of communion in homes over the years, a simple way to do it is to do so in a meal and share bread and wine either between courses or at the end. give space to tell the story of christ in some way and to remember his life. death and resurrection. invite participation and conversation, use one of the stories from the gospels, maybe one of the meals jesus is at. have a prayer of thanksgiving - the official church ones are online, you can find one you like from elsewhere - such as the iona community or grace, or someone can improvise one. if you improrvise it it helps to have an idea of the shape of those kinds of prayers. in our grace easter vigil we will be using a thanksgiving prayer for easter written by the st hilda community and janet morley which has really lovely words. then give some space to share and pray for one another. it's not hard!

future present launched in s korea

i would have been in south korea with friends there at the moment if coronavirus had not locked everything down meaning i had to cancel the trip. we have a partnership there that has developed over the last few years where there is a hub/centre for pioneering - the institute of st brendan. it was lovely to be sent some photos today of friends there celebrating the launch of future present which has been published in korean. when we crowdfunded that here who would have thought that would happen??!! small world and all that...

it is still available in english of course via proost or indeed we have copies at cms as well. it's a delightful zine/book with some weighty content and beautiful design.

i always knew you would come back

i am currently on a couple of months extended leave from work which is a wonderful thing to be able to do. it's fairly common in other colleges teaching theology that people get time to research and write from time to time and i am glad to say cms have recently agreed that for people like me who are involved in teaching you can apply to do so every four years. i jumped at the chance as this year i think i can fit that in my life! apart from instagram where i post photos i decided to keep a fairly low profile on social media as that can be such a distraction and take what could be headspace for reflecting on other things. but given the weird circumstances we are now in i thought i would post an update and indeed i feel like i have a number of blog posts i want to write so may start to post a bit more anyway.

the exciting news is that i have finished writing a book i have been working on with cathy ross. it's called imagining mission with john v taylor and will be out in the summer in time for greenbelt (hoping that goes ahead?!). i am excited about it and thankful to cathy for inviting me to work on it with her. we had done loads of work on it already before my leave so no i haven't written a book in a few weeks, but i have had the time to add some sections especially focussing on creativity and how you can nurture imaginative approaches to things. john taylor was a cms leader back in the 60s and 70s and the book riffs off of his bold and inspiring work to hopefully speak in a creative and contemporary voice about mission today. anyway more about that nearer the time i guess. 

then the second thing i wanted to do was to take the opportunity to get inspired by visiting other contexts especially to think about pioneering. so the first stop has been new zealand where i am now (and part of that has been welcome rest). i was also due to visit three places in asia to learn more about cms and mission there but unsurprisingly i have had to cancel those. i certainly picked a weird time to travel! i have been to christchurch airport twice so far and returned having had to cancel flights for different reasons. but i am due to fly back later today and get into london thursday. i have boarding pass and seat numbers so am hoping it will all be fine as no doubt the uk will shut its borders like other european countries before long. the photo above seemed apt - and i hope it's not too optimistic. i hope it doesn't prove to be poignant because my host roger gets another phone call from me at the airport saying i am still here and can he come back and pick me up again...

i have loved new zealand - what a beautiful country! this is my first visit. i have not seen much of it really having spent all but one day in the south island but what i have i have loved. and it has been so interesting in relation to cms whose missionaries are so tied up with new zealand's history. one of the ideas around creativity that we explore in the book is that you often come up with ideas when you get knocked off your usual routine as it provokes you in a different way. the most common kind of provocation is something that happens to you that you simply learn to receive. so getting stuck in new zealand has been that kind of a provocation and the gift that has been in it is that in the extended time i have had here i have had more conversations and time to reflect on mission in new zealand and its history. one of the people i met, paul has been amazing in that regard and i have so far read huia come home, bible and treaty and our story: aotearoa – the story of mission in new zealand through the lens of the new zealand church missionary society whilst in coffee shops or park benches round christchurch. i won't say more about that now but i will no doubt blog some thoughts from a naive outsider's perspective at some point.

i have taken a ton of photos - i'll add some here as part of reflections but i have added a selection to two flickr albums if you are interested -

new zealand + street art in christchurch

ants in the pants of the body of christ - first expressions

steve taylor was celebrating the launch of first expressions last night. sadly i couldn’t join him as it was in new zealand (though i am hoping to see him next week as i am off on some travels!). first expressions is a reflection on some of the first wave of new expressions of church that back then were either called alternative worship or emerging church. the language of fresh expressions had not yet landed. steve researched these back when he was doing his phd in 2001. he then revisited the communities in 2013 and met with those involved. i have a personal interest as grace is one of the communities in the research, one of the first expressions, and steve came and had a meal and conversation with a group of us as part of that.

it’s so interesting and such a gift to have someone external take the time to research and write and reflect back to you on what they observe and notice in the sense making they do of what was really you and a bunch of others making some stuff up as you went along. steve posits that the birthing and becoming back then has contributed so richly to the wider life and mission of the church, to the becoming of the church in the west. steve is a creative thinker, writer, and theologian who is close to the ground as someone involved in mission practice and someone who also can navigate the theory. this is what makes it have such a ring of authenticity. 

he frames the whole book through a lens of innovation and the mission of god. i really like innovation as a frame. i have blogged about others writing on innovation and mission - it seems to be a growing conversation. steve takes four approaches to innovation - growth, ecology, indigenous and craft. this immediately begins to open up a broader ecclesiology than the usual narrow ‘gathered and grow’ one that seems to dominate (not that there is anything wrong with gathering or growing per se), what he calls a woven ecclesiology. in conversation with tim nash of nomad i recently explored the wider ecosystem of church life and think this broadening of the landscape helps see that trying new things, innovating, making fresh connections, building communities, sharing ideas and so on seeds all sorts of things in the wider environment. in the natural world it is entirely normal that things grow and age and die and seed other things. i can’t help wondering if a big part of our church challenge is there is not enough permission for dying as well as birthing because we have so many buildings we just seem to have to keep going for ever!!!

steve researches 10 first expressions. half of them no longer exist. steve explores this in detail as he too founded a fresh expression that no longer exists as a gathered community. and it’s lovely to read research that is able to show the immense value in birthing, trying and becoming and how it contributes richly to the wider church producing lots of good in and of itself. it’s hard to know what impacts what but these first expressions have been followed by an amazing amount of innovation and life through fresh expressions and so on. steve takes an organisational look with an interview with rowan williams, a reflection on fresh expressions and how that has helped institutional change, and also how mission is organised. i found the last part very interesting as i work for a mission organisation. it is interesting how challenging the way that first expressions structure and organise is for institutions to marry with their institutional ways ways of being and organising. steve comes back to this in a further chapter where he uses the eucharist as an example of the relationship between innovation and order and how existing governance structures might need to be broken and remade. 

there are so many layers and ideas and reflections in the book. this is really just a hasty blog post to say the book’s out and it’s really worth a read and conversation with others. i think it’s valuable for those of us who were involved at whatever stage, there’s loads to learn for those who have pioneered and are pioneering since, and there is plenty for the wider church in mission to ponder. steve concludes by suggesting that ecclesial innovation is the ants in the pants of the body of christ! 

Ecclesial innovation is the ants in the pants of the body of Christ. Ecclesial innovation enables a becoming as one, apostolic, holy and catholic church. It makes visible the reality that is the conversion of the Spirit in individuals, communities and organisational structures. Hence innovation has value as it makes the church be the church, awakening the essentiality of becoming as one, apostolic, holy and catholic church. Such is the mission of God through first expressions.

big thanks to steve for taking the time to do the research and offer this into the wider conversation. and it was a reminder to me of how much fun it has been to be part of a first expression grace, and my life since has been committed to enabling that innovation in mission to be encouraged and catalysed and multiplied elsewhere. i guess i have never thought of myself as the ants in the pants but it's probably fairly accurate :) . there’s lots of hope but also a long way to go, and a lot more becoming to be done.

art objects

i have blogged before about art and how much i identify with artists and the way they see the world. i like to think i am one even though it's not my life's work. when i read books on art i always find myself playing with the the way pioneers interact with the world and switching the word artist for pioneer. i think it's probably because pioneering is a gift of sight and imagination. which is true of art. in both cases they also go on to make or translate into something tangible out of that gift of sight. it's also perhaps because that seeing has to suspend what is 'normal' to see and imagine differently and is a form of truth speaking and acting. it can't sell itself, it has to embody gift.

i have done that with think like an artist, and art matters, and the creative stance for example.

a book i read a year ago was art objects by jeanette winterson. it is a collection of essays on art written in 1996 that i absolutely loved. she says about it:

I wanted to communicate the passionate excitement I have for art of all kinds. I really believe in the redemptive, persuasive, healing power of art. We all need it.

she is a wonderful writer. her sentences are so beautifully crafted. i have heard he speak twice and loved what she had to say. she is someone who thinks and lives deeply. as is my (probably bad) habit i underlined various sections of the book and particularly loved an essay called 'imagination and reality' in which she says that the currency of art is the currency of imagination and that the original role of the artist is as a visionary. artists see beyond the view from the window, beyond the mundane and interestingly she says that is why art fares better alongside religion than capitalism or communism. here are a few quotes i liked...

Art’s true effort is to open us to dimensions of the spirit and of the self that normally lie smothered under the weight of living

In a money culture, art by its nature objects. It fields its own realities, lives by its own currency, aloof to riches and want. Art is dangerous

The artist is a translator; one who has learned how to pass into her own language the language gathered from stones, from birds, from dreams, from the body, from the material world, from the invisible world, from sex, from death, from love.

The charge laid on artists is to bring back visions

The rebellion of art is a daily rebellion against the state of living death routinely called real life.

Art is pushing at the boundaries we thought were fixed. the convenient lies fall; the only boundaries are the boundaries of our imagination.

Art is pushing at the boundaries we thought were fixed. the convenient lies fall; the only boundaries are the boundaries of our imagination. How much can we imagine? The artist is an imaginer. The artist imagines the forbidden because to her it is not forbidden. If she is freer than other people it is the freedom of her single allegiance to her work. Most of us have divided loyalties, most of us have sold ourselves. The artist is not divided and she is not for sale.

the book is totally brilliant for inspiring about art so let it do that work for your heart and soul. but if your brain works like mine and you are a pioneer, you might also try and switch the word art for pioneering or artist for pioneer and see how that resonates...

 

art [pioneering] matters

i love artists - the way they see, think and make. so much so that i am happy to say 'yes' if anyone asks me if i am an artist. i have blogged before about books about artists - notably think like an artist, and the creative stance. as you probably know if you read this blog regularly i train pioneers people who have ideas for making the world a better place, people who see possibilities and then build things out of their seeing, people who imagine and can gather communities of people who follow christ which don’t require them to leave their culture behind. whenever i read a book about artists or art i find myself replacing the word art with mission or pioneering. it’s quite a fun game to play. for christmas this year my son harry gave me a book art matters which has four essays or reflections by neil gaiman illustrated by chris riddell. one off the pieces is called make good art and is the text of a speech neil made in 2012 at the university off the arts - the text and video are here. it’s absolutely brilliant - do digest it in full its own right. but i have taken the liberty of taking a few of his quotes and switching the words the arts or art for pioneering or pioneer. i have placed them in brackets so it’s obvious. anyway see what you think…

When you start out in [pioneering] you have no idea what you are doing. This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not.. If you don't know it's impossible it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone doing that again, yet.

If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go and do that.

When you start off, you have to deal with the problems of failure. You need to be thickskinned, to learn that not every project will survive.

I decided that I would do my best in future not to [pioneer] just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. If I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work. Every now and again, I forget that rule, and whenever I do, the universe kicks me hard and reminds me. The things I did because I was excited, and wanted to see them exist in reality have never let me down, and I've never regretted the time I spent on any of them.

I hope you'll make mistakes. If you're making mistakes, it means you're out there doing something.

Do the stuff that only you can do. The urge, starting out, is to copy. And that's not a bad thing. Most of us only find our own voices after we've sounded like a lot of other people. But the one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So [pioneer] as only you can.

Where would be the fun in making something you knew was going to work?

People keep working, in a freelance world, and more and more of today's world is freelance, because their work is good, and because they are easy to get along with, and because they deliver the work on time. And you don't even need all three. Two out of three is fine. 

That was the hardest lesson for me, I think: to let go and enjoy the ride, because the ride takes you to some remarkable and unexpected places.

The rules, the assumptions, the now-we're supposed to's of how you [pioneer], and what you do then, are breaking down. The gatekeepers are leaving their gates. You can be as creative as you need to be. The old rules are crumbling and nobody knows what the new rules are. So make up your own rules.

And now go, and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. [Pioneer]

lifelines [for the table]

several years back our friend lynda asked if we could meet up once a week to talk about life and at that time parenting as she was taking custody of her grandson. so we began meeting round a meal. it came up in conversation with a couple of other friends and they joined in and over the years various others have joined in and come and go. there are some occasional visitors who feel like they are part of the extended table family. sometimes there are three of us and sometimes it can get into double figures. the format is simple - jen or i cook food, others bring contributions and we sit and eat and drink and catch up on life. as well as a meal there is usually something to spark conversation - a poem, a thought, a prayer, a reading. and there is always space to share joys and sorrows and to pray together. the prayer is usually informal - it might involve lighting a candle, or sometimes a simple liturgy as we remember christ in sharing bread and wine in the meal, or sometimes it is enough to be held in silence for a moment. it's not really religious and we have tried to make it open and welcoming to anyone - as long as they are happy for food, conversation and prayer (whatever way they interpret that) all is well.

it is so simple. from the start jen and i agreed we wouldn't put effort into content so the thought/reflection is last minute. it's not about that really. but it has been and is a gift to have a group of friends who care for one another and hold one another in life. we are part of grace which is a wider church community but this group is also just as much our community of faith. i recommend it as a habit to get going in your life...

our latest conversation starter has been a wonderful find - lifelines by martin wroe and malcolm doney - a book with colour photographs and 99 reflections. they are spiritual themes but made very accessible for people of faith and none. so we have taken to simply asking someone round the table to take the book away, pick a theme they like and come back and share it with us and we talk about it. as well as being delightful provocations, what it has done which has been lovely is to share out facilitating the conversation starting. the themes are wide ranging - community, silence, waking up, kindness, creating a clearing, grief, activism, prayer... and of course friends round the table is the real lifeline.

i know i hardly blog worship tricks these days but i am going to add it to the list... 

the art of advent

this advent i am going to read through this lovely little book the art of advent by jane williams which has a painting for each day of advent with a short reflection. it's full colour and less than ten pounds! i was delighted to see meg wroe's reworked rublev's icon is in the book.

on imagination and mission - a chapter in missional conversations out today

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,there is a field. I'll meet you there. Rumi

it was this quote by rumi that sparked ric stott and i to have a conversation about imagination and creativity in mission. that conversation is published in missional conversations: a dialogue between theory and praxis in world missions which comes out today. i am very excited to be part of this book which has been pulled together by two of my friends and colleagues at cms - cathy ross and colin smith. the book takes nine contemporary contexts for mission such as the environment or migration and two writers explore that theme, one from a theoretical and one from a practice based approach. in our case ric and i couldn't work out which was which so we went for a slightly different approach going to and fro between us in conversation.

there is a book launch on nov 27 at cms in oxford at 4pm - see invite below. if you're anywhere near oxford do come along. it's currently reduced price on scm web site i noticed.

steve bevans gives it a lovely endorsement:

Cathy Ross and Colin Smith have put together an amazing collection of essays in these pages. Not only does their conversational method match their understanding of mission. Their content is fresh, exciting, imaginative, and in some cases groundbreaking. This is a pioneering book in every sense of the word. It's certainly the best collection of essays in missiology that I have read in a long time.

download the invite to the book launch here

 

future present is here!

good news - following the crowdfunding future present has been printed and has landed at proost hq - i have yet to see a copy but it exists. i can't wait! those of you who have ordered copies they will soon be winging their way to you...

future present nearly present!

future present is nearly present. we have six days to go on our kickstarter campaign and are 94% of the way there which equates to needing £219 to reach our target - it's exciting!

so one more push to get there - future present is a full colour book/zine with 14 contributors dreaming of a better world by imagining a different future and then asking what you differently now on the basis of that future. all contributions and the design of the zine have been donated. it's a work of love and gift.

the simple deal is this - buy a copy as a pre-order for only £10 which includes postage (if you are in the uk). or buy 10 for £70. and if you are overseas the deal is pretty good too for ordering 10 copies. 

we have one offer no one has taken up yet which is that proost who are publishing it will host an event and you'll get 50 copies for £400 - that is a pretty sweet deal too.

thank you again everyone who has pre-ordered and/or backed it in other ways - much appreciated. our hunch is that there are still lots of people thinking oh yes i must get round to it - go for it!

half way and more than half way!

fifteen days gone fifteen to go in the kickstarter campaign. i make that half way. the good good news is that we are now over 70% of the way to the total which is more than halfway :) . in fact right this moment there is £839 left to raise to reach our total. so we're feeling pretty good about it so far but we're not there yet and it's all or nothing. so as we start week three please back the project. if you have already big thanks! if you have meant to but haven't got round to it then please get round to it this week. and of course being the internet we all live in our own echochambers so please bounce it around your friends' echo chambers and beyond.

even though i feel we have talked about it quite a bit people have still asked me questions so here are a few FAQ

1. what is it? a zine
2. what's a zine - maga-zine but it will be more chunky, like a book but not a book, full colour, cool design
3. what's it about? dreaming of a better world in lots of areas of life - we asked contributors to imagine a different future and then think what we can do now to help that future arrive.
4. who are the contributors? - see the list in the image to the right
5. what does it look like? ah follow this link to see some spreads from the inside
6. how much do i have to give to back it? £10 is the price of a copy pre-ordered so it's a great deal for you
7. what if i am overseas? yes you can still order and back it only postage gets added. there's a great deal for 10 copies overseas btw
8. who is publishing it? proost - see their latest news update about it here
9. when will it be out? - assuming we reach our target we'll print straightaway so july
10. are you at greenbelt? good question - yes! we are seeing greenbelt as the official launch of it. greenbelt's theme is acts of imagination - a kind of perfect fit. so there should be a panel there on future present, and some kind of launch party 
11. where did you say i could go to back it? now you're talking - future present kickstarter

hope that helps!

one week three steps twenty two days

so we're one week into our first ever kickstarter campaign to raise money for the print run of future present - a zine that has 14 contributions exploring a better world. it's going to be full colour and look and feel great. i'm excited about it. it turns out the kickstarter thing is fun, addictive and nerve racking in equal measue.

the fun part is simply seeing what happens - knowing you are putting something out there and hoping this will enable it to become something real.

the addictive part is the temptation to keep looking to see if anyone else has pledged to buy one or more - i've had to shut the page down in my browser!

the nerve racking part is whether we will make it - it's all or nothing in that if we raise the money we're good to go. if not zilch!

the good news is we are on the eight day of 30, now have over 100 backers and are more than halfway to the target which feels amazing. but we want to keep it moving forwards and need your help.

i have three hunches - 

• that there are loads of people who have seen it and think i'll do that and haven't yet got round to it - if that's you then please get round to it!
• that lots of people think that the campaign is asking for a gift - it isn't. it's asking for you to pre-order a copy. plus it's postage free and as good a price as you'll get. the larger pledges are really good deals especially if you are not in the uk. so why wait?
• the third is that there are lots of people who haven't yet heard about it because we all live in small worlds. we're shouting about it in our small world but please let people know in your world too and spread the word

thank you if you've read this far! if you want a simple take on what future present is about it is these three steps above...

future present kickstarter goes live

i have been working on a side project with a few friends - future present. it's a full colour zine that seeks to imagine a different kind of world. we're running a kickstarter campaign to fund the print run through pre-orders! the simplest pledge is only £10 which preorders you a copy of the full colour zine. or there are some fairly sweet deals for 10 copies which you might like to think about especially if you are outside the uk. i have never done one of these before so looking forward to the next 30 days to see what happens. reminds me of blue peter and the totalisers if you are old enough to remember that! steve collins has done an amazing job on the design - go visit the future present kickstarter page here

big thanks to proost for partnering with cms pioneer on this project.

how to disappear completely

the wonderful si smith has published a graphic novel with valley press. it's gorgeous drawing as ever and a powerful story in its own right, a story of loss and withdrawal. it's also clearly informed by christ's journey to the wilderness though i don't think you need to make that connection necessarily. it was originally commissioned as a piece to work with schools but is good news that is has made it to a wider audience. si says...

I’d previously produced work that relocated biblical narratives to present-day Leeds, and also explored the story of Christ in the wilderness, so this comic felt very much like a natural progression for me,’ Si explained. ‘It was a way of reflecting on the season of Lent, packing it with references and layering up the meaning so it bears repeated reading. It’s also deliberately quite open to interpretation, so readers can invest the narrative with their own meanings

you can order it through valley press here

on innovation 3: feeling your way

how does newness happen or emerge? i am fascinated by this question. one way it happens is through feeling your way. this may sound vague or airy fairy but I think it’s an essential part of innovation that is probably either invisible to many or at least hugely underrated. it’s part of a process or what some call a framework for innovation that is quite widely recognised (though not normally called feeling your way). the areas of process that tend to get more attention often come after this. the previous two blog posts focused on the kinds of people who seem to be able to see differently and make things happen and on the kind of environment that creates the air in which creativity and imagination flourish which will lead to innovation. paying attention to the framework and process out of which innovation emerges is a third way of coming at it. of course there isn’t one - there are multiple ways of naming and describing this. 

the thing that got me thinking about the value of feeling your way or at least made me realise how much I do this personally was reading mike moynagh’s latest book church In life. i really like this book. in it mike uses emergence and complexity theory to explore a framework of innovation and how newness emerges in relation to new ecclesial communities. i think this is a very dynamic way of approaching contextual mission. it is able to be responsive, flexible, creative, learn from what’s happening, and adapt accordingly. but whether or not that is the focus of your innovation it is really worth paying attention to. the innovation framework he uses describes six processes of innovation, which overlap and feed into each other. They are: 

• dissatisfaction
• exploration
• sense making
• amplification
• edge of chaos
• transformation

it’s great to read a book like this that names restlessness, dissatisfaction as a positive thing. lots of organisational cultures prefer to hide dissatisfaction. dave male suggests the same start point in his book how to pioneer. gerald arbuckle names it as grief but is essentially naming the same thing  transformation is the result of the other five processes working together in overlapping and interpenetrating ways. dissatisfaction starts you on the journey. you explore through trial and error alongside prayerful attention. sense making turns your exploration into a story i.e. you are reflecting on what’s happening, piecing it together and making sense of it. in other words feeling your way! 

crucially this involves plenty of conversation and feedback - so rather than having a solution you land and develop the important thing becomes listening and learning and adapting in the light of feedback. mike suggests it’s a move to ‘act and reflect’ rather than ‘predict and plan’. this reminded me of the iterative process outlined in the lean startup.

in innovation or pioneering in mission there is always a whole lot of uncertainty and feeling your way. In relation to leadership in the church the same point i made in the previous post is true. most preparation and formation in theological colleges is not focused on dealing with flexible, adaptable, responsive leadership - it assumes a much more fixed body of knowledge and practices that leaders will go and lead as they have been trained and all will be well. i think mike’s book is extremely helpful in offering a very different framework of innovation for leadership in mission. it imagines an environment where things are unpredictable, and unknown. i also think the edge of chaos is a fascinating insight. systems and organisations that are very fixed and stable don’t tend to cultivate creativity and innovation - they dampen it or squash it. newness is seen as a threat to order. now you don’t want total chaos but systems that are open to change and newness are nearly always less stable - inside the edge of chaos is the sweet spot. feeling uncertain, knowing things are unpredictable and not being sure what the future might look like whilst knowing the present can’t continue as it is turns out to be a good place to be, perhaps ideal even. It’s reassuring, though depending on your personality may be energising or anxiety inducing. i found it very helpful to have a process named that i feel i do instinctively.

mike has been a great reflector for the church in the uk on cultural change and mission and fresh expressions of church. this post isn’t meant to be a book review though I am writing one for anvil at some point soon which I will post a link to here when I have done it. but I do wholeheartedly recommend it. and in my view mike’s thinking and writing gets better and better.

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. 

 

launch

it's been great this week to go to a couple of events where jen has launched and spoken about her book run for your life. the first was an evening organised by the ealing eagles, the running club that jen is part of. there was so much support and love for jen in the room - it is a really incredible community.

then last night was the launch at maggies - a centre for people affected by cancer. it is next to charing cross hospital and it's where we would go and have lunch before heading into the hospital when jen was having chemotheraphy. i rather like this photo of maggies sign with the hospital reflected in it.

jen has written about the launch here. harry had written some poems especially for the evening which may well appear online somewhere. one is in jen's post which was four lines long but opened with the amazing observation that there is a mother in the middle of chemotherapy...

and of course i took a few photos

loving seeing peoples reactions to the book and the publisher pitch are doing a great job of lining up articles and interviews. all in all wonderful stuff...

run for your life

jenny has written a book on her journey through being diagnosed with breast cancer and the ensuing chemotherapy, surgery, radiotherapy and recovery, coupled with her love of running and how that was a big part of her journey. the book is out in a month. it's published with pitch publishing.

i am so close to the story it's hard for me to be objective but i think it's a wonderful book. it will of course be of interest to anyone facing the diagnosis but i think it will also help anyone who knows someone facing that whether friends or family (which is probably most of us). jenny runs a blog and if you haven't read it do. her writing there on the journey is what was the spark for the book...