jonnybaker

pioneer practice next stop southall 28 april

the pioneer practice tour really gets going after easter. next up is an evening in london hosted in southall with food to kick off. if you are in or around london hope to see you there. the evening is free or maybe will ask for a donation but it would help to know numbers so please do register. then it's 5 gigs in scotland at the start of may...

going on tour with pioneer practice!

i am really excited to be able to share that i will be heading off on tour with pioneer practice. gavin mart, a fellow pioneer, musician, poet will be joining me. the poster above is the current state of play but will no doubt evolve. but we will keep the tour page on getsidetracked up to date with links to booking pages for events as they land. some are day time, some are evening and some are doing both! 

we are in hull and york and chelmsford in march so if you are anywhere near those do sign up, come along - love to see you.

the book pioneer practice is about seeing possibility, dreams, ideas of how things could be better or new or different. and then making something happen out of that seeing. the events will be practically focused with a mix of stories, exercises, poetry, songs, conversation, inspiration and encouragement. ideal if you are interested in pioneering or in encouraging others who are. and ideal If you are new as it will be an opportunity to reflect on how to get started and explore your god given ideas. and if you have been pioneering a while it will give you some encouragement and practical wisdom for the journey you are already on. it is also a given that it will be a great chance to connect with others interested in pioneering. 

if you are interested in hosting and there isnlt anything near you then give me a shout as we are open to more dates.

and before anyone mentions it yes i do feel like i am treading in the shoes of harry baker. i'll have a merch bag and everything! 

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.

still curating worship

it's funny how things come round again. i published a book on curating worship some years back and it was based on interviews with people doing wonderful creative things trying to get at what it was that helped them in pulling together worship events. some months back i was invited by the diocese of bath and wells  to curate a celebration in bath abbey of their lay ministries. they have a passage of scripture (colossians 3 in the message translation) that they have been reflecting on all year which involved the idea of putting on clothes as a metaphor for the kind of life you might live. so we invited lou baker to be an artist involved in the celebration and she added to four clothing rails throughout. those attending had been invited to bering something that represented them to add to the rails. it was a simple idea but because it was big it created a really good visual centrepiece for the event.

afterwards i was celebrating with pioneer students who had completed the pioneer certificate in the holy rumpus which was fun. 

then midweek i took a workshop/webinar for a group of koreans online on the subject of curating worship. it's kind of weird that the idea translates across the world. but it was a really enjoyable session and they seemed to be quite energised by it. i had sent something in advance that was translated but you could feel the interest and energy in the questions. it was great to hear one story of how curating worship had inspired a very participative approach to one online exploration of worship from one attendee. i took a screen grab which is a visual with an outline of a service online. for some reason it looks very cool in another language!

a landscape full of both promise and potential danger

john and olive drane have written a review of pioneer practice that is published in cms' newspaper the call. it is been added here on the pioneer blog - stories that will stir your soul. thank you to them for such a positive review - they have been encouraging about it from day one. here's how they describe it

There is an abundance of advice on practical issues for would-be pioneers, along with an honesty and realism that reflects the difficulties as well as the joys of working with God in spaces where no church has ever gone before. 

"get yourself a copy!" is their advice which i obviously agree with :) if you do want to it is available from getsidetracked.co

 

a beautiful carpet of inspiration for us to walk on...

thanks to gill poole for the enthusiastic review of imagining mission. if you want to know what the book is about she goes through chapter by chapter for an in depth review. gill describes it as a beautiful carpet of inspiration to walk on... that has wonderful perspectives that invite us into a conversation...

if you have not looked at the book i am really proud of it - don't be put off by the obscurity of john taylor - you don't have to know about him or think it's historical. it's a book written for this moment riffing on his creative writing and ideas.

a really good starting point...

so says mel neale in her review of pioneer practice in baptists together - thank you! she concludes by saying

This book provides what someone needs to hear when they know pioneering is not just what they do but who they are. 

if you want a flavour of it, i wrote an article using a part of the book for baptists together - a start in pioneer practice three questions to ask

if you have not got your copy yet where have you been??!! it's available from getsidetracked

sacred bean eucharist and other follow up from prospect farm

thanks to anyone who came to the session in the long barn at greenbelt's prospect farm. here's some follow up info.

imagining mission with john taylor is here - i loved working on it. john taylor really sparked my imagination and we have tried to write in the same creative vein and i hope it will spark your imagination if you dive into it. each chapter ends with exercises on creativity you can try out.

pioneer practice is here - this is a mix of stories and very short practical articles - ideal if you have an idea to work on, and ideal for a group to use together to dream up something. it's full colour - there are sample pages on the web site. the discount code i gave out will work until friday. if you have forgotten or weren't there and want to know get in touch.

thanks to jo howie for taking part in the session and telling the story of sacred bean. go look at their web site and order some coffee! and as i said in the session we have added the wonderful sacred bean eucharist to getsidetracked - simply click on the page spread that says sacred bean eucharist which is in pioneer practice. i am sure jo would love to hear how you get on with that so do message me or her about it. i am making that a worship trick - remember those? it would be about 86 in series 4....

jo wrote that liturgy as part of a worship module at cms on the pioneer training essentially thinking how you might create a ritual/liturgy that reflected the culture of the community gathered around sacred bean. the training is wonderful - do have a look at the pioneer mission leadership training web site here. it's quite late for this year! but we have certificate, diploma, BA, MA, DTh options as well as simply picking modules to do. there are now quite a few options online as well. if you are interested for this year get in touch immediately! we also have hubs round the country offering training which is not accredited - again see the web site for those.

and thanks to ali for coming and sharing about the social supermarket and other adventures getting going in rotherham.

above all i hope it sparked your imagination around what you might be able to participate in or catalyse.

curating worship is published in korea

i was so chuffed today when the korean edition of curating worship dropped on the doormat. i love the cover. it was published here in 2010 so it's quite a surprise that it's got a new lease of life. having said that i love curation as a way of approaching worship and there are some wonderful conversations with people about their amazing creative practice in it which without doubt was ahead of its time. i hope it sparks some creative things in korea. a huge thank you to hong-il kim who was the person who first invited me to korea, keyongmoon kim for friendship and believing in the book and publishing it (and the others - this is the fourth book i now have had published in korea!). also big thanks to younha hwang for translating it. and to the brendan insititute for their commitment to pioneering in korea.

church for people who want to punch stuff + first review

it was great to read a first review of pioneer practice from russ bravo at inspire. he says 

Pioneer Practice manages to both provide inspiration and motivation for the pioneer, while being hugely pragmatic and realistic about the cost, the struggle and the challenge of doing things differently. Full of wisdom, deep questions and electrifying examples of what God can do when people who don’t fit the established order get stuck into changing things.

you can read the full review here. 

i also wrote up one of the 'electrifying examples' from the book for an article for inspire too - church for people who want to punch stuff 

getting started

i am running a zoom workshop on 8 july 7:30pm for 2 hours on getting started in relation to pioneer practice. place are limited to 25 so we can see one another and discuss your ideas and practice. i will be joined by two pioneers who feature in the book and know all about the challenges of building something from an idea to becoming tangible in the world. they are andy freeman and kim brown. tickets are only £10 or there is an option to get it with the book that will save you something on the regular price. i haven't pushed it before the book launch as the images looked similar and i didn't want to confuse anyone!!! 

you can register here

overcoming

at the book launch for pioneer practice when he was interviewed, jon birch said his favourite quote in the book was from ann-marie wilson (see above). she is an incredible pioneer. i remember when i first met her and she said her vision was to campaign to eradicate fgm from 28 countries in africa and i thought - wow that is a big vision and challenge. she subsequently has pursued that vision and path with incredible courage and determination and set up the charity 28toomany. she is part of a conversation in the book about change where we discuss how you create the change you want to see and culture change is a big part of that challenge - i loved that conversation. ann-marie has a book just out telling her story called overcoming: my fight against fgm. and there is a launch on facebook live this friday with a video and then space for questions.

thank you

thank you everyone who came and made the book launch such a great evening - i guess pioneer practice it is now launched!

come on dream!

this is the first in a series of blog posts on pioneer practice. how it will unfold i have no idea! i hope they will be a sort of oblique link to the book without re-presenting the material in it too directly. but i will explore some of the ideas and themes.

on friday i went to the cinema in socially distanced fashion, mask wearing and all that. it was a sensual delight. i was so moved by the film that i couldn't tell if it was because i hadn't been so long or that the film was really good! it certainly was a great feel good factor movie which was great to experience. we went to see dream horse which came out last year. it's a tale set in a depressed village in the welsh valleys and is the true story of jan vokes who organised a community syndicate to buy a racehorse that they named dream alliance who was broken in on the allotment and went on to win the welsh grand national. 

but here's the thing - it's a wonderful story of pioneer practice. it may be that my head is just too full of themes of the book at the moment so i am seeing it everywhere but bear with me. the big themes i explore in the book are BE YOU, SEE, BUILD, and CHANGE and they are all at play in the film. btw warning - plot spoilers so watch the film and come back!

jan works at the local co-op and helps at the local community social club. having some experience of animals before through competing with dogs and pigeons she has the crazy idea of getting a mare who could give birth to a racehorse. it's a ridiculous idea - it's incredibly expensive if you go the usual route. but she SEEs a possibility. for me pioneer practice is a gift of sight. others don't see it but she can. she also sees that what is needed is hope and something to live for - it's not about the money. this adventure could be just what the depressed community need. in fact it's just what she needs.

once you see something you have to work out how to make it happen or BUILD it. it doesn't seem like it would stack up but crucially she does the maths - gets a spreadsheet and works out how many people she needs to pay £10 a week over a few years and puts her and brian's retirement find on the line so they can get started right way. she then persuades the most unlikely local community pub goers to join in the adventure. there are of course various important things about training a racehorse and when the time comes they find the best trainer and persuade him. pioneer practice is this work as well as the vision - it's making the idea have legs through a spreadsheet, building a team, navigating curve balls, finding a way when there is no way. it's also fascinating to hink that this is a built from somewhere that writes itself off and others assume is hopeless. but jan sees the assets in herself, in howard davies who is local and knows a thing or two about racehorses and in the community everyone else writes off. and then slowly it grows - the first race and so on. like every pioneer project i know they hit the desert on several occasions where it seems like the whole thing will collapse but they stay true in spite of some doubters and pull through.

there is a lovely scene where jan talks to dream and says that before he came along she was never able to be herself she was always her dad's daughter, her husband's wife and so on but never herself. but since dream came along she is jan. the adventure with dream has enabled her to find herself and come home to who she is. BE YOU is right at the heart of pioneer practice. it's always tempting to think we need to be like someone else who we think of as entrepreneurial but actually things always go best when we are able to be ourselves. this is in some ways all of our quest. and jan is quirky, lovable, and at her best when she is being herself.

racing is of course an elite rich person's sport. so to pioneer a racehorse from an allotment into that world meets challenges from the powers that be. but jan and the syndicate do enough to navigate that world. CHANGE is the last theme in pioneer practice - how will this practice make a better world. you assume that with a racehorse making some money would be the goal but it''s not about that and when offers come they are turned down, that distraction s resisted. the change is about hope, about being able to dream. it's kind of cheesy but i loved the way that at all the races the group would be shouting 'come on dream!', a sort of prophecy spoken to themselves where they had lost the memory of dreaming. the change is about community - there are wonderful scenes of the syndicate in the bus on the way to races, including all sorts of characters, and then the local community who get on board with dream too. there is a momemt late on in the film where jan has doubts but the community carry the vision and her - she has passed it on so well. after winning the welsh grand national the victory parade with the whole village singing bread of heaven is just a delight. you might say it's also a parable of the kingdom of god - the kingdom of god is like a horse called dream raised on an allotment! 

the last thing i thought was terrific about it as an example of pioneer practice is that jan is not a professional community worker or pioneer minister, not trained. she is someone in the local community who simply sees a possibility and then makes something happen out of that seeing using the resources that are at hand. that sets in motion an adventure that brings hope to a struggling depressed community and she comes alive in the process.

BE YOU | SEE | BUILD | CHANGE - these are the big themes of pioneer practice. 

pioneer practice is available here

come on dream!

pioneer practice is now available!

i am so pleased to be able to tell you that pioneer practice is now available to buy here. it's taken a while to get the web site up and running but it is there now and looks great and hopefully is simple enough to use... and we can ship anywhere. it's only £13 for almost 200 pages full colour which we hope you'll agree is pretty good value. you have to pay via paypal at the oment though that will take cards - we are adding in another card payment option too.

the web site is home of a new partnership between myself, jon birch and joel baker - GETsidetracked. we've even applied for a registered trademark which i have never done before. i love how this came about as a result of running the webinar series on creativity earlier this year. pioneer practice is our first project. here's an image of the site - cool eh?!

book launch of pioneer practice on june 10

we are celebrating the launch of pioneer practice with a book launch online on thursday june 10. it will be about an hour. jon and i will be there of course talking about the book with some guests who have contributed. we'd love to have a crowd to celebrate with - the book has been a lockdown journey for me at least chipping away week by week. so it has been wonderful to see it come to fruition. register here and then you'll get sent the link - it's free of course and you have to provide your own drink to raise a glass at home!

pioneer practice is printed

it was very exciting on friday to take delivery of pioneer practice - 89 boxes filled the lounge!! i have spent the weekend packing books into boxes to fulfil all the kickstarter orders. thank you everyone who has supported this project - your books will be on their way this week. it's printed beautifully - we worked with park communications who were great. 

today i am heading down to bath to celebrate with jon birch who did the design - we'll be having a socially distanced catch up in the garden with jen and clare...

several people are asking where you can get it - the short answer is my lounge :) but seriously it will be available through getsidetracked.co with a week or so. watch this space - i will let you know when that goes live. we're getting the kickstarter ordders done and then will be landing that, lining up a book launch and a webinar series. if you can't wait contact me via email or a comment.

i was very moved when this landed - partly relief that it printed so well, but really i feel this book brings together so much of what i have worked on and reflected on together with the rest of the team i work with and with many others. this is what i am passionate about. so yes a tear did come to the eye... but a joyful satisfied tear. it's been a lockdown project chipping away over the last year in my non work days. it's now that weird moment where you want to know what people think but it's time to wait...

woop woop - kickstarted!

now to finish it off and get the book printed...

happy easter!

fire in the bones

the publisher scm gave cms permission to publish the foreword i wrote to the go between god by john taylor - fire in the bones

sneak preview - nearly there

last update on the kickstarter - we have reached our stretch target - so grateful to everyone. the design is now finished bar a view tweaks. you can get a sneak preview on the latest update from jon here. the kickstarter finishes on sunday - do pre-order if you haven't and the offers inspire a friend and network catalyst are better than you'll get after the kickstarter!