jonnybaker

take up a challenge

at greenbelt we were inviting people to take up one of 6 challenges. lots of people signed up but we thought why not offer it to people who weren't at greenbelt?! so click here and take up a challenge. for each one you will get a series of 3 emails written by someone on our team and an invitation into a webinar one of us will lead. i'd pick one only or you'll start getting annoyed by emails. we're keeping it open until friday this week.

greenbelt this weekend

if you are at greenbelt this weekend i hope i'll see you there. i'll be with cms running a stand for most of the weekend - we're the last in the line down towards the hot house venue. we are inviting people to take one of six challenges and hosting various pop up conversations there - do come and hang out. for what we are up to with cms see this page here

i am also on a panel discussion whatever happened to alternative worship

jenny is interviewing the founder of parkrun which is she is very chuffed about. and harry is coming along to do his show wonderful, and host woken spurred too.

i haven't quite recovered from we out here last weekend but here we go again...

how did we get here?

this is a personal reflection on how we have got to where we are w.r.t. mission and the church. it was written for a think tank group in the church of england on mixed ecology (which means the ecosystem that can contain multiple ways of being church especially embracing new forms that relate to those outside of church cultures). in other words it is an english perspective, not attempting to give a global overview, and it is related primarily to the church of england. it was written as a discussion starter so reads as a set of notes rather than a crafted article. i wrote it in the wake of covid. but now seems a good moment to publish it prompted by the emerged podcast. after I had written a draft of this I came across a chapter written by graham cray in cultivating missional change which was a book published in south africa which gives an excellent overview. i have opinions on what i have written but have tried to resist commenting or critiquing at this juncture. i think it best to be generous and see these threads as part of a whole, a wider movement.

Mixed Ecology: How Did We Get Here?

This is inevitably a take and there will be many other takes and lots to fill in. So think of this as a conversation starter and something that others can add to or possibly write other takes. There is a question of how far you go back and why but I think 50 years is probably a reasonable window. 

Two environmental factors

Culture - the world changed significantly whatever way you describe it - post modern, emerging, post Christendom, post Christian even. One significant factor aligned with this is digital and communication technology which has changed so much more than we realise. Some writers see the change as a threat and some as opportunity but the change is not really contested.

Decline - I remember a staged walkout at an event in the 90s of 300 young people which at the time was the stat leaving the UK church each week. Whatever way you come at it church was declining which created anxiety and pressure.

Four tributaries

Urban areas - there is a long history of engaging in poorer areas - worker priests and so forth but the marker that sticks out is the Faith in the City report in 1985 which made an impact. The reason it’s worth mentioning is it raised questions about resourcing, liturgy, young people, race, culture, mission and so forth. It probably didn’t use the term but was asking contextual questions.

Charismatic renewal - there are various tributaries of this but a lot of the same issues we talk about now were in the renewal conversations though talk of new churches came later. Whatever your tradition that movement softened the church and generated openness to the Spirit in a fresh way, and emphasised ministry in the body of Christ rather than being too clerical. There was some threat in this too in that many left and set up other things but a lot stayed and quite a lot came back. Festivals and conferences led to various networks addressing questions of church and mission in a range of ways. The likes of Graham Cray, for example, were quite shaped by that movement. John Collins who was the modern founder of HTB was too. A later tributary though less Anglican was the coalition of youth led initiatives that were part of house church movements and mission agencies from the 1990’s. This included in particular Ichthus and Pioneer along with NGM, Youth For Christ, Frontier Youth trust, Oasis, New Wine and YWAM England. This was a fusion of alt worship exploration and mission impulse. Events such as Greenbelt and Remix explored the objective of reimagining faith in the cultural commons with art and justice themes. This laid the ground for catalysing a number of other significant sub movements including, cultural shift, 24/7, the Factory, Soul Survivor and so forth.

Global missions - Lesslie Newbigin is probably the most famous voice from when he returned to England from India (1974) and drew on issues of mission and culture to say that we needed mission that took the gospel and culture in the West seriously. Another thread from missions was contextual theology which is a relatively new concept growing either out of liberation theology in S America and S Africa. The postmodern turn questioned the West’s overarching domination and narrative in theology as much as in other disciplines so global voices and other voices from the margins became very important. Contextual approaches fit this new environment well. CMS first engaged in Britain as a mission context in the 1970s. And then engaged in a new way following a report in the 2000s recommending engagement with what it described as the emerging culture.

Youthwork - as noted above the decline in young people was a lightning rod for the church’s anxiety around decline. Pete Ward made the link between cross cultural mission and youth ministry in his book Youth Culture and the Gospel in 1992. Youth ministers began experimenting and developing youth church (which they were not able to call that at times). Oxford Youthworks and Frontier Youth Trust pioneered in that space, with some iterations of YFC on board.

Some chapters in the story

Decade of evangelism. The Church of England’s efforts in the decade of evangelism (1990s) haven’t gone down that favourably in history - a review said that it had probably slowed decline at least. There was a lot of effort but not a lot to show for it. That partly fuelled questions of what a better approach was and what might come out of it. At the conference ACE99 reflecting on it, a memorable moment was when John Drane shared a cross cultural approach with spiritual seekers at new age fairs using tarot cards that seemed to polarise the room - one half excited about contextual mission and the other thinking they were hearing some new heresy.

Theology. It was not just a pragmatic movement. A re-theologising was most certainly taking place, with a significant level of thought leadership and theological reflection. Missio Dei became a widely received theological idea that flipped peoples understanding (albeit it had emerged in the 1950s). More broadly there has been a turn to context and a new appreciation of the incarnation in theology – inculturation or contextualization are two ways of expressing it. Trinitarian participation is another way that has been opened up of understanding mission. There has been a new emphasis on the Spirit in mission. Ecclesiology is also an area that has had a lot of attention, notably Rowan Williams introduction to MSC setting the tone for that. And more latterly a whole conversation has kicked off around decolonising mission and deconstructing whiteness.

Church planting. There were several ways into this but church planting became a growing area of interest. Growing indigenous expressions of church was a logical outcome of mission that drew on cross cultural approaches - youth churches grew from this understanding in the 1980s. Anglican Church Planting Initiatives was founded as a charity in 1996 though I imagine was doing things from around 1991. Interestingly in the late 1990s and early 2000s (I think) the annual conferences that they hosted showcased anything and everything new - congregation plants, alternative worship, cell church, youth church. It was only much later that the language of planting became more polarising as it seemed to be the preserve of more conservative approaches to both theology and church.

Alternative Worship. This was a movement that engaged imaginatively with postmodern culture in quite radical ways in the 90s both in terms of the structure of church and worship but also exploring theology in ways that seemed to fit postmodern sensibilities - black, eco, feminist and liberation theologies were all at the table. Intriguingly it also seemed a playful turning away from modernising moves of the charismatic movement towards a blend of more ancient with urban club culture. Greenbelt festival was home to this and then a range of other new forms that were picked up and shared.

Emerging church. The issue named by emerging church seemed to be that it was not simply about changing worship but about the whole - discipleship, spirituality, church, leadership and so on all needed exploring in light of the new environment. In 2002 ACPI, Church Army, CMS and others to agree to start a web site to catch some of the stories of what was emerging and emergingchurch.info was set up to do that. Perhaps a significant book (though not well received by some Anglicans) was The Shaping of Things To Come by Hirsch and Frost which catalysed a lot of conversation about what being missional meant. Some started to call their church expressions missional communities, others drew on monastic patterns and claimed a new monasticism.

Mission Shaped Church. In 2004 this report named the surprise of the bubbling up of fresh expressions of church around the edge, said it was a good thing and named the mixed economy of church in the intro by Rowan Williams. Messy church started that year I think which became one of the most widespread fresh expressions.

Fresh Expressions. The Lambeth Partners funded fresh expressions under Rowan Williams wooing and persuasion and that quite quickly diffused across the church. For example at one time I think Mission Shaped Ministry, a course in fresh expressions had run in 40 dioceses. Other denominations got on board - Baptists, Methodists, Salvation Army, Congregataional Federation, URC to name a few. It also generated a lot of interest in other parts of the world. For example I know MSC was translated into Korean. FX was keen to appeal across all streams of the church and notably published books relating to the sacramental traditions. It has always struggled to shake off accusations of being overly evangelical which is slightly odd given Rowan’s leadership. Several years later the Church of England backed off funding FX - I think because the view was it had become embedded or mainstream but also the funding through Lambeth Partners stopped with a change of Archbishop from Rowan to Justin. Other denominations still support it. The argument in defence of this will be that it is embedded in the strategy now. I will resist commenting at this point.

Church Army and CMS (two of the mission communities or sodalities of the C of E) - Church Army and CMS have been players all the way through the above both contributing to the thinking and theological imagination as far back as the likes of John Taylor but also through publishing, being on the group that wrote MSC, developing training and so forth. Other newer charities or groups have since emerged (CCX, Myriad etc). Dioceses have really needed the sodal structures to call the church forward and to work in partnership with.

Pioneer Ministry. It was a recommendation in Mission Shaped Church that the kind of ministry that was starting new things should be seen as a new designation and pioneer ministry was what it was called. Another recommendation was that training for pioneer ministry should be done through a cross cultural lens which is why CMS for example were invited by the church to design training. Stephen Croft the first Fresh Expression worker under Rowan managed to do the policy work for a recognition of a designation of pioneer ministry and also worked to change the pastoral measure so that it was possible to plant church across parochial boundaries.

HTB. It is probably worth singling out HTB as a passionate advocate of church planting - hosting the church planting conferences above but also developing a model of planting in London by taking on churches that were low in numbers to revitalise them. I am less familiar with the timeline on this and how the trajectory developed into the Resource church model over time. 

SDF - the Church Commissioners shifted how they gave surplus money towards dioceses. Dioceses could bid but one large area of funding needed to be tied to mission and ministry that grew the church. Whilst there have been a range of bids Resource church has been in vogue with the SDF board so a lot of investment has gone into larger city centre church plants. 

CCX - London appointed a Bishop of Islington in 2015 to oversee church planting which was a fairly radical idea at the time. Out of that CCX and latterly Myriad have grown with a focus on encouraging planting.

July 2019 C of E Synod - A report was presented at Synod in July 2019 15 years on from Mission Shaped Church . Research from Church Army has been done at various points on fresh expressions and the report The Day Of Small Things showed that fresh expressions was probably the most effective means of reaching those outside the church that the church had seen for quite some time. A motion was presented and passed encouraging every parish to explore adding a contextual expression of church.

C of E Mixed Ecology Vision - The C of E has a new vision for a church of missionary disciples with Jesus at the centre and a mixed ecology of church. This seems a logical extension of all the above.

COVID. In July 2019 it felt like momentum was really there but the church is now emerging the other side of COVID more anxious and resource stretched. It remains to be seen how that vision is to be embedded and carried forward into the next 50 years.

[a slightly more expansive view of the last twenty years and my personal take on it is in this baker's dozen 13 reflections celebrating twenty years at cms]

sign

i went to greenbelt festival this weekend. it was celebrating 50 years (or fifty festivals or both?). i have been to over 40 so it's been a very consistent part of the landscape of my life ever since my village youth group leaders took us in 1981. i have been shaped by it  and am so grateful it exists. t's been a joy to be part of, to make friends there, to be challenged, uplifted, contribute to the programme in multiple different ways.

the image above is a lino print by sarah kirby that is in the book fifty: a festival lexicon. we helped crowdfund it - it is a beautiful book with 50 vignettes by different authors (i assumed it was fifty but i think it may be 52) around words that capture the spirit of greenbelt - like home, festival, portal... i was thinking what word i would pick if i were asked (and not wanting to pick one used). i landed on 'sign'. for me greenbelt is a sign of hope in a world that seems to have lost its way, a sign that another world is possible it's also a sign of what the church can or could be be at its best, a prophetic sign. the book was available at the fetsival but i don;t know how you get hold of it now - i am reading a section or two a day, i imagine we'll use it to reflect on life together round the meal table with friends. look out for it.

this year my favourite music moment was dancing to the latin soul funk of sam redmore whilst being passed a hip flask of a fine single malt from a friend i bumped into there. it was joyous. bruce cockburn was a close second. i also loved hearing martin shaw's tale of an encounter with the holy maker of all things after 101 days in the woods - mesmerising stuff. the gathering of pioneers hosted by cms was a buzz as ever and it was especially lovely to meet four visitors from korea. a lot of people told me how moved they were by one of harry's poems which was clearly brilliant and high on the vulnerability stakes - sadly i missed it! we (cms britian hub team) were co-hosting the exchange which was a venue focused around social enterprise, business for good, finance and alternative economy. all the sessions were full which was great. it's all part of the healing of all things (aka mission). i stepped in for someone to host a panel for those who have broken up with church and are working out life and following the way of christ beyond gathering in that way. it was packed which tells you all you need to know and i loved chairing it.

the best parts are still the gaps - bumping into friends old and new, and family. here's me with one brother and two sisters. come along next year! 

if you read my earlier post it turns out i was over confident when i said the app we are creating would be launched - it didn;t land in teh app store. we have some things to sort out so watch this space for that. 

see you at greenbelt

it's greenbelt's fiftieth over the bank holiday weekend - I have been to over 40 of those which is a weird thought. it's one of the most consistent things in my whole life. and my life is the better for it in so many ways. hope to see you there!

if you are there CMS are helping run the exchange venue - so come and find me there. love to catch up for a coffee or beer. we are hosting a gathering for pioneers at 6:30pm sat night so consider yourself invited.

i am personally taking part in two things - first up i have been developing an app with fellow conspirators jon and joel as our second getsidetracked project. the app will (i am 99% sure) be in the app store by greenbelt and will be called getsidetracked - i am searching on that every day expecting it to land any moment). it's a fun app on creativity designed to help spark the creative process - i'll blog about that separately once it's live. i am on a panel called tech for good in the exchange on friday at 12 noon and will be talking about the app. out of that panel we will taking an idea forward to a hackathon to be coded so that all sounds good fun.

the second is that i am on a panel on sun evening chaired by martin wroe at 7pm in treehouse called it's not me it's you and the blurb for that is as follows:

How come so many of us have broken up with church? We take part less and less often. Or not at all. It used to be part of our lives… until it wasn’t. What’s your story? Why did you call time on the institution ? Was it you? Was it ‘church’? What do you do instead? Marika Rose, Dave Tomlinson, Jonny Baker and others listen to your stories and reflect on your experience.

greenbelt film

big 5 0 celebrations for greenbelt next year. what a gift greenbelt is! here's a new greenbelt film

cms twenty: new forms

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

see also  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah 

my memory of dates is somewhat hazy but greenbelt festival played significant host to creative engagement with new forms of worship and church going back quite a way. i picked up the baton from doug gay in the early 2000s round the time greenbelt landed at cheltenham racecourse and took on co-ordinating it as a volunteer with help from a host of other people - sue wallace, gayle findlay, sonia mainstone, ben edson, ian mobsby and others. doug had co-ordinated worship for the festival hitherto and was one of the pioneers of the late late service which was truly ground breaking back in the day. bear in mind alternative worship had a decade under its belt by the time i picked up the role.

it's probably worth a pause to recap how movements worked back then. if you wanted to get involved in alternative worship there was a photocopied magazine -  i think it was called re:sonate with stories and articles but crucially it had a list of groups, people and phone numbers on the back so you could get in contact and go and visit them. there were a few weekend gatherings too but it meant meeting at greenbelt was very precious because it wasn't possible to just chat online and visit someone's web site. one of the first online forums i remember was an email list called postmodern christian which subsequently morphed into other things. hardly anyone had web sites or knew how to access them. it was oldish tech but there was something magical about dial up that connected you into this other world of conversation with people exploring theology and practice in postmodern culture. i can still hear that dial up sound in my head!

but back to the early 2000s and by then it had moved on a bit. cheltenham racecourse had lots of indoor rooms and as long as you could kit them out your self it was easy enough to host a venue or two. we ended up for a good run of hosting two - new forms and new forms 2. the latter was more of an installation venue where the labyrinth made its appearance. 

cms were gracious enough to let me do this as part of my job in those early years. cms had been partners themselves at greenbelt for many years anyway.

i was reminded recently of new forms by paul northup, the greenbelt programme director. he interviewed nadia bolz weber for the greenbelt podcast and she said how significant new forms had been for her and others visiting from other parts of the world. he was musing on that. with the new connectivity it became host to people and groups from round the world - new zealand, germany, america, australia, ireland, scotland, england. greenbelt was the perfect host because it loved new ideas, art, theology, practice, risk taking and so on. i bumped into alex and kat at this year's greenbelt and we were remembering the cyber feminist eucharist that they led - where else would you get that?!. 

steve collins site smallfire has plenty of photos of that era - this photo is from a grace service on the theme of desert where we suspended a block of ice from scaffolding as you do! he describes the move to cheltenham and what ensued as follows:

This enabled the creation of 'New Forms', a dedicated alternative worship venue with a full sound and audiovisual setup and a rolling programme of worship events and related talks. Many of the events on this site took place in New Forms. During the 2000s Greenbelt was a major showcase for creative worship and a place for practitioners from all over the world to get together.

it was a fun time for sure!

the reason it's been on my mind for a season now is that i think we could do with making visible new forms still. i don't mean the venue and those groups. but i think it would be valuable to see and hear more stories from the edges. i was thinking who i could think of and there are a quite a few in and around the edges of pioneering - new forms such as revs , sacred bean coffee, church gathered around boxing, mountain pilgrims, the table and so on. there must be lots more. i came across a new form called grace notes through chatting with jed at greenbelt this year which i did not know about (i'll blog about that another time and hope to pay it a visit). i still really like the name new forms too....

[update: since writing this i found i had listed in 6 blog posts the various worship things happening which is quite an incredible read - what a feast in one year - see greenbelt worship part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 - that was 2004! part 2 and part 3 are the new forms venues.]

greenbelt 49 here we come!

i can't wait for greenbelt. the line up looks great. i actually don't even know why i am saying that because invariably i spend the weekend catching up with people! if you are there hope to see you. if not it's not too late to book. there are a few things related to cms and pioneering - here's greenbelt's page on that and here's cms page on that. but a short summary is below

Gather – Pioneer Dreaming Sessions

Sat 10am at Hope and Anchor: Getting started

Mon 10am at Hope and Anchor: Navigating the Powers that Be

 

Spirituality For The Activist with Ash and Anj Barker

Sat 4:30pm at Prayer Tipi (meet at Shelter)

 

Rewilding the Soul with Johnny Sertin

Sat 5pm at The Grove

 

Reception

Sun 7.30pm at Partner Lounge

and i hope i will be seeing harry baker, kae tempest, andrew jones, nick hayes, brian eno, magic numbers to name a few things that have caught my eye.

next year greenbelt will be 50!

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.

prospect farm greenbelt weekend - meet up

prospect farm is a camping weekend on greenbelt's site. it's not a festival as such - a much smaller affair but i am really looking forward to it. i am doing a talk in the long barn at 3pm on saturday. it's been billed in one place as pioneer practice and in another as imagining mission so i'll try and cover both or something! jo howie and ali middleton are going to join me to talk about the sacred bean and the social supermarket. afterwards we will head to the tiny tea tent for 4pm - so do come and say hi. it will be a chance to catch uo with other pioneers and if you are interested in finding anything out about pioneering and training come and find me there.

wild at home

greenbelt festival is simply part of my life's flow. i have probably attended it around 40 years of my life which is really quite an extraordinary thing. i guess it must be good :) 

this year of course like other festivals it can't happen which is a sadness and i will miss being there, the inspiration and bumping into so many friends. but the good news is that greenbelt are running wild at home and you can get a ticket for £10 with a programme on staurday 29 and sunday 30 august that you can then access through the next month too. so get yourself a ticket and it is also a good way to support the festival.

true north - for the believers - adventures ahead

 

"true north for the believers" - yes that is what it says on the top of this northern monk beer can. they make great beer by the way! at greenbelt this weekend i was there both having fun in sweltering heat with family and friends but also working with cms around pioneering. this time round we had a table in the exchange venue to hold conversations about business for good. i hosted three panels with three stories in each. i also helped proost put at an event and the bit i did was playing with the idea of true north and false norths inspired by the labyrinth from 2000. we also celebrated the northern centre and i just felt we had to get some northern monk beers to do so! it felt like it was meant to be.

true north is a metaphor i have played with around pioneering - i wrote a reflection on it about 5 years ago. true north is like a pull or an orientation towards joining in with god's mission - that is the healing of all things. and i reflected on various characteristics of it for pioneers - i guess what the charism or gift is of pioneering as we see it at cms. so now we have a partnership in the north it seems even more apt! 

i love this photo of richard passmore who has been the catalyst for the northern centre - he is looking very happy (maybe that's the northern monk!). we have been friends a long time now. he was appointed to develop fresh expressions and mission for carlisle diocese  in late 2015 and in less than 4 years there are over 100 fresh expressions and their research shows that 1 in 4 people in the diocese of carlisle who go to church are in one of these new expressions - that is mind blowing. you can get details on that from the diocese i am sure. and it's why we are partnering together so we can support with some of our training and experience. well done to you richard - you should feel good.

it was also amazing again to see harry and chris pack the big top with thousands of people off the back of edinburgh festival. i also really loved harry's solo show - he is so brilliant! he and chris must be soooo tired - have a well deserved rest guys! they are on tour in the autumn so do go and see them.

apparently according to my older brother i first went to greenbelt in 1981 so it turns out i have been quite a lot of times now. i have missed a couple of years when kids were young. 

we're gearing up for a new term in oxford. we will have about 76 students across everything including 6 on the new doctoral programme. because the pioneering work is growing and expanding in other hubs and centres round the country, i have rejigged my role to free me up to give time to that developmental work. and cathy ross is now the lead for the oxford centre. she is amazing and already leads our masters programme so i am very happy about that. a few people have assumed i will be disappearing - i won't! i am still a cms director and i will still be around teaching modules, tutoring and so on but doing less there overall and handing on the lead of oxford centre. it feels like a good change.  and i am sure there are plenty of adventures ahead.

[thanks to mark kensett for the top two photos - there are some more and a bit more info here. the last is at a strange angle but i was sat at the front at harry's feet for his poetry show]

greenbelt this weekend - come and say hi if you are there!

every bank holiday in august i look forward to greenbelt festival. i have been more years in my life than i care to count. it's a beautiful blend of hanging out at a festival with friends, exploring ideas around issues of justice and faith, enjoying music and arts, and these days even hanging out with grandchildren and nephews and nieces! i love to take part too and have done talks, photography exhibition, led the main communion service, lots of alternative worship events, run labyrinths, chaired panels, and co-ordinated the worship programme for several years. this year i am excited to be involved in the exchange venue which is about social transformation and i'll be chairing three sessions talking to pioneers who have turned a crazy idea into a project to contribute to good in the world - see this post on the pioneer site for details. 

i'll also be hanging around that venue wanting to talk to anyone who is interested in turning an idea into reality and trying to persuade them to come on the amazing make good week which is so great. and i'll be chatting to anyone interested in talking about pioneer mission who might be interested in training with us on the cms pioneer course. honestly those of us there from our team would love to hang out and talk pioneering mission with anyone who wants to. if you are interested, have ideas, are struggling or having a great time come and say hi.we are going to be with richard passmore and others from the northern centre which we are partnering in so if you are from the north and interested in pioneering come and say hi and find out what's happening there. 

and i will be helping proost with a creative worship service on sat evening. 

and of course i'll be answering politely all the people who ask me if i am harry baker's dad - yes i am! looking forward to seeing his show off the back of an amazing run at edinburgh festival and chris' show and harry and chris's show! it's going to be busy... it's going to be fun... and oh yes i am soooo happy to say the weather forecast looks great!!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

tiny tea tent saturday 4pm

jesus arms pub 8pm sunday night

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

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

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

greenbelt - weather and catching up

so it's greenbelt this weekend, an annual highlight for me since i was about 11! the theme is the common good - which i think is a brilliant one and something i have been thinking about for a while.

the weather forecast has no rain drops at this point for the whole duration - i know this is england and greenbelt and a field but i am still very happy about this!

i tend to spend a lot of greenbelt catching up with people which is always great. and then try and remember to attend a few things. cms have a stand there. if you are interested in pioneer training or simply in pioneering generally then i am very happy to meet up at greenbelt - best to contact me through the cms stand or via a message. and at these points we will be gathering so do come along to say hi on

• friday 7:30pm onwards in the pub jesus arms
• saturday 2pm tiny tea tent
• sunday make good is a session in the 'exchange' venue which will feature stories from the make good course we run and after that we will head to jesus arms after 7:30pm
• monday 11am tiny tea tent

and of course i will be cheering on harry and chris at the harry and chris show 2 on sunday at 1:30pm 

a little child will lead them

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

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

and this is all worship trick 66 in series 4

it's greenbelt week!

it's that greenbelt time of year again! this year i am doing nothing in the greenbelt programme for the first time for quite a few years i think so looking forward to a more chilled festival personally. like many people i am intrigued to see what greenbelt will look and be like this year in its smaller version of itself. if you are going hope to see you there!

the last few years i have been involved at greenbelt with CMS especially letting people know about the pioneer training we run. we have no stand this year but if you are going and would like to find out about pioneer training, or meet up then come to the tiny tea tent between 2 and 4pm sat, sun, mon or jesus arms (the pub) in the evenings - see here

looks like the weather is looking like it should be alright at the moment!

my first solo show in the allotment gallery at greenbelt

the presence of silence went well at greenbelt - it was actually my first ever solo photography exhibition in a rather cute shed. thanks to everyone who popped in to see it - the venue was full all the time - though it was a pretty smalll venue!

[update - for my own reference really... i spotted some photos from a lovely gb photographer on the official gb flickr photos - 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 ]

event horizon - worship trick 53 series 4

following the last worship trick which was music out of the ground, grace produced an amazing labyrinth type experience at greenbelt on the saturday called event horizon (i wasn't involved as i had a ton of other thing going on at greenbelt). it made use of a perfect location for it with an installation called orpheus which slopes down geometrically to a pool of water. the photos are better than a description. there were 8 stopping points on postcards on the journey down and 8 on the way back. and along the way were pieces of music to listen to. it was amazing. and steve has added all of the reflections here along with a description and a set of photos. so a definite worship trick to add to the series 4.

but in silence ep by flock (aka harry baker and chris read)

greenbelt was wonderful (though a little damp on monday!) - the new venue was amazing. a highlight for me was the proost poets each morning. which i blogged about below but the ep of songs and spoken word which chris goan aptly described at greenbelt as sublime is on proost.