jonnybaker

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.

HAPPYNEWYEAR - pioneer practice discount

looking back on 2022 one of the highlights was getting out and about post COVID to tour pioneer practice with gav mart. we did around 20 dates i think. thank you to everyone who came - it was so good to connect with people, hear stories of what is happening and glimpse sparks of ideas that are yet to emerge. to celebrate we have set up a discount code for pioneer practice to run through january. the code is HAPPYNEWYEAR and will get you a print copy for £10 or download for £7. order at gestsidetracked.co 

if you have not come across it pioneer practice is a full colour book (more like a chunky magazine really) with a mix of stories and practical short pieces on everything related to getting something started. it's accessible, you can dive in anywhere, and is beautifully designed - we are super proud of it.

do pass on the code - oh and HAPPYNEWYEAR

adaptive church - webinar in january

i have got more and more interested in system change. the reason why is probably obvious. i work with pioneers who see new possibilities and create paths to make the possibilities happen. but they work in a bigger structure - usually the church but maybe a charity or organisation. and it turns out that if you want to see genuine newness and innovation you really have got to pay attention to both or you can get derailed. so i was really interested to come across dustin benac's research published in his book adaptive church. he researches two organisations or what might better be described as movements in the north west of america and does a deep dive on what is happening in the change process there. there are some really interesting insights and reflections - for example he maps what a range of leadership looks like in movements which i have not seen before. and the big takeaway really is the significance for a diocese or denomination of having another organisation that can help call them to the edges, to the future, to change. 

the good news is that dustin is doing an online session for us at cms on january 18 at 3pm. it's free and you can sign up here. i am looking forward to it. i think it's particularly relevant if you are leading at that system level (director of mission or ministry in a diocese or a fresh expressions enabler) and if you are working or leading in a community or organisation that works with churches to help them change and adapt in mission and i also think it would be really relevant if you are involved in allocating funding for mission or growth in denominations or organisations.

you can read details and register here.

for goodness sake

this is the twelfth of a series celebrating twenty years at cms

see  1. gold | 2. emerging church | 3. blah | 4. new forms | 5. worship tricks | 6. mission shaped church and fresh expressions | 7. pioneer ministry | 8. church planting | 9. red tape | 10. doing the imaginative work | 11. post colonial mission

last week in the usa the main reason i was there was to attend a consultation at princeton hosted by kenda creasy dean exploring the combination of social innovation and theological seminaries with a view to designing some training options that seminaries might be able to try out. it was actually quite special to be at that gathering because it was being facilitated by shannon hopkins and mark samson. when we got to design the pioneer training at cms back in 2010 i knew i wanted a module on missional entrepreneurship and it was shannon i asked to design and lead it and both she and mark have regularly been part of the team on that module. it is not a direct line but i think it's not unreasonable to say that the experience of those weeks has led shannon, mark and matyroshka haus and now goodmakers society and rooted good to keep innovating in that space developing various tools and workshops. so it felt like the consultation was at least in part the result of some ripples out from those early days. we now call that week make good and have seen people bring fledgling ideas that have become projects, enterprises, charities. if you have read pioneer practice clean for good, home cafe, sacred bean are some of the ideas that were brought to those weeks. if you haven't it's not too late!

missional entrepreneurship is a thread that has woven through my twenty years at cms. the first venture into thinking about mission entrepreneurship was actually via chris neal and bill bolton. together with them and shannon in 2007 we hosted a gathering on a boat in the thames in london and launched NET - the network of entrepreneurial talent which ran for a few years. 

we hosted a conversations day on the theme and subsequently mark and i edited an edition of anvil journal exploring the issues.

i like the idea of good. at some basic level we need good in the world. to participate in mission is to join in the healing of all things. it's about good - good news, good communities, good neighbourhoods, good life, good business. good relationships, good for the planet. one of the reasons  i like mission as a way of framing is that the 'why' or purpose is for good in the world. sometimes i find that the 'why' in the church can seem like it's church i.e. it's very focused on itself. but the point of church is for the good of the world not just as an end in itself. the other way mission tends to get collapsed or reduced is into evangelism - sharing the story of jesus christ with people. it's a great story and i have no issue at all with that. but in a post christian culture like britain it seems a no brainer that if you want to have anyone to listen to that story you have got to actually be good news and not just talk about it.

i am also interested in enterprise when it comes to pioneering because we need new imagination about how to resource faith, church, mission. it seems to me to be healthy and more resilient if you can have a range of income sources - some donation, some trusts, some income from enterprise and so on. 

enterprise can also be really good when it is helping others who have been in a difficult space at the edges - say prison or simply long term unemployed get back on their feet and develop skills and work. there are several pioneers who have started things in that way. 

i have really warmed up to the notion of enterprise for good. it's not easy to pull off but when it's done well it's a wonderful thing. there is room for a whole lot more! if you are have an idea you'd like to develop do look up our make good week and book in on that for goodness sake :) - the next one is in november 2023 at the wonderful pickwell manor.

islay musings - what have you got in your hands?

this is actually a jura musing. islay is home to several famous whisky distilleries and it was really good fun to visit and sample their delights. we found that it was the hospitality and welcome that made as much of an impression on us as the whisky we tasted. but surprisingly the distillery that made the biggest impression on me was none of those. it was lussa gin distillery on jura. it's a small home grown enterprise set up by three women on jura. the population of jura is less than 200 people (and 6000 deer) although the island is by no means small. so if you live there i imagine it's a beautiful and challenging environment. and when it comes to enterprise what do you do? there's obviously jura whisky distillery, tourism, and local trade but not an easy question to answer. one of the phrases we have come back to with pioneers at cms is asking the question 'what have you got in your hands?' - in other words what is there right where you are in your context. maybe that's a good place to start imagining what is possible.

well the answer that the three founders of lussa worked out was that they had local plants or botanicals, and amazing water. so they came up with the idea of distilling gin. they experimented and had a community gathering where locals sampled three versions. the one that was voted favourite is what is now lussa gin. it's made with 15 botanicals - you can see about them in the field notes on the web site. they are a small producer - bottling and labelling everything there. but what a wonderful story of local enterprise. i got the impression (and wished i'd asked more about it) that there is a really connection to the local community in and through the distillery. 

i am not really a big gin person but i liked it and it seems to be well regarded and reviewed. it is beautifully presented and they have won an award for the design work. 

what have you got in your hands? 

deja vu

just when you have cleared your house of books a second print run arrives and refills the lounge! seriously i am so chuffed to have had to do a second print run of pioneer practice - thank you so much everyone who has cheered me on and/or bought a copy. 

change - last in the pioneer practice webinar series this thursday

on thursday it is the final in my pioneer practice webinar series. i remember last year the series i did took over my january and this year's been no different but it's been fun and so many people have turned out! i have three guests - ed walker, betsy blatchley and tina hodgett. we'll be exploring change both in terms of how you create change in the world but also how you navigate systems or the powers that be which seem resistant to change. i'll be interviewing the guests and doing some exercises - one of the exercises will be trickster's wheel of ruses that i have created for a photo group i'm in but it's so good i want to try it out on the guests! 

it's not too late to register and if you do you'll get sent links to the first three webinars to watch. hope to see you there. 

i apologise that i have not managed to get my act together for any other blog entries since starting the webinars but i'll get back on it including an exciting announcement.

see - week 2 of pioneer practice this thurs evening

thank you so much everyone who came along to last week's webinar and especially the guests. the chat was buzzing! in the poll of which of 5 things best described those present in relation to pioneering the top answer was 'seeing and imagining new possibilities'. so i am delighted to say that 'see' is the theme of week two where we will be exploring how you see possibilities, come up with ideas and use imagination. i have four guests this week related to three projects. susannah baker and khadeja, sue steer, and anna hembury. come and hear their inspiring stories of practice. i am looking forward to it.

if you missed week 1 you are still really welcome. register here and you will be sent the webinar info the day before. and you will get sent a link to week 1 so you can catch up should you wish to though no pressure to do so. hope to see you there. the series is a partnership between church mission society and heartedge.

be you - pioneer practice webinar week 1 this thursday

i am really looking forward to the pioneer practice webinar series. week 1 is exploring the idea of be you (and as it's the first an intro to pioneering and how you might get started). i have three guests joining me. it will be informal, chat show style. it's free to join - register here and if you do register you'll get links to any weeks you miss. 

the series will follow the four themes i explore in the book pioneer practice - be you, see, build, change. it's a partnership between cms and heartedge.

webinar series is back in january - pioneer practice

last january i ran a series of four webinars just imagine exploring creativity and imagination which was a lot of fun. i am pleased to say i am hosting another series this january on pioneer practice. it's a partnership with heartedge and the guests and conversations will explore the themes of pioneer practice and the areas heartedge focus on. register here (it's free). the dates are

• 13 January: Be You
• 20 January: See
• 27 January: Build
• 3 February: Change

here's the blurb...

As a pioneer, you see something — a possibility, an idea, a way that things could be better or new of different. Then you make something happen out of what you see.

This webinar series explores over four weeks how pioneering happens in practice. Its focus is how things happen on the ground. Each week Jonny will have two or three guests and get into the gritty day to day of how they pioneer. It’s ideal for you if you have started something or if you have an inkling or an idea you want to explore and get started. It would also be really useful to attend with a couple of others who you might pioneer something with. If you are a church leader it would be great for you too and do think of people in your church who might have the pioneer gift, whether they know it or not, and encourage them to come along.

That idea might be starting a new Congregation — the Church of England, for example, is encouraging every parish to pioneer one. It might also be an idea related to Compassion in your community. It might be related to Comerce as a way of making good in the world through enterprise. Or it might be related to Culture. These are the four Cs of the HeartEdge network.

recordings will be made available for those signed up to the series so if you can't make a session you can catch up. hope to see you there!

register here

turning a dream into reality

fresh expressions have revamped their web site. as part of that i contributed an article turning a dream into reality. drawing on pioneer practice i offer some very simple steps for how to see a possibility for a fresh expression and give that idea legs. if you are unfamiliar with the term fresh expression it is a new form of church formed primarily for people who don't go to church hopefully done in a way they can feel at home in. 

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

gather festival - what to expect

i blogged about gather, a virtual festival-in-a-day celebrating and exploring pioneering mission practice. it can be hard to imagine what exactly that looks like. so if you are wondering here is an update which has been added to the booking page but it should help you imagine what to expect. we are really looking forward to it. the image above is one of the venue entrances.

Spaces and Venues

• Goodmakers - a venue hosted by Cathers from Goodmakers Society exploring all things pioneering related to making good in the world. If you have an idea and want to know how to work with it to make it real, this is the venue for you.
• Toolshed - hosted by Richard Passmore and Gavin Mart this workshop space will showcase and explore tools that help with pioneer practice on the ground. A tool helps you do something better, more easily or quickly than you could without it.
• Story - hosted by Sarah Clarke and Luke Larner. A storytelling tent to hear and share stories of pioneer practice.
• Starfish networking space - hosted by Andrea Campanale with the starfish team. Meet others that share your passion for pioneering around a related theme. Just drop in.
• Panels - hosted by Jonny Baker, Shannon Hopkins and Harvey Kwiyani. Four panels creating lively conversation on themes related to pioneer practice.
• Mind The Gap - hosted by Tina Hodgett and Paul Bradbury. A venue for reimagining church and missional community.
• Breathe Prayer Space - a space to get away and slow down and pray. It includes the wonderful St Paul’s millennium labyrinth respun by Grace for gather.town. Close by will be some one to one spiritual direction sessions.
• Wild Wood - hosted by Johnny Sertin, Rachel Summers and Gillian Traverse. There is an outdoor woodland ‘The Glade’ and the funky ‘Treehouse’ where you can dive into pioneer practice, biospirituality and the outdoors. Rewild your soul!
• Research lounge - hosted by Cathy Ross and James Butler. Grab a sofa and hear from students and researchers exploring the contours of pioneer practice.
• The Oratory - a programme of talks and presentations to inspire and reflect on pioneer practice.

As if that wasn’t enough there are some social spaces to explore. As well as the main site which is a greenspace, there is a beach, a garden, and the moon where you can go and hang out.

Programme

We are organising the programme by inviting hosts to create programmes in the ten spaces above. There will be slots running for about 45 minutes at 11, 12, 2, and 3.

Worship

At the start and end of the day there will be a choice of 4 worship slots ranging from maranatha yoga to creative liturgy.

Evening entertainment

After a break where you get away from screen or hang out with friends in gather.town there is an evening programme as follows:

• Quiz designed and led by Harry Baker.
• Performance cafe - a mix of music, spoken word and artistry compered and curated by Katy Partridge and Tim Watson.
• Cocktail lounge with tunes from DJ Steve Leach.
• Campfire in the Wild Wood to hang out and share songs and stories.

We will add details of the programme ahead of time and send to everyone who has booked so you can plan ahead.

book tickets here

kickstarter launched today - pioneer practice

i have been working on pioneer practice for a year and am self publishing it. i have set up a kickstarter which runs until easter to raise the money through pre-sales and other rewards for the cost of printing and design. please have a look and i'd love you to back it. it's a full colour book meets magazine - one of those chunky coffee table ones. and i am working with friend jon birch who is doing the design. thank you in advance!

happy second birthday out of the box cards

i am a day late but never mind! congratulations to jenny, daisy and grace on the second birthday of out of the box cards. they produce wonderful cards that are subversive and playful. jenny first brought the idea to make good in 2015, a week where we help people work on ideas to give tools to make them reality. it's such a joy to see how ideas become reality and then grow and develop. 

they have a new line of cards to give to someone who becomes a grandparent. if you have not come across them do check them out and sign up for their monthly news.

break the rules - webinar this thursday

it's the fourth and final just imagine webinar this thursday evening. there are places available - register here. we explore a classic theme in the creative process of breaking rules to come up with new ideas. this is not about breaking moral or civil laws - it's about conventions, thinking habits, patterns, cultural logic. i have three guests and a bundle of creative exercises.  honestly i have had such a great time doing it. do join in the fun! if you register you will get sent the links eventually to all four.

taster day for pioneer certificate in northern centre next tuesday

time whizzes by! it feels like we have only just got started in the northern centre with the cms certificate of pioneer mission. but we are already thinking towards the second year which will start in september.

if you are in the north anywhere then do come and find out more about it next tuesday. this year has included people from cumbria, sheffiled, scotland,northumbria so it's definitely pan northern. info and book in here 

play - third webinar this thursday - more places now available

the third in the just imagine webinar series is on thursday evening. we're exploring creativity in a chat show style with 3 guests each week. i am absolutely loving it - last week was honestly so much fun and the guests were brilliant! it's going to be a hard act to follow but i am getting excited about this week with some more amazing guests and some really fun exercises. i have got slightly carried away myself over the weekend coming up with ideas for them.

it keeps selling out and we keep adding places so we have once again added a load more places. i am not 100% sure if the person running that has added all the extra places yet so if you go there and it says sold out come back tomorrow evening. it is a series but each one stands alone so don't worry if you have missed some. and if you register you will get links afterwards. 

register here is the crucial thing you need to know. hope to see you there. 

gathertown labyrinth

gathertown is minecraft or habbohotel meets zoom (take your pick depending on your age). chances are you'll hear about it at some point. i like it - it's fun and whilst i think zoom is great a change is also good especially if you have been on zoom for work. and it especially suits some things - a more dynamic social space for example or an event where you want different things in different spaces. it's also dead easy to use or get started in. you simply login and choose a space - a lounge, bar, conference room or whatever and can then invite some people and hang out. it's easy enough to create some interactivity through the objects. i confess to finding the videos a bit exasperating in the tutorials - i'd rather just have a plain old manual than have to go through loads of videos - that makes me sound old i know! but over christmas i set up a space for family and we met and hung out in it with interactive pictionary and the like. i also worked out how to create a room that was a snakes and ladders board so you  can roll the dice and move your avatar round the board. the grandkids love it (and the rest of us to be fair).

because rooms are designed on a grid it made me think that the labyrinth we created for st pauls back in 2000 would work because that was designed on a square grid. anyway a day of messing around over christmas and i figured out how to create a labyrinth room with interactive stations. so grace on saturday was our first on gathertown. of course it takes a bit of getting used to but it went really well. we had a bar/lounge area and a portal through to the labyrinth so you could do that when you liked. the timing felt good because the online interactive labyrinth version that has been running for twenty years is no more as of this month i think due to flash no longer being supported so it was good to give it a new lease of life. the labyrinth tracks are still magical twenty years on. we invited people in their homes to have various objects that they needed to make it work for the reflections - stone, pen, paper - that sort of thing. 

it's free to create things so you can just try it out and remains free for up to 25 people. we just stayed below that number.

this of course has to go down as a worship trick - no 83 series 4!

but i'm not creative! - first creativity webinar this thurs

i cycled past this sign in london over christmas and had to stop and photograph it. it reminded me of the forthcoming webinar series which starts this week. i am looking forward to it. the just imagine series of 4 webinars run for one hour each thursday evening in january at 8pm. to sign up simply go and register here and you will get sent the link. you can attend 1,2,3, or all 4. and it's free!

i will be hosting and joined by 3 guests each time. the first one we will be exploring creativity and imagination, how you come up with ideas with a mix of interviews and creatve exercises. it is honestly pitched at anyone especially if you think you are not creative - don't think it's the preserve of creatives and artists.

and whilst the series will apply the ideas to the area of church and faith today it will not be overly churchy and you can take the ideas and apply them to any area you are involved in.