jonnybaker

theology brewed in an african pot

it's the beginning of term. a new year is always both crazy busy but hugely energising. at cms in oxford we have around 100 pioneers doing some training with us at undergrad, post grad and doctoral levels. it's such a joy and privilege meeting them and encouraging them in who they are, their sense of vocation, their learning and practice. i teach a couple of modules at undergrad level. one is an introduction to practical theology and reflective practice. we had the first day of that yesterday where amongst other things we discussed theology as a quest, as faith seeking understanding, as conversation about god, as something for everyone and not justan elite educated crew, as something lived, as something contextual and local and intercultural, as something global and not just western and so on. one of the ideas we came back to was theological homelessness (scroll through this edition of anvil and you'll find an article by me and cathy ross on it). 

as you would expect, for every module there is a reading list. one of the books on that is theology brewed in an african pot by agbonkhianmeghe e orogbator and an essay option is 'what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community?' which i think is a fun title (i am not so sure students think it's fun writing essays mind!). i have always loved learning from other cultures and contexts and putting my western learned sense of things in conversation with that - it's a gift cms has given me. it's such a relief to find that wesrern theology (ies?) are a local theology rather than universal and will be enriched in conversation with other theologies. i'll never forget john mbiti sharing names of god he had collected from his travels in africa and he had over 300 names. orabator has various prayers and liturgies in the book, one of which is inspired by john mbiti. it's called an african invocation of divine names and i found it online here and am taking the liberty of posting it below (largely because i have learned over the years of blogging that links eventually don't work!). what does theology look like brewed in the pot of your community i wonder?

Ancient deity,
Unbreakable stone,
Consoler and comforter providing salvation,
Grandfather who alone is the great one,
Watcher of everything who is not surprised by anything,
Piler of rocks into towering mountains,
Divider of night and day,
Response: We praise You!

Sun too bright for our gaze,
Eye of the sun,
Artist-in-chief,
Drummer of life,
Owner of our head,
Large and deep pot,
My feathered one,
Mother of people,
Response: Bless us!

Great nursing mother,
Great eye,
Great rainbow,
Great personal guardian spirit,
Unsurpassed great spirit,
Great source of being,
Great mantle which covers us,
Great leopard with its own forest,
Great healer of eternal life,
Great water-giver,
Great well,
Greatest of friends,
Great spider, the all-wise one,
Response: Enlighten us!

Controller of destiny in the universe,
All-powerful, never defeated,
Father of laughter,
King without blemish,
Possessor of whiteness,
Whiteness without patterns,
Caller-forth of the branching trees,
Unique great one to whom one can take petitions and requests for counsel,
Response: Hear us!

The first who always existed and will never die,
The only one bull in the world,
The one who sees both the inside and the outside,
The one we meet everywhere,
The one who is in all ages, everywhere and at all times,
The one who turns things upside down,
The one who has power to destroy completely,
The one who makes the sun set,
The one who gave everything on this earth and can take everything away,
Response: Guide us!

Axe that fears no thistle,
Hoe that fears no soil,
Ram of majestic sinews and majestic carriage,
Hero who never flees before the enemy,
Big boundless hut,
Victor over death,
Response: Protect us!

Compiled from John Mbiti, Introduction to African Religion (London: Heinemann, 1975); Robert E. Hood, Must God Remain Greek? Afro Cultures and God-Talk (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990); Joseph Healey and Donald Sybertz, Towards an African Narrative Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1996), and other sources.

Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator - Theology Brewed in an African Pot

i am adding this as a worship trick - yes i'll be getting those going again sporadically.

divine tango

on the pioneer practice tour we encouraged people to share ideas they had percolating. in portsmouth catherine shared that she loved the argentine tango and found dancing was a spiritual thing too. she had an idea of a day with dancing in the cathedral in the evening but a workshop in the day. well it turns out that idea has got legs and is happening in portsmouth cathedral in a couple of weeks - the divine dance:tango at portsmouth cathedral

a table, a kettle and a curtain

scottie reeve (who i visited when in new zealand) has written a lovely piece suggesting that all a church needs is a table, a kettle and a curtain. this is pitched at those starting new communities or planting churches. his point is keep it simple and suited to the size so don't burn yourself out!

"Many church-planters feel the pressure to become a “real church” as soon as possible. They become structure-heavy, volunteer-heavy, and bloated by brand and buzzwords before they have truly learned to be family. Their leaders are exhausted within a year because they are maintaining something built for 100, while there are only 10 of them. On these days we need to remember that, at its inception, the Church was founded in homes and houses - little rooms with not much more than a kettle and a table."

(thanks dave crampton for the tip off)

lay pioneering and thriving in mission

lay pioneering and thriving in mission is a new grove booklet by james butler. it's the result of reaearch in focus groups with a range of lay pioneers. it's very well done and super interesting what surfaces. it's hopeful and a reminder that pioeering arose as a result of a lay movement of the spirit in the world. he explres some of the challenges and inevitably this leads to some discussion on the relationship with local churches. for me it confirms some of my hunches and ponderings about the way church is constructed and how it simply does not work for huge numbers of people. so perpetuating the idea that if we do it better or do more of them the church will grow may well be a bit delusional. or may be one among many things that might be worth experimenting with. or at least it will work for a natural fringe only. lay pioneers are world facing and inhabiting the neighbourhood or parish differently. with a little bit of imagination it's not hard to see how wonderful that is and how it is good news and the yeast of the kingdom. anyway all that is to say have a read - grove booklets are about 8000 words usually and very accessible. i explore some of my own thoughts on reimagining church in the chapter 'leap over the wall or perish' in imagining mission with john taylor - this reminded me of that, which is still one of my favourite chapters of things i have ever written. have a read. and thank you james butler.

come and train at cms!

the mission training at cms is wonderful. i don't know how else to say it. working with the creative people, pioneers, dreamers, ministers who have joined us over the last dozen years has been such a joy! and i love seeing what people who have trained with us go on to do. this video of ali is one inspiring example.

it's that time of year to think about signing up for next september. if you'd like to know more about it, give me a shout or even better come to the open day we have next week. 

you can study at any level -

• audit modules or join a hub's year long programme which is not accredited
• undergraduate certificate, diploma, degree
• postgraduate certificate, diploma, MA, DTh

they all focus around mission, with imagination and creativity front and centre as we seek to reflect on how to engage meaningfully in the communities and contexts we are in.

reflective practice in mission is relevant to many things but these are the kinds of focus you could particularly explore with a mix of theology, mission and ministry -

• youth ministry
• childrens ministry
• pioneer ministry
• african christianity (now at both UG and PG levels)
• fresh expressions
• church planting
• chaplaincy 
• new housing
• social innovation
• african christianity
• helping my parish church be missional 

what a relief we are past COVID now (?!) - maybe it's a good time to engage? the plus now is that having learned from going online during COVID, you can study in person, online, hybrid so get in touch wherever you live! sorry for the short notice but there's an open day next week but there are also a couple in june. click on the links to book in or download flyers here and and here

pioneer practice portsmouth feb 18th

delighted to say that we are taking pioneer practice to portsmouth on 18 feb - info and tickets available here

 

mountain retreat

i go on a retreat every year. in terms of my life, headspace, wellbeing, imagination, relationship with god it's one of the best things i do. i tend now to go somewhere quiet, alone, silent. the last couple of years that has been in the wood. but group retreats are also great. i have done a few of those. last year johnny sertin and paul rose ran a mountain one for pioneers that sounded wonderful. they are running one this year. places are limited so book early if you are interested. book here

true north

this is the thirteenth 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 | 12. for goodness sake

this is the final reflection. 13 makes a baker's dozen after all! 

once the pioneer training started, a few years in i was amazed at how wonderful it seemed - it felt like something precious was going on. religious communities sometimes talk about a charism or gift that is at the heart of what they are about. i went on a retreat in 2015 and wrote in my journal what i thought the facets of the charism we were seeing at cms with pioneers might be. i called it true north - true north being a metaphor for god's mission which is the big orienting factor, joining in with the healing of all things. and then i came up with 9 facets of that gift. several years on i think they still name something good. i don't think i have ever posted that on the blog. so it seems a fitting way to end this series of reflections.

there are actually two versions of it.

the latest one is in pioneer practice (use discount code in january of HAPPYNEWYEAR btw to get it for £10) which is somewhat distilled. you can download it here - true north v2

and the original is simply those 9 facets written out with a short explanation - you can download them exactly as they were first written here - true north v1

i would love any feedback on that - do leave comments or how you see it. if i were to rewrite now i would add something on the gift of community and diversity i think which we are feeling our way towards. there is a talk of me elaborating on it in germany in 2017 if you want to know more.

so there you go. that is my baker's dozen celebrating twenty years at cms. now time to look forward...

• 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
• 12. for goodness sake
• 13 true north

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.

st lydia's dinner church

it was lovely to visit st lydia's in brooklyn on my visit to new york. it was founded in 2008 by emily scott meeting in homes and then a zen centre before getting a shop front where it is now. i have not read it but there is a book which includes the story of st lydia's or stories from at least - for all who hunger. they describe it as a dinner church which is fairly apt as the worship is organised around a meal (and the food we had was great). it's prayerful and conversational. there are two dinner tables so probably works for about 20 people.

i stayed with christian scharen who is the pastor there now. he is delightful! he gave me a copy of a book he has written which is a theological reflection on the roots and hip hop culture someone has to care . i loved it! it is part of a series of short reflections on music - there is another in the series on radiohead and one coming on new order for example. 

i do like churches where the size is constrained by the space to be small - you get more intimacy and a real sense of community. we meet in our home most tues nights with friends over a meal to share life and pray - the table always seems to me a great space for a community of disciples. i also really like church that is in different kinds of spaces - it just shifts the imagination. the worship was simple chants along with a shruti - i had not seen one before but worked well. you set it to play a chord and squeeze it to create a drone ove which the chanting is done. it was advent so the chant i remember gegan 'honour the darkness'.

if you are in brooklyn call in.

another year another celebration!

pioneers graduating this year had the disruption of COVID and training being online for much of the journey. they have done amazingly well. what a gift for the church and locale to have people with energy, passion, imagination, wanting to be good news in their neighbourhoods, and growing new communities of disciples in the borderlands (as bishop lusa put it). we also admitted some lay pioneers into lay ministry in the church of england. i love what I do for a job and am so thankful to church mission society for being such a great community to hold this in. and for a brilliant team.

it is truly extraordinary and so encouraging to hear students say that this has changed their life (I assume they meant for the better!!!). if you are interested in imaginative mission, have ideas for starting new communities, enterprises whether in youth ministry, chaplaincy, new housing areas, your home, your parish, or any place else. if you are dissatisfied and want to do something about loneliness, poverty, injustice, the state of the planet, food, the disconnect with church, refugees, reclaiming the commons, inequality and so forth then jump on board .

every year at graduation pioneers are given a gift created by the wonderful iain cotton . Eech year is a different take on the idea of making a new path in a landscape. this one has a river flowing where the path has been made and a gold leaf, a sign of flourishing maybe? it’s also a riff on the scripture that was read of a river flowing and leaves of healing for the nations. it’s become an amazing series.

natalie has written a reflection on the graduation on the pioneer blog here

cms twenty: doing the imaginative work

this is the tenth 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

in almost everything I have been involved in at cms there has been a quest that is more interested in the future than the past. the church has always adapted so it’s nothing new but although the church has the rhetoric of knowing she needs to change and perhaps wants to change it turns out she prefers business as usual really. i noted this when I reflected on what we had learned after 5 years and still think it’s true scroll down to the section 3 the church says it wants pioneers but.... i’ll come back to that question of systemic or adaptive change in another post as it interests me more and more.

i quickly found out that if you look to the usual sources through which leaders are trained they really are not set up to do this future faced thinking. the language and forms from one era or culture don’t make sense in the new. so the last twenty years have involved a lot of conversations, reading, writing, thinking, theologising ourselves - trying to find resources and ideas that will resource a different kind of imagination and practice. the blog and series of connections with others on a similar journey has been the site of much of that reflection.

i was pondering that process of reflecting and it has been a really wonderful part of the adventure. 

one area of reading and reflecting and noticing is in the direction of artists and writers and filmmakers who catch the zeitgeist and describe what’s going on in the wider cultural space. just before joining cms i did a masters degree and a large part of that was engaging with cultural studies drawing on thinkers like zygmunt bauman. there is so much to be learned there. it’s basic mission practice to read the culture. 

another is finding the treasures from the tradition that seem to help break it open afresh in the present. there is a rich vein of this but you have to dig them out. they often seem to be tucked away and half forgotten with dust on the cover. for me in particular this has included an engagement with cms own history, stories and especially some of its prophets - i am thinking of the likes of john taylor and max warren as well as stories of cross cultural mission and contextual, local and intercultural theologies from round the world. i have definitely found some of the gold I was seeking which was a fund for my own imagination. i have returned again and again to the notion that mission is ‘an adventure of the imagination’ which is how taylor describes it in the primal vision.

then perhaps the most surprising has been to find ourselves doing our own publishing in the area of pioneering, mission, theology, practice, church, spirituality and so on. we have not been the only ones of course - it’s been wonderful to exchange learning with those in fresh expressions for example who also got on a roll with publishing books reflecting and theologising about what was happening as well as those in other parts of the world exploring similar questions. i remember a lot of energy when we toured the country with mike frost and al hirsch to talk about the shaping of things to come for example. we have hosted annual conversations days since november 2013 reflecting on what we are learning about pioneering mission - i found the flyer above for that first one. that has led to publishing, editing or contributing to quite a lot of books. i have listed my contributions here - books like the pioneer gift, pioneering spirituality, future present, curating worship, imagining mission, mission on the road to emmaus, missonal conversations, pioneer practice, go between god (the foreword) as well as running proost for several years to self publish artistic expressions and liturgies from the emerging church including a couple of pocket liturgy books - grace pocket liturgies and making communion. proost doesn't seem to be in action any more so have put these two books here as free downloads - help yourself.

we also picked up the editing of anvil journal on the way, a journal in theology and mission which is themed each issue with two or three editions in each volume. anvil is free online. the team I am part of have been incredible in this regard and i owe a debt of thanks in particular to cathy ross whose enthusiasm for publishing has pulled the rest of us forward and enabled us to grow in confidence and think we might dare to write. i have loved that some of our students have published for the first time through the books we have edited. paul bradbury published an amazing couple of books - stepping into grace and home by another route, tina hodgett and paul created the pioneer spectrum which has taken on a life of its own. it’s a delight to have harvey kwiyani and joseph ola most recently join the team who are publishing in the space of mission, diaspora, intercultural theology, african christianity and decolonisation. i have no doubt there will be more to come.

if people ask me what I do ‘writer 'would never be a label on my list but looking back i do seem to have done my fair share! but for me I think it’s more about the necessity of doing the imaginative work and offering that into the wider conversation. in movements I suspect it is essential.

cms twenty: church planting

this is the eighth of a series of short reflections 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

in 2003 a year long course called re:source began (the irony of the name!). it was one year course where six different contexts were visited over weekends to learn from what was happening on the ground. it was a partnership between a few organisations - from memory they were cms, anglican church planting initiatives, revs, oasis, soul survivor. i really loved it - we still draw on that model now visiting contexts over a weekend to learn from them. but here's the thing - the strapline on the logo was church plant training. it changed over time and became creating church in the emerging culture and various other iterations.

i think the spirit of it is captured in this quote off an early flyer:

i found this pretty interesting looking back. if i may indulge a little more in looking back the question about church planting actually began for me in conversations about young people before that. it was deemed to be highly controversial at the time but in places it was clear that they were never going to join the existing church so growing a new one out of that seemed the best option. this was back in the 90s. i remember discussions about it when we ran a nightclub for young people in bath and wondered what we would do. fast forward a bit and by the late nineties i was in london and had got involved in grace which was a new congregation of an anglican church that began as part of what then was termed alternative worship. i wasn't involved in starting it. but the point i want to connect to is that i was contacted by a couple bob and mary hopkins who set up anglican church planting initiatives in 1996 and they started an annual anglican church planting conference and wanted a range of stories or models of what was happening to be shared. i went along to talk about grace at that church planting conference. i don't know what year that was. and in the earlier post on emerging church that was in response to new churches beginning that were very much at home in the emerging culture

fast forward to mission shaped church being published in 2004 and the subtitle of that is guess what...

church planting and fresh expressions of church in a changing context

in that a range of examples are listed and they would have been very similar top the range of things at the conference - youth church, new congregation, messy church, alternative worship, new monasticisim, cafe church, cell church, planting into a new building and so forth. according to the day of small things research stats that is still the best movement the church of england has had in briitain for genuinely starting communities where those who didn't realise church could be for them find out it can be. why the church of england has not continued to invest in it baffles me whilst at the same time it has a stated outcome of wanting lots of new worshipping communities.

what is also interesting to look back on is that bob and mary used to teach at re:source on a range of models and dynamics and how that affected what you did - what was the context, what size of team, the relationship with the culture and so on - did you start with church culture and worship or the local culture... it was a pretty broad and expansive range of things (their web site still has a models and types section) and contextual approaches were seen to be good from the get go. in fact overall the drive for all this was a sense that western culture needed an approach informed by the best of cross cultural mission that grew indigenous or contextual expressions of church. cms were so on board with this that we contributed to funding bob and mary and they were part of the same team as me for several years - i must catch up with them!

fast forward again to the last decade of training pioneers - they start many things in mission including new communities of disciples. some describe that as church planting, others use different language but that is a big part of what they do. in the recently published book of stories of lay church planting  from myriad they have pretty much all been done by pioneers! 

looking back over my time in cms i have been and still am very much engaged with church plating in the emerging culture. there is so much more i could say about this and why the language has become contested or lots of people have abandoned it. but i think it probably needs recovering and/or reclaiming or at least we need a generous and wide range of approaches going forward much like that mapped by acpi and fresh expressions as above - did i hear someone say mixed ecology?!

interested in church planting? then at cms we have been doing that the last twenty years or so in this context (and by the way probably helped plant two thirds of the anglican communion back in the day which is also now a complex space too). 

cms twenty: pioneer ministry

this is the seventh of a series of short reflections 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 

one of the recommendations in mission shaped church was that the church recognise that the kind of person starting these fresh expressions of church had a bit of a different skill set, way of looking and being in the world, a different gift. the report used two descriptions for this - pioneer ministry and missional entrepreneurship. quite quickly the church of england created a new designation for ministry whereby you could be recognised and ordained as a pioneer. this was pretty encouraging and surprising. at this point at cms we were already involved with others in some training called resource - i still have very fond memories of that. the model was that over a series of weekends we would visit somewhere creative mission was taking place and learn from it tied in with a series of teaching themes. we folded that into what we went on to develop.

[our first prospectus which we produced in 2011 - we didn't have one before we started!]

when pioneer ministry was recognised as a thing, theological colleges were invited to design training. i don't quite know what they designed but the imagination was not quite what it could have been. i remember being in a few meetings where it was discussed and being labelled 'priest plus' - in other words you learned all the regular stuff and then did a slightly different placement or an extra thing on a wednesday afternoon or something. 

one of the other recommendations in the report mission shaped church was that training for pioneers should include or be done through the lens of cross cultural mission (see quote to right). and after a couple of years the then head of ministry approached cms to ask if we could design some training because in his view what was being done was frustrating pioneers and wasn't really fit for purpose, and i think he thought that we would have experience on the cross cultural imagination and practice - which was true. essentially cms then asked me if i would work out how we would do that, design it and find a college to work with on it or a way we could do it. to cut a long story short i did and that request took over my life for the next decade really. of course in classic church of england fashion although they asked us, it was quite quickly obvious that was not approved of by various other people and it took a further three years to actually get permission to train ordinands. but we got dreaming, drew up a roadmap of what we wanted to do in december 2009 and i was tasked with getting the first cohort in sept 2010. somehow we pulled that out of the bag - looking back i have no idea how. we started with training independent students, lay training if you like and then two years later added in training ordinands alongside them. our first prospectus cover is above and is a road going into the fog - that felt pretty apt.

i realised i was at a change point and wrote a blog post and accompanying newsletter here reflecting on changes over the first 8 years at cms and then a post looking forward to the next 8 or whatever it was to become. that was year before we actually launched and i enjoyed reading this in it:

i can promise that the training we do will be totally geared to pioneering in mission with creativity and imagination and will be shaped with and by pioneers rather than pioneering as an add on to existing training for being a parish priest

i think we delivered on that promise! since then we have gradually added in various things so that now at cms we train at undergraduate, post graduate and doctoral research level with around 90 students at anyone time and also unaccredited training round the country (more on that later). yes we do train ordinands but the vast majority are independent students paying their own way. in many ways the whole emerging church movement has largely been a lay led movement. many of those who did get ordained did so having already pioneered so that they could share communion with the community they had helped start.

i'll say a bit more about this pioneer gift and about training in others posts.

cornwall and exeter pioneer practice next week!

i am excited to be back on the road next week again from 20-22 september. we are headed to falmouth, looe and exeter for the final leg of tbe pioneer practice tour. if you are down that way do come along, tell others. the details of registering are here - just click under the relevant location where it says ticket link.

i looked up photos of cornwall and it made me realise i have not been there for quite a long time so a visit is clearly due. here is an old one from the tate at st ives

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!

pioneering has surely hit the mainstream now!

i have blogged on the cms pioneer blog about pioneering featuring on the archers in july - yes you read that right!

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?