jonnybaker

politics in the pulpit

this week i was invited to be the guest on politics in the pulpit. this is a podcast that is a conversation about the readings from the bible that will be used in sunday church services in mainline denominations (aka the lectionary). sometimes you get given some wonderful passages that are easy to respond to or open up and connect with today's world. other times they are a bit more challenging! this week's was the latter but it was good fun to join matt and nathan for a conversation. search politics in the pulpit in your usual podcast app or click oin the link above if you are interested.

proost - looking back looking forward

chris and rob are exploring proost and what it might look like to take it forward. they say this about it

Proost is/was a publishing platform for spiritual nomads and those who had the gift of not fitting in. After a hiatus, we are in the process of restarting the platform, with no money, no experience and very little idea what we are doing.

This podcast is part confessional, part discovery. We hope to invite others along for the journey because Proost will be a welcoming inclusive collaborative community, or we will have failed.

If you are a creative seeker, longing to explore your spirituality through the art you make, then this might be the podcast for you.

you can follow along with their thoughts and conversation via a podcast. proost was initially an independent record label set up in the late 1990s and then a publishing platform for small scale creative projects coming out of various creative communities orbiting around alternative worship, emerging church and new forms as they were called at greenbelt. i set it up with two friends jon and aad and ran it in spare time for 15 years or so. it entered a new chapter a decade ago with andy freeman at the reins. so it will be fun to see what may emerge in a third cycle. the third episode of the podcast series is a conversation between me, chris and rob looking at the founding and the ensuing journey with proost - chris introduces it here.

pivot - a podcast interview

i stumbled across a podcast i was interviewed for last year which i realise i never listened back to. it's called pivot and considers faith and innovation, how the church can adapt and respond in the changing landscape she finds herself in. in it we discuss pioneering, fresh expressions of church, culture change. it's hosted by dwight zscheile and terri elton who are based at luther seminary in the usa. i met them when they were visiting harvey kwiyani in oxford as he did his phd there back in the day.

emerged - chipping in to the conversation

the latest episode of the emerged podcast series has contributions from a few places round the world that were experimenting in the emerging culture back in the 90s and 00s. it was great fun to have an excuse to chat with tony jones after many years and some of our conversation features in the episode around leading the way in decline, alternative worship, emerging church, fresh expressions and the labyrinth in a can! i laugh a lot listening back to it. it was great to hear sivin kit, jason clark, graeme codrington, pete rollins and dave andrews on the same episode. i am enjoying the series - loved that season. makes me want to kick on further into that whole movement really. the work is not done, though to be honest i have kept at it. 

 

off grid christianity interview

i was interviewed recently by martin purnell for the podcast off grid christianity. we last spoke in about 1998 when i had recorded the album backbone, a sad angry protest album about palestine. at the time martin was working with crossrhythms. we don't particularly discuss that situation but unsurprisngly i have been pondering some of those songs and feeling that same sense of overwhelming sadness. 

the interview catches up over those years discussing music, alternative worship, pioneering, church leaving as something it might be normal to do after a while and so forth.

it feels slightly weird to say come and have a listen to me wittering on in conversation for an hour but if that appeals then here is the link!

easter and empire

nomad podcast's easter special easter and empire is amazing - thank you guys! i am a big fan of ched myers. but this take on easter is so powerful and reminds why i am a follower of the way of christ. i also really loved the gauntlet he throws down at the end to listeners who deconstruct - essentially that is fine and good but reconstruct because we need new communities of hope following in this way! as an aside what a brilliant take on the original ending of mark's gospel which ends without the resurrection. 

nick cave and sean o hagan on the sacred

the sacred podcast interview with nick cave and sean o hagan is really remarkable. i have seen nick cave many times and love his music. i have been intrigued by or drawn to the spiritual quest that seems to infuse his song writing in places. seeing him and warren ellis at the royal albert hall last year was a spiritual experience which ended in prayer or a kind of blessing. he wrote an intro to marks gospel in the canongate series some years back. his letters to the community that rallies around or towards him are honest and searching pastoral letters of a sort. some have called it the church of nick cave! i have also been blown away by the films of the last few years especially one more time with feeling which is the most raw thing i think i have ever seen on grief, grief for the loss of his son arthur. 

the podcast explores the themes in the book faith hope and carnage (which i have not read but now will definitely do so) and the theme of the sacred. it is so interesting to hear nick suggest that it is easier to find the sacred in the world than in religion - the natural world, wild swimming, music and art, and so forth. i find the same to be true. but he also loves church spaces and the sense of mystery that is there. i found myself strongly resonating with the notion that christianity has diminished god with its certitude and stridentness which makes it so difficult for those reaching towards god. it's a beautiful conversation. there is a transcript on the podcast page but i do recommend listening.

the go to guy...

i was delighted to hear harvey kwiyani sharing his story on the comb bbc world service podcast and being described as 

the go to guy for african church leaders looking to reach out to communities around them

i have been friends with harvey for several years now and learned loads from him. it's a delight to have him leading the african diaspora route through the ma at cms. we are half way through the first year and it couldn't have gone better really. one of the issues he discusses is that in terms of revitalising the church in post christian britain, africans bring a wonderful gift of faith. but the challenge is that very often the churches they grow replicate the culture of the leaders so become largely nigerian or ghanaian say. it is then harder for others to join and feel at home and can be hard to engage well in the community. there is such a great connection with pioneer training because pioneers are asking a similar question. they are on their own adventure of the imagination to see how faith can connect with all sorts of people and communities where they are without those people having to cross the threshold of church which can seem very strange or foreign. 

the pioneer training at cms is wonderful and we are so privileged to get such creative people who join us. if you are interested in the diaspora ma or the pioneer training we do we have an open day coming up on february 28 - actually that's a misnomer it is an hour and a half online! love to see you there.

 

sacred cows and sweet teeth - interview on v12 podcast

i was interviewed recently by david cotterill for the V12 podcast. it was good fun and the topic we were talking about was worship and the adventure of making that in creative ways that relate to the culture(s) of those outside of the church. you can find it on whatever your preferred podcast podcast app is - but here's a link on google or here's one on spotify

i got an email this week from someone asking me about how you navigate the liturgy and rubrics of your denomination or church in relation to pioneering with groups who won't relate easily to that - i sent a link to this interview as an answer. it made me realise that whilst some of us who were involved in alternative worship back in the day - navigating the contours of faith in the postmodern turn, these questions are still very pertinent and new to others. in some ways worship has been backgrounded or at least put layter in the mission process but it is still an essential component to explore. hope this helps if that is your question.

interview on youthscape podcast

i learned what i know about pioneering probably through a blend of three sources - youth ministry, cross cultural mission and ideas on imagination and creativity. so it's been great recently to do some things that are youth ministry directed. today the youthscape podcast went live on which i have a conversation with martin saunders about innovation, pioneering, youth ministry and lockdown. available in usual channels...

and next week i am taking part in renew normal which looks set to be a really creative youth workers gathering online. the idea with renew normal is exploring the question of where youth ministry goes next post lockdown. looking forward to it.

something borrowed

the current situation is producing all sorts of creative things in lockdown. harry has started doing a live instagram poetry show with a guest which is on every wednesday evening and works amazingly well on a phone. he has now turned it into a weekly podcast something borrowed... which is the show edited and you can follow in the usual podcast places.

nomad - happy ten years!

happy ten year anniversary to nomad podcast - it's wonderful and a massive achievement to have produced such an interesting and dynamic conversation, communication and community. 

it explores christian faith in today's world. their strapline is stumbling through the post-christendom wilderness, looking for signs of hope. it's honest, searching, and on a genuine quest. each episode carries an in depth conversation with someone for about an hour and is topped and tailed by the hosts chatting about it. typically the people interviewed have published a book though not always. i have by no means listened to all the episodes but every so often catch up with it and dive in. sometimes i might listen to a big hitter like walter brueggemann but another time i stumble across someone i have never heard of because the theme grabs my attention. one of the recent ones i listened to was edwina gateley on missionaries, mystics and mother god which you have to listen to if you haven't. i loved her and her story - she is a northwestern english saint for sure. she probably wouldn't use the term but she is an incredible  pioneer with some classic elements of a pioneer's journey in her story. i noticed she has a poetry collection called there was no path so i trod one! because they are not bound by the constraints of pleasing a political church environment or denomination there is a great freedom in exploring issues fearlessly and honestly - the interview with vicky beeching was one example of that. i have also had the honour of being interviewed a couple of times which i have enjoyed.

but rather than going through my favourite episodes to celbrate, i have been reflecting how people are interacting with it and how it is becoming quite a thing...

at one level it is just a podcast and because the content is consistently good it's growing followers. it helps that tom wright has been interviewed and drawn in listeners as is explained in their epic 10th anniversary edition of 3 hours and 37 minutes (i was driving to cumbria so found myself listening to the whole thing!).

at another level it is part of a changing environment in which people are working out how to follow christ and connect with others. there are huge numbers of people who follow christ but do not engage with traditional patterns of church attendance but they do meet with friends to discuss faith over coffee or the meal table, they listen to podcasts, they attend festivals and read books and chat online. the podcast interview with steve aisthorpe, the author of 'invisible church' really lifts the lid off this area of a new kind of practising of christian faith. the stats are huge on this in both the uk and america - there are a lot more followers of christ not in church on a sunday, not because they have given up but they are making faith in other ways and often because church as they have known it is not working for them any more. i have written elsewhere that this is one of the current mission movements that not many people are paying attention to. 

for some of those people nomad and things like it are so helpful - people in that space identify with it and feel they are not alone or mad. nomad have developed a listener map so that you can add your postcode and then be connected with other listeners and there have been meet ups and gatherings. there is also now a listener lounge and a book club online. 

it is also interesting to me that tim nash who is one of the key players and who puts energy into this full time (i think) was part of an experiment in the methodist church called venture fx who invested in around a dozen pioneers to go and experiment with new forms of church and mission over 5-10 years. this has allowed tim the space to invest in this which has been a great gift and i hope the methodists have taken note and are feeling good about it. in a year or two that money will run out so nomad have been developing a business model whereby people can donate and in exchange for that get access to the listener lounge and other content. i have no idea of the scale of that but it is an enterprise model along with some merch they are selling. 

on monday we are hosting a conversation/research day on mission and church at cms which i am looking forward to (it's sold out so if you're not booked in there are now no spaces - sorry). i am looking forward to the day very much and it will be great to catch up with pete ward who is a good friend but now lives a long way away so i don't get to see enough! it seems to me that this is a great example of what he has called liquid ecclesiology. he has developed a way of thinking about christian community that takes seriously the fluid nature of culture. church is always constructed in relation to culture and must remake itself in every age. pete draws on missiologist lamin sanneh to suggest that the church tends to absolutise its own way of doing things and resists the call to translate afresh. but if the church is to move forward it must engage in that translation and needs prophets to lead her there. 

anyway all that is to say that as best i can tell as i pay attention it seems to me that christ is present in what is spinning in and out of nomad. it is a kind of liquid ecclesiology as far as i can see, a translating afresh. on their tenth anniversary podcast a listener asks if it is church and they say it is just a podcast. i think that's a wise answer but it's not really true or at least there is a lot more going on! in parts of the church huge sums are being spent on big churches - we're talking millions of pounds on city centre buildings, staff, sound systems and so on. the rationale is that these churches will grow fast and reach new people and they will also then plant out other churches. i don't really want to get into a debate about that here. but i would imagine nomad is resourcing thousands of christians and seekers and it costs peanuts - well a salary. 

anyway happy tenth anniversary nomad! thank you for what you do and make. i agree with a quote on the web site - flippin love nomad!

a conversation about imagination and creativity

when i was in colorado recently i got invited to have a conversation with rick lawrence on his podcast. we had been talking about creativity and imagination in the car so that was what we dived into (which happens to be one of mine and rick's favourite subjects i suspect). the flow of the conversation relates imagination to faith in jesus, the challenges facing the church today and how to nurture creative practice. the framework for the conversation is seven behaviours in the creative stance, a book put together by people teaching at art colleges in london to explore what helps someone creative flourish. i am sure i'll come back to review that book on the blog another time...

anyway the podcast episode is here - it lasts about 50 minutes

dissent

i am teaching MA students today on a leadership module at cms pioneer training and exploring dissent for leadership. this has led to me re-reading gerald arbuckle's refounding the church - what a book! it is honestly the most helpful book i think i have read related to pioneering ever. here's a quote from the book for today's presentation...

simple eh?! 

12 days of christmas at nomad

nomad podcast is doing a series of podcasts from a few wise men and women. jenny baker is one and she applies the bechdel test to the christmas story - nice idea! listen here

dreamers who do - talks, slides, notes and quotes

the talks i gave along with contributions from beth, harry, ric, andrea are now all downloadable from the breakout web site here. i have also added my notes, sheets of quotes i gave out and a pdf of slides. apologies that i forgot to turn the recorder on for the last section on the adjacent possible (for those who were there and remember).

asbojesus resource pack

jon birch has reworked over 200 asbojesus cartoons into a format that is downloadable and printable or projectable - i.e. each image is 300dpi - if that means nothing it means they are large enough! you may (or may not) remember a while back that jon had a burglary and computers stolen so this has meant a lot of painstaking redrawing and reworking. the resource pack is available to download on proost. (if you are a subscriber it's in the download section).

these drawings are simply brilliant - provocative, questioning, cheeky, celebratory and lamenting and jam packed with theology.

brian maclaren and ian mobsby in conversation

ian mobsby yarns with brian maclaren on the latest moot podcast. they discuss the usa and uk situations, contemplative practices, the challenges of the global south (who i felt were in danger of being overly stereotyped as fundamentalists). brian oozes wisdom as ever. i really like his thinking around liturgy. i think in many places the missional conversation is focused on generating an outward focus but it is equally important to nurture a worshipping life that fuels the life of faith and mission.

interview with archbishop rowan williams

tim nash is doing the resource course – and i think loving it! he is part of a small missional community in nottingham. one of the things they have done is develop a podcast - http://www.nomad.libsyn.com/ . it is building up a series of interesting interviews on mission, emerging church and all that. i’m not quite sure how but this month tim managed to get into lambeth palace to interview archbishop rowan williams on fresh expressions. it is a brilliant piece. if you are part of the church of england and involved in anything on the edge or new, it’s really worth a listen. apart from anything else it is really encouraging to hear how rowan views things. his understanding of church is so relaxed and practical – when people encounter jesus they will want to meet with others – that’s church. he then suggests that they will then explore what it means to follow jesus, read the scriptures and shape life around it and (not necessarily immediately) will explore baptism and communion. the latter sacramental things are more of a challenge but important. anyway this is the direct link to the mp3 - i am actually experimenting posting via posterous.com to see whether putting a direct url in the e-mail with an mp3 address in embeds the audio?...

Posted via email from jonny's posterous

blogs - greenbelt and tom sine join the conversation

tom sine has started blogging. i always enjoy tom's insights and reflections

greenbelt festival have also started a blog and podcast (well revamped their old blog is strictly more accurate). they are going to be uploading a talk fee each month so that's worth looking out for if you like listening to talks. i confess that whilst i think it's a good idea i have probably listened voluntarily to about 2 talks after an event in my entire life! i guess i'm more of a reader to learn...

on the subject of summer festivals we have bought tickets to the big chill and jen's coming this time round