jonnybaker

we are very fragile

i am just back from a week in chicago where i was giving the annual louis luzbetak lecture at catholic theological union. it was an honour to be invited and i really enjoyed reflecting on mission. i called my lecture 'do it from the inside' and used john taylor's wonderful book the primal vision from the 1960s as a conversation partner to discuss mission in western contexts. it was a sort of john talylor meets pioneer ministry meets insider movements. it will at some stage be published in a journal i think.

it also meant jenny and i got to hang out in chicago for a few days which was great - i have posted some photos here - chicago 2017

i took this photo at the museum of contemporary art where an exhibition was being set up which is nothing to do with fragility but the alignment of words caught my attention...

do it from the inside - chicago

i am looking forward to heading to chicago in a couple of weeks where i will be giving this year's luzbetak lecture. i have called it 'do it from the inside' which is a saying i picked up from john taylor in the primal vision where he suggests that's how mission needs to be done in relation to culture(s). the emphasis will be on how this plays out in the west drawing on experiences with pioneers.

if you're in the chicago area come along! 

there is no other there is only us - worship trick

i started writing worship songs years ago because of words (ok i wasn't that keen on the music around either!). i found if difficult to find words that articulated what it was we as a community then (st matts in bath at the time) believed and wanted to express. it was a great journey of expression and led me to explore the same in alternative worship through a range of art forms. and actually it also led to setting up proost to collate songs and liturgy and movies that had this same sense of expression from the grassroots in soulful (and theological) ways. i am still surprised how few communities go this route. i get that it is more time consuming but it is so much more rewarding that simply using commodified worship songs or liturgies written in high places. though of course blending your own expression with good stuff written by others is probably even better...

anyway all that to say i was sent a link to this blog/site plural guild which is the first i have seen for a while that really embodies that spirit of articulation. and the words are words i can sing which i have to say is a refreshing change (and i know i am hard to please). so thank you to plural guild (love the notion of guild by the way)! the song below seems especially poignant today on a day when my country have voted to leave europe - love the line there is no other there is only us. there is a also a downloadable album of advent and christmas songs too. i am making these worship trick 64 in series 4

the bean

a couple of shots of the bean in millenium park chicago - abstracted of course...

flow

in chicago we stumbled across an art installation using light and water in an alley/narrow street which was truly wonderful. it was called FLOW/Im Fluss 

the sky seems full

i have added a set of photos from chicago which is a beautiful city whose sky is filled with amazing buildings. today is the first day's teaching for the new year at cms pioneer mission training which i am looking forward to...

just saying...

this is a sign we drove by in chicago en route from the airport to ctu - no idea what it is a sgn for! i'm here speaking at a conference on mission, culture and vocation which gets started later today and i'm looking forward to. ctu is the home base for steve bevans, roger schroeder, and robert shreiter among others - they have produced amazing thinking and writing on mission over the last 30 years that has influenced me profoundly. so it's a real privilege to come and do something sharing from our own experience with pioneers at cms. it's always wonderful to meet flesh and blood heroes.

on monday and tuesday we had induction for new students starting on a certificate, diploma or m.a. so it's been quite a week so far... it was fantastic to meet people doing such interesting things and am looking forward to getting to know them. it's our biggest intake so far which is encouraging though very few pioneer ordinands in the mix (as everywhere i think). i suspect that will swing back over time.

reflections - photography for yale

reflections is a magazine that is produced by yale divinity school reflecting on a theme in relation to theology and/or spirituality. the current issue (spring 2014) is on the challenge of faith in a changing culture and how that is impacting on a younger generation of adults. each issue has a guest photographer and i am the photographer for the current issue. i have a dozen of so magazines - if you are in the uk and want one let me know. if you are in the us you can sign up and receive it for free. all the articles are also online.

not church

it was good to meet some presbyterians from the usa this week including darrell guder who has written on missional church for many years and been involved in american missiology and gospel and culture networks. i actually met a similar group about a year ago sharing stories of what we are up to and how to cultivate mission at and beyond the edges of the church. there are now around 200 new church communities or mission projects under the bold vision of 1001 new communities in 10 years. roger dermody is one of the drivers behind it and was in the group.

it was lovely to meet erin dunigan and hear about not church, a community exploring faith and spirituality but seemingly started at the request of seekers and athiests. in trying to find it i googled 'not church' and found there are several communities out there who can be found under the identifier of not church! 

it was also good to hear yeseterday of a new initiatiove starting in nottingham - the sunday service - a club night at rock city. sounds like the good old days of alt worship...

all souls portland

i have always loved whatever karen ward has got up to in mission, church, worship. she is deeply rooted in the traditions but able to improvise creatively in whatever cultural space she finds herself in and gather fellow travellers to create an intersting christian community that i think i'd like to be part of i was in the neighbourhood (which is never very likely!). she is one of the people in the usa who was inspired and influenced by alternative worship in the uk. anyway all that by way of saying she is up to something new - all souls in portland so if you are anywhere nearby go and visit or join or support...

us episcopal church invest in innovation

encouraging rumours from across the pond as a fund is set up to invest in innovation and new ministries. it's one thing to talk of innovation, another to actually give it space and allow it to flourish. but with people like tom brackett in the loop hopefully the money will be entrusted to those who will actually pioneer things that are missional and genuinely new rather than a sneaky way to fund business as usual in the church.

see

i have added a set of photos to flickr from my trip to austin...

watching you watching me

wisdom from rudys: don't find a job find a passion

imagination, creativity and mission - interview on churchnext.tv

chris yaw contacted me a month or so back and asked if he could interview me for churchnext.tv via skype. we explored imagination, creativity and mission. the interview has just been posted. i've not met chris but he is buidling up quite a collection of interviews around mission, church, culture and so on on churchnext

if you are in austin...

i am heading over to austin for a week duing SXSW which should be fun. i am there from march 5 to 11. bob carlton is organising the trip and what's happening. it includes 

march 6 dreamers who do - a gathering with  emerging church type people 

march 8 mobile.faith - an event exploring how faith and practice can be enlivened with mobile technologies

march 10 - [email protected] practices for digital sabbath 

i was also very pleased to see radiohead on the schedule when it came through!!!

thy will be gun

thy will be gun {ht jeremy]

do you talk to people on the tube/bus/subway?

in grace we are reading through ian adams book cave refectory road through lent. this week's discussion was around road and where you encounter strangers. jen sent round a link to this movie with someone experimenting with talking to people on the new york subway

common prayer

i get sent books from publishers. sometimes they ask if i'm interested but more often they just arrive - addressed to jonnybaker blog! i never promise to review them though in many ways i wish i had more time as i think books are wonderful and do like to comment on things (unless i really don't like them and then i can't see the point of a review that is totally negative). well this week a book arrived that i had not caught whim of but was a real surprise - common prayer. no - i am not talking about the one that was out in 1662 but a brand new fat hardback that has come out of the new monasticism movement in the US - authored by jonathan wilson hartgrove, shane claiborne, and enuma okoro. it's delightful - laying out liturgies and readings for communities or families (or an individual though it's clearly a book for communal prayer) in the morning, midday and evening along with some songs and occasional prayers and reflections.

something's going on! the tradition is being opened up and re-discovered for a new generation in a very different way. you get the impression that for some this whole approach is very new with explanations of what liturgy is, the church year and so in the introduction. if you have grown up in a setting where this sort of stuff is normal i suspect it will be easy to dismiss this. but you shouldn't - this is genuinely exciting. i think some who love tradition will be shocked that this is out published by zondervan, and the relaxed tone of the intro with words like cool in the mix - it's not exactly a heavyweight religious community feel. but i like that - let's relax and open up the gifts of the tradition in ways that are accessible. many of those making the rediscoveries of liturgy and so on are from the evangelical end of the church where their worship has been dominated by worship bands, preaching and ministry. i think this affords a different kind of depth, reportoire and rhythm in worship.

if you want a flavour of it there is a web site which i assume will become a portal and hub that can grow this resourcing of a movement.

we're going to see more resources like this. i have come across several groups who have created rhythms for their communities and liturgies and a rhythm of prayer and so on. cms, the mission community i belong to, are working on a year book of prayer. it's part of a shift to understand church as being about a life that is lived and fuelled through a rhythm of prayer as opposed to simply being about a once a week gathering. it's also about a maturing recognition that to be a community in the church is to be connected historically and globally into the body of christ and to unite with that rather than ignore it.

it's also a massive piece of work to do something like this. as i say a nice surprise. i have yet to try using the prayers in a communal setting...

jesus died for this? - becky garrison is on a quest

christian satirist - now there's a job description! it's what becky garrison does in life. having written for the brilliant wittenburg door and the equally brilliant geez and written a few books she has a new book out jesus died for this? she says in the intro

Ever wonder what Jesus thinks when Christians pretend to glorify his name while placing themselves in the center ring? Does he ever turn to his Dad and go 'I died for this?'

the book is an easy read, a travel book, a pilgrimage, a quest that took me by surprise. it's quite delightful. becky visits palestine/israel, jordan, the uk, ireland, poland, and various american cities dropping in on christian communities, trying to make sense of where christ might be present. she manages to serve up the satire in ways that are humorous but not bitter - it's quite an art i'm guessing because the church is packed with things that could easily be slammed! (i've met becky a few times and seem to always be gently encouraging her to tone down her satire without losing her wit. she could easily slam things a lot harder i suspect!)

you can read between the lines in places and becky is clearly allergic to the white male dominance in many of the communities she visits and sick of the culture of branding and celebrity that so easily surfaces. like this...

Labels like emergent, evangelical and even Christian can be helpful points of reference provided one doesn't take the label, turn it into a designer logo, and market the product as if it's more important than Christ. In particular how can anyone preach an anti-empire message while promoting oneself as a religious icon? This makes about as much sense as a Quaker owning a gun shop.

but even where it sounds like she has not found great hospitality and felt very alone she wears her vulnerability on her sleeve in brutally honest fashion at times - laying out some of her own brokenness and craving for acceptance. in her travels she finds many hopeful moments and rather than writing as a dispassionate journalist relays moments of epiphany where she senses the reassurance of the presence of the risen christ. it's a hopeful rather than a cynical read.

she does a good job it seems of sniffing out where people are seeking out creative and authentic ways to follow in the way of christ. she is one of many pilgrims who have found friendship in the emerging communities in the uk and grenbelt festival to take back as inspiration.

to accompany the book becky has been interviewing people and uploading movies and podcasts where she asks people to respond to the idea of what jesus died for - the video stream is here (the answer i wish i had given is spencer burke's where he suggests we should be asking what jesus lived for! i give something a lot more earnest) | the podcast stream is here (becky throws me a googlie question - what do i say to people who say that the mainline denominations are dead - the new is where it is at!?). the quality of some of the interviews is rough and ready but that's part of its charm...