jonnybaker

fire log

Fire log from jonny baker on Vimeo.

this weekend we celebrated two years of prospect wood. it's been a crazy adventure and we have learned a whole load of new skills in the process. it's been a beautiful space to be especially during coronavirus because it is so socially distanced. 

anyway for the celebration i wanted to try out my first ever swedish fire log. i first saw one at the big chill festival years ago and thought it was amazing. i won't try and explain it - just watch the video. i filmed it on the phone vertically which was probably a stupid idea but too late (though it looks alright on a phone if you enlarge it a bit)! but it worked an absolute treat and was so much fun. there'll be a lot more fire logs to come. it's dead easy - you should try it. the wood i used was norwegian spruce which is sparky and burns quickly and is what we have plenty of. i imagine it might be a bit slower getting it going with a hard wood but have no idea.

 

true north - talk from w@nder konferenz

here is a video of the talk i gave along with susann (a colleague who speaks german which is handy!) at the w@nder konferenz in hannover. it's a reflection on the pioneer gift around the metaphor of true north - with a series of themes i have noticed seem to be at the heart of what we have developed at cms around pioneering mission, and also a few thoughts on what might help the gift to flourish. i was bening translated simultaneously. susann's reflections on the other hand are in german!

steve bevans gives his take on mission and pioneering

i got to interview steve bevans at our cms conversations day on mission spirituality and here is the first part. steve has such wisdom about mission - it's always a privilege to hear him sharing it. this is posted at the cms pioneer blog. if you want to hear more about the pioneer training come along to an open day on march 3. good news is that we have just heard that we will be publishing a follow up book to the pioneer gift on the theme of pioneering spirituality - out autumn 2015 - which will have a chapter from steve. 

here's what we are up to with pioneers

Why do we need mission pioneers? (Full version) from Church Mission Society on Vimeo.

here's a video we've put together about the cms pioneers and pioneer training - people often ask what we're doing and i hope this helps answer the question! do pass it on...

how to be an urban cyclist

jen's talk from greenbelt on how to be an urban cyclist is online

reversible thinking

i love this video created by sarah roberts. sarah is from edinburgh and is on the missional entrepreneurship week which is part of the cms pioneer training. a year ago sarah left her job with a dream and idea of working to help young people whose parents are in prison in scotland and is on the week to work that idea up. she is working with families outside

rembihnutur - thanks bob!

Sigur Rós - Rembihnútur from Sigur Rós Valtari Mystery Films on Vimeo.

bob carlton sent me a link a couple of weeks back to a new video from sigur ros. they have commissioned a series of films to go with the album valteri. this one tied in so perfectly with the wake up theme and service i outlined in the previous blog post i couldn't believe it! we showed this during the communion at the end of the service. i was so hoping that one of the people would open thier eyes towards the end and sure enough...

india is...

i have got to know jonathan simpson through his dad phil who is a good friend and who works at cms. his dad travels around asia networking, catalysing and supporting mission. his son has clearly caught the love of asia and travel and he is quite the photographer. have a look through the images on his web site which is a lovely site all round.

anyway these days if you've got a decent camera which jonathan has, you can shoot fabulous movies and there are several movies on the site as well...

jonathan has put a movie together and entered it in india is... - a competition to capture something of india in a short film. his movie is india is for skiers. go and have a look and do take the trouble to vote for him!

prayer for the fallen - worship trick 13, series 4

nick ashman has written a piece of music and created ths movie for remembrance day in memory of his grandad

bread suspension - worship trick 73

another grace, another bundle of creativity and worship. the theme was bread and the service involved making yeast, making and baking bread and reflecting on and discussing various things on the way. the smell of the bread baking was great and the bread was then shared and broken at the end of the worship.

i always like the visual side of worship. and when it comes to curating i think a good question to ask as well as developing an order of service and stations and whatever else is whether you can create something that makes visual impact as a central idea. this time round we came up with the idea of getting some alphabet cutters and cutting text into bread that was suspended on washing line across the front of the space saying i am the bread of life. we toasted it so it was less floppy - grace toast!

it was simple but looked brilliant. an added bonus was projecting light onto it created a silhouette of the words on the church wall above.

when the cutters arrived they looked such fun i had to try them out at home and ended up making two video loops using some bread and my oven - grace toasted and grace grilled, both on vimeo. i made these using the canon 5d mkii whose video making potential is such a massive bonus to the camera. to get that photographic look and quality on movies is wonderful. my grill pan has never looked so good...

anyway i am making bread suspension (and related activities) worship trick 73 series 3 . well done to sarah who was curating her first ever grace and pulled off a pretty impressive grace. details will get added to the grace archive in due course i'm sure and photos will appear in the gracelondon flickr group no doubt.

all i need

i have not come across radiohead's movie for all i need before but spotted a link to it on bob's facebook page. in the simplest way it highlight's child slavery.

movies

shards from jonny baker on Vimeo.

when i was in the usa i picked up a flip camera. couldn't be easier to record movies - press to start, press to stop, flip open the usb stick and plug in to your mac/pc and there you have it. the clips are 640x480. for me it will be great to capture a few things. i tend to focus on still photography and haven't bothered taking a movie camera as well. but this is so small and easy i may do a bit more. it's also ideal for creating some loops for arkaos or keynote or whatever...

in terms of movies i'll upload at vimeo. here's the first flip movie.

cheryl lawrie liturgy book out on proost plus cloud movie

this month on proost we have two new items...

we conceived the idea of the series of pocket liturgies to try and make available prayers, liturgies, reflections and rituals that were being born out of the life of local situations. we are really pleased to add hold this space as the fifth in the series to reflect worship growing out of the soil of melbourne, australia. cheryl lawrie is wonderfully gifted in the art of crafting words - if you follow the blog you'll know i regularly link to her writing and have made several pieces worship tricks before now. as well as working in a range of spaces to curate worship events and experiences across the city, cheryl has developed worship in prisons. her prayers and liturgies for that context along with the psalms written by prisoners are powerful. it's in the books section of the site as a download or physical book. (if you are in australia the uniting church bookshop in melbourne will be stocking it).

then cloud is the first proost movie from our latest unusual suspect andi mac who is part of a community in lurgan, northern ireland called arise which is the playground for his creativity. it's a really unique piece. here's what he said when i asked him about it...

Cloud was born out of a period of heaviness amongst the Arise community. The image that resonated was of a dark cloud resting overhead. Then looking at the imagery in the Bible of a cloud as a sign of the presence of God, of reassurance and guidance, the video "Cloud" was born. You could use it as a loop in the background (would look excellent playing through a stack of old fashioned 60's TV's) but probably most likely to be used as stand alone video. Could be used for exploring themes of commitment, guidance, going through periods of darkness. The main element at the beginning and end of video of the people walking with clouds overhead is based on the urban commute, that sense of dreariness that seems to hang over everyone on their way to work.

[you can preview it in the media player on proost

it's easy to miss something you're not looking for

this cyclist awareness ad is the best i have seen in a while...

holy week reflections - worship trick 26

i can't quite believe we're almost in holy week... where did lent go?

anyway i'm sure the blogosphere will be full of creative reflections and links to accompany the journey this year. so to get the ball rolling have a look at holy week reflections from lifewords. jeremy williams at short film in worship put me on to this. there's is a movie/animation/reflection for each day. just click on the day number to watch the movie. i don't know what the deal is with downloading them. but if you use flock (as i do) the way i find out the address of flash movies is as follows:
click on tools - page info - select media tab - highlight the animation and you can see where the movie url is. so day 2 is at http://www.sgmlifewords.com/easter/films/easter2.swf - then click file - save as and you can save that animation so you don't have to be online to watch it. i assume that this is an ok piece of info to pass on?... if you don't use flock, find your own work around - see the source code to find the url etc...

anyway that's eight short movie reflections right there...

space and time and contemplative prayer

i have put together a movie with jon birch to go with our track space and time. it's a pretty simple idea - photos of empty seats, chairs and benches to invite the viewer to sit in god's presence and take some space. we made it thinking about lent being a time to focus on prayer. i also thought it would go well as part of my exhibit but having put it next to the photo have decided the photo is more powerful on its own.

jenny is doing a national series of training days for urban saints on contemplative prayer. and so we've recorded three tracks of her leading prayer/meditation exercises - an ignatian examen, a stilling exercise and a breathing prayer. these go to make up the contemplative prayer EP.

these are this month's proost releases and ideal for lent. you can watch and/or listen to samples in the media player. check the list of ideas on the front page of proost for other ideas.

am off to norway tomorrow for the first time for a couple of days to do some youth ministry training. looking forward to it...

killing good ideas can harm your future

this is kind of a negative way of looking at it but it's still fun...

ever had a good idea killed off by someone or a group?
want to see it burned in the fire in style?

then look no further

two movies of a focus group looking at fire and wheel

anorexic mirror

this is a hard hitting ad on anorexia - might be a good discussion starter if you are in youth ministry

grace video

at grace on saturday we had about 20 students from calvin college in the USA visit. they brought a video camera to record their trip and have uploaded a montage on youtube

there's no place like home...

in february 1998 i visited palestine/israel. what i saw and heard shocked me and when i returned i recorded an angry sad album backbone telling the stories of those encounters. backbone is still one of the albums i am most proud of (and has sold the least copies!!!!).

anyway adam cleaveland sent me a link to a video he made using the track 'home' which he has put on youtube here with photos and video footage from his visit in 2005.

the track is sung in two halves. the first is sung by me as a zionist jew returning to the promised land, seeing the palestinians as the equivalemnt to the canaanites to be driven out in the name of god. the second half is sung by jon as muhanna arab, a palestinian i met who had seen his house and land destroyed and then lived in a beaten up caravan which was regularly stoned by the settlers. he also sings of ibrahim who we met - i have a stone from his house that had been bulldozed by israeli soldiers after spending 5 years building it. he asked us to take a stone to remember and tell the story. the chorus is 'there's no place like home'.

sadly it seems very little has changed in nearly 10 years. this video brought it all back to me...