Jonny Baker on technology and church

Jonny Baker talks about how church can be collaborative. The way social interaction is being changed by Facebook and photo sharing websites like flikr will have an influence on the way we do church in the future because behaviour is changing. There are now church web sites like MyChurch that can be built using social networking templates so church members can comment and contribute. Early days yet when so many church websites are like flatfile databases  compared to relational databases. Creativity doesn't need to be limited to leadership roles. Let go leaders and see your congregation blossom.

Wearing nappies

Just as I seem to be making sense of What is Emerging Church? someone posts on an answer to this continuing question that makes me feel like I should still be in nappies.

Thanks Gavin for this video posted at Hit the Back Button to Move Forward




In search of the Church was made in Canada by 100 Huntley Street christian TV station

What is Emerging Church?

When I started coming across references to "Emerging Church" and "Alternative Worship", both these phrases were new to me. Having buried my head in an evangelical anglican church in a London suburb for many years, I had little idea what other styles of worship there were "out there".

After many hours internet searching and blog reading no one definition of either could be found that would satisfy most people. What became clear to me was the refreshing combination of the use of multimedia and rediscovery of silence, ritual and reflection was what I needed to bring back to our congregation who had lost some of the awe of a great God who requires our worship.

Here are a collection of suggested definitions that I found helpful.

Emerging Church a Beginners Guide : from EmergingChurchInf.com

What is 'emerging church : Introduction from open source theology

The Emerging Church: An article by D. A. Carson fromModern Reformation Magazine

Five Streams of the Emerging Church : An article from Christianity Today Magazine

Wikipedia : Alternative Worship

Alternative Worship is "what happens when people create worship for themselves," according to Steve Collins

My first Blog Entry - A Search for Real Church Worship

I started this blog to keep track of my search for new expressions of church and re-imagining church worship.

Not that my church is particularly boring or stereo typical of the way some churches are portrayed in the media. You might imagine five ladies in hats sitting at the back of a dusty old building singing hymns you might remember from school assembly to tunes squeezed out of a wheezy old organ.

No, we have about 80 come along most weeks and we sing modern worship songs played by our worship band, of which I am a member. The vicar is youngish and has a great sense of humour. No I like going to church and I love worshipping God.

But I do wish our worship was a bit more relevant to the 21st century.

My search started to find more interesting photographs or looping videos to use with the new church projector and song projection software. We don't sing from books any longer as so much new music is being written we would never be able to keep up with the number of books we
would need.

So I started searching the internet for free photo sites that I could legally copy. This led me to a number of church websites and into new expressions of church which I had first read about in a book, Changing World, Changing Church by Michael Moynagh.

I began to discover churches which were experimenting with new ways of expressing worship.

One of my most exiting finds was a blog by Jonny Baker. Jonny writes about his experiences leading a church community called Grace in Ealing, London.

He also has contacts and credits lots of friends around the world who are also using new expressions of worship.

In my next entry I will write about my week at Lee Abbey when Jonny Baker spoke about Re-Imagining Worship.