Steve Jones :: Feeds

I still get really excited about going on a train / I'm such a kid. Off to one of my favourite cities ..

Grumpy jonesey continues!!! My new software is lost in post and my trial software has run out so no MS Outlook - so no email, no calendar, no nothing !!! So more bottom lip to add to gallery ... Good looking guy, don't you think ? Off to Bristol tomorrow to sit in first Methodist chapel in the world with national training officer - so really looking forward to that .

Sleep well ... Steve

New week with lots of deadlines thrown in !!! Ahhhh!!! Some major communications pieces to put together by Wednesday - a nc booklet, training programme for Methodists, etc ...

Been a bit of a crappy dad this weekend - grumpy, tired, too much food, too much tv- one of those blobby weekends you don't feel refreshed by - sorry jonestribe !! But it's a new month !!

Got our first baptisms coming up with some of our homeless friends, we'll book a bishop !

There is a growing sense of community and real friendship - it's precious !

I'm gonna take you on a quick tour with my movie camera ,...

I get such a buzz from design and automation - sorry I am a true geek - automation , if used properly, can probably do the work of full time one or two PA's. I've got automation : taking event and gathering bookings, following up with people, sharing excellent resources, collecting contact data, sending out emails, bookings for cathedral, and in future it'll supplement training in a big way..

Roll on the geek revolution !!!

Spending much time Reading irresistable revolution - deeply disturbing book - deeply radical about the ways of Christ ... Hope some of the book sticks !!

This is a picture of my lads doing quasar yesterday - I'm not sure what Jesus thought as they lasered each other with guns etc.. It was though something to do with 'kids (and adults) wanting to be heroes' , to do something revolutionary and significant with their lives - following jesus was never meant to be boring- how can we be ordinary heroes?

Funny thing is with this way of being church tonight , there is not a lot I can do to influence the evening - feels kinda weird... A preacher would preach (we don't really do that in traditional sense), a worship leader would get band and songs together(we don't really do it that way), ... So tonight I have no control, it's all been given away ( to wonderful people I must add) ... So I'm gonna wander and collect stories on my new video flip thing ... Have lots of coffee and relax these shoulders a while . Peace

NIGHTCHURCH tester on Vimeo from Steve Jones on Vimeo.

Poor Nat, banged his head and has to spend a day with his old dad..

Yep it's official !! Jesus has seriously messed me up - I had it all sorted, boxed in, nice career, money, personally secure, emotionally whole, doing church all tidy and neat. But actually following Jesus will screw all that up - hanging out with freaky people, feeling compassion deeply messes up any hope of emotional serenity ( I mean Van Goch was a pioneer minister in inner London - rejected and ridiculed by other 'believers' and look what happened to him), I've found it a financial struggle and the new shapes of church, mission and leadership are far more trying than they used to be.

So watch out - following Christ can seriously affect your health

had a busy 2 or 3 weeks and we have some quieter times for a while - times to catchup and reflect on what is happening around me

1. Serving Methodist movement as an 'equipper' - had my honeymoon/induction and met some great folks on the journey ... some real hope out there. Need to now start 'doing' the job as it were and organise 'growth experiences' for diverse  groups of people - with differnet learning styles, differenet callings , dffrent  backgrounds - but hey, that's what I'm good at !!!!
2. NIGHTCHURCH really starting to kick in - internally I guess... some great mumblings around living in community, developing a new monasticism, launching simple churches, the kind of stuff I've been hoping for for years - so I'm really encouraged . I'm writing a booklet unpacking what NIGHTCHURCH is becoming - really difficult as we are organic and things tend to shift but I have a deadline - an e-book version will become available on this blog in weeks to come ...
3. Doing occasional 6th form day conferences where I get a chance to rant about injustice and hopefully bring some new vision and lifestyle to these aspiring leaders - done schools and colleges all over SW. Had one yesterday - just great !!!
4. Family well - and got lots of evenings and saturdays coming up - so pretty good all round.

Peace to you - Shane's book still cutting deep - get it for Christmas instead of that other junk...  check it out here or in left margin

Tom Stukey (ex-Methodist President) speaking on Renewal of the Church  - he's really excited about growth and new season for church - Can these bones live? Hope is not in goals, structures etc.. but a real hope in a real God ...

Caterpillar to pupa to butterfly - great metaphor for change for the church

some reasons why it's just not working

• triviality
• professionalism
• pattern of education - 'apprentice model', doing it ... is more crucial for learning,
• buildings focus
• the cultural gap is massive

some great examples from Acts - the gospel of fresh expressions ...

He would close down 80% of what happens in church life today ... to free up time to do what God wants.

Interesting evening as lock for cathedral door broke and we couldn't get in - so did whole thing in cafe (chapter house) - discussions, live music from www.Kimwei.com, great chats with some new and old friends - met this chap who going to come along to play - www.myspace.com/andrewgmarshall - have a restful and peaceful and refreshing weekend. Steve

Had a good session with a few hundred 6th formers in Bath ... They got so creative and passionate near the end - really inspirational

Long day - lots of travelling around thses next few days - Bath in the morning - need to leave 5.30am - ouch !!! Doing a day conference with 200 6th formers on debt cancellation, politics and following Christ. My tiredness is my fault though - got addicted to series 6 of '24' over weekend -not good for early nights or family life...

Been listening to tony campolo and shane claibourne on 'across the pond' podcast on my travels - all about a radical following of the ways of Christ - great stuff .. Anyway sleep well and God bless... Steve

having an exciting week wandering around talking about being a Christ-follower in todays world >> Barak got the job - great guy and my prayers are with him ... gives me renewed hope in politics and America ... well done Americans, you showed us you're not a bunch of war-making racists - I love you again...

Didn't get to sleep though !! watched it unfold on TV ...

On train to Birmingham for a meeting with Martin Robinson from Together in Mission - we're taking on some new modules around mission and new ways of being church and I'm getting some help on how to deliver them. Tomorrow talking with someone about developing lay  ministry and some training in evening and then  more training over weekend - I'm working with a group of farmers in mid-devon as they develop fresh expressions of church for their context ... I go from urban to rural and back again most of the time ...

I'm playing with a booklet  I'm collaboratively writing with NIGHTCHURCH leadership community - it's about what the 'eck we are about - here are some draft pages - what do you think??

It's coming out before Christmas and will hopefully help us nurture some values ....

Dan Yarnell – National Coordinator – Churches for Christ

Mary Publicover – TIM Research

Anne Slane – BYFC

Vicky Elliot – new academic administrator

Steve Jones – barak, Exeter, Methodist trainer, organic church in cathedral -

Richard Roberts – Dorset – Growing Leaders SW

Mike Pears – Bristol Baptist and replanting

Tim – Churches of Christ church planter home-based church – “3^rd Place”

Randy Edwards – Australian College of Ministries OT and NT

Mike Stear – Weymouth/Dorchester Base – Prison Chaplain Weymouth

Rob – Bridgend – Cardiff Centre Co-ordinator

New Curriculum

Newbiggin’ish –the open secret – key text

Core Convictions

· Mission dei

· Trinitartian

· Start with christocentric to missiology then to ecclesiology

· Rapid discontinuous change – linear/strategic planning (future shock predicted in 1970)

· Luke 10 – strangers in our own neighbourhoods

· Mission- Shaped Leadership

o Living in discontinuos change

o The missional future is among the people of God

o New metaphors for leadership

• § Poet – fresh imagination
• § Abbott – forming a people

New skills

• § Adaptive not technical
• § Listening – tables & “listening others into free speech”
• § Listening Externally – community exegesis, local theology
• § Catechesis – ancient/future ; new monasticism; formation
• o Moving back into the neighbourhood

Great new curriculum – 2 cycles ( ,

New Key TEXTS

· Deep Church Series

· 6 texts – one for each

Roles of Tutors – aspirational

· Comprehension – ensuring students have grasp of material

· Development – offer related but broader perspectives

· Application - providing an arena for the contextualisation of the subject matter

· Mutual enrichment and peer learning

No need to get through material – all of it – just make the day work with learning moments

I've got some new places on my patch and I always develop a deep love for these spaces - Bristol , Taunton, Bath, Southampton ... I'm especially in Bristol a lot - great city...

Great time with nearly 1000 folks in cathedral at Nightchurch - choir were amazing ...

Been a super half term - got a break now with tribe - should be fun

Download child_protection_training_grovenor_2008.pptx