Jonny Baker

John Taylor’s most famous book is a reminder that the Holy Spirit urges us toward a communal humanity. Taylor’s is a message especially pertinent in an age of crushing multinational capitalism and a rising tide of individual greed and fear of the Other. Based on his Cadbury lectures delivered in 1967, The Go-Between God is now considered one of the most important works ever written on the Holy Spirit and mission. This edition contains a new foreword by Jonny Baker.

The impact that John V. Taylor had on our contemporary understanding of mission is vast – his determination that mission should mean engagement across cultural boundaries has deep resonance today. In 'Imagining Mission with John V. Taylor', leading missional thinkers Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross invite us into a vision of church, mission and society which takes John Taylor’s ideas seriously, seeking to imagine what Taylor’s insights might mean for these three areas in our contemporary context. The result is a clarion call to the church to take bigger risks and dream bigger dreams.

Ordained pioneer ministry is a significant and growing presence in the Church of England and the Methodist Church and in denominations around the world. Here leading practitioners and theologians in the pioneer movement including Doug Gay, Liz Sercombe, Beth Keith and Gerald Arbuckle reflect on emerging trends, practices and the key theological challenges of pioneer work, offering critical reflection on emerging forms of mission and church in changing social contexts. They explore how people experience transformation, contextual engagement, dissent as a form of leadership, emerging patterns of urban ministry, whether the language of sin and guilt works today, assumptions about how pioneer ministry is learned, and more.

Curation is a term usually used in the art world for the role of imagining and overseeing an exhibition or art experience. However the word is now being adopted by people in alternative worship, as it affords a very different and inventive way of thinking about how to lead a service or praise event. Rather than simply presiding over liturgy or fronting a band, curation involves negotiating between institutions and artists and making do with what is to hand to create something brilliant. The hope is that moments of epiphany will be experienced as God is invited to be and breathe in the space, and people make connections with their own lives and stories. Curating Worship is in two parts. The first considers the kind of thinking, skills and disciplines involved in good curation. The second consists of in depth interviews, which tease out from people who have curated amazing worship experiences around the world, the ideas and theories behind their approaches and the practical processes involved.