Prodigals…

I uploaded a couple of old liturgies on Twelvebaskets the other day, which is a great collection of worship resources for those of you on the look out for material to use in services and house gatherings.

I came across an old piece that I wrote from one of our Greenbelt worship events, entitled ‘Prodigals’, and thought it worth re-posting;

Prodigals, coming home

A liturgy for one voice with congregational response, examining our relationship with our Father God.

 

Our fathering arises from human brokenness

And so is easily broken

We are your prodigals, coming home

Our fathering arises in a place where we struggle for power and control

And so it can become oppressive

Or even abusive

We are your prodigals, coming home

Our fathering finds the limits of our patience, our tolerance and our finances

It can be conditional

And we can be easily angered

We are your prodigals, coming home

Our fathering can be decayed by divorce and marital disharmony

It can become distant and removed

We are your prodigals, coming home

Our fathering can be stolen by death, leaving us in desperate grief

And terribly alone

We are your prodigals, coming home

Yet even we, who are so human

Know how to love

It is shaped within us

Waiting

We know how to give the best for our children

We do not give a stone when they ask for bread

Or a razor blade

When they ask for a plastic toy

Or a used syringe

When they ask for expensive shoes

How much more…

How much more will we encounter

When we meet you-

Heavenly father?

We are your prodigals, coming home

 

There is no Father

Unless there is also a son

Or a daughter

We were made for relationship

All of us- with no exceptions

Every one of God’s children

From the star pupil,

To the remedial

Poorly clothed

Last-to-be-picked

Back-of-the-classroom loser

Who becomes the favourite

The Chosen One

The last-

Now made first

There is no Father

Without us

 

The sons and daughters-

The beloved

Of the most high God

Proost- free downloads!

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For those of you who are not familiar with Proost– here is the blurb from the site-

Proost has now been in existence for 10 years, it came in to being as a resource and a service to the church.

In a world dominated by large record companies and publishers, we believed there was a need for a broader range of creativity from independent artists, musicians, authors etc. We also saw the need for an outlet for creative individuals who also had the same desire as us.In the very early days, budget constraints, inexperience and a sense of feeling our way meant that we concentrated on one project at a time, usually an album of music or a worship ‘experience’… we found that people were finding many uses for what we were providing which was encouraging and spurred us on to do more.

Now, several years down the line, Proost has developed and grown. We have built good relationships with a large number of very creative people who share our vision and are happy that we help bring their work into a more public arena. Working with these people has proved to be a real joy and the standard of creativity which they are bringing to us means that we can now provide a whole range of products and tools for you to use in your own worship settings. It is our hope that you will find many things on this website that will be of use to you… and we also hope you will find us to be a helpful partner as you seek to worship in spirit and in truth.

THE PEOPLE
Jonny Baker
Religion has a great tradition of creative characters – prophets, tricksters, mischief makers, etc – that have remade their traditions so that they live again after they’ve become deadened. Jonny works with leaders and churches to help them re-imagine faith and tradition where they have become stuck. And he works with younger creative leaders encouraging their creativity and improvisation as they plant new christian communities in the emerging culture.

Jon Birch
Music producer, animator, illustrator, designer, writer – Jon spends his time trying to be as creative as possible. He describes himself as ‘a person who likes to be on the edge of things, who has made his life doing what he used to get into trouble for doing in the margins of his school books.’ He enjoys using his talents to inspire, challenge and encourage fellow strugglers in their faith journeys. If you can’t find him, he’ll usually be in his studio making something. Jon is a co-founder of Sanctuary, a christian community based in Bath, England.

Aad Vermeyden
Hailing from the land that gave the world Vermeer and Delftware, it is no surprise to us that Aad gets a real buzz out of enabling the artistry of others. When Proost first came into being he was an artist and events manager, responsible for the careers of many of the UK’s leading lights, putting on shows all around the globe and handling their delicate artistic sensibilities. Aad is equally at home in the world of databases and computer systems and has made admin an artform. Jon and Jonny are both very glad to have his wisdom and experience onboard… even if Canada does sometimes feel like a long way away.

Proost have published 44 movies, 22 albums and 11 books (including, a-hem, 2 of mine) and you can have access to the whole lot for a subscription of £60! Thats over £250 worth of stuff.

However, it gets better-

prrost freebies

If you register with Proost, you can access loads of free goodies- a chance to try out all sorts of bits and pieces from the site.

Bargain!


The new book is out!

Forgive the conceit, because here is a plug for my new book!

listingcover

‘Listing’ is a collection of poetry and meditations mostly inspired by some of those great lists in the Bible- the fruit of the Spirit, the Beatitudes, the ‘love’ passage in Corinthians and the ‘seasons’ passage in Ecclesiastes 3.

It is published by Proost- and available by clicking here.

Here is the Proost blurb from Jonny Baker;

Listing is a little gem, a surprise that came Proost’s way over the horizon from Chris Goan. He loves crafting words, playing with words, chewing over words, creating and re-creating worlds with words. His poems and meditations are a delight, spinning off from and opening up new takes on familiar verses of ancient wisdom from the scriptures. It’s the second book from Chris on proost. The first is the wonderful meditation he wrote to go along with Si Smith’s images of Christ’s journey into the wilderness ‘40’. The books is available as both hard copy or to download as pdf.

Thanks Jonny!

Go on- Buy two and give one away…

Dancing Drakes prayer…

Thanks to Mark Berry for this-

A link to a collection of worship resources, including a setting of a prayer thought to be by the Elizabethan adventurer Sir Francis Drake- he of the cloak-in-the-mud and the bowling-whilst-the-Spanish armada is approaching fame. (Or was that Walter Raleigh?)

It kind of resonated with something I had written before- here.

Here it is- thanks guys!