I've just finished Jonny Baker's new book Curating Worship which I have enjoyed reading and has stimulated my thinking over the last week. The book is basically divided into two sections, the first section is a couple of chapters by Jonny where he introduces the concept of curation and then in the second section are a number of interviews with people who have been curating worship for a number of years. Here are my thoughts on it....
The book is very Jonny! I think that one of Jonny's greatest characteristics/gifts is that he is always pointing away from himself, he doesn't suffer from a form of status anxiety that means he need to constantly be promoting himself, rather he uses the book to encourage others and the gifts that they bring to worship. This in turn brings a richness to the book as it encounters different people in different contexts. However, the flip side to this is that I found myself wanting a bit more of Jonny's comments and reflections on the interviews. He reacts to the questions that are asked and draws other points out from them but I think that I would have liked him to take a further step back and reflect on a couple of the key points that the interviewees bring out.
An example of what I mean is the sub-text of power and leadership that is running through the book. Laura Drane comments on this in her chapter and it comes out in Kester and Nic's chapter too, I think that this is a serious issue that needs further reflection. For example curators are experts and from talking with people who work in a gallery context, they essentially hold all the power. They can be the most encouraging and support people but what they say goes. Jonny is currently developing a training pathway for people in leadership and from conversations that I have had with him I think that he would offer valuable thoughts on leadership and power in this context.
There was one chapter in particular that really served to energize me. It was Cheryl Lawrie's chapter on 'Stumbling into something lovely'. I've been curating worship for about 10 years with varying degrees of curation/control/lack of control along the way, and TBH I'm quite enjoying the break from it now. However, Cheryl's chapter energized me, it opened my eyes, it started me thinking about maybe I could experiment with this or that. That's a gift - thank-you!
As I was reading the book I found myself thinking this is a retrospective of alt.worship. It looks back at events that have happened in the past and offers comment on them. Whilst this is important in the creation of ideas, memory is selective and can serve to idealized and create a utopian memory that is far better than the reality. I found myself thinking, has the golden age of alt-worship gone and we're now looking for something new? I don't think that this is the case, and i don't think that Jonny thinks this is the case either, I'm excited by the developments that are taking alt.worship out of the church but i think that with a retrospective book it needs at some point to draw the reader to the future. This happened for me with Cheryl's chapter but I think that I would have liked something more proactive in the book on future imagination. I was also struck that many people in the book are my contemporaries, they are not 'the new kids on the block' and whilst all these people brought valuable insights I was wanting a bit if rawness, and bit of inexperience, a bit of Godly naivety.
Overall, I enjoyed the book - I found it a good stimulating read, Jonny asks some pertinent questions of the curators and also offers valuable insight of his own. There are some absolute gems in the book, so go buy it!
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