Episode 13 - Beyond Church with Martin Poole

Liturgical rebels

Martin Poole, author of 'Church Beyond Walls,' discusses his journey of taking spirituality out to public spaces. He shares his background as an actor and priest, and how he became dissatisfied with traditional church settings. Poole talks about his organization, Beyond, which focuses on creating public art events that provoke people to think about God. He highlights some of their projects, such as the Beach Hut Advent Calendar and the Blessing of the Surf service. Poole also offers advice for those interested in engaging in creative worship outside of traditional church settings.
Takeaways

• Taking spirituality out of traditional church settings can lead to meaningful and creative worship experiences.
• Engaging in public art events can provoke people to think about God in new and unexpected ways.
• Collaborating with people from different backgrounds and perspectives can enrich worship experiences and lead to new insights.
• Creating art installations and events in public spaces can be done with limited resources and the support of a dedicated team.
• Engaging in creative worship outside of traditional church settings can deepen one's faith and provide opportunities for spiritual growth.

Martin Poole is currently the parish priest of St. Luke’s Prestonville in Brighton and founder of Beyond Church, an arts organisation dedicated to creating innovative arts and spirituality events and conferences www.beyondchurch.co.uk. For most of his working life he’s been a creative TV producer, travelling around the world creating brand identities and promotion campaigns for TV channels. He worked with a wide variety of clients including the BBC, SKY, ITV and Disney eventually becoming a communications strategist specialising in branding, marketing and promotion for media. He’s also been an actor, butler, construction worker, receptionist, cleaner, youth volunteer and chaplain as well as a husband and father. As the founder of Beyond he has initiated and curated hundreds of public art events on the seafront, in parks, in pubs and theatres and is the inventor of the Beach Hut Advent Calendar which ran for 11 years along Hove promenade.

He recently authored a book, Church Beyond Walls which is a description of the creation and production of some of these art events and the personal stories of those who became involved in them and their experiences of the divine through the wonders of art.
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