Box TV

Carolyn Gomersall - Luton - 11 October 2011

We are always looking for ways to engage our 10-13 year old boys that come to Messy Church. The other month we were looking at the story of Ruth & we got a couple of the boys to re tell the story by drawing their own cartoon story line. They did this on a long sheet of paper. Each end of the paper was then attached to an empty kitchen roll tube at each end. This was then placed inside a box that was cut out to be like a TV screen. The cartoon rolled through as if running a cartoon strip, with various commentaries of 'I love you Boaz' in high pitched voices from the boys!! This interspersed within a narrator story caused much laughter but equally importantly really engaged the boys in the activity & story. This could obviously be used with any story.

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Belmont North Redhead Messy Church, Australia

Wendy Dubojski - Belmont North Australia - 10 September 2011

Hi Everyone
Well have just had our 4th Messy Church and over 50 people came we were so excited.
We used Lucy's book format and that was so helpful in the planning. We even have a small team.
I just love getting Messy in Church and I'm the Rector!
Our next is on the 18th September so watch this space.
Blessings
Wendy D

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Brand New Children & Family Work

Becky Morley - Northrepps, Norfolk, UK - 03 August 2011

On Sunday 31st July we at St Mary's, Northrepps in Norfolk held our first Messy Church. We have a two classroom "Church Rooms" and a small kitchen under the tower in our church. There are usually 3 children at Sunday school (all mine!) and no other families within our normal congregation of between 9 and 12 people so it was time to get drastic!

I used the "I am the Good Shepherd" unit from Messy Church Book 1 and planned the session, I put posters up on every spare surface I could find in our village and all the surrounding ones! I also advertised on Facebook. I was very nervous while instructing the catering team to cook for 40, whilst quietly praying that at least two families turn up to join my children.

Imagine my surprise when 39 people turned up and had a fantastic time! There was cotton wool and glue everywhere, happy chatter and big smiles all round.

As they left, every single family insisted that I post them invites for the next one.

I still cannot believe the scale of the success and just wanted to let anyone who is unsure if it works or not that.. YES! It works! Thank you Messy Church for the recipe for success!!!

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Dapto (Australia) gets MESSY!

Dapto Messy Church - Dapto Uniting Church, NSW, Australia - 23 May 2011

After months of planning and preparation for our first ever Messy Church, we had about 60 kids and adults in attendance for our launch event at Dapto Uniting Church. A fantastic (and MESSY) time was had by all!

We are blessed by a strong prayer ministry at our church who covered the entire afternoon/evening in prayer.

After spending a few hours setting up, there was time for a quick prayer session and group photo with the Messy Church team.

A wide range of activities greeted our families upon arrival including mask making, playdough animal farms, cupcake decorating, finger painting, beading, bubble fun, mural painting, outdoor games, finger puppet making, slime and jelly pig slops. A highlight for many was crafting our own little pigs out of pink plasticine - complete with googly eyes and curly pipe cleaner tails!

After our Together Time in the church learning about the story of the Prodigal Son, we all headed back into the hall for our celebration feast! We all tucked into our party dinner and enjoyed the culinary creations that the kids helped to make in the Messy Church Kitchen.

The evening concluded with a good old party favourite - a Pinata!

We learnt a lot from our first experience at Messy Church. We had to be flexible with our time schedule as we couldn't drag the kids away from the craft activities because they were having so much fun! It was also encouraging to see so many parents staying for a bit of a chat after dinner.

We will have some photos up on our website very soon.

We can't wait for our 2nd Messy Church event in August 2011.

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Easter Messy Church

Anonymous - Frankston, Au - 14 May 2011

We held our first ever Messy Church just prior to Easter using an adaptation of the ideas in the Messy Church book. It was a great success with over 70 people in attendance. Amazing stuff!

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Hope shared at hope centre Bolton

Anonymous - Hope Centre Bolton - 08 May 2011

The Lord really blessed us today at our first Messy church. We had 78 guests who enjoyed the crafts, celebration and food,all based around the story of the lost son.

It was amazing to see families flock into the hope centre. They were so happy with the day PRAISE THE LORD FOR ANSWERED PRAYER.

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Messy Easter success

Helen Babiy - Walsall West Midlands - 28 April 2011

I launched Messy at our church, Emmanuel Bentley, on Good Friday. We advertised in local schools and put up posters and a banner. The response was amazing! Around 70 people turned up with a good mixture of children, teenagers and adults. There was a wide range of craft activities to choose from and plenty of toast and cakes to munch on.

I delivered the 'talk' in the form of a game where each volunteer picked an egg containing a key phrase from the Easter story. After working out what event it referred to, another volunteer had to dig around in a treasure chest to find the matching object. To add to the excitement I only gave them 5 seconds to find it. I then explained that part of the story.

Afterwards we sang an energetic Easter song before taking a large cross down to the local shops. The whole morning was enjoyed by everyone and our regular church members were thrilled to help.

We are all looking forward to the next one!

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Messy Church comes to East Kilbride !!

Christine - East Kilbride, Lanarkshire - 25 February 2011

Sunday 6th of February saw our first Messy Church and it was AMAZING !! Thirty one people came along and enjoyed exploring the story of Creation through craft and worship. We had five, ranging from making a Creation banner through to sun, moon and stars mobiles... with plenty of glitter!

We were given a box full of tambourines and maracas, so we played them as we went in to worship. We sang "We are marching in the light of God" and made a lot of noise, not all of it musical may I add! After our worship, we all sat down to pizza, pasta and home made cakes, which went down very well with everyone.

It was a most enjoyable and exhausting day and we can't wait until the next one on March 6th. Our Minister came near to the end of the mealtime and went around chatting to everyone. There was very good and positive feedback which really made all the hard work worthwhile.

We are going to continue with the next story in the Messy Church book, so will be looking at Noah and the Ark. Planning is well under way for that.

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Messy Church Poem

Margo Matthews - British Columbia, Canada - 22 July 2010

By Margo Matthews
Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada

'Come to the Messy Church' it read,
And nothing more in the ad was said.
Now what in the world is a Messy Church?
And who would want to worship God in a mess?
Wasn't God a God of order and neatness?
Weren't specific instructions given for the building of the Tabernacle?
And 'cleanliness is next to godliness' I recalled.
Would God's Holy Presence inhabit such a mess?
My mind conjured up all sorts of images...
Church pews scattered here and there
And not in an orderly symmetrical fashion;
A bucket of water and a mop right in the middle of the sanctuary,
A vacuum cleaner and dustpans on the floor to the left;
Garbage bags full of refuse in the corner;
Jay cloths and Lemon Pledge to polish the furniture,
Vases of wilted flowers knocked over -
Water spilling from the vases on the floor -
And what would 'unbelievers' think of such a mess in a house of worship?

My mind was in Total Confusion!!!

Like Columbus of old I wanted to explore,
Perhaps there is a new world out there
That I don't know exists - look what I'm missing!!!
My exploring mind said 'Go see for yourself!'
I went - and was I in for a pleasant surprise!
I looked and saw no mess whatsoever!
Tables neatly arranged with materials for crafts
Smiling faces of the greeters with their cheery welcome;
Pastor Paul with his usual sense of humour!
Ladies of the church with their camaraderie!
Kids' creativity explored as they use their hands
Fashioning crafts with a Biblical theme;
Songs sung, stories told and prayers said
And then the Grand Finale!!!
A delicious supper served with Candlelight and Wine
An atmosphere fit for a king!
The kids as well as the adults enjoy the feast
But all too soon the end has come.
A Big Thank You to all the Volunteers
Who sacrifice their time and talent to bring
A blessing to those who attend Messy Church
'Only once a month!' I cried. 'What an awful pity!!!!'

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A new Messy Adventure

Sue Taylor. - Brisbane, Australia. - 30 June 2010

Hi, Lucy and all conected with Messy Church.

My name is Sue Taylor, I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, and I'm delighted to tell you that we, at St. Matthew's Anglican Church in Sherwood, are DOING MESSY CHURCH.

It is a bit of an adventure as we are an 'Older' parish, and some of our faithful oldies just don't understand that without an initiative like this, there won't be an Anglican church in Sherwood in 30 years time, which is sad.

However, last year in response to our few young families, we 'bit the bullet' and launched our first Messy Service themed around The Body Of Christ. Since then, we have expanded our range of crafts and activities to include some really messy stuff.

At Christmas we went mad with glue and glitter and made Christmas decorations. These then became our prayers and were hung on our church tree.

At Easter we painted candles and did a spot of gardening, and at our most recent service, we had a fishy theme with nets and fish which were embelished with our prayers.

I am knocked out by the way it has been received, especially by my grandchildren, so I'm probably biased, they have declared it to be 'Non boring' and to see two teen age boys mulling over their prayer points does this old heart a power of good.

Our Messy service takes place monthly at our main morning service, so the distribution of Holy Communion has been interesting, but part of the creative mess, and no two services have ever been the same. We have morning tea on tap, with folk helping thamselves, there's always a queue at the urn just before the teaching/feedback segment of the service as most people like to settle down with a cuppa.

So far we have about three families who have made Messy Church their worship service which is encouraging with one supporting mum actually negotiating to change weekend access visits so she can bring her children to church!

When we started out last year, I stored Messy Church in a box at home, my vision was to graduate to a cupboard. I am delighted to say that the vision has come to pass.

Thank you, Lucy, for inspiring me, for supplying me with ideas and for having the courage to follow the vision that God gave you. Should you ever decide to have a messy fiesta in Australia, there wil be a bed at my place.

Keep on making a joyful mess for the Lord,

Sue Taylor, Messy Church and Worship Coordinater, St. Matthew's Church,
Sherwood, Brisbane, Autralia.

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