Messy Church in Nolton, Bridgend

Chrys M Tremththanmor - Parish of Coity and Nolton, Bridgend - 17 March 2009

It is rather unusual for children to pester their parents to take them to a church activity. But messy church seems to be proving an event that children just don't want to miss.

The monthly messy church programme at the Parish of Coity with Nolton started in September, 2008. We meet on the fourth Saturday of the month (excluding December!) for an hour which starts with a short act of worship and is followed by the day's theme. It is aimed at 3-13 year olds and a carer must stay with the child for the entire session.

Our first messy church was based on Noah and the Ark. Eighteen people attended, and the younger children coloured in animal masks whilst the older children made a rather stunning Ark out of cardboard boxes. The 'animals' went inside with Mr Noah and had water flung at them by those who were outside! A general water fight ensued on a wonderful sunny day.

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Cholsey's Messy Church Story

Sue Avery - Cholsey, South Oxfordshire, UK - 12 February 2009

You know, you read about how people have set up Messy Church and have been surprised by the numbers that came, and you think, yeah well that's because it's based in a town. Well, let me tell you it's not. It happened to us in Cholsey. Cholsey is just a normal village in south Oxfordshire. We did very little advertising, just in 'Little Fishes', a mother and baby group that I help out with, and literally in and on the church Hall with the same approach as everyone else - you've no idea how many will come, start small and see what happens and then build. I was expecting 20-40 people. We had 78! I am still quite amazed. Lucy, you and your team have hit the target with this idea.

I am quite lucky, I went to visit a Messy Church, in Didcot (nearby town), in the summer and was very excited about the concept, brought it back to my church, raised it with the PCC and 6 months later we did a try out in church with just the congregation. There was a 25% increase in attendance! A few tired brains later, we came up with the theme 'Creation', 6 activities (sorry, prefer not to call them crafts as that seems to alienate a lot of people for some reason).

We did 'ocean in a jar' ( a mix of oil and water and blue food colouring), 'potato print stars and moon', 'fruit kebabs', 'grass seed men' (the toe of women's tights, stuffed with grass seed, then cotton wool, put extra balls of cotton wool on for ears and nose and secure with elastic bands, attach googly eyes and mouth, tie the end of the tight, put in a plastic cup, water and wait!!), 'tea lights' glasses decorated with tissue paper with candle inside
'junk animals' and most importantly we had a prayer wall - see Didcot's blog (I have brazenly copied the idea because it's so good!)

We had a 'come together' time of worship, 2 songs (we used power point for lyrics and added pictures on to make it more fun), the story of creation, prayers and the grace. We finished with a large amount of cake and the fruit kebabs.

The atmosphere was so exciting. There was such a buzz. The kids ( mostly pre-schoolers) had great fun. God was there and I hope He had fun too. I did although I was dog tired at the end.

I was thanked so much and received many many compliments. I received one email which just said 'Sue, It was fantastic. Faultless'. I don't put this in to blow our trumpet (I know it wasn't faultless) but to show how much people appreciated it. I bumped into one of the mum's dropping off her child at nursery and she told me how much fun her daughter had had and they were definitely coming to the next one.

Someone else said to me 'You've got a lot to live up to now'. Well, hopefully we have. I know that none of this could have been done without God giving me the vision and enthusiasm and determination to do it. I was adamant I would not do a Jonah. I know that I couldn't have done most of this stuff without God's help. There were times I hadn't a clue what to do and suddenly the answer was there, in many different forms. There were times I found hard, but that was just because I hadn't handed the problem over. As soon as I had, then the answer appeared. You really would think I should learn, but I'm human I still make mistakes. Anyway this isn't about me, this is about what God can do and does, so Thank you God!

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Messy goings on in Cirencester

Bob Morris - Cirencester - 20 January 2009

Dear Lucy and Team,

Hi, my name is Bob Morris and I am Minister for Children and Families at Cirencester Baptist Church. Yesterday (Sun 18th) we launched our own "MESSY CHURCH"...so thank you for the concept!

we are a large congregation (membership of just over 200)and have a large children's and youth ministry. We have found though that growth is difficult due to space issues and activities for children on Sunday mornings so we were looking for something a bit "outside of the box" to start up!

I had hoped to start small (!!??) but a combination of a little advertising ion our toddler group and the fact that our church members rose to the challenge and brought their friends along resulted in 112 people on the premises!

Thanks for such a great idea!

Regards

Bob Morris

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News from Xtras in Bournemouth!

Tina Shave - Bournemouth - 28 November 2008

The light party went really well with lantern making, tealight holders, face painting and glitter painting. In worship we had a hero parade to show off all the costumes and on the stage we had laid out in tealights in great big words GOD is... At the end of worship time we took everyone up to the balcony and switched the lights off so GOD was really shining!!! It was awesome.

After this we had a huge sweetie hunt followed by hotdogs and make your own toffee apples. We all loved it and the children we asking to go back to see God shining before they went home! We also had the local radio station there and parents were interviewed about Xtras which was lovely to hear.

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An update from L:19 - a Messy Church in Liverpool

Jane Leadbetter - Liverpool - 18 November 2008

Another update from L:19, a Messy Church in Liverpool. Check out what Jane Leadbetter, one of the leaders there, writes about publicity, celebration, the balance of backgrounds and networking. And give thanks for what God's doing up there - it sounds brilliant.

It's going great here at L:19 Messy Church in Liverpool. Last night we held Messy Fireworks. We put out flyers in two local schools and targeted one village with posters in shop windows. We catered sausage & mash for 80. 150 turned up! A miracle happened in the kitchen (have you ever counted out baked beans on a plate?). Our crafts were themed on bright colours & light - decorating light bulbs, candles etc. and the Celebration Time was about Jesus Light of the World then fireworks in the church gardens then sausage & mash. We have calculated that 40% of those at Messy Fireworks have no connections with our church, and we have to address the fact that as we are attracting more all ages with disabilities we must choose our messy crafts carefully. Like I've mentioned before, we still need more folk to help with messy chatting at meal time as we are spreading ourselves very thinly when so many new folk are coming. It's all rather overwhelming numbers wise but it's good to have different challenges already.

So 3 Messy Church dates under our belt now and Messy Christmas in 3 weeks time. We have 2 more Messy Churches starting in the diocese too and I haven't even started to shout out loud about it yet! Representatives from 4 churches came to see how we do Messy Church which happened quite naturally by chatting with friends.

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A Messy melange of photos...

Anonymous - 09 October 2008

We've been sent a number of photos of Messy Churches on a Harvest theme for you to enjoy. If you have some of your own images, do send them in to messychurch@brf.org.uk and we'll put them to use. (Do be sure to have all the appropriate permission for using photos of children).

From Sue Avery's Messy Church in Didcot:

From Jane Leadbetter's Messy Church in Liverpool:

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The who's and the how's

Jo Birkby - St Saviour's Messy Church, Brockwood - 29 September 2008

Jo Birkby and the team from St Saviour's are just about to start Messy Church. She sent an email full of God's goodness and provision for, as she says, 'the who's and how's'. Be encouraged!

We're just beginning our Messy Church adventure and our very first will be on 11th October. This has been on my heart and in my mind for such a long time now, but it seems incredible that it really is going to be happening next month! Your Fiesta was a real inspiration to me, the book is brilliant and I praise God for giving you such a vision of how Church can be so much fun, while at the same time building community and relationships.

Messy Church for us is a brilliant way of answering the plea for many of our Baptism families who tell us that Sundays are too full of visiting extended families in fall-flung places and football. Saturday is the chosen day as there are already lots of weekday activities that our local school run and we hope to work with them in publicising MC. It's also been incredible how God is answering the many concerns I've had along the way about the who's and how's - I've had to put my complete trust in him because at times I've scratched my head and wondered how on earth we can manage to do something like this.

Even just now, I had a call from a lady who I'd lined up to co-ordinate the first meal, who told me she didn't mind helping but just didn't feel she could lead a team. As I'm a church administrator, I'm very lucky that I have a beautiful church in which to retreat at times of crisis like this. I took my cup of coffee into church and sat and prayed. I knew when I came out of church that everything would be OK but I didn't expect the very next person to walk in the door (5 minutes later!) to be the one who would think catering for hoards of people an absolute breeze. She came in to photocopy something as her machine at home had broken - I helped her, we started to chat, she eventually asked me about Messy Church as she saw I was producing posters and even before I opened my mouth about catering, she said 'Well, if ever you need anyone to organise the food, I'd be happy to do that!' We laughed afterwards that perhaps God had broken her photocopier so that she'd come in and say just the right thing at just the right time!!

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Using a scarecrow for Messy publicity!

Marie Whitehead - Dawlish, Devon - 26 August 2008

We recently heard from Marie Whitehead who runs the Messy Church in Dawlish, Devon. For the annual scarecrow festival, the Church produced a scarecrow with a Messy theme to hang on a lamp post to give some publicity to their monthly Messy Church...as well as for fun, of course!

If you have any brilliant publicity ideas that have worked for you, let us know - click on have your say here in the right hand sidebar.

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Messy things getting more popular

Rebecca Paveley - The Door, Diocese of Oxford - 31 July 2008

Messy Church is enjoying a lot of publicity at the moment. The article below was featured in The Door in June 2008.

'A fresh kind of church is springing up all over the country. It involves families, food, paint, glue and lots of mess - and it is not on a Sunday. Rebecca Paveley explores the phenomenon.

'ON a warm Saturday afternoon in a town in Berkshire, families are gathering in a school for activities, food and worship. It's a new kind of church - Messy Church. Aimed at families who only have contact with church perhaps via their child's school, or maybe have no contact at all, Messy Church has been tremendously successful in other areas of the country.

'The idea began in a housing estate in Portsmouth, and is championed by the children's arm of the Bible Reading Fellowship.

'"Messy" means both physically messy - there are lots of craft activities on offer after all - and also the untidy or fuzzy edges of "church", explains Lucy Moore, one of Messy Church's founders. The concept is aimed at people on this fuzzy or outer edge of church.

'Back in Thatcham, Berkshire, the Revd Pete Jarvis hopes the innovative project will catch on here as it has elsewhere.

'He works in St Barnabas, a church plant run from a primary school. The area around the school is one of deprivation.

'"The area where we are working is an area of urban deprivation, which people don't imagine exists in somewhere like Thatcham," he explained. "There are high numbers of one parent families and we were looking at how we could reach out and connect with these families. We wanted something different that could really engage with them."

'After reading the book on Portsmouth's experiment with Messy Church, the ministry team in Thatcham decided to put the concept to work at St Barnabas.

'Pete said the first session, which was tied in with Valentine's Day, was really intended as a trial but more than 40 people still turned up.

'"The impetus to do something came because a number of people to do with school said they were interested in coming to church but couldn't do Sundays because of family commitments. So we've gone for 4.30 in the afternoon on a Saturday, a time when we hope families might be free to spend time together and eat together with us."

'The idea of having food together is both scriptural and an extremely important part of the process. For families who may not often eat together in the week, it is a chance to do just that, as well as to talk. The food is kept simple - the latest session had a seaside theme so hotdogs, doughnuts and choc ices were on offer.

'In Portsmouth, as in other Messy Churches around the country, families are encouraged to make a donation to the cost of the food.

'But Pete has decided against that. "We aren't going to ask people to donate money, we see it as part of our serving the community and the money will come from donations from our congregation."

'This year, the project is going to run once every school term. "We were originally hoping for once a month but that is a bit beyond us at the moment, so we've gone for termly."

'He has a team of between six and ten people to help run the variety of craft activities on offer. Each session will offer different activities for everyone, from toddlers to grandparents, based around the theme.

'Pete knows exactly where he wants to go with the project. "In the first year or so I am hoping to gradually draw in some families who come to see church as fun and different and not just sitting in a pew listening to the vicar... We want to develop relationships with people and have spiritual conversations. We also hope to build it up to do it more often."

'But the aim of Messy Church is very definitely not to act as a stepping stone to "Sunday" church.

'"I'll be happy if people come on to Sunday church but I'll be equally happy if they just stay with Messy Church. If that is their way of accessing the church, that is great and we will work with that. What we are about is bringing God to people where they are at now," he added.'

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Taking Messy Church Outside

Nicola Mercer - Hayes End, Middlesex - 30 July 2008

We are taking a break from Messy Church during August so for a change we took our July session outside. A local conservation area and park is run by A Rocha, a Christian organisation dedicated to improving and teaching people about God's natural world. They are keen to form links with the local churches and allowed us access to their lodge which was especially handy as it contains the only toilets and if the weather had been bad we could have carried out our crafts etc under cover. Luckily, the sun shone and we were able to do everything outside except the initial registration and our first craft of making bird finger puppets.

We had already covered 'Creation' in a previous Messy Church session so our theme was 'Journeys' and we took everyone on a journey round Minet Country Park carrying out activities along the way. The Aborigines take a 'journey stick' with them when they travel, tying things to it from the places they have been so that they can tell the stories when they return home. We did the same tying feathers, glasses, flowers etc to our sticks. Everyone had a list of things to spot or hear on our walk, no one spotted everything and only those who broke away from the main group and were very quite managed to spot the rabbits.

Half way round we stopped in a meadow and distributed green paint colour charts from the local DIY shop and everyone scattered trying to match the different greens on their charts with leaves and grasses. Unfortunately, we ran out of time for the bark and leaf rubbing that we had planned.

Celebration was held outside back at the lodge and, as I read the story of the little bird that went looking for God, the children created a collage depicting the story from the things that they had collected on our walk and using the bird finger puppets.

We finished with a picnic tea and time spent in the playground. We were about 54 in number and 4 new families joined us so we count it as a success!

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