South Africa Story

24 February 2010

Jean Pienaar from South Africa sent an update of her story. Exciting, isn't it, how God's ahead of us every inch of the way?

'I actually first became aware of Messy Church through your website. I was consulting with Uncle Google for some ideas for a Sunday-school-run family service. And on familiarising myself with the Messy Church concept, I quickly realised that this is definitely a concept that we can use in our parish, and something some of the leadership have been talking around for a few months.

'We are a juvenile parish - not yet 8 years old! I'll take the liberty of boring you with the details, because I think it enhances understanding of our unique context. All Saints' Anglican Church was planted by a well-established congregation about 10km away, and it brought together a couple of chapelries that were meeting independently at the time. So, we are experiencing both the joys and the growing pains (and struggles) of youth. After an initial focus on the planting and establishment of the physical infrastructure, our new rector has realised the need for community building (remember, we live in a context of gated communities and high walls, with a lot of new developments (and therefore residents) in the area). There are many parishioners who are creatively gifted, and the emphasis on discovering gifts and bringing them out of exile is the drive for this Lent. It is through the implementation of these gifts that we can begin to build community. The Messy Church concept is just so right for our parish - it can be used to extend our influence and provide a safe, fun and friendly outreach to families within neighbouring communities (e.g. only 15 of the 900 families in the immediate vicinity are on the parish roll). It provides an opportunity for folks to explore and share their God-given creativity, create conversations and build community.

'Attendance at the February Messy Church grew to 40 (compared to 25 for our inaugural Messy Christmas), including 6 people who had never been to the church before. The positive feedback, especially from the youngsters, has been very encouraging, and I personally believe word-of-mouth recommendation will fuel our growth. We took along our 7-year-old neighbour at the last minute, and on his return, he asked his mum if he could have his next birthday party at Messy Church (his previous 2 parties have consisted of an indoor snow slope and tenpin bowling!)... But we are content with small, manageable steps along our messy journey where we can learn and grow. We are still working on getting the rest of the congregation to catch the vision, embrace the challenge and get involved. Hopefully together with the parish's current emphasis on gifts, these things will fall into place.'