All-American Mess

14 June 2010

Google Web Alerts is a marvellous thing: it lets me know when a mention of Messy Church appears anywhere on the Web (how does it do such a marvellous thing? Surely a miracle?) I was so chuffed to find a mention of another Messy Church in the USA (there aren't many yet) that I dropped them an email and got this bouncy reply from Amy. I think CT is Connecticut but am not sure how many c's it should have so apologies to St Tim's if I'm wrong on either c(c)ount.

And Amy asks an important question in her final paragraph: once again, any help with this gratefully received.

Hi Lucy~

Wow! Thank you for taking the time to email us at St Tim's! We are indeed doing Messy Church; our third event will be this Sunday afternoon. Our rector, Matt Calkins, learned about it through a dvd called "Fresh Expressions" and it seemed just the thing for us to try. So far we've really enjoyed it and received terrific feedback from participants.

We are a smaller congregation with a wonderful core group of active young families. Messy Church for us has been a way to encourage fellowship among our current families, energize the kids about church, and hopefully will be a fun way for new families to find us. We organized our first Messy Church around the theme of Lent, our second was about Easter and New Creation, and this week we will celebrate Pentecost. We have done footprint painting, we made bath salts, we had a "donkey" relay race, we created a mural, we planted a biblical herb garden, we made our own pizzas... just to name a few activities! It's been so much fun. This Sunday we will have a scavenger hunt around the church and grounds, and make tie-dye t-shirts in the colors of fire for Pentecost- "I Got Messy at St Tim's!" I've found planning ideas all over the web, including the Messy Church website, as well as from the kids themselves.

We are hoping to cultivate more church members and we hope that connecting to families will be one good avenue. So far parishioners have invited friends to Messy Church, which we hope will continue. It's a great way to introduce people to the church without putting on too much pressure.

If you have any ideas for reaching out to people through Messy Church, we'd love to hear about them! I will sign up on your website... I actually thought I did, but maybe not.. and post some of our ideas for others to share.
Thanks,
Amy Borruso
Director of Children & Family Ministries St Timothy's Episcopal
Church Fairfield, CT