Wondering What Messy Church Is and Isn’t?
What Messy Church Is:
⦁ Messy Church is a form of church for children and adults that involves creativity, celebration and hospitality.
⦁ It’s primarily for people who don’t already belong to another form of church.
⦁ It typically includes a welcome, a long creative time to explore the biblical theme with activities and crafts; a short celebration time involving story, prayer, song, games and similar; and a sit-down meal together at tables. All elements are for (and should include) people of all ages, adults and children.
⦁ It’s fun.
⦁ It’s a church for people at all stages of their faith journey and of any age.
⦁ It models and promotes good ways of growing as a family: a nuclear family, an extended family, and a global and local church family.
⦁ Its aim is to introduce Jesus, to give an opportunity to encounter Him and to grow closer to Him.
What Messy Church Isn’t:
⦁ Just for children – Messy Church is creative in its thinking about how to involve very different people: young and old, families and single people, male, female and gender diverse, academic and practical, poor and rich.
⦁ A club – Messy Church is about worshipping God, having fellowship, and exploring Christian faith. It welcomes everyone, involves everyone, values everyone, and is always there for the outsider. It’s a church.
⦁ Just a way of getting people to come to church on Sunday – There are examples of people starting in Messy Church and deciding to join Sunday church as well but these are the exception rather than the rule. If people wanted to go to an established church, they would be going by now.
⦁ Just for church families – Anyone already belonging to church should be thinking about serving on the leadership team of Messy Church, however old or young they are, and helping others come to know Jesus.
Messy Church Values:
Christ-centred: Messy Church is a church, not a craft club, that helps people encounter Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
All-ages: It is for adults and children to enjoy together – every element should be relevant and accessible to all ages.
Creativity: It uses hands-on activities to explore Bible stories, to reflect a God of creativity and to give people a chance to play together.
Hospitality: It reflects a God of unconditional love and is a church for people outside church, providing an oasis of welcome and a safe space in which to thrive. Messy Church is about hospitality, expressed most evidently by eating together.
Celebration: It reflects a God of joy who wants his people to have life in all its fullness.
Messy Church Goals:
To provide an opportunity for people of all ages to worship together.
To help people of all ages feel they belong in church and to each other.
To help people have fun and be creative together.
To introduce Jesus through hospitality, friendship, stories and worship.