Messy Church: It’s church, but not as you know it

How is Messy Church, run by Elim’s Holy Trinity Church in Weston-super-Mare, bringing the Christmas story to unchurched local families? The organisation’s Aike Kennett-Brown explains...

A giant balloon helped bring the Christmas story to life for local families at a recent Messy Church group in the Blackheath area of London.

Church members crafted it into an oversized Christingle, took it out to film it in different locations, then brought it to church to feature in a Christmas Eve Christingle service.

It’s just one of the creative ways that Messy Church is bringing church to families and local communities.

We’ll return to Christmas shortly. Before then, it’s worth looking at the past couple of years, during which much has changed for Messy Church.

The movement had grown massively since starting out in 2004, then the pandemic struck, halving its 3,000-strong church network. But out of this time of pruning have come some exciting new ideas, says BRF Ministries Messy Church ministry lead Aike Kennett-Brown.

“Covid meant we had to experiment and do things differently,” she says.

“We’re creating resources, running in-person training, roadshows and online masterclasses for churches who want to get started or reimagine what they’ve been doing. We’re seeing growth again, with around ten new Messy Churches joining our directory each month.”

One of the things that emerged during the pandemic is ‘Messy Church Goes Wild’. This is partly about trying to be more eco-aware, Aike explains.

“With all the crafts our activities involve, we’re trying to encourage Messy Churches to consider more environmentally friendly alternatives to glitter, for example, or how to deal with their food waste after the community meal.”

It’s also about encountering God through nature and meeting outdoors, which was necessary during Covid and has remained popular with a swathe of churches.

“We’ve piloted a resource called Messy Adventures, which has 12 units of material for outdoor sessions,” says Aike.

“Within each unit there are three different approaches: there are ideas for going ‘On the Move’, taking an intergenerational group on a walk, pausing to explore and wonder together about ideas the spot inspires, linked to a Bible theme.

“You could have an ‘Adventure in one spot’, a session at a fixed site away from your usual meeting place, or if your church has suitable grounds, there are outdoor activities with a strong scientific focus and suggestions for creative ways of responding in Christian worship with awe, wonder and celebration.

“Some groups are completely outside now, whereas others combine outside and indoor sessions. It’s a pick and mix approach so people can choose.”

As a Messy Church leader herself, Aike has been piloting Messy Church Goes Wild with a new group on Greenwich Peninsula in London.

“Our group is very urban and have never seen vegetables grow before, so this year, we’ve taken them through the whole growing cycle.

“We meet in a school which has an outdoor classroom. In March, we planted wheat, wondering what Jesus meant when he said, ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces a large crop.’ (John 12:24). We watched it grow and then harvested it in September.”

“Weeds had grown too, so we ended up doing the parable of the wheat and the weeds. In October, we threshed it and ground it into flour. In November, we made bread and cooked our ‘dampers’ over a firepit. The school chaplain led our first communion service with our families.”

For Aike, one of the joys of activities like this has been the chance to connect with families for whom life is tough.

“One of our families has lads who are really lively and get into a bit of trouble at school, but they love coming to Messy Church. As we were growing our wheat, I could tell them to pull up the weeds – they could happily destroy them in a creative way.”

It has also created an opportunity to get parents and carers involved, as Aike has asked for extra hands to help the children grow and harvest their vegetables.

Back to Christmas, and as Aike began to plan activities last year, she was able to pilot new outdoor ideas around the festive season too. “Our group meets after school on Wednesday evenings, and by December, it was getting dark, so we gathered around a campfire and sang advent songs,” says Aike.

“It was interesting because this group is unchurched, so we asked them what carols they knew and sang songs like Away in a Manger, which they were preparing for their school nativities.”

With an enormous back catalogue of session ideas and a new Get Messy! vol 1 ‘Christmas Around the Fire’ resource, churches have plenty of tools and total flexibility over how to run Messy Church at Christmas, she says.

“It might be that you’re meeting in early December and have a theme around waiting and looking forward to Christmas, where you make something that can feature in a service later in the month, to which you invite your families. Or if you’re meeting close to Christmas you can go full out and retell the good news story of Jesus’ birth in a creative way.”

Once the Christmas rush is over, Aike says Messy Church is looking forward to launching new resources next year.

“We’re looking at the whole area of discipleship and piloting an intergenerational small group resource with activities to use between Messy Church gatherings, linked to the session.” The organisation is keen to encourage churches to give Messy Church a try.

“If you agree with the Messy Church values of being Christ-centred, for all ages, and involving hospitality, creativity and celebration, you can register on the free online directory and become part of the supportive Messy Church network,” says Aike.

“And if you’d rather not become an official branded group, do still check out the resources, some of which are free. It’s very creative and I would encourage people to have a go and interact with the Bible stories to enliven their work with families.”

A lot of churches disconnected with families during the pandemic, but now they’re looking at Messy Church as a way of rebuilding those relationships, she says.

“It’s a fantastic way to meet and support families who would never come to a regular Sunday church.”

This article first appeared in Direction Magazine. For further details, please click here.

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