Messy Church

Last month at our Charge Conference, First Church joined with other congregations at St. Andrews UMC to explore a taste of Messy Church. We enjoyed a light meal and then we played with various hands-on activities—arts, crafts games, all connected to a biblical verse and theme. It was really fun!

I first encountered the Messy Church concept several years ago when serving at Robert Park United Methodist Church in Indianapolis. Rev. Dr. Andrew Scanlan Holmes, the lead pastor at Roberts Park, had challenged the Roberts Park staff and congregation to try out this idea he had brought from his home, the UK—Messy Church.

Birthed in the United Kingdom, Messy Church began as a new way of bringing the church to children and families utilizing creativity, art, storytelling, and hospitality. Its creators recognized that there were many people who may not want to engage in more formalized ways of doing church, but would be willing to participate in a time of creative exploration of faith that felt less structured or laden with formal expectations. In other words, they found that many were willing to engage in a faith conversation that met them where they were in their faith journey.

This was what the Roberts Park congregation recognized. They look at their context, their community, and the opportunities for ministry that were untapped. They saw that the Messy Church concept might speak to people who were connected to the church in tangential ways but weren’t involved formally. There were many families from their Shalom Daycare who were great candidates to be invited into this outreach. And thus began their Messy Church experience that is still going strong today.

On Sunday December 4, during our 10:00 AM morning brunch hour between worship services, the First Church family ministry team is going to set up some messy church experiences during that fellowship hour. I know there will be some fun and creative projects for folks of all ages. The adult Sunday School will also explore their second week of our Grinch themed Advent study, The Heart That Grew Three Sizes. I am sure we’ll see an abundance of bright green crafts and hearts of various sizes and types. It will be fun! And I hope that we might see if there are things that we can learn by trying it out.

Whether or not a program materializes, I hope that we will continue to embrace the foundational concepts of Messy Church. I want First Church to be a place that values the intersection of hospitality and creativity. I want First Church to be a place where we meet people where they are. And I hope that First Church can be elastic enough to try new ways of being the church, even if it means letting go of more formalized ways of doing things so that we can share the love of Christ with more people who would not otherwise be willing to be in relationship. After all, church is always just a little bit messy because life is never tidy and neat. 

And isn’t this the message of Advent? During this season, we celebrate a God who enters the messiness of humanity and joins us in our chaos and confusion and becomes one with us. God did this two thousand years ago by sending God’s self in the form of an infant…Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. And so, as we celebrate this season when we remember this incredible event, maybe we can lean into the grace of a God who meets us where we are, and simply loves us—mess and all. 

Advent blessings,

Pastor Duane


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