What greeted them was not an unfamiliar sermon or set of rituals, but rather tables of paints and paper, scissors and glue, and a friendly invitation to get messy. Out of that afternoon of crafts, food and worship, Messy Church was born and St Wilfrid’s has never looked back.
“The lack of children was a trigger point for us,” recalls Lucy, a professional actor and storyteller who coordinates Messy Church nationwide with the help of the Bible Reading Fellowship. “The number of children coming to St Wilfrid’s was going down and we felt we had a fantastic story but we weren’t sharing it with anybody.”
Although the Hampshire church considered reaching out to children in isolation, they came to the conclusion that it would be far more effective to reach out to children through their parents. Since then, they’ve held Messy Church once a month to reach people of all ages who don’t yet come to church and it’s proved to be as popular with the children as it is with their parents and grandparents.
“That desire to create is in everybody, however old they are!” Lucy laughs. “There is something of the creator God in all of us. There’s this need to create, to have fun and to make meaning out of chaos. That’s something deeply human and deeply divine.”
It’s not simply about cutting and pasting, though, as Lucy and other Messy Church organisers around the country treat the whole hour as worship. From the welcome tea and time of crafts, to the 15-minute celebration and the home-cooked meal that everyone shares together at the end.
“We put the celebration in to focus everything and make sure people realise that it really is church,” she says. “And we say a Messy Church grace and everyone sits down and talks and eats. It’s a very messy time but also a very precious time.”
With many of the children and adults coming from outside the church, going with the flow is important. The volunteers don’t wear anything like official Messy Church T-shirts so that the atmosphere stays friendly and relaxed, and everything is done by invitation. Sometimes the parents watch their kids get messy from the sidelines, at other times they join in. But whichever way, Lucy sees every moment as an opportunity to build meaningful relationships and reveal something of the love of God to every person that comes.
“Sometimes it’s the only time they have to hear the Gospel in the month. We bring the Gospel to them not only through words but also by the way we behave, the way we are with them,” she says.
Letting the conversation flow naturally is also important but there are always opportunities to share something of God whenever the moment fits.
