by Johannah Myers, Associate Director of Messy Church USA It’s funny how one word can make a huge difference in how we understand something. As we were setting up for Celebrate the Mess last month, one of the workshop leaders used the word “liturgy” to describe what I’ve always called the “model” of Messy Church. […]
We’re Going on an Adventure
by Crystal Goetz, Director of Family Ministries at Puyallup United Methodist Church in Puyallup, Washington I love the story of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien; Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield, and company on their adventures in Middle Earth. As is true with any adventure, there are always challenges. It is, in many ways, like our faith […]
God Created Us for Community
by Rev. Chelsea G. Benham, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky They say that us preachers only have a few core sermons, and that all our other sermons are just variations on those themes. If that’s true, one of my core sermons is this: God created us for community. When God made Adam, […]
The Role of Listening in a Messy Church
by Luke Edwards, Associate Director of Church Development for the Western North Carolina Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church In my first year of starting a fresh expression of church, I remember one Sunday when my wife gave me a healthy dish of humble pie. I was leading this new, experimental worship service with […]