Celebration is …
“Celebration is about the joy of being a child of God and a member of this marvelous body we call the church. It’s about saying yes, there is a huge amount to celebrate in our faith life even if the world around us is falling apart”
Messy Church: Fresh Ideas for Building a Christ-Centered Community. Lucy Moore and Jane Leadbetter, 2017, IVP
Celebration is both a value and a specific element of Messy Church
Celebration is one of five foundational values of Messy Church. Celebration is also one of the four components of Messy Church when everyone gathers in one space to actively participate in making the scripture theme come to life through creative storytelling in addition to interactive conversations, music, singing, and multiple expressions of prayer. At Messy Church we celebrate with joy our connection with one another but we also ‘celebrate in our faith life even if the world around is falling apart’.
One of the most memorable conversations that I had at Messy Church was when I sat down with a man who had been bringing his very rambunctious boys to Messy Church for several months. The leadership team was having a difficult time in trying to keep the boys focused instead of running around from activity to activity. My original goal of sitting down with a cup of coffee with him was to encourage him to get more involved with them at the activity tables during Messy Church. He normally sat down at the beginning of Messy Church with his coffee cup at one of our welcome tables and watched silently as the boys roamed freely around the activity tables at times causing some chaos.
Life is Messy…can we still celebrate the struggle of life?
In our short conversation, I learned that he was the grandfather, not the father as I thought, and had just come from a difficult encounter with his daughter, the boys’ mother, who was struggling with substance addiction. He was their guardian and came from the difficult task of telling their mother ‘No’, they could not go with her. I also learned that one of his grandsons had a congenital condition that had required multiple surgeries throughout his young life. This wonderful grandfather was exhausted and was able to spend time once a month at Messy Church watching his grandchildren be safe as they learned about God’s love as he quietly sipped a cup of hot coffee.
Life is messy and at times very difficult. Creating a space of welcome at Messy Church includes opening ourselves to share in the struggle of others. Although I began our first conversation with a sense of judgement that he should keep his boys more under control, listening to him and hearing his story was an epiphany for me that my role in Messy Church was not to keep it tidy but to create space and time to learn about the struggles that many people face. That one short conversation turned into many conversations over the next months as our Messy Church community was able to offer support and prayer and a space of welcome.
Celebrate at your Messy Church!
At Messy Church we celebrate intergenerationally in all our glorious diversity, we welcome doubts and questions, we listen to joys and struggles, and we plant seeds of faith in a simple and unpressured way. It’s more than just a monthly gathering—it’s a living example of love in action… celebrating life in all its messiness. How are you celebrating your Messy Church?
Peace, Roberta
If you want to explore the messiness of life at your Messy Church, check out the All Our Feelings Messy Session. It explores the Book of Psalms that expresses almost every human emotion from joyous praise to grief and anger. At the end of the session your Messy Church community will have written a psalm of praise together as part of your celebration.
