All Ages Together
All-Ages together is a foundational value of Messy Church. It is perhaps the most difficult value for people to comprehend. So, it is always exciting to gather with people who are engaged in intergenerational ministry. Messy Church USA was well represented at the recent online Intergenerate/ Children’s Spirituality Summit in late May which brought together 900 participants from all over the world. Usually held in Nashville, this was the third bi-annual Intergenerate conference held in the USA. Messy Church USA had six ambassadors that signed up for the conference in addition to Johannah Myers and myself. Did you attend the conference? What did you learn?
We are grateful that we were also able to share about Messy Church USA at the conference. On Monday, Johannah presented an academic paper presentation based on her dissertation project of intergenerational companion groups. On Wednesday, Johannah and I led a workshop regarding how the five values of Messy Church leads to life-long faith formation. We had great engagement with our 75 zoom participants. We are grateful for the plug for Messy Church that keynote speaker Rev. Dr. R. Douglas Powe, Jr. just prior to our workshop.
It is exciting to see the growth of interest in intergenerational faith formation throughout the world and to learn from one another. Lucy Moore, founder of Messy Church, is an instrumental pioneer in providing a path for the world to discover the delight and effectiveness of all-ages faith formation. Messy Church has so much to offer communities looking for ways to engage more fully with their intergenerational communities both inside and outside of traditional church.
We are pleased that Messy Church USA has a chapter in the recently released Engage All Generations: A Strategic Toolkit for Creating Intergenerational Communities. This book is based on workshops and academic papers from the 2019 Intergenerate conference, I just received my copy last week and am looking forward to delving into the chapters. The book is divided into three sections and focused on key growth edges in the unfolding conversation about intergenerational ministry: Learning and Growing Together,
Praying and Playing Together,
and Leading and Changing Together.
What effective ways of engaging all-ages together have you discovered in your Messy Church? What have you found to be a challenge? Write me a note and let me know!
Messy Blessings, Roberta
Roberta Jantzi Egli, Executive Director of Messy Church USA
