Introduction
As we prepare for the May 20-24, 2022 Messy Church International Conference (MCIC) the global MC community is preparing to focus on the theme: Making a Difference. A team of six from Messy Church USA will be at the conference and also staying over for an extra two days for the Messy Church leaders who are attending from outside of the UK.
In Part I of Making a Difference, we explored how Messy Church is or has made a difference in our own lives. In Part II, we focused on the importance of teams in Messy Church. The more the team connects and grows as disciples, the more sustainable a Messy Church will be.
How is Messy Church Making a Difference to your community?
Today we celebrate how Messy Church is Making a Difference to local communities which includes the ‘Sunday’ churches who sponsor the start of Messy Church. In addition to stories from the USA, today we hear about a church in the UK.
- It provides connections between the generations, offers “unchurched” people a way to worship, learn and grow in discipleship; energizes families to worship and play together… At our last Messy Church, Feb. 13, friends from Our Savior’s Lutheran Church came and will now be having MC with us—a joint ministry. We will still host but they will participate in planning, providing volunteers and, of course, participants. We are very excited to launch this new cooperative ministry!
- Rev. Rev. Mike Southcombe, St.Stephens United Church of Christ, Merrill, WI
- “I love the fun, laid-back nature of Messy Church. I love meeting new people and seeing how everyone interacts with the activities and the lessons. I meet Jesus at Messy Church every time.”
- Rev. Chelsea Benham, First Presbyterian, Elizabethtown, KY (mom of 1 and pastor to many)
- The three (Messy Churches) that we have hosted (at Richmond First UMC) have centered … on things we were discussing in our church, youth, and children’s ministry as a way to connect those attending to that but also to present it in a manner that those who are (in the greater community) could learn and grow from. Our first Messy Church in February was a Family Feud theme. (We based it on) what it means to be the Family of God at church. We used a watermelon to describe what happens when we don’t handle situations correctly and also how we can soften the blow by our actions. Just for the record when you drop a watermelon, without catching it on something soft, you have a very messy church gym.
- Amanda Bonner, Richmond First United Methodist Church, Richmond VA
- We are an aging congregation in a financially depressed downtown, surrounded by neighbors who weren’t coming in our doors on Sunday mornings. We decided to take church to them. In the nice weather months, our Messy Church meets outside in our parking lot during our city’s downtown “Arts Walk”. The plan we already had in place to meet outside became a real blessing during the pandemic!
- Trish Johnsen, First United Methodist, Michigan City, IN
- It’s a real privilege to be able to walk through people’s faith journeys with them. For example, at the first Messy Church in September, John the vicar met a family for the first time who were facing a cancer diagnosis, and if it wasn’t for the Messy Meal, he wouldn’t ever have had the opportunity to share a meal with them.
- Rachael Gledhill, Curate at St Barnabas Church, Dulwich, UK
- Messy Church should always be the definition of ‘the cup runneth over’. Hospitality is so important. In an area like this, which is wealthy in so many ways, people are not used to being offered things. In a society in which money can buy so many things, people are really surprised when we offer abundant hospitality freely. They say, ‘You’re just doing this for us?’ And we say, ‘Yes, because we want to do it for you.’ They find that really moving, because they can’t understand why people would want to cook a meal and just enjoy spending time with them.
- Rachael Gledhill, Curate at St Barnabas Church, Dulwich, UK
Read more from Rachael and Messy Church at St Barnabas in this Messy Church/BRF blog post.
Pray for all those who will be traveling to the Making a Difference Conference
The team of six from Messy Church USA will be traveling soon. The COVID pandemic has caused many changes over the past several years. In many ways the world has become smaller with all of the Messy Church international zoom calls and Facebook Live Events. This will be a smaller conference this year as leaders from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Canada who have always brought a large team from their countries are not able to travel at this time.
We appreciate your prayers as we travel to and from the conference
Messy Church uSA Team traveling to the Conference
- Cathy Brackin, New Jersey
- Marty Drake, California
- Roberta Egli, Oregon
- Crystal Goetz, Washington
- Johannah Myers, South Carolina
- Leyla Wagner, California