Congratulations to Aldersgate United Methodist!
North Georgia’s Aldersgate United Methodist Church is located in the neighborhood that borders the world-famous Augusta National Golf Club, home of the annual Masters tournament. As more and more people moved out of the neighborhood and to the suburbs in the 2000s and 2010s, numbers and vitality suffered. Worship attendance dropped from 600 to 100 over the last two decades. After bursting at the seams with children and youth for years, the church had less than 10 active kids (birth through high school) by 2020.
Rev. Brett DeHart, writes that as a new pastor and a gift of desperation, Aldersgate researched various strategies (Messy Church, Dinner Church, Recovery, Fresh Expressions) for reaching new people in the early days of the pandemic (2020). Read on to read their exciting story of Messy Church at Aldersgate!
Why did you decide to offer a Messy Church in your community?
Adaptive leadership guru Tod Bolsinger coaches, “For change to last it must be a healthy adaptation of the DNA of the group.” Messy Church matched our church’s DNA and heart for ministry with kids and youth. Also, our people were comfortable with a ministry that could happen on our church campus.
When did you begin Messy Church at Aldersgate?
The pandemic limited our ability to start Messy Church in its normal format of activities, celebration, and meal. Not wanting to wait, we held three drive-through events (Halloween, Christmas, Easter) to introduce the soon-to-be ministry in a safe manner and build an email database of potential new families. Our first regular format Messy Church was held in October 2021.
Messy Folk share what they like about Messy Church
- “The last church we visited was SCARY. This isn’t.” 16-year-old girl
- “At the end of Messy Church, Alayna (a 12-year-old with special needs) looked up at me and said, ‘Thank you for picking me.’ Wow, was I blown away. God picks us the same way. We don’t thank Him enough.” – Bill Phillips, 68 years old church member /Messy Church servant
- “Can’t wait to see what we will do next month!” Alayna age 12
- “This is so much fun!” Zach age 7
- “Are we really going to eat flies?” Khalil age 9
- “I just love that God can make it snow anytime and so can we!” Coleman age 6 at our January “Snow Day”
- “I love that I get to meet new friends every month!” Claire age 8
- “I love that we can just have fun!” Calder Banks age 11
- “My favorite thing about Messy Church is the connection with others and sharing the love of Christ. I’ve met many different people in the last few years at Messy- all ages and races. Growing relationships means I’ve had funny, sad, and serious conversations with others. And I feel Christ in our midst. It’s the best feeling to say hello or welcome back and receive that smile and recognition in return.” Jill Sessions, 55 yrs. old, Church Staff (Registration)
Favorite Messy Activities at Aldersgate Messy Church
Eye Spy God’s Blessings Binoculars
Instructions: Items Needed- you will need two empty toilet paper rolls per person, yarn, hole puncher, leaves, glitter, markers
How to Make: Make the binoculars by securing the paper rolls together using yarn, then punch a hole on the outside of each roll, next tie yarn through each hole, creating a neck strap, lastly decorate your binoculars
Talk about: Use your binoculars to find blessings of God such as a friend, something beautiful, something that tastes great etc. Give God thanks for all the many blessings that you discover.
Fully Rely on God (FROG) Painted Rocks
Instructions– Items needed: you will need larger stones and small pea gravel, googly eyes, paint, hot glue gun. How to make: First hot glue two small pebbles to the larger stone creating legs, then glue two eyes on, next you will paint your frog. Talk About—In what ways are you Fully Relying on God? How can you use this frog to remind you to rely on God?
Fully Rely on God (FROG) Tongue Race
Instructions– Items needed- you will need to purchase Fruit by the Foot. What to do– in groups have people pull the paper off of the fruit roll. Then instruct those in the group to race to get their “tongue” in their mouth the fastest! The winner gets a pack of gummy frogs. Talk About—Isn’t our tongue an amazing thing? What would it be like to have a tongue a foot long? Think about how God created us all in amazing ways and give God thanks.
Fully Rely on God (FROG) Fly Catch Game
Instructions- Gather enough raisins for the game. What to do– gather groups of two people into teams. Give one member of the team 5 raisins, which they Team participants in groups of two. Give them 5 raisins, one throws the raisins (flys) the other has to catch them in their mouth. Then you can switch the teams and let the other member of team throw the (flys) into their partners mouths. You can give prizes out if you wish. Talk About—In what ways are you Fully Relying on God? How can you use this frog to remind you to rely on God?
Some pictures from Aldersgate Messy Church
What worked well as you started your Messy Church?
Covid and the gift of desperation helped. Our traditional offerings weren’t producing for us as in the past and so the church was open to trying some new things. We have had remarkable servant help (we don’t use the word ‘volunteer’). About half of our Sunday worshipping congregation has served at least once. We elicit prayer support from the congregation. We fund half of our Messy Church through the church operating budget and half through special offerings (it was our Lenten Offering this year). We also invite church members to provide desserts for each monthly Messy. We have some senior adults that assist with preparing the the craft supplies.
Share a Challenge you have had with Messy Church. What strategies did you use to meet that challenge?
We have had a challenge getting lay people to take full leadership responsibility of Messy Church. We have plenty of helpers but have not done a good job transitioning leadership responsibility of the overall ministry from staff to laity. We have hoped to incorporate more of the attenders into leadership but have found that harder to get started because they have their kids with them during Messy so it limits their ability to serve initially.
What word would you give to Messy Church teams just starting out?
Stick with it. After attracting hundreds of people to our Covid drive-through Messy Church events, we only had seven people at our first regular format Messy. It quickly grew from there though with consistent attenders growing over time. Fortunately, I had a wise church member tell me after that first one, “If we had seven new people show up one Sunday in worship, we’d be dancing down the aisles in celebration.”
There are people who signed up and/or came to our drive through events that finally came to a regular Messy after receiving emails from us for a year or two! It just takes a while for some folks.
An inspiring story
A few more pictures
Contact Information for Aldersgate United Methodist
Church Name and Address: Aldersgate United Methodist Church, 3185 Wheeler Road, Augusta GA 30909
Church phone number and email: 706-733-4416 [email protected]
Pastor: Rev. Brett DeHart, [email protected]
Church social media links:
www.facebook.com/AldersgateAugusta
www.instagram.com/AldersgateAug