A blog post by Crystal Goetz, Messy Church USA Regional Coordinator for Washington
Since I have returned from the Messy Church International conference, I have had many people ask me, “How was it? “. At first, I struggled to summarize how it was. There were too many adjectives floating around that I could throw out. How could I compact them down into one short phrase? Then, it hit me. I could only respond in one way. My answer will always be, “It was the Kingdom of Heaven on earth”. For most of my religious life, I have always pictured the Kingdom as a place where everyone does what Jesus’ taught us and everyone is valuable, that everyone is equal in the eyes of God and joy, limitless, unbounded joy resides. This is what I experienced at the Messy Church conference at every moment of every day. Through the experiences, the people, the devotions, the inspirational speakers and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we Messy Church people were amazing together. During the Holy Habits talk by Andrew Roberts he asked us to focus on the scripture from Acts 2: 42-47
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
He asked us to choose a word from the scripture that jumped out to us and, for me, there was only one choice: together.
Messy Church is all about discipleship and we can’t really be or create disciples without others to lean on, learn from and move forward with. There we were in the beautiful English countryside together. We came from all over the planet and spoke many languages and yet, we were all of a like mind and spirit. We were and still are people of the Mess and people of the church together. We laughed together, played together, sang together, listened together and collaborated together. We learned, we can do this Messy Church thing better…together.
In looking back and reviewing my photos and my memories, I could see how happy we were in that place and time. Carrying that back with me to the state of Washington in the United States of America, that message of together is more important than ever. I strive each day to find the Messy Kingdom here too. A message of inclusion, equality, joyfulness, and discipleship that can transform the world. I have a firm desire to recreate that Kingdom spirit that we found at MCIC19 in my own Messy Church and to fulfill the Gospel message of loving God, neighbor and self. It is a commitment that I will dedicate my ministry to. I am a person of the church, the Messy Church and I am proud of my Messy heritage.
I hold my Messy Church International Conference experience in my heart and try to live each day as if my Messy Church friends were standing beside me and rooting me on, because I know they are, somewhere, out there. I continue to support them through prayer and a loud, “Hurrah”. I am counting the days until we return to England in 2022 for MCIC22. Until then my heart is full with the love and joy of the Holy Spirit that is Messy Church and its lovely International family of friends.
Friends from USA 
Friends from Australia 
International Dinner Friends from Sweden 
Friends from Denmark
A Note from Messy Church USA: We support the international movement of Messy Church through donating a financial tithe to Messy Church BRF each year. If you want to further support the international movement, consider their ongoing Messy 100 financial appeal here.