Celebrating Our Messy Churches from 2022
During this month of gift-giving, we highlight our Messy Church USA connections. Throughout the year, we focus on ten local Messy Churches through our Messy Church of the month. We choose Messy Churches from different locations and different Christian faith traditions to get a share the breadth of our Messy Church USA network.
Today we return to the months of April, May and August as we highlight First Presbyterian in Elizabethtown, KY, St James United Methodist in Kingston, NY and St Michaels and All Angels in Sanibel Florida.
What worked well when you began your Messy Church?
- When trying new things with a church, I like to frame them as “experiments.” That way, it doesn’t feel like a huge, scary commitment—it’s just temporary, it can succeed or fail, and it can continue or not based on what the church decides. We have also been blessed with a variety of enthusiastic volunteers from the beginning. Their experience speaks volumes.
- Rev. Chelsea Benham, First Presbyterian, Elizabethtown, KY
- Before we held our first Messy Church event, our pastor asked me to make a PowerPoint presentation during both of our regular worship services, sharing what Messy Church is all about. It was important to us that the congregation understand what we would be doing! We also hosted a training with Messy Church USA for our church and others in our region, so that those who wanted to know more had the opportunity to learn from more experienced leaders. When we got started, we began to invite many members of the congregation to either volunteer or to attend as guests (sharing that it is so helpful when senior citizens attend just to do the crafts as guests and to be friendly to all who are there). I believe that inviting people to attend and encouraging them to be part of the fun was an important way to let them know (or remind them) how wonderful Messy Church can be. We also share photos from our events on our Facebook page, and I find that members of our broader congregation really enjoy seeing the happy children and families!
- Rebecca Leibowitz, St James United Methodist, Kingston, NY
- Recruiting volunteers and having them spread the word about the program was really key. They are so enthusiastic about Messy Church and bring up Messy Church when talking to other parishioners and share how wonderful it is, how much fun they have at it, and how important it is to our church community. We have well-respected, long-time members of the church as volunteers which gives validity to Messy Church. We also share pictures of each event with the parish and encourage parishioners to accompany a friend, neighbor or grandchildren to try out Messy Church.
- Sue Van Oss, St Michaels and All Angels, Sanibel Fl
Click on the Link to read more about our three Messy Churches
- April-First Presbyterian in Elizabethtown, KY
- May- St James United Methodist in Kingston, NY
- August –St Michaels and All Angels Episcopal in Sanibel, FL
A Year End Gift to Messy Church USA helps us continue to highlight Messy Churches
