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January 29th, 2008

Messy Church

messy church

The Messy Church people have a website. It has a video you can watch if your computer is up to such things.

Messy Church is a ‘Fresh Expression’ – like the ones we were talking about the other week. It is, if I understand it correctly, a sort of a church service for all ages, but involving lots of arty crafty goings-on. In one sense it is no different to the holiday clubs that I went to as a child, or the kids and youth clubs I ran as a youthworker, but perhaps with more emphasis on the fact that the event is ‘church’ rather than ’something you do in addition to church’. Also they’ve done a good job of branding it and making a ‘package’ that can be used elsewhere. Good stuff – I wish them all the best.

Found via David Keen. David has an interesting blog – worth adding to your feed reader.

5 Comments »



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 8:57 am.

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5 Responses to “Messy Church”


  1. joe says:

    Still not really clear why church needs branding.

    I’m going to start a sitting-at-home-and-being-miserable church. Half the church-going population already belong.

    January 29th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
  2. Aaron Orear says:

    I’ve done this, only we called it Sunday School and didn’t have parents messing things up.

    January 29th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
  3. Aaron Orear says:

    Actually, we have Messy Church every Monday…it’s the Sexton’s day off.

    January 29th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
  4. Russ says:

    My son has recently invented Messy Bedroom Church without realising it. Is this a record?

    Coming soon:

    Itchy & Scratchy Church
    Lurch Church (for Addams Family fans)
    Bouncy Church (for trampolinists)
    Bendy Church (for contortionists)

    And many more you could mention.

    If this sounds cynical, it’s not meant to – I actually think Messy Church is a great idea. If it helps some and brings some into the Kingdom, go for it. By all means to win some, as Paul put it.

    January 30th, 2008 at 11:16 am
  5. Lucy Moore says:

    Messy Church differs from hoiday clubs / trad Sunday School mainly because it’s not a children’s only club- it’s all age and it’s church. So we value the adults as much as the children and the children as much as the adults. And it’s not a club but a worshipping community. This is really hard, as you can imagine, and we get it wrong all the time, but it’s an important difference to have as an aim and aspiration. (Try the book for more musings.)
    And we’ve had suggestions for more specialist variations: a sartorial Dressy Church; a top executives’ Stressy Church; a terribly nice Blessy Church… The world is indeed our lobster.

    April 4th, 2008 at 3:35 pm