Messy Church is growing and developing around the globe. Last week Aike caught up with the national teams from Sweden, USA and Norway. She writes…
Monday 14th October: Our Swedish overseas co-ordinators Marianne, Olle and Mickeal hosted an online conference, attended by 25 Swedes and a Swedish speaker from Finland, keen to hear about Messy Church and its core values of being Christ-centred, for all ages, based on hospitality, creativity and celebration. I joined the Zoom to speak about how it has developed over the past 20 years and talk about what we’ve discovered along the way through the various research projects Playfully Serious (2019), A Voyage of Discovery (2021) and our latest UK 2024 survey.
Later that evening I Zoomed across the Atlantic to join Messy Church USA board meeting, celebrating its 7th year of operation, with a delightful animation of how it has developed in USA. With its members spread across this vast continent, it was humbling to hear the stories of a couple of the board members affected by Hurricane Helene the previous week.
Tues 15th October: I swap my virtual travel for a real-life adventure and jump on a flight to Oslo, Norway. I’m met at the airport by Pastor Kari Burke-Romerheim, a long-term Messy Church friend, and we head with her colleagues to the Qube, Clarion hotel at Oslo airport, the venue for the Church of Norway annual Trosopplaeringskonferansen (Faith Formation conference) the next day. The evening is spent with the delegation of 35 pastors and children, youth and family ministers from Bergen Diocese. As we eat pizza, I discover that ‘confirmation’ is a massive cultural rite of passage in Norway, that most 15-year-olds sign up to, even if they don’t have much religious affiliation. This is in part due to the historical links between the church and the state until only recently and mainly because each teenager receives between 2-3K euros! It presents a huge mission opportunity for the church, and so we spent an hour with a youth pastor, learning a variety of youth ice-breaker games, one of which can only be described as ‘ministry of silly walks’. It was then my turn to be interviewed by Torfinn Wang (Director of Faith Formation, Bergen Diocese) about Messy Church and my journey into this ministry, before leading the group in a time of ‘Dwelling in the Word’. I quickly discovered that there are 3 official Norwegian languages: Bokmål, Nynorsk and Sami and so the passage was read in 3 different languages, so that everyone felt included and able to participate. This was a new practice for many of the participants, and one that I hope might develop during Messy Church team planning time and in youth confirmation classes!
Wed 16th October: Trosopplaeringskonferansen day had arrived. I was attending to support the new Messy Church Norwegian Team, formed from a partnership between Norwegian Mission Society (NMSU) and Norwegian Sunday School, launch Messy Church with the Church of Norway. We started the day with a time of sung worship led by gospel-style choir Mosaic, hosted by Christian Ingebrigtsen, the Norwegian member of a late 1990’s boy band A1. Whilst some of the traditional hymns were sung in Norwegian, the contemporary worship songs were all sung in English. I then spent the rest of the morning at the Expo, at the Messy Church stand, before heading off to deliver a seminar on Messy Church after lunch. It turns out that most Norwegians speak English to a high standard that includes being able to make and understand jokes, which was very fortunate, as I have 2 words in my Norwegian vocabulary: ‘Tak’ (thanks) and ‘Skol’ (cheers)! The 360 strong audience were keen to hear about a way of being church that’s guided by its 5 values, that intentionally seeks to be intergenerational, as faith formation has very much been taught via age-groups in this country. As churchgoing starts to decline in Norway, many are interested about taking the journey of discipleship with the generations together.
Thursday 17th October: I joined Team Norway for a day of Messy Church training at NMSU headquarters at Lilleborg Church, Oslo. 25 eager practitioners have stayed on. We spend the day equipping them with skills and tools to train their own teams as they get started. This included dwelling in the word together, reflective practice, sharing with each other where we notice God at work in our own lives, role-playing what hospitality looks like around the activity table, as well as practising sharing the Bible story, whilst leading an activity. Team Norway were able to share their new resources: 12 new sessions including reflective film clips, created to follow the faith formation programme of the Norwegian Church.
I am so encouraged by the journey that the Norwegian team have been on. With first signs of interest back in 2019, and renewed interest post pandemic, when a large delegation attended the May 2022 Messy Church conference and a group visited in October 2022 to find out and experience Messy Church and Messy Church Goes Wild, they have gone on to pilot Messy Church at 13 locations, create a website, directory and write their own resources. All the foundations have been laid and we now ask God to give this expression of church the growth, so that new people of all ages will taste and see that the kingdom of God is good!
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