One of our (wonderful, innovative, generous, thoughtful, energetic, and so on ) regional coordinators emailed asking for advice today. She’d been visiting and found that some Messy Churches are really after school clubs. Please note that I don’t say ‘just after school clubs’ – after school clubs are great. But they aren’t Messy Churches. Her question was whether she should ask them to stop using the name ‘Messy Church’.
OK, nobody wants to get stroppy about this, nor do we want to instigate a police state of heavily-apronned figures bursting into a foot-painting session shouting, ‘Everybody on the floor! Drop your paintbrushes! You do not have the requisite number of parents present! From now on you will not use the name Messy Church!’
But at the same time, we do want to be quite clear about what Messy Church is and isn’t for the sake of those people who want to join one in their area. It IS all-age, it IS church. It ISN’T a children’s activity and it ISN’T a club. You can find more on the website under the info section. How would a family moving from St Splogget’s on Sea to Much Whopping in the Marsh feel if they went along as a family expecting to enjoy family time at the new Messy Church and found it was for children only? Or that it was a craft session on minibeasts with no mention of Jesus?
Call me a wuss, but I’d much rather a group decided for themselves whether or not to call it by the name Messy Church than that anyone from outside demanded that they did or didn’t.
You may also like
![](https://www.messychurch.brf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/08/Andy-blog-1-aspect-ratio-258-230.jpg)
Doing Things Differently in Different Places
6th Aug 2024When we hear these two words ‘Messy Church’, we may well have a picture in our minds of what we hope will happen and h...
![](https://www.messychurch.brf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/IMG_01741-1-scaled-aspect-ratio-258-230-1024x913.jpg)
Reuben on Resources…
15th Jul 2024I've never been able to sit quietly in church - as a student I was always on the sound desk or keeping busy in some other way. When my children were born, I helped with the parents and toddlers’ group, and ran a small Sunday school group.
![](https://www.messychurch.brf.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2024/07/Football-Fortitude-1-scaled-aspect-ratio-258-230-1024x912.jpg)
When football and faith collide
11th Jul 2024As you might have guessed from last week’s Facebook live, I love sport, in particular football and F1 so it’s been quite a few days! When faith and football collide, that makes me very happy!