Creativity

Creativity means Messy Churches are always open to new ideas, imaginative and flexible to change anything inessential to meet the needs of a particular context, season or person. God’s creative power is a transformative power that creates and recreates. This same power is present in every human being, young and old, created as we are in God’s image. Messy Church is a space where that creative spark can grow. For some people, especially those who have never had the chance to be creative, this can be part of a healing process.

Messy Church is a place to play together, to recreate and be recreated as people who are less concerned with material gain or impressing others, and more with simply playing together for love, for fun, enjoying the fruit of the Spirit, which is joy itself.

It involves learning with different parts of our brain, body and senses than we may be used to and it brings our whole personhood into worship.

It is usually messy and may appear wasteful, as creativity often involves trying something new and failing, but trying again in a different way. It might involve making something, destroying something, marvelling at something, learning a new skill or simply playing a game or having a competition. Awe and wonder is all part and parcel of creativity, whether it’s about learning how to use a pair of scissors for the first time or realising something new about God’s love through the activity.

Creativity is not restricted to the activity time but permeates every part of Messy Church: the empathy in the way people are welcomed, the prayer and Bible storytelling, the music, the meal.

The joy it causes means that Messy Church is occasionally written off as nothing but fluffy fun, but the reality is that we are human beings, created to be creative as we worship a creator God with our hearts, minds and bodies: our whole person.