A Messy Church will expect to see new people coming almost every month and will have a friendly welcoming team at the door to make sure newcomers feel at home as quickly as possible.
Every team member will make their activity table an oasis of hospitality, putting the needs of others first, expecting to receive as well as to give in the way they run their activity. The celebration will be planned around the needs of every age group and ability so that the language and level is accessible to everyone. The meal will take into account the needs of people with particular dietary requirements, cultural or health-wise.
Hospitality runs through every Messy Church like a golden thread.
As fellow-guests in God’s church with the families who enjoy Messy Church, the team are both hosts and guests at the same time, just as Jesus was in so many situations.
It is a church of justice and equality, expressed most of all around the meal tables.
Messy Hospitality
In Messy Hospitality, Lucy Moore demonstrates how hospitality can be practised in Messy Church and other church contexts to promote mission and faith formation, addressing the theology of hospitality and how it can be expressed at the welcome table, the activity table, the Lord’s Table, the meal table and in the home.
Messy HospitalityOther Messy Church values
