The 'Messy' in the title is there because this is the first blog in hopefully a series through the beginning of this year about Messy Church. Not about how it works, my thoughts on it, whether it's church, etc. No, they will broadly fall under the currently much debated and discussed category of discipleship.
Some background first. This post is slightly long but it is because it is the first and has all the background.
In the parish I minister in one of the churches has been running MC for around 3 years now. It's gone well, we have a average attendance of about 40-50 adults and children who aren't regular church attenders and the local congregation support it well.
Over the end of 2010 though we felt tired and decided to take Jan 2011 off and review everything. Over the course of 2010 we had been having ongoing, informal discussions and chats about discipleship and the future of MC.
So we had a meeting this week about what we should do. I must confess that a lot of what I write from here on will probably be from a personal view point. Though I will do my best to represent to overall feel. To understand my own personal thoughts and views on the future of children's ministry and the Church see my previous post.
I said I believed that if MC carried on as it does now then in 10 years we will look back and see that it was just another blip on the ongoing radar of church decline. Think midweek clubs and similar. Others weren't as sure but still there was a feeling that some type of change was needed.
Christine (the vicar) had expressed, not just in that meeting, that the community aspect of MC was vital and encouraging but that it still felt as though it was us doing it for them. Along those lines was expressed that us doing it was extremely time and labour consuming and hindered people from interacting. Also we felt that the parts of MC (welcome, craft, celebration, meal) often felt seperated. Maybe partly because we moved from room to room for each activity.
On my own part I expressed that I felt that spirituality and the church was a very individualized affair. 'This is what Jesus taught, you go and do it on your own. If you don't no one is going to check up on you.' Also I felt that bringing God's justice and peace into the world was often lost.
So we decided on trying the following two changes as possible ways forward. First we'll do the welcome, craft, and celebration all in the same space and we'll try to mix them all together rather than do them as separate items. Second we'll take a teaching from the term and go and do it 'together' for one of the MC's. So we are exploring the possibility of doing March's MC in the nursing home.
I don't know what will happen but I will post as we go along. So continue to check back if you're interested. I'll leave you will this quote from Philip Kenneson that I often ignore, it's on my office wall, but gave courage in looking towards these changes.
What our world is waiting for, and the church seems reluctant to offer, is not more incessant talk about objective truth, but an embodied witness that clearly demonstrates why any one should care about any of this in the first place.
It is so encouraging to hear of a Messy Church that is forward looking enough to dare to change. I have a question and a suggestion (feel free to ignore either/both!)...
ReplyDeleteMy question is- what is the theme this term that makes you choose to go to a nursing home? A home at the other end of the spectrum of community to that which Messy Church is aimed at(brilliant idea by the way- I'm just interested)it would seem more likely to go to a school and talk about what changes need to happen for children/families/schools/that specific school (etc)
My suggestion (from an outside point of view of someone who has only just read this and has no prior knowledge of your community or parish church), is that you get them DOING something. McNeal (In 'Missional Renaissance'- a book I well recommend you reading at this stage in your church's life as well as generally) talks about moving from a church which provides stuff for a consumerist society, to a church which is an organism for change- highlighting in several ways the need for the Christian community to get out and do stuff- we learn better by doing, we develop when we are no longer being spoon fed and we demonstrate a greater love by getting on and acting than by telling our boss about it. Messy Church will go places you couldn't have imagined if you went out and litter picked, painted parks and cleaned graffiti (difficult when it's dark I know, but I'm sure you can think of other things- creating and signing a petition to the local council/government about EMA/benefit cuts etc).
I hope you can find some use in that- I really am excited about where you could go with this forward thinking and will be praying for you as you consider the steps forward that you could take.