How to launch Messy Church

Begin with a one off event. As you plan, make sure you include

components that reflect the five core values of Messy Church:

1. Christ-centred

2. All Ages

3. Creativity

4. Hospitality

5. Celebration

Planning a one off event gives the opportunity to consider ‘where to from here?’ Your reflections on how you applied the 5 Values, how it went and the response you receive may determine frequency, time and day from then on. A one off event also allows members of the congregation to see Messy Church in action and to catch the vision. It might help to connect to a festival for your first Messy Church, such as Easter or Christmas, something that community families can relate to. Our experience is that you get more ‘buy in’ from potential team folk once they have seen it work. If you can, gather a team together and visit a nearby Messy Church. Your local Regional Messy Church Encourager can help you find a suitable one to visit or check out ‘Find a Messy Church’ on our website.

Create a ‘Safe Place’ for people to belong: When setting up a Messy Church and appointing team leaders it is important to follow your Church or Denominations ‘Safeguarding’ policies. For example, the Anglican Church of Aotearoa New Zealand and Polynesia refer to the Strandz Safety Policy, https://www.strandz.org.nz/safeguarding.html . Other denominations will have their own policies.

The Strandz ‘Handle With Care’ document is useful for your team to study and can be downloaded here: Handle with Care Policy (pdf)
Handle with Care Policy - text only (word doc) We want everyone to be kept safe at Messy Church so please take time to ensure your Messy Church is a ‘safe place’ for people to belong. Your team should be ‘trained’ regularly on safeguarding policies and team leaders Police Checked. Please always refer to your church/denominations policies. This is one reason it is important for Messy Church to be run under the umbrella of your established church/denomination.

Risk Analysis and Management RAMS: RAMS forms should be used for you as a team to assess the risks involved and how to manage them with your upcoming Messy Church. Do some ‘brainstorming’ with your team to think about possible risks? For example, could a child run out the front door and onto a busy street? How do you minimise that risk? If using science experiments what are the safety risks, how do you minimise the risk?

First Aid: Have at least one trained ‘First Aider’, preferably two, just in case the First Aider is the person requiring treatment. Always have easy access to a First Aid Kit and a mobile phone in case of an emergency.

Record all incidents and as a team review what has happened and how to minimise such incidents happening again.

Also have a ‘photograph’ and social media policy. Consent from parents and individuals is required. While it is tempting to take photos to promote your Messy Church, not everyone wants their photos shared, particularly on Social Media. An example can be found on the Anglican Diocese of Wellingtons Privacy Policy Guidelines, page 8.‍ ‍https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e79091454d50902b3a0bf71/t/682bc82e48acbb043bd33105/1747699759152/PrivacyPolicyGuidelines-Approved.pdf

If you create a ‘Safe Place’ policy before setting out with Messy Church you will be creating sound foundations for your Messy Church to grow on.

Messy Church Format Guide:

This example uses the 4-6pm timeframe:

• 4 pm Welcome at Door - hand our any relevant information, have a sign in form for safety and contact details and photo consent or policy.

• 4-4.50 Craft or activity time. During this time a team leader may introduce team, theme and officially welcome everyone and a prayer for Gods blessing on the gathering. This is usually done about 4.10 when everyone has had a chance to arrive.

• 5pm Celebration Time: Gather together, karakia (prayer time), waiata (songs), teaching time

• 5.30 Meal Time: Karakia (say grace together), share a meal together

• 6pm Ending prayer and farewell. Invite people to take home their crafts and any advertising regarding the next Messy Church.

Choose a day and a time. Saturday or Sunday 4-6pm or 5pm – 7pm works well for a number Messy Churches. Sunday afternoon is often a good time for families, they can do church together, enjoy a shared tea and go home having been fed and ‘spiritually nourished’ for the coming week.

Choose a theme, focus, crafts / activities. Remembering worship and prayer are part of what you will be doing together along with a short message to tie it all together.

Good planning and preparation are essential. Have at least one team meeting prior to each Messy Church. Take time to pray together, reflect on the theme and assign jobs for each team member. Let your team know of the commitment in terms of setting up and clearing away on the day. Remember that Messy Church is ‘Christ Centred’, so whether you are leading the worship, setting up or packing down, leading a craft or serving the meal, we want Christ to be the Centre of all we do and how we relate to each other. You might find it helpful to invite church members to be ‘minglers’, people who are free to chat with people who are looking a bit lost and help them to connect with what’s going on.

On the day. Once everything is set up gather your team for briefing and prayer about 30 minutes before starting. It is helpful to identify who your team leaders are on the day at Messy Church. You might do this by using Fluro vests or special name tags.

People are welcomed as they arrive and are signed in, and then go to crafts or activities. Encourage all ages to join in the crafts and activities. We usually do a very short welcome when we think everyone has arrived and say what the theme is. The activities and crafts continue for a further 45-50 mins or so, then it’s off to the Celebration time for worship, an interactive bible story and prayer time. Allow 20-25 minutes for this. Meal time follows around tables where folk share conversation and food. Table talk questions on the theme are provided for discussion. A celebration time may follow celebrating birthdays, anniversaries and other special family happenings. Those people who arrive late can be slotted in and not feel awkward if you provide welcome people to be around to let late comers know what is happening. Feel free to do what’s best for your situation.

Following the event hold a de-brief with your team and consider, what worked, what didn’t? Did we keep on track with the 5 Values of Messy Church? Share some of the feedback. Did we manage to engage all ages? Was it Christ Centred? Was it hospitable?

Many folk assume that Messy Church is just for children as opposed to a missional, pioneering congregation in its own right. We have found the need to keep reinforcing the message that it isn’t only for children and to ensure our conversations reinforce this.

How to organise your team

There is no one best way of organising your team. All Messy Churches are different.

You cannot run Messy Church by yourself. You need to gather a team.

When staring out gather those who express any interest and run a short meeting on
what Messy Church is and isn’t and with just enough input for them to get going.
Once you have run one messy church the team quickly catch the vision. When you debrief you’ll get a better idea of who is on board.

Have a core team. This is often called the ‘Ideas Team’ of four or more people to work with and do all the planning and preparation with them.

Have a leader responsible for each section of Messy Church and meet with them to get the overall picture, then leave them to organise their own areas of responsibility. You might have a welcome leader, a craft leader, a kitchen leader, a celebration
leader and a discipleship leader, each of whom assembles a team of helpers. Planning meetings
then simply involve the bigger picture rather than the details.

Treat the need for a large team as an opportunity to grow disciples, and build a team from
people who are not yet committed Christians, training them as you go along.

Communicate with your whole church what is happening so that they come on board from
the start. It can be helpful to invite them to come to a Messy Church so that they see it in action.

Sustaining your Messy Church and team

There will be exciting positive months when everything goes well and you are encouraged by the response of those who come
and there will be months where nobody comes except the faithful few and your own family. Some of the team can’t come, the children want to go to the beach because it’s so hot and the All Blacks are in town. There’s only so much you can do!!
Sometimes the crafts go ‘belly up’, the paint goes all over the newly upholstered chairs in the hall, you discover you’ve run out of glue and someone has waltzed off with all the scissors.
Don’t despair.

Here are a few things that you can put in place beforehand to save you from hiding under the duvet:

Remember that you are part of a network of people who want to support you.

Register your Messy Church on our website and on the Messy Church UK website.

Contact members of the Messy Church National Team or your Regional Encourager. For more details contact: jocelyn@messychurch.nz.

Share your story. The Messy Church NZ National Team is there for support and encouragement and ongoing training. They can put you in touch with others in your area as part of the Messy Church NZ network.

Establish a regular training/reflection time for your team. The Messy Church DVD is a good starting point and has lots of material to help you look at the bigger picture, or check out our ‘Starting and Sustaining a Messy Church’ on our Messy Church NZ youtube channel: https://youtu.be/q6AXmA560bE?si=FT_wwMshfTEDuvoU There are several other Messy Church NZ Masterclasses on youtube and we invite you and your team to join our quarterly Messy Church online Masterclasses for further training.

Pray as a team. It’s easy to overlook this in all of the business and preparation of Messy Church.

Remember that God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness: He can and does redeem dire situations.

Keep a record / journal of ‘God moments’ and things to be thankful for.

Remind yourself of the bigger picture, that this is slow faithful work, not a quick fix.

adapted from: www.messychurch.org.uk, (used by permission)