Messy Theology

This week, K, M & I were asked to talk to the Local Ministry teams from some neighbouring parishes about what was happening at Messy Church. I'm always willing to talk about things I love (on the whole, the challenge is to stop me) so this seemed a thoroughly good idea...until OFSTED announced their arrival at Valley Church School. Within minutes, time allocated to collect my thoughts and prepare Messy material transformed itself into time to re-read SEFFs, SIPs and all the acronymn-ridden paperwork beloved of government departments. It seemed important that those turning out to listen to us should have time to play, so the wonderful K planned two craft activities, the Dufflepud, God bless him, produced a screensaver slide-show of Messy Church highlights, and we were off.
Having failed to produce even bullet-points, I was encouraged by how much there was to say, as we thought aloud about all we've learned together.
I told the story of the children's church that was never recognised - the "Thursday Club" that met after school for 10 years in the Cotswold village where my children grew up...the frustrations that we felt as we tried to turn it into a bridge to Sunday church...the realisation, just a few months after I'd left that village and moved into my curacy, that for those children Thursday Club was church. It's fascinating how just one publication can change the climate for everyone...and sad that we wasted so much energy lamenting the "failure" of Thursday Club to feed Sunday attendance figures when every week we had up to 30 children hearing the Story, exploring the Story, living the Story. Mission Shaped Church came too late for us! When I moved on from the village the decision was made to take a break from Thursday Club...I wonder if it would have been so easy to abandon ship if it had been seen as a congregation in its own right.


Certainly, when I arrived in my training parish it was Mission Shaped church that gave me the confidence to say firmly that "Little Fishes" was far more than "just a mother & toddler group", to launch "OpenHouse" with no expectation that the families who attended would filter gradually into Sunday church. One report, with such alot of power! Of course, it would be very easy to leap to the conclusion that every church activity beyond traditional worship could now be labelled a "Fresh Expression", - but though that's far from the case, the new climate has given us permission to celebrate refreshed expressions...traditional congregations recognising that they can't be all things to all people, and setting out to find new ways to help their communities to engage with God.


So, when I came to these parishes, I was pretty clear that whatever God wanted us to do to engage with the all-too-absent families, it would from the beginning be seen as church in its own right. Maybe I thought that clarity would make the process of formation easier...but as we thought aloud about the Messy Church journey of the past 18 months, it became clear that we are constantly evolving, changing our nature from month to month, as relationships form and reform, as people come and go. K helped me to see that what we're about is reflected in every aspect of Messy Church. So many of our helpers arrive concerned that they "Aren't good at crafts...Aren't very creative" and at the outset parents rarely joined in with the craft activities, unless they were confident that they could produce something "good enough". But Messy Church is all about the process, not the product...The important things happen as we chat over the activities "What IS Pentecost, anyway?" "Don't you think prayer is a bit of a waste of time?" 
They happen as we deal together with the pleasures and tensions of trying to include toddlers and teenagers, to find ways to help them meet God and build community.
The meal is vital! Often as children work their way round the activities, it seems that this month there really IS nobody here - but when we sit down to eat together, guests and helpers together, I'm never in any doubt that this IS church. 
By any standard index it's incredibly messy. 
We never know whether we'll have 14 or 40...The teaching slot relies too much on my gift of the gab and often falls short on the "awe and wonder" scale...Sometimes a vital helper gets her weeks in a twist, and there's nobody in the kitchen to serve the food.
But set against that the way that parents have moved from collecting together to talk while their children explored the crafts, to sharing the crafts and conversations themselves; the way that those who used to stand at chat at the back of the church as we gathered for worship are now sitting just behind their children, in the front pews together;  the readiness of guests to become helpers, so that we're working to build church together.
Through all the mess and muddle community is emerging, and it's a community where God is tangibly present, time after time after time.


We hold our Messy Church on a Sunday afternoon - so I'll always arrive having presided at 3 Eucharists. I'm often tired, usually stressed, horribly conscious of the things I have left undone, uncertain if this month's theme will work, if I actually have a creative way of sharing the story. Sometimes I think to myself "Oh NO...NOT Messy Church AGAIN"
And always, always, I come home encouraged, befriended, refreshed.


We tried to share this on Wednesday. The teams seemed happy to engage. They did some finger painting, made Pentecost pinwheels, explored the wild unpredictability of wobble pens...and talked as they did so. When we regrouped at the end of the evening, there were lots of smiley faces, and most questions had been answered.
That's how it works, really. We may not know where we're going, but the mixture of sharing stories, of doing together, of friendship and lots of laughter creates a space for God to dance. 

I love it. 

A small parable

Yesterday afternoon was our first Messy Church for a while.This meant that I was stupidly anxious. What with Christmas holidays, snow days, school closures and illness it seemed quite possible that numbers would be very low, and though I spend alot of time giving myself the "It's NOT all about numbers" talk, it's surprising how slow I am to hear it.

However, while it was nothing like capacity crowds, there was a good mixture of adults and children, teens and toddlers, church regulars and "Messy Church only"types and we had a satisfyingly messy time exploring the promise to Abram via sand pictures, sponge printed stars, and a whole lot more. As always, when we sat down for tea, the group around the table made me smile and smile. In all its diversity and friendship, it was so much a picture of what the Church should be...I love it.

But it was while we were clearing up that, in time honoured fashion, God hit me between the eyes.

I've mentioned that there was alot of sand about the place - no wonder when "your descendents will be as numerous as the stars in the night sky or the grains of sand on the shore". This meant that tidying up involved carting tons of sand from sand pit to car, never the easiest task.

M & R two splendid lasses from valley church school, whose mums are part of what makes Messy Church so precious to me, had a lovely time transferring the sand from sandpit to plastic sack, and then I picked it up, marvelling once again at just how heavy sand is,  and began to make my laborious way to the door. I was intent on negotiating the steps without spilling the lot and was very much focussed on the doorway when I realised that the sack had suddenly become miraculously lighter.

It took me a moment just enjoying this, then a moment more wondering why, before I noticed that M. had come up beside me and was bearing the load from beneath. She's a slight year 5- I could barely see her for the sack, but goodness her help made a difference - and not just to the ease with which I got the sand out to the car.

Without saying a word, one 9 year old reminded her vicar once again just why church, broken, messy, disappointing though it sometimes is, still makes all the difference.

Signs of the Kingdom, Signs of the Times: "Soon and very soon..."

You might have gathered that I'm a bit stuck with pre-festival deskyness, at the moment - so it's been a bit harder to raise my eyes and notice signs this past week. However, the Friday Five Over at RevGals was a gift for the series... Sophia offers what she describes as " another very simple Friday Five in honor of the past, present, and eschatological dimensions of this powerful season of the church year....

Please share five ways that God has come to you (your family or friends, your church or workplace, our world) in the past year, that God is coming to you right now, and/or that you are longing and looking for God to come."

• as always God has come to me very directly and powerfully through the ministry of children. In this Year of the Child they have been central to so many glimpses of the kingdom, from their dancing with the Holy Spirit at our wonderful Pentecost service to their unexpected, unintended wisdom offered again and again at school assemblies and at Messy Church. For me, the child as model of the Kingdom is unerringly effective.

• through the slow growth in relationships around Messy Church. For me it's represented by the gift of ice-cream for 40 from one mum who can ill-afford it, and by the way that one young man has appeared, rain or shine, to help in whatever way we need - from moving tables to making Christingles, with a host of other kindness in between. These are people whom I didn't know at all when the year began, and I thank God for them, and for all that they represent.

• the boundless energy and joy of Libby the retriever when I let her off the lead at the start of a walk in the woods or on the common. She is utterly present in the moment, delighted by everything that it brings - and the unconditional love with which she greets any and everyone whom she encounters is positively inspiring (til she rolls in something indescribable, of course...but that's what seeing "in a glass darkly" is all about!)
  

•  new friendships, born here online, with people who've been just exactly the people I've needed, with the particular gifts, insights and inspiration to transform some difficult times this year...those who have said to me "Here is the way, - walk in it".

• a dream hatched at a planning meeting just this week.The group gathered to discuss our contribution to a deanery-wide mission happening next autumn, - a one-off event designed to encourage people to "Think Twice" about life and faith. By the time we went home we were looking at something far more radical, something that might, with God's help, really make a difference in this community, even if nobody ever joins the church as a result...God so loved the world, - right?
  

All in day's work

Some Sundays are just weird...
This morning was the nearest to flat that I've ever felt when presiding at the Eucharist. There was torrential rain just when people might have been setting out, so numbers were well down at both churches, the hymn selection didn't work for me (that's unusual - often I can't see in advance why a hymn has been chosen, but it hits the spot quite beautifully, but I guess I can't ever sing "Rock of ages" without mentally transporting myself to the crematorium - and though I value funeral ministry highly, it's not where I'd choose to be on a Sunday morning).Most probably, I was just plain tired after quite a demanding week. Whatever the reason, this morning's worship was at best "OK" and I was sad that it wasn't a shiney Sunday, as it was D's first day with us. He's exploring a vocation & has come to us to experience the harsh reality of an ordinary parish, as he normally worships somewhere rather exciting. Of course I wanted him to see us at our best (even though he isn't an OFCHURCH inspector, I don't seem to be able to help wanting to impress - even though I know full well that's not the point of it at all,at all)...
As we drove back from the Eucharist at Church on the Hill I said to him
"Well, that's probably as bad as it gets" and hoped devoutly that this was true.


This afternoon, though, was Messy Church - and suddenly everything was lovely.
Again, pouring rain worried me...would there be any children there at all?
Arrivals felt slow, - but by the time we were counting heads for supper there were 40 children and assorted carers, having a wonderful time (though not as much fun as me, I'm sure) doing bubble painting, wonderful aerodynamic enterprises with D, flame coloured streamers and all sorts of other delights.
When it came to our worship time, K started them singing "Deep and wide" and it was such fun as we all got tied up with the actions, missed out words and got faster and faster...Then it was my turn. We turned off as many lights as we could, and I lit the candles inside a bowl which we'd covered in flamey paper...I told the story of the first Pentecost, majoring on the work of the Spirit in filling us with love and courage to share Good News...told the children that the Spirit was for them too, and that they could share the Good News with one another. We lit one candle from those in the bowl, then the children very solemnly and silently passed the light one to another....it was amazing. Completely enthralled, silent, attentive....at the end, I'd planned to pray
"Come Holy Spirit...fill us with your love" but it seemed superfluous...The Spirit was so tangibly present it was almost surprising that the flames remained confined to the candles.



Later we had a splendid meal - take away pizza & v posh ice-cream, - the latter sponsored by a wonderful mum who was so happy to be able to give.
I really do think that Messy Church is doing what it sets out to...such a warm sense of community, of welcome and acceptance.

We had visitors from another church, who are considering the Messy Church model and it was very special to be able to share something that feels so full of God's own loving creativity.
And yes, I did need Messy Church to fly today - and am so thankful that it did.

Behind the windows 1

I know it's Wednesday now, but because this is my first Advent here I want to do a bit of retrospective blogging so that I have some sort of record of how things were.what worked and what didn't.
So, here's a mini Advent calendar of moments I don't want to lose from the week so far

The weekend was, to put it simply, manic.
Saturday saw another foray into creative muddle with Messy Advent. There weren't quite as many children in attendance as at Harvest time (around 30 signed the visitors' book) but those who came really engaged with the activities and once again as the shadows lengthened on a wintery afternoon the church hummed with activity and sparkled with pleasure (and just a little bit of glitter glue). Christingles and biscuits, lanterns and angel choirs, and all sorts of wonderful projects with coloured card, sponges and glitter gradually came into being...



I was specially pleased that the helpers included a few different faces - and on the whole they seemed to have a lovely time too. Just as well, as the plan is to make "messy church" into a monthly activity from the New Year. I still need to be sure that I have a strong core team who want to commit every time, but it's wonderful that there are extra people who are happy to support and step into any breaches that might appear. I don't expect many of the helpers are reading, but if you are THANK YOU - it was such a good afternoon.