Messy Church
Where are SA's Messy Churches?>
What is Messy Church?
Messy Church is a way of being church for families that is found across the world and across denominations.
Messy Church…
- is a way of being church for families involving fun
- is a church, not a craft club, that helps people encounter Jesus as Lord and Saviour
- is found across the world
- values are about being Christ-centred, for all ages, based on creativity, hospitality and celebration
- is part of the The Bible Reading Fellowship (UK) which believes, with the historic churches, in one God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
For more about Messy Church visit the official Messy Church site.
This has an intro video, and pdfs about the Messy Church values and what Messy Church is and isn’t.
Thinking about starting a Messy Church?
- Visit a local Messy Church – click here for a list of Messy Churches in SA.
- Chat with a Regional Coordinator:
Regional Coordinators are the first port of call for support and enquiries and aim to encourage and help promote sustainable growth and development of your Messy Church. They cover different geographic regions as below:
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- Gail Edwards (Regional North) – 0438 922 731 – Turn on Javascript!
- Mel Neumann (Adelaide North/East/Regional SA) – 0419 850 544 – Turn on Javascript!
- Jeanette Mann (Barossa/Riverland and Adelaide) (08) 267 5211 - Turn on Javascript!
- TBC (Adelaide South).
- Request a Starter Kit
If you’re in South Australia and are interested in finding out more about Messy Church (or know someone who is), request a Starter Kit from your Regional Coordinator. This includes a DVD, a couple of books and some printouts of helpful information sheets. These are loaned out and can then be kept if your Messy Church dream becomes a reality!
Resources
Returning to Messy Church in a COVID safe way
In July and August 2020, SA Messy Church leaders (across different denominations) met online and shared different things they’re considering and working through as they think about regathering face-to-face. Please download the collated notes from that conversation to offer ideas to consider for other Messy Churches planning to return to gathering, including an example from one Messy Church about how they’ve adapted their program and started to meet again.
Ideas to consider restarting Messy Church in a COVID-safe way.
South Australia
Annually, the Messy Church SA team, host either a networking catch up or a state gathering/conference for Messy Church teams to attend and also for churches exploring the possibilities of starting a Messy Church.
Here are some of the resources given out at the 2018 and 2019 gatherings.
- Next Steps for Messy Churches (2019) This document offers ideas for teams who have been running a Messy Church for awhile.
- Top Tips for Messy Churches (2018) This document has a variety of suggestions from Messy Church teams for running a Messy Church.
- Messy Church Craft and Activity Ideas (thanks to Liz from Westbourne Park UC)
- Anna Kroehn presented a workshop (2019) and has made her resources freely available on the Messy Church Teams SA FB group – this includes her team training planner, reflection sheets and PowerPoint presentation as well as links to the various tools she mentioned.
2019 keynote speaker Greg Ross shared:
- the Playfully Serious booklet and videos and papers/reports here about the Church Army research about Messy Churches in the UK. You can also check this out on the BRF website here.
- the Messy Discipleship Pilot here – a tool for Messy Church teams to be more intentional about discipleship.
Australia
- Check out the Messy Church Australia website for updates