Messy Church

Something we had heard about and were really anxious to see was Messy Church. It's an approach to family ministry that started in Portsmouth and has spread widely in England.

Messy Church takes place outside Sunday morning. It includes people of all ages. Most churches have it on weekdays, usually once or twice a month. They begin with crafts and other activities, followed by a time of worship for all ages and then a meal. It centres around hospitality, creativity and celebration. Typically, Messy Church will start around 4 p.m. and end by 6-6:30.

We attended Messy Church on June 21 at All Saints Lightwater, west of London. Ruth Kidd coordinates the childrens' ministry at All Saints. We arrived in time to help her with set-up. The Scripture story they were using was Philip and the Ethiopian (tactfully avoiding the inevitable question: "What's a eunuch.") So, there were long sheets of paper and plastic bins with water soluble paint the kids could step in and make footprints, an inflatable pool with water for baptism, candle making, making a chariot out of a paper cup, decorating a paper tie for Father's Day, colouring she

ets and a few other activities.

It so happened that there was a baptism on Sunday of an 8 year old boy named Jack. Martin Sheldon, the vicar, told us they'd never done a baptism at Messy Church, so didn't quite know what to expect. I think he was preparing us for the possibility that it might be, well, messy.

By the time we started at 4 p.m. there were about 40 people present, including some family members who were there for the baptism. Kids and parents/grandparents dove into the activities enthusiastically. At 5 we went into the church for the wildest baptism service I'd ever been part of. Martin did a great job adapting the liturgy so that it was family friendly, and Ruth told the story of Philip and the Ethiopian with impromptu help from kids acting out not only their roles, but the horse pulling the chariot. It was super high energy worship.

Then back to the hall for a wonderful meal of curried chicken.

Lucy Moore, the originator of Messy Church stresses that it's about mission. Messy Church has had great success in drawing in families who would not normally be at the regular Sunday service. It's for people "at the messy edges of the church," she says, "and the messy edges of life -- people the church has often overlooked."

Fresh Expressions

Fresh Expressions is the name given to a joint undertaking by the Church of England and the Methodist Church to encourage new forms of church, especially with groups not currently involved in church. It's really a coming together of about 25 years of emerging experiments in the midst of the passing of the traditional church in Britain.

The Fresh Expressions website was one of our main sources of information as we planned this trip. It both inspired us and gave us ideas of where to go and what to see.

Yesterday we went to Basingstoke, about 45 minutes west of London, for a Fresh Expressions Vision Day, put on by the Diocese of Winchester. The day was led by Zoe Hart and Steve Pittis who are both employed by the Diocese in the area of mission.

One of the things that struck us first is how vibrant evangelical Christianity still is in the Church of England. The opening worship was heart-felt and focused on the Holy Spirit. But it's evangelicalism in the warm and expansive British sense, not in the least sectarian or closed.

Too much to put into one blog posting, but here are a few highlights.

Fresh Expressions is NOT a strategy to manage the church in decline, they said, but an attempt to "catch up" to what the HOly Spirit is already doing in the church. This was illustrated by some local stories, such as "The Living Room," a church for students in Southhampton, or Legacy XS, a church for skate-boarders, or "The Tube Station," an outreach to surfers in Cornwall.

Fresh Expressions initiatives have a strong missional focus. In other words, they aren't meant to simply service the needs and wants of current members, but to reach people "off the church's radar." At the same time, Fresh Expressions values the continuing traditional forms of church in a kind of "mixed economy" approach, to quote Rowan Williams.

We were impressed by the theological grounding. Fresh Expressions reimagines church in differing cultural forms because God takes culture seriously. A key text is Eugene Peterson's translation of John 1:14: "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood."

Church has three basic orientations in our culture. First, attractional -- "Come and join us." This still works for some, but fewer all the time.

Second is "Engaged" -- "Go and then come." Go out and build relationships with people who can then be drawn into the church.

Third is "Emerging" -- "Go and stay." This is the cutting edge of Fresh Expression, developing church in places and among people who are currently beyond the bounds of any discernable church.

Steve described 7 Core Values that undergird Fresh Expressions:
* They are mission shaped communities.
* They involve creative experimentation and overcoming fear of failure and risk.
* They are culturally relevant and culturally engaged.
* They bring about transformation in people.
* They make disciples.
* They require sacrifice.
* They promote unity in the midst of diversity.

It's estimated that about a third of Anglican Churches in Britian have begun some kind of fresh expression, and there are around 160 Fresh Expression initiatives in the Methodist Church.

One of the real blessings of this trip is the number of amazing people we have met, people who are passionate for the Gospel, many of them in denominational positions of leadership. I had a fantastic conversation with Paul Thaxter who is the Transcultural Mission Director for the Church Mission Society. He knows an amazing amount about how to engage with different cutlures. We're going to have lunch with him on Monday in Oxford.

Who needs congregations?

A growing number of people in the UK consider themselves committed Christians but are not part of any congregation. It's not just because they can't find one they like, but because they believe that traditional congregational life actually impedes faithfulness.

We had lunch with Mike Love and Tim Jones who both work for the Leeds Christian Community Trust -- a non-profit organization that provides seed funding to new initiatives, some Christian, some not. Mike was once a pastor, but became convinced that 99% of what was happening in his church had very little to do with the Kingdom of God or with forming disciples. British churches launched a "Decade of Evangelism" in the 199os, the the result was that church attendance delcined from 14% to less than 10%. In other words, the church as it has existed for so long has lost the ability to connect with people -- in fact, is a barrier to people hearing and living the Gospel. So, he basically shut his church down and released his congregation to live lives of dispersed faithfulness. Both he and Tim see their Christian witness in almost entirely incarnational terms, being expressed through the relationships they form and the groups they are a part of. Neither "goes to church," but both regard themselves as committed Christians.

I have to admit I was challenged by their radical vision of Christianity. But we both had some misgivings. We've observed that the "post-congregational" people we've met have all been shaped and formed in a congregational setting. They have picked up the narratives, practices, core beliefs and "ethos" of Christianity. The question is, without a gathered, discipling, teaching church, how with the NEXT generation even know what the Gospel is?

Rowan Williams has coined the phrase "mixed economy" to describe what is going on in the church today -- traditional forms and fresh expressions co-existing side-by-side and each influencing the other. That's what we're spending a lot of time reflecting on -- what that "mixed economy" will look like in this time of great ferment and transition.