Christ Centred
For the last three years, I have been heading up Messy Church in Overslade on behalf of the m2o family. I want to share with you some of the things that make Messy Church special.
Messy Church values are about being Christ –centred, for all ages, based on creativity, hospitality and celebration.
Each month at Messy Church we share a meal together, and then focus on a learning theme through half an hour of craft activities and finish with a worship session which includes bible story and talk, games and prayer.
Messy Church is a different way of 'being church'. It was started in 2004 in Portsmouth by a church that wanted to find ways of reaching out into the local community and helping them connect with Jesus. Being Christ-centred is the primary value. The name contains the word church – because it is a church – a community of people seeking to learn about Jesus and to follow him together. It is also messy, because it uses hands-on activities to explore Bible stories, and because it recognises that we all lead "messy" lives – no one is perfect, our families, our lives, our circumstances are not necessarily all they could or should be, but Jesus welcomes us anyway.
There are over 3,000 registered Messy Churches across 20 different countries and it is estimated that over 500,000 people attend a Messy Church each month.
We want people to be able to say 'This is our church. This is our God. This is our story. This is our family. This is where we feel at home, accepted, known by name and free to take risks because we know that here we are most deeply loved.'
[Lucy Moore, Messy Church Team Leader]
To think and pray about: What are the core values of our church? Is Jesus the reason we engage in church activities or has he become incidental?
Mairi Mowbray
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment