Hospitality
Messy church "reflects a God of unconditional love and is a church for people outside church, providing an oasis of welcome and a safe space in which to thrive. Messy Church is about hospitality, expressed most evidently by eating together"
[BRF website]
Throughout his preaching and teaching ministry, Jesus relied on the hospitality of others. As he moved from town to town, village to village, he would be welcomed into the homes of those who wanted to show him love and he would eat and sleep under their roofs.
Our Messy Church always begins with a meal. Places are laid at the table and people sit down together, talk, laugh and eat. Every month our wonderful catering team cook enough delicious food for eighty people – pasta bake, chicken casserole, sausage and mash, lasagne…followed by pudding and they cater for those with food intolerances too.
Some people have asked me whether people just come for a free meal. It is true that many of our families are on low incomes, and many of the children are entitled to free school meals, and they really welcome the offer of a good meal prepared for them, but none of them eat and disappear – they all stay for the craft activities and worship session.
But the most satisfying part of being hospitable is sharing our lives together, becoming trusted, becoming friends and that doesn't happen just by feeding people, but by talking and listening.
To think and pray about: A Messy Church member in Surrey said: " It was organised chaos, but it was like walking into heaven." Do people coming into our church feel they are walking into heaven?
Mairi Mowbray
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