Messy Seminar - Plan of action
Resources Seminar New Wine Ireland - Sligo ! Robert Ferris messy@irishchurch.org ! www.messyireland.blogspot.com
Part 1 The who,what where when Origins of Messy church. Intro Video Who does messy church? What happens at Messy Church What’s the point? - Theory behind the mess !
Part 2 The Practical - how? Part 3 - Question Time
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Why call it Messy Church?
Fresh Expressions of Church
‘The name Messy Church comes about because we’re trying to be church for families on the messy edges of church who aren’t ‘tidily’ in a congregation already. It’s also a church for people whose lives may be messy – perhaps in the past the Church has too often appeared to be saying that we only welcome people whose lives are well-ordered.
• A fresh expression is a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not members of any church.
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Messy Church says on the tin, ‘Come and be messy with us, as our family lives are messy too, we don’t have everything sorted out, we don’t live perfect lives, we have questions and doubts and fears and we believe church is the best place to help us get our messy lives sorted.’ And although we always leave the church clean and tidy, we do get very messy with paint, glue, clay, icing sugar... as we explore what faith is about.’
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How did Messy Church begin? • At one Anglican church near Portsmouth • Dreamed of a way of being church to appeal to the whole family • Listening to the needs of local people • Building on resources of the church and the building • April 2004: first Messy Church
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