Reaching families gets 'Messy'!
Craft, worship, food. A simple formula with a huge appeal. That's the impression 'Messy Church' gave when Captain Kevin Metcalfe first looked at it to see if it was a model that could work in Christ Church Primacy, Bangor. Having seen an increasing number of families make connection with the church through different activities in the community and church, but not become part of the worshipping life at Christ Church, it seemed a different model was needed to engage with families in the parish.
The weekly program of Kidz Klub in the local Primary School on Friday nights was attracting over 40 children a week most of whom had little or no connection with church. Through regular home visits relationships were being built with families for whom a Sunday morning service had little appeal or didn't scratch where they itched. Any attempts to draw the parents into other ongoing activities had a poor response, from Parents Courses to Alpha, few parents wanted more than a place where they could send their child. So a new approach was needed. That’s where Messy Church came in.
Having heard about the model during his Church Army training in England, Kevin sought to see how it might work in Northern Ireland. A lower scale one-off event was seen as a good way to test the waters and see what happened. So on Good Friday morning an all age event was held in the Church called TGiGF - Thank God it’s Good Friday. The event used the key components of Messy Church - crafts and games, followed by all age worship, and finishing with food - to help families to think about Jesus’ death on the cross. The response was positive with 65 people turning up.
Encouraged by this success, in the following September, the first Messy Church monthly Sunday afternoon gathering took place. With a team of ten volunteers, Christ Church Primacy stepped out and opened its doors to a new way of doing church for families. So began a new form of Christian community which at the heart was about nurturing families holistically through craft, worship and food.
As the monthly Sunday afternoons have progressed so a real buzz has surrounded coming to 'church’. From 35 people the first month, families have spread the good news and drawn in more families to build the numbers to 60 each month. This has happened naturally as people have found Messy Church to be a place in which they feel comfortable and are happy to bring along their friends. Christ Church Primacy has found new families connecting who have had no previous link with the church and the great thing is that they keep coming back!
Of course, all this could not have been possible without the work of a dedicated team of volunteers headed up by Kevin Metcalfe, employed by Church Army to work as Community Outreach Worker in the parish. The work has also been helped by a Priorities Fund Grant towards the start up costs and resources.
With this foundation of volunteers and resources the prayer is that Christ Church Primacy’s Messy Church will grow and flourish as a place where families can be in a loving community that breathes the life of the Jesus.
See a few photos in our gallery here.
Visit the Messy Church website here