Are you looking for a way to reach families who are not in our churches on Sundays? 

A ‘Messy Fiesta’ is a Saturday workshop to experience and learn about Messy Church.

Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for adults and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship and have fun within a church context.

Reach out to children & young families in your community through Messy Church. This event is both for people who are new to Messy Church and for those who’ve already started up Messy Churches. Connect with others, share ideas and figure out what’s next when you join us for a great day of fun, learning & networking.

To find out more about Messy Church, visit the website where it all started and check out the video at http://www.messychurch.org.uk

Join us at Christ the King – Dietrich Bonhoeffer Lutheran Church in Thornhill ON

on Saturday Feb. 18th from 10 to 3, doors open at 9:30.  Cost is $25.00 each (includes lunch).  

Presenters: Rev. Nancy Rowe (MC Practitioner for over 4 years) & Sue Kalbfleisch (MC Regional Coordinator)

Information and Registration

Vision Day in New Brunswick…

All are welcome to the Vision Day at the St. John the Evangelist Parish Centre, 75 Main St., Fredericton, NB on Saturday November 26, 2011 from 9:15am to 3:00pm

Presenters:  The Rev. Nick Brotherwood and Archdeacon David Edwards, Parish Development Officer of the Diocese of Fredericton.

Cost: $10.00 each (includes lunch).

Register On-line here

Are you looking for a way to reach families who are not in our churches on Sundays? 

A ‘Messy Fiesta’ is a Saturday workshop to experience and learn about Messy Church.

Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for adults and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship and have fun within a church context.

Reach out to children & young families in your community through Messy Church. This event is both for people who are new to Messy Church and for those who’ve already started up Messy Churches. Connect with others, share ideas and figure out what’s next when you join us for a great day of fun, learning & networking.  Cost is $20.00 each (includes lunch).  Bring a team of 3 or more for $15.00 each.

To find out more about Messy Church, visit the website where it all started and check out the video at www.messychurch.org.uk

Presenters: Rev. Nancy Rowe (MC Practitioner for 4 years) & Sue Kalbfleisch (MC Regional Coordinator)

Info and Registration

Are you looking for a way to reach families who are not in our churches on Sundays? 

A ‘Messy Fiesta’ is a Saturday workshop to experience and learn about Messy Church.

Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for adults and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship and have fun within a church context.

Reach out to children & young families in your community through Messy Church. This event is both for people who are new to Messy Church and and for those who’ve already started up Messy Churches. Connect with others, share ideas and figure out what’s next when you join us for a great day of fun, learning & networking.  Cost is $20.00 each (includes lunch).

To find out more about Messy Church, visit the website where it all started and check out the video at www.messychurch.org.uk

Register by:  FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2011

Presenters: Rev. Nancy Rowe (MC Practitioner for 4 years) & Sue Kalbfleisch (MC Regional Coordinator)

More Info and Registration

Are you looking for a way to reach families who are not in our churches on Sundays?

A ‘Messy Fiesta’ is a Saturday workshop to experience and learn about Messy Church.

Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for adults and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship and have fun within a church context.

You will have an opportunity to experience what Messy Church (MC) can offer your church.  The session will allow you to experience a MC, brainstorm your own MC, gather resources, and explore the history of this innovative way of being Church in a changing world.  You will take away knowledge, skills and materials to help you get started.  In addition there will be sessions for those who have already started a Messy Church and want to connect – a ‘seasoned’ practitioner will lead this group.

Presenters: Rev. Nancy Rowe (MC Practitioner for 4 years) and Sue Kalbfleisch (MC Regional Coordinator)

Nancy and Sue have presented 7 Messy Church Workshops/Messy Fiestas over the past year from which have sprung a number of Messy Churches.

Downloadable File:  Registraton form

Many thanks to Nancy Lennox, who coordinated the day at First United and to everyone on her team who made the day such a success…  and the lunch and snacks were yummy as only ‘church folk’ can do!

If you are interested in hosting a Vision Day in your area, please contact Sue.

We arrived at Wycliffe Hall (Anglican Theological College at Oxford University) at noon for an intense 24-hour time of worship, prayer, workshops, conversation, sharing, review and discernment for the future of Messy Church (MC) with founder Lucy Moore and the Messy Church UK Regional coordinators. Colin Fletcher, Bishop of Dorchester, opened the sessions with a warm welcome and praise for MC’s  important ministry to engage families in introducing and telling our Christian story. In the five years since Lucy Moore founded the first MC there are now over 300 MCs operating in the UK. Many engage up to 100 people once a month.

Going forward the group discussed the collection of data on the MCs in operation to get a better understanding as to the demographics, leadership development, how discipleship is being engaged and whether additional support materials are required.

The messiness of MC is not just the crafts and food but the messiness of engaging non-Christians missionally with discipleship the focus while working within the local cultural context.

In addition to Messy Church there are now Messy Markets, where a Messy Church team may set up a stand at a local market of fair with Christian crafts to both engage people and invite them to attend a Messy Church monthly gathering.

An evening session introduced us to some extreme crafts – soap making and enameling.

Rachel and Andy in Church House

We met with Dr. Rachel Jordan, Associate National Mission & Evangelism Advisor (Church of England) who developed the Vision Day PowerPoint program materials and activities.  An engaging and dynamic personality, Rachel will be in Toronto in February as keynote speaker for the Vital Church Planting conference.

Rachel is currently reviewing and updating the Vision Day program materials to make them more contextual and engaging.  We had a lively discussion about some concerns from the Canadian Vision Day experiences and discussed how to improve the overall experience

PS: In addition to Fresh Expressions, another of Rachel’s passions is “Jaffa cakes” !

Photo: Sue and Bob in front of Methodist Central Hall, London

We met in the Wesley Café in the Methodist Central Hall where Bob gave us an update on what is happening with Fresh Expressions both in the UK and internationally. The FE ecumenical partnership of the Church of England and the Methodist church has expanded to include the United Reform Church (Presbyterians and others) and the Congregational Federation.\

He advised that the FE website will have a new look including international postings on the site (e.g., Canadian “Church On Tap” video).  The new site will be up some time next week so check it out at www.freshexpressions.org.uk .  In addition, a new FE Sacramental DVD will be available this fall.

Sue Kalbfleisch, Paul and Lucy Moore

Andy and I were warmly welcomed by Lucy Moore and her husband, the Rev’d Dr. Paul Moore (Vicar of St. Wilfrid’s Church) for lunch, great coffee, and a time to chat about Messy Church and Fresh Expressions.

Since the first Messy Church at St. Wilfrid’s, the number of Messy Churches registered on Lucy’s website includes over 100 found in the UK, Canada and New Zealand.  According to Lucy’ first book, ‘Messy Church:  Fresh Ideas for building a Christ-centred community’ (2006),  “At its heart, Messy Church aims to create the opportunity for parents, caregivers and children to enjoy expressing their creativity, sit down together to eat a meal, experience worship, and have fun within a church context.”

As a generalization, Lucy explained that of the people who attend most Messy Churches about a third are already church members of their church, a third attend other churches, and a third have no other church home.

Worship space at St. Wilfred’s Church

We are looking forward to attending a national UK Messy Church conference on September 14th and 15^th so will report on that later!  For more information about Messy Church (and a brief video from St. Wilfrid’s), please visit www.messychurch.org.uk

.

.

.

The Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Exeter

Mark Pavey (left) and Steve Jones (right) in the Diocese of Exeter Office garden.

The Rev’d Canon Mark Rylands, the Canon Missioner for the Diocese of Exeter and Steve Jones, lay staff member with the Diocese of Exeter as well as the Methodist Circuit, founded Night Church, a Fresh Expression of church two years ago. Night Church meets in the Exeter Cathedral on Friday evenings and sees attendance of 100-200 on “low” days to 1000+ during their “go large” events.  Attendees make choices of participating in a variety of groups such as prayer, meditation, discussionat each gathering.  Music is various from ambient, to some instrumental to a band, and so on.

.

.

The Cathedral Church of St. Peter in Exeter

Since Mark has been appointed Bishop of Shrewsbury, we met with Steve and Phil Pavey (doing a volunteer placement) to discuss Night Church and Fresh Expressions development in general.

For more information on Night Church, see www.nightchurch.org.uk

.

.

.

Meeting with Rev’d Dave Male on Monday, September 7^th at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

Author of “Church Unplugged”, Dave is a tutor in Pioneer Mission Training (Ridley Hall & Westcott House, CambridgeUniversity) and Fresh Expressions Advisor for the Diocese of Ely.

We met to discuss Dave’s work with Pioneering Ministry and Fresh Expressions.  For Dave it is important to establish an environment in which people with pioneering and innovative gifts can use their gifts – and then within a like-minded community Fresh Expressions can flourish.  Participating in a Mission Shaped Intro course is a way to bring people together and Dave suggests it is best for a group of 2 or 3 from a church attend together.

Dave suggests meeting with entrepreneurial Christian businessmen as a way to brainstorm and create new ideas for ministry.

The Moot community, led by Rev’d Ian Mobsby, is located in St. Mary Woolnoth Church, in the heart of London’s financial district.  The group meets from 6:30 onward on Sunday evenings beginning with refreshments and then worship begins at 7:00.  This area of London is a “ghost town” on Saturdays and Sundays with restaurants and shops being closed, so everyone travels in to Moot.

On Sunday evening there were about 25 worshipers at Moot including folk from the area as well as some German youth leaders and a priest from New Zealand.

Worship included an adapted Compline service with a time of meditation.  Ian joined the participants andJon Oliver – a pioneer ministry student on a summer placement from Cambridge, led the service.

Moot is a safe place for people who have issues in their lives – it is non-judgmental, inclusive, welcoming, and engaging. Following closing prayer on Sunday, a young woman who had been in London for only a year expressed her thanks to the group for their care and support of her through a very difficult time in London.

About half the group went to the pub following the service to continue the conversation and to share community – and a beer of course!

Link: http://www.moot.uk.net

Great work!