Sue and Andy Kalbfleisch travelled to the UK in September 2009 to explore fresh expressions of church, and are liveblogging their travels here.
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.
We are looking forward to attending a national UK Messy Church conference on September 14th and 15th 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
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