Contact us at messychurch@brf.org.uk to arrange your ‘Getting Started’ online training. This will cover,
- The Messy Church values
- What Messy Church is… and isn’t!
- How to build your team
- Effective planning
- How to advertise
- Practicalities
- Activities
- Celebration
- Reflective practice
- Being community between gatherings
Once, you’re booked in for training, we will send you a starting pack of resources containing,
Starting your Messy Church – an all-in-one introduction to Messy Church covering the essentials. It includes checklists, milestones and ‘Things we wish we’d known’ from experienced Messy Church practitioners.
Messy Adventures – this book contains twelve units of creative suggestions for ways to take your Messy Church outside, with a strong scientific and environmental side to what you do in the great outdoors. Each of the units focus on lovely natural themes and are linked to key events in Jesus’ life or the stories that he told.
Get Messy! Volume 2 – this resource contains twelve session outlines for Messy Churches. This volume takes you through the basic themes of Christianity including: Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who is the Holy Spirit? (Pentecost). Other key Christian festivals include: Christmas – God entering the world as Jesus – and Easter – exploring Jesus’ last supper before his death and resurrection and why Christians celebrate communion. The material also covers God’s best ways of living, demonstrated through Jesus’ life; a challenge to follow Jesus and trust God with a new direction; and exploring following and belonging to Jesus through baptism.
Messy Church Does Science – this resource offers Messy Churches the tools to use science to explore aspects of the Christian faith; demonstrate that science and faith are complementary; and enable children and adults alike to appreciate the wonder of creation. 100 sizzling ideas from a range of contributors provide inspiration for the Bible-based activities element of Messy Church.
You will also receive a PDF copy of Get Messy! Volume 2 and up to 10 downloads of the new digital only resource, Messy Basics. Messy Basics is an intergenerational discipleship course with Messy Church in mind. It comprises twelve sessions helping people to: explore who God is and what Christians believe God is like; dive into the life and claims of Jesus; consider the role and place of the Holy Spirit; and discover how God cares for us all and how faith impacts everyday life. It’s an ideal way to introduce people to the basics of Christian faith but also to ground believers in the truths of the gospel. It works well for baptism preparation, a family devotional time or any intergenerational group. Messy Basics complements the session material in Get Messy! Volume 2 so that the same topic can be explored between Messy Church gatherings but using different Bible passages, or it can be used on its own.
As soon as it’s available (10 June!), you will receive Get Messy! Volume 3 (print copy and PDF download) and its accompanying faith at home resource ‘Growing in Christian Values’. These resources will complement each other and will have a thematic approach, looking at Christian values and way of life, often covered by Collective Worship in UK schools: Hope, Compassion, Peace, Generosity, Perseverance, Love, Integrity, Courage, Community, Purpose, Justice and Patience.
Please provide us with a postal address and primary contact email address to receive these items.
In addition to these physical resources,
- You will be invited to attend termly online meetups with other FLOURISH Messy Church teams, the BRF Ministries Messy Church team and members of our volunteer support teams.
- Any young people serving as part of your planning team (aged 10-17) will be invited to join our bi-monthly online young leaders meetups.
- We will also provide Flourish Messy Church leaders with twice yearly online mentoring sessions.
- The BRF Ministries Messy Church team are also on hand for support via telephone or email.
- An opportunity to connect to the global Messy Church network through online meetups and Messy Masterclasses, and an invitation to book onto The Messy Church Conference in June 2025.
If you’d like to see Messy Church in action in a school setting, check out this news article.
