Where was God at work in Messy Church in 2025?
Reflective practice is an important part of our discipleship journey. Asking the question: where is God at work in our Messy Church? can help uncover the different ‘God-conversations’ that have been going on between team members and participants at Messy Church, can guide us as we pray for our community, and helps the team notice when God’s spirit is on the move – maybe through a child’s prayer, or a conversation over food. It helps us all normalise talking about God and is a huge encouragement, especially when a session has been particularly messy.
The start of a new year gives us the opportunity to reflect on a whole year, on both the joys and challenges faced in Messy Church. It gives us an opportunity to take a longer view of the journey our Christ-centred communities are on, and God’s faithfulness in all we do.
The BRF Ministries Messy Church team took a moment to reflect on 2025 and to notice where God has been at work through this ministry.
Here are our 2025 highlights:
We thank God for…
- 21 years of Messy Church!
- Our expanded team, with Nina, Sophie and Sarah joining in Spring 2025.
- Sally O’Hare, who left the team in September for Methodist ordination training.
- Hearing encouraging stories of what’s happening in your local Messy Church and having a new place to feature them on our website.
- Getting out and about to visit Messy Churches.
- 2 trips to Lambeth Palace (see photo left).
- 3 opportunities to speak about Messy Church on radio broadcasts.
- 6 online Messy Meetup’s – the chance to connect, share ideas and pray with leaders.
- 126 people attending 12 online masterclasses, supported by our volunteer trainers
Messy Church Conference in June
- Meeting in person with 161 people from 14 countries. Our conference highlights include:
- Our intergenerational, international planning team.
- Creating a welcoming community.
- Experiencing the international element: bible passages read in different languages and countries from around the world leading prayers before meals.
- Messy Church Goes Wild session – outdoor worship on the hottest day of the year!
- Standing under a eucalyptus tree during a ‘live risk assessment’ to be told that in Australia they are called ‘widow maker trees’, due to falling branches in hot weather…we took a few paces back!
- Our young leaders Cameron, Erin and Jonathan, who helped plan and deliver the conference. Jonathan did a brilliant job as the ‘caller’ for our evening ceilidh. We wish them every success at Uni and College.
- Additional 48 hours for prayer and fellowship with our key international Messy Church leaders.
Messy Momentum Youth Project launch:
- Listening exercise with young people, parents and leaders in January/February.
- Two-day consultation in March, innovating new ways to engage young people.
- 21 Messy Churches signed up and trained to pilot one of six new approaches.
- 16 leaders from 11 Messy Churches upskilled through our in-house Youthscape’s Essentials training.
- Partnership funding from CofE to enable this project and expansion of our team.
Growth in the Messy Church network
- 1840 Messy Churches on the directory, of which 122 joined during 2025, representing an amazing bunch of people involved in Messy Church, with a heart for bringing God’s kingdom to our local communities in new and creative ways.
- 11 microgrants approved for CofE churches starting Messy Church in an area of deprivation, since the September launch.
- A stronger ecumenical network and online meetings with Messy Churches from Salvation Army, Leeds Diocese and Church of Ireland.
- For the growth of Messy Church in other nations and opportunities for Aike to introduce Messy Church to 30 representatives from 26 different countries, at the Norwegians Seamans’ conference, in January and to 25 Swiss Pioneers in November.
Our Resources:
- Updated edition of Messy Togetherness by Martyn Payne with new chapter from Chris Barnett, that ‘flew off the shelf’ at conference.
- Get Messy! vol. 3 writers and how this resource blesses local Messy Churches.
- Growing Christian Values an all-age discipleship resource, written with Parenting for Faith, that complements Get Messy! vol. 3, made possible by funding from CofE Flourish.
- 795 downloads of the Peace & Reconciliation resource by Sarah Agnew, London Diocese.
- Teaming up with Street Child to produce Get Messy! vol. 3 October’s Messy Church session on Compassion and Sarah’s big day out with their team at Big Church Festival.
The behind-the-scenes people who support the Messy Church team:
- BRF ministries and all the people within the charity that support our team.
- Everyone involved with implementing ‘Beacon’ a new CRM that will make admin for events run more smoothly.
- People and organisations who financially support BRF ministries Messy Church team, enabling our roles to continue.
- Kathy Bland who is supporting Jane to deliver the Youthscape Essentials training.
- Our volunteer Support Teams and all their prayer, wisdom, and enthusiasm they’ve freely given to those starting and continuing their Messy Church journeys – you are all amazing!
It’s been a busy year, and we have so much to praise God about! Listing out all our activities reminds me that Messy Church is not a solo endeavour, be that at local or national level, but is about team work. Together, we work towards the shared goal of enabling God’s kingdom to grow as we host gatherings and find creative ways of sharing the good news of Jesus.
It has been an absolute joy working with Jane, Sophie, Nina and Sarah and formerly Sally. A collective team bonding experience came in the Autumn, as we filmed a Messy Momentum video (see below) for the Messy Churches taking part in the pilot. One homemade water-powered rocket launch later, we were left drenched and laughing, thinking that work couldn’t possibly be this much fun.
Let’s rejoice and celebrate all the good things (or God things) that have happened during 2025, both for the BRF Ministries Messy Church team and in the lives of Messy Churches around the world.
As we launch into 2026, we continue to commit this ministry to prayer and invite you to do the same. Please pray for us as we explore new sustainable ways to support Messy Churches in regional hubs.
We hope that our team will get to visit some of your Messy Churches over the coming year, particularly those taking part in our Messy Momentum pilots, as well as our online training events.
I wonder…
what were your 2025 highlights and challenges?
where have you noticed God at work?
what do you need to commit to our loving God in prayer?
Aike Kennett-Brown
BRF Ministries Messy Church Ministry Lead
Messy Church Stories
It’s such an encouragement to hear your Messy Church stories. We can now feature them on a new section on our website. Please email us if you have a story to share!
Messy Church Prayer Support team
Do you have a heart to pray for the Messy Church global network? Our prayer support team meets in the evening, once a month on Zoom, for 1 hour to pray for the ministry. We are looking for new people to commit to pray and join this team. Please email for more information.
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