Dinner with Jo

Have decided to do what I should have done three years ago, if I had a brain or the vision of a small wombat, which is to keep a journal of what’s going on with Messy Church so that it will help me reflect on what God’s doing with us, let other people see the mistakes we make and the journey we’re on for Encouragement and Edification in case they want to do something similar.
Exciting times at the moment as Jo from Christchurch, New Zealand, is staying with us with a view to learning more about Messy Church as they’ve just started one of their own in Christchurch after seeing the Fresh Expressions DVD. Lesley, Teresa and their husbands were round last night for a jolly meal to think through some to her questions.
Advice we gave her:

Get a Jackie (to do artistic things to the noticeboard and to tidy out the cupboard).
Get a Jan (who is supposed to be less busy than the other leaders are on the MC night so that she has time to talk and to listen) to share the load (we’re getting the Men’s Group to lead one of the crafts this time).

Pitfalls:

Getting despondent and losing heart by seeing all the things we could be doing and haven’t time for
Lack of communication with the rest of church
Wanting to lead people on too fast without building relationships first. Building relationships is very hard: too matey and it’s very threatening, but by standing back you don’t get anywhere.

Jo’s starting with organized games for the families, plus three or four crafts that everyone does, and is using MC to build a step further from their Music and Movement toddler group. Interesting that for them MC is the next step, whereas for us it’s the first one. Also that they didn’t feel they could call it Messy Church because they weren’t sure if the name was copyright. Ha! This threw up a fascinating discussion which showed that the St Wilf’s crew just want what we do to be useful to whoever wants to use it.