Messy Church in a very evangelical setting

There’s a wonderful Fresh Expression of church called Open Doors in Calne in Wiltshire, who are far-sighted enough not just to get on with their own thing but to share it with others as well, and they invited me to talk about Messy Church at an open evening to encourage other churches who were interested as well as their own.
This was a jolly one, as we weren’t sure who was coming or from where, and as far as I knew, nobody present would have any idea what Messy Church is or why they should do it.
Much of the evening was taken up with questions from the floor, as is often the case. And people were interested in the big questions like, ‘How do you build community on a once-a-month event?’ and ‘How does your church pray for MC?’ and ‘How do you train your team?’
It felt very much that we haven’t got the answers yet, or that the answers are so challenging that I’m wriggling out of looking them in the face.
One person who came who helps run a Fresh Expression in Salisbury, wrote up the evening on his blog (which is terribly exciting as we have never been blogged before): www.foodforthought.gb.com.
In fact Food for Thought is an interesting concept and one which might be a logical next step from MC… Will go and find out more when I have a chance. OK, OK, I know, just because it has food in…