Space, the final frontier – these are the voyages of the Messy Momentum pilot, our two-year mission: to explore and boldly go (or just go, bravely, timidly or otherwise!) where we can better engage young people.
This old Star Trek opener doesn’t just fit our rocket-mission metaphor for Messy Momentum, but in this summer’s termly check-ins, ‘space’, in a variety of ways, was a key theme across our learnings this term. We met to reflect on the summer term just past with our intrepid pilot crew – touring through the challenges, encouragements and everyday nitty-gritty that goes into making Messy Church and disciples.
Space for God
Messy Church is often chaotic! There is a lot to organise and a lot to consider – but the process of taking time to think through these new approaches and reflect, month on month, how they are going and where we see God at work has created space that is intentionally Christ-centred. This has a cost – it takes time and effort to create this space, to trust God will meet you there and it can often feel like an uphill battle when young people seem reticent to talk or just want to kick a ball about, but God is working in and through this costly generosity and dedication from our teams. One leader said a boy she used to work with years ago, who was a bit of a challenging character, now comes along to their pilot – now, as a teenager, he brings some great banter and isn’t half as scary as she thought boys who towered over her were!
Several of the Messy Churches have bought youth bibles with the project funding, either to use in the session or give to the young people. A Messy Church leader shared that a nine-year-old came back to their next session after receiving her bible and gleefully reported: “I’ve just finished reading Genesis. I’ve just got to Moses and the burning bush so I’m going to finish that off tonight!” Whether in the sessions themselves, at other times in normal life or over more time than we even realised was in scope, God is in spaces we don’t even realise, bringing connection with Him, for us and for others.
Space for others
Creating Christ-centred spaces also means making space for others to engage more deeply and grow too! Messy Church is a great place for people not used to church or participating in shared spaces, to find a place to belong and take ownership – and the pilots have been creating spaces for this both intentionally but also spontaneously, most especially as spaces to take risks! They’ve shared this can look like someone speaking up when feeling anxious or self-conscious, leading an activity or prayer when not confident or even prepared for it, or even themselves as a leader allowing open-ended activities or participation without knowing what might unfold! This is hard as leaders when we want things to be smooth, a good experience for all and preferably not to have elements that could easily go pear-shaped! But, by allowing space for these risks to happen, the pilots have seen that it also allows participation and grows trust in life-changing ways, for both children and adults alike!
One teenager on the pilot volunteered to lead part of the Celebration, using AI to help her plan what to say and do. Beth, the Messy Church leader, told us it was a bit of a risk for her as they weren’t sure what to expect but actually, “that was amazing because she’d never usually do anything like that; she’s quite anxious at school and would be terrified of public speaking, except at church she’s confident and willing to give things a go and take leadership!” This teenager’s stepping up to lead prompted another young person to ask at the end of the session: “when’s it my turn to lead?”. Creating space for one other young person to partake has grown an expectation of shared ownership and participation in the team as a whole – and this has been happening at many pilots!
Space that’s safe
More than the space to be vulnerable in taking risks in leadership and participation, the pilot Messy Churches have been slowly but surely building safe spaces of trust and relationship more deeply with the young people too. This takes a huge amount of time, and some of the pilots have expressed this has been a real slow-burn and is very much ongoing but drawing the young people into community and out of their shells has been noticed in all the pilots to varying degrees. Each pilot had one child they could speak about as an example of being more settled and engaged, taking responsibility and feeling special and seen.
Many of the Messy Churches mentioned their young people growing in confidence and speaking up more this term in sessions – alongside parents and adults too! One Messy Church leader told us that they are seeing such depth of relationship and trust being built now, that the young people were sharing ‘huge amounts’ of life and faith with one another, including on some complex, personal topics; one parent had reflected back to them on this, saying: ‘if not here, where are these conversations happening?’ Through consistency, intentionally creating time and space for these young people to simply be, safe spaces are being formed to allow vulnerability to be seen and shared.
Leaving space: “Less is more”
Simplicity was something that came up repeatedly too – whether a leader explaining that through gaps in their volunteer’s availability or only having small teams, they had to keep activities simple; leaders expressing how by making sure their language was simple and accessible (taking time to explain some Christian ideas or churchy words) increased engagement; and through leaving more space in sessions, that incredible conversations, deeper understanding and greater participation had been fostered. The phrase “less is more” was used a few times across the check-ins and has an almost topsy-turvy, kingdom-principle to it; by intentionally creating space through simplicity and sometimes even necessity, people feel more able to relax into the space, to engage and to take responsibility in ways they hadn’t before.
One leader told us that they had only two families come to one of their sessions in the summer and they were feeling discouraged with such low numbers. But then, at this session, one five-year old who had never spoken at Messy Church before and finds it difficult to talk at all in such settings, spoke-up and actually became quite chatty by the end of their time together – even greeting the leader outside of church during the week! The spaciousness of that small, intimate session was a gift to that child and built a connection that has meant more for that family than we can know.
Loaves and fishes – space for a miracle
This counter-intuitive, kingdom-minded learning from the pilots reminded me of the Messy Church I visited in Bingham at the beginning of July, when our theme was the feeding of the 5,000. What seemed an impossible situation with human thinking – it’s late, this is a remote location, we all need to eat! – was simple for a living God in human form: ‘Jesus replied “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat” (Matt. 6: 16). And he gave thanks with what they had, and they all ate.
At the session in Bingham we baked fish- and loaf-shaped scones, thought about the conundrum ‘what we would need to survive if all we had was a backpack/small lunch’ in our youth lounge, chanted like a hungry crowd (for the England team and Jesus!) in the Celebration and picnicked on the floor altogether – it was a truly immersive experience, imagining together that miracle on the hillside by the sea of Galilea. Jesus created a space for that young boy, with his picnic of five loaves and two fish, to be part of a miracle where his generosity was multiplied by the glory of Heaven, and his lunchbox became a fixture in the gospels of Jesus! If that doesn’t epitomise the “less is more” approach to Kingdom-living and indeed allowing space for others to be part of the never-ending story of Good News, what does?!
Join our voyage - be part of Messy Momentum Cohort 2!
If you have been inspired or encouraged by this post and it’s made you think about joining our voyage into space and/or youth engagement – hurray! We’d love to have you. Check-out our project page, see how Momentum might work in your context and sign-up for Cohort 2.
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