Teenagers in Messy Church

The report about Fresh Expressions gives us much food for Messy thought. I’ve no doubt we’ll be writing and talking much more about the discoveries. On my mind at the moment is the teenagers’ day, so I was particularly interested in the exhortation to make sure our fresh expressions think through how to keep older children and teens. (Perhaps better phrased ‘serve’ them?, though it sounds more pious and dull.)
We discussed many questions at a day organised and led by the teenagers in Yate near Bristol, but here’s a list of some of the questions we tackled:

What do you most enjoy about your Messy Church?
How do you serve God through your Messy Church?
Would you say you come to Messy Church mostly to give or to get?
Do you think Messy Church is a good place for teenagers to grow as Christians? Why (not)? What would make it better at doing this?
Have you ever invited a friend to Messy Church? Or to anything else happening in the church?
Messy Church at its best is for all ages to come together as church and learn & worship with each other. Can you remember any times when you’ve noticed you’ve been a role model for a younger/older person at your Messy Church? Or when someone in Messy Church has been a role model to you?
One scheme (Transformers) used by churches in New Zealand for 10-13 year olds is a weekend camp where the child goes with an adult ‘mentor’ to learn how to be a Christian leader. Do you think that might work in the UK? What else might work?
What one piece of advice would you give to a Messy Church leader who really wants teenagers to keep on coming to their Messy Church with their families?
What one piece of advice would you give to a Messy Church leader who wants to have lots of teenagers on the leadership team?
What one thing would you say to children / teenagers who say they are ‘getting too old for Messy Church’?
What one thing would you say to BRF to help them support teenagers in Messy Church nationally?
What else is important to you that we need to hear?

There’s a Facebook post on this too so do encourage your teens to add their comments here or there.