Three hundred

Martin, the unsung hero in the BRF office who deals with all the parts of the websites that are shrouded in mystery for me (basically, all of ’em), informed me this month that we now have 302 Messy Churches registered on the Directory. 302! That’s a lot of families enjoying themselves in church. Imagine if most Messy Churches have between 20 and 140 people in them – that’s an average of 60 people in each, which makes it round about 18,000 people coming to church once a month, encountering Jesus in craft, food and friendship, having the chance to pray, finding out that church is a warm and loving place to which to belong. Glorious!
What is God up to? Do these figures say something about his Spirit gently but powerfully stirring in the lives of ordinary Christians like you and me to show how churches can support families in our society at a time when so many are under severe stress? A calling to bring colour, joy, fun, grace and wholesome relationships into homes all over the UK and beyond? A vocation to be fun! (Yes, yes, and more than fun, obviously, but fun as well as the other treasures a church can bring to people.) From the wonderful people I meet at Messy Fiestas, I know that is a vocation that suits many of us.
Do encourage the Messy Churches around your area to sign up on the Directory: numbers mean little in themselves, but having their details might mean, for example, that a family which has enjoyed Messy Church while staying with grandparents in one part of the country can easily find another Messy Church nearby when they return home. It also means that the regional coordinators can make contact easily: I asked Lindsey to google the contacts of our local unregistered ones: it took her two hours to track down the information for just three, and we don’t have that sort of time to squander, so do encourage everyone to sign up.
A sower went out to sow… a woman mixed a little yeast in with the dough… a mustard seed sprouted… a boy hands over five rolls and a couple of fish…