Messy Church 19th May 2012

The theme for this Messy Church was "Pentecost" which celebrates the coming the God's Spirit to the followers of Jesus.  Pentecost is often referred to as the "birth of the Church" as the follower and believers became empowered to spread the message, teaching and love to Jesus throughout the world.

This Messy Church felt like the most successful one to date, with many people of all ages coming along and joining in the fun.  The cake stall was as popular as ever and along with donations for tea and coffee, raised enough funds to keep this event free to all.

Enjoy a few of the pictures of the event and if you feel like you may have enjoyed it, why not pop along to the next Messy Church.

Before the main activities start, people are welcome to play with Lego, colouring or tea, coffee and cakes

The busy and popular Cakes Stall

Introducing the theme to all

Cooking has became a great favorite at Messy Church.  One of the affects the believers had on those who listened to them was they they all understood what was being said, regardless of where they came from.  To reflect this, we cooked sweet pretzels.

Living up to the name of "messy church"

Another craft activity was making a "Pentecostal Worn" to pin on a jacket or shirt.  This was made up of coloured beads threaded on a coloured pipe cleaner.  Each of the bead colours represented part of the Pentecostal meaning.

The Colours represented: -

Red for the fire of Pentecost

Orange for the touch of the Holy Spirit

Yellow for Jesus, the Saviour of the world

Green for the love of God

Blue for the people of the world

Smile for "go forth and tell others!

Still using colours to represent the flame of the Spirit as it touched each of the followers, the chance to decorate a "hand" with coloured ribbons was also popular.

The Cross is a well known symbol of the Christian faith and has many styles.  People were able to decorate a "window hanger" cross to take home.

Hope you have noticed, Messy Church is an "all age" activity.

Painting with marbles, to remind us that the Spirit moves around everyone and everything.

For those who do not want to get too messy, colouring pictures to remind us about the Pentecost story is one for them.

As the weather was kind, we were able to have some craft outside (helps reduce some of the clearing up afterwards).  On offer was hand printing on a paper bag (useful for holding the craft items), a hand print pentecostal picture and bubbles.  The paint colours were red, yellow and orange to represent fire and the bubbles reflected the wind that was heard when the Spirit first came in to the believers.

One of the other crafts also reflected the "wind" of Pentecost and that was making your own windmill.

At the end of the morning, most of us gathered together to let poppers off to give one last reflection on the arrival of the Spirit.  We even had a big popper, as shown below.

And finally, it is Messy Church, after all!

Messy Church 17th March 2012

What a great time was had by all at "Psalm 23" Messy Church on 17th March 2012.  It may have been damp outside, the the atmosphere inside was warming and welcoming.

The theme was based around the well known Psalm, number 23 which describes God as a Shepherd and how he cares for us.  The activities reflected the images from the Psalm.  The pictures show what happened.

We started by gathering together in the worship area with tea, coffee or squash and activities for the children, young people and the young at heart.

Playing with Lego is a great favourite.  Not sure if the Mars Rover was made again.

Messy Church is totally free.  to help fund the event, a cake stall was opened.  Not the best idea for those watching their weight!

 After the explanation of the activities and how they reminds us of the Psalm, it was out the the Elise Finch Hall and newly refurbished kitchen for the min activities.

A chance to build a marble run to remind us that God guides us in our daily paths.

Making your own fruit drinks to remind us that God gives us our daily needs

Water play, for God guides us y the still waters.  (Most of the water was kept in the paddling pools, but some of the younger ones got a bit wet!)

"Hobby Sheep"

Making a card to reminds us the being in God's house is a way of spending time with him

One of the members of the tech crew (the other is taking the picture) printing out photos of people to put on the front of their card.

Pizza (don't worry, no sheep meat was used).  Reminding us that God provides for us.

Growing mustard and cress to create a green pasture

As it was the day before Mother's Day, the opportunity to make a small posies for Mums was also given

NEXT MESSY CHURCH

Saturday 19th May 2012

Messy Church 10th Dec 2011

No great surprise on the theme for this Messy Church considering the time of year.  Yes, a Christmas theme was the topic of the day.

Whilst waiting to start with the short worship time (time to enjoy coffee and mince pies), a group of young girls started to sing along to the carols playing on the CD.  This was really nice as they sung without being asked to.

The worship started with one of the Puppets singing to us, which was followed by a short parayer.  We were then introduced to the crafts, which we started after singing "Come and Join the Celebration".

Two of the crafts are shown above.  Decorating a candle holder to remind us that Jesus is the Light of the World was enjoyed by (I think) everyone.  Decorating pencils reminded us to we can share the Good News through writing to those who we mau not see from day to day.

Messy Church Oct 2011

On Saturday 15th October 2011, we held our first Messy Church.  Messy Church is a different approach to worship and learning about God.  It has a very informal atmosphere and is aim at all ages to join in.

The main Worship Area

The picture above show the "soon to be shattered" peace before people arrived!

The theme was based around Abrahan and Sarah's journey and how they, like us, needed to trust God during their travelling.

Play Dough to keep people happy

Two of our puppets help introduce the theme, singing a song called "Walk Like A Christian", which is based upon the pop song "Walk Like An Egyptian".

The puppets entertain

Holiday Club 2011

This year's holiday club was based around the character of the Light House Keeper.