What happens when a church has too many children and has to turn some away because there is not enough space to accommodate them? The Dewsbury Church of the Nazarene in England came up with a solution: Take the church to them.

Once a month, 20 volunteers from the Dewsbury Church transform the Chickenley Community Center into The Messy Church. The church service consists of seven craft stations, a hospitality/refreshment area, music, a message and a prayer time. The entire service lasts an hour and a half.

Alexandra Auty, 18, and Chris Bean, 19, are two of the teen volunteers that help every month with the crafts and teaching the lesson.

Auty explained, “We lead them in the crafts and ask them questions about the story while teaching them what the story is through a [hands-on] experience … and the parents seem to ask just as many questions as the children, which is good as well.”

“The Chickenley community is only about two miles away, but it is an impoverished area so they rely on the church for transport,” said Pastor Tony Musgreave. “We are at capacity and we cannot physically transport anymore children to the church so there is a bit of a waiting list to come.”

Since they rent out the Chickenley Community Center on Sunday afternoon, it allows for the children and parents in the surrounding area to be within walking distance of a worship service.

The associate pastor, Kat Wood, shared that for the past seven years they had rented out the community center for a special Christmas service for the community, which included crafts, songs and a Christmas message. Then, after coming back from maternity leave, she remembered having gone to observe another Messy church to see what it was like and how it was carried out. This led her to a meeting with Pastor Musgreave.  They discussed the idea.

“We were looking for a way to take the gospel to the community, a way to engage the whole family in worship,” said Wood, “and Messy church, which is in several Anglican churches in the U.K., came through in the conversation and we believed it was something that we could do in Chickenley.”

Messy church is a unique way to involve the entire family in worship in a way that challenges their pre-conceived notions of church.  The approach was developed by a UK-based organization called BRF (Bible Reading Fellowship), which offers books and resources to help local churches implement the Messy church idea.Musgreave said, “It is a different model of church. It has the environment where people can inquire and ask questions and it’s really quite safe.”

The feedback from the parents, children and community has been very positive and well attended. The parents and children have enjoyed it and the kids say they will be back next time and that they are going to bring their parents.

Since some of the crafts take time to dry, the families leave their address and other information and people from the church deliver their projects to their homes during the week, which leads to another point of contact and relationship building.

“Our goal is not to get the families to attend our Sunday morning service each week,” said Musgreave. “We are looking at that community center to develop into another congregation. We see it as a new congregation, a church plant, if you will.”

For the children that are able to attend the Sunday morning church service regularly, Messy Church gives them an opportunity to invite their friends and families to church.

“One thing that the Messy Church is really keen on is that it is not just a craft club. It’s not a place to meet socially. Actually, this is church, it’s just a different way, a different format, of doing church. It’s a way that enables children and adults and families to worship, participate and learn together,” said Wood.