Church...but not as you know it!
Messy Church is a fun, all-age, fresh, family expression of church that involves creativity, celebration, and hospitality as families come together to eat and to celebrate God. This intergenerational, interactive learning experience is held on select Sundays. Check out our EVENTS page to find out when a Messy Church date is coming!
If you have attended church for a long time, Messy Church may not look like church to you. At Messy Church, all ages meet together to learn about Christ through games, crafts and activities, music, and storytelling from the Bible. A foundational ingredient of Messy Church is to gather around a table for a snack or meal and build relationships with each other, God, and the world. Check out this article by Stephanie Martin’s, Embracing the Mess, from Jul/Aug 2019 issue of Children’s Ministry magazine to learn more about how a Messy Church experience looks.
Messy Church is an all-age fresh expression of church that offers counter-cultural transformation of family life through families coming together to be, to make, to eat and to celebrate God.
- Messy Church is a form of church for children and adults that involves creativity, celebration and hospitality.
- It typically includes a welcome, a long creative time to explore the biblical theme through getting messy; a short celebration time involving story, prayer, song, games and similar; and a sit-down meal together at tables. All elements are for, and should include, people of all ages, adults and children.
- It’s fun.
- It’s a church for people at all stages of their faith journey and of any age.
- It models and promotes good ways of growing as a family: a nuclear family, an extended family, and a global and local church family.
- Messy Church values are about being Christ-centered, for all ages, based on creativity, hospitality and celebration
- It’s about sharing God’s love through Jesus!
- Messy Church is for adults and children to enjoy together. Every element aims to be relevant and accessible to all ages.
- Messy Church reflects the creativity of God in its imaginative hands-on approach to being church together.
- Messy Church is outward-facing, welcoming everybody to enjoy the hospitality and unconditional love of God.
- Messy Church is about hospitality, expressed most evidently by eating together.
- Messy Church reflects a God of joy who wants his people to have life in all its fullness.
• It welcomes everyone and anyone who wants church to be fun, creative and inclusive.
• It welcomes people of all ages, young and old, families and also single, widowed, childless, divorced people, male and female.
• It welcomes people at all stages of their faith journey.
• It welcomes people of all abilities, learning preferences, backgrounds, levels of interest in God, and spiritual styles.
It is completely free of charge!
- It meets at CPUCC church.
- Messy Church only meets on certain Sundays through the year. To find an upcoming date, check out of EVENTS page or contact our church office at 717-545-3782.
Find out more about the origins of Messy Church, which originated in the U.K., HERE.
See CPUCC's Messy Church in Action!
