Dear Grace Community,
How many of you have perfect lives? Anyone?
I don’t have a perfect life, and I know you don’t either. None of us claim to, but there’s something funny that happens. Sometimes people who don’t go to church have the impression that we church-goers think we’re perfect. The reality is that we know how imperfect we are, and we’re grateful for a God who loves us.
As more and more people in our Wichita community choose not to attend church, one of the things we need to communicate to them is that we worship a perfect God, but we are not perfect, and they are welcome to join us with their imperfections. Some of us use words like brokenness to describe the human condition. Another word is messy. Life is messy.
With that in mind, we’re kicking off a new worship service this fall. It’s called Messy Church.* We know that life is messy, and we want people to know that church is for messy people.
In addition, this service is targeted at the eight and under crowd and their adults. I live with someone in the eight and under demographic, and life is literally messy. Surfaces are sticky, and pieces of banana are sometime stuck to my clothes.
At Grace our youth and older elementary ministries thrive, but our ministry to younger children and their family’s needs more focus from our congregation. Jennifer Snook does an incredible job of nurturing relationships with the families who are here, but in order for us to reach out and connect with more people, more of us need to be involved.
You can be part of this ministry, even if you don’t fit in the target audience. You can pray for this worship service. You can invite people you know to attend. We have handy postcards that you can give to neighbors, relatives, and friends.
If you want to make a commitment, we can use you on our support team. The support team handles the behind-the-scenes work of the service. It’s a ‘day of’ commitment only and takes two-three hours of your time each month.
The fall Messy Church services are on September 24, October 15, November 19, and December 17. Worship starts at 4:30 pm. It’s like all of our worship and includes music, scripture, prayer, sharing the good news, and the Lord’s Supper. It also includes a craft and dinner. People in the eight and under demographic move quickly, so the service does too. Everything should take about an hour.
God always meets us in the mess of our lives, and I am confident that God will meet us in Messy Church, too. I’m excited about how the Spirit moves through this worship. Please let me know if you want to learn more or have questions.
In Christ,
Catherine
*Messy Church began in Great Britain as part of the Fresh Expressions Church Movement. Since then churches in the United States have adapted it and used the name.
ShareSEP