Messy church at Springfield

Messy church takes place in a local primary school hall – it’s where the church had a connection with the school as a member of the congregation was a teacher there.   It started one Easter (2008) when families were invited to a celebration with craft, activities, the Christian story and message of Easter followed by a meal together.  It was well received by the families who came (8 altogether) and they asked for more.

So 6 months later, Sue, who had been a teacher at the school, now working for Springfield, got a team together and invited families from the school along to a monthly messy church on a Saturday afternoon from 4-6pm.

18 months later, there were 12-14 regular families who came along, as well as 6 families from Springfield who came to help with crafts and in the kitchen, on average more than 40 people coming along.  Recently, invitations to messy church were sent out to all families in the school and a week later we provided free craft activities at the school bazaar as a way to meet people and tell them more about it.  Following that, 8 new families came along to the next messy church meeting.

Those families who have been a regular part of messy church over the past few years have been encouraged to get involved in helping with craft and in the kitchen.  They have been committed and enthusiastic in their roles.

We don’t just see the families at messy church but connect with them at the other events that Springfield organise, such as the annual holiday club, cinema outings, summer picnics and party nights for the adults.  This has played an important part in building strong relationships and we see messy church families interwoven with and form part of the church family. 

A few families have made a transition to weekly church; 2 adults have recently been confirmed, 2 children baptised and there’s even a wedding in the pipeline. Some come along to Christmas services and a couple of families are now part of our second congregation in a local housing estate.

If you would like to know more then there is the Messy Church Website as well as “A brief guide to Messy Church” written by Will Cookson of Springfield Church, Wallington.

RiSE – Youth congregation of Christ Church Purley

RiSE is a Youth Congregation for young people in year 7+.  It meets at 10.30am on Sunday mornings, alongside the adult meeting and childrens ministry of Christ Church Purley.  Twice a month we join the rest of the church family for Holy Communion, and each week we have fellowship over coffee after the worship meetings have finished.  We highly value being a part of a larger generationally diverse community of believers, which is why we are a ‘congregation’ and not a ‘church’.

RiSE was borne out of a desire to do ‘church gathering’ for young people in a relaxed, informal yet totally deep church way.  We base our gatherings around the principles of ‘worship, teaching and ministry.’

RiSE is headed up by Youth Pastor Claire Bent, with a team of young people and adult leaders who ‘make it happen’. These include our 17 year old Worship Pastor, and our 14 year old ‘head of deacons’ (the deacons being the group of young people who are responsible for setting RiSE up each Sunday morning).

RiSE is very much ‘by the people for the people’, with our young people being involved in teaching, leading sung worship, praying for each other and running RiSE from the ground up.

RiSE is a very exciting place to be…