{"id":1099,"date":"2015-06-17T13:47:06","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2015\/06\/17\/messy-church-in-the-trans-european-division\/"},"modified":"2015-06-17T13:47:06","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:47:06","slug":"messy-church-in-the-trans-european-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/messy-church-in-the-trans-european-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Messy Church in the Trans-European Division"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">17 June 2015 <span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28px; text-align: justify;\">|<\/span>&nbsp;St Albans, United Kingdom [Clair Sanches-Schutte\/<em>ted<\/em>NEWS] Something amazing is happening within the Trans-European Division; we have discovered Messy Church. Messy Church is a concept that was created by a group of people in St Wilfrid\u2019s near Portsmouth, UK number of years ago. As a church, they felt they were hardly reaching any children with God\u2019s story.<br \/>They had wonderful buildings and facilities, which, unfortunately, weren\u2019t being used to their full potential. The church had a wonderful group of creative people who wanted to reach out to the local community by creating something that would be for all ages. That is how a team came up with the idea of Messy Church.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><figure id=\"attachment_1095\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1095\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignright size-full wp-image-1095\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; float: right;\" title=\"Croatia, February 2015\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015.jpg 960w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-350x232.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-700x464.jpg 700w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-900x597.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Croatia_February_2015-560x372.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1095\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Croatia, February 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>Messy Church is time where once a month families come to enjoy being together, making things together, eating together and celebrating God together through His word, music and prayer.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The principles of Messy Church are:<\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li>To provide an opportunity for people of all ages to worship<\/li>\n<li>To help people of all ages to feel that they belong in church and to each other<\/li>\n<li>To help people have fun together<\/li>\n<li>To give people a chance to express their God-given creativity<\/li>\n<li>To invite people into an experience of Christian community<\/li>\n<li>To introduce people to Jesus through hospitality, friendship, stories and worship<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><figure id=\"attachment_1096\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1096\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignleft size-full wp-image-1096\" style=\"margin-right: 10px; float: left;\" title=\"Lithuania, January 2015\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-500x280.jpg 500w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-900x506.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Lithuania_January_2015-560x315.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1096\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lithuania, January 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>There is no set day for Messy Church, anytime that suits the church is fine.<br \/>A typical Messy Church starts by welcoming everyone who comes through open doors with drinks and a biscuit half around hour before it starts. An hour of crafts related to the theme of the day follows. This leads up to the celebration time; when everyone joins together to sing, pray and watch a Bible story come to life.<br \/>The proceedings close with a meal for everyone, which acts as a time to bond and to get to know new people.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><figure id=\"attachment_1097\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1097\" style=\"width: 113px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Scotland_March_2015.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignright size-full wp-image-1097\" style=\"margin-left: 10px; float: right;\" title=\"Scotland, March 2015\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Scotland_March_2015.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"113\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Scotland_March_2015.jpg 270w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Scotland_March_2015-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 113px) 100vw, 113px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1097\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scotland, March 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>Currently, Messy Church takes place in the following countries within the Trans-European Division: Albania, Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and United Kingdom. Teams are also ready to be trained in Hungary and Serbia. <br \/>The stories which are coming from these countries are truly amazing. Already there has been a baptism in one of the churches and in another, members confess that they have never seen so many people from the community a programme.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><figure id=\"attachment_1098\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1098\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"caption alignleft size-full wp-image-1098\" style=\"margin-right: 10px; float: left;\" title=\"Slovenia, December 2015\" src=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014.jpg 900w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014-700x465.jpg 700w, https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/images_news_Slovenia_December_2014-560x372.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1098\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Slovenia, December 2015<\/figcaption><\/figure>Messy Church is an effective and innovative way of engaging with the local community and getting to know the people who live around your church. <br \/>As Ellen White states, in a quote familiar to many of us, we need to reach out as Christ did, mingling with men as one who desired their good,\u2019 ministering to their needs, and winning their confidence. Messy Church exemplify this.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If Messy Church sounds like something your church would be interested in, please contact your local Union. Once you have done this, training and sponsorship can be provided by the Trans-European Division. [<em>ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor<br \/>119 St Peter&#8217;s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England<br \/>E-mail: <a href=\"mailto:tednews@ted-adventist.org\">tednews@ted-adventist.org<\/a><br \/>Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. <br \/>You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify <em>ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">17 June 2015 <span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Raleway, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 28px; text-align: justify;\">|<\/span>&nbsp;St Albans, United Kingdom [Clair Sanches-Schutte\/<em>ted<\/em>NEWS] Something amazing is happening within the Trans-European Division; we have discovered Messy Church. Messy Church is a concept that was created by a group of people in St Wilfrid\u2019s near Portsmouth, UK number of years ago. As a church, they felt they were hardly reaching any children with God\u2019s story.<br \/>They had wonderful buildings and facilities, which, unfortunately, weren\u2019t being used to their full potential. The church had a wonderful group of creative people who wanted to reach out to the local community by creating something that would be for all ages. That is how a team came up with the idea of Messy Church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1588,7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ireland-united-kingdom","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}