A Messy Interview - Nine questions with Lucy Moore

Describe Messy Church in ten words or fewer.

Church for all ages with craft and food

How long has it been going now?

Since April 2004 - about four years.

How many Messy Churches are there?

There are about 40 on the directory on the website but at least that many again who haven't signed up.

What is it about Messy Church that you think has inspired so many people?

The way that it includes the whole family, not just separating off the children from the adults, and the way it's both church and fun for people who don't think of church as fun.

How much material did you already have for the book - was it all field-tested first, or created during writing and then tested? How long did each book take to write?

All the sessions in both books are taken from sessions that we've done here at St Wilfrid's - it's definitely been a case of 'try it then write it up'. One or two crafts are ones which we haven't used in a Messy Church context but thought they were worth putting in - like ice candles, for instance. The difficulty was deciphering what I'd scribbled on the planning sheets to turn it into understandable descriptions of crafts... Lots of emails to other members of the team as I was writing up the sessions: 'Lesley, what does squirty tubey thing mean?' Writing the session plans up took a few weeks and writing up the bigger picture thoughts for the first half of the book took a lot longer, for both books, but was much more fun to do.

What's the atmosphere like at Messy Fiestas?

Very warm, very supportive, very excited, very visionary - that's what happens when you get 60 or so creative, imaginative, committed Christians together and give them cake and an opportunity to dream dreams together.

What's your best memory of a Messy Church? Has it ever gone completely wrong?

The most moving for me was our first Messy Communion: seeing all those people enjoying Jesus and the mystery and the closeness was unbeatable.

I don't think it's ever gone completely, horribly wrong: we've run out of sausages and we've had to ask people to sit down at teatime instead of running round the table... the digital projector's refused to work and leaders have been too ill to come, but nothing that God doesn't use to teach us something about relying on him. Of course, we don't necessarily hear about the personal 'going completely wrong' times and perhaps there are individuals who have had a bad experience that they've kept to themselves. A good sense of humour is useful for everything else.

What's your vision for the future of Messy Church? What's next in line - more books?

I'm still clinging on to the surfboard and waiting to see where the wave sends it. I hope there'll be time to test-drive some ideas at our own Messy Church as well as supporting the wider network. I hope that these next few years will give us the chance to set up better communications so that we can really learn from all the Messy Churches across the country (... the world...), finding out how we can go deeper with God in households and be inspired by all that children and other people on the edge can bring to church communities. The website will be a great way of sharing insights and keeping all the Messy Churches in touch - I'll be writing and, I hope, reading plenty on that! Messy Church 2 is coming out in November this year, and the first draft of a book on all-age worship has just gone to the editor, but I'll be having a rest from writing for a bit now and investing in a lot of thinking, listening and reading before I set to work on any new books.

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