Messy Church is a growing fresh expression of church. This way of doing church has built up a pedigree of reaching people with the message of the gospel, with more and more families being brought into a closer relationship with Jesus and through its ministry. One of the five values of Messy Church is the value of being ‘all age’. My particular role on the Messy Church team is to research and support youth engagement in this exciting ministry. If Messy Church is truly going to be all-age then it has to intentionally engage every generation with whatever it does – and that includes young people!

However, for some Messy Churches, this is not an easy thing to do. Messy Church often only attracts young families, so it is difficult for teams to see past the people they are reaching. Not only that, but what a young child enjoys doing isn’t necessarily what a teenager would call fun! However there are great benefits and huge blessings when every age comes together and learn about the Bible as an all-age worshipping community.

So how can Messy Church engage teenagers effectively and what can youth workers do to use Messy Church as a tool to help with their youth ministry?

Release young people into leadership and service

I have been travelling around the country trying to visit as many Messy Churches as possible and get a feel for how Messy Churches are actively engaging teenagers. One way that I have seen has been to release young people into leadership and service through Messy Church. Messy Church in its nature is a relaxed time of worship with no pressure to behave in a certain way, and so it means people can completely be themselves – whoever that may be! This is incredibly important when we think of young people; we as a church must accept young people for who they are. It is also important that we give young people the opportunity to develop their gifts and, as previously said, there is little pressure in Messy Church, making it far easier for young people to be given responsibilities that help them learn about ministry and service in the church. I have seen Messy Churches that have given young people activity tables to prepare and deliver. Others have encouraged young people to be a part of the celebration and having an active, upfront. This way of engaging teenagers helps young people become stakeholders in church and it allows them to know that they are valued and wanted in the church community. Youth workers can use Messy Church to release their young people and give them responsibility, which can only benefit the young people and the Messy Church, who will value them as an important church member.

If you would like to continue this conversation about teenagers in Messy Church then please feel free to get in contact. You can email me at james.pegg@brf.org.uk or tweet at @MessyChurchTeen.

James Pegg is part of BRF’s Messy Church team. He supports Ebbsfleet United.