Hudson UMC introduces hands-on ‘messy church’ service

by Emily Canning-Dean

Hudson United Methodist Church is launching “messy church” – a creative, interactive service centered on celebration and hospitality. While its Sunday morning services will continue as usual, this occasional alternative is designed for those who might feel traditional church isn’t for them.

“Messy church is aimed at all ages and is meant for families to experience the service together,” said Elizabeth Goodin, director of family ministries at Hudson UMC. “It is a good option for those who the traditional worship service doesn’t fit their schedule or if they aren’t comfortable with a traditional worship service and are looking for something different.”

Goodin said Hudson UMC did “a soft launch” of the messy church program April 19 in place of their traditional morning worship service and hosted a second messy worship service on the evening of June 4. The next messy worship service is scheduled for Oct. 4, from 4 to 6 p.m., in the fellowship hall.

“It will always be a Sunday evening service, and for now we plan to have one quarterly or seasonally,” she said. “We are aiming to have another messy church service around Advent then probably one in the winter and one around Easter.”

Goodin explained that each messy church service follows a four-part structure. It begins with a brief welcome introducing the biblical theme, followed by hands-on activity stations – ranging from art projects to science experiments.

“We also have a quiet, reflective station for people who want to just sit and talk about the story,” she added, noting that participants take home activity sheets to extend the lesson.

After activities is the “celebration” portion of the service where participants dig a bit deeper into the theme and engage in prayer, singing and reading of scripture.

“This portion is about 15 minutes in contrast to a traditional church service,” Goodin said. “Celebration kind of brings all the elements of the message together.”

As a final “hospitality” part of the service, participants share a meal, experiencing fellowship and building relationships, she said.

Hands-on themes

In April, the service focused on Jesus’ message: “I am the vine and you are the branches.” To explore the theme, attendees added handmade paper grapes to a giant vine bulletin board and played an oversized Connect Four game.

“We talked about how we are all God’s family by connecting through Jesus,” Goodin said.

June’s service explored the Golden Rule through the concept of “bucket filling.” Participants tossed popsicle sticks labeled with kind actions into buckets and played games with packing peanuts to illustrate how kind words build others up.

Goodin said the October theme will be “Brave like Joshua.”

“This will be more of a back-to-school theme as kids will be facing a new class, new teachers and anything else that comes with a new school year,” she said.

Goodin said Hudson UMC welcomes the entire community to attend these messy church services.

“Everyone is welcome, and we want people to have a fun and also meaningful experience,” she said.

For more information about messy church and other Hudson UMC programs, visit hudsonumc.com.

Photo caption: Hudson United Methodist “messy church” service participants use packing peanuts and oversized buckets to explore the impact of small acts of kindness. Photo submitted.