Ideas for Local Arrangements, Café Church and Messy Church
Opportunities for more interactive, and less formal, worship are ideal to open up conversations about growing in faith and taking part in church life.
A Methodist Way of Life provides lots of fun, interactive ways for all ages to explore being followers of Jesus within the Methodist Church.
Ideas to try
Every context and church community is different. The most appropriate ideas will be the ones that are authentic for the people and place you’re in. Here are a few ideas to consider – more can be found on the pages for each commitment, and on the MWOL resources page.
- Read the lectionary Gospel passage aloud (available from Singing the Faith Plus). Then use one of the physical resources (floor mat, badges, coasters) to spark a conversation about which of the 12 Methodist Way of Life practices people noticed in the story.
- Encourage children and young people to reflect on scripture and pray, through the devotions available on the 3Generate app – there is one for each day of the month. Why not choose one of the 12 Methodist Way of Life practices to guide their response, eg To demonstrate care, what do I learn about God or how to share my faith with others?
- Hide the coaster sets around the room you’re meeting in and invite everyone to try and spot them before the end of the session. Ask why we may find ourselves keener to explore some of the 12 practices than others?
- Take a look at our series of service outlines to help embed A Methodist Way of Life in your church and community. Filled with notes for a talk or sermon; creative activities and discussion questions for all ages; and all in editable Word documents so you can pick and choose the bits that work for you and make it your own.
You could also hold discipleship exploration sessions through craft/modelling/Lego serious play.
- Build Lego models of one of the 12 practices and share with others what it brings to mind. Or act them out.
- Collect items for recycling and create a model that says something about how you prefer to share with others what you believe – or don’t!
- Decorate small squares of plain fabric (eg 15x15cm) and invite older and younger people to work in pairs together to decorate squares for different practices, using fabric pens, sewing threads, yarns and fabric scraps. Sew all the squares together to create a Methodist Way of Life banner that can be used at future events.
- Use Play-Doh and people-shaped cutters to create a community of people with names, ages and stories. Have the figures act out a scenario in which the MWOL practices come to life for this imaginary community.
- Use a floor mat to play a game. You could throw bean bags, aiming for a particular station. Bonus points could be awarded for thinking of an example related to the practice the beanbag lands on.
We run events and webinars throughout the year for individuals and church leaders to explore what this means for them, including "Rural and Rooted", a series for rural churches.