Messy Vintage: 52 sessions to share Christ-centred fun and fellowship with the older generation

Messy Vintage: 52 sessions to share Christ-centred fun and fellowship with the older generation

Authors : Katie Norman and Jill Phipps
£8.99

Inclusive, creative and Christ-centred worship for older people

Being ‘church’ with older people in care homes, congregations and the community


Title Messy Vintage: 52 sessions to share Christ-centred fun and fellowship with the older generation
Authors Katie Norman and Jill Phipps
Description

Being ‘church’ with older people in care homes, congregations and the community

Messy Vintage is Christ-centred and creative, full of celebration and hospitality and open to all, aspiring to include people of all ages while specifically reaching out to older people. A typical session involves hands-on creative activities to explore a Bible story, a short celebration with story, song and prayer, and refreshments.

Whether you’re just getting started with Messy Vintage or looking for new session material, this book offers practical advice and resources to help you reach out to the older people in your community.

‘The Messy Vintage team always make me feel welcome – they are worth their weight in gold.’
Messy Vintage participant

‘We love Messy Vintage. It’s like a breath of fresh air!’
Care home social activities coordinator

Details
  • Product code: 9780857469755
  • Published: 22 January 2021
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 144
  • Dimensions: 148mm wide and 210mm high

Being ‘church’ with older people in care homes, congregations and the community

Messy Vintage is Christ-centred and creative, full of celebration and hospitality and open to all, aspiring to include people of all ages while specifically reaching out to older people. A typical session involves hands-on creative activities to explore a Bible story, a short celebration with story, song and prayer, and refreshments.

Whether you’re just getting started with Messy Vintage or looking for new session material, this book offers practical advice and resources to help you reach out to the older people in your community.

‘The Messy Vintage team always make me feel welcome – they are worth their weight in gold.’
Messy Vintage participant

‘We love Messy Vintage. It’s like a breath of fresh air!’
Care home social activities coordinator

Katie Norman is the pioneer of Messy Vintage in Jersey, taking the approach into churches and care homes, as well as hospital units for people living with advanced dementia.

Jill Phipps is BRF’s National Coordinator for Messy Vintage.

Messy Vintage is a gem of a book and a must have resource for all those who have the privilege of sharing the Gospel with the older generation who are so easily forgotten, and whose capacity to play and have fun is often overlooked.

Katie and Jill have produced a book that unites hearts and hands prayerfully and practically. Inspiring and celebrating the gifts of creativity and conversation.

The prayers are simple but profound. Each of the 52 Scripture readings and reflections are a good length providing a structure that is helpful but not limiting. It has the potential to nurture, to comfort, to reassure  and all through prayer, play and fun!

I am sure this super book will touch all who use it as they journey together,  reflecting on the love of God, the faithfulness of Christ and the creative energy  of the Holy Spirit.

Lynne Chitty, writer

 

Transforming Ministry (Autumn 2021). Review by Laura Hillier

 

Transforming Ministry Autumn 2021. Review by Laura Hillier

Messy Vintage is an extension of the highly successful work of Messy Church for families. This formula has proved a great success both in care homes and in the community, catering for those for whom attendance at a church service may be difficult or inappropriate. The book consists of 52 chapters with outline plans for gatherings, each based on a short Bible passage. The final section has ideas for celebrating the main festivals of the church’s year. A preliminary conversation is followed by a creative activity and a time of celebration ending with a prayer and a hymn. There are detailed instructions for the craft activity backed up by a website which provides templates and photographs. The authors recommend that where possible refreshments are served, perhaps afternoon tea attractively presented with flowers, cake stands and china cups. This book will prove an invaluable resource to those with sufficient time and energy to devote to such a worthwhile cause. Advance preparation is crucial: a helpful appendix provides guidance for care homes and volunteers which can be downloaded from the website.

Reviewed by Laura Hillier

 

Preach (issue 27 Summer 2021). Review by Sue Hamer

Messy Vintage is a small book packed with enthusiasm and ideas. Written for those in churches who have a desire to befriend the older generation, it contains 52 detailed programmes of activities to share. The sessions are clearly explained and include a Bible passage, a creative activity, ideas for discussion and suggested hymns to sing before the tea and cakes are served. Each session is easy to follow, providing everything required for up to two hours of fellowship and enjoyment. They can be used as a set programme to follow or as a starting point for developing your own creative ideas.

The accompanying website is clearly organised and easy to navigate, it contains the downloadable materials required for the creative activities and additional ideas for special events (not covered in the book). There are also useful admin documents to print and advice on how to run an event.

Messy Vintage groups are being run successfully in the community and in care homes. The authors have shared some lovely insights into the responses of a few of the participants at some of these events. It is encouraging to read of how Messy Church and subsequently Messy Vintage grew out of a church that needed a new lease of life and became a place where people ‘can celebrate in comfort, with Christ-centred fun, fellowship and food’.

If you have a heart to share the love of God and have some fun with older folk and if you have a team of like-minded people to work with you, then Messy Vintage will be a true source of inspiration and support to you.

Reviewed by Sue Hamer.

 

Review by Dawn Saunders, Chair of the Channel Islands Methodist District

Messy Vintage is a resource churches should invest in. The Messy Vintage sessions are written in a way that helps to creates a warm and fun environment designed for the older generation, although they are suitable for all ages. They begin with a bible story and a theme. The sessions are so clearly laid out and user friendly, you won’t need an expert team to run them. There is also a really comprehensive introduction to share the ethos of Messy Vintage and instructions on how best to run the sessions in different contexts.

There is just the right number of varied activities on the menu, with ample material for all, whether you are used to church activities or have never been. Through the well thought out programme of fifty-two sessions everyone can enjoy the fellowship and be fed through the experience. All the seasons of the year are catered for and details could be adapted if necessary, to fit the context. You don’t have to have cake stands, china tea sets and embroidered tablecloths, but if you have someone who would just love to provide those things, then hand the job over! There’s a chance for everyone to shine!

I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who would love to share the word of God alongside activities in any setting.

Reviewed by Dawn Saunders Chair of The Channel Islands Methodist District 

 

The Irish Methodist Newsletter February 2021. Review by Stephen Skuce

Many of us will be aware of the craft led approach of Messy Church, and the numerous directions this can be taken. Messy Vintage is another of these that promotes the approach among an older generation, both within church contexts and also in care homes and other settings.

There are two things that drew my attention here. Firstly, it’s always good to see Methodism leading the way. The author Katie Norman pioneered Messy Vintage in the Methodist Church in Jersey and in this book we get a Messy Vintage activity for each week of the year. Everything needed for the event is here, and in one small volume we get 52 excellent and proven sessions that are straightforward to use.

The second detail that struck me was the argument that in some places we shouldn’t put on a Messy Church or Messy Vintage, we should become a Messy Vintage Church. It’s a change of emphasis. Katie Norman points to the Messy Vintage community being the church, and the activities that support it being done excellently to honour all participating. ‘Creativity, for the predominantly older generation for whom Messy Vintage is aimed, can seem daunting, with such a vast array of abilities to cater for. However, it has been our experience over the past 10 years that it is not so much the craft itself that is important but the time spent creating it together and the conversations that ensue’ (p16).

As an example of an activity, week 32 considers Jesus saying ‘I am the gate’ (John 10:9). In addition to prayer and worship ideas, there is a suggested conversation about playing ‘hide and seek’ and what might have been discovered behind curtains and in wardrobes. We are shown where to find the video clip where Lucy steps through the wardrobe in the film of CS Lewis’ classic The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the craft activity uses a gate template and getting people to paint the most beautiful scene they have ever seen or imagined around it. Then follows a show and tell where participants talk about their images. This is all concluded by some reflection that Lucy entered into a wonderful new world, but one with lots of problems. In that world good ultimately overcomes evil, but only after Aslan has sacrificed his life for others. The aim of this session is to share the good news of salvation.

Trying a Messy Vintage approach is well within the abilities of all of us and our churches. I wonder if any of us will seriously contemplate what it might mean to be a Messy Church, rather than just do Messy Church activities.

Review by Revd Dr Stephen Skuce, District Superintendent, the North Western district, the Methodist Church in Ireland

 

Church Matters. Paul Beasley-Murray

This will meet a real need – although as I know from my mother’s experience there is also a real need for older mature Christians to go ‘deeper’.