Messy Miners means more fun
By Rev Sandy Brodine
The Younger Gen team is keen to develop ‘peak’ faith formation opportunities for younger generations.
As a result, Sandy and Kelly will be hosting four monthly sessions of “Messy Miners” during the cold winter months.
This new temporary community will be moderated as a ‘church safe’ online space for minecrafters under the age of 18.
What is Messy Miners?
Messy Miners is a two-hour event which takes place both on Zoom and in Minecraft.
Participants are given a story scaffold and then build the story from the bible in teams. The teams then gather on Zoom to ‘read’ the story together through the medium of their group build.
The group then ‘wonders’ about the story together and finally has a ‘micro build’ prayer time.
Messy Miners is developed around the Messy Church values of Christ centred, creativity, hospitality, all-age and celebration.
We are already aware of a number of teens from around the Synod who are keenly waiting for this to start.
Messy Miners began as an online community supported by the Banyule Network of Uniting Churches during Covid-19 as a way of bringing kids together online while they were otherwise quarantined in their homes.
In 2020, the Banyule Messy Church community faced the same problem of how to gather together meaningfully and engage in discipleship.
Messy Miners was born from a ‘crazy idea’ and continued for several years.
Over time it grew to include young people all the way from Perth and the UK, who were keen to experience what we were doing, and then to adapt the idea to work in their own contexts.
Keep an eye out for our April edition which will have details about how to join in the fun.
In the meantime, if you’d like to know more please email sandy.brodine@victas.uca.org.au
If you’d like to read about the Messy Miners back story in the Banyule Network of Uniting Churches, you’ll find it here: https://crosslight.org.au/2022/03/01/presence-of-mine/
Rev Sandy Brodine is Younger Generations ‑ Education & Strategy Coordinator