My life is soon to be taken over by mess as renovation and refurbishment takes place in my house. The electrician will soon be arriving to rewire the house; the builder, plasterer and plumber will be hard on his heels, ripping out my kitchen and fitting a new one. I’m in the process of clearing out rooms (all of which have taken on a Tardis-like appearance if the amount of ‘stuff’ being thrown away, given away and packed away is anything to go by!) and I am uneasily anticipating chaos, noise, dust and disruption on levels that make me secretly want to flee the country. (The electrician suggested a holiday to Baghdad ‘so it won’t seem that bad when you return.‘ I’m not convinced he’s joking…)
I’m not the tidiest person in the world and live with a hoarder, and yet I’m finding the thought of all this upheaval unsettling. My clothes are in a suitcase; I’ll be without laundry-washing and cooking facilities for at least two weeks. And when the workmen disappear, it will be left to me to decorate and restore, unpacking all the boxes and bags currently stowed away for safekeeping. It’s a daunting thought.
And yet I know, deep-down, that if I want a safely wired house and that dream kitchen I’ve been waiting for for 30 years, I must first endure the mess. Things have to get worse before they can get better.
Mess is an inevitable part of life. Life cannot always be neatly tidy, everything boxed away. Some traditional churches have even named their attempts to be innovative and creative in their outreach ‘messy church’, acknowledging that conventional services simply don’t appeal to many people and that a different approach is required. Craft activities, children’s songs and food are all hallmarks of ‘messy church’ and all disturb our normal routines.
Since life is often messy, it’s inevitable that church will be too. This process of transformation – whether in the physical realm of refurbishment or the spiritual realm of new birth and growth – is rarely tidy and neat. Just as a baby’s arrival involves physical mess and much ‘stuff’ (nappies, clothes, a cot, a pram and various other necessities which add clutter to a house), so too church growth will inevitably involve change, mess, untidiness and a sense of not being in control…
I will have to submit to the superior knowledge and skills of workmen who are experts in their fields if I’m to see my house transformed. I will also have to submit to a sovereign God whose thoughts and ways are far higher than mine iff I want to see my life and our church transformed. If I’m honest, I will find neither easy, for I don’t like mess and I don’t much like change. But if we are serious about spiritual growth, we have to get used to the mess of change and the uncertainty of not being in control, secure in the knowledge that God is working all things together for good and always finishes what He starts! (Rom 8:28-29, Phil 1:6)