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'Organised Pandemonium'

'Organised Pandemonium'

Thursday July 7 2022

 

Thomas Baldwin learns about the roots and growth of ‘Sweaty Church’.

WITH the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this month, the nation’s eyes will again turn to the achievements of its athletics stars. Yet we know that as a country we are getting more sedentary, with increasing health problems associated with inactivity.

Meanwhile, it’s a common lament among the churches that children’s biblical knowledge is dropping as fewer either go to church or are exposed to the Bible in school.

About ten years ago, a pair of Church of England lay people based in York, Johnny Wooldridge and Ian Mayhew, came up with an initiative that addresses both problems: Sweaty Church.

“They wanted something that was going to engage with families but neither of them particularly liked crafts,” says Rev Glyn Diggins, vicar of St Michael’s Church, Malton in Yorkshire, and the National Development Manager for Sweaty Church. “So they struck on the idea of something along similar lines to Messy Church but instead based on physical activity.”

Sweaty Church works on the principle of circuit training, where small groups move round a series of exercise stations, each with a different activity. Except here each exercise is associated with a learning outcome, tied to a theme based on a biblical story introduced at the start. The learning outcomes can be discussed after each activity or together at the end.

Glyn describes it as ‘organised pandemonium’.

Glyn has been running Sweaty Church in his local primary school for six years.

“The school is not a church school but they were very open to working with the church. I’m really blessed because they allow it to take place during the curriculum timetable, but it could be done as an after school club.”

He adds: “The thing about sweaty church is it’s overtly competitive.  We don’t shy away from competition because that’s what the kids want to do. We talk about competing appropriately, we talk about losing appropriately and winning appropriately, but we very much encourage competition – they might be racing each other, they might be doing an activity against each other.”

He emphasises though that Sweaty Church is ‘not just a thrash around for the sake of it’.

“For instance, I’ve got one based on fear and pressure, and the biblical story I link it to is David and Goliath. So for that we might have a target-based activity, throwing javelins or beanbags or whatever, and at the end of it you can have a discussion about what did you do, did you just start hoicking this stuff or did you think about what you’re doing, take your time and take aim?

“And then you can say well, if you look at David he spent years looking after flock of sheep and goats, he was in training for what was going on before he ended up facing Goliath.”

Sweaty Church materials are available through Scripture Union, and Glyn is happy to speak to anybody interested in setting one up.

While Glyn admits that there’s ‘not a cohesive network’ of Sweaty Churches, a number of churches in Scotland have set something up.

One Scottish church which has started up a group is Fullarton Parish Church in Irvine.

The minister, the Rev Neil Urquhart, says: “It was a natural progression of doing sports and physical activities together as an expression of worship. The response was very positive – lots of families and kids who don’t regularly attend church services attended.”

Neil adds that they are hoping to develop the Sweaty Church into a new worshipping community.

Glyn can be contacted on 01653 690974 or glyn.diggins@btinternet.com

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This is a shortened version of an article which appears in the July issue of Life and Work.