Messages pasted outside church steps (7)
I believe the answer is:
notches
'steps' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being plural nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'messages pasted outside church' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'church' could be 'ch' (common abbreviation) and 'ch' is located in the answer.
'messages' could be 'notes' (note is a kind of message) and 'notes' is present in the remaining letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for notches that I've seen before include "Makes small indentation in" , "Nicks" , "Small v-shaped cuts" , "V-Shaped cuts or indentations" , "Small indentations found on chest" .)