Desert Notes January 30, 2025

This week we enjoyed a multi-generational service with 150 of us, sharing stories about what makes us feel at home—in our actual homes and at VUU. It was a fun service, and it highlighted one of the goals for our interim work in faith formation, which is to bridge the gap between families and youth participating on the west side of campus and those on our campus who don’t have kids in Faith Formation classes. Many of our members don’t get to know each other because the parking lot separates us, and our different kinds of engagement put us in different activities and spaces.  

Multi-gen services are a strategy to make sure that VUUers of all ages meet each other and get to know each other. It was important to me as a younger parent to meet adults who had kids and adults who didn’t—to have a community of adults who cared about me and my kids and who considered my kids real people—not just add ons. Sometimes families lack older generations in their own families, either because they are no longer alive, don’t live nearby, or aren’t engaged in their lives because of different values. VUU can help bridge this gap.  

We are very lucky to have so many younger families joining us on Sundays—they have a lot of other competing events and activities. The future of our congregation depends on new generations joining us. The future also depends on us being able to adapt to new people and their ideas, needs, interests and gifts. Some of you may think, why don’t they adapt to us? Of course, new participants are attracted to shared values and many aspects of this community. However, all new folks also need to feel like they have been welcomed as they are and that they also are invited to shape and contribute to this community.  

I hear a lot of people who say they want “a more diverse community” but in the same breath they want those diverse people to like things the way they currently are—to be “like us.” There’s a paradox here that I hope we can learn from—and the truth that we need not think alike to love alike. Leaning into our differences while looking for common ground is an art and an ongoing process—a sacred one, in my opinion. The anthem we’ve been singing—keep your heart wide open—has an important reminder for all of us. The waves that push us around are the moments where we feel uncomfortable, challenged, or uncertain. Solid ground is waiting for us when we learn to adapt and adjust. May we continue to grow in ways that allow us to see ourselves more clearly and wisely. 

—Rev. Sarah