We didn’t really know who was going to be part of our new community when we started. We began by focusing on our affinity group, which is why we chose Sellwood in the first place. Our affinity group is people who are most like us. In the work of inviting new people in to a faith community it helps to start with common ground. So we picked a neighborhood where the average age was late 30’s and most folks were white college educated professionals with young children. That’s who we are.
What we have found is that our community is all about common ground. Some of it is age and life situation affinity, some of it is an affinity around a desire to worship in new ways. The best part for me is that within the common ground is amazing diversity. A great example is the age range of our community. Our active participants range in age from a few weeks old to sixty-something. I love that we aren’t a purely homogenous group. We more accurately reflect God when we aren’t all the same. There is also something so rich and holy about the relationships developing across ages. I can see this most clearly with our daughter. She has some new friends her age, a baby to dote on, a dance partner in one of the twenty-somethings, and some older adults to mentor her. I’m gaining a lot of insight as we’ve spent July discussing scripture. To hear an 8 year old and a fifty year old talking about how they understand a scripture is nothing short of eyeopening.
I know we have a long way to go to reflect all of who God is through the diversity of people, but I’m so thankful for the glimpses of something bigger than ourselves that we are already getting to see in the Sellwood Faith Community.
-Eilidh
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