Imagine no more children's table. Imagine church where religious education is not only for children. Imagine if everyone sits at the table and partakes in Faith Formation. It has been exciting to talk with religious educators and ministers and lay leaders over the past year about faithful responses to 21st century church. I sense excitement about possibilities, passion and creativity about creating something new. I sense worries too, about what we may lose, about how hard change is, about how uncomfortable it often is to not fully understand our role anymore. This is a dynamic time, and not without bumps in the road.

Imagining an intergenerational community of faith formation is one place to start - it's like imagining the whole family at the Thanksgiving table and giving up the segregated kids table.

This Thanksgiving moment invites us to imagine our congregational lives not just outside the box, but beyond it. Tandi Rogers, at the UUA's office of Growth Strategies calls us to imagine the family as the first "Beyond" in our conversations about Congregations and Beyond. What if families were at the center of our faith formation ministries instead of children? What if we affirmed parents as the primary religious educators of their children and youth, and our professional religious educators and ministers equipped parents with tools and resources to help them live into that privilege?

What if we stopped fighting against the soccer practices scheduled on Sunday mornings, and fielded a UUteam instead, another of Tandi's 'what if' wonderings? What if it was okay for us to sleep in on Sunday mornings sometimes, and show up all together on Wednesday night for an evening of worship, food, and faith formation for all ages together? What if one Sunday a month we worship in the world? Maybe fixing up a neighborhood playground, or walking through the downtown picking up trash and painting over graffiti wearing our First Parish UU Church tee shirts, standing on the side of love together, bringing our faith beyond our walls. What if people saw us working in the world and asked, 'who are you guys?' We could tell them 'We are your neighbors, we are Unitarian Universalists. We worship down the street there, but once a month we worship in the world, and try to do something important.' What if the Sunday bulletin call for RE volunteers asked for "bright and friendly youth to work with our seniors to learn how to Skype, download the UUA Illuminations app, and set up a Pinterest page." What if our DRE job descriptions, instead of saying, "must work well with children," said "candidates who feel called to share their faith with all ages are encouraged to apply." What if ministerial search committees prioritized candidates who felt competent to lead children's chapel once a month?

Some of these things are happening in our congregations already. Religious professionals and their lay partners are making faithful experiments and learning together. I invite you to carry these 'what-if' conversations to your own congregations. The December program by John Roberto on Faith Formation for the 21st Century will be a terrific conversation generator. I strongly encourage our ministers and DREs to register early! These are exciting conversations to have. It is a privilege and a joy to participate in shaping a Jubilee table with room for all of us at our faith's table. Know that your District staff is here, ready to listen to your ideas, share your experiments, and learn together with you those things we can carry forward to spark a renewal of our faith for the next generation, right here; right now.