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10/24/2018 08:30 AMWhen Reverend Sarah Vetter began her work as the minister of community life at the First Congregational Church (FCC) in Madison, her hope was to connect with the community.
Reflecting on her decision to move to Madison and work with her husband, Reverend Todd Vetter, Sarah says, “Now we’re going to really dig in and form those deep, lasting relationships. We’ll see what God can do through us.”
Sarah began her service to others after graduating from college with a degree in religious studies and music. As a volunteer in Juaréz, Mexico, Sarah helped run a house for battered women and children. In Arizona, she managed a soup kitchen. She then moved east and entered Yale Divinity School with plans to continue her work for faith-based non-profits.
However, with two ordained siblings, perhaps it was in the stars that Sarah would become ordained herself.
“My sense of calling is to connect people with their deeper life, to connect human beings with all of creation,” Sarah says.
Once ordained, Sarah preached throughout the state with Church World Service. While she enjoyed her work, she says she “missed forming deeper relationships and sharing lives with members of one congregation.”
When offered the opportunity to join her husband in planting roots within Madison’s community, the reverends Vetter moved with their two children, now 10 and 12 years old.
“Looking back, there have definitely been times we thought of working together and this felt right,” Sarah says. “Right for the church and as a couple.”
Among Sarah’s first initiatives at FCC was to bring to life a program titled “Having ‘The Talk,’” born out of statistics regarding the young age at which children are first exposed to sexualized imagery. Sarah invited a therapist with a passion for helping families protect their children to come to Madison and speak.
“As a parent,” Sarah says, “I wanted to provide more support as kids get older…This program was a good conversation starter.”
Forty parents came to hear the presentation.
Even though Having ‘The Talk’ was a one-time event, Sarah continues to meet with a small group of mothers to keep the conversation going.
“Parents I’ve talked to have seen the underside of the Internet,” Vetter says, describing the anxiety, bullying, and explicit imagery with which children are dealing, leading to an inability to connect with others.
The group has partnered with Shoreline Technology Education for Children’s Health (TECH) to form a Madison chapter, partnering with Superintendent of Schools Tom Scarice and guidance counselors to help children while in school.
Polson Middle School requires all students to store their cell phones in their lockers during the school day, a move Sarah and Shoreline TECH support.
“We’ve tried to be vocal in support of the school moving in that direction,” Sarah says.
The Shoreline TECH-Madison is also talking with Madison Youth & Family Services (MYFS) to help parents support their children and prevent harmful side effects of too much screen time and Internet usage.
Another of Sarah’s initiatives, Strengthening Mind and Body for Middle School Boys, provides a pathway to mindfulness for the boys of the community. Sarah began by reaching out to MYFS to ask, “What do you think are the biggest problems facing our town?” For children and teens, one of the answers was anxiety.
“Girls have easier access to mindfulness programs, like yoga,” Sarah says, which led her to seek a space where boys could feel comfortable training in mindfulness.
For the Strengthening Mind and Body program, she partnered with Sean Weir of Life Full Yoga in Madison, who “had these great terms like ‘tactical healing,’” Sarah says, which helped the boys engage with the program.
Eight to 10 boys participated for six weeks. Sarah says the program was successful and will continue to run, open to the public.
“I talked to some of the parents, who dropped their kids off in this after-school, stressed mood,” Sarah says. The parents reported their sons “came out relaxed and restored.”
For Sarah, part of connecting with others involves connecting with the self.
Another ongoing program Sarah and the FCC provide is Family Date Night.
“I had been dreaming about doing this for years,” Sarah says. “Families want meaningful time together. Their schedules are filled up, so when do they have time to connect?”
Sarah, trained in Gestalt therapy, believes that by “allowing your body to speak, you can make discoveries faster than by figuring things out only in your head.”
Before taking this program public, Sarah tried Family Date Night at home with her husband and children. The two-hour event begins with sharing a meal with other families in the community. Then, families break into their own respective units and Sarah guides them through fun Gestalt-inspired activities designed to promote “self-expression, listening to one another, seeing each other more deeply, and tending to each other.”
The first Family Date Night, which took place on Oct. 13, brought 10 families together. At the end of the session, families are asked, “What did we do really well as a family together this week? What do we want to improve on next week?” Family Date Night will continue with monthly gatherings on Saturday evenings, from 6 to 8 p.m.
Sarah plans to continue her work bringing the community together.
“Part of my job is to listen and pick up on what God is doing through other people,” she says. “Madison can seem like a bubble. How do we help our children and ourselves be better global citizens? How do we be aware that the whole world is not like Madison?”
Sarah is working with Scarice to align her FCC ministry with the schools’ curricula. Students in the 6th grade learn about food insecurity, as well as access to water and education around the globe as part of the social studies curriculum. Sarah and the FCC plan to start with food insecurity to “bring education into our families’ lives and community.”
Though still in development, Sarah hopes such a program will close the gap between individuals in the community and in food insecurity simultaneously.
“The draw for people is into that connection with each other instead of into independence and solitary life,” Sarah says. “It’s about how we’re bound together.”
It’s not only through programs hosted by the FCC that the Vetters reach out to the community. On Friday, Nov. 9, they’ll participate in Gala of Stars: Dancing for the Cause, a Raise the Roof fundraiser. They’ll compete for votes, cast by making donations for a Habitat for Humanity project.
“The only dancing we’ve done was at our wedding,” Sarah says. “And that was just the shuffle-back-and-forth kind.”
The reverends are taking lessons, learning the fox trot and other types of dance.
“I’m not a heels kind of person and I don’t really wear dresses,” she notes, though she promises both she and Todd will dress up and dance for the cause.
To learn more about the fourth Raise the Roof annual Gala of Stars: Dancing for the Cause or to donate, visit www.raisetheroofct.org.