good morning. welcome to mosaic. and behalf of dr. hugh barrels and our producer and cohost we welcome you. i moved to fairfield about a year ago as some of you know to pastor the community at united methodist church. before thievings in oakland, rich in order -- before that i was in oakland, richmond, and san francisco. the mayor harry price told me he's a member of my church that i should be in touch with certain ministers there if i wanted to be involved in certain punts there.

it's be a pleasure to meet pastor todd there. great to have you todd. >> great to be here. >> thank you for coming. tell me a little bit about your background. >> i was born in the south. in the mid '70s my family moved to california. didn't really go to church a lot but had experiences. and then after high school went off to the marine corp. >> marine? >> yes. and went to ucla after that and heard the call to ministry. went to the seminary in berkeley. and received for two years at bethlehem in auburn, california. and that brought us to fairfield. >> and pam, you have been married for 15 years? >> 15 years. >> and she's an attorney? >> yes she's an attorney on

city council. >> city council in fairfield. right. you also in oakland lived there before i arrived. >> yes. that's where i met my wife. >> great. great. one of the reasons we also invited you, of course, is to tell us a little bit about community organizing and so forth. but tell us a little bit about fairfield. what kind of community is that? >> well, for those that have never been, probably have actually been to fairfield because fairfield is right on interstate 80. it's where travis air force base is. it's just north of vallejo and south of davis. and it's along the i-80 corridor and equal difference between the bay area and sacramento. it's the county seat for solano county which has been ranked one of the most diverse

counties. it has quite an amount of diversity in fairfield and solano county both politically, ethnicically, economically. >> i was kidding earlier you are right down the street from me when people don't hear you, they come hear me. i was introduced to the faith partners. tell us about that. >> the full title is faith partners against crime. and it was formed in the late 2000. it was the birth child at the time police chief kent who is now in charge of the police for bart. he wanted to bring some pastors together and did so and

primarily to commemorate the national crime victim's awareness week. but then also begin to be concerned and work on different issues that were emerging in fairfield. and we've been involved since about 2008. reverend david. there is several other ira manning and others. >> active in the schools when i came. just really doing a lot of things around the school. >> yes. and about a year and a half to two years ago we decided to really become more active in what we were doing and so we began to get different churches involved to get them involved in some of the schools doing. after school mentoring and in school tutoring. >> i was greatly impressed with that. let's hear more about that in the next segment. thank you for being with us. i hope you joined us.

please join us here in fairfield. ,,,,,,,,

welcome back to mosaic. we've been talking to pastor todd. i use the name pastor todd because he is known as pastor todd. he's been at fairfield for the lutheran church for 13 years. that is a long time. >> 13.5. >> 13.5. every day counts. >> every day counts. >> when we woke you were talking about faith partners against crime. you had a blessing you and the clergy did. >> one of the key components of the faith partners against crime any time there is a violent that is a homicide in fairfield we do a reclaiming ritual. a moment of blessing which was brought to fairfield by

reverend david. since 2008 the time he came we would go out to the site of a violent homicide and we would do a moment of blessing. and we just did one very recently. a teenage girl 13 her body was dumped in the park. a local park. and we all went there. it was a huge gathering and many of the ministers came. so it's a very important thing we do where we reclaim the the site for god which was taken in evil and violence. >> that is very significant. you mentioned inner fatigatedderring -- inner faith gathering. tell us about that. >> just before i came when i started at st. mark's in november of 1999. in the middle of 1999 there was an organization called solano county. it was started and it started out of st. marks. they rented space from us. we were very involved from the

beginning. when i came on in '99 i got very involved. in 2001 they took on the running or we took on the running of the homeless shelter that was in partnership with the city. and it's one of several homeless agencies the other one being mission solano. >> and heather house. >> and then there is also safe quest. and there is other smaller shelters. but we took on the running of heather house. we were calling for advocacy by the county and city officials. we wanted to put our money where our mouth was. since 2001 we ran the heather house which is a 24 bed shelter and the inner faith council is made up of different faith communities. we have a sikh community. we have catholics. we have methodists. we are working on the buddhists. and we have the church of

ladder day saints as a part of that. a very diverse group. caring for those that are less fortunate. >> how would we get involved as an outside person coming in? >> it's doing what you did. getting ahold of me. of coming to others. you came to one of the faith partner metings. it's like anything else you have to step out and engage and then it's also our role as pastors and churches to welcome and make that step forward to greet and welcome you. and it's really i think just coming together. people have a heart for being the kind of church that works and makes a difference in the community. >> hospitality was wonderful.

dr. hugh barrels mentioned earlier that what is fairfield like? you talked a little bit about the diverse isty but why would -- diversity but why would one want to move there? >> we moved in 1999. we moved there first before i received the call to ministry. and as i stated before, it was because of the locality and the proximity to the bay area as well as sacramento. it's a quite beautiful place. housing has been affordable there. it's right on interstate 80. there is all restaurants and the mall. >> 160,000 people there. >> twill 110,000. >> okay. >> and you have vacaville to the north. you have suisun which is right there by the delta so it has a waterfront area. it's just a beautiful place and it's really a microdozennism of the day area. it has all the characteristics

of the bray area but on a -- of the bay area but it's a much smaller place. san francisco is less than an hour. sacramento is 40 minutes. everything is very close. >> as i say it, i have the mayor part of urch. what would you say some of the political issues of fairfield? some of the challenges? >> i think it's part -- there is a lot of challenges. part of the challenges are around gangs, violence. part of the challenges are around how do we have a city that has justice and fairness and equity for all people. we've had school closures. the cuts that have come down from sacramento have effected everything. city services have been cut. school services have been cut. and so that is really probably

the greatest challenge is how do you manage and navigate through those kind of challenges and work together as a community? it forces you to partner with one another. >> you can't do it by yourself. i'm glad to hear that. i want to be involved more. we come back to the next segment let's talk a little bit more about community organizing which you are also involved in that beyond just the interfaith and beyond just the faith partners against crime. okay. please join us in the next segment with pastor todd as we talk about fairfield and community organizing. ,,

welcome back to mosaic. we were talking to pastor todd. tell us more about your church before we talk about community organizing. st. marks right? >> yes st. mark's lutheran church. it was built there in fairfield in 1957. it's part of the elca. and as you've already said been 13.5 years. and a wonderful thing about st. marks reare involved in the community. we have sunday worship 8:30 and 11:00 with sunday school between. we have food pantry every

tuesday. every year we have the baptist school resource fair in august where we give backpacks out to the kids. >> i think there is 1200. >> it's in partnership with the city and the school district and themselves and a number of different organizations and individuals donate backpacks and we have different service providers. it's just a wonderful day. we've been doing that for eight years. >> that is really great. did i hear the address is travis right? >> actually it's at the intersection of union and travis. 1600 union avenue. fairfield, california. >> okay. we just want to make it clear. because when they don't come to my church they can come to yours. >> that is right. they come to your church asking for st. marks you just tell them 1600 union. and we also do in december we do a christmas party with the

neighborhood. we give out fifties to the kids -- we give out gifts to the kids in the neighborhood. that is a great venue as well. there is a lot of things we are involved in. for me it's important to partner with other congregations and ministers. we've been talking about that all this morning so important. >> the good friday services that you have done. i like to see a martin luther king service. >> yes, we're going to have that. we're going to have that. >> in previous communities i've served who had a great service. i look forward to that in the future too. and now you have gotten together just in fellowship. >> once a month who is the third thursday at 1:00 we meet at chase. a great restaurant. wonderful people. we'll have to tell them we dead a shout out for them. and we just come together. i tell the guys and men and women that come that this is just to hang out. there is no agenda. we don't talk about anything

imparticular just to hang out with one another. i think the camaraderie and friendships we have as pastors are very profound. >> a various group of pastors. i think there has been four or fife times we have got -- four or five times we have gotten together. now the community organizing we mentioned before the break you have interest there. tell us about that. >> in fact nowadays we really call it broad based organizing. organizing across a broad base of faith communities, nonprofits. really any entity. they are seeking to identify the primary issues are in any given community. and so over the last three years we've had sister judy donovan from the industrial areas foundation who has been organizing in solano and napa

county. and they have already be organizing in marin and solano county and san francisco. we haven't had this kind of organizing since i've been in fairfield. and that has been over 13 years. where i think as a lot of churches and faith communities we're good at basic services. we're not as good as getting entases termic causes for the problems. why is there violence? why is there gangs? why is there homelessness? there are reasons why those things are there. and so crowd based organizing brings together by building relationships first and then finding who the issues are that emerge after those relationships have been built. and i find you're not my enemy but you are my brother and how we can work together to make those changes. we have about 15 faith communities and nonprofits in

solano and napa county that have formed and this june, june 23rd we're going to have our founding convention. and i'm so excited. so excited. >> that is great. i remember when i was an organizer in the late '60s and early '70s we talked about where if you don't have money you have people and you have power. is that still a factor? >> that is one of the primary foundations of broad based organizing that what is power? it's organized people and money. you have to have both. all 15 members are dues paying members. and yes it was started by soloinski. >> what there are so many community organizing groups. >> yes. there is about four or five

that are pretty prominent in the united states. they all do the same kind of work. it looks different in each community. >> figuring on the issues and concerns? >> right. that is just something we haven't had in fairfield in our area. we haven't had an organized group that can begin to strategies about having the kind of impact that we yearn for and to live into that vision of what we want. we can only do it together. >> when you mentioned earlier about the schools and the cuts and this and that, that can be addressed through the community organizing. >> and that is for me what l galvanized me getting back involved was there was school closures that occurred that are happening all over the state. the school districts have no choice. they are left in a very difficult situation. but i was very upset and i spoke up and i called the school board racist classist and they will be held

accountable. scene that made me realize we were not organized. and i was just as angry as myself because we were not organizing and we were not working with school district more proactively to really bring about the kind of situation that we yearn for. >> that is great. we'll come back in this last segment and talk a little bit more. please join us in our last segment here in mosaic.

pastor todd has been a lutheran pastor for 20 years and has been in fairfield for 13. tell us what it has been like to be a pastor that long. >> actually it's about 16 years but i heard the call 20 years ago. for me being a lutheran really was the way that i heard god and through christ speak most clearly. and when i became a lutheran, i didn't grow up lutheran. but when i became a lutheran what i heard was a message to love god with all our heart, mind and soul. and that was reflected in the community. they lived that out. that which was taught. so as i began to learn about martin luther and learn about the idea of justification by grace and that is what justified. that's what makes us free. it's not what we do, it's what god is doing in us.

that is something that has always resinated with me. so it was a natural fit. and as i learned lutheran theology which was just good solid christian theology and lutheran himself never liked the term lutheran. he preferred the term christian. and for me i always seek to really live out what it means to be lutheran but do it in a economical frame work. that my belief transcends the church. i have just always resinated i love the literature but there is also the flexibility there is the openness to really meeting people where they are. that is what luther himself was very context chill. he translated the bible to

german. so there is the context quality meeting people where they are. i think lutheran's have had a strong social justice bent. i think the challenge is working with my congregation as lutheran's that we have a strong witness. we have a strong voice. a strong christian gospel voice to proclaim. and i always worky hard to wrestle with how do we do that? how do we become more diverse? >> many times pastors i think in my experience have burned out a little bit. so what keeps you going for this kind of work? >> well, balance. it's the ying and yang of life. it's seeing that i have an equal an important ministry as a husband, as a father. >> you have two children. >> yes tyler and dillon. tyler is 14 and dillon just turned 11. having balancing my ministry at

the church with my ministry to my family and so taking time where we can take a day off. i took a receive bat call a few years ago. >> how long was that? >> it was for three months. and i learned through the sabbatical experience that as long as i prayed regularly and exercised regularly that would help prevent burnout. >> great. we're coming close to the end. as familiar words of advice to us all not just for the clergy but in terms of being involved as persons of faith in the community and as well as in our churches. >> well, one of the things that is very important to me is someone who did not grow up in our a religious family. didn't grow up christian per se but kind of came to that through my own individual experiences. i work very hard to show what

it means to find that often run counter to the perception that the society at large has that we are judge mental, we are exclusive, we are hypocritical. and we are really not. you and i and others who we associate with in our churches we teach a message that is open and inclusive. and it really is about claiming the power that we have in god and that to honor god and to honor creation and to be involved to be engaged. >> that sounds good. i think i like to hear you preach every now and then. [ laughter ] that is great pastor todd. thank you for being with us. and i appreciate all that you have shared. as we close here together, we know that it's also mother's day. so we don't want to leave that out. so happy mother's day to all mothers, grandmothers,

stepmothers, foster mothers all women who have helped us grow up to be adults. thank you for joining us.

hi again everyone welcome to bay sunday. another terrific show for you on deck. but first we begin with our weekly pitch. if you have a show idea out there, we'd love to hear from you. click on connect, scroll down to bay sunday and tell us all about it. we begin with a very familiar face. a woman that has graced our airways here for many years. she has written a number of children's books. all the benefits, special olympics, and the pause to replan. her latest paws goes to the library and here to chat with us juliette goodrich. you've become quite the little author. >> i