good morning. welcome to mosaic and happy mother's day. i am delighted to welcome you to our show this morning. with me today is the bishop of the sierra pacific evangelical lutheran church. welcome. >> thank you. full disclosure, he is also my bishop too. but it does not preclude me from asking tough questions. i am glad you are here today. tell us what a bishop does for the sierra pacific -- and what is the sierra pacific even tolkien -- evangelic and

lutheran church. >> this particular one encompasses central and northern california and northern nevada. almost 200 congregations including a seminary and a bible camp. we connect with all of these agencies as well as congregations. >> it is big. a lot of territory. i drive about 3000 miles a month to connect with congregations and leaders and the two offices we have. >> that is a lot of out and about. >> yes. >> i imagine there is joy and frustration with being a bishop. tell us what it is that makes you particular -- particularly gratified to be a bishop. what would those tasks to be? >> one of the things i get to do is travel around and be with

congregations. sometimes sunday morning. it is a great opportunity for me to connect with the congregation, the leaders and the pastor and find out what they are doing in the place where they were planted maybe 60, 75 or 100 years ago, to bring christ into a way of understanding -- hoping to make a difference in the life of that community. and how they connect with the community. when i here stories -- hear stories that are taking risk and putting themselves in the community in ways like that -- it is a challenge for people to think about. it is helpful for me to hear those stories and see the work done. getting to connect with congregations and leaders is one of my favorite things. >> overall, how do you think the senate is doing in that particular area? >> a number of congregations are dealing with what i would call, sustainability questions. they have become older over the years. they are worried about not drawing in younger members.

they say, and 15 or 20 years, who will be here? we are working to say, you have a lot of energy and gifts right now that can be used to connect with the community. i often ask congregations to do one thing. it is to get out into the community and speak with community leaders. people from the police department on the schools, and ask one question. if you can tell a congregation to do one thing that would make a difference in the life of this community, what would it be? gather those answers. pray about them. i sometimes encourage them to pick the hardest one. it is probably where the holy spirit is hiding in ways to nudge you to go forward. >> that is a great question. wonderful. frustrations as a bishop? >> we are spread out. some of our places are quite far away from our offices and quite far away from each other. it leads us to sometimes be a little more sideload.

i want to see our congregation does not just connect with our office and my father -- my staff, and connect with each other. not only connection with other synagogues and other congregations. and also be a resource of help in the community. >> so you want to see congregations -- lutherans working with baptists and evangelicals doing gods work together. >> absolutely. it probably comes out of my own story. i was not born a lutheran. >> you weren't at? >> i was born into a family that was presbyterian. i was raised as a presbyterian until i was in 3rd grade. i like to tell people i am a lutheran because of angela davis. when the presbyterian church at that time was offered $10,000 to bill angela davis out of jail for an antiwar protest, my parents, being the

good republicans they were, did not think that was an appropriate use of their offering. so they joined a protest movement to withhold offerings. eventually they decided -- we went church shopping. we ended up in a small lutheran church that had just been formed a year before. and that is how i became a lutheran. >> fascinating. we will thank angela davis for that. >> we will hear more about -- really, what are lutherans and what are they celebrating or honoring or remembering in this particular year. so more in a minute.

welcome back to mosaic. happy mother's day. with me today in the studio,

the bishop of the evangelical lutheran church in america who serves this territory. san francisco is your territory and the bay area is your territory. we are here a lot. >> we connect with leaders and congregations in the bay area. >> you are also a part of a larger denomination. the evangelical lutheran church in america. what is the evangelical lutheran church in america and what is a lutheran today? >> the elca, as we call it, was formed in 1988 out of a number of other lutheran bodies that had been formed over the course of the years by mostly european immigrants coming to this country banded together by language and culture. then they realize they wanted to be connecting more with american culture. so services were held in english and things like that. we are about 4 million lutheran

christians now. there are about 9000 congregations across the country. as i said before, we are divided into 65 since and 65 senate bishops. we have one presiding bishop. bishop elizabeth eden came out of the ohio area and has been serving for four years. we have been very blessed by her leadership and we have been blessed by a number of leaders. i know you are connected with her because of work on the church council. because of the work you have done. thank you for that. >> you are welcome. >> we are wondering how we can make connections. not just in the united states with the elca but globally. we have the -- the sierra pacific has three companion synods. one is in el salvador, rwanda and taiwan. i have active connections with congregations and leaders in each of those churches. the elca is hoping at this

point in time to be a part of a worldwide commemoration of the 500th anniversary that began in 1517 -- win95 questions were posted on a church door and said, let's talk. that movement has spread now to a worldwide expression of christianity. and has a helpful relevant word to share along with other christian witnesses. we talked about god's grace quite a bit. i remember the first definition about grace was from my confirmation pastor. >> tell us. >> god's honor, love and favor. it shows how god chose to love us first by sending christ to the world to redeem us. as we live that and we thank god for that, we have an opportunity to reflect that love and grace to others. >> so lutherans can be joyful and thankful people. >> we can be. >> there is a rumor -- that

we are not terribly evangelical. we sometimes think that we should be able to offer a relevant or good enough church experience for people to want to come to us. we are seeing now the people want to connect in the community and not waiting for people to come to us. >> fewer and fewer people are affiliated with the congregation these days, is a rumor. we certainly know that young adults have a suspicion of institution or hierarchy. what do you think of all of that? how can the church be relevant to young adults -- young adults in this day and age? >> when you and i were growing up in the church, we probably lived in communities where there was not much else happening on sunday.

and a lot of businesses were closed. now we have soccer tournaments on sunday morning. and a lot of parents are being torn between providing further children's experience and activities, connecting with the community and perhaps they themselves were raised in a church and a think, sunday school was not a bad thing. maybe we should get the kids to sunday school. they feel that tension between community activities and being drawn to a church. people used to be drawn to churches by what we call, brand- name. saying, we are lutheran. let's look for a lutheran church. i don't think that is the case anymore. i think people want to make a connection with the congregation. they are looking for a place where they talk about god and a language that makes sense with the experience. more and more, people want to connect with congregations -- that are serving in the community. as they understood how jesus cared for the leased and the last and the lost. how are we making connections to make people's lives better in a real tangible way. when a

congregation takes on that responsibility, i think people want to know more. i think your condonation -- congregation, st. mark's in san francisco, in the heart of the city is aware of how they can be a part of serving the community. not working alone but in interfaith ways. i commend you on that. >> what we are seeing is that people might be interested in serving at a homeless shelter or a food bank. and the first entrie into a congregation rather than walking in on a sunday morning which can be very intimidating for someone who maybe has not had a church affiliation in a long time. >> when somebody does wander in the door, how are they received and how are they acknowledged? how are they given an opportunity to take a moment and breathe in who you are without feeling pressured? feeling marketed and just

trying to get someone to join. >> so if somebody walks into a lutheran church, what kind of worship service will they experience? what will it be like? >> there will probably be a traditional worship service, along the lines of an order of worship that is pretty structured. some of our congregations also have contemporary worship. the thing they will experience, no matter what kind of style worship is, is the preaching of the gospel. the gospel will be the center of what is happening. and the sermon. a way of talking through and wondering what that message has to say to us today. and a sharing of the sacraments at the table. the holy communion. those will be the two things people will experience when they come in. that is what we understand our ministry to be. that is a hallmark of what lutheran christianity is about. >> so they would find themselves welcome at a worship

service. >> exactly. and we practice open communion. we invite anyone who wishes, to come to the table. there are no interviews that have to happen. if you feel called to come to the table to receive the sacrament, you are more than welcome. >> the real -- of the lutheran church. a welcome place for visitors. we will be right back in a minute.

welcome back to mosaic. happy mother's day. i am a lutheran. i am here with a lutheran. the bishop of the evangelical lutheran church of america from the sierra pacific synod. we were talking about rick steve's who has done a television show on martin luther, luther and the reformation. i encourage everybody to watch that show. you have been to germany. you know that the lutheran

impact. for someone not as familiar, what would you say to somebody that does not know anything about the reformation? why is it important? >> our sisters and brothers in germany are living in this 500th year reformation. they refer to it as reformation. it is something that happened but it is also ongoing. luther began a movement. he started asking questions. the roman catholic church at that time had understandings of how we are redeemed by god's grace and how we are worthy before god. they didn't think it matched with what he was reading in scripture. that was the basis of the 95 questions he was asking. the church unfortunately did not react very well to those questions being asked. as a result of this movement beginning, it became a part of a new church. it was never luther's intent. but his hope was to live within the understanding of how we can reform the catholic church.

and when that couldn't happen, many of his followers believed it was time for him to break away. and so they did. it was one of the many churches that began to be formed. a number of others began at that time. >> we know that luther had an ability to connect with every day people. they loved how he was writing. he really believed that the teaching of the faith should be in the households. he was critical of priests and pastors in the way they preached or didn't preach or didn't teach. that really resonated with people. >> very much so. >> if you think about the reformation being ongoing -- and here we are later, what are the things the church continues to need to reform or change as we look into our future? >> and some ways, the church has become more invested in its own survival as a constitution rather than proclaiming the saving grace of jesus christ. where that happens, we noticed

the churches are in decline. when they circle the wagons and become more worried about survival -- either as a congregation or as a nomination, they are cutting themselves off from reaching out to people that really need to hear these words. my hope is that we will look at this honestly and wonder how we as christians today have a responsibility to bring this word to life in a responsibility that draws people in, very much the same way that martin luther translated the bible into german. many people have not had a chance to read the bible. the catechism, the book of instruction about the lord's prayer, the 10 commandments and the apostles creed, it was written in german as a way for parents to teach children at home. i am hoping this is something that happens at home as well as congregations were people come. >> you have been very focused as a bishop on racial justice within the lutheran church in the

sierra pacific synod. tell us about that particular work and what you are seeing -- how we are doing as a church in that area. >> according to a research group, not very well. we are one of the -- one of the things is, how can we engage and invite people in the community, where we have been serving for quite a while, that are not part of a northern european heritage or tradition. to come in and help influence how we might choose to serve and work in the world today? how that might make us different . we have had some success. we have said that we want at least 10% of boards -- to be persons of color or whose primary language is in english. we have seen some success with that. in our senate, we have looked

at having our church council represented by at least 25% who are people of color or whose languages other than english, because of how diverse we are in this territory. >> certainly california and northern nevada, we are use to diversity. we embrace diversity. perhaps unlike other areas of the elca in the united states. >> i think that is true. >> so we have become the leader in our denomination. >> is a crucial part of our witness and hope to engage young people to be a part of this. because what do they experience ? in school, they experience diversity. if they come to church and not experience diversity, they will think of the church as being less and less relevant. we have encouraged people to own and understand how racism can be affecting how we have a congregation are making decisions and how we need to be more aware of racial justice. how do we become more culturally confident confident? we put out a set -- a sign

that we are not as welcoming. i have encouraged the variations to become more reflective of the communities. they may have been established when the community looked different then it does now. so how are they reaching out and making that witness relevant in that community that is so different than the one they began in. >> important for us in san francisco, the lgbtq community -- in 2009, the church embraced and welcomed clergy who were lgbtq -- so they were fully embraced by the lutheran church. but there is still a long way to go. >> there is. some congregations are not necessarily onboard with that decision. we have had congregations in a call process. when we are looking for a pastor, we don't come in and say, this will be your new pastor. we present several candidates.

some congregations have said, we are not sure if we are ready for a gay or lesbian pastor. i have said to them, all right, then let me ask you a question. if i come in my search of candidates, found someone who is a match who you -- who what you say you are looking for, you can still decide if you're ready. but i would trust you to move to a place you didn't think you could go. that is what the spirit does. >> that is a great story. we will be back in just a minute.

welcome back. i'm the pastor of st. mark's lutheran church. i am here with my bishop. as a bishop, your faith can either

be strengthened or depleted by what you do. how has your faith been shaped by this role as bishop? >> nine years ago today was the day i was elected bishop. >> congratulations. >> i was installed in july of 2008. i have been serving since then. a lot has happened. not just in our country of course -- there have been a lot of changes and significant things happening in the world. i also became a grandfather. i was diagnosed with cancer. i am happily living cancer free. there have been a number of ways in which my faith has been challenged and tested. i have been amazed at people saying, i am praying for you. and what a difference that makes. i will say that. when i here about somebody say, we are praying for you, that makes a big difference. i offer that for the people i

get to work with as well. i do think that prayer is a way of connecting with god in a way that transforms us and moves us into places where we are not sure we could have gone. i will say that is true for the call for bishop. if it comes your way, i believe god will empower those called. >> where do you see jesus in your work? >> i see jesus in the congregations that take those risks. i see jesus in a way that people are talking about their faith. i have encouraged our followers in the elca to be ready to talk about a story where jesus has really changed their life. there is one particular story for me -- during my mom's journey with cancer -- she lived with cancer and during that time, there were ways when god showed up in places as -- and times, where we did not think god would show up as he did. there are ways people can get

in touch with those kind of stories and be ready to share them when they encounter someone in that place of wondering, where is god? >> if you had to say something to someone who is wondering whether they should try out the lutheran church, what would you say? >> i would encourage them to find that elca evangelical lutheran church near them. i think they will experience a lot of joy and hope. i hope and pray that they will experience the welcome we spoke about. and a way of beginning a relationship with god that has been going on longer then they realize and will continue as they move forward. >> and maybe they will find nurture and acceptance acceptance. >> and to use their gifts. god has given us all those gifts. we want everyone to discern, discover and use their gifts. >> i think that is a great way to end our segment. thank you for being with us this morning. we want to thank you for being here. and we

wish our mothers a happy mother's day. anyone celebrating mother's day. i want to thank reverend ron swisher, my cohost. our wonderful producer and all of our viewers this morning, thank you for joining us on mosaic. we will see you soon.

friend is back... diary of a wimpy kid -- the long haul opens in theatres this week.... earlier today i got a welcome to bay sunday. i'm your host, kenny choi. kids, your favorite wimpy kid is back. diary of a wimpy kid, the long haul, opens in theaters this week. i got to talk to the author of the book series and the star of the movie. let's take a look. >> there is a new hero that dares to be wimpy. >> good to see you guys again. tell us, how much of these stories are based on your personal experience growing up? >> a lot of the stories from diary of a wimpy kid have some seat of truth in my childhood.