. morning and welcome to mosaic. i am pastor elizabeth eckdale and with me today is pastor greg schaffer. you serve in palo alto at university lutheran church. >> that's right. >> and, of course, serving in palo alto is unique setting. but what makes your congregation even that more unique is your connection with stanford university. you are a campus ministry setting. >> we are a campus minimumsry congregation of the elca. evangelical lutheran church. >> how long have you been there. >> 12 years a little more than 12 years. >> you've seen students come

and go. >> a lot. yeah. >> a lot. and is it a congregation that is in transition year after year or do you have people who staying at. >> both. there's an interesting mix of people in the congregation. a lot of students undergraduate graduate with and professional students. and that turnover happens pretty fast. sometimes with the grad student not as fast as they would like it to. but eventually they finish and graduate. and that's always hard for us. there's las group of people who are alumni who decide to stay involved in the congregation. and they might move a little bit further out from palo alto, but they continue to come back. members of the neighborhood community are part of the congregation and one of the most interesting groups in the congregation, i think r. people who a were involved in a campus ministry congregation when they were in school. and have moved to the area to work for a company, and seek

out a campus ministry congregation to be a part of. >> that's what i wanted to ask you. were you a member of a campus ministry congregation? >> i was not. i wasn't i went to a private college a roman catholic college involved in campus ministry there. and went to an elca congregation while i was a member there. but i didn't know much about campus ministry until my predecessor from university lutheran a colleague of ours, retired. and someone i know said, have you thought about maybe going down there and doing campus ministry there? and i had not thought about it before. that was an important turning point. >> had you thought about being the pastor before as you were growing up? what led you to serve as a pastor in the lutheran church. >> when i was in high school, i went to a nondenominational school from 1st grade through high school and my sophomore year we had toabt our denominat

i went part of the time to the church that operated our school. and part of the time to the lutheran church that my grandmother attended. and i felt like i had two denominations and i was not sure what to do. i had to choose one for the paper i chose the lutheran church and interviewed the pastor. and that was a mind blowing experience for me. because i was asking questions that i thought i already knew the answers to. and i was hearing answers from this pastor about the human condition and god's love and science and faith and all of these things. and they were answers i had not heard before. what i realized was i was encountering grace for the first time. and that was a turning point for me. he suggested that i never forget. it was april fool's day i was interviewing him. i was certain the whole thing was an april fool's joke

because i thought, what is this grace he keeps talking about? and he suggested i come to worship the following sunday knowing more about the tradition and i did, and i don't know what the texts were or hymns or anything like that but i remember leaving worship thinking i could do this. >> oh. >> that's how i first discerned a call to ministry. >> a very profound experience. >> it was. >> with that pastor who embraced your questions. >> right. >> it sounds like without judgment. >> exactly right. yeah. . >> that's grace. >> yeah. . >> so, from that point on, then, you felt a call to ministry? >> i did. i had always felt a call towards some kind of a service vow hecation. maybe teaching or i thought about being a vet i grew up on a horse and cattle ranch, and so the idea of being a vet was something present to me. >> and you are native of e bay area. >> i am. but, once i started to sense

the call to ministry, it became clear that is where i was being called. i was a sophomore in high school. so, i still had some things i pastor. but, all of those things were just tremendously educational e and practical experiences i had in ministry have shaped me in a would be a completely different person if it weren't for the educational and practical experiences i was able to have. >> we are going to hear more from pastor greg schaffer his call to ministry and also what he particularly enjoys about campus ministry when we come back to mosaic.

. welcome back to mosaic. i am elizabeth he candale with me is pastor greg schaefer. involved and with campus ministry at stanford university. but it's wider than just stanford because you've congregation. >> right. >> at university lutheran and palo alto. and tell us a bit about congregational life, and then the challenges that students and faculty bring to the community. >> there's a really wonderful ep energy in a campus ministrycongregation because it's an intergenerational community. and that's something especially for students in college or in

graduate school, most of the inner generational experience is with professors. and their advisers or staff members. and, what being in le iswith someone in a nonevaluative way. and in they can exchange stories and thoughts and concerns with each other in a way that no one has to be concerned that they are being graded. students also find the intergeneration piece to a got other way. they encounter children that remind them of their siblings and who they left at home. and so they have surrogate family members. which i think makes a big difference when most of the time you are surrounded by people within just a few years of your own age. makes a difference to have that experience. >> yeah. >> of broader age wise community. >> and in terms of the student

population, who is seeking t caus ministry? ou them? >> yeah. there's a -- there are a couple people who end up being part of university lutheran. there are people who are lutheran, and move to palo alto as you said, in a -- in a lot of cases, they are going to stanford or working in one of the companies nearby, things like that. and they seek out a lutheran congregation. and in some cases, that's part of their upbringing is that what you do when you move to new place. you find a church. other people will be out for a run and they will go by our site and there will be a sign that really expresses a broad welcome. and they will see that and they will see a cross and they will say i didn't althose

things could go together. and, so they wander in and ask, is this real? am i really welcomed here? >> similar to the questions you are asking your pastor. >> exactly. >> years ago. >> there's so much about this that's about finding a place. and finding a place where you can be welcomed as you are and also be nudged and challenged and pushed a little bit to grow. and to deepen as person, as person of faith. several people involved in campus ministry not just in the setting where i serve but broadly across our church. don't identify with the particular religious tradition when they first start coming to campus ministry. and the number of adult baptisms that we do is really quite remarkable. students especially who discover grace as we are

talking about before, and realize this is new way of being in the world. that maybe they just weren't familiar with yet. and it speaks to them on such a deep level that they just want to be more a part of it. and. >> and part of the community. >> part of the community and the community not only there in palo alto in that place, but the community across time and space that are followers of jesus in is both radical and deeply grounding. . >> well, and i would think, too, the pressures and challenges of campus life the anxious its that many students have these days that somehow you're able to connect and address them. >> yeah. >> in that particular setting. say more about that. >> they are really -- the kinds of pressures that students deal with, it's an interesting you know i kind of speak out of both sides of my mouth, saying

this, because there's something unique about them because the pressures are different. the way the world is now is different and so the pressures that students experience now are new. but the idea of experiencing pressure is not new. >> right. >> and so there's something both specific and universal about it. and what students find and not just students, what people in general find in the congregation is a place to be able to be who you are, to bring questions and concerns and doubts, and feel like they will be received. they will be held, not judged. and they will be engaged, and that we are trying to -- that we are all on a path of seeking together, and that there's not a person in the front who is

giving out the wisdom in the sense of. >> you for example. >> me for example. >> yeah. >> but, there's a sorry i lost the word. >> mute gruel accompanyment where someone will raise a question, and we will say, boy, that's interesting. that's new. what is the implication of technology for ethics. we don't have a -- there aresomethings like grace we have a standard answer for. but there are other things that we are discovering together. and that can bray different life and energy to a student's academrs sous like e'reanwith your cong or seekers where they are, too. >> right. >> and that's not the case in every congregation. >> true. >> every church.

>> yeah. >> we will hear more about the unique seting that you are providing at unilu in palo alto when we come back.

. good morning welcome back to mosaic. with me today is pastor greg schaefer the pastor of university lutheran church in palo alto. and it's a campus ministry site. of course, that campus is stanford university. you've been there 12 years. you have a congregation, you have students, faculty, staff flowing in and out. there are benefits to campus ministry that you were sharing with me. what are some of the benefits that students receive. >> you know. one of the things that i think is not usually the first thing that comes to mind, but

students receive a lot of leadership experience in a campus ministry congregation. the president of the congregation has often been a student in the 12 years i've been there. and other elected leaders within the congregation are students. and one of the things we see is that a student graduates from school, and leaves, they will seek out another congregation. what happens there, is they arrive there differently than they might have otherwise. one student phrased it as being contributor instead of a consumer. and he talked about wanting to give back to a community that has given him so much already. and one of the things that we think is important is that students are given that leadership opportunity in a congregation like this, and we often will tell people this is good place to try something out. and if you have an idea, you

can try it out here, and we are going to have resources to support you. and if it works, that's fantastic. and if it doesn't, as the scientists like to say negative results are results. and so, if something doesn't work, we learned something. >> yeah. do you have a traditional worship service for students? what's shall -- we worship on sunday mornings. usually. during lent we worship on sunday evenings instead. partly just to mark that season as being different. but have participation in the leadership of worship as well as part of the worshiping community. students also when their parents are in town or something, they will bring their families. >> sure. >> yeah. >> i was looking at your website i was wonderful website

tell us of address. >> university lutheran. >> what is welcoming is the website i was reflection of the community. but you have interesting sunday evening opportunities for students presumably. >> yeah. >> what are those? we rotate each sunday of the month. we do something different. some of them are year-round, and some are part of the year, but, jazz vespars is something we do jazz evening prayer is something we do during part of the year on the first sunday of the month. we have taken the ancient historic language and setting of evening prayer, and we have -- there are several of us in the congre gracious who are jazz musicians and we ovisvepray together that way. and then have some dinner and we just stay around and play music for while after that. >> lovely. >> we do story telling night. which is really been a wonderful addition to our rotation. it was the idea of one student

in particular, feothers and we saidlet's try it and seem what happens. we gave theme and we say tell us a story about a time you experienced redemption. or tell us a story about a food that is important to you or something like that. and people come and they can tell a story or not. or they can tell a store every something that happened to them or happened to someone else. they can invent a story if they are that kind of story teller and want to make up a story. they can do that. but what it does is it gets us practiced in what's really oneof the centers of our faith life which is teg stories. that's what we do as people of faith is tell stories of god and god's people. and this is continuing that tradition because often, people will say, you know, even the question about food, i found grace in that moment. we also have game night and. >> good.

>> and movie night. >> yeah. >> and art as prayer night. and all of these things are really, they tap into a different part of our way of being. >> and the social justice focus, you were sharing earlier that currently, the congregation is hosting a homeless shelter for women. >> right. >> tell us about that. >> several years ago, a group of students in realizing that there was not enough shelter space for the number of homeless people that we have in palo alto, got together and established an organization that would provide shelter. and this is maybe 5 years later now, and that's still going. we, as a congregation hosted six weeks out of the year. and there are just a -- a tremendous amount of volunteer opportunities for students.

serving dinner, making dinner, doing laundry just things that are attendant to operating a shelter. but that are in some cases so big that we need lots of people to be able to do them. >> yes. >> so homelessness and hunger issues are really important within the congregation. so has environmental justice. that's something that's really been important to us. as well as a congregation. >> how have you addressed that for example? >> some of the things we have done have been the relatively small things that everybody does. we have changed all our light bulbs and put timers on the light switches and things like that. we are looking into things like solar panels and electric car chargers for our parking lot. and then also just being more aware of the things that are going on. we celebrate the season of creation in the fall, which is something that's catching on, i think, more globally than it used to be. but that's a time where we

spend four or five or six sundays in a row specifically on an environmental theme. and that really gets us thinking about faith and the environment in new way. >> we are hearing about university lutheran church with pastor greg schaefer in palo alto. we will be back in a moment.

. welcome back to mosaic. pastor greg schaefer from university lout ran church has been our guests. in the final segment, i would like to ask you to reflect on what have you learned about yourself from your students and condpre gation? yeah. >> these 12 years. >> one of the things that i have noticed about myself is how much more i know about science but specifically how it relates to people's faith. and that's an antidotal way of saying what i learned and how i've grown is noticing the how everything is integrated in a way that is not always obvious. if you didn't grow up speaking science, like me, how different parts of the universe work and together. t but they do for me now. and that's just been a real

gift to see how people experience the world and experience their faith and experience those things together. >> here's a community university lutheran that helped people make the connections through the way you shaped your community. and what a gift that has been and continues to be. >> yeah thank you. >> your worship is opened. you don't need to be a student to. >> that's right. >> everybody is welcomed to wore aship sunday morningings at 10 a.m. sunday evenings at 5:30. >> during lent. >> during lent which is coming up starting in lay february. >> a month. >> yes. >> about a month. leading up to the season of easter. >> right. >> and everybody is welcomed. and what a delight it's been to have you on the mosaic program and hear about the unique call to campus ministry and your service. >> thank you. >> thank you for being our guest. hae.e want to thank all the people that have helped with mosaic. our late producer reverend hugh

burrows my cohost reverend ron swish here is now retired, not from mosaic but from his service and he's back on mosaic frequently, and again myself pastor elizabeth he candale serving here in the city st. mark's lutheran church. it's amazing that there is such diversity in our churches. and urban setting to a very diverse campus ministry setting. and what i encourage you to do is to worship somewhere today. or in the weeks ahead as we prepare our hearts and minds for the season of lent. with those words, have a blessed and beautiful sabbath day. we will see you next time on mosaic. thanks for joining us u.

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. live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix5 news. crowds turn out by the thousands to see san francisco's choy knees new year parade put aside concerns about coronavirus. >> the virus is killed more people in china than the sars outbreak nearly two decades ago. it spread a more than 2 dozen countries and regions. >> massacre at a mall in thailand kills 26 people. gunman investigators say was a soldier. what they believe triggered the shooting. about 6 a.m. on this sunday, february 9th. good morning. >> let's go over to darren peck. >> that's camera on top of