Episode Description

What makes Laguna Beach more than a postcard?
 
In this episode of The Heart of Laguna, Fr. Will Crist sits down with Pastor Jay Grant, a 55-year Laguna Beach resident and a pastor at Networks Community Church. Jay takes us back to the early days—renting an ocean-view place on Pearl Street for $60 a month, the rise of the Sawdust Festival out of the counterculture, and the way Laguna’s creative soul became a magnet for people from all over the world.
 
But this isn’t just nostalgia.
 
Jay speaks candidly about the difference between believing in God and knowing God personally, why he insists that love is a choice, and how Laguna’s character showed itself in moments like the 1993 firestorm. Together, we explore what has changed in the last 10–15 years, the challenge of affordability, the role local churches play in caring for “street friends,” and why Jay still calls Laguna “a city of hope.”
 
If you care about community, resilience, spirituality that actually works on a Tuesday, and the kind of leadership that begins with simple faithfulness—this conversation will land.

Show Notes 

A Laguna beginning: Pearl Street and the old days
Jay starts with a story that instantly puts you in another era: moving into the old Harper House on Pearl Street—$60 a month, ocean view, single-wall construction, and using calendars on the wall to cut the wind. It’s funny, specific, and deeply Laguna.
 
The “two-lane” life: work in town, ministry in town
Jay shares a core conviction: the best ministry often comes from people who serve God in and work in the community. He describes decades of life that braided together church leadership, the Sawdust Festival, family life, and coaching kids—an everyday, embodied spirituality.
 
The Sawdust Festival origin story: counterculture, craftsmanship, and a “happening.”
Jay gives a vivid history lesson on the Sawdust: artists juried out of the Festival of Arts, precursor shows, the move to the Funk property, buying the land, and the “unthinkable” moment—charging admission. He paints the early years as electric: late-night hours, huge crowds, and a cultural mix that made the Sawdust feel like an open-air experiment in freedom, art, and searching.
 
Faith that’s personal, not just inherited
Jay tells his own spiritual arc—from being raised in a faith tradition to exploring Eastern spirituality to the moment when faith became relationship. He describes it like walking into a dark room, and suddenly the lights come on: “I believed in God… then I met God.”
 
“Love is a choice”: marriage, faith, and staying power
One of the strongest segments is Jay’s insistence that love—human or divine—is not built on feeling. Feelings fluctuate. Commitment endures. He connects this to marriage and to the life of faith: choosing love when the “warm glow” isn’t there.
 
A portrait of Laguna: beauty, people, and the everyday saints
Jay’s love letter to Laguna is concrete: not just beaches and canyons, but the people and places that make a town feel like home—shops, neighbors, Friday night football with Catalina in the distance, shared rituals, and the small interactions that create belonging.
 
The 1993 firestorm: where Laguna’s heart showed itself
Jay speaks personally about losing his home in the 1993 fire and what happened next: strangers handing him money, people showing up with supplies, leaders “adopting” streets, and the community rallying. It’s a reminder that resilience is not abstract—it’s relational.
 
What’s changed: affordability and the loss of “regular life.” 
Jay doesn’t romanticize the present. He names the big shift: affordability. What used to be possible with a normal job now feels out of reach for the next generation. He frames it as a community adjustment—real, ongoing, and defining.
 
Networks Community Church: worship, breakfast, and “street friends.”
Jay describes Networks as a low-key church with a strong emphasis on worship, scripture, and practical care—especially welcoming “street friends” for breakfast, providing clothing and toiletries, and partnering across churches to support people in need. The tone is simple: “We want people to know there’s a place they can go.”
 
A different kind of “icon.”
Fr. Will offers a striking reframing: icon not as celebrity, but as someone through whom a glimpse of the holy becomes visible—humility, nonjudgmental presence, kindness, and the quiet power of being a gift to others. He identifies Pastor Grant as an icon in Laguna.

Failure, grace, and the hope that doesn’t collapse
Jay leans into a theme that lands hard for a lot of people: Scripture is full of failures, and that’s not an embarrassment—it’s the point. “God is a God of failures,” he says, meaning: God meets people honestly, in the mess, and doesn’t wait for perfection.
 
“One day at a time”
Jay closes with a steady, 83-year-old wisdom: he stays grounded by resisting the anxiety machine, leaning into prayer, loving his wife, loving his church, loving the city, and living each day like a fresh beginning.

Suggested Listener Invitation
If this episode stirred something in you, share it with a neighbor—and then do one small thing this week that builds Laguna’s future: show up, volunteer, introduce yourself, or help someone carry a load.

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Laguna Beach is famous for beauty—but the real story is how a small town holds together when things don’t “work on paper.”
 
In this episode of The Heart of Laguna, Fr. Will Crist sits down with Slade Carlton, Outreach Volunteer at Laguna Beach United Methodist Church, a local builder-turned-community leader who has devoted himself to serving neighbors on the margins and strengthening civic life.

Slade shares how a simple “blessing bag” idea became a four-year movement of relationship-based outreach—109 Saturday beach cleanups and counting—built in partnership with local churches, Friendship Shelter, and the Laguna Beach Police Department. Together, they explore what makes Laguna’s interfaith spirit so unusual, why affordable housing is now a defining challenge, and how the ASL (Alternative Sleeping Location) reflects the values we refuse to let go of: dignity, compassion, and practical care.
 
This isn’t a debate about politics. It’s a conversation about belonging, civic responsibility, and the kind of leadership that starts small—one relationship, one project, one neighbor at a time.

Show notes
 
Guest: Slade Carlton — Outreach Volunteer, Laguna Beach United Methodist Church
Host: Fr. Will Crist — St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Laguna Beach


In this episode

• Slade’s path: builder/entrepreneur → community outreach leader after selling his company
• The “blessing bag” project revealed how personal homelessness is for many families
• Why relationship-based outreach matters: learning names, building trust, creating community
• How Laguna’s Saturday Main Beach cleanups began—and why they’ve continued for four years (109 events)
• Laguna’s unique “weird and wonderful” tradition: embracing people on the margins (Joe Lucas, Eiler Larson, and more)
• Why Laguna “doesn’t work on paper”—and how churches help bridge divides
• Housing & Human Services: what Slade is learning about preserving affordability and community life
• The ASL (Alternative Sleeping Location): what it provides, why it matters, and what’s changing
• Why affordability is the long-term issue: “not enough homes,” “not enough affordable homes,” and what it means for teachers, police, workers, and artists
• ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units): promise vs. reality in Laguna
• A leadership challenge: how to welcome new residents into Laguna’s civic story—not just its amenities
• Signs of hope: the Cold Weather Shelter, interfaith collaboration, and younger leaders shaping the future

Memorable lines

• “Laguna Beach doesn’t work on paper… but somehow we make it work.”
• “It’s what you do, not what you say.”

Get involved

• Interested in volunteering or learning more about outreach at Laguna Beach United Methodist Church? Visit their website or stop by on a Sunday—ask about outreach opportunities, beach cleanups, and service partnerships.

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Description

From Siberia to Sudan: how one lay leader turns compassion into action—and invites Laguna to go bigger. What happens when a lifelong “can-do” spirit meets real human need? 

This week on The Heart of Laguna, Father Will Crist welcomes Barbara Van Gaasbeek, Chair of Outreach at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach. Barbara’s story is a masterclass in compassionate leadership—starting with her years leading national sustainability and green building programs at Honda, and continuing into “retirement,” where she’s helped mobilize St. Mary’s for bold, practical service locally and around the world.

From sending humanitarian aid to radiation-impacted communities in Siberia, to funding a deep-sea fishing boat after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, to supporting clean water, shoes, and mobility solutions—Barbara keeps coming back to one phrase: “I’m going to do something about that.”
 
The conversation also turns to Laguna Beach’s unique potential: the creativity, expertise, and resources already here—and the possibility of bringing together the wider community (faith-based or not) for big, “outrageous” projects that restore purpose and save lives.
 
Featured current focus: Sudan and South Sudan, where famine is devastating communities. Barbara shares St. Mary’s effort to fund Plumpy’Nut, a life-saving therapeutic food that can restore a starving child in about two weeks.
 
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the world’s problems, this episode offers a different path: move from “ain’t it awful” to “let’s do it.”


Show notes


Guest: Barbara Van Gaasbeek — Chair of Outreach, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (Laguna Beach); former Honda national administrator for green building programs.
In this episode:

• Barbara’s path from corporate sustainability leadership to community outreach
• Responding to a crisis in Siberia/Chelyabinsk with humanitarian aid (three 40-foot containers)
• Post-tsunami rebuilding: funding a deep-sea fishing boat to restore livelihoods
• Practical innovations that save lives: LifeStraw, The Shoe That Grows, and more
• Local service in Laguna Beach: pantry support, Thanksgiving produce in-gathering, community partnerships
• The big question: why logistics fail the poor while commerce moves luxury with ease
• A challenge to Laguna: gather leaders and creatives for larger “city-sized” projects
• Current urgent focus: Sudan & South Sudan famine relief
  • St. Mary’s goal: $4,000 to save 80 lives
  • Funding Plumpy’Nut through trusted relief partners

Get involved: To support St. Mary’s Sudan/South Sudan relief effort, contact Ryan Martin, Parish Administrator at St. Mary’s: (949) 494-3542 (Mon–Fri, 9am–3pm).

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Description

From Siberia to Sudan: how one lay leader turns compassion into action—and invites Laguna to go bigger. What happens when a lifelong “can-do” spirit meets real human need? 

This week on The Heart of Laguna, Father Will Crist welcomes Barbara Van Gaasbeek, Chair of Outreach at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Laguna Beach. Barbara’s story is a masterclass in compassionate leadership—starting with her years leading national sustainability and green building programs at Honda, and continuing into “retirement,” where she’s helped mobilize St. Mary’s for bold, practical service locally and around the world.

From sending humanitarian aid to radiation-impacted communities in Siberia, to funding a deep-sea fishing boat after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, to supporting clean water, shoes, and mobility solutions—Barbara keeps coming back to one phrase: “I’m going to do something about that.”
 
The conversation also turns to Laguna Beach’s unique potential: the creativity, expertise, and resources already here—and the possibility of bringing together the wider community (faith-based or not) for big, “outrageous” projects that restore purpose and save lives.
 
Featured current focus: Sudan and South Sudan, where famine is devastating communities. Barbara shares St. Mary’s effort to fund Plumpy’Nut, a life-saving therapeutic food that can restore a starving child in about two weeks.
 
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the world’s problems, this episode offers a different path: move from “ain’t it awful” to “let’s do it.”


Show notes


Guest: Barbara Van Gaasbeek — Chair of Outreach, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church (Laguna Beach); former Honda national administrator for green building programs.
In this episode:

• Barbara’s path from corporate sustainability leadership to community outreach
• Responding to a crisis in Siberia/Chelyabinsk with humanitarian aid (three 40-foot containers)
• Post-tsunami rebuilding: funding a deep-sea fishing boat to restore livelihoods
• Practical innovations that save lives: LifeStraw, The Shoe That Grows, and more
• Local service in Laguna Beach: pantry support, Thanksgiving produce in-gathering, community partnerships
• The big question: why logistics fail the poor while commerce moves luxury with ease
• A challenge to Laguna: gather leaders and creatives for larger “city-sized” projects
• Current urgent focus: Sudan & South Sudan famine relief
  • St. Mary’s goal: $4,000 to save 80 lives
  • Funding Plumpy’Nut through trusted relief partners

Get involved: To support St. Mary’s Sudan/South Sudan relief effort, contact Ryan Martin, Parish Administrator at St. Mary’s: (949) 494-3542 (Mon–Fri, 9am–3pm).

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

🎙 Episode Description 

Faith, Suffering, and the Courage to Build Community
 
Fresh from London, Rabbi Marcia Tilchin—founder of the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County—joins Father Will Crist for a wide-ranging, deeply human conversation about Jewish identity, interfaith friendship, suffering, spirituality, and the holy work of building community in a transient world. From Detroit to Orange County, from synagogue life to hidden seekers in Laguna Beach, this episode explores what it truly means to belong—and how faith communities can meet people where they are with humility, love, and presence.

📝 Show Notes
Guest: Rabbi Marcia Tilchin Founder, Jewish Collaborative of Orange County Former congregational rabbi | Interfaith leader | Community builder

🔹 In This Episode, We Explore:

• Marcia’s Journey to Orange County: From Detroit, New York, and Washington, D.C., to Tustin’s Congregation B’nai Israel—and what makes Jewish life in Orange County uniquely challenging.
• What “Conservative Judaism” Really Means: Conserving tradition while interpreting it for modern life in a rabbinic—not fundamental—faith.
• Growing Up the Only Jewish Child: How isolation shaped identity, resilience, and calling.
• American Jew vs. Jewish American: The difference between faith as culture and faith as identity.
• Women in the Rabbinate: Marcia’s calling shaped during a time when women were still barred from ordination.
• Jewish Life in a Transient Culture: Why Orange County lacks the deep-rooted communal loyalty found in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles.
• The Hidden Jewish Population of Laguna Beach: Why many Jews here feel spiritually curious—but disconnected from organized religious life.
• Spiritual but Not Religious: How ancient Jewish mysticism and spiritual practice are quietly returning for a new generation of seekers.
• Interfaith Friendship After 9/11: The powerful story of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, the Mosque on Madero Street (Orange County Islamic Foundation), and Temple Beth El building homes together in Mexico.
• Faithfulness Without Dominating: Learning to stand with people in suffering without trying to fix, convert, or control.
• Antisemitism in the Modern Era: How the events of October 7 and global tensions are reshaping Jewish life and identity for a new generation.
• Religion in a DIY World: How digital culture has changed the way people seek spirituality and community.
• What Built the Megachurch Movement in Orange County: Lessons from Saddleback and the Crystal Cathedral—meeting suffering before promoting doctrine.
• The Mission of the Jewish Collaborative: Creating a big tent for Jewish service, spirituality, social justice, support groups, burial society, and meditation.
• The Quiet Suffering of the Affluent: Why loneliness is not limited to poverty—and how presence matters more than programs.

💬 Memorable Lines from the Episode

• “We are here to learn how to love amidst suffering.”
• “Judaism is not a fundamental religion—it’s a living rabbinic conversation.”
• “People don’t need to be fixed. They need to be accompanied.”
• “You can be surrounded by wealth and still be profoundly alone.”
• “Anytime you call a meeting in the name of God, the right people will show up.”

🌊 Core Themes

• Interfaith friendship
• Jewish identity in modern America
• Spiritual seeking beyond institutions
• Suffering as sacred ground
• Community in a transient culture
• Tradition and interpretation
• Presence over performance

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Episode Description


The Heart of Laguna – “The Power of Presence: Hunger, Hope, and Human Connection”
What if addressing hunger isn’t only about food—but about restoring dignity, belonging, and hope?
 
In this deeply moving episode of The Heart of Laguna, I sit down with Maurice Baz, Co-Chair of the Laguna Beach Interfaith Council and Data Project Manager at the Laguna Food Pantry. Maurice brings us inside the quiet, transformational work happening every morning behind the pantry doors—where groceries are shared, but so are stories, courage, and second chances.
From a barefoot boy on the streets of India, to a life-altering family medical crisis in Europe, to a simple jacket placed on a stranger’s shoulders outside the pantry—Maurice traces the moments that forged his calling to serve. Together, we explore hunger not only as a social problem, but as a sacred space for encounter. We talk about presence as a spiritual discipline, volunteering as a form of resistance against division, and Laguna Beach as a microcosm of both beauty and hidden need.
 
This episode is a powerful invitation: not simply to help, but to belong—to step into the shared human circle where no one is invisible and everyone matters.

Show Notes
Guest: Maurice Baz 

• Data Project Manager, Laguna Beach Food Pantry
• Co-Chair, Laguna Beach Interfaith Council
• Volunteer, humanitarian, technologist, and lifelong advocate for inclusive community service
• Background in machine learning, physics education, disability advocacy, and global volunteer work

In This Episode, We Explore:
 
1. A Life Formed by Service Across the World

• Growing up across cultures—from Washington, DC to London and the Middle East
• Early volunteer work in Lebanon, Colombia, and the UK
• Music, disability, and the neurological power of human connection
• From machine learning engineer to grassroots community servant

2. Five Defining Moments that Shaped a Calling

• India, age 7: Witnessing joy and dignity in profound poverty
• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Learning to hold “infinite hope” amid finite disappointment
• A mother’s catastrophic injury: Learning that dignity is not lost in suffering
• The Fundamental Attribution Error: Why we misjudge people in hardship
• A winter morning at the pantry: A stranger gives his jacket to a homeless man—no words exchanged

Each story reveals the same truth:
“Service isn’t about fixing people. It’s about walking beside them.”

3. The Laguna Beach Food Pantry: More Than a Food Program

• Founded after the 1993 Laguna fires
• Grew from serving 80 families per day pre-COVID to nearly 290 families per day today
• Supported by 28 grocery partners through California’s SB1383 food recovery law
• Backed by 200 active volunteers

Who the Pantry Serves:

• Working families
• Seniors on fixed incomes
• Hospitality workers
• School bus drivers
• Single parents
• People living in their cars

Distribution: 🕗 Monday–Friday | 8:00–10:30 AM
🌐 www.lagunafoodpantry.org
🔗 Resource Guide: bit.ly/ocresources

4. Hunger as a Doorway to Human Encounter

• Hunger as quiet trauma—not just empty stomachs
• Why behavior often hides unseen pain
• How a simple “How are you really doing?” changes everything
• The pantry as a place where:
  • Guests become volunteers
  • Volunteers become neighbors
  • Receiving help becomes an act of courage
  • Offering help becomes an act of respect

5. Volunteering as a Spiritual & Moral Practice

• Service as presence—not performance
• Volunteering as a reset for the human soul
• One hour can change:
  • How you see others
  • How you see yourself
  • How you see your city

“We don’t need to save the world. We need to touch it.”

6. Laguna Beach: Beauty, Disparity, and Shared Responsibility

• Extreme wealth and hidden hunger existing side by side
• Housing as both an economic and emotional crisis
• The grief of displacement
• The danger of invisibility in a thriving city
• Why the “other” is always already part of “us”

7. The Interfaith Council: Where Faith Becomes Action

• Leaders from churches, synagogues, Baha’i community, shelter services, and nonprofits
• Monthly gatherings grounded in prayer and real-world needs
• Support for:
  • Cold weather shelters
  • Friendship Shelter day services
  • Pantry distribution
  • Youth unhoused outreach

“It’s the only room where you hear ‘Amen,’ ‘Baruch Adonai,’ and ‘Do we have enough folding chairs?’ in the same minute.” 

Signs of Hope & Resilience

• A man at the pantry saying quietly: “I’m trying again.”
• A daily walk to the ocean as an act of defiance against despair
• Neighbors donating “extra” produce without needing recognition
• The quiet persistence of people choosing to begin again

Key Invitation from This Episode
If you do one thing this week:

• Volunteer one hour
• Go somewhere unfamiliar
• Stand beside someone you don’t usually meet
• Let yourself be changed by presence—not politics
• Practice listening without solving

That’s how communities heal.

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00. I

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Episode Description
 
The Heart of Laguna – “From Street to Sanctuary: Faith, Healing, and the Work of Belonging”

What does it take to walk with someone from life on the street back into community? In this episode of The Heart of Laguna, I sit down with Deacon Joe Seminara of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, a retired law enforcement officer whose career moved from patrol work into deep street-level outreach with people experiencing homelessness, addiction, and mental illness. Joe shares how his years in a “Quality of Life” unit transformed his understanding of trauma, addiction, and the spiritual hunger beneath human suffering.
 
We explore the devastating realities of fentanyl, untreated mental illness, childhood trauma, and isolation—alongside the power of relationship, community, and grace. From jail ministry to street outreach to his vision for a police chaplaincy in Laguna Beach, Joe offers a grounded, hope-filled view of what real restoration looks like: not just getting people off the street, but welcoming them fully back into community.
 
This episode is about forgiveness already given, dignity never lost, and the radical idea that we don’t rescue people—we walk with them home.

Show Notes
Guest: Deacon Joe Seminara 

• Deacon, St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Laguna Beach
• Retired Federal and Municipal Law Enforcement Officer (35+ years)
• Former Quality of Life Unit Officer, Long Beach
• Jail Ministry Leader | Street Outreach Advocate
• Candidate for Laguna Beach Police Chaplain

In This Episode, We Explore:
 
1. From Badge to Street Ministry

• 35 years in law enforcement
• Transition from patrol to Quality of Life outreach
• Trading the uniform for a polo shirt and minivan to build trust
• Working directly with:
  • Detox programs
  • Rehab centers
  • Mental health services
  • Social Security
  • Housing placement
• Why relationship—not enforcement—creates real change

2. Trauma, Addiction, and the Reality on the Streets

• Childhood trauma as a primary driver of homelessness
• Domestic violence, chaos, neglect, and long-term emotional injury
• Self-medication through drugs and alcohol
• Why fentanyl has changed everything
• 48,000+ fentanyl deaths last year in the U.S.
• Addiction as symptom—not identity

“People don’t start broken. They become overwhelmed.”

3. Living in the Past, Living in the Future, and the Gift of Now

• Guilt as a prison of the past
• Anxiety as captivity to the future
• Addiction as an attempt to escape consciousness
• Why sobriety requires more than detox—it requires meaning

4. Absolution, Grace, and the End of Spiritual Earning

• Forgiveness isn’t granted—it’s announced
• Christ forgave once, for all
• The role of confession as liberation from shame
• Why guilt empowers despair—but grace restores agency
• The thief on the cross as the Gospel in one sentence

“You are already forgiven. The work is believing it.”

5. The Hard Road Back: Detox, Rehab, and Rebuilding Life

• Detox → Rehab → Sober Living → Medical Care → ID → Income → Housing
• Dental care, disability services, job placement
• The critical role of consistent follow-up
• “What saves people is knowing someone is still there.”

6. Why Community Is the Missing Link in Recovery

• Recovery doesn’t end with shelter
• Without community, relapse is almost inevitable
• Why churches must become long-term spiritual homes, not just emergency responders
• Faith communities as:
  • Anchors
  • Identity-builders
  • Recovery partners
  • Accountability without condemnation

7. A Vision for Laguna: Police Chaplaincy & Church-Based Outreach

• Ride-alongs with officers
• Peer counseling for first responders
• Church volunteers in coordinated street outreach
• Scripture, conversation, Bibles, prayer—and presence
• A vision for:
  • Mobile outreach teams
  • Showers & hot meals
  • Weekend street ministry
  • Faith-based recovery pathways

8. The Crisis of Mental Illness & Structural Failure

• Only 7 indigent psychiatric beds in all of LA County at one point
• Lack of long-term stabilization resources
• How mental illness and homelessness feed each other
• Why this is medical, not moral

“We are not doing enough for the mentally ill—period.”

9. Housing, Wealth, and the Hidden Struggles of Laguna

• Equity-rich, income-poor seniors
• Young families priced out
• The need for low-income and workforce housing
• Wealth does not equal security
• Success measured in dollars vs. dignity

10. A New Vision: A “Welcome Wagon” for Laguna Beach

• Interfaith-led community welcome teams
• Visiting new residents—regardless of wealth or status
• Sharing:
  • Faith communities
  • Volunteer opportunities
  • Arts & culture
  • KXFM
• The same welcome offered to:
  • Formerly unhoused
  • New homeowners
  • Long-time renters

“Isolation looks different at every income level.”

11. Youth, Faith, and the Generational Challenge

• Social media overload
• Loss of faith-based schools
• Biblical illiteracy in jail
• Moving from judgment to belonging
• Teaching God’s love—not fear

Central Themes of This Episode

• Trauma and healing
• Grace over guilt
• Presence over punishment
• Community over isolation
• Belonging as the true goal of recovery

A Key Question This Episode Asks
 
What if the greatest healing Laguna Beach can offer is not money, programs, or power—but belonging? 

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Episode Description

The Heart of Laguna – “Grace, Guilt, and Getting Real in Laguna Beach”
 
What happens when two priests ordained in 1974 sit down and talk honestly about faith, failure, calling, and community? 

In this episode of The Heart of Laguna, I’m joined by Bishop Brian Delvaux of St. Francis Cathedral in Laguna Beach. Brian tells the story of his winding path—from Roman Catholic priest, to leaving ministry, to marriage and family life, to selling pipe and phones, and finally returning to the priesthood as bishop of a small, independent Catholic community just around the corner from St. Mary’s.
 
Together, we wrestle with what it means to be “real” people of faith in a divided world: how we confuse niceness with love, why disagreement is not hatred, and how guilt and fear have been used to keep people small instead of setting them free. We explore grace as God’s initiative, not a spiritual paycheck, and we ask what it would look like for Laguna Beach to become a place where people can truly listen across differences—political, religious, and cultural—and discover each other’s humanity.
 
If you’ve ever felt like you don’t quite fit the religious box you were handed, or you’re longing for a deeper, more spacious kind of Christian faith, this conversation is for you.

Show Notes
Guest: Bishop Brian Delvaux – Bishop of St. Francis Cathedral, an independent Catholic community on Park Avenue in Laguna Beach, California.

• • Former Roman Catholic priest (ordained 1974)
  • Husband, father, and grandfather
  • Longtime pastor, hospital chaplain, and teacher of adult Catholic theology

In This Episode, We Talk About:

• A life-long calling with twists and turns
  • Brian’s early inspiration from a young priest who “poured himself out” for his community
  • Seminary life as a place of real people—“crazy, fun, and holy”—not plaster saints
  • Leaving active ministry, working in the secular world, and discovering faith from the pews
  • The path back into the priesthood and eventually the episcopacy in an independent Catholic context
• Grace, guilt, and the end of religious infantilism
  • The difference between guilt that crushes and guilt that simply says, “I’m sorry.”
  • Moving beyond a “third-grade religion” where you earn grace by being good
  • Grace as God’s initiative: “You don’t get grace for helping the lady across the street; you get grace so you can help her across the street.”
  • Confession not as payment, but as shedding the illusion that we are unforgivable
• Division, “haters,” and the poverty of niceness
  • Why our culture now confuses disagreement with hate
  • How fear of conflict leads to shallow niceness instead of deep love
  • The difference between being a tourist in other people’s worlds and truly entering their culture, experience, and pain
  • The cost—and necessity—of learning to love people we don’t agree with
    
    
• Church leadership in a new age
  • The shift from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side” for clergy and faith leaders
  • Why small churches and small groups often shape history more than big institutions
  • Creating spiritual spaces where people can be honest, imperfect, and welcomed as they are
  • How an independent Catholic parish seeks to honor Catholic theology while removing unnecessary barriers to belonging
    
    
• Laguna Beach as a spiritual microcosm
  • Laguna as a home for artists and creators who “imitate the Creator”
  • The town as a microcosm of humanity’s larger challenges and hopes
  • Signs of resilience and hope—from interfaith gatherings and shared prayer to community efforts like “Love Laguna”
  • The conviction that this place is not just beautiful, but capable of much more in how we love and listen to each other
    
    
• Beyond stereotypes: Christians, not just labels
  • Seeing denominations as “table groups” within the larger Christian community
  • Moving from “you’re Catholic, so you must be X” / “you’re Episcopalian, so you must be Y” to real encounter
  • The possibility of groups, like Braver Angels, that help people with different political views move beyond caricatures into genuine relationship

Questions for Reflection

• Where in your own life have you settled for “niceness” instead of real, honest, loving conversations?
• What parts of your faith are still stuck at the “third-grade” level—and what would it look like to grow up spiritually?
• Who have you written off as a “hater” or an enemy before you actually listened to their story?
• How might you, in your corner of Laguna Beach (or wherever you live), become a facilitator of deeper listening instead of just another advocate for your side?

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

Episode Description
 
The Heart of Laguna – “Many Faiths, One City: How Interfaith Service Is Holding Laguna Together”
 
What happens when churches, temples, and spiritual communities stop debating doctrine and start feeding the hungry, sheltering the cold, and showing up for their city—together?
In this episode of The Heart of Laguna, I’m joined by Beth Garlock, longtime leader with the Laguna Beach Interfaith Council, whose 16+ years of service have helped shape one of the most quietly powerful networks of compassion in our city. Beth shares how a simple invitation grew into a life of interfaith service—feeding neighbors nightly, sheltering families during storms, supporting hospitality workers, organizing disaster relief, and building bridges across faith lines.
 
We talk about what makes Laguna uniquely kind, the hidden needs beneath the beauty, the power of shared service, and why the future of faith may rest less in belief debates and more in presence, relationship, and responsibility for the whole city.
 
This is a conversation about joint responsibility, practical compassion, youth, recovery from isolation, and why loving your neighbor is no longer optional—it’s survival.

Show Notes
Guest: Beth Garlock

• Leader, Laguna Beach Interfaith Council
• Laguna Beach resident for 26 years
• 16–17 years of continuous Interfaith leadership
• Member, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Community organizer, disaster relief coordinator, and shelter advocate

In This Episode, We Explore:
 
1. How Beth Found Her Calling in Interfaith Work

• Moving to Laguna Beach 26 years ago
• Being mentored into Interfaith by the late Ann “Saint Anne” Richardson
• Attending one meeting—and never leaving
• Discovering a spiritual home in common good, not uniform belief

2. What the Interfaith Council Actually Does

• Nightly community dinners for over a decade
• Rotating church-based meal sponsorships
• Cold Weather Shelter Program hosted by houses of worship
• Collaboration with the City of Laguna Beach and Police Department
• Overflow shelter for rain and cold emergencies
• Ongoing cooperation with the Laguna Food Pantry

3. “Is Anyone Still Hungry in Laguna?”

• The reality: Food pantry + nightly dinners + morning coffee & sandwiches
• Former solo effort now sustained community-wide
• A model of redundant compassion—no single point of failure
• Hope that no one is falling through the cracks

4. Invisible Workers & Hidden Needs

• Hospitality workers in beachfront hotels
• Many commuting in daily, often under economic strain
• Quiet outreach currently happening through faith partners
• Christmas giving extended beyond congregations to worker families
• Immigration anxieties and economic fragility addressed with dignity

5. The Power of Community Response in Crisis

• Rapid Interfaith response to the Palisades Fire
• Emergency permits pulled for Main Beach
• Community prayer vigil, cash donations, clothing drives
• The lesson: “People want to help. They just need a way in.”

6. Love Laguna & Open Service to the Whole City

• Citywide volunteer day open to everyone
• Families with no church affiliation joining to serve
• Service as the new front door into community
• Faith without barriers

7. What Makes Laguna Beach Unique

• Strong culture of volunteerism
• Reputation as a “Kindness City”
• A rare non-judgment zone
• Small-town relational feel
• Deep acceptance across lifestyles, backgrounds, and beliefs

8. The Danger of “Checkbook Compassion”

• Gratitude for generosity—but concern about distance from people
• The irreplaceable power of:
  • Presence
  • Naming someone
  • Sitting with pain
• Charity must stay human-sized and relational

9. COVID, Isolation, and the Crisis of Disconnection

• The lingering relational damage of lockdown
• Digital connection ≠ human presence
• The rising urgency of face-to-face community
• Churches as vital centers of embodied belonging

10. AI, the Future, and Why Faith Still Matters

• The coming wave of artificial intelligence
• The emerging role of religion:
  • Relationship
  • Physical presence
  • Human touch
• Faith communities as the last non-automated spaces of meaning

11. A Radical Idea: The Entire City Is the Parish

• Ancient Anglican vision: Beating the Bounds
• The parish defined as geography, not membership
• The Interfaith vision: “We are responsible for everyone inside the city limits.”
• Hotels, hospitals, restaurants, landscapers, workers, seniors, youth—all included

12. Youth, Spiritual Hunger & a Surprising Renewal

• Teens and young adults returning to spiritual life
• Service as the on-ramp to belief
• Faith expressed through action before affiliation

Core Themes of This Episode

• Interfaith cooperation
• Shared civic responsibility
• Compassion without labels
• Presence over politics
• Service as spiritual practice
• Recovery from isolation
• Youth and the future of faith

A Central Question This Episode Raises
 
What if loving your neighbor is no longer a religious virtue—but the only way a city survives what’s coming next? 

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.

🎙 Episode Description
 
Presence Over Distance: Faith, Belonging, and the Courage to Be Seen
In this moving episode of The Heart of Laguna, Father Will Crist welcomes the Rev. Courtney Mackey, pastor of Laguna Beach United Methodist Church. Together, they explore what it truly means to be present in a world shaped by isolation, division, and digital distance. From Courtney’s journey to Laguna following the UMC’s historic 2024 policy change, to a powerful shared reflection on presence, community, race, hospitality, and hope—this conversation invites us back into real relationship with one another.
This is an episode about radical welcome, authentic faith, and why love of neighbor may be the most urgent spiritual practice of our time.

📝 Show Notes
Guest: Rev. Courtney Mackey Pastor, Laguna Beach United Methodist Church Community leader, theologian of presence, advocate for radical welcome

🔹 In This Episode, We Explore:

• A Sacred Turning Point: Courtney and his husband, Geron, arrive in Laguna Beach following the United Methodist Church’s 2024 decision affirming same-sex marriage—finding sanctuary overlooking the Pacific.
• COVID and the Loss of Presence: How the pandemic taught us to live without physical presence—and why we still haven’t fully recovered from that loss.
• The Spiritual Power of Presence: Why people don’t just need answers—they need to be seen. “People may forget your sermon, but they never forget how you made them feel.”
• Church Beyond the Building: Beach cleanups, food distribution, public engagement, hospitality nights, and what it means to serve outside the sanctuary.
• Race, Fear, and Belonging: Courtney speaks honestly about raising Black sons in Orange County, navigating fear, and the urgent need for safe, loving community.
• Jesus as the Embodiment of Presence: From the wilderness tent to the temple to the incarnation—God’s story as a story of being with.
• Table Fellowship & the Lost Art of Gathering: Why eating together, reasoning together, and showing up together matters more than ever.
• The Danger of Performative Religion: Authentic presence vs. “bait-and-switch” faith. Why people long for what is real.
• Laguna Beach: Beauty vs. Belonging: Do people come here only for beauty—or also for kindness?
• Stereotypes, Outrage & the Media Machine: How division is monetized—and how relationships dismantle fear.
• Public Faith & Civic Courage: Why faith communities must show up at city council, in policy conversations, and in the real needs of neighbors.
• What Gives Hope Right Now: “All means all.” From affordable housing to interfaith cooperation to a growing sense that the tide is turning.

💬 Memorable Lines from the Episode

• “When we are present, there is no ‘other.’”
• “The church should never go back to the same after COVID—if it does, we learned nothing.”
• “People don’t need to be fixed. They need to be seen.”
• “We know they are Christians by their love.”

🌊 Core Themes

• Presence over performance
• Radical hospitality
• Belonging across differences
• Faith in public life
• Healing through relationship
• Courage in polarized times
• The Beloved Community

About the Show
The Heart of Laguna is a weekly conversation from KXFM in Laguna Beach. Each episode explores what holds us together when the world feels like it’s coming apart—through stories, spirit, and service from the soul of the city.🎙 New episodes every Wednesday morning on KXFM at 8:00.