Farewell to the ’Tattooed Reverend’

Rev. Rob Goerzen is moving on and Sonoma’s homeless population is losing a best friend.

For five years Goerzen opened his church doors to Sonoma Overnight Support clients, keeping the less privileged warm on winter nights, undaunted when neighbors sometimes expressed concern.

Pastor Rob, as he is known by the congregation at Sonoma Alliance Church on Watmaugh Road, leaves for Long Beach next week, where he’s accepted a new position as the executive director of the Retirement Housing Foundation.

Career advancement was not his motivation. Goerzen and his wife Danelle are moving to be near their daughter Suzannah and her husband Andrew Smith. Their son, Caleb, 32, a math teacher, is also making the move to Southern California.

Since Suzannah, 27, married two years ago and settled 500-plus miles from Sonoma, Goerzen has told both his congregation and his current employer, The Tamalpais a continuing care retirement community in Marin, that it was only a matter of time until they moved so he and Danelle could keep their family close.

“We are looking forward to being together again as a family and being able to have a Sunday family dinner,” he said. “Our family is better together. We’re circus people, we need each other.”

He’s worked 80 to 100 hours a week, seven days a week, for many years. “It’s joyful work. It feeds my soul,” Goerzen, 56, said.

He is especially pleased to have partnered with SOS to provide the homeless a place to sleep during the winter months, usually six or seven people a night, with a maximum of 15. He said there is a misconception about who the homeless are in Sonoma. “They are not drug addicts,” he said, explaining that most of those seeking a place to sleep are retired senior citizens who can’t make ends meet and working people who only have enough income to live in their car.

“It doesn’t matter in the least why you are without a home. You are a human being,” he said. “People were cold and wet and the church was sitting empty every night, warm and dry.”

One of Goerzen’s biggest fans is Kathy King, the executive director of SOS. “He is one of most compassionate people I have ever met,” she said. “Completely nonjudgmental.”

In a letter announcing Goerzen’s departure King wrote, “I have never met a more Christian man than Pastor Rob; he lives out his faith daily. He never wavered in his commitment to be a champion for the homeless.”

Perhaps that is because he was homeless for three years, living in his car on campus while attending Fresno State because he could not afford tuition and housing. “I survived on three burritos for a dollar and wore dead bowlers shirts I bought for 25 cents. I remember how vulnerable I felt.”

When he met his wife in 1983 he was living in his car and he says now, “I love that woman so much. She is still the milk on my Apple Jacks.”

He went on to earn a degree in counseling psychology and a master’s degree in health care management, and has had a long career in long-term care hospital administration. He also provides pastoral counseling in all areas including substance abuse, depression and anxiety, at no charge. “If someone calls me needing to talk I take the call,” he said.

The Goerzens came to Sonoma when their children were very young and Goerzen was working at London House skilled nursing. They joined the Sonoma Alliance Church and shortly after he felt, “I had the call to preach.” He gave his first sermon in 1995 and became licensed in the church in 1998. In 2018 he was officially ordained as a reverend in the Christian Missionary Alliance. He served as assistant pastor for 16 years and has been the senior pastor for 10 years.

The Goerzens have sold their home in Sonoma, but hope to return to visit twice a year. They will be renting in Long Beach until they decide exactly where to put down roots. He will be looking for opportunities to serve a church community, and is considering starting his own flock along with Suzannah. “She’s a better preacher than I am,” he said.

He has packed up his 14 guitars and said playing with his Christian rock and blues band the Gathering is what he might miss the most, although he also hopes to create a new band, along with Danelle who plays keyboards.

He has switched his church blog and social media page over to a personal site calling it the Tattooed Reverend. Both his arms are completely tattooed sleeves, one dedicated to his daughter and the other to his son, including tattoos of the time of each of their births.

He is a Disney fanatic and spends as much as 30 days in Disney parks, both in California and Florida as well as Paris. Visiting the Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong Disney parks is on his bucket list. Mickey and Minnie are tattooed on his legs as well as his self-drawn logo, as he calls himself the Disney Ninja, and has written a book-length Disney guide he shares with friends.

They are bringing their English bulldog, Walter, named after Walt Disney, along when they drive away from Sonoma on Aug. 21.

“We don’t know anybody. We don’t know where the store is. I have to use GPS to find the house we rented. It’s an adventure. I’m just glad I don’t have to do it alone,” he said of the new life he’s headed into, his family by his side and a strong faith to guide him.

Pastor Rob said his credo is: “Your calling to be a Christian is not to do incredible things on a global scale, but to do the mundane, everyday things for your neighbors.”

Wherever he lands his new neighbors will be blessed to have him.