First Baptist Church of Herndon

Living Stones of First Baptist

Sean Roberds | Sep 28, 2023

Living Stones of First Baptist

“Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built^[a] into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”I Peter 2:4-5

Todd is the one we turn to when anything goes wrong in the church building. He knows what to do when the baptistery floods, when a fuse is blown, when the elevator won’t budge.  Some of that knowledge comes from living in an historic Herndon house but he actually began accumulating expertise when he was a boy helping his dad repair the family’s lakeside cottages in western Pennsylvania.

Another thing Todd observed through his father’s and mother’s lives was faith in God. His parents were active church members – until the day the pastor announced that members’ tithes would be posted, in order from greatest to least, publicly at church. His parents left that church. Todd determined never to set foot in any church, ever again.

And for 30 years he didn’t: “It was 30 years of believing, but not believing in church.”

His first job out of college brought him to the nation’s capital on the eve of the Watergate burglary. A federal government employee, he’s been here ever since. He married Linda and became a father.

And with Linda’s example of a living faith, steady spiritual encouragement from the FBC pastor at the time, and the fellowship of the church Properties Committee, he recognized what his otherwise successful life lacked:

“I still didn’t do enough, or know enough, or pray enough, but I finally knew that I needed to commit and begin to grow in my faith.”

And so the man who photographs all our baptisms was himself baptized by immersion in 2004 and became a deacon in 2006, a position he’s held off and on – breaking mainly to recover from a stroke and seizure in 2019 – ever since.

And he continues to be the dean of the church bell ringers!