Thankful and thoughtful, as he talks about having prayer on a sunday morning. Thankful that god has still has him here. I think he is still around. He is living in vallejo. So, i thought of that song, because theres so much to be thankful for and thoughtful about. Im thankful for being in ministry for 45 years and pastoring six churches and being a district superintendent. Im thankful for my colleagues and ministry over a number of years. And two of those colleagues were with me on easter and i invited them back to be with us. Great to have you, jim. Great to be here. Thank you. I think theres been some changes since we have seen you. Jim is the north star in oakland. Tell us where you are and how long youve been there. Im a pastor at lake shore Avenue Baptist Church. Corner of lake shore and mandana. Im soon to begin my 30th year there. You just a little longevity. And dale has had a change. After five great years at Good SamaritanUnited Methodist church in kuiperty cupertino, i am moving churches. I mentioned to you earlier, i had you here as guests before, but i never asked you about your families. So, give a shout out to your families and let the thousands of people who get up at 5 00 in the morning, who might know you, but might not know your families. Karen hopkins. Karen and i have been married 39 years here. We have three Adult Children and four grandsons. And one of the great sadnesses in our life this year was our daughter and soninlaw and two of our grandsons left us and moved to oregon. You just came back. Went up to visit them and had a Memorial Service for my fatherinlaw who passed away. Ive been married to debbie weatherspoon for 19 1 2 years. Shes also a United Methodist clergy person and we have two sons. Justice in middle school and a high schooler. They are doing well and adjusting with this move. Debbie is going to have a new appointment . Debbie was on leave of absence. Now she has an appointment at stanford with the campus ministry. Shes serving on the board of just Faith Ministries out of louisville, kentucky. Shes working on her doctorate Ministry Degree in washington, d. C. Thats great. Thats great. We have just a few minutes in this segment. If you were to summarize and give us a word or scripture or theme about thanksgiving, what would be on your heart and mind . Mine was the last stone. I thought of the sentence, i want to thank you for letting me be myself again, is one of the lyrics. But what would you lets go with you, jim, first. I was reading an old sermon by one of my predecessors. A lot of folks listen to rod. This sermon was out of the gospel of luke. Ten were healed and one came back to give thanks. And we need to recognize that there is in gratitude as well as gratitude in all of us. We sometimes need to work a little harder than we think to give rise to that gratitude and that gratitude when we give rise to it, can shape us and greatly improve our communities. Thats significant, thank you, jim. Dale. Theres scripture from james. Says every good gift comes from god above. And were blessed. Were blessed each day just waking up is a blessing. And to be able to see a new day, a day weve never seen before. In our Worship Service after giverring of our offering, we sing a song. Praise god for whom all blessings flow. All of the blessings that we receive come from god and so we have to be conscious. We have to be able to recognize those blessings. Whether we do or not, god is in the blessing business. Thank you both for that. I think someone said that gods gift to us is the day he gives us. But our gift to him is what we do with that day. So appreciate both of your comments. Well be back with jim and dale on thanksgiving. Welcome back to our theme on thanksgiving. Weve been speaking with jim and dale. The fourth thursday of the month would be, i should say the last sunday of november would be thanksgiving. He said it in the mist of civil war, and he was also praying for those who were wounded and those who would become orphans. During this terrible time in our history, and he prayed that god, father he called would heal the wounds. And we find ourselves quite divided in so many ways. So i think that prayer is for our time. We find ourselves so divided. What ways do you think we can bring about some healing during this thanksgiving season . Well, when our gratitude takes the form of humility, and recognizing that we are all in ways we dont even know, dependent on the grace of god, that can be unifying. When our gratitude takes the form of service and reaching out, stepping out, serving another human being, that can be unifying and when our gratitude takes the form of praise. Every one of us has something similar from praise god from all blessings flow. Praise can be unifying as well. Great, jim, thank you. Dale, in a word, thanksgiving, we say thanks to everyone. So you go into the supermarket, just to be able to say thanks to the checker or the person that youre asking for help. You know, they are there. They are being paid, but providing a service. Sometimes we are busy and we take those things for granted. Whether its the beautician or the barber, just to be able to say thank you. Thank you. And thats all we can say. Thats a great prayer, right . And you have to notice someone. You know, ive been speaking a lot about noticing lately. To take the time to notice someone and just to be able to say thank you for the ways they make our lives better, for the gifts they bring. That enhance our quality of life. So, yeah, it goes back to saying thank you. I keep a quote from john f. Kennedy. Theres a new book out on him by chris matthews, raging spirit. Kennedy said its not enough to talk about being thankful, its how we live, being thankful. Im paraphrasing, but thats the essence of what hes saying. Its being mindful. Mindfulness is a deep spiritual practice. And then the younger folks talk about being woke. Thankful and thoughtful, yes. Being woke. Thats great. I know that churches over the years have been able to give during thanksgiving time. In fact, on my way driving here, the Doctors Without Borders had an announcement about how they are trying to service the refugees throughout our world. I love that organization. And do you know, you had church experiences, are there certain things that you have planned in the coming month or before the year is out . We will be collecting thanksgiving baskets and giving out thanksgiving baskets. Probably a couple hundred. That will be one way we help to reach the community and help them to have a blessed thanksgiving day as well. Yeah, working with Different Community partners, like bakrly food and housing project. One of our folks who will be on the we work with cease fire oakland and Violence Reduction program. And some of the young men and their families in that program, to make sure they have what they need to do for their families, but also if it gives them extra so they can, in turn, give to the communities. Because so much about cease fires, just helping young men become rooted or rerooted in community. And thanksgiving, christmas, provides some openings to do that. I think all of us were impacted by the tremendous fire in california. Some people are still rebuilding, recovering, and had some family members lose their home and had to move in with them. So i know theres been outreach there, im sure. Youve been able to raise special offerings, starting to collect some clothing and things that we can send up to the folks in the north bay. So, you know, theres a song that says, every day is a day of thanksgiving. So its not just on thanksgiving where we provide the meals, but how we look for those opportunities each and every day throughout the year. Working with Community Organizations like the greater richmond program, serving lunches once a month and the other churches and Community Groups also provide meals at that agency. So, theres places every day, not just on thanksgiving. Thanksgiving gets a lot of notoriety, if you will, but the need is there daily. What is our organization in the Methodist Church in which we give so well . Encore. So, we have been collecting money for the flood victims in florida and houston and puerto rico. For the earthquake in mexico, and here, the fires north bay. Encore United Methodist committee helps with all these disasters. We are supported with gifts from one great hour of sharing. And if theres a disaster or theres a need some place in the world, the one great hour of sharing is a marvelous mechanism of getting support to the ground where its really needed. Its a tough time for a lot of people. Im sure they are grateful and thankful for the outreach. Many of our churches are doing. Individuals are doing. In the north bay, so many of the shelters and emergency shelters, schools and churches, a host of congregations from the emergency points. I would imagine that need and their ministry is going to continue. We have a lot to be thankful for. Next segment, im going to ask you about, what do you think of the house of reformation 500 years ago. We are grateful for that reformation that took place. Okay. Great. Thank you for being with us. Please join us as we continue our theme of thanksgiving. We are going to have a word, my favorite quote about luther. He says if i cannot laugh in heaven, i dont want to go there. So, we know him or read about how tough and rough he was. There was some humor and some laughter in his ministry. I want these fellas to talk about the reformation. Jim, do you want to go first . Were part of the reformation stream. The baptists came into being about 100 years after luther. We are all shaped by his emphasis on faith and the just shall live by faith. Emphasis on the book of romans. His emphasis of getting the scriptures to the people and the languages they could read. His emphasis on teaching children. His emphasis on taking stands of courage. Were all shaped by the legacy of luther and in a lot of ways, for good. It was tough, and he got off on tangents. So were also shaped by some of the mistakes that luther made. Thank you. I think the methodist wouldnt exist if it werent for luther. The methodist came about 200 years later. Both john wesley and luther had similar experiences. Wesleys heart was strangely warmed and through a lightning bolt. Luther came to faith. And both of them were touched by romans. So, one of the differences, wesley said, by faith. And both basically said, by faith alone. By grace alone. But one of the differences, luther saying, sanctionification was big for him. The saving grace. Wesley said, were going on to perfection, so justification, turning around, and being in a relationship with jesus was big. So both of them are giants in the faith. Thats great. I read his favorite holiday was christmas. Yeah. And he preached 2,000 sermons on christmas in advent. There are some folks that trace the advent of the Christmas Tree to luther. Thats right. His death bed quote is meaningful to me. He said as he was dying, we are all beggars. We all depend on the grace of god in ways we dont fully understand, which is true at thanksgiving and its true at christmas and its true 365. We are all bigger. Thats great. One of the things that jim was just saying, we are all connected. We are all part of that same branch. Two years ago, several leaders went to vitenberg and planted trees. The tree is symbolic of life, but its also symbolic that with the branches, they were all part of the same branch. So, i give thanks to know that were all part of the same faith. Its all one god. When it comes to trees, one of the trees is attributed to luther. What would you do if you knew the world would end tomorrow . His answer was, i would plant a tree. Oakland, we know is based on trees. And i understand oakland has a new sign to greet oakland. With a tree, and the words are, live life. Nice. And i think thats what we need to be doing in the mist. We are grateful for life. How we live that. And the roots and the branches and the way they stand up to the storm. Thats great. Like a tree planted. Absolutely. We have a few more minutes in this segment. Lets look at some of the things that makes our churches living. We talked about our giving. We talked about our worship. Are there other aspects to keep our churches involved and active that we think are needed. We talked earlier, how churches decline in attendance and some of that is because people have died and people have moved out of areas. So, can we still be a vital, Effective Community in church . Absolutely. So, rabbi out of los angeles, talks about the role of religion in the modern world. She says, instead of focusing on religion as escape, lets focus on religion as oxygen. The breath of life. And in our study and our worship and service, congregations touch that oxygen. I like that. I think we can be vital. So much in our nation and in our communities have changed. The church used to be the center of the community. As the church can still be the center of that community that meets the needs of the people. Whether its financial. Whether its education. Whether its social activities. But i think the churches can be vital as we are finding new ways to go into the community. Not expecting people to come to the church, but we go into the community and make the word of god real. I like the passage in john from eugene peterson. The message is said, and the word became flesh. So, as we go into the neighborhood and meet folks and really see them, notice them, listen to them, pray with them, cry with them, laugh with them, we can be a vital place. Amen to that. Both of you. We have one more segment left. And well wrap it up with some more jewels from you guys. Colonels of thought. Okay. Thank you for being with us. Bees be with us in our last segment. Recently our country has witnessed catastrophic devastation. Hurricanes and flooding have upended lives and livelihoods. Across this great country, americans have answered the call. That special calling that compels us, when others are down, to step up and do whatever it takes. America is at her best when, against all odds, we come together and lift each other up. Announcer please donate to oneamericaappeal. Org America Needs you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being with us, im ron swisher, as you have been with us, youve been inspired by jim hopkins and dale. I will ask them where their churches are, if you want to visit them and worship with them. Tell us, jim. Lake shore Avenue Baptist Church on the corner of lake shore and mandana in oakland. We worship sundays at 10 00 and we have Bible Studies tuesday evening at 6 00. Wednesday morning at 10 30. And you are going on 30 years . Going on 30 years. How about that. Dale. Easter hill is located at 3911 cutting boulevard in richmond. About 3 4 of a mile from highway 80. And we worship at 8 00 and 10 30 on sunday mornings. We have a disciple bible on wednesday at 10 00 and right now, we have a scripture study on the gospel of john on wednesday at 1 00 p. M. You still doing the two services . Still doing two services. Thats good. A little quieter at the 8 00 and full choir at the 10 30, but both are great services. We have a long ranged plan that calls for adding a Second Service and what form that will take. Were not quite yet sure, should be coming online by mid 2018. Jim, dale is doing so well there. The district superintendent is giving good reports of his ministry. Members have told me how thankful hes there. When i called him for the program, i said dont be putting your name up on the wall, because the fellowship hall. That was there 13 years. He said the letters, he tried, but the letters are too much to his name. Appreciate that. Its been great to be in ministry. Thats one of the things im grateful for. And having colleagues like yourself over the years. I think i have known you both. So its been great. We are going to wrap it up. Thanks again for being here. Ill probably call on you in 2018. Looking forward to it. Happy thanksgiving. Thanks again. Thank you, you, too. Blessings to all of you on this thanksgiving season. Be grateful. Go forth and show gratitude for all that you receive in life. Enjoy what the community and with your churches, your congregation and with life around us. Thank you. God bless you. The show this morning. Everyone meals welcome to bay sunday. A lot of holiday ideas on the show this morning. Everyone is cooking up tasty meals. Way you serve them makes them taste better. The meal starts when you set the table. To show you how its done and how you can set ourselves, set the occasion. Welcome to bay sunday. Thank you. This looks fantastic. Tell us what we have. What are the secrets in terms of setting the table . Well, 80 of your perception in your mind comes through your eyes. So, it sets all your other senses to taste the food