Parish chair, they put it together. It was so dynamic. I will never forget that moment. It was so wonderful. And all the people that came, the music was glorious. Ed goldfarb, the director, the choir was superb. All of the soloists i asked to sing from betty and marion in the choir along with kim and then there was janel, a professional singer who sings with a group called sold out band and they had ron coleman i grew up with him at tabor memorial who came from los angeles to participate. And then i had michael ladd, mike cousin who has a quartet and plays the saxophone with many people. Of course, dear lord by john cole train. So all of those who were just wonderful along with my speakers. Fernandez and skyler rhodes and the superintendents. My colleagues and friends, Anthony Jenkins and bobby jones and jim hopkins and dale witherspoon. And then also, gail barrels, the wife of the late hugh barrels, our mentor and cohost and producer of mosaic for 30 years. And i was so glad to see her. She had heard about it on mosaic with elizabeth a gale interviewing me about ministry. A shout out to all of you that made it such a wonderful event. I havent been able to thank all of you and all of the churches i was able to serve. Elmhurst, east oakland, eastern hill and richmond, glide in San Francisco and tabor memorial and st. Marks. I just needed to do that and i thank you for that. I found it in the last few months when i talked about ministry in my interview with elizabeth and she interviewed me, i thought about what is the nature of ministry . Even though im retired, i will always be active in prayer and concern about ministry and what that means. So my guest this morning is a colleague and friend for about 20 years who was also at my retirement, jim hopkins who is been the pastor at lakeshore baptist for 31 years. Almost. Good. I thought we would start right there. Again, thank you for being at the retirement. But i would like to start and what is it like to be a pastor for that long at a church . Most of us United Methodists dont have pastors that long. My longest was 13 years and at memorial. First off, congratulations on your retirement and superb ministry. And my prayer is that whatever comes next, you will live into it well. It was an honor to be part of your service. Thank you. What is it like to be part of a place for a long time . Well, i always say well, i grew up there. My family was very young when i arrived. What a marvelous journey to walk with folks through all of the stages of life and through the challenges of the congregation and weve had our arguments with our denomination and weve done some significant witness, people that were vibrant when i first arrived, they are with us no longer. People that work kids and are married and have kids of their own, but ministry is ultimately a celebration and an embrace me of life. And to be there for 30 years is to celebrate and embrace life. Virginia mendez, my Administrative Assistant was there for 12 years and she blessed me and surprised me with all of the different baptisms i had and weddings i did and different people who joined in the Memorial Services, she presented that to me and all of the articles i had written, what has that been like for you . Let me start with the Memorial Services at our church, there is the sanctuary building and then our office building, its the separate building. Sometimes before the Memorial Service, i will be sitting in my office looking across the sanctuary and saying im not sure i can do this anymore. Im not sure i can do one more, but then the moment comes and you start creating the family and you start remembering the contributions the person made and the investment they made in your life. And it becomes, more often than not, a thanksgiving and celebration, and a home going. And it is something that awaits all of us. So it is not to be rude, not to be feared, but it is to be honored, because to walk with a family on that journey is certainly a sacred journey. Thats one of the things that we do, and we will talk more about some of the other things you do in the next segment, but i want to start your long pastoring and that is quite a compliment to your ministry and your church. No place else to go. [ laughter ] well, welcome to mosaic again, we are with jim hopkins talking about the nature of ministry in the next segment. Please join us. [ music ] welcome back to mosaic, you heard in the first segment from jim hopkins some of the things he does in the ministry, the Memorial Service stood out because he just came back from him, his mentor of 32 years of ministry and where he was, we want to talk more about what we do as ministers in terms of our involvement in the community and society and the world. What are some of the things you see thats so important in ministry . I think it is very important for a minister to address the basics well, the preaching and bible study and pastoral care. And from that, you sort of earn the right to become involved in the community and to say a word to the more broad community. So that is a priority . You have to take care of the basics. And they are so important. Someone comes to the door of your church on a sunday morning and you never know what theyve gone through that week or that day. There could be a loss and they could be facing a Major Medical appointment, a surgery, a job interview, something that is really weighing on their mind. And it is important that somehow in your ministry you convey to them that god is with you. The good news awaits. Our good friend that usually with us, reverend Dale Weatherspoon who is usually at easter hill, he said he just finished vacation bible school. I mentioned that to you and you just finished doors, tell us a little bit about that. We have a vacation bible camp we call it, for years up through seventh grade, and that, once the kids clear seventh and eighth grade, they can become counselors. And i very much enjoy the interaction with the kids, but for me, the investment and the training and leadership training for the teenagers as they become counselors and teachers and leaders themselves, thats very important. The next generation, the minister always needs to think about the next generation. Who comes after us . What is our legacy . Who will share in the good news that we share . Who will pick up the perspectives that we value, some of the teachings. It is essential. The sort of invest in leadership training is really important. I have two more segments with mick gardner coming on about the ministry in the community and we do some of that also. So tell us what ministers do and how much leeway do you have in terms of churches giving you that, particularly your church . Yes. The four or five numbers down on my job description, its an expectation and hope that i will be a minister to the community. That takes many forms for me. I always say that one of the things that im proud of and most committed to is and involvement through what is now faith in action east bay, formerly oc oh. Our work in the ceasefire program, violence Prevention Strategies that involve research and police and the community. It involves identifying young men who are vulnerable or most likely to participate and accent violence and invest in their lives and say there is another way in the filled you, forgive us, but please take a step to us and we will take a step to you. And that is over the last 7 years that the program has been involved, chose a significant decrease in the number of homicides and shootings in oakland. I was there, there were so many that took place that we were concerned about. There are still far too many. But the young men, their families, the really dont want to be caught up in the lifestyle, but they thought they see no way out. And to articulate and to offer an alternative saves a lot of lives at a lot of levels. You talk about some of the basics in ministry and you think that is important to cover, what leeway does a church have in terms of do they say at some point we dont want you to be out there . The folks at lakeshore generally say we want you to be out there and their concern is not so much that im letting the balls drop within the church, they say we dont want you to wear yourself out. We want you to have energy. We want you to be creative. We want you to take care of your family. We want you to be involved in life and a lot of healthy ways. We dont want you to burn out. If you burn out, if you are bitter, that doesnt help anybody. That is great. We have just one minute left, would you say anything else you think is important that needs to be said about ministry . To be a minister is always to remember you represent someone or something much larger than yourself. God, the church, for me, a baptist tradition. One of the greatest honors i have is for someone to introduce me, hey, this is jim, he is my that a nd for someone in the name of something else, something greater. Just remember you are representing something much greater than yourself. Thank you for being with us. I always appreciate you sharing. I will call on you again. Next time we might have dale with us. Dale, please join us. [ laughter ] thank you again. Youve been with jim hopkins, the pastor at lakeshore baptist church. Go see him one of these sundays. [ music ] [ music ] welcome back to mosaic. It is said that gratitude is the wine of the soul. So lets go get drunk. They said that in the 12th century, and i experience that in the gratitude i experience in my celebration. We are also grateful that we have a person with us who is involved in the community in so many facets of it. He is a founder of a group called unity but hes done so much work and his name is nick gardner. Thank you for having us here. Tell us about your work. Sure. Like you said, i wear multiple hats. And of the many hats i wear, there are a lot involved with one particular category, and that is the incarcerated community both preand post release. When you look at that category, you are looking about homeless, youre looking at veterans, you are looking at the elderly and you are looking at the families of the incarcerated as well. So i work with all of those different entities within the line of what i do. Im the executive director of an organization out of san quentin prison, i cofounded that. Ive been around with that organization for 17 years. I have my own 501 c 3 which works with individuals who have trauma informed issues, restore the practices and principles, also mindfulness and Workforce Development in which i have a clothing is this associated with that. I did see that. And then i also am a consultant for other nonprofits, one in particular, East Palo Alto called retrain the village. And more than anything im also affiliated with Taylor United Methodist Church in west oakland. And we have since my affiliation with the church, weve expanded our ministry to a lot of Different Community outreach needs. And so we just completed a six week day at the facility earlier this year. We also went through the open, the oakland teacher strike. We were the ones that, we were the ones that hosted the strike at the hub. So all of the press conferences that occurred during the period happened over there. We provided food and we provided a daycare for the teachers while they were on the picket lines. And then we also extended that to do an annual food giveaway and hot meal for Homeless People as well as clothing. My great friend and colleague reverend Anthony Jenkins is doing such great work and i know you are working with him. Yes, i am. I would say that you guys are boots on the ground. What inspired you to go in this direction . I had the opportunity years and years ago, ive been in the business for 30 years, and when i got into the business, someone gave me an opportunity to turn my life around. And i felt that if someone gave me that opportunity, there was no one at that time going inside jails and prisons and offering different types of hope for people inside. I felt that was the place for me to go to offer the same opportunity that was so gracefully given to me. I was able to give it for other people. I understand youve also done some work with ben jones. Yes. Tell us about that. There was an instance of an inmate that i worked with inside san quentin prison who had been involved in an occurrence where he shot an officer in bakersfield. All this time, he did it when he was a youth in a gang, and all of this time, every time he went to a parole hearing, the family would come, the officer and his wife would come and say we dont want this guy released. He tried to kill me, whatever the case may be. Well, there is a process within the model of restore the practice that is called restorative dialogue circle and what we did was we provided that form for the victim and the offender to sit down and talk about what it is that was the problem bringing together accountability to create some healing as a result of it and believe me, of the eight episodes of redemption project that was broadcast, this was the most little one because at the end of the broadcast, the wife of the victim who said she never wanted to have anything to do with the person came in and hugged him at the ending. I heard about that. I saw one of them, because donald lacey, the previous guest, he was in that project and he talked about forgiving the person that killed his daughter 20 years ago. There was not a dry eye in the building. It was so pivotal and warming. There so many dynamics involved in it. You are involved. We have been talking to nick gardner involved on so many facets it makes Ministry Alive and real and vital to the society. Please join us in the last segment. [ music ] welcome back to mosaic. I hope youve been with us for nick gardner as he talks about all those involved in helping those who come out of prison for things that theyve done, and they are getting the second chance. Tell us more about the project. Yes. So a lot of times in the past, society has placed this stigma on the incarcerated community and the people that are incarcerated in general. So when people came home, there was not any kind of hope or opportunity for those folks when they came home. And what my mission in life and my ministry and life has been to allow people when they come home the some right as anyone else that is in the community. And then to allow the community to be a support network for those individuals so that they are just not out there trying to defend or navigate through our society which is chaotic enough. And so you are talking about someone thats been separated from that for so many years and now all of a sudden asking them to come out and be equitable to everything out there. In florida, the even past where they can vote. But there was a lot of a Voter Suppression that didnt allow for that. Is that happening here . It is happening as long as you are not on felony, if you are not on the felony probation or your own parole or anything like that. Then you can vote. And you retain the right. I see. So that is important. That is huge. What we do in the county jail situation is the person is not been sentenced at that particular point, then people from the voting entity will come in, and they will help people to set up their vote and everything. So it does happen in the county jail because no one has been sentenced at that point. We have just a few minutes left. Is there something that needs to be said about all that you are doing . I want the community to see that this is an opportunity. I want the community to be engaged in working with this population, that this is not a population that has been cast aside. This is a population that is creative and has some sense of desire to be a part of, so we should not push ourselves away from them. We should be a part of them. Im amazed again at your background of being involved for some 30 years, your background of the social work has led you in this direction. What has inspired you most . What inspired me most is that i felt, again, no one else was doing this. When i was doing this, theres not a whole bunch of organizations that are going inside and working with the incarcerated community. And i just felt that by niche in life was to be able to offer some sense of hope and direction to people before they came home. And then once they came home, to be there on the other side waiting for them so that the friendly face they saw on the inside is the same friendly supportive face that they see on the outside. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. For all of the work that you are going. I thought of the schedule, jesuss final judgment is that i was hungry and you fed me and i was in prison and you visited me. Thank you for continuing to do that. Continue to pray for mick gardner and the work hes doing. I want to again thank jim hopkins of lakeshore baptist for being with us. They are both in ministry and doing such great work to lift people up. They inspire all of you that are listening and part of this audience can do the same. Thank you for being with us. Im ron swisher. [ music ] live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. Four people hurt in an overnight shooting in San Francisco, the latest on the investigation this morning. And it has happened again. People stranded on the San Francisco clip for the second day in a row. And the 49er faithful turn out in full force. We will have highlights and excitement surrounding the preseason game of the year. It is 6 am on sunday, august 11. Good morning. Lets get started with a check on the forecast. Already seeing some of that back up behind you, all the clouds which have socked in much of the band