The Administrative Assistant did such a fantastic job with the program and getting the invitations out and the creativity of the program. Then there was Marty Bennett who was my staff chair and they put it together. It was so dynamic. I will never forget that moment. It was so wonderful. All the people who came, the music was glorious. The director and the choir was superb. All the soloists i asked to sing from betty and marian in the choir along with kim and then there was janel, who is a professional singer who sings with the group called soldout band and then they had ron coleman. I grew up with him in los angeles. Hearthi hao a quartet. He plays the saxophone. People remember dear lord. All of those were just wonderful along with my speakers there and skyler was there, the superintendents, my colleagues and friends bobby jones and jim hopkins and then, also came was gail burrows, the wife of the late hill burrows. Our mentor and host and producer of mosaic for more than 30 years. I was so glad to see her. She had heard about it on mosaic when i was being interviewed about ministry. I shout out to all of you who made it such a wonderful evening. I have not been able to thank all of you and the churches that i have served. There was Taylor Memorial and st. Marks. I needed to do that. I thank you for that. I thought in the last few months when i talked about ministry and my interview weth,interview me i thought what is the nature. Im always going to be active in prayer and concerned about ministry and what that means and so my guess this morning is one who is a colleague and friend and was also at my retirement. This is jim hawkins. He has been my copastor almost 31 years. I thought we would start right there again, thank you for being at the retirement. It like to be a pastor at a church like that. Most of us dont have pastors that long. I was at Taylor Memorial for s whatever comes next, you will live into it well. It was an honor to be party or service. What is it like to be in a place for a long time . I say well, i grew up there. I was my family was young when i was arriving there. What a marvelous journey. We could work with people through all the stages of life, through the challenges of the congregation, we have had our arguments with our denomination and done some significant witness of people that were vibrating when we first arrived there and with uslong. People ds areiown. T mistry is a d of l an there30 years is to celebrate and embrace life. My Administrative Assistant has been there 12 years. She blessed me with all the different weddings and baptisms i did and the different people that joined in the Memorial Services. She presented that to me and all 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 the Office Building is separate. Sometimes before memorial service, i will be sitting in my office and looking across the sanctuary and saying im not sure i can do this anymore. Is in the moment, you start grading family and you start Rs Investment they made in your life and it becomes, more often than not a celebration, a home going and it is something that awaits all of us. It is not to be rude or feared but it is to be honored because we welcome the family on that sacred journey. That is one of the things we do. We will talk about more of some of the other things that you do in the next segment. I wanted to start their. That is a compliment to your ministry in your church. I have no place else to go. Mosaic. We are with jim hopkins. We will talk about ministry in the next segment. Please join us. Dice yourself from hate. That means doing everything you can to stop it. Never empower them. Making sure wonderful. Being the change i went to see in the world. Its also about black lives matter anything that denies you your identity. Other generations will follow. By standing up and takingand community. The only way we will get throth iif all rive to stand strong together. Purchased a mask. Thin he does. Ck. Ard e first see Memorial Services stood out because come back from one. We want to talk more about what we do as minister in terms of our involvement in the community and society and the world. Lets go there. What are some of the things that you see . Like i think its very important for minister to address the basics very well, the preaching and bible study and Pastoral Care and from that we kind of earned the right to become involved in the community and to stay and say a word to the community. Yes. You have to take care of the basics. They are so important. Someone comes through the door of your church on a sunday morning and you never know what they have gone through that week are that day. There could be a loss they could be facing, a medical appointment, surgery, job interview, something weighing on their mind and it is important that somehow in your ministry you can convey to them that god is with you and good news awaits. Amen. Our good friend and partner, witherspoon who is at easter hill. He mentioned to me he had just finished a vacation bible school. You had just finished years as well. Tell us about that. Yes. Vacation bible camp is what we call ours. It is ages four through seventh grade. Once they clear that, they can become counselors. I enjoy the interaction with the kids. For me the investment in the training and leadership for the teenagers as they become counselors and teachers and leaders themselves is very important. The next generation. Im minister needs to think about the next generation and who comes after us. Who will share in the good news that we share and pick up some perspectives. At we value, some of the that we need to invest in leadership training. I have two nick is going to come on about ministry in the community but wed get some of that as well. So what do ministers do and how much leeway do you have in terms of your Church Giving you that . Four or five numbers down on my Job Description is a hope that i will be a minister to the communthat takes on many fo one of the things i am proudest of and most committed to his involvement through faith in action. Our work in the Cease Fire Program of violence prevention strategy involving research, police and the community and identifying o erm likely to partate incts of violen invest in their lives and say brothers, there is another way. Please forgive us for failing you and take a step to us. We will take a step to you. Over the past seven years that the program has been going it shows a decrease in the numbers of homicides and shootings. There was something that took place when i was there. There are still too many. The young men and their families really dont want to be caught up in the lifestyle. They see no way out. It is to offer an alternative, that saves a lot of lives at a lot of levels. You talk about basics. Whatleverage does the church have . Do they say we dont want you to be out there . The people in lakeshore say we want you to be out there and they are concerned, not that im letting balls drop. They say we dont want you to wear yourself out. We want you to be creative and take care of your family and be involved in life and a lot of healthy ways. We dont want you to burnout. If you are bitter, that doesnt help anybody. That is great. Would you say anything else that you think is important and needs to be said . You need to remember you represent someone or something much longer and larger than yourself, god, the church, a baptist tradition for me. One of the greatest honors i have is for someone to save this is jim, my pastor. That is a profound gift. To be a pastor is to care for someone in the name of Something Else and something rare. Remember you are representing something much greater than yourself. Amen. Thank you for being with us. I was glad to be here. Next time maybe we will have dale with us. Dale, please join us. Thank you again. That was jim hopkins. Go in and see him one sunday. Its been said that gratitude is the wine of the soul, lets get drunk. I experience that in the gratitude in my celebration. We have aperson with us who was involved in the community and so many facets of it. He is the founder of a group called unity. His name is nick gardner. Its great to have you. Thank you for having me. Tell us about your work. Sure. I wear multiple hats. Of the many hats that i wear a lot of are involved with one particular category and that is incarcerated, preand post release. You think about homeless, you looking at veterans and the elderly and the families of the incarcerated as well. I work with all those different attitieswithinthe neof i am the execut quencalled ortes response to violence. I cofounded that. With that organization, i have been there for 17 years. I have my own plan working with individuals who have had trauma informed issue and they also have mindfulness and Workforce Development in which i have a clothing Business Associated with that. I also am a consultant for other nonprofits, East Palo Alto is called retain train the village. I am also affiliated with taylor United Methodist church. We have since my affiliation we have expanded our ministry to a lot of Different Community outreach needs. So we just leted a six week day camp at the facility earlier this year. We also were there during the oakland teachers strike. We hosted the strike and had it at taylor for the hub. All the press conferences happened there. We provided food. We provided a daycare for the teachers on the picket lines and the kids had a ball. We also extended that to do an annual food giveaway and hotmail for Homeless People as well as clothing. You are doing such great work. My go i see that i would say you are boots on the ground. What inspired you to go in this direction . I had the opportunity years ago. I have been in this business 30 years. When i got into the business someone gave me an opportunity to turn my life around. I felt that if someone gave me that opportunity, there is no one else going in jails and prisons and offering hope. I felt that was the place for me to go. I was able to give for other people. You have also done some work with van jones . Yes. Tell us about that. There was an inmate i worked with in san quentin 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. All this time he was every time he went to overall we on hiring the family would come and say we dont want this guy release. He tried to kill me or whatever the case may be. There is a process in restorative practice called restorative dialogue circle. What we did is provide that form for the victim and the offender to sit down and talk about what it is that was the problem and bring together a little bit of accountability and create some ofeight episodes of redemption project that was broadcast, this was the most pivotal. At the end of the broadcast the waif of the victim said she never wanted to have anything to do with the person came in and hugged him at the end. I did hear about that. I was moved. Donna leisa was in that project and he talked about forgiving a person who had killed his daughter. There was not a dry eye in the building that day. It was so pivotal and warming. Glad you are involved on such a level. Volvedn. So many dycs weill talk a little bit more about that in the last segment. Thank you for being here. Absolutely. Vic gardner is involved in the community. He makes Ministry Alive and real and vital to our society. Please join us in our last segment. Distance yourself from hate. That means seeing the end of racism and never using my voice and energy to show discrimination. Living ones life in confession and empathy. Kindness cost nothing. I want my daughter to grow up in a world seeing cultural differences. Welcome back to mosaic. I hope you have been with us. Nick talks about all the people that come out of prison for things they have done and they get a second chance. Tell us more about that project. A lot of times in the past, society has placed a stigma on incarcerated people and those people. When people came home, there was no hope or opportunity for those people when they came home. My mission in my ministryha beento w pe, when they that is the community and to allow the community to be a support network for those individuals so that they are just not out there trying to fend or navigate through society which is chaotic enough. So youre talking about someone who has been separated from that for so many years. Now all the sudden you asked them to come out and be critical to everything that is going on out there. In florida they even passed iising as long as. Aphere . You are not on a felony. You retain that right. I see. So that is important. That is huge. What we do in the county jail situation, the person has not been sentenced then voter, people from the voting entity come in and they help people set up their vote. It does happen in the county jail because no one has been sentenced then. Is there something that needs to be said . Yes. What needs to be said . I want the community to see that this is an opportunity. I want the community to be engaged in working with this population. 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. We should not push ourselves away from them. We should be a part of them. I am amazed to hear of your background, being involved for 30 years. Your background in social work led you in this direction. What has inspired you the most in doing this work . So what has inspired me the most is that i felt that no one else was doing this. When i was doing this, there were not a whole bunch of organizations going inside and working with the incarcerated community. I felt that my niche in life was to be able to offer some sense of hope and direction to people before they came home. Once i came home, you need to be there on the other side waiting for them so that friendly face a soul on the inside is the same friendly and supportive face i see on the outside. Amen. Thank you. Youre doing great work. We were talking about jesus is final judgment. I was hungry and you fed me and i was in prison and you visited me. Thank you for doing that work. Continue on that path. Continue to pray for nick and the work he is doing. I want to thank jim hopkins for being with us. They are both in ministry and doing such good work to lift people up. May it inspire all of you who are listening to do the same. Thank you for being with us. I am ron swisher. Chuck live from the cbs bay area studios, this is kpix 5 news. New restrictions this morning. Coronavirus cases are spiking. We are being forced to move backwards and it is frustrating. Very disappointing and very sad that we have to go back to square one. Students will not be returning back to classrooms. The new backtoschool plans. A bay area ceo steps down after video shows them parang an Asian American family. What he is saying this morning about his racist