Good morning and welcome to mosaic. It is always a joy and privilege to host mosaic. I want to mention shoe and i. We started ministry in 1972. He was the pastor of the presbyterian church. In the pastor at that time was offered smith sr. Father matthews, we last. Junior i met later and had the privilege of marrying him and his wife. Reminded me of that. I moved to fairfield about eight years ago and i heard going on that you should hear dr. Jackie. I was in fairfield and one friday night i came to the good friday services. I dont remember what word she preached eight years ago. She left paint on the sanctuary. Today we are honored to have the Senior Pastor of Allen Temple Baptist church, the first elected pastor, woman pastor, Senior Pastor. Great to have you. Thank you for having me. You are all over the world. I am here. Tell us about your calling. It is phenomenal. Calling to the church or ministry . Ministry. I am the daughter of a pastor. My father who recently passed in december, he preached in berkeley for 40 years i have grown up a church girl all my life and went through the things that young adults go through where you question faith and theology and how it lines up with things that are happening in your life and the world. I began seeking a deeper relationship with god and i started teaching at a high school in west oakland. We need to be in protest about that. And i encountered some kids who i realized my desire, which was to go into law and politics was not enough. They needed a transformation that was deeper than anything external. The only thing i could impart to them besides what we did in the classroom was what had sustained me up to that point and that was my face. And my understanding of who god was in that sense of hope. I started a gospel choir and legally, you are not supposed to name or have bible study in public schools. I think was through the process of ministering that the lord began to speak to me about proclaiming to larger audiences. To my surprise, i did not realize that dr. Smith sr. Have been watching me. I told him i was feeling this burden and i have this experience and i had been to a service and the sermon was preached on jonah. People running from the gospel. Everything. Every time he said if anyone senses a call, come to the altar. I dont remember but i was at the altar and i said, yes. And the rest is kind of history. Dr. Smith said we have been waiting for your. I preached my first sermon 25 years ago this year. And later that year, august, 1995 and moved to d. C. That is the opening segment and that will keep us truly interested all the way. Will come back in a moment. Please join us for reverend dr. Jackie thompson who is the pastor at and the sword church. 100 year anniversary. Welcome back to mosaic. If you heard dr. Thompson you had to be excited. She is pastor of Allen Temple Baptist church. It has been a joy. I was raised at allen temple and i came there when i was 12 years old. Looking for a church. For lack of a better phrase, i was sick of going to church. And that was during the era where you went to church all day and there was sunday school, the morning service, a 3 00 service, you came back for a 6 00 service. At 12 i was not making the connection as to why all this worship experience was occurring and what it was supposed to mean for my life. Luckily, i had a mother who was so committed to her church that she did not think it was important for me to have a relationship with god and we traveled and we toured and we visited we landed in the balcony at allen temple. A short man with a deep voice and talk slow, got up and i will never forget. He preached matthew 28 a short man with a deep voice and talk slow, got up and i will never forget. He preached matthew 281820. And at 12 i understood, the sermon was about the relevance of our faith in god and admit we were suppose to do something. Not just sitting in celebration. That our faith to drive us to action. I joined. Was raised at allen temple. Pastoring there has been kind of surreal. It is my life coming full circle to the peles where i started. I think the transition process was testy and i think people were surprised because allen temple has been a supporter of women in ministry. I think people can be challenged by the idea of authority and since they had never had female authority and wondering what that would look like. I have no Horror Stories to tell. The people have been loving and amazing and kind. We are still in the honeymoon stage. When we get to year seven we will see. When i started i saw allen temple as a mega church and it is still may go. How old is the membership . About 20 hit hundred. With People Living out. With many struggling with attendance , we feel blessed. My friend james and i went the number of times. I was that love center because their pastor had gone and they were experiencing transition and they were asking pastors in the city, with a support and cover the people. He was a new pastor. They had been inviting me and i have not been able to do it but that particular sunday, knowing how important pastoral leadership is, i went to encourage the people. Bishop hawkins. We just had his sister in concert for a black history concert this past sunday. This past sunday we heard your great message. Preserved for a purpose. Tell us about that. Preserved for the purpose was a Closing Service for black History Month to remind africanamerican people that out of everything we have been through and the success we have experienced, that god has kept us for a reason. It is not just for us to rest on our laurels or live in a particular socioeconomic classes but the we have been blessed so we can be a blessing to others. And to bring another generation with us. Reminding us that we were kept this farm for a purpose and that is to expand gods kingdom. To have the speakers like you did was a great idea. For me, sometimes black History Month can be pigeonholed and we focus on the known superstars. But we were the people before we were enslaved. And we have a rare opportunity to lift up what about history was. It was important for me to make the connection between africa and the asked. We felt lifted. Good. Tell us about your style of preaching. I was not being facetious want to talk about paint of the sanctuary. People have been electrified by your preaching. What is your methodology and approach to preaching . Here is a secret that the world will know. I am one of the few who made it through seminary and i did not take a preaching class. Reason being is because i started preaching my first year and the dean of preaching at Howard School of divinity, i preached at his motherinlaws church she sent him the tape. When i got to d. C. I heard you have been around the country preaching and he said you dont need a class. He signed me out of it. I think my preaching style kind of has developed over the years and i start with the take away and i build the sermon. For me preaching is about transformation. Not just transformation of the mind but transformation of the mind and understanding. I start with the behavioral purpose. Dr. Frank, is an amazing man. In his book, he lifts up a behavioral purpose statement. What do you want to be different about as a result . I have taken that as a methodology i build from. I love the buyer that said you have deep, scholarly, biblical scholarship combined with girlfriend wit. Yes. I am and east oakland girl. In many ways , still down to earth, practical, touchable. I think sometimes in churches we lose a generation because we are not able to speak to the current day. Girlfriend, has two do with identifying people where they are. It is not just a heady approach to the gospel and words people cannot understand. For trying to minister like jesus who walked among the people and knew the vernacular and live the life and tried to make the gospel relevant to them. He knew judaism and its formal sense how he may have learned it would not work so he told parables. His parables are my girlfriend wit. I like that. I will love to just receive it now. Major supporters. We will take another break and i want to hear more. Please join us with dr. Thompson. Welcome back to mosaic. You talked about howard. You did a lot of work in d. C. Tell us about that work. I left here in 1995 and went to Howard University school of divinity. It was a renaissance time in terms of theological education. I served at a congregation that was founded by those enslaved. They have a social justice dna. I built that program and model up to scale and it became nationally recognized and shifted because d. C. At the time was not the d. C. We know today. It was located there were needs of the community. I became director of the family life center. They do Outreach Services for the church. You were extremely successful. Your call to preaching and teaching prevailed. Where did you get your doctorate . At fuller in pasadena and africanamerican leadership. Interesting. That is where you combined the emphasis on our roots and what you do in the community. And the transformational role of the church. That was an opportunity for me to blend my concept around the role of the church in the community and the way it needs to be transformed to reach another generation because we are living in a time where many young people are antiinstitution. Any institution. Particularly institutionalized religion. But faith and institutions have brought us this far as a people and we have to figure out how can we make them relevant to the next generation that will be behind us. Do you think about running for office . That was my desire before ministry. It is not something i think about now but i am not opposed to it. I think of the time and even now my influence is seething greater in this capacity than an actual political office. You can never say never, when you are called. What of my predecessors at easter heal was mayor of richmond. I decided i could only do one job. Sun pass is a very good. I think right now i am enjoying this posture because it gives me the opportunity to take the things i know that are wrong and i think sometimes when you are functioning in office you lose your ability to do that because you are considered part of the institution. Right now i am comfortable with remaining the voice that says, have you considered this , considered that . People are being left behind. My mentor and Community Organizer is still around. He is full of rich history. That is the term he would use. He is able to do that with publishing. I am glad to hear that background. So you continue do you still saying . A little bit. Here and there. You started a choir. As part of worship but not as an artist. My dad was a recording artist. Dr. Thompson, right. With all that richness, you felt called for the purpose. But i did not want to pastor. I did not want to pastor. I think i had seen so much. It is a tremendous job and a labor intensive job and it never ends. But again when god calls you, i wanted a clear call. There is a call to preaching and i believe there is a call to pastoring because it requires a different skill set. Once i was confirmed that god was calling me to pastor, i undoubtedly said yes. This past sunday you were there from 8 00 until about 6 00. 7 00. That did not count the hours to prepare. Exactly. You do it with joy. When you find what you are born to do it does not feel like work. That is true even in ministry. What is your staff like . You have to have some help. Allen temple has 60 lay ministers and we also have staff ministers to cover different areas. We have an administrative manager and we will build out more staff in the future. You did not baptize. It was deacons and some other clergy. When you have a large associate ministerial staff, you want to give them an opportunity to exercise their gifts. Since i was preaching i did not want to baptize and jot off. God did not just call you. You somebody else. It gives an opportunity to exercise their gifts. Same with communion. On communion sunday you will see associate ministers who lead in that portion. What about Memorial Services and weddings . They are divided. You do much . I do some and some undivided for the rest of the clergy and staff. I was concerned. I have great help. I stand on the legacy of great leaders who built wonderful organizations and provided opportunities for others. We are just continuing that. It sounds like you have great discernment and leadership skills. When it comes to having that large staff , it seems like you are able to manage it pretty well. I hired good i inherited good people. They are already trained and my job is to take them into the next generation and bring another generation along. There is one more segment. If you left anything out lets cover it. Please join us. Dr. Thompson. In this last segment with dr. Thompson we want to look at her entire ministry again. But allen temple celebrated their 100th anniversary. Tell us about what that was like. It was amazing. An opportunity for the congregation to reflect on where god had brought them from. It was an opportunity for us to celebrate Smith Leadership because they are combined with the father and the son. We were able to dedicate a street name, we celebrated a retirement. We hosted some of the best preachers in the nation. We celebrated a gala at the rotunda. It was an amazing time and i think it reenergize the congregation. And give them an opportunity to reconnect. Do you have many members commuting . We do. We have a good number that live in the area but for the most part we are a commuter church which is different from when i joined. When i joined many lived in the neighborhood and now the neighborhood is predominantly hispanic. At Taylor Memorial in west oakland, people are experiencing the same. But there is tremendous ministry going on. They have to commute but they stay there to produce. In a last minute or so, what would you give as the advice for pastors in the urban area and urban centers and seeing members move away. What would you say the best way to galvanize ministry in some way . The best way to galvanize ministry is around mission and relationship. The people of allen temple are committed to the mission and committed to one another. Is not just coming in on sunday morning for celebration. It is everything that happens during the week. Whether feeding the homeless, dealing with human trafficking, weather planning activities for outreach in the community, that is in our dna. Speaking out on behalf of those that are voiceless. The people who are committed to that, there is no distance they will not drive in order for that to be maintained. In addition, they have maintain relationships with one another. They have been at each others weddings and helped raise each others children and they want to see their grandchildren be a part. If you can build ministries that cultivate connection among members and carry that out to work in the community, i think you will have success. Remember success is not size. Success is impact. Jesus at 12 and he change the world. Amen. If we keep that in mind i think we will find success in urban environments. The smiths left a great successor. Bless you. Thank you for having me. I am glad we got a hold of you. You are a blessing to those who hear you and different parts of the country and world. Thank you. Thank you for joining us. The lord is our light and salvation is my favorite scripture, psalm 27. We are blessed in the land of the living. Not just when we die. This ministry is for life abundant, full, and complete now. Dr. Thompson adds to that as Allen Temple Church does. Thank you for being with us and god bless you. At cretors, we handcraft every batch of our delicious popcorn. Like our cretors cheese and caramel mix. Great on their own, even better together. Try cretors, handcrafted smallbatch popcorn. From cbs news bay area, this is the morning edition