Transcripts For KPIX Mosaic 20160417

Presbyterian. Welcome. Thank you for having me. A presbyterian in general is someone who believes that god is in charge and we are called to put faith into action. The term comes from greek used for elder so we are comprised of elders that like to make sure there are checks are balances and that pastors dont have too much power and christ is the heath of the church and we are the hands and feet of the world. It is in Pacific Heights, a well known neighborhood in San Francisco. The church has a long history, i believe established in 1849. Yes. As was st. Marks in that gold rush era. Tell us what calvary presbyterian is like today and the kind of people who are drawn to calvary presbyterian. Thank you. Were in our third location. We started out on bush and then we were exactly where the st. Francis hotel is and now were in Pacific Heights. We draw from all different neighborhoods and community in the city especially with housing affordable challenges in Pacific Heights, we have people who hike up the bill, take the bus and come from all over, a lot of people from business backgrounds. Some who love the arts and music. We have a strong Music Program and growing social Justice Program so wore not just staying on a nice hill but come down the hill and open our hearts and try to serve as best we can. Speaking of business backgrounds, before you were a fas for, you were a Business Marketing person for ten years. Yes. And then felt called to ministry i assume. Yes. How do you use that Business Marketing background in what youre doing now . Everyone is in sales when it comes down to it. Christianity often has a branding problem. The people out there sometimes the lunatics we would rather not associate with. We like to reclaim christs name in meaningful ways with people of all backgrounds. In terms of my background, one of the things we do on the business standpoint is a series of faith and business conversations down in the financial district, so several thursdays each month, we get together and people talk about faith, their career, the challenges they have, hiring and firing and working with colleagues and all of the things that make up our days between sundays. We try to bridge that sunday, monday gap in ways that are meaningful to the congregation. Help people translate and christianity in their daily life. Yes. And i know that is a passion of yours. Youre also interested in global and local kind of Community Service projects. Tell us about briefly the upcoming Global Ministry trip, your plan. Were taking a vision trip which means a small group of people considering how woe may serve to cuba. There is along standing Presbyterian Ministry in cuba and one of the initial takes is to understand if there is an opportunity for relationship there. There are some Cultural Exchange but on the practical side there is a significant lack of access to clean water in cuba so long ger term, we see cal ravi being involved to provide systems that can help insure that 3 to 5,000 people in each community are able to have access to clean water. Wonderful. Have you been to cuba before . This will be my first time. I have been to other places. Water in california is a growing issue and we care about it here, but want to make sure were serving our brothers and sisters around the world for their water needs too. That will be a wonderful trip. I know rafael house. Yes. One of them were excited about is new door ventures. They provide job training and entrepreneur ship training for 17 to 24yearold dis connected youth. Wonderful. Were going to hear about that, but were going to take a break and well be back with the reverend and our new guest. D ooz wol exam back to mow say jig. We added another pastoral colleague here to the show. Welcome Bishop Jackson. But your full name is reverend bishop ernie jackson. [ laughter ] i have been told i can call you Bishop Jackson, is that right . That is fine. Good. You serve at Grace Tabernacle church and there is some pentecostal tradition. Tell us about pentecostal christianity and your part clar parish. Pen te kos stallism comes out of the new testament, the books of axe and american pentecostallism started in 1906 in los angeles. Pentecostals believe in the out pouring of the holy spirit that tells within and is evidenced by the speaking of tongues in a prophets tick way. It is a movement to be honest with you and it is a fast moving in central and south america and africa and many of us quote, unquote believe that pentecostallism is in every church that will receive it in churches here in america, so as a classical pentecostal, we believe in as i said we evolved out of the 1906 experience on bonnie ray street in los angeles. In los angeles. Yes. So when someone comes to worship, what will they experience in a Worship Service . Highly spirited service with praise. Singing . Singing. Music. Praise, worship, drums, hammond b3 oregon. Tambourines and hand clapping and people just expressing their thanks and praises to god. Are you leading the Worship Services as the pastor or is the spirit leading the Worship Service . How does that work . We believe the spirit leads, but there is a form and there is an order, but we feel that led by the holy spirit and we invite people to freely express how the spirit is leading them in worship. So there might be a time of testimony . Yes. One of the things, however, that has shifted is that woe dont have the traditional testimony services that we used to have which a period of time was blocked out for people to talk about the experience they had and how god delivered them and helped them, how they were devinely healed. We believe indy vine healing. I myself have prayed for many people with some very dreaded disease and they have been healed, so we know in that vein of the spirit as well. Your congregation is located in bay view hunters point. Yes. Tell us about the con greg days itself and what ministries youre involved in in your neighborhood and in the community. Our congregation is like a lot, black Church Congregation where we have people that come to our service that live as far away as sacramento and as far south as san jose. Our associate pastor dr. Sheila robinson comes from san jose, so people are commuting in and one of the reasons why there is the attachment to the ministry but has influenced the migration of the commuting in is there is an out migration of africanamericans in San Francisco and you might know the population of African Americans is below 3 and it has had a tremendous impact to the congregation, not even just mine, but dr. Amos brown is experiencing it. That was considered a black mega church in San Francisco. All of our congregations are being impacted but those who come in, they love the ministry and they have a loyalty to the church. Wonderful. Were going to hear more about your ministry and two ministries after woe take a break this morning. Ntecostal. We are back with our guests this morning. Reverend john weems from calvary presbyterian church, Bishop Jackson. Both are in San Francisco. Both located in very, very different neighborhoods. How did you connect with reverend weems and the church. I was attending and i got a phone call, a cold call from reverend john weems who expressed the desire to meet me in person, marian stan tin, the board of trustees at the sem mary where i was a doctoral student suggested that john get in touch with me and we began to talk about some of the issues were affecting the africanamerican community. What precipitated reverend weems, what precipitated the phone call then . Well after the charleston mass se cure, i think like many church folk and people across the country that welcomed a man into their inner circle and bible study and then having him turn on them as he did was heartbreaking. When speaking with marion from the seminary as bishop mentioned, she grew up in alabama and just expressed the sent timent that San Francisco is more divided. We didnt want to just offer a prayer and moving on like everything was all right. We wanted to take some kind of a next step and that led us to Bishop Jackson. So the two of you are developing a friendship, a relationship with each other. You have been involved with worshipping in each others congregations. Yes. What do you admire about the other . You know, being a pentecostal, im very familiar with the form of worship that we have, the high spirited worship and i like that, as well. John mass a pipe organist and i enjoy hearing the pipe organ and he has a wonderful choir so it is the refreshing change for me, but also, it is the spirit at calvary is very welcoming and our congregation enjoys going and i think the same is with the calvary congregation as well. What to you admire . Sometimes they are nicknamed the frozen chosen, a little up tight, a little stiff. I thought that was lutherans. It could be. But through the spirit he is helping to thaw us out in meaningful ways. When we worship together, his prayers are so powerful and feel directly from the spirit that i hear from people who never worshiped to another church and feel drawn and moved in ways they havent in the past. Bishop jackson is so involved it community. He doesnt talk a lot about himself but when i am at Different Community events, the quiet way he leads and speaks up when necessary is an inspiration to me. And he can play the organ. He is a great musician and can lead that way. They have welcomed us multiple times. When we come in, sometimes presbyterians can be awkward hug girls and dont know what to do. I have never been hugged and welcomed more warmly than i have there and Bishop Jackson sets the tone here. That is great to hear. One i would like to point out to do a shout out is about david barns who is the youth director of youth ministries and just a quick way how we have all connected with david, we did praise there and my daughter is the leader. It was our first time there and so we were inching our way along and feeling our way, but there is a point in worship when you lose yourself and youre into the spirit so adrienne said this is the way we do it at grace and she was singing a song about dancing before the lord and she said is there anyone who would love to dance before the lord with me and david barns who is a wonderful brother in christ came out and he just went out with adrienne and david is responsible for breaking the ice if you will at calvary because the rest of the congregation felt at liberty to go forth and worship the way we did. It was a very pentecostal al moment. You mentioned you dont want to exploit certainly a horrific situation that happened in the charleston but rather youre using that as an opportunity to bridge gaps and develop relationships between your two congregations. Where to you see this going . Well, ideally and bishop please chime in here, through city hall, throughout the city, through places where voices of justice sometimes are not heard as fully as they otherwise would be. Absolutely. I work very closely with the center for Integration Ministry and i think there is an opportunity for john and i and grace and calvary to do some things that will probably be innovative here in the city and county and San Francisco. Our desire is to work with the mayor and chief in dealing with some of the issues that we serious issues that we have. You probably know about the shooting of the mario woods and that night calvary and grace were together. We were walking the streets and having prayer in bay view harris point the very night that mario was shot and killed and it just reinforced in the devine way that the work we were doing, the work we are doing is much needed and necessary. It really forced a bond between our two congregations that night. As a response to the shooting, you were shipped together. We already planned to be out that evening. We were doing a vigil against gun violence so everyone was out with their candles. The idea was we would have a walk and go to different places where people had been killed and that was already planned and Bishop Jackson called about two hours before and told us about marios shooting and people still proceeds. David shoe came out that night as well to join us. What a powerful Community Statement that your two congregations made together. Were going to hear more about those kinds of opportunities in a minute after we take a break. L. Welcome back to mosaic. I have with me this morning two pastoral colleagues, two friends now. Reverend john weems, calvary presbyterian, Bishop Jackson Grace Tabernacle in very different neighborhoods in San Francisco. As we shared earlier, we had dis cussed or realized that some of your congregants had never been to each others neighborhood. What did they learn in that experience . Some people sheepishly said i lived in San Francisco for deck kids and never been to bay view hunters point. Maybe i went to a game at canned led stick but many not venturing out of their comfort zones. What our people learned again in addition to the warm welcome received at Grace Tabernacle was really how small the city is and how inner connected we really are. Some didnt realize the bus connects you and the bus will drop you off right at calvary so were deeply connected and how issues Police Interactions do impact all of us regardless of our neighborhood. Were connected but it is easy to believe were not connected. Absolutely. What did people learn when they went to calvary presbyterian . One of the things and unfortunately with African Americans there is always a hyper sense ty to racism and it is the welcoming, being welcomed into that community and being welcome led into that church with such warmth changed the minds and attitudes of the most of the people in the congregation. I hear comments like i love it when calvary comes to grace or i love it when we go to calvary. And we have been very mind full not to try to exploit the tragic situation or to try to exploit each other and give it perception that were just in it for the moment. Were in this for the long hall. We both have cornerstones in our ministry of social justice and we believe that the call of christ is to not stay in the sanctuary but to go out into the highways and to the hedges and give a message to those who are hurting, those who are marginalized and those who have been disenfranchised and by the powers that be and in the city where they dwell. Yeah talked about going to city hall together. I know our listeners would like to hear what is the work the two congregations are doing with the Police Commission and the needed changes on our police force . I see it as an uphill battle because so far the mayor has not heard our voice and neither has the chief. We have things in mind that we feel are very important for policing that would help forge a better relationship so thats our people dont have to be afraid that when they get stopped that they are going to be shot and the police are not on edge that somebody is trying to do harm to them, as well. It is going to take a lot of work, but we need people like mayor ed lee and the chief to listen to what we have to say. We believe that we have a compelling story to tell and argument and we have some solutions that might be helpful and we just dont have time to talk about them on this show. What is significant you want to do this together with the two congregating. If someone was shot outside calvary, it would be a front page story. One time a young man was shot on oakdale and it was buried deep inside the paper. You had to go look for it to find it. That is not right, and we from Pacific Heights to the bay view and everything wish to be a voice to raise those concerns. 0 what a learning for both your congregations and a deepening of faith as well. You also do some fun things together and there is an event coming up in april that could be prescribed as a celebration. Share about that event. Well, our church is blessed to have one of the most prolific songwriters, Steven Roberts and steven heads up a group of gospel worship music, a delegation of seniors, approximately 100 seniors. Well going to becoming to calvary and the calvary some of the calvary choir members will be joining in with the gospel workshop in april. It is april 17th, 5 00 p. M. Everyone is invited to that concert. I i i am going to invite saint marks luther ran church. And thank you for joining us on mosaic this sunday morning. Hi again everyone. Welcome to bay sunday. Im your host frank. We would love to hear from you. Go go to kpix. Com. Lets get started. Goodwill industries. They have been doing it for 100 years. You may know them for their numerous thrift shops and they help provide opportunities for families to stand on their own. San francisco, 21 retail stores. They are here to chat with us mr. David walker. How are you . Fine, thank you. Thank you for having me