everhing ♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. (upbeat music) >> i want to mention hughe in particular because hughe and i started ministry together in 1972. i was the pastor of elm hurst and he was the pastor of ill hillside and down the street was allen temple church. he was the president of the

clergy. father j. matthews who we lost not long o was the vice president, hughe was the secretary and we were mentored by the great senior and all he did. junior i met later and had the privilege of marrying junior and his wife, elaine. they reminded me of that at their 100th anniversary at allen temple last year and 40 some years now. and then i moved to fairfield eight years ago, and i heard this buzz going on that you should hear dr. jackie. so i was there in fairfield and one friday night, i came to the good friday services. >> oh, wow. >> and i don't remember what word she preached eight years ago, but she left some paint on the sanctuary, but it was a dynamic message. today we're honored to have the senior pastor of allen temple

church. the first elected woman pastor, senior pastor of allen temple, c. jacqueline thompson. great to have you. >> it is great to be here. >> thank you for coming. >> i knew you were all over the world. >> they made it. >> they made it and i'm glad you're here. tell us about your calling. it's phenomenal. >> calling to the church or calling to ministry? >> ministry first. >> well, i'm the daughter of a pastor. my father, who recently passed in december, was reverend dr. mt thompson. he pastored in berkeley for 40 years. i've grown up a church girl all of my life and went through the things young adults go through and you question faith and theology and how it lines up with what you're experiencing in life. i began seeker a de go

std her wes d. sor re rougt now. e needto be in protest about that. encountered some kids who i realized that my desire, which was to go into law and politics was not enough. >> i read that. >> 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 sustained me up to that point and that was my faith and that sense of hope. so i started a gospel choir because legally you're not supposed to say the name or have bible study. we did a lot of character work and had a lot of deep conversation. it was through that process that the lord began to speak to me about proclaiming to larger audiences. to my surprise, i didn't realize dr. smith senior had

been watching me as well. i went to him and told him i had this experience. i went to the evening communion service and he preached a sermon on jonah. every time he said jonah, i heard jackie. he said if anyone senses a call, come to the altar. i don't remember walking or getting up but i was at the altar and i said yes to that sense of god that i had. the rest is history. i talked to dr. smith and he said we've been waiting for you. so i preached my trial sermon probably august of it would have been 25 years ago this year. august 19, 1995. >> so you didn't go to the whale? >> no. i preached my trial sermon and then immediately moved to d.c. to go to howard school of divinity. >> that's exciting. that's an opening segment and keep us interested all the way. >> wonderful. >> we'll come back in a moment.

please join us for dr. reverend jackie thompson who is now the pastor of allen church. historic church. 100 year anniversary.

>> welcome back to mosaic. if you heard dr. thompson, you had to be excited about her call of ministry. she's pastor of allen temple

baptist church. tell us what it's been like for you. >> it's been a joy. i was raised at allen temple. i came there when i was 12 years old looking for a church because i was lack of a better phrase, sick of going to church. and that was during the era you went to church all day. so 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 wasn't so committed to her church she didn't think it was important for me to have a relationship with god. we traveled and toured and visited and landed in the balcony at allen temple church. this short man with a deep voice who talked slow got up and i will never forget it. he preached matthew 28. at 12 i understood. the sermon was about the relevance of our faith in god.

it meant we were supp tsome eren'tos be ing inthe pe faitshould drive us to action. so i joined. so i was raised at allen temple. pastoring there has kind of been surreal. it's my life coming full circle. i feel blessed. >> have you experienced the saying that prophets are not honored in their own country? >> not really. the transition process was testy and people were surprised by that because allen temple has always been a supporter of women in minatory. people can be challenged by the idea of authority. since they never had female authority, wondering what that would look like. i have no horror stories to tell. they've been amazing and loving and kind. we're still in the honeymoon stage. >> i always saw it as a mega

school. it's still mega. >> our membership is about 2800 now. >> okay. >> we're about 2800. >> with people moving out, that's still a good number. >> absolutely. and with many churches struggling with attendance in the area and losing members. we feel blessed. >> my friend james and i have gone a number of times. >> i was at love center because their pastor had gone. they were also experiencing transition and asking pastors in the city would they come and support and encourage the people. he was a new pastor. he had had only been there a couple of years. they had been inviting me and i hadn't been able to do it. that particular sunday knowing he had left and knowing how important pastoral leadership is, i went to encourage the people. >> bishop hawkins. >> we had his sister concert for black history concert this past sunday. >> this past sunday we were there and heard your great message preserve for a purpose. tell us about that.

>>a purpose was history montso remind americanpeople that out of everything that we've been through and the success we've experienced that god has kept us for a reason. that it's not just for us to rest or live in our particular classes, but that we've been blessed to go and be a blessing to other people. and to bring another generation along with us. and so reminding us that we were kept this far for a purpose. that's to expand god's kingdom. >> to have the speakers like you did, that was a great idea. >> for me, it can become pigeon hole and we focus on the super stars. all the names we hear before. but we were a people before we were enslaved. and we have rare opportunity to lift up what was that history. it was important to me to make the connection between africans and the actual continent. weal

of e natis nted em el affi we >> definitely fe lifted now ll a little bit about your style of preaching. people have been electrified by your preaching. what is your approach to preaching? >> here's a secret that the world will now know. i'm one of the few who made it through seminary and didn't take a preaching class. and the reason being is because i started preaching my first year and the deen of preaching at howard university, i preached at his mother-in-law's church and she sent him the tape. when i got back to d.c. he said i heard you've been around the country preaching. he said you don't need a class and he signed me out of it. so i think my preaching style has developed over the years. i kind of start with what is the one take away i want people to leave with. i build the sermon from there.

for me, preaching is about transformation. not just transformation of the mind, but behavior. transfar medication of understanding. i start with a behavioral purpose. that's something that dr. frank thomas who has the only phd in the country in preaching lifted up. >> dangerous sermons. >> in deed. he's amazing. he's an amazing man. so in his book, like to never quit praising him, he lifts up a behavioral purpose statement. what do you want to be different about the hearers as a result of the engagement. i've taken that as a methodology. >> i love the bio. you have deep scholarly biblical scholarship combined with girlfriend whit. how do you describe that? >> i'm an east oakland girl. in many ways, still down to earth, practical, touchable and i think sometimes in churches, we lose a generation because we're not able to speak to

their current day. and so girlfriend whit has to do with being able to identify with people where they are. it's not just a heady oa thgosp trying to preach like jesus who lived among the people. he knew doing judaism how he may have learned it was not going to work, so he told parables. his parables are my girlfriend whit. >> we've loved coming. now that i'm retired you'll see me a number of times. >> we'll have to rope you into some things. 47 years of wisdom. >> well, i love to just receive right now. >> i understand. >> brothers to brothers. >> that's a good thing. they were major supporters during my process. >> we'll take another break and i want to hear more. please join us. dr. thompson.

>> welcome back to mosaic. you talked about howard. you did a lot of work there in d.c. >> i did. >> tell us a little bit about that work. >> i left here in '95 and went to howard and studied under greats like dr. felder and dr. sanders and dr. chart carpenter. while i was there i served on staff of shallow baptist church. that was a congregation founded by slaves. they have a social justice dna. i was their youth pastor and built that program and model up to scale. it became nationally recognized and then shifted because d.c. at that time was not the d.c.

it is today. where shallow was located there was a lot of needs. i became director of their family life center foundation, which is a program that does the outreach services. >> you were extremely successful, your call to preaching and teaching became prevailed. >> yes, it did. >> i'm glad it did. where did you get your dock tritt? >> fuller in pasadena. >> that's where you combined the emphasis on our roots. >> yes. >> and of course, what you're doing into community too. >> 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. we're living in a time where young people are antiinstitution. any institution. particularly religion. the reality is faith and institutions have brought us

this far as a people. we have to figure out how to make them relevant to the next generation coming behind us. >> do you think about running for office yourself? >> you know, people ask me that. that was my desire before ministry. it's not something that i think about now but i'm not opposed to it. at the time and even now, my influence is greater in this capacity than in actual political office. you never know what the future holds. you can never say never when you're called. >> one of my predecessors, booker t. anderson was mayor. i decided i can only do one job. some pastors are good at it. >> right now i'm enjoying this posture because it gives me the opportunity to critique the things i see are wrong. sometimes when you're actually functioning in office, you lose your ability to do that because you're considered a part of the institution. so right now, i'm comfortable with remaining that voice that says you know what, have you

considered this? have you considered that? there's some people being left behind and you all need to focus on that. >> my mentor and community organizing was paul cobb and he's still around. >> yes, he . 's fl ofich story as he wantebe that. rme' >>t's neary. heat with publishing in the oakland post. you get it every sunday. >> yeah, that's excellent. i'm glad to hear that background. you continue, do you still sing? >> a little bit here and there. in church. >> i heard you had a choir you started? >> yeah. as a part of worship. not as an artist. my dad. he was a recording artist. >> that's right. dr. thompson. so with all that richness, you felt called for the purpose as you said. preserved for the purpose. >> yes. but not for the pastor. i didn't want to pastor. i think i had seen so much.

it's a tremendous job. it's a labor intensive job. it never ends. >> never ends. >> when god calls you to it, i wanted a specific distinct clear call. there's a call to preaching. then i believe there's a call to the pastor. it's a different skill set. once i was confirmed to pastor, i undoubtedly said yes. >> this past sunday you were there from 8:00 until 6 or 70:00. >> about 7. >> that didn't count the hours you had to prepare. >> exactly. you do it with joy. it's true when you find what it is you're born to do it doesn't feel like work. >> what is your staff like? i know you have to have help. >> yeah, allen temple has been a multistaff church. we have 60 lay ministers and ministers who cover areas like reverend williams. she covers communication. we have a manager and we'll be building out more staff in the

future. >> i saw a baptism. you didn't baptize. >> i did not. >> it was two or three others. o baptize inthe pool, run, dry off, change clothes. you got 60 minutes. god didn't just call you. it gives them opportunity to exercise their gifts as well. same with communion. on communion sunday, you'll see a lot of our associate ministers leading in worship as well. >> what about memorial services? funerals, weddings? >> they're all divided. >> okay. do you have to do any much of them at all? >> i do some. some of them are divided with the rest of the clergy and staff. >> i was just concerned when i saw all that. >> no. i have great, great help. i stand on the legacy of great leaders who built wonderful organizations and provided opportunities for others.

we're just continuing in that vain. >> it sounds like you have great did certainment and leadership skills. when it comes to having that large staff, it seems like you're able to manage it well. >> i inherited good people. i take no credit. i inherited good people that are trained. my role is to take them into the next generation and bring another generation along. >> we have one more segment. if there's anything we left out, let's cover it in the next segment. please join us with dr. thompson.

>> in this last segment with dr. thompson, we want to look at her entire ministry but allen temple celebrated their 100th anniversary. tell us what that was like. >> it was amazing. it was 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're combined leadership with the father and the son represents 50 years. so we were able to dedicate a street name. >> oh, good. >> we celebrated the retirement of jay alfred smith, jr. we hosted the best preachers in the nation. reverend jeremiah wright. all prophets in their own right. dr. freddy haines. we celebrated a wonderful gala. it was an amazing time. it reenergized the congregation and gave them an opportunity to reconnect. it was a blessed time. >> now do you have many members commuting? >> we do. we have a good number that live in the area. for the most part we're a commuter church, which is different than when i joined. when i joined many lived in the neighborhood. now it's predominantly hispanic. >> taylor memorial we experienced the same.

people are commuting. there is tremendous ministry going on. my colleague and mentor reverend jenkins. >> who i just met. >> he's doing great work there. they have to commute. they stay there and produce. in our last minute or so, what would you give as the advice for pastors in that urban area and centers and seeing our members move away? what would you say the best way to galvanize ministry in those ways? >> the best way to galvanize ministry is around mission and relationship. the people of allen temple are committed to their mission and committed to one another. it's not just coming in on sunday morning for celebration. it's everything that happens during the week. whether feeding the homeless, dealing with human traffic or planning activities for outreach in the community, that's instilled in our dna. that's who we are as a people. speaking out on behalf of those

voiceless. people committed to that, there's no distance they won't drive in order for that to be maintained. in addition, they've maintained relationships with one another. they've been in each other's weddings and raised each other's children and they want to see their grandchildren be a part. if you can build ministries that cultivate relationship and connection among the members and carry that out to work in the community, you'll have success. to remember that success is not size. success is impact. jesus had 12. he changed the world. >> amen. amen. >> so if we keep that in mind, then i think we'll find good success in urban environments. >> well, the smiths left a great successor. >> oh, blessed you. >> i'm glad we got a hold of you. you're a blessing to all people. that hear you.

>> thank you, i appreciate it. >> thank you for joining us. the o lord is our light and salvation is my favorite scripture. we're blessed in the land of the living. not just when we die. this ministry is for life % now. dr. thompson adds to that as allen temple church does. thank you for being with us. god bless you.

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