before we do, be sure to follow us on social media for bonus content and updates about the show. for everyone here, i'm charles davis. we'll see you next time on "sports stars of tomorrow." (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (bright music)

good morning. welcome to mosaic. ron swisher. it is always a privilege to host mosaic. i want to mention you barrels, we started ministry together in 1972. i was the pastor and he opened elmhurst, united methodist church and down the street was a baptist church and and at that time there was father jay matthews, and i was the second vice president and we were mentored by the great senior. and they

reminded me that of their anniversary at the temple. and then i moved to fairfield and i heard this buzz going on that you should hear dr. jackie. so i was there and i was in fairfield and one friday night i came to the good friday services and i remember what words she priests and it was an electrifying message. so today we are honored to have the senior pastor of the allen temple baptist church. the first elected woman pastor, reverend dr. jaclyn thompson.

thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> reverend charlie williams and reverend long, i knew you were all over the world. tell us about your calling. it is just phenomenal to have you. >> calling to ministry, i am the daughter of a pastor. i father recently passed and he was with the mount zion church in berkeley. i've grown up a church girl and went through the things that young adults go through when you start to question faith and theology and how it aligns with things in your life and i began seeking a deeper relationship with god. i started teaching high school in west oakland. and they are going through it and we need to

be in protest about that. i encountered some kids who realize that my desire 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 was what sustained me up to that point and that was my faith. and so i started a gospel choir because legally you are not supposed to say the name or have bible study in public schools so we had a lot of character work in deep conversation. and through that process the lord began to speak to me about proclaiming to larger audiences. to my surprise, the baptist senior was watching me as well. and so i let them know that i had this experience. and i went to a

sermon preached on jonah. so i was there and every time he said jonah i said 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 guidance i had. and i talked to dr. smith and he said, we've been waiting for you. i preached my first sermon in august of 1995. 25 years ago. we had a trial sermon later that year and immediately moved to d.c. to go to howard school. >> that is the opening segment and that will keep us truly interested all the way. please join us with reverend dr. jackie thompson who is now the pastor of allen temple baptist

church. a historic church.

welcome back to mosaic. if you heard dr. thompson you had to be excited about her call to ministry. tell us more what it's been like to pastorate allen temple church. >> it has been a joy. i was

raised at allen temple. i came there when i was 12 years old looking for a church because, for lack of a better phrase, i was sick of going to church. that was the era when you went to church all day. and i was not making the connection as to why all of this worship experience was occurring and what it was supposed to mean for my life. luckily i had a mother that was not so committed to her church and so we traveled and visited and landed at allen temple. and this short man that talked slow, i will never forget it, he preached matthew 28 and that 12 i understood, it was about the relevance of our faith in god and admit that we were supposed to do something. we were not supposed to just sit in the pews. i was raised at

allen temple, so pastoring there has kind of been surreal, it's my life coming full circle, back to the place i started. so i felt blessed for the opportunity to give back. i think the transition process was a bit testy and i think people were surprised by that. allen temple always supported women in ministry. but people can be challenged by authority. but i cannot say, i have no horror stories to tell. we are still in our honeymoon stage. we will see when we get to year seven. >> i always saw allen temple as a mega church. how many now?

>> about 2800. >> with people moving out, that is a good number. >> absolutely. we feel very blessed. >> my friend james and i have gone a number of times. one time you were at love center. >> i was there because they were experiencing transition and they ask pastors throughout the city to come in and support the people. they had been inviting me but that particular sunday knowing that he had left, i wanted to encourage the people. >> that's great. bishop hawkins >> we just had his sister in concert this past sunday. >> this past sunday we were there and heard your great message. tell us about that. >> it was the closing sermon for black history month to remind african-american people

that out of everything we've been through, god has kept us for a reason. it is not just for us to rest on our laurels were living our particular socioeconomic classes but that we can bring blessings to other people. reminding us that we were kept this far for a purpose. >> to have the speakers like you did was a great idea. >> for me, sometimes black history month can become pigeonholed and we focus on the superstars, all the names we've heard before. but we were a people before we were enslaved and we have a rare opportunity to lift up what was that history. so it is important to make the connections. and we also have members from many of the nations lifted up and i wanted them to feel affirmed as well. >> we definitely felt lifted.

tell us a little bit about your style of preaching. people have been electrified by your preaching. what is your methodology and approach? >> here is a secret that the world will now know, i am one of the few that made it through the seminary and did not take a preaching class. i started preaching my first year and the dean of preaching at howard university, i preached at his mother-in-law's church in rhode island and she sent him the tape. when i got back to d.c. he said, i heard you've been around the country preaching and you don't need a class. so i think my preaching style has developed over the years and i kind of start with, what is the one take away i want people to leave with and i build from there. preaching is about transformation, not just

of the mind but of behavior and understanding. i start with a behavioral purpose and that is something that dr. frank thompson lifted up in his book. he is an amazing man. so in his book he lifts up a behavioral purpose statement, so what you want to be different as a result of the engagement and i've taken that as the methodology i build from. >> it says that you have deep scholarly biblical ship along with girlfriend weight. >> i am still down to earth and practical and sometimes in churches we lose a generation because we are not able to speak to their current day. and so it has to do with identifying people with where

they are. it is not a bunch of words people can understand but trying to minister like jesus who walked among the people. and he knew that doing judaism in its formal sense how he may have learned it was not going to work so he told parables. so his parables are my girlfriend wit. >> we love coming. >> we will have to rope you into some things. >> i love to just receive right now. >> they were major supporters. i am so appreciative. >> we are going to take another break and we will be right back. please join us with dr. thompson.

welcome back. you talked about howard. you did a lot of work there in d.c. tell us about that. >> i left here in 1995 and went to howard university school of divinity. and i studied under some of the greats. it was a renaissance time. in terms of theological location. and i served at a congregation founded by slaves. they have social justice dna and i served as their youth pastor and built that program and bundle up to scale and it became nationally recognized and then shifted because d.c. at that time was not the d.c. we know today. i

wrote a grant for teen mothers and became the director of their family life center which does the outreach services. >> you were extremely successful when i read that your call to preaching and teaching prevailed. >> it did. >> i'm glad it did. >> so that is where you combine the emphasis on our fruits and what you do in the community, too. >> and the transformation of the church. and that was my opportunity to blend the concept around the community and the way it needs to be transformed around another generation. we are living in a time where a lot of young people are anti-institution.

but the reality is that faith and institutions have brought us this far as a people so we need to figure out how they can make them relevant to the next generation behind us. it is not something that i think about now but i am not opposed to it. i think at the time and even now my influence is even greater in this capacity than in political office. but you never know what the future holds. >> one of my predecessors, booker t henderson was there, so i was pushed a little bit in that direction but i decided i can only do one job. >> i think right now i am enjoying this because it gives me the opportunity to critique the things i think i see that a wrong. and if you are functioning in office you lose the ability to do that. so

right now i am comfortable remaining that voice that says, you know what, have you considered this? have you considered that? there are some people being left behind. >> my mentor in community organizing was paul cobb. >> he is full of rich history as well. and he is able to do that with publishing in the oakland paper. >> i'm glad to hear that background. do you still think? >> a little bit, here and there. >> i hear that you had a choir. >> yes, as part of worship, not recording or anything like that. my dad was a recording artist. >> with all that richness you felt called to the purpose, reserved for the purpose. >> yes, but i did not want to

pastor. i think i'd seen so much. it is a tremendous job, it is labor-intensive and it never ends. but when god calls you to it, i wanted a specific, distinct and clear call. because there is a call to preaching and a call to pastoring. once i was confirmed that god was calling me to pastor i undoubtedly said yes. >> this past sunday you're probably there from about 8:00 until 6:00. and that didn't count the hours you had to prepare. >> exactly. but you do it with joy. when you find what it is that you were born to do, it doesn't feel like work. even in ministry. >> what is your staff like? >> we do have some help. we have staff ministers that cover different areas like reverend

williams who is with me today. and we will be building out more staff in the future. >> when i was there i saw baptism. you did not baptize. >> it was deacons and other clergy. because you want to give your staff the opportunity to present their gifts. so since i was preaching, i did not want to baptize, use somebody else, god did not just call you. it gives others the opportunity to exercise their gifts. you will see a lot of associate ministers that meeting worship as well. >> what about funerals, weddings? >> they are all divided. i do some and then some are divided within the clergy and staff. >> i was just concerned. >> i have great help. so i stand on the legacy of great

leaders who have built wonderful organizations and provide opportunities for others. >> you have great discernment and leadership skills. when it comes to having a large staff, it seems like you are able to manage it pretty well. >> i inherited good people that are already trained. my role is to take them into the next generation and bring the next generation along. >> we have one more segment. if we left anything out, we will cover it in the next segment. please join us with dr. thompson.

in this last segment we want to look at her entire ministry again because allen temple has 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 to celebrate smith leadership because they were there and they represent 50 years. we were able to dedicate a street name. and we celebrated the retirement of jeff jr. we celebrated all profits in their own right and we had a

wonderful gala. it was an amazing time. and i think it re-energize the congregation and gave them the opportunity to reconnect. >> to 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. when i join many people lived in the neighborhood and now the neighborhood is predominantly hispanic. >> in west oakland we experience the same. but there is tremendous ministry going on. i mentioned reverend jenkins. he is doing great work. and they have to commute but they stay there. in our last minute or so, what would you give as the advice for pastors in that urban area and seeing our members move away. what would you say is the best

way to galvanize ministry? >> i think the best way, no matter where you are is around mission and relationship. the people at allen temple are committed to their relationships and to one another. it's not just coming in for celebration, it is everything that happens during the week. whether it's dealing with human trafficking or helping in the community, speaking out on those who are voiceless. so for the people committed to that, there is no distance they won't drive in order for that to be maintained. and they have maintained relationships with one another. they have been at each other's weddings and helped raise each other's children. so if you can build ministries that cultivate relationships among your members and carry that out to work in the community, i think you will have success. and success is not size, it is

impact. jesus had 12 and he change the world. if we keep that in mind then i think we will find good success in urban environments. >> the smiths left a great successor. >> bless you. thank you. thank you for having me. >> you are a blessing to all the people. i'm sure weekly and throughout your ministry and even in different parts of the country. continue it. amen. >> appreciate it. >> thank you for joining us. the lord is our light and salvation. we are blessed in the land of the living. not just when we die. this ministry is for life, abundant and full and complete, now. and dr. thompson adds to that as allen

temple church does. thank you for being with us. god bless you. blocked from watching the big match? [referee whistle] save the day by using the bank of america customized cash rewards card and choose to earn 3% cash back on online purchases. like live streaming.

extract from cbs news bay area, this is the morning edition.