Kevin Barnes, 42, pastor of the church

We have ex-everything you want to name in this congregation. We have guys that have been in prison for different reasons. We have guys that have been on crack cocaine and have left their families and have come back to the church, and they were received back by myself and others and restored, and their lives have changed tremendously. We have guys that don't have jobs. We try to find jobs for them to help them. We have a lady that was on crack cocaine, and she came to this church and she shared with me, she said: "Pastor, I've never been clean any more than five months."

And I said, "This is the time you're going to be clean." She called me today on the phone, and she's been clean 19 months. So those are the miracle things. It's not about money, it's not about finance, it's not about fine cars, it's not about fine houses. It's none of that stuff. It's about being effective to change a life.

One will often ask you: "Well, okay, Reverend, we hear what you're saying. But we also notice that you drive a nice car, you dress pretty well." Things like that. Well, in black culture, from where I'm from, they have to see somebody that's doing well to want to try to grab that. In other cultures, maybe they don't have to see that. I don't know. But in the black culture, that's why we have so many in the street. They want to do what the pimp is doing, want do what they drug dealer is doing.

Well, it's time now that some Christians, some pastors are able to stand and say: "Hey, look! I want to be a good guy! And a good guy can really make it!" And that's my whole theme on it: a good guy can make it. This is being shared with the people, and it's just amazing to see the lives change. There have been some that have left their families, and now they're back with their families. There have been young men who have had babies out of wedlock. Some of these people ended up getting married now because now they understand what a family is. There have been husbands that have left their wives and now they're back together again. This is what this ministry means.

Oakland is a better area since we've been here. The church has been in existence for 26 years here; I've been here nine years. But we've seen the transformation of even this area. People are respecting this area now. The church is the lighthouse. Everybody's worried about who's in the White House, but we're more concerned about who's making it to the lighthouse.

I think the Oakland housing market is getting totally out of hand as far as the regular Joe that’s living here. You’re getting these dotcom companies in, and they can afford $1300 or $1400 a month rent. That’s no problem. But what’s the average family going to be able to do? I think that’s a shame. There ought to be more low-income housing available in the area. But it seems as though what they’re doing is they’re taking West Oakland and gonna make it a straight dotcom area. And those people that don’t have a place to live are going to come knocking on the door, just like we have them on Thursdays now, coming and asking for food and trying to get a place to live. I think that is very wrong, and I think there are some things that need to be done.

I’m working on a couple projects myself trying to provide low-income housing. We own the apartment building across the street, and we haven’t went up on the rent in seven years. That’s a miracle. That’s probably the only place in Oakland that you can find a one-bedroom at $500 a month. We have nine units--five of them are low-income, and that was the point. We think everybody deserves a chance. We have another program called CARE, Care About Reacing Everyone. We have a computer program that we’re going to begin. The San Francisco Giants gave us forty computers, and we’re going to tie them all together.

It's not easy. I would say I work about 70, 75, almost 80 hours a week. It's a little bit of everything: counseling, phone calling, even at home. I have a phone in my home for the church, so they're able to call me. We have a very good Bible class on Sunday mornings. We might have 125-150 people. Out of those, about 85 or 90 of them are in Bible class on Wednesday. Generally the day I have off is Monday. But watch this: Monday is the time I'm trying to figure out what I’m going to preach next Sunday.

I went to Bay Cities Baptist Theological Seminary for two years. I took Hebrew, I took Greek, but there are so many other resources you can use, you can buy right out of the bookstore. I go to conferences all over the place. There are several compact schools you can go to to learn how to interpret Greek and Hebrew. And these books are written by other people, so you have to also make it make sense in your culture, because that's who you're trying to reach. It's not going to do any good to speak in the King James way that we won't be able to understand. That's why I use a lot of parables. They’re really just stories, so that a person can understand exactly what's going on.
I see my role as a living example that you can make it. A living example that through the trials and tribulations and tough times of life, through the ghetto, I'm living proof that you can make it. Because I was 17 years on welfare myself as a child. It was rough, and now I’m doing okay, so it's living proof that it has changed my life.
I was in business for myself. The name of the company was K and K Industrial Supplies. And the reason it was K and K was because I had two boys at that time, one named Kevin and one named Keith, and I would remember why I was out there, why was I selling those industrial supplies. I was in business for eight years. I had two trucks, four or five people working for me. I was in business for one of the years I was here. And I had to stop the business because I believe in putting everything into it ,and I couldn't do the business and also take care of God's business, so I dropped my business.

My wife thought I was crazy. But I dropped it. And economically it was a stinger, it really was, because when I first got here all the people could afford to pay me was $150 a week. And I had been making about $125,000 a year. I came here nine years ago, and all they could give me was $150 a week. And I made $150 a week while I still had my business going. So I ended up kind of depleting my savings so I could continue the ministry. My wife looked at me like "Are you crazy?" But it was a total faith walk that I did. From $125,000 a year to $150 a week. They couldn't afford anything else.

When I first got here, I really wasn't interested in this church. They didn't have a lot of people, and all the people were old. But after I preached, I’ll never forget, I had a hat that they allowed me to put on the hat rack in this office. And I took the hat off, and after I finished preaching I went to my other church service. When I got over there, I said to my wife: "I don't have my hat. I said: "I left my hat at that church." I didn't say "Abyssinian." I said: "At that church."

I started thinking about it. Where do you wear a hat? You wear a hat on your head.
And then the spirit of the Lord just spoke to me, and said I was going to come back to this church.

So I believe the spirit was sharing with me that I would become the pastor or the leader of this church, and I didn't even know it. I didn't think about it I didn't want it. And surely that's what happened. The deacon called me, and he told me they wanted me to come back and preach the next Sunday. So I said okay. Came back the next Sunday. And then afterwards they elected me the interim pastor. And then, unanimously, they elected me to be the pastor of this church. And that's how I became the pastor of this church.
My salary comes out of the church budget, but still, that's what they give on Sunday. Sometimes it's scary. Never be rich, that's for sure. But they're doing a very fine job. I have a lovely group of people. They really know how to take of the pastor, so I thank God for each of em. As the church grows, then I'm also to increase in the financial contribution that will go to myself and my family. That's the bargain we have: as the church grows, my salary grows also. And it's lovely.

The only regret I have, if I was to look at it on an economical sense--perhaps I wasn't able to give to my kids some of the things that I would have been able to give to them at that time. And I also wasn't able to spend the time with my son. He's 22. He plays the organ right now. You take eight, nine years from that, and here he is in the prime of his high school, he's 14 years old, he's playing basketball--but Dad can hardly go to the games. I look back and I say: Wow, you know what it did? It took me away from my son. We have a wonderful relationship, but it took me away from the sports activity that other dads get a chance to do.

That's the part that people don't see. They just see the anniversaries., they see him drive the car, they see the diamonds. They don't see that it takes you away from your family. And they don't see the behind the scenes. Being a pastor, oftentimes there comes a point when you're not understood. You could have a lot of people around you and you experience loneliness. See, that's something else that people don't know. They think: Oh, he's just joyful all the time. But after you do the work, after preaching and things like that, you come back in the office and you're drained. There are other times you don't really know who to talk to. That's why I’m part of other organizations with pastors--because it enables you to be around other pastors that pretty much go through the same thing that you're going through.

I haven't had a Sunday that I’ve left the church in nine years. I've probably missed three Sundays, maybe two, and I was out of town then, maybe three. I went through a whole year where I preached 52 times that year. It's a lot of work. But it's rewarding, because it changes people's lives. And the whole thing is: if you don't have any change on anyone's else's life, why are you living? What good is it?
That's why I know it's my calling. Everybody can't do this. Some people would say: "Hey! This is too much." And they would quit. But I’m in it for the long haul.

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