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VI
NEW HORIZONS
One of the criteria for judging the effectiveness of leadership is the ability to provide the organization of group with the proper atmosphere for the mergence of new leaders. Dr. Stripp had developed such an atmosphere. South Berkeley Community knew where it wanted to go and the direction it wished to take. The pulpit committee, under the able guidance of Levi Nelson, seemed to sense that it had a mandate from the church to secure the services of a pastor who possessed both a keen sensitivity to the problems of the present and an optimistic approach to the tasks of the future. After numerous interviews with many candidates the committee was prepared to submit for approval by the congregation the name of Dr. John B. Thompson. On March 22, 1961 the acion of the pulpit committee was supported by the unanimous vote of the members assembled.
Dr. John B. Thompson brought a rich background of experience and scholarship to South Berkeley Community Church. He had served on the faculties of the Universities of Oaklahoma and Chicago and had served as pastor in a number of churches in the United States. Long before such activities were socially, economically, and physically "Safe", Dr. Thompson had been vigorously active in the promotion of better human relations in the areas of race and religion. The remarkable fact about Dr. Thompson's work was that it was done in large part in the heart of the opposition's stronghold - the Deep South. There could be no doubt of his courage and conviction.
It is difficult to make a fair assessment of the here and now because one needs the perspectives provided by time alone. However, few, if any, will deny the truth of the statement that the church has continued to progress under the stewardship of Dr. Thompson. Evidence abounds in the increased size of the congregation, in the physical improvement of the church plant, in the beauty of the architectural changes, in the quality of the messages delivered from the pulpit, and in that intangible quality -- the spirit that moves men and women to work enthusiastically for a noble cause. At this point one might say that John B. Thompson's contributions can be encompassed in these three words: Twentieth Anniversary Project. They are words to conjure with; they cover three years of arduous labor and a world of inspired ideas.
Our story now is ended, but we must remember that "the past is but prologue". Every historian is painfully aware of the fact that man "born without permission, to die without consent" has an almost passionate desire to leave some evidence that he has passed this way. Unfortunately limitations of time and space make it impossible to include all that could be said. Perhaps our present minister., Dr. Thompson, best expresses our deep respect for the past and our sanguine hopes for the future in these words:
"On this twentieth anniversary we praise famous men and our fathers who begat us' because they spent their energies for values that endure. They spent their limited resources in high adventures of faith. 'They looked for the city which hath the foundations whose maker and builder is God.
"Their work is unfinished, God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."
"From weakness we are made strong by such an enduring fellowship."
"In our generation we shall see all churches in America open their doors to all conditions and races of men."
"We shall be humbly proud that our church helped lead the way and that our founders placed their trust in God who through Christ calls us from alienation into the community of faith where the dividing walls of hostility have been broken down."