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United Church of Christ 
The Rev. Bob Lawrence, a California native, starts his ministry with us in mid-August, 2009. Bob is a graduate of Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA (Master of Divinity), where his studies focused on post-colonial, and process theologies. Bob will be ordained by the Mountain/Valley Association of the Northern California-Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ on July 25, where he was a member of College Avenue Congregational Church in Modesto, CA. Prior to joining College Avenue Congregational Church, Bob worked as Administrative Director with Rev. Karen Foster, founding Pastor, to establish New Spirit Community Church in Berkeley, CA. New Spirit started worshipping in 2000 and is affiliated with three denominations: United Church of Christ, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. Bob has been active in HIV/AIDS work since his days at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco (member over 20 years), a congregation especially hard-hit by HIV/AIDS. In addition to various "helping ministries" at MCC/SF, Bob was also trained by Kaiser Hospital to be a facilitator for their Positive Self-Management Program (PSMP). PSMP is a series of peer-led workshops designed to help those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS learn to live with HIV as a chronic illness, using chronic disease management principles developed by researchers at Stanford University. Bob was also honored at the 2003 US Conference on AIDS as a "Life-Sized California Hero" for his work helping faith communities develop a response to HIV/AIDS. Prior to his work in the ministry, Bob was a Systems Analyst for Nellcor Corp, a San Francisco Bay Area-based multi-national medical device manufacturing company. Bob supported the sales and marketing efforts of the company, including two years as a Project Co-Leader for a company-wide system design and implementation project. Bob knows first-hand the pain caused by oppressive, dogmatic religion, so his passions involve proclaiming the radical hospitality of God, and making sure everyone knows they have a place in God's presence. He believes in a theology of abundance that affects not only our relationship with God, but also our relationships with one another and all of God's Creation. As Bob shared with us in his first sermon at Community of Hope, one of his favorite metaphors for the work of the church in bringing about the kin-dom of God is that of the mustard seed: a tenacious weed that grows in spite of religious proscriptions against it; a home for the stranger and the immigrant and those seeking safety; a visible reminder of the abundance of God by being a place of refuge for those seeking nourishment; and, once established, it is a formidable force, changing the very landscape in which it takes root.
When not busy at church, you can find Bob visiting with friends in a local cafe, or sitting at his sewing machine working on a quilt.
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