Press
Pastor Dan Schmitz sees Oak Park lawsuit as putting the "Gospel into real-life context" - April 26, 2001
OAKLAND, CA (April 26, 2001) - New Hope Covenant Church pastor Dan Schmitz has had plenty to do in helping grow a church of 40 people in Oakland during the past three years.
As a tenant in a run-down apartment complex near the church, however, he felt he could do even more. He and fellow tenant Russell Jeung led a group of 197 plaintiffs in a successful lawsuit against the landlord of the 56-unit building, resulting in a settlement totaling nearly $1 million.
"Contextualizing the gospel, I think, means taking care of people's physical needs, seeing the love of Jesus in very practical terms," said Schmitz, who serves as co-pastor with Bill Squires. "That's really the focus of our ministry - it's being obedient, expecting God to work in our midst without presupposing what that looks like."
New Hope celebrates the opening of our new building - March 25, 2003
OAKLAND, CA (March 25, 2003) - Two Pacific Southwest Conference (PSWC) congregations located 10 miles apart celebrated the opening of new buildings Sunday following completion of building projects.
New Hope Covenant in Oakland celebrated its first worship service with PSWC Supt. Evelyn M.R. Johnson among the approximately100 individuals in attendance, according to pastor Dan Schmitz.
Berkeley Covenant, our sister church, lists New Hope as a local organization they support
About Oakland:
SF Chronicle: “Of Race and Place: San Antonio, Oakland” – May 31, 2002
But dizzying diversity is the norm in the SanAntonio district, the expanse of East Oakland that reaches from Lake Merritt to 29th Avenue and is beginning to shake itself out and raise its voice after years of being overshadowed by neighboring Fruitvaleand Chinatown. In this polyglot patch of the city, where daily life involves a crash of different languages, ethnicities and cultures, integration is plum hard to avoid. Even 6-year-olds understand that.
The mix of primary languages at Garfield Elementary reflects the neighborhood's racial and ethnic scramble: Of 910 students, 368 are Spanish- speakers, 84 speak Mien, 81 speak Cantonese, 73 speak Khmer, 59 speak Vietnamese, 15 speak Lao, 13 speak Tagalog, six speak Arabic, four speak Tongan, one speaks Farsi and one speaks Bosnian. The rest - African Americans, for the most part, and one white student - are native English speakers.
New York Times: Oakland parks are revitalized - March 21, 2004
OAKLAND, Calif., March 20 — Places, like people, can get the blues. Walter Hood listens to them.
Lafayette Park was for years one of those defeated American places. Long known as Old Man's Park, it was a respite of green where codgers gathered to play checkers and horseshoes under the generous boughs of an ancient oak — the kind of tree for which Oakland, in more optimistic times, was named.
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