Families come to San Benito County from all over, as different
as their reasons for moving here: More affordable housing, a slower
pace of life, the chance to open a business.
Hollister – Families come to San Benito County from all over, as different as their reasons for moving here: More affordable housing, a slower pace of life, the chance to open a business. Few come on a spiritual quest, like Dori and Bruce Bannister.
The Bannisters, who have lived in Hollister for six years, came to town with the intention of starting a church, at the behest of their pastors at the Christian Community Church in San Jose.
“At the time, Hollister was one of the fastest growing areas in the country,” said Mr. Bannister. “We both always wanted to help people have better lives, and this was a good place to do it.”
For Mr. Bannister, working for his church was a natural extension of his upbringing.
“I was raised to have a profound relationship with God,” he said. “And I just never got away from it.”
Mrs. Bannister wasn’t always so clear on what she wanted to do with her life. In her youth she faced a broken home, the effects of which took a serious toll on her physical and emotional health by the time she was 19.
It was on the suggestion of a co-worker at IHOP, where she worked as a waitress, that she attended a Billy Graham Crusade in Seattle, which she says changed her life.
“I experienced a peace, and love, and a sense of forgiveness,” she said. “And things started to change for me immediately after that.”
Mrs. Bannister dedicated her life to helping others, specifically those in the prison system or battling substance abuse. Her turnaround prompted Billy Graham’s production company to televise her life story in the early 1990s.
Through her work at the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall she met fellow volunteer Bruce. They married in 1981, and ordained together in 1993.
When the couple moved to Hollister with their children Amy and Ben, they were giving Sunday services out of their house, with a weekly attendance of about 12. Today, the two are co-pastors of the Hillside Christian Fellowship on San Felipe Road, and their Sunday services are attended by about 250 people.
One of the church’s major draws is its popular Celebrate Recovery group, which serves 70-100 people at a time who are looking for help.
“We see drug addicts, alcoholics, bikers, and sometimes the mentally ill,” said Mrs. Bannister. “But sometimes even the most hardened criminals can be the nicest people. They all want to change, just the same.”
The Bannisters still spend time with kids in juvenile hall and jail inmates, as well as run several support groups.
Mrs. Bannister visits patients with Hazel Hawkins’ new palliative care program. And the couple is teaming up with other religious leaders in the community to help with the new homeless shelter off Southside Road, set to open in mid-November.
They try not to let their work interfere too much with their private life.
“We work at it, constantly, and our family is even stronger because of what we do,” said Mr. Bannister.
