Doesn’t it bug you when you have an important matter to deal with (such as a medical concern) and you’re trying to get ahold of a person who can help you, but when you call you only get an automated answering service with a sweet friendly voice telling you “We value your call. Your call is very important to us. So please stay on the line for the next 37 minutes until we can get to you, because really—you are very important to us.” I usually make some cynical remark under my breath (or maybe sometimes out loud) that if they really valued me, they would have someone available to answer my call right away. Years ago, before all the booking of flights happened online, Southwest Airlines used to stand out above the crowd because every time you called, a live person would answer after only 1 ring. Now THAT was good service, because it was personal, not automated. They didn’t just tell you you’re important, they actually treated you as important by making sure your call was answered immediately by a person who could assist you.

Being waited on by a machine bugs me, but I certainly understand the reasons why that happens. Providing personal service is very time-consuming, and oftentimes inefficient. In our quest to lower the bottom line and to get the most work done with the fewest workers, we turn to automation. That makes sense in a business, but I don’t think that should be our same mindset in the church. When it comes to building up the Body of Christ, effectiveness should win out over efficiency, and “making it personal” should be a higher goal than “making it fast.”

Especially when we consider what it takes to be a welcoming and hospitable church family, we cannot sacrifice personal connection on the altar of efficiency. Each person in our church—whether a first-time guest or a long-time member—needs to know they are valuable, not just because we tell them that in some generic way, but because we demonstrate that in the time we take to minister personally to them. It is, after all, the very inefficiency of a personal touch that makes it so meaningful.

But there is only one way for that vision to become a reality: every one of us needs to be actively involved in reaching out and caring and ministering to others in the church family. There is no way that a few pastors can provide personal ministry to everyone in the church (no matter how much we would like to do so). But if each person makes the effort to give personal attention to the needs and concerns of a few others, then it can happen.

I'm so thankful that God’s goal was higher than mere efficiency: instead of just telling us he loved us He demonstrated His love for us in this—while we were still sinners Christ died for us! We have no better example of making it personal than that!

By Pastor Dan Christian

The bottom-line reason why we ask God to bring people into Evergreen SGV is so that they will come to know and love and follow Jesus. The goal is not just to grow our church. The goal is not just to increase our budget. The goal is not even to expand our ministries. Those are all good things, and they are goals that we do shoot for, but they are not the foundational goal. The foundational goal is that each person entering in to our church would love God more.

As we embrace certain values that will help us become even more hospitable and welcoming, values like initiating friendship and keeping our assigned task connected to the bigger vision, we have to keep this bottom-line reason in mind. The Church is the Body of Christ, therefore it is centered around God, not centered around people. That may seem like a pretty obvious statement, but here are some ramifications of that which are perhaps a little less obvious.

People are not the Savior…Jesus is. The best thing we can do for a new mother coming in to our church is connect her to Jesus. That connection to Jesus may come through connecting her with a ministry like MOPS, but MOPS in itself is not the answer to her deepest need. That new mom needs encouragement and strength that only God can provide, so we do her a disservice by putting all the emphasis on what MOPS can provide rather than (through MOPS) pointing her to Jesus.

The Church exists to bring glory to God…not to get your needs met. Many people come to Evergreen SGV because we have a certain program or ministry or style that they like. While we can’t necessarily keep people from coming with a “consumer” mindset, we don’t need to perpetuate that mindset by “advertising” all the self-focused reasons why people should join our church. Instead, let’s point them to Christ, and Christ alone, as the primary motivating factor for joining our church.

God alone is perfectly faithful…people will let you down. When we center ourselves around people, sooner or later we will be disappointed or hurt. People are fallible sinners with very limited resources. But when we center ourselves around God, there will be stability and hope, because God is unlimited in His resources and perfect in all His attributes.

So as we invite and welcome people into Evergreen SGV, let’s make it our goal first and foremost to point them to Christ, not just to the ministries or programs of our church. 

As a parent of a special-needs child, there are many mundane, repetitive tasks that I must do, and sometimes in my weariness and impatience I say to myself “What’s the point of this? What is this really accomplishing anyway?” You’ve probably said the same thing too, even if you’re not a parent or don’t have a special-needs child—there are certain things that all of us do which prompt us to ask that question “What’s the point?”

That same question needs to be considered when it comes to serving in ministry in the church. Every ministry obviously has a stated purpose of what it’s aiming to accomplish, but what we often miss is that every ministry also has a deeper and further-reaching purpose that comes out of its connectedness to the overall mission of the church. If we are to be truly effective in the ministries God has given us, we need to understand this reality and seek to carry out not just the task we’ve been assigned but also the more foundational mission that gives significance to the task.

So what is the point (the larger purpose) that drives each of the particulars of ministry that you carry out? Do you realize there is a bigger goal that connects the ministry you do to the ministry that others do?

Here’s an example: If you serve as a greeter, your assignment is to stand near the entry doors and give smiles and warm welcomes and handshakes (and occasional hugs) to all those who come through the doors of our church. But there’s a bigger purpose to being a greeter than simply greeting people. Greeters are part of Enfolding Ministries, the purpose of which is to enfold believers deeper into the community and ministry of the church so that they will grow toward maturity in Christ. So by greeting people you are not only extending kindness to welcome them but you are helping them grow toward maturity in Christ!

Likewise, if you serve in Children’s Ministry, you aren’t just leading songs or shushing rowdy kids or teaching a Bible story, but you are making disciples and equipping leaders. If you serve as a Friday morning volunteer, you aren’t just stuffing programs but you are building up the Body of Christ. If you serve at the Community Pantry, you aren’t just giving food to people in need but you are building bridges for the Gospel to be proclaimed in La Puente. Wherever you serve, there is a point to it that is greater than simply the immediate task you are doing—so serve with that larger goal in mind. (And if you’re not yet serving anywhere, find a place and serve, not just so that a task gets accomplished but so that the Church is built up and God gets all the glory He deserves!)

by Pastor Dan Christian

You don’t have to have the powers of observation of a Sherlock Holmes to notice that just about every epistle (i.e. letter) in the New Testament contains some reference to giving or receiving greetings. In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, the entire final chapter is devoted to specific, personal greetings to individuals. That long list of personalized greetings is capped off by a general command to “greet one another” (Rom. 16:16), a command that is repeated in 1 & 2 Corinthians and 1 Peter also.

Why is something as seemingly obvious as greeting one another a repeated command in Scripture? Why did the Church then—and why do we as the Church now—need to be reminded to do something as simple as greeting each other? Or, getting a little more personal, why do YOU sometimes neglect to say “Hi” to others. For me, the reason is often embarrassment—I’ve forgotten someone’s name or I’m not sure what to talk about. Sometimes it’s fear of ending up in an awkward moment. Sometimes (and I’m ashamed to admit this one) it’s because I know if I say “hi” I’ll end up listening to the person for a long time, and so I selfishly hold back. And sometimes busyness is the reason—I’m wrapped up in a task or preoccupied with some thought or in a hurry to get somewhere, and I miss people because I’m simply not paying attention.

Whatever our reasons for neglecting to greet others, the fact is that we DO neglect it. And therefore we need to be reminded by Scripture that greeting each other isn’t just proper cultural etiquette, but is God’s command to us. Personally (and this isn’t a definitive, fully-researched conclusion, just an opinion) I think the command to greet one another is one of the simplest commands in all of Scripture to obey. Seriously, it might take all of one second to say “hi” to someone, only a few seconds more to add in a smile or a hug or a “How are you?” It’s not hard. Even a 2-year-old can do it…or a speech-impaired child.

Think about what a simple greeting does for you, when someone takes the initiative to say “Hi.” You feel noticed, acknowledged, appreciated, loved, connected…right?! On the flipside, how do you feel when someone just passes you by without a greeting? You can feel unnoticed, like you’re “invisible.”

Let’s be a church that is characterized by obedience to this simple command to greet one another. Let’s get past our embarrassment and stop worrying about things being awkward. Let’s learn to love sacrificially like Jesus when a simple greeting stretches into a long conversation. Let’s put our phones away and slow down enough to see the people God puts in our paths. And then, just say “Hi!”…it’s that simple.

by Pastor Dan Christian

My family started attending Evergreen SGV in the summer of 1998, as a young-married couple with our not-quite-two-year-old daughter. We had moved down from Oregon, in order to serve with Asian American Christian Fellowship on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona. We came to SoCal knowing only one person—my wife’s sister, Josie—and Josie invited us to Evergreen SGV. Though we fully intended to check out other churches also, God had other plans, and after visiting for awhile at Evergreen SGV, we decided to make that our church home.

So why did we “stick” at Evergreen SGV? What made the difference for us? While undoubtedly there were several factors, one major reason was that people took the initiative to reach out to us and help us get connected. Doug & Joann Franklin, Eugene & Kathy Chung, and others from the Diamond Bar Branch (led by Elliott Snuggs), invited us to their summer BBQ, where I discovered I wasn’t the only Caucasian guy in the church =), and we got to fellowship with other families who were also just beginning the journey of parenting children. Not only did they invite us to the BBQ, but they kept inviting us to their Branch and into their homes, and we became good friends (and those friendships continue to this day, despite changes in location and church home for some of them).

One of the foundational values that we as a church family must embrace, in order to foster the kind of connectedness that leads to spiritual maturity, is that of taking initiative. We cannot merely be people who sit back and wait for others to come to us. Rather, we need to take the initiative to identify and seek out those who are new, and then to initiate conversation, to invite them to the group(s) we’re involved with, to share a meal (or coffee) with them, and to find out how we can minister to them.

Here’s a challenge for you: this coming Sunday (in fact, this whole summer, if you will), before you cluster up with your friends or hide out with your iPhone or rush off to your ministry assignment, pause for 2 minutes and look around you. Ask God to open your eyes to see someone who might be in need of a word of encouragement or a friend to listen or even just a cheerful smile. Then initiate! Give that word—be that friend—bless someone with your smile! Who knows…that person whom you greet or invite may end up sticking at Evergreen SGV for the next 16+ years simply because you took the initiative to help them connect.