by Terri Wong

“Dear all the Sunday school teachers,

Thank you for teaching me even though you still have a couple more weeks to teach me. I just really appreciate the work you do for me. See you next week!”

          This note was left one recent Sunday morning on the classroom table. I was blessed as I read this sweet note from one of our 4th grade Church School (CS) students. It reminded me of my call to serve God as a CS teacher many years ago and why I love this ministry!

Why Church School?

Over 80% of the people in churches today decided to follow Jesus before the age of 18. There is a season in a person’s life when they are most open to learning about Jesus.  In Ecclesiastes 3:1, God said there is a time for everything and that season when people are forming their understanding of the world and of God is sometime between the ages of 4-14. Many people call this the “4-14 Window.” Therefore, what we do as parents and as CS teachers during this 4-14 window, or the ages of 4-14, is critical! Teaching our children about Jesus and to trust in Him is the most important thing we can do.

Why celebrate Church School?

God is so good to the CS ministry and His faithfulness continues through all generations. Children faithfully come eager to learn from God’s Word – what a blessing!  We are privileged to have wonderful CS teachers who love God and love teaching from His Word. They serve with enthusiasm and joy every Sunday! It is always good to praise and thank God for His goodness!

When is the Celebration?

At the end of the CS year, we get to celebrate with either a picnic, games or a swim party. During the past two years, we have had a celebration at the El Monte Aquatic Center. Back again for this year, the Church School Celebration will be on Saturday, August 13 from 4:30-7:30pm at the Aquatic Center. Check out the details on the church’s website! Please join us as we celebrate the Church School year! You do not have to swim – just come and fellowship with other Evergreen families.

            While the note I shared above was intended for the 4th grade CS teachers, I want to say thank you to ALL those serving in Church School. “I just really appreciate the work you do for me” and for the Lord. I celebrate the blessing of serving God alongside you. 

Psalm 91:1-2

“1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

If I say that I’m dwelling in the shelter of the Most High, then what does that mean? Well, from the end of verse 2 it means that I am trusting God. The psalmist says, “I will say to the Lord, ‘My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.’”

God is my refuge and fortress, when I trust him. Now a refuge or fortress is a shelter that protects a person and keeps them safe from harm. In the Old Testament, God commanded Moses to set up cities of refuge where an offender could flee to without fear of retribution (Numbers 35:9-15). The city of refuge served as a safe place where a person could be at peace knowing that he was protected until he was brought before the congregation for judgment.

Like a city of refuge, God is our refuge, our safe place, when we trust Him. However, when we don’t trust him, when we don’t confidently expect him to be true to his word and all that he is, then God isn’t our refuge. Something else is.

How do you know you’re trusting in something or someone other than God? For myself, I am able to recognize when I have fled into a fortress other than God by simply seeing how I react to things.

This past week, my oldest daughter left to study abroad in a Latin American country and will not return until December. Since she left, I’ve experienced a variety of fears and anxieties that I normally don’t experience. Why am I anxious and fearful? Well, after asking the Lord to search my heart, it’s basically because I’m not in control and I can’t readily get to her. My refuge before was based on her proximity and my ability to easily help her in time of need. Well, that refuge is gone now and so what or in whom do I place my trust now? Before I honestly thought I trusted God with the wellbeing of my daughter but I see now that I was really trusting in my perceived control and ability to help.

Anxiety, fear, irritability, sleeplessness, nervousness, despair, outbursts of anger, addictive behaviors, escapism into TV series, video games or fantasy games, stress related physical ailments, and more, are all reactions to life that are not simply responses to difficulties but they are responses to our refuge being broken down. When the walls of our fortresses begin to fall, then all these reactions and more within us begin to manifest themselves.

My hope and prayer is that we don’t simply seek to pray to God to alleviate the anxieties or despair or escapist behaviors, but instead we go deeper and ask the Father to reveal to us what refuge or fortresses we are trusting in other than him. For eternal peace will only come when we are able to say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” 

So, what does a pastor do on a sabbatical? For one, he stops going to church on Sundays! Actually, he stops attending his own church and gets to visit other churches.

While on sabbatical, it was the first time in my life that I visited a different church (sometimes two churches) every Sunday morning for three consecutive months. I wanted to get a feel for what churches were like in the San Gabriel Valley and so I focused my church visits to within a 10-mile radius of my home. As I mentioned in my previous article, I was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the 18 churches I visited had vibrant worship and relevant, Bible teaching. There were a few churches that were disappointing but overall I was more encouraged than discouraged.

All the churches were unique and had their individual strengths and weaknesses. Some had incredible worship bands with vocalists who sounded like… ah… um… I would write a name of a current pop star vocalist here but I don’t know any. Ha! I’m such an unhip dad. Anyway, some had great worship and others had articulate and engaging biblical preachers who left me in wonder thinking, “Lord, you’ve truly gifted that kid!” I say “kid” because some of them were probably 20 years younger than me.

However, whatever strengths each church displayed - whether it was their worship, preaching, seamless transitions in the service, professional audiovisual ministry, or whatever - the one X-Factor that most impacted me and my experience of the church was its “warmth”. I’ll call it the church’s warmth factor. It’s the level of friendliness I experienced when I walked into the church and came into contact with its people.

When I walked into a church, I assumed the greeters or ushers would look at me and say, “Hello, welcome to such-and-such church.” That was their role and responsibility and so I expected them to do that. However, when a person in the pew, who had no role to play or obligation to fill; when they smiled, reached out to me and asked me a few questions… well… that was huge.

It was so huge that out of the 18 churches I visited, there were only three in which a person in the pew initiated conversation with me. But let me be clear, in all the churches I attended, the ushers and greeters did their job and so I was definitely acknowledged and not ignored. However, the warmth that made the greatest impression on me and blessed me came from the person in the pew.

So, let’s take heed to what the Scriptures and Pastor Dan has been urging us to do these past few Sundays. Let’s take the initiative, greet one another and maybe even meet someone new. You never know, you could end up becoming the most impactful part of the worship service for a guest that’s visiting our church that Sunday morning.

So, when are you coming back from your sabbatical? I already came back. You’re already done? Yes, I was on sabbatical for three months from March 1st until May 31st. Really?

I’ve had this conversation with more people than I’m willing to admit since returning on June 1st. Yes, my sabbatical is over. I really was gone for three months. I know that you missed me. At least that’s what I keep telling myself. Ha! Seriously though, thank you so much for the privilege of being able to take a sabbatical leave. I’ve met a few pastors who never get a sabbatical and I have to wonder what other means God uses in their life to maintain the critical separation of their identity and their pastoral role. For I have found that when your pastoral role becomes your identity, then the leaven of selfish ambition can easily permeate the bread that you break to feed the hungry. So thank you again for the blessed gift of a sabbatical.

While on sabbatical, I accomplished most of my objectives. As planned, I began the practice of praying through the book of Psalms once a month; praying them in the mornings and in the evenings. I plan to continue this practice for the rest of 2016. I started praying the Psalms because of something I read that intrigued me. If you want to know what it was, just ask! I also finished reading my list of books (7 books) on grieving and discipleship and I finished reading John M. Frame’s major Systematic Theology work. Why did I want to read that doctrinal tome? Well, I do enjoy Frame’s writing but I also just wanted to challenge myself and see if I could still mentally focus like I did when I was younger but less handsome. I’m not sure how much I retained of it but I sure can focus my mind well! The one goal I did not finish was writing out my Philosophy of Ministry. I’m still working through it and it’s proving to be more arduous than I estimated.

The last thing I was able to do was attend, on Sunday mornings, 18 different churches in the San Gabriel Valley. I sometimes attended two services on a Sunday. I did this for two reasons 1) I wanted to discover what was happening in Christian-dome throughout the SGV and 2) I just wanted to do it. My parents brought me to Wintersburg Presbyterian Church when I was 7 years old and I attended that church until I was 23. I then came to Evergreen in 1990 and I’ve been here since. Yes, I’ve attended a few churches while on vacation but they were mostly churches that are affiliated with EvergreenSGV. So, I thought this was my opportunity to purposely go out of my circle of churches and attend a variety of Christian churches in our area. So, while I sabbatical I visited large churches (2,000 plus) and small ones (10 people, counting myself!), new church plants, churches that have been around for over 75 years, and churches from a variety of denominations (Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, etc.).

Overall, I was encouraged by most of them and found that most had vibrant worship and relevant, bible teaching. However, there was a X-Factor that set apart a couple of churches from all of the rest. What was that X-Factor?   will write about it in my next article.

Again, thank you so much for granting me a sabbatical. I am greatly indebted to your generosity and love.  Thank you.