One Year In: Interview with Pastor Rocky Part 3

On May 26, 2020, Pastor Victor conducted an interview with Pastor Rocky via Zoom about his first year as Senior Pastor of Evergreen SGV. This is Part 3 of a 4-part blog series based on that interview.

What are you most looking forward to?

In our pastoral meetings earlier [we asked ourselves in regards to the church], “If we’re a factory, what will we be known for?” 

What is Evergreen [SGV] known for? God willing, in the future, I would love for us to look at each other — you ask our kids, our wives or anyone else, even people from outside the church — and I would love everyone to say, “They’re about discipleship.” 

They’re about producing followers of Jesus Christ. What is discipleship? Discipleship is basically twofold. One, is evangelism — we are called to evangelize the lost. Second is to edify the saints — build them up to become more like Christ. It’s a twofold process and I would love for everyone to be able to say with full conviction, full honesty, that Evergreen [SGV] is involved in discipleship, and discipleship is the central theme of the church, period. I would love that. That's what I'm excited about.

And I'm excited [for how the Lord will potentially use the church in] the San Gabriel Valley. This is a gold mine — the people that God has given us, the resources that God has given us, the location that God has given us. When it's time, the Lord will unleash His people who are saturated with God’s Word, [who] love Christ, [are] evangelizing [and] looking to edify the saints that God brings around in their communities, in their homes and their work.

And then [when] we get together [on a Sunday morning], it's a big rally. We come together for ... equipping, encouragement, edification, warning, correction [and] motivation. When we leave, we get back to our mission field and then look at what God is going to do in and through us. I’m excited about that.

One thing I want to say, is that the Bible needs to be absolutely central to everything that we do. 

The Bible needs to be absolutely central to everything that we do at Evergreen [SGV] — from the preaching of it, to the teaching of it, to the counseling of it, to exercising oversight of the church. It’s in the Scriptures and we need to be biblically trained to obey the Lord in it and so that's what I would love. 

I would love for people to be culturally just carrying a Bible in their hands, a physical Bible. Yes, it could be more convenient to have in the phone but I'm actually physically carrying it [because] it’s a reminder for me to have the Bible central.