By Pastor Rocky

As Evergreen Church prepares to hear from special guest Pastor Chris Mueller this Sunday, October 9, we thought it would be great for Pastor Rocky to share more about how Pastor Chris Mueller has been a particular source of encouragement to him and to our church family.

Who is Pastor Chris Mueller?

Pastor Chris Mueller has been married to Jean for over 40 years. They have two adult sons and three grandsons. Chris has been serving in pastoral ministry since 1979. He is currently the teaching pastor at Faithful Bible Church in Murrieta (Faith Bible Church | God-centered, Bible-saturated (faith-bible.net). He has earned a Master of Divinity from Talbot Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry from the Master’s Seminary. He is passionate about discipleship, and he has left a lasting impact upon every local church he has been associated with. He believes that the local church is the most effective training environment from which to disciple men and women. His main aim in the local church is to preach God’s Word and train up leaders. He has recently published two books that are pictured.

Please share how you first got to know Pastor Chris Mueller?

Providence brought Chris Mueller into our lives. In 2019 as I was researching how to implement a discipleship culture into the local church, I was having lunch with Pastor Harry Walls of Grace Community Church, and I asked him what discipleship looks like at their church. Harry gave me a staggering answer as he said that I needed to call Chris Mueller. Harry said, “I am happy to share with you how we go about discipleship, but Chris Mueller is the greatest discipler that we know!” That says a lot coming from Harry who is also passionate about discipleship. Therefore, I contacted Chris, and he was happy to talk to me about how their church goes about discipleship.

How has Pastor Chris Mueller been an encouragement personally to you? To the church?

Firstly, Chris is a very relational man and has been a great big brother to me as he has personally taken an interest in me and our church. Chris has encouraged me through our friendship. He is always encouraging and affirming as we talk through various personal and pastoral issues. He has met with me along with various groups from Evergreen Church. A group of us went to visit Chris in Murrieta to share a meal together.

Our staff took a field trip down to Temecula in January of 2020. Pastor Chris and Pastor John Pleasnick invested two whole days with our staff. They talked to us about how the Lord transformed their church to one with a strong discipleship culture. I was blown away with their intentional efforts to care for us. We felt how much our Lord loves our church by sending these men to care for us.        

The main take away that I gained from our visit with them was that the entire church family is necessary to experience a fuller picture of Jesus Christ. The Lord has gifted every local church with diverse members. Each member brings unique talents, experiences, passions, strengths, and weaknesses to help one another become more like Christ. Therefore, diverse relationships are critical to be able to experience all of this. The church must be connecting with one another. Various life stages must be intertwined with one another. The local church must coordinate formal opportunities to meet in the hopes of informal relationships being birthed.

As I reflect upon our staff trip to visit Chris and John, I am reminded of this picture taken during our Temecula trip. The gardeners pruned the local vineyards to allow the vines to be fruitful for the coming season. This reminds me of the wisdom Chris and John shared about Discipleship. It is challenging work, and it will require much patience. There is a season for everything.

What are your hopes for Pastor Chris Mueller’s time with Evergreen Church on Sunday, 10/9?

Pastor Chis has agreed to preach at our Church and to record a podcast with us. I know that we will be blessed by the sermon on discipleship out of Matthew 28. It is always good to hear from different outside voices who have been fatherly to our church. Our church family will be encouraged to see how our Lord has provided us with relationship to help build up Evergreen Church. Our Lord deeply loves Evergreen Church. The Church will be able to see how Pastor Chris and influenced us.

Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims in Matthew 16:18, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell  shall not prevail against it.”

It is extremely exciting and encouraging to see how our Lord is building His church at Evergreen! He gives us specific commands for our church in Matthew 28:19, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is why discipleship is the central theme of our church. We define discipleship as, “Intentional relationships that build Christ-likeness”.

The early church provided us with essentials for discipleship in Acts 2:42, “And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” Just like a building requires concrete, steel, wood, and glass, there are critical essentials that are required for discipleship. The four essentials are 1) God’s Word 2) Fellowship 3) Commitment 4) Prayer

Many of us can agree, that we are encouraged when God’s Word is faithfully preached at our church.  Also, we appreciate the opportunity to partake in communion to express our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, we believe that prayer is a necessity in our relationship with God. But, what about fellowship? If fellowship is a high priority to you, praise God!

However, if it is not, I want you to examine your heart and honestly answer the following questions:

·       On the Lord’s Day, are you planning to just attend service and leave right after?

·       Have you been consistently attending our monthly Fellowship Sundays?

·       Are you intentional throughout the week by fellowshipping with other Christians?

·       Do you have 2 or 3 close Christian friends at Evergreen Church?

Of the four critical essentials, I am afraid fellowship may not be a priority for some of us. So, lets dive deeper into the topic of fellowship by asking three questions.

1.     What is fellowship?

Koinonia is a Greek word that appears 20 times in the Bible. Koinonia’s primary meaning is “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” In our society today, you can find all kinds of fellowship. It is sad to say, but you can argue that the world has a better understanding of fellowship than the church does. You can have fellowship around your career, ethnicity, life stage, sports, or even being fans of the music band BTS. So, what is it that unites believers? The answer is Jesus!

Here at Evergreen Church, we define Christian fellowship as “Intentional Christ centered relationships”. Not just hanging out with friends and co-workers, but intentional Christ centered relationships. This idea of fellowship is a reflection to the unity of the Trinity.  In John 17:22-23, Jesus is speaking to the Father.

“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”

Our fellowship with others begins with our fellowship with God. This unity in Christ is what brings people together. Regardless if you are a Bruin or Trojan, regardless of age, background, race or social status. 

2.     Why is Fellowship important?

1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” It involves a shared life, a common purpose, a unified goal. The Bible often talks about how believers are to relate to each other. In fact, the phrase “one another” is found approximately 100 times in the New Testament and it is impossible to have a “one another” relationship without fellowship. Fellowship is required for discipleship to happen!

We are given many commands concerning how we are to treat the body of Christ. As 1 Corinthians 12:27 says, “Now you are Christ’s body and individually members of it”. The fellowship within the church is critical for us to build Christ-likeness.

Fellowship allows the following to happen: building one another up (Romans 14:19 and Hebrews 10:24-25), confessing sin and praying for one another (James 5:16), serving one another (Galatians 5:13), being devoted to one another (Acts 2:42-43 and Romans 12:10), encouraging and admonishing one another (Colossians 3:12-17).

Ultimately, fellowship glorifies God and allows the world to see the super natural love that we have for one another!  Christ tell us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

3.     How can you get connected into fellowship?

I strongly encourage you to visit the Welcome Desk in the lobby or fill out a connection card on our webpage.  Also, every 2nd Sunday of every month, we have a Connect Luncheon where you will have the opportunity to meet our pastors and church members. If you are interested, please contact me, Mako, directly HERE.

Listed below is variety of ways to get connected with fellowship at Evergreen Church:

·       Life Groups (over 20 small groups throughout the SGV)

·       Youth Group

·       College Group

·       Young Adults

·       55+ Ministry (fellowship for people 55 and older)

·       Mom’s Ministry

·       Children’s Ministry

·       Women’s Ministry

·       Adult Christian Education (Sunday school from 9-10am)

·       Prayer Ministry

·       Support Ministry

·       Sports Ministry

·       Fellowship Sunday (1st Sunday of every month)

On Discipleship Sunday, 2/20, Kellen Hiroto from Malawi and partner ministry, Bright Vision, shared how discipleship is happening in Malawi through his family's ministry and how our support of Bright Vision is resulting in discipleship. Here is his testimony:

This morning I’d like to teach you two phrases in Chichewa (language of the Chewa tribe in Malawi), and frame my sharing around these two thoughts:

First is Kupanga Ophunzira- “Discipleship” or “Making disciples”

It warms my heart that as you walk into the church, we are met with reminders of what we as Christians are all about making disciples.  What’s so encouraging is that’s not just signage!  I had the privilege of joining the pastors and staff in their meetings this past Tuesday, and a consistent theme that ran through those meetings (in talking about preaching, biblical counseling, planning for service) was how all of these decisions center on faithfully making disciples of Jesus Christ.  I came out of the morning refreshed and excited, catching glimpses into how Evergreen as a local church body is seeking to do that here in the San Gabriel Valley.

As missionaries in Malawi, our hearts are for discipleship, really in three different contexts: Christian Education, serving in our local church, and Bright Vision Orphan Care.  In the context of my work as a lecturer and coach at African Bible College, the classroom is a means to disciple students, teaching courses like Romans, John and Apologetics or even Curriculum Development and Leadership.  What I want to do is help students center their lives on the Bible, develop a Christian worldview and be equipped to lead in both secular work and Christian ministry.  Coaching the soccer team is discipleship, creating a culture in our program that glorifies God and builds men of integrity and humility.

I serve on the Elder team of our local church in Malawi, and our desire is to see a healthy body of believers growing in Christ-likeness together.  That takes many forms, walking through premarital counseling for a young couple, figuring out how we facilitate fellowship at a church picnic, how we help people understand God’s sovereignty during COVID, confronting the sin of self-will and pride as we counsel a young leader, or offering encouragement to an older woman who has just lost her husband.  All of these are opportunities to see people follow Jesus, day-by-day submitting themselves to His Word and seeking to follow Him with every part of their lives.

The Hiroto Family

The second phrase is Zikomo Kwambiri- “Thank you very much.”

Thank you for being a part of the work that has been happening at Bright Vision over these many years (all the way back to 2008) sponsoring our feeding program and Christmas Celebration, building our kitchen and toilets, helping us purchase land to grow food.  Malawi is one of the poorest nations in the world, and the village of Chamadenga struggles under desperate poverty.  We’re working to meet many of these physical needs by providing early-childhood nutrition in nursery school, sponsoring kids in secondary school, building homes for children living with grandparents, providing jobs so parents can support their families (just this past weekend we had 747 kids come to our feeding program. But all of this is a means to see people come to hear the Gospel, to know and love Christ, and follow Him.  One of the exciting developments over the last few years has been having our students being trained as Christian leaders for the Malawian context and joining us in ministry at Bright Vision.  They’re being trained for work in this context and in many ways are so much more effective than we are.  They may come for the day to visit homes or live at Bright Vision for six weeks as an intern. So ZIKOMO KWAMBIRI for being important partners to Bright Vision and a continued encouragement to our work.

To close I’d like to offer an encouragement and three questions.  When Jesus gives The Great Commission to His disciples in Matthew 28:18-20 “Go and make disciples of all nations”, that call was not just for pastors and missionaries, it is for all those who would call themselves followers of Christ.  So let me ask:

- How are you being discipled right now, growing in your maturity and being equipped to serve?

- How are you involved in discipling others towards Christ-likeness here at Evergreen?

- How could you be involved in the discipleship of the nations through global missions — whether going, sending, supporting, praying?

I hope that you are encouraged that Evergreen is involved in that around the world and that likeminded brothers and sisters are pursuing this with you, in Malawi. 

by Sandra

Hi, my name is Sandra.

I am a mother of two children. One is 14 years old and her name is Joanne. She is a freshman in High School who loves boba milk tea and is an awesome older sister to her brother. The other is Nathan, who is 11 years old and a 5th grader who loves connecting with people, has a great sense of humor and loves Legos. They complete our family of four and we love exploring life together.

Let me introduce ourselves. This is my husband, Johnson, myself, Joanne and Nathan.

Our youngest, Nathan, happens to have a disability. We received a prenatal diagnosis that he was going to be born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. Down syndrome is the most common genetic condition. It affects all races, religions and economic backgrounds. Trisomy 21 causes developmental and intellectual delays.

It was an unexpected revelation to us. We came to embrace it after the natural initial shock, which came because we didn’t know anything about Down syndrome and what the future would look like for our son.

We reflected on these Bible verse many times after receiving his diagnosis:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praised you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:13-14

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

With that in our hearts, we took a leap of faith to create a vision full of possibilities for our son.

Over the years, we’ve learned that we could and should have hopes and dreams for both of our children. The support in place might look a bit different, but don’t they all look different for all of our kids?

For Nathan, what can look different is the fact that things take more time, effort and practice for him to learn, and support might be needed until he feels more confident and independent with the skills he acquires.

Our parenting is not about performance or something to brag about, but about a shift in mindset so that we can renew our expectations, find opportunities and provide Nathan risks for him to attempt with dignity. The result is a change in the perspective of what can be.

With all our hopes and dreams, we could absolutely not surpass the biggest hope and dream of all, which is to see Nathan to learn and grow in his love for God, and for him to understand the meaning of communion, the broken body of Christ and the blood Christ shed for us.

So our discipleship for Nathan is for him to learn about God’s Grace and God’s love, for Nathan to know that God loves him so much and has a special plan and purpose for his life. We have faith that one day, he too will desire to ask Jesus into his life, to be his Lord and Savior and to be baptized.

I have to humbly acknowledge that we cannot do this alone. Thank you Church School and Staff for shepherding Nathan.

One way you can help us in our discipleship of Nathan, is to feel comfortable around him, get to know him, pray for him, mentor him and see him as a part of the body of Christ.

Here is a video that captures a vision for what discipleship in our church can look like in this young man’s testimony and baptism. His name is Ryan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocIwGXf2L80

by Elliot Snuggs

Decades from now I think history will look back on this time as pivotal. But what will we pivot to? While we don’t know all the implications the Covid-19 pandemic will have on our world, we can be certain that God’s kingdom will advance. Jesus tells us as much in Matthew 16:18 “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (ESV).

In fact, I believe we may see one of the greatest inpourings into the kingdom of God we have seen in our generation. I have been involved in missions ever since I graduated from college. Okay, that was a long time ago! One of the key things Jesus said that is foundational for cross cultural missions is, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” (Matthew 24:14 ESV) In one sense, Covid-19 has seemingly slowed down missions. Travel has been heavily restricted and in person gatherings have been curtailed. But the pandemic has also created a huge void in people’s lives. That void includes fear and isolation. People need good news!

I think we should expect people to be hungry for what we have. I think we may see what Jesus meant when he told his disciples that, “The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.” (Luke 16:16 ESV) And if we do see millions of people forcing their way into the good news of the kingdom, we are going to need discipleship in a massive way. This is encouraging to me as both Evergreen SGV and the organization I work with, Asian Access, are keen on discipleship. At Asian Access we have four outcomes, the third of which is reproducing disciple-making leaders. The fourth is catalyzing disciple-making movements.

A few years ago I was able to travel to Bentonville, Arkansas. There I met with Mike Duke, the former CEO of Walmart and one of his Vice Presidents Edwin Keh. We spent the morning doing a video shoot for Asian Access’s leadership development training for business leaders. The topic was discipleship and we were asking Mike how he found time for that as a very busy CEO of a global company. Here is what he said: “There is no greater Return on Investment than discipleship and investing in other people.” As Mike’s quote suggests, far more than his investment in business and the influence he had (Forbes listed him as one of the ten most powerful people in the world), Mike views his time discipling people as having the biggest return on investment.

Decades from now, will the church look back on Covid-19 as a time when millions became disciples? I pray so. Jesus is the answer to the void people are feeling. A common refrain from Jesus, and throughout the Bible, is “fear not!” We need to disciple people toward Jesus, and out of fear and isolation. Back to Luke 16, here is how The Message version of the Bible puts it:

What society sees and calls monumental, God sees through and calls monstrous. God's Law and the Prophets climaxed in John; Now it's all kingdom of God—the glad news and compelling invitation to every man and woman. (Luke 16:15b-16)