by Pastor Victor Chen

In an old television commercial, a bear climbs a yellow trailer, rips off the roof to peek inside and exclaims, “Hey, where’s the cream filling?”

The bear thought the yellow trailer was a Twinkie. 

You too may be looking at our website, Plugin or app and be asking, “Hey, where’s the summer program?”

Good question. 

Why isn’t there a weeklong summer program?

Though things are reopening after over a year of the “stay at home” order, much of our church, especially families, are still home. As we explored having a weeklong program, it became difficult to anticipate how many families would feel comfortable sending their children to a weeklong program and how many volunteers would feel comfortable serving throughout the week. In short, there were a lot of unknowns that made it difficult to plan.

Why isn’t there an online weeklong summer program?

Producing weekly videos for families to join Church School online is already a lot of work. Producing an entire weeklong program would require even more time and additional resources. For now, the livestream service and Church School videos are the priorities online. 

Furthermore, we are still providing in-person worship services in the sanctuary and in-person Church School in the MPR with breakout sessions in the MPR and various classrooms. It would be one thing to only produce online content, but to do both online and in person requires more attention, time and resources.

Finally, as a pastor (and parent), I am concerned about the screen time consumption our children have had with a year (or more) of distance learning. This summer, I would recommend our children rest their eyes, go outside, be active and play!

Our family is comfortable returning, what is available this summer for us?

I’m glad you asked! Because we want families to return to service and Church School in person when they are comfortable, we will have opportunities for families to come out on campus outdoors as a step towards returning. 

On June 27, we will have our next Summer Worship Night where families can come early to bring dinner and picnic on our lawn from 4:30-6pm. At 6pm, we will begin our program with family-friendly group activities for both children and adults. This is followed by a time of worship with a devotion as we learn and sing songs that span the generations represented in our church.

Note that this is not just for families, but for the entire church family. At our last Summer Worship Night on May 30, we were blessed to have a great mix of generations join and participate. College students and young adults led the group activity and hand motions for kids worship. It was neat to see the entire group worship as one family.

On July 30-31, we will have our last Summer Worship Night on Friday night with an optional Summer Worship Campout afterward! Households can come set up their tent, have a dinner picnic and join with the summer worship time. Afterward, they can sleep in their tent on our campus under the stars. We hope to provide brunch Saturday morning and allow everybody to enjoy hanging out on campus together.

If you are interested in participating in our Summer Worship Campout, please contact me at vchen@evergreensgv.org to sign up!

by Pastor Victor Chen

Mere months into leading our 5th/6th grade Church School department, I was faced with the task of identifying a person to head our 1st/2nd grade department. It was the beginning of the 2020 school year and we were still in the midst of a “stay at home” order. 

Church School was still largely done online and I was having a difficult time recruiting help for Church School. Finding a Department Head seemed impossible.

What were we going to do?

I remember proposing a solution to our other Church School Department Head leaders after much prayer. Though they admired my heart, they were concerned this was too much.

I admit it sounded crazy.

I would lead both 5th/6th and 1st/2nd grade departments. The only way I could do this is if we had a unified curriculum across all grades. I would produce pre-recorded lesson videos each week to be shown online, followed by break-out small groups by our Church School teachers. I would teach in person outdoors to everybody 0-6th grade and break everybody out into small groups according to their age groups.

Over six months later, we continue to offer a unified curriculum, “The Gospel Project”, across all grades through high school. For grades Pre-K through 6th, we continue to offer an online option with small groups. On May 2, we began having a unified Church School gathering indoors at 9am in the MPR. I teach the lesson in person, after which everybody breaks out to their respective departments for small groups and activities. 

More families are coming out as things reopen. children online and in-person are beginning to grasp the rhythm of the curriculum — the key passages families can commit to memory and the overarching themes for each unit of 4-5 lessons. The curriculum covers the entire Bible over three years, specifically highlighting how each part of the Bible points to the good news of Jesus. I especially appreciate the resources the curriculum provides to facilitate family worship throughout the week. With a unified curriculum, a family with multiple children can review the same lesson, the same theme and the same key passage.

Looking back, I had always wanted to introduce a unified curriculum for our Church School departments. My wife dreamed of being able to track with all three of our children and what they had learned in Sunday school. 

Who knew a unified curriculum would provide a solution to our church in a difficult season? Praise God that we have a clear path in “The Gospel Project” for a unified journey through the Bible and discovering how it points to Jesus.

This fall, The Gospel Project will begin its 3-year cycle going through the entire Bible beginning with Genesis 1. Join us as our Church School goes through The Gospel Project together. There is even a potential option to add an adult track so everybody can join along! Feel free to contact me at vchen@evergreensgv.org for more information.