by Pastor Victor Chen

For over six months, much of my interaction with the children of our church came through the screen. Though not quite the YouTube star, I would appear each Sunday shortly after 9am to a regular audience of church school students ranging from PreK through 6th grade at home.

There was the familiar opening music, blue backdrop, special guest appearances from other Church School teachers and animated lesson videos from “The Gospel Project”. I made sure to stay energetic and to the point, all the while speaking as if the students were in the same room.

The true star of the videos was our media director, Garrett Inouye, who made the videos come to life each week with careful editing and production. We tried to stay ahead of schedule by recording one week in advance, but with holidays and vacations, there were some days where we would record multiple videos in one sitting. 

At the same time the videos were being shown on Zoom, I was teaching in-person to a group of church school students first outside the children’s ministry office and then in the MPR. The reason why we pre-recorded the videos for our students online was so that I could focus on one audience at a time, both online and in-person between two departments, 1st/2nd and 5th/6th grade. Initially while trying a hybrid model, I wasn’t able to focus on either audience as my attention was split.

Over a month ago, we made the decision to end our pre-recorded church school videos. Recording videos weekly was beginning to take a toll as more ministries were reopening. By God’s grace, we were able to begin live streaming my main teaching from the MPR allowing students at home to tune in and follow along.

On 9/12, we will relaunch our church school in person. All grades through 6th grade will meet in the MPR at 9am for a main teaching session and breakout to their respective classrooms for lesson review, activities and small groups. Parents have the option of requesting an online option, which will be a link to view our livestream of the main session along with other resources to access with their children.

This also coincides with our launch of a unified curriculum, “The Gospel Project”, from the very beginning of a three-year cycle through the Bible. On 9/12, we will begin from Genesis 1. 

As I look back on church school during the stay at home order, I see so many changes and transitions. We went from nothing to Zoom to hybrid to pre-recorded videos and in-person outdoors to livestream and in-person indoors. 

The Lord has brought us so far.

I’m excited for where the Lord will bring us next.

Join us as we relaunch Church School in-person on 9/12. Parents can check in their students up through 6th grade in the MPR beginning at 8:45am and stay for a special parent orientation following the main teaching session. 

Pastor Kenny has played a key role in coordinating our outdoor services for the past year. Here, he shares some of the challenges this past year and our preparations for moving services back indoors .

Please Share what happened one year ago when the church had to livestream.

Our country decided to follow a nationwide lockdown in order to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The initial idea was the slow the spread and then it seemed like it turned into an attempt to completely stop the spread.

By God’s providence, we had purchased video streaming equipment a few months earlier for a memorial service we hosted at our church in May 2019. And so, when we were deciding to livestream our worship service, we already had the equipment necessary to do it.

We started live-streaming on Sunday, March 15th, and have been doing it ever since.

What were some of the challenges when the church was able to reopen at limited capacity indoors?

The main challenges were understanding which COVID-19 protocols were necessary. Then the challenge was to make sure we agreed on how the protocols would be followed on Evergreen SGV‘s campus. The other challenge was and continues to be reliable knowledge about COVID-19 in general. However, as more time passes and different states in our country apply various approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic, it appears that we are getting a clearer picture of what protocols are necessary for us to follow in order to protect the most vulnerable in our society and which ones we can stop practicing. 

Describe what outdoor service first looked liken when it began summer 2020.

We first started outdoor service as an alternative service for those who wanted to worship in-person and were weary of online church. We held the service outside at 9 am without a PA system. Pastor Victor led two worship songs at the beginning, Rocky preached and then we closed in worship. It was simple but sweet. After the outdoor service, we would go inside and do the livestream service at 10:30.

We eventually combined the two services and started to livestream the outdoor worship service as it is today.

Please share how outdoor service has grown since then.

Outdoor service began with about 15 to 25 people but once we created one outdoor service, it quickly grew to approximately 150 each Sunday. Recently, with more and more people being vaccinated, we now average about 225 to 245 people each week. The PA system is clear and the worship team is no longer just Pastor Victor on the guitar but it’s grown to 4 to 5 people worship teams and now even drums! I have already heard many times how people enjoy worshipping outside. However, with increasing temperatures, we are looking forward to going back inside.

Please share some of the discussion going on as we prepare to reopen service indoors again.

As we prepare to go indoors again, we want to focus on two things: One, we want to make sure that we were following the Los Angeles county health department guidelines. Two, we want to address the health concerns our church family might have regarding worshipping indoors.

As for the LA County guidelines, we are currently in the Orange Tier and so we are allowed to meet indoors at 50% capacity. As for the health concerns, we will be following the social distancing protocols laid out by the county and plan to continue to health screen everyone coming into our worship service. We are also assessing the rare possibility of COVID-19 being spread via aerosols since we believe that is the primary concern of most people as we plan to move back into the sanctuary. We will also have an outdoor option available for those who are not ready to return indoors.

Looking back, what are some of the lessons our church can glean from this year?

There are so many lessons we have learned over this past year. 

We have learned that we need to communicate better at all levels leadership and with you, our church family. 

We learned that ALL news sources have an agenda and bias, and so it’s necessary to balance our intake with both Left-leaning news sources with Right-leaning ones. We are better informed when we do our research well. 

We’ve learned that we must focus on growing each believer deeper in their relationship with Christ and with one another (i.e. focus on discipleship) and not on large programs. When all the programs cease, what is left? What is left are relationships and so we want to major in relationship in the upcoming years. 

And last of all, for me, I have learned again that death is our greatest fear and that our message, the gospel message, the message of the whole Bible, addresses this most foundational fear of humanity.

Please join us for “Moving Forward", a presentation assessing the risk of infection from moving services indoors by church member, Dr. James Chow, this Sunday, 4/18 at 1pm. You can sign up at www.evergreensgv.org. 

by Dan Christian

When you hear that meeting together in-person as believers in Christ is what Scripture calls us to do, don’t miss the beauty of all that frames that biblical command in Hebrews 10:25. And then think carefully about what virtual gathering can—and cannot—provide. 

The command to not neglect meeting together is actually just one phrase in a very long sentence that stretches from verse 19 through verse 25 of Hebrews 10. It is a densely packed summary statement that bookends the central idea of the whole book of Hebrews. So when verse 19 starts with “Therefore, brothers and sisters,” it is referring back to all that has preceded it about the superiority of Jesus as our great and perfect high priest.

Because of all that Jesus has accomplished for us as our great high priest, the author of Hebrews is saying, we then respond in three distinct but connected ways, delineated by three statements of “Let us”: Let us draw near, let us hold fast, and let us consider. We are to draw near to God in faith, hold fast our confession of hope, and consider how to stir one another up to love. Faith, hope, and love are all wrapped up in this call to respond to Jesus’ priestly ministry. 

Stirring one another up—or spurring one another on—to love, by definition requires connectedness with one another; it is not a solitary action. Therefore, the author says, we must not neglect meeting together, but instead encourage one another continually. The word for “neglect” is much stronger than simply being lax about getting together—it means to “abandon” or “forsake” a covenant. The author says that attitude of giving up on meeting together is something that could become habitual, thus there is need to intentionally fight that tendency. 

The flipside of not abandoning our gathering is instead to encourage one another. So in one sense, the author is making gathering together synonymous with encouraging each other. This is the same word “encouragement” that is used in Hebrews 3:12, where we are commanded to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” The kind of encouragement that comes through meeting together is not mere positivity, but is a deep soul care that keeps us walking faithfully with Christ.

In the flow of this long, beautifully crafted sentence, the encouragement of meeting together connects directly with the third exhortation to stir one another up to love. There is a mutual, good provocation that comes with gathering together, which deepens our capacity to love. However, it’s not a stretch to see that meeting together and encouraging one another also boosts our faith as we draw near to God, and strengthens our hearts to hold fast to hope. Thus, just as the priestly work of Christ provides the basis for our response of faith, hope, and love, so the act of gathering together provides the context in which all of that can happen. 

So does a virtual gathering, like a Zoom meeting or a livestream worship service, accomplish this same mutual encouragement toward faith, hope, and love? Yes…and no. I believe significant aspects of this mutual encouragement are only possible in a physical gathering together. Virtual meetings are helpful and can facilitate some aspects of this kind of mutual soul care, but let’s not settle for the virtual and miss the fullness that comes with actual gathering. And as we come back together in-person, let’s not bypass the benefits that we gain with physical proximity.

Think about a few of the differences between virtual and in-person gathering. Virtual gatherings miss out on most of the significant pre- and post-meeting conversations that happen spontaneously while simply hanging out. Often those conversations are where we process and apply what we have just heard in the sermon or meeting, and where relationships are deepened as we listen and share with one another. Those conversations can—and sometimes do—happen virtually, but in a much more limited fashion than when we are present in-person with one another. Thus, as we come back together, let’s make sure we make the most of these times to connect deeply before and after, rather than showing up late and leaving early. 

Virtual meetings miss much of our nonverbal communication and are devoid of physical touch. There is much encouragement that comes through our nonverbal engagement with one another—whether sighs or smiles, tears or a gentle touch—which gets lost (or is downright impossible) in a virtual gathering. Thus, as we come back together, let’s make the most of the opportunity to engage our whole being with one another as we were created to do. 

There are many other distinctions between gathering virtually and in-person, but I’ll mention only one other here: Virtual meetings generally cushion us from spontaneous, sanctifying interactions with people we find uncomfortable to be around. I recognize this may not be a reason that excites you to come back together, and yet this is an important aspect of Christian community. We are called to love the unlovable, to care for the least of these, to extend kindness and grace to those different than us. In the gathered community of the church, we have ample opportunity to grow in these ways, as uncomfortable as they often are. Again, these opportunities could happen in virtual gatherings too, but it is easier to avoid them when they are not physically “in your face.” So, as we come back together, let’s open our hearts to the opportunities God gives us to love difficult people.

In this pandemic time, there is much good that has come from our virtual gatherings, and I am certainly thankful for the opportunity to connect virtually in an otherwise extremely isolating time. However, as the situation continues to improve and there are increased opportunities to gather in-person, I hope that (to the extent that we can) we will not settle for the virtual substitute but will come together in-person to encourage each other to draw near to God, to hold fast to hope, and to spur each other on to love.