by Dan Christian

From the beginning, God has ordained rest as a necessary and significant part of His creation. God’s rest on the seventh day of creation was not because He was worn out, but in order to establish a pattern of work and rest for His created beings (Genesis 2:1-3). Part of God’s good design for human beings—before the fall into sin—is that we require daily sleep. To be a creature rather than the Creator, a finite being rather than the infinite God, means that we are bound by certain limits. We cannot live without air or food or water…or rest.

Because of sin, our human need for rest is not merely a physical limit of our finite bodies; rather, it has also become a deep need of our souls. Thus, Jesus gives us a compelling invitation: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29) Our souls need rest, a rest that only God can provide. 

God calls us to enter His rest through faith and obedience (see Hebrews 4:9-11). That can happen in part here and now, but will only happen fully when we are taken out of this sin-sick world and brought into our eternal rest in the very presence of our God. And so even as we strive to learn godly rhythms of work and rest in the midst of our labors here on earth, we long for that fullness of rest in Christ that will be ours someday. 

One helpful rhythm of work and rest that we have been granted as full-time pastors at Evergreen SGV is the opportunity to take a 3-month sabbatical every fifth year of our employment. The stated purpose for these sabbaticals (according to our staff policy manual) is: 1) Rest and relaxation from the rigors of ministry, 2) Spiritual renewal and replenishment, 3) Growth in specific areas of life and ministry, and 4) Time to visit and learn from other churches and ministries. 

We recognize that we as pastors are better equipped and able to serve and shepherd this church family when we are experiencing rest for our souls in Christ. Granted, much of that rest can—and does—come through daily, weekly, and yearly rhythms of rest and retreat, individually and in community. Yet there is a different level of rest that can only come through pulling away entirely from our regular responsibilities for an extended time—that is what a sabbatical provides.

I was due for a sabbatical last year, but initially decided to postpone it because of all the transition happening in our church, and then the pandemic shutdowns further complicated those plans. So I have finally been able to schedule my sabbatical for this summer—it will be starting on May 9th and continuing through August 7th. I am so grateful for the generosity of our church to grant this kind of restful space for me!

As I enter in to this sabbatical time, would you please pray for me?

• Please pray that I could truly rest and be refreshed, and that God would invigorate my soul for this next season of ministry ahead.

• Please pray for my family—it is not just me that is exhausted, but my whole family is very weary also. The constant demand of caring for our daughter with special needs takes its toll, and with this past year+ of pandemic quarantines, that toll has climbed exponentially. There is no sabbatical from family pressures—pray for strength and grace day by day.

• Please pray that our daughter could return to the various places where she receives care and services (which have been unavailable during the pandemic), and that she would not continue to regress.

• Please pray that God would give me vision and direction for the new areas of ministry that I will be overseeing: biblical counseling, young adults, retreats and conferences, and baptism/Communion.

In order to facilitate this time of rest, you will most likely not be seeing me on Sunday mornings or hearing from me in various communications for the next three months. But please know that I will be praying for you during this time, and I will look forward to entering back in to this joyous work of shepherding souls, to which God has called me. Until then, it is time to rest.

by Hugo Torres

Please share some of your background and also how you came across Evergreen SGV.

I was born and raised in Mexico in a Catholic family by tradition. My parents were never devout Catholics. However, as a child they started me in the knowledge of Christ, but without the gospel, which is God's power for salvation to anyone who believes, the Jew first and then the Greek (Romans 1:16), since officially, the Catholic Church does not teach the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

At the age of 23, I came to the United States and here the Lord saved me by grace (Eph. 2:8-9). I was 27 years old when someone invited me to an evangelical church of the Baptist denomination where after attending for three months, God convicted me of my sin and broke my heart to the point of repenting and believing in the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:37-38). 

Since then, I firmly believe that I was born again and as a result, my life changed radically in my worldview and behavior, and from very early in my Christian life, the Lord put in my heart the desire to pursue pastoral ministry (1 Timothy 3:1). But it was not until three years later after my conversion that God opened the door to enter a Bible Institute to prepare for ministry. Two years after I graduated in 2004, I began my first pastoral ministry in a small Hispanic Baptist congregation that lasted for eight years. In that same year I married my wife Jacqueline with whom I have three sons. 

In 2011, desiring to be better prepared for ministry, God opened a second door to enter the Master's Seminary. During this time in 2013, the Lord led me to plant a Hispanic congregation in the city of La Habra, which I pastor to the present time.

In 2019, a day before the Shepherd’s conference started (a yearly conference for pastors led by Dr. John MacArthur and his church), there was a fellowship of pastors held on the campus of Grace Community Church to which Pastor Rocky Seto was personally invited by Dr. MacArthur and it turned out that I was assigned to sit at the same table next to where Pastor Rocky was seated. Both of us enjoyed fellowshipping together during that day and also, during the entire week of the Shepherd’s conference. Since then, Pastor Rocky and I became good friends with a common cause and purpose to serve in love the Lord's church as pastors (Acts 20:28). I believe in God’s providence that He allowed me to meet Pastor Rocky and through him, be acquainted with Evergreen SGV, and the rest we can say is history. 

Please share how you became a part-time Spanish-Speaking pastor at Evergreen SGV.

I would like to answer this question by first recognizing again the providence of God (Romans 8:28) in this ministerial position at Evergreen SGV. It was on a Sunday in the summer of 2019 that my family and I visited the church. A few days earlier, Pastor Rocky called me to let me know his desire to reach the Hispanic community surrounding the church campus. During my visit that day, I saw the potential provided by the congregation and its facilities and the Lord put in my heart that same desire to reach the Hispanic community here. 

It was also during this visit that I was introduced to a key person, Pastor Victor Chen, who oversaw Local Outreach and International Missions and so we began to cultivate a friendship and camaraderie. I soon expressed to him my desire to help the church reach the Hispanics. Pastor Victor responded by inviting me to volunteer in the food pantry ministry, which I did together with my wife Jacky every other week until it had to be canceled because of the pandemic. Around this time, Pastor Victor offered me the position and after talking to my wife and praying about it, convinced that it was from God, I accepted it.

What are your responsibilities as the Spanish-Speaking Pastor in Local Outreach?

My primary responsibility as the book of Acts 1:8 clearly expresses, is to coordinate the Local Outreach (our Jerusalem) of our church to the Hispanic community through the proclamation of the gospel and the making of disciples of Jesus (Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20) in consultation and coordination with other activities and ministries of local scope of the church. 

Equally important, is my responsibility to help the church begin a Spanish ministry, oversee a Bible study in Spanish, develop friendly relationships with the Hispanic community and Evergreen SGV, respond to any calls the church receives in Spanish from the community and be available to meet any needs primarily for counseling and prayer. Another part of my responsibility is also to explore and develop strategies and ways to effectively reach out to the community and serve as a mediator to establish a strong relationship between our church and Don Julian Elementary School.

How has your time on staff been so far?

Incredibly positive. From the first day I started, I have felt very welcomed by all the staff, especially by the pastoral body because of the close relationships that I have developed by participating every Tuesday in the Pastors’ Round Table. They have really shown me and made me feel like I am one like them and that fills me with humility. 

Every Tuesday, I go with great enthusiasm because of the opportunities to cultivate my relationships with one other. And now that recently the staff is returning to work in person, I also take it as an opportunity to develop relationships with them.    

What are you most excited for in Local Outreach at Evergreen SGV?

The vision of seeing a congregation of believers as part of the Evergreen SGV family serving and worshipping in spirit and truth (John 4:23-24) in the Lord's Day simultaneously in Spanish. For now, this vision is what excites me to do what I do in the Local Outreach of our church.    

Is there anything you would like to share with the church family?

Yes. I recently received a nice card from a person from the 3rd and 4th grade department and I wanted to quote what she wrote: "Thank you for being the Local Outreach pastor to the Spanish people. God is with you wherever you go. I will be praying for you and that more people will join your Spanish-speaking bible study. I hope I can meet you in person someday."

If I could respond to the words of this person, this is what I would say and equally, to the rest of Evergreen SGV family: I am the one who is grateful to God and you for allowing me to be part of this family and ministry. Thank you for supporting me with your prayers for local outreach, and I do also look forward to meeting you personally with my family.  

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 4 of a 4-part blog series based on that interview.

Any final thoughts as you reflect on this past year?

It goes back to relationships. 

I’m grateful to our Lord for Sharla [wife] and the children. I feel like we've transitioned, but we're still transitioning. We still miss Washington. We still miss people from Washington. We still miss football and football life. I think it’s an ever-growing process for us. But I'm grateful that they trust the Lord and they trust me.

Having that trust from them is a ridiculous, extra motivation that the Lord gives me to be faithful to do this. I don't know how things are going to turn out, but I just want to be faithful. That’s my goal.

I’m grateful for the relationships at Evergreen [SGV]. People have been so gracious. Here's a brand new pastor, wet behind the ears and they’ve been so gracious. 

They’re just willing to listen to the preaching. They’re willing to be flexible. They’re willing to be open-minded.

It’s profound for me to think about it. 

That humbles me and that actually motivates me to want to be faithful to our Lord.

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.

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 2 of a 4-part blog series based on that interview.

What have been some of the challenges from this past year?

I remember when I was coaching, some people would come up to me at church and say, “Hey, it’s great that you get to play your games on Sunday. What do you do the rest of the week?’” What? The games are the rewards! It’s the grind, it’s about 80 or 90 hours just to get to this point at work. 

Pastoral ministry is similar.

First of all, even to get to the pulpit for me, it’s 15-20 hours of work to have some kind of organized thought to preach the Word. It hasn’t necessarily been the tasks that have been challenging to me, although they’ve been humbling because I’m learning something new. 

The challenges have been more relational.

At the end of the day, I still have to make the choice on some of these [decisions for the church] and some of these emphases have been hard on some and relationally, that’s been hard for me. I don’t like to disappoint people. Naturally, I like to please people and make them happy. 

I have to make decisions that I feel like is best for the church family and what the Bible says in essence guides me. [Some of those decisions made from applying the Bible are] not popular for some people.

I’ve been involved with certain situations where I have to confront sin, where I have to confront error for the good of the sheep and also for the flock. That's hard. That’s a challenging thing.

You know [correction in the context of family is] never a fun thing, but it's what we’re called to do because you love them.

And the same thing [is] for me as a pastor. These are the things that I do because I love Christ and also, I love the people. Relational things are incredibly hard for me and God’s humbling me through it.

In pastoral ministry, I don't have the eye in the sky [game film] or the one loss record column to determine if I'm doing a good job or not. [The key question is]: “Am I being content and just being faithful to what a pastor is called to do?” A pastor’s primary role is to preach and teach the word of God [and] feed the sheep (John 21, 2 Timothy 4). The second thing is to pray for the people, to care for the people [and] to protect the people. That's really what it is — to provide spiritual oversight.

I have no idea how things are going on results-wise in the hearts of people. That's humbling. I'm used to results.

Size of the church isn't even the metric [of success for a church]. The metric is how holy are the people that God has given us to take care of. That's it. Only God knows that.

I’d say those are two challenges — relational challenges and just being content and being faithful to our Lord.

Check in next week for Part 3 of the series —What are you looking forward to?