class

CLASS Community plays a vital role in building heroic apprentices.

Evergreen's Role

The mission of our church is to train heroic apprentices of Jesus - people who clearly embrace and embody biblical reconciliation and missional living. Evergreen's three core adult ministries include CLASS Community, worship and Sedaqah. We hope every adult will pursue heroic apprenticeship, and would expectantly and earnestly participate in all three ministries.

The Individual's Role

Spiritual transformation does not create identical apprentices, but takes on as many different expressions as there are different people. All true spiritual transformation that is empowered by the Holy Spirit has three essential elements:

  1. Real relationship with God in worship and personal experience. Actively participate in worship, not just observing service. Passionately seek change to be more like Jesus. Interact individually with God in personal prayer, Bible, and spiritual reflection.
  2. Biblical truth shaping all aspects of your life. Growth in knowledge of word. Practical application of Biblical knowledge. Setting life objectives in Bibical truth.
  3. Doing good outside of the church that glorifies God. Extend God's care and love beyond your church, friends, and family. Practice serving others with your time, money, and heart. Gently engaging in spiritual conversations, especially with outsiders.

CLASS Community's Role

CLASS Community lets people learn and interact with other believers on interesting apprentice journey topics. The purpose is to fulfill the following three CLASS Community objectives:

  1. Increase biblical knowledge by individuals. CLASS Community promotes learning from one another and sharing things God has taught us with the body of believers. Although people can and should study the bible on their own, God designed His church to live in community.
  2. Increase practical applications of biblical knowledge. CLASS Community encourages Christians to dialogue with one another in the application of biblical truths. Christians must embody God's love to the world because knowledge without any spiritual fruit is worthless to others.
  3. Promote personal spiritual transformation as defined by the Bible and encouraged by Evergreen - CLASS Community enables individuals to take an active role in their own learning, growth, and pursuit of maturing as an apprentice of Jesus, which is the mission of the church

Let us join together in community for the purpose of becoming heroic apprentices.


July 11, 2010 to August 15, 2010

Do you want to increase your understanding of the Bible, to experience God more personally, and to impact others in a truly positive way? Many other adults at Evergreen have the same desires. The CLASS ministry encourages adults with those desires through interaction, discussion and its instructors. In CLASS, people come together for a few weeks at a time and focus on a particular aspect of Christian living. What usually results from this collaboration is a deeper understanding, a greater enthusiasm, and an increased desire to be instruments of Jesus' love to others.

SACRED COMPANIONS

Location: Worship Center 206

The hunger for connection is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. Paradoxically, what we most deeply long for is also what we fear. This could result in a superficial friendship that only touches the surface and produces a "feel good" relationship.

In this class, James will introduce "Spiritual Friendship," using 1 Thessalonians and the book by David G. Benner, "Sacred Companions, The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction." Benner writes, "The Christian spiritual journey requires us to overcome the temptation to follow other people rather than Jesus himself...Spiritual friends help us most when they make clear that their job is to point the way toward Jesus, not lead the way."

In our time together we will discuss and practice this concept and discipline, helping each other attend and respond to God.

Instructor/Facilitator: Dr. James Setiawan, Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics.

SIX WAYS TO SHARE YOUR FAITH (WITHOUT ALIENATING YOUR FRIENDS)

Location: Worship Center 202

How do we share the good news about Jesus with our friends, family, and coworkers in a way that actually sounds like good news to them?  How do we communicate the truth about Jesus to a culture that is skeptical of absolute truth?  Come to this class and be empowered to share your faith in new ways.  We will discuss six important concepts and tools that have proven useful in proclaiming the gospel through the ministry of InterVarsity in Southern California.

Instructor/Facilitator: Chris Harry is a member of Evergreen L.A. and the team leader for InterVarsity’s ministry at Pomona College and Pitzer College in Claremont.  He has attempted to be a witness for Jesus in the workplace, the inner city, and the college campus and enjoys working with others to become better and bolder at sharing the gospel.

THE GOOD AND BEAUTIFUL GOD

Location: Worship Center 204

Our faith begins with a clear, compelling, but true view of God. We all struggle with distorted or false images of God and this greatly impacts how we live as apprentices of Jesus. This class will utilize the wonderful insights of James Bryan Smith's book to learn how Jesus saw and understood God. We will also focus on spiritual practices and activities which will develop and strengthen our knowledge and daily experience of God. There will be a nominal fee for the purchase of the book.

Instructor/Facilitator: Pastor Jonathan serves as our Executive Pastor.  A major personal milestone was completing his Doctorate of Ministry at Fuller this May, wrapping up a seven-year journey. With the new-found free time, he tries to keep up with the energies of his four active children.  He is beginning his 15th year of ministry service at EBCLA, grateful and appreciative of all that God has taught him throughout these years.

AGING, HEALTHCARE, AND A PERSONAL MINISTRY

Location: Worship Center 209

Are you prepared for the next transition in your life, or that of your loved one?  This course will equip you with information, inform you of options, and introduce you to spiritual perspectives to help you make good choices for you and your family. 

We will use prayers, interactions, and personal testimonies to discuss issues such as long term care insurance, assisted living or convalescent care for our loved ones.

Besides receiving useful information, you will also receive emotional and spiritual support in this class, and have plenty of time to ask your specific questions. 

Instructor/Facilitator: Frank Low has held several positions in the elder care sector, including quality assurance director, health facility evaluator, where he inspected skilled nursing facilities and executive administrator. Frank is involved at Evergreen-SGV and Bible Study Fellowship.