What are You Thankful For?

Ed Girard

As I ponder this question, I can only thank God for what He has done, first in my life and second for and through His church here at Evergreen. A year ago, we were still contemplating Pastor Jim’s calling back to Colorado and Summit Church. If you are like me, you were grateful for Jim and Sue and all that God had done in our community through them, grateful that God had called them to return to Summit, which was in need of a pastor, but mourning our personal loss. As I reflect on the year that has passed, I can only say I am amazed at God’s goodness.

The last year has been difficult. I cannot sugarcoat it. When the leader of an organization leaves, unfortunately, predictable things happen, and a church is no exception. You can predict that giving will drop by 20%. You can predict that congregants will leave at the same rate. You can also predict that really well-meaning staff and people will vie for power. What you can predict, and what you see in these examples, is that we rely on our own understanding. If asked, we say we put our faith in Jesus. We say we serve Him and that reaching others in His name is our highest priority. When we are tested, we are no different than the Apostles. We scatter. We said we wouldn’t, that we were better than that, but many of us did.

I am not going to go into a lot of detail in this message, but consider it a brief state of the union, or in this case, a summary of the state of the heart of Evergreen. I am grateful for God’s goodness, and I hope you are as well. Over the last year, we had staff leave, we had to significantly reduce spending, and mid-year, we had to reduce spending further and make difficult staffing decisions, further reducing staffing levels. On the surface, this might not sound like something for which to be thankful, yet we have a lot to be thankful for.

When an organization is in transition, and yes, a church is an organization, it needs to focus on its primary purpose to survive. Yes, a church needs vision, but during a transition, things change a little. During a time of transition, bad things can happen if someone who God has not chosen to lead the church tries to push a new vision. Transition is a time to wait and listen for what God has to say. I am personally grateful for all the staff who committed to keeping our eyes on Jesus. They committed to keeping the only real thing, the main thing; that is, our only mission over the last year has been to reach people for Jesus. That was it. Nothing else.

So, were we successful? You can be the judge. What I will share is that even though we had the predictable drop in giving, people leaving, internal turmoil, etc., attendance actually grew over the year. Many of our ministries became stronger, many new volunteers and volunteer leaders have come forward, our South Campus continues to be as strong as ever, we have had interim worship leaders that have reflected the heart of Jesus, and our core congregants (you all) have been absolutely amazing and such a blessing. Jesus has been doing a work through Evergreen despite the fact that we had no lead pastor. 

As we enjoy Thanksgiving 2024, I give thanks to Jesus, and I am grateful for our faithful congregation and staff who kept focus on the one thing: reaching people for Christ. 

Now we can celebrate our next season. I have no doubt that God is going to do something amazing in our region, and God has laid the foundation at Evergreen to be at the center of it.