Evergreen officially opened doors in June of 1988, but the wheels were turning to create a church like Evergreen long before. While co-pastoring a church in south Minneapolis, Brent Knox and Mark Darling wondered how to create a church that connected with the baby-boom generation. Many baby-boomers grew up attending church, but drifted because they felt traditional church was no longer relevant. It was clear that this generation was growing up, raising families and settling down. However, traditional church was no longer attractive to many boomers.
With the desire to share God’s love with others, Brent and Mark began strategizing about how to reach this segment. “We wanted to reach a lot of people,” Mark said, “But we were at a loss for how to effectively reach baby boomers - which were, at that time, the single most influential segment of America. Over 70% of the baby boomer population did not even attend church! Therefore, we began to make serious changes in our ministry to make church relevant to unchurched baby boomers.”
Survey results isolated reasons why people didn’t go to church. “If there are reasons why people were not attending church,” said Brent, “then we wanted to design a church that would be different in all those areas. And that’s what we did.”
With a core of about 120 people, Evergreen Community Church officially began at Oak Grove Intermediate School. Services were revamped to feature pop/rock music, need-oriented message topics that were relevant and inspirational, and a warm and friendly atmosphere. Small Groups were emphasized. Evergreen’s early mottos were “Experience God, Not Religion” and “Attract the World to Christ.” Due to the blessing of God, Evergreen grew rapidly for the first fifteen years.Clever postcard mailings and radio spots helped draw people to church. “Finally, a church with sax appeal” was perhaps the most famous postcard.
Because of the core value of planting churches, Evergreen planted its first location in the fall of 1994 in Plymouth. This location eventually became Evergreen-New Hope. In the following years, more locations were planted. Because of the core value of love and unity, a unique ministry approach was pursued: One church, many locations. The pastoral team decided there was great value of remaining unified as one church rather than separating into different churches.
We trust that more locations in the Twin Cities and other church plants outside of the Twin Cities will be started in the coming years!
The Rock, Uptown
As Evergreen approached its 10th year, the pastors began to realize that a church for baby-boomers just wasn’t effectively reaching the next generation of young people. Evergreen had always striven to stay on the cutting edge of church-for-the-unchurched with its music and style. Nonetheless, Evergreen just didn’t seem to appeal to people in the 18-25 year old age range. It became clear that changes needed to be made. To accomplish these changes, The Rock was officially launched in January 1999 by Pastor Mark Darling and a team of people. The Rock continues to be led by Pastor Mark Darling and a team of 8 house church leaders.
The Rock is clearly a unique style of church, designed for “twenty-something” singles , college students and young couples with kids. We changed everything: the music (alternative rock), the dress (ultra-casual: body piercing, tattoos, and green hair are welcome) and the service time (Fridays at 7:30 p.m.) in order to match the culture of young people.
The Rock, Berlin
In 2001, The Rock, Berlin began in an area which was formerly a part of East Berlin. A joint effort between Evergreen Church and Great Commission Ministries, The Rock, Berlin was made possible by the sacrifice, love and courage of missionary families and singles from all of the Evergreen locations. The church is lead by Pastor Dieter Schade. In the past year pastors Mark Bowen (Evergreen Lakeville) and Mark Darling (The Rock and Urban Refuge) have visited Rock Berlin several times for the purpose of pastoral care.
The Urban Refuge
There is a great need for a strong evangelical presence in the urban areas. Churches are aging and dying, the racial and economic diversity is great, and the social problems are challenging. With that in mind, Pastors Andy Gray and Mark Darling and a team of 140 adults from all of our locations started the Urban Refuge in January of 2003 in South Minneapolis. They meet at 55th & Chicago in South Minneapolis on Sunday mornings. We are thrilled to see God bringing a diversity of people to the church and are actively seeking ways to interact with and serve the communities in the city.