A Neighborhood Church on Arrow Highway
Neighborhood Christian Fellowship sits at 18821 East Arrow Highway in Covina, California, in the heart of the San Gabriel Valley. The church's name says exactly what it tries to be: a Christian community planted in the middle of working neighborhoods, focused on the people who live within walking distance of its doors. Lead Pastor Rev. Joe Halbert preaches a vision of God who "moved into the neighborhood," drawn from John 1:14 in The Message translation of the Bible, and the congregation takes that image seriously. Its mission field, in the church's own words, is "more locally focused." The building, the back lot, and the small farm behind the campus together form the practical setting for that vision: worship on Sunday mornings, food distributed from the parking lot on Wednesday evenings, quilts sewn in the Fellowship Hall, and rows of vegetables tended just past the lot line.
NCF describes its atmosphere as casual, fun, loving and inviting, and calls itself "a safe place" whether someone is looking for a long-term church home or simply beginning to investigate faith. The same welcome extends to children and teens, who have their own ministries running alongside the worship gathering each Sunday morning. Visitors are encouraged to "catch a staff member on a Sunday" to hear more about what is happening at NCF; the church says it would be glad to talk.
Sunday Mornings at Ten
NCF gathers every Sunday morning from 10:00 to 11:30 AM at the church campus on Arrow Highway. The weekly worship service includes dedicated ministries for kids and teens so that parents can attend the service while their children are being taught at their own level. On the second Sunday of each month, the rhythm changes on purpose: the entire congregation stays together for the start of the service in an all-family worship experience, with children remaining in the main gathering rather than heading off to their own classrooms. The result is a service where, twelve times a year, no one in the family is separated from the rest.
Sermons are preached almost entirely by Lead Pastor Joe Halbert, who has walked the congregation through series like REBUILD, REVIVAL, WAIT, JOURNEY, RESTORATION, RENEW 3, the four-week Advent cycle of HOPE, PEACE, JOY and LOVE, and the multi-year "Into The Neighborhood" preaching arc drawn straight from the church's name and vision. Other recurring series include A Living Sacrifice, PreacHER (a series highlighting women preachers), Generous, Salt and Light, and many more drawn from books of the Bible like 1 John, James, 1 Corinthians, and Revelation. Messages are posted every Sunday afternoon and can be watched as video on the church's YouTube channel, streamed live at the time of the service, or subscribed to as a podcast through Apple Podcasts under the title "NCF Sermons." Older messages reach back to 2009 and are searchable by series and by speaker, with names like Pastor Paul Swanson, Pastor Jeremy Robertson, Pastor Phil Stevenson, Pastor Mark Bargaehr, Pastor Dave Johnson and Desiree Johnson, Pastor Gordon Coulter, Pastor Marlia Cochran, Pastor Eddie Leo, Dr. JoAnne Lyon, Dr. Ryan Delamater, Scott Ramsey, and others still part of the archive.
Core Values: God First, Scripture, Discipleship, Community, Compassion
NCF organizes its life around five core values, each tied to a specific biblical text. They are short enough to memorize and specific enough to measure against:
- God First - making God first in every part of life (Deuteronomy 6:5; Mark 12:30).
- Scripture - the Bible as God's written revelation and the source of belief, practice and priorities (2 Timothy 3:16).
- Discipleship - following Jesus, being transformed by Jesus, and going on mission with Jesus (Matthew 4:19; Matthew 28:18-20; Philippians 3:10-11; Romans 12:1-2).
- Community - "a mosaic of all-peoples doing life together as a family in the Body of Christ" (Acts 2:42-47; Ephesians 4:4-5).
- Compassion - acting on the Great Commission to reach each person, the local neighborhood and the world, and helping people flourish holistically (Luke 10:25-30; Matthew 28:18-20).
Underneath those values sits a single repeated verse from 1 Corinthians 3:9: "For we are co-workers in God's service." NCF frames everything it does - worship, the food pantry, the quilt ministry, the farm, child sponsorship - as collaboration with God rather than a solo project.
A Wesleyan Church in the San Gabriel Valley
Neighborhood Christian Fellowship is affiliated with The Wesleyan Church, a North American holiness and evangelical denomination. The Wesleyan connection shapes the church's statement of belief, summarized on its own site:
Wesleyans believe in one God, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the Savior of all who put their faith in Him alone for eternal life. We believe that those who are made new in Christ are called to be holy in character and conduct, and can only live this way by being filled with the Lord's Spirit. We believe in the Bible and its sufficiency to establish our faith and conduct. We believe God wills for people everywhere to know Him and be made new in Christ. We believe that the purpose of the Church is to worship God in spirit and in truth, and to reach a lost and fallen world with the gospel of Jesus Christ through its worship, witness, and loving deeds.
The full Articles of Religion are available through The Wesleyan Church's national site for those who want to read the complete doctrinal standards NCF teaches.
Pastor Joe Halbert and the Staff Team
Lead Pastor Rev. Joe Halbert has been the steady preaching voice of the congregation through at least the past several years of recorded sermons. The pastoral and staff team is intentionally small and is described as being "here to serve and equip the local church." Alongside Pastor Joe, the team includes Mariaelena Mata, who serves as Children's Director and Office Manager and oversees the children's ministry during Sunday worship; Albert Chan, who handles technology and sound; and Curt Lingo, who oversees facilities. The church emphasizes that its staff exists "to see lives transformed in the name of Jesus" and invites members and guests to let the team know how they can be helped.
Other pastors and preachers appear in the sermon archive from earlier years - among them Pastor Paul Swanson, Pastor Jeremy Robertson, Pastor Phil Stevenson, Pastor Mark Bargaehr, Pastor Dave Johnson and Desiree Johnson, Pastor Gordon Coulter, Pastor Marlia Cochran, Pastor Eddie Leo, Dr. JoAnne Lyon, and others - reflecting the wider network of leaders who have served NCF over the years. Recent services have also included guest preachers from time to time, including visitors like Scott Ramsey, Dr. Ryan Delamater, Pastor Holland Prior, and Pastor Mano Agulian.
The Neighborhood Pantry: Wednesday Nights on the Back Lot
The Neighborhood Pantry is the church's flagship community ministry. It opens every Wednesday evening from 4:00 to 5:30 PM in the back parking lot of the NCF campus, with the stated purpose of helping to supplement food needs and showing God's love to roughly fifty or more families from the surrounding neighborhoods each week. The pantry runs because volunteers pick up donated food on Mondays and Tuesdays, weigh and organize incoming donations on those same days, and set up and distribute food on Wednesdays from 3:00 to 6:00 PM. Volunteers can sign up to serve one time or on a rotational basis, which makes it workable for people with unpredictable schedules or who simply want to try it once before committing.
The pantry is led by Team Leads Lucy Cruz and Marisol Cruz, who can be reached at pantry@myncf.org. Financial gifts and donations of non-perishable food keep the shelves stocked week to week, and the pantry coordinates closely with the Neighborhood Farm so that fresh produce can be handed out alongside packaged goods when the harvest allows.
The Neighborhood Farm
Behind the church campus sits the Neighborhood Farm, an all-seasons gardening ministry whose produce is intended to supplement the food distributed through the Neighborhood Pantry with fresh organic fruits and vegetables. The farm also serves an educational purpose: it teaches volunteers and neighbors how to grow their own seed-to-table gardens at home. Volunteers work alongside Team Lead Judi Gregory in preparing the ground, planting, tending and harvesting crops as needed throughout the year, and the work is structured so that beginners and experienced gardeners can both find a role. Anyone interested in helping can call the church office at (626) 915-6691 for details.
Piecemakers Quilt Ministry
For more than three decades - since the early 1990s - the Piecemakers Quilt Ministry has been quietly producing simple patchwork quilts by hand and machine, then tying each one off with yarn. The quilts are then delivered to two local hospitals to spread God's love and comfort to sick children, chemotherapy patients, and grieving new mothers. The ministry welcomes seamstresses and non-seamstresses alike on Wednesdays from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall, where they can sew, tie, sort fabric, or simply visit. Financial donations and clean, usable fabric and yarn are also accepted, and the group is happy to receive overflow from anyone's fabric stash.
The team, led by Julie Swallow, welcomes anyone who would like a tour of the workroom in the Fellowship Hall to see the quilts in progress and learn more about the ministry. Inquiries can be sent to Piecemakers@myncf.org.
Sponsoring Kids Through World Hope International
NCF also partners with World Hope International to help children around the world access education. Each sponsorship covers costs like tuition, uniforms and books, and - unique to the communities served - sponsorship funds may also go toward ensuring quality teaching, safe transportation to and from school, and best practices for hygiene and health. The church invites families and individuals to explore sponsoring a child and walking with NCF in this expression of global mission.
The Prayer Chain
NCF runs a prayer chain that reflects its conviction that "God is the most moved mover." Anyone with a special request can email the prayer chain coordinator at prayer@myncf.org and have it lifted up by the prayer team.
Groups, Events and "Family on Mission"
Small groups and other connection opportunities are organized through NCF's Church Center platform, where members and visitors can browse and sign up for groups. The language NCF uses for its people is "Family on Mission" - defined on the church's serve page as "living as a family in this world while walking closely with Jesus and inviting others to join us in following Him." For NCF, family can be formed by marriage or by people choosing one another, and being on mission may mean a fuller dinner table, more involvement in the community, praying together, or serving people in need - or all of the above. The language is intentional: "regardless of how your family came together, we are excited to walk the journey with you of being on mission as God has called us all to be."
The church's events calendar is built around its weekly Sunday worship service and the recurring mid-week ministries - Pantry on Wednesday evenings, Piecemakers on Wednesdays, Farm work year-round - and visitors and newcomers can check the full calendar online to see what is coming up and where to plug in.
Livestream, Sermons and Giving
Live services are streamed on the church's YouTube channel (@ncfcovina), and the recorded video stays available there for anyone who wants to catch up later. A large archive of sermons, going back to 2009, is searchable on the sermons page by series and by speaker, and is also available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts under "NCF Sermons." The church maintains an active presence on Facebook (facebook.com/NCFcovina) and Instagram (instagram.com/ncfcovina), where Sunday services, ministry updates, and community announcements are regularly posted.
Giving to NCF can be done online through the church's giving page, and the Church Center platform is also where new and existing members can register for groups, events, and other church programs.
Visiting NCF
The church is located at 18821 East Arrow Highway, Covina, CA 91722, with the church phone line at (626) 915-6691 and a general inbox at office@myncf.org. Sunday worship begins at 10:00 AM and ends at 11:30 AM. Dress is casual, kids and teens have their own programs during the service, and the second Sunday of each month is set aside as an all-family worship experience so that no one misses being together. Anyone wanting to learn more about the church, ask about the Neighborhood Pantry or the Piecemakers Quilt Ministry, submit a prayer need, or sponsor a child through World Hope International can do so directly through the contacts above.