Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Remodel Underway!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Wow! What a week! What an amazing congregation! I LOVE this church! Thank You Lord!

Those are the words that I have been repeating to myself over and over all week long. I watched with wonder and thanksgiving as three different teams worked hard to beautify this physical building in which we worship. Saturday morning a team of 14 came and invested their whole morning in cleaning up the downstairs area. Sunday after church an uncounted number stayed and pulled up the carpet and everything underneath. What a dirty, yucky mess. Yet you all never stopped.

Then on Monday morning I watched a team of men from Oakland Lutheran install a brand new platform that will give our worship team so much more room. What a blessing they were. They finished the entire project in a single day! I can't wait for you to see it. It looks so much better! 

That's not even the end of it. The blessings and wonders just continue! First I received a telephone call from Juanita. She apologized to me that she could not help with the carpet pull. She just didn't have the strength, she said. What she didn't say was that she worked hard all Saturday morning to clean up downstairs! Of course I told her not to worry about it. She wasn't worried. She actually called because she wants to come in and lead a sanctuary clean up team once all the work is done and the dust has settled! I'm so humbled by her can-do attitude.

Also, Saturday morning Dave Repp came in with the rest of the cleanup crew, but he veered off on a challenging task that really needed done. He worked on the wall in the conference room that has been deteriorating for years. He ripped out the whole wall right down to the bricks. Then, without fanfare, he came back this week and installed new drywall. I made him stop just long enough to snap the photo on the right.

Some of you may be wondering, 'what's next?' The vendor for our sanctuary carpeting came in this week and measured. The carpet has been ordered. The installation will take place the first week of March. That's going to be cutting it close as you may recall that we will host the March of Prayer on Friday night, March 6th. 

In the meantime we will worship with the bare floors and the smell of sawdust! Also Paul has told me that he plans to put up the scaffolding in the back of the sanctuary and patch the plaster in the ceiling.

I forgot to mention him in this newsletter of wonders, but Paul really is the inspiration behind this entire project. Paul scheduled everything and inspired all the different teams to work on the church. And he personally has tirelessly spent many hours high up on the scaffolding in the front of the sanctuary. When you look up at the ceiling, you won't see any sign of his work - which is just the way he wants it. No cracks. And the paint matches perfectly.

Thanks Paul! Your faith encourages all of our faith as well! What a wonderful partner to share this ministry!

Sunday morning worship. The worship team of Don, Mark, Dave, Brian, Chris, Brandi, Trish and Missie will be back this Sunday morning. Here are the songs we plan to sing: (1) "How Great Is Your Love by Phil Wickham; (2) “Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin; (3) "10,000 Reasons" by Matt Redman; and (4) “Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin. I LOVE playing and singing with this team. Like all the folks I mentioned up above, they are all so giving of their time and talent.

Sunday morning sermon. Our sermon title is "Where Then Is My Hope?" The earliest written book in the Bible asks this question, "Where is my hope?" (Job 17:15). At one time or another in our lives, we all ask this question. Times of disappointment, times of struggle, times of despair. Sunday we will talk both about what we hope for as well as how to keep our hope alive in tough times.

I'm pretty excited about this talk. I had something happen in the writing of this sermon that hasn't happened before, as best I can recollect. I outlined the sermon with all the Bible verses early in the week - as I usually do. Then, yesterday, as I sat down to write it, I had a new idea - a new way of illustrating the talk - that occurred to me. It worked all the way through. I didn't have to change a single word in my outline. Looking back now, it's almost as if the outline was written for a talk that I hadn't yet conceived of. How about that!?

Leap Of Faith Concert - Saturday Feb. 29th. What are you doing with your extra day this Leap Year? We have a great suggestion. Come to the church Chome (behind the sanctuary) and listen to Pastor Paul (and a little of Pastor Mark) share some fun retro songs, songs that are “altared” to embrace the Faith.  Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Glenn Miller all collaborated with Paul for this concert. Come and enjoy. Day - THIS Saturday, Feb. 29th. Start time - 6:30pm. Expected length - 75 minutes.

March Of Prayer - Again! This year we will celebrate the March of Prayer again beginning March 1st through Easter. Many different churches will offer a worship and prayer service each evening at 6pm. Our church has accepted the challenge to host on Friday evening, March 6th from 6-8pm. Would you plan to come AND plan to bring family and friends? Join the celebration! Join the prayer! 

Singspiration - March 29th. On the fifth Sunday months we celebrate with a special worship service we call a Singspiration. The entire worship will consist of music. This is your chance to use your musical abilities to praise Jesus. Let Brandi know if you'd like to participate with your voice or musical instrument.

Breakfast - March 29th. We will also enjoy a breakfast together BEFORE the worship. Breakfast will be served at 10am. Thank-you Cindy Thoman for being willing to lead the charge and make breakfast available.

Ok - I've written enough. I hope you can feel the excitement and enthusiasm behind the words today. We have had many different high points at Church Requel over the last 10 years, but I think this one may be the highest. This I know - I am one lucky pastor to have you all as a congregation. Thanks for the joy! Love you all, Pastor Mark

Valentine's Weekend - Cleaning & Carpet Ripping

Happy Valentine's Friday Church Requel!

Valentine's Day only falls on Newsletter Friday about once every seven years so we at least need to mention it. With my love of history, I researched Saint Valentine in an attempt to discover his connection to greeting cards, chocolates and flowers. Boy, was I ever misdirected!

Turns out, Saint Valentine has no connection at all to our modern day holiday except for his name. He did exemplify great love - true love - by providing comfort to Christians condemned to die. Then he was martyred for his faith on February 14, 269AD. That's right - we celebrate the love holiday for the day Valentine was executed. Hmmm... that sure puts a different spin on it.

So where does the romantic connection come from? Fast forward a little more than a thousand years to the 14th century, where we find a poet named Geoffrey Chaucer. You remember him, right? The author of the Canterbury Tales? Turns out he also wrote a poem about "Valentines." Here we are 7 centuries later and most can't remember Canterbury Tales or Chaucer, but we're all ga-ga over Valentines.

Gotta wonder what both Valentine and Chaucer would think about today's holiday!

How Valentine's Day REALLY Got Started. So where did all the amorous utopian concepts of the February 14th LUV come from? One advantage of being born in the 1950s is that I actually lived through it and can now tell you how today's version of Valentine's Day came about. Back in the early 1960s, the greeting card industry got together with the chocolate industry, the flower industry, and the shoe box industry to plot and plan. Roswell historians remember this as GCFS day. Seems like President's Day wasn't really making anyone any real money so the GCFS cabal was formed and Valentine's Day was born.

Of course even the powerful GCFS collusion can't just "declare" a day to be a holiday. (This was before the 1985-86 Congress, when one out of every three bills declared a national holiday about something, like National Garlic Day - April 19th or National High Five Day - also April 19th. The resulting crash of holidays necessitated an official arbitrator of all holidays and thus the 752-page, Chase's Calendar Of Events, became a reality. These days you can't name a holiday without checking in with Editor Holly McGuire.) But like I said, the GCFS conspiracy didn't have the advantage of either the 1985 Congress or Chase's Calendar.

How could the GCFS grow their own holiday? They decided to go for the long play. The GCFS started with little kids in elementary school. 'What if,' they wondered, 'we convinced parents and teachers to force children to decorate a shoe box, cut a hole in the top, and then we make little heart cards for the kiddos to sign and deposit inside the decorated boxes? We could even make a disgusting little hard candy in the shape of a heart and put words on it.' And thus a holiday was born.

It's interesting to note that the Flower Industry was none too pleased with this plan as it left them out of the school scheme altogether. But really, you can't expect little kids to buy roses. The eventual rise of the Flower Industry and the resulting fall of the Shoe Box industry is another fascinating story, but it will have to wait for another time. Suffice it to say that the Shoe Box industry got the boot!

Teachers and parents did their best to make sure that each student received a Valentine. Sadly this was before flirtations with American Socialism was popularized, so there always were larger hearts and smaller hearts. Some children (and here - in the interest of confidentiality - I will not mention any names) received smaller hearts than other children. So now fifty to sixty years later, we really can't blame some adults for having smaller hearts than other people.

Thus, a $19.6 billion holiday was born. Valentine lent his name. Chaucer wrote a poem. But the GCF has overseen the greatest made up holiday ever in the history of mankind. Somehow they kept their own existence under wraps. No one else knows. They even came up with another name for GCF - Greatest Common Factor - that math whiz kids like to talk about. Little do they know that the real greatest common factor is that everybody has a need to love and to be loved! So the next time you buy a card, or flowers, or chocolates, at least you'll know how it all got started.

And now... onto the real news of the day. (Honestly folks, I don't know how the above happened. I just sat down and started typing. I have very little control over these fingers!)

Clean Up Saturday Morning. Join the fun tomorrow morning at 9am to help clean up the downstairs area of the church. So far the clean up crew includes Dave and Becky, Paul, Brandi and Eddie, Mark and Mary Kay, Don and Stephenie, Sherman, Cindy and Sheri. But we have room for more! Hope to see you tomorrow morning at 9am.

Carpet Pull Sunday After Church. The construction in the sanctuary shifts into high gear this week. Pastor Paul has been patching the ceiling all week long. Sunday, after church, we will pull up the carpeting in the sanctuary. If you have one, bring a cutter tool with you. However, the best tools we need are as many willing arms as possible to make quick work of it. How many times in life do you get the opportunity to rip things up?

Worship Plans For Sunday. The praise band will be back this Sunday morning singing and playing praises to our Lord! We hope you're as excited as we are. Here's what we'll be singing and playing: (1) "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman; (2) "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe; (3) "Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin; and (4) "Every Day" by Hillsong. 

We will also learn a brand new song that I'm hoping will become a regular worship song for us. "How Great Is Your Love" by Phil Wickham is a powerful and easy song for the congregation to sing together.

L.O.V.E. Was Made For You And Me. That's the title of our sermon Sunday morning. Valentine's Day reminds us every year to celebrate the romantic love in our lives. However, our Christian faith reminds us every DAY to love all of those in our lives, especially our family of fellow Christ followers. Sunday we take a cue from jazz singer Nat King Cole to discover that for the Christ follower, L-O-V-E really was made for you and me! Want a head start? Here is the sermon outline and all the Bible verses: http://bible.com/events/7060662

Leap Of Faith Concert - Feb. 29th. What are you doing with your extra day this Leap Year? We have a great suggestion. Come to the church Chome (behind the sanctuary) and listen to Pastor Paul (and a little of Pastor Mark) share some fun retro songs. Retro songs are songs that are “altared” to embrace the Faith.  Billy Joel, Frank Sinatra, Elvis and Glenn Miller all collaborated with Paul for this concert. Come and enjoy.

Day - Saturday, Feb. 29th.
Start time 6:30pm.
Expected length - 75 minutes.

March Of Prayer - Again! This year we will celebrate the March of Prayer again beginning March 1st through Easter. Many different churches will offer a worship and prayer service each evening at 6pm.

Our church has accepted the challenge to host on Friday evening, March 6th from 6-8pm. We enjoyed the largest attendance for this service than for any other last year! Our musicians are already prepping for this night.

Would you plan to come AND plan to bring family and friends? Join the celebration! Join the prayer! You'll find a schedule on the communion tables in the sanctuary.

Feels like these fingers of mine are finally finished. Pardon my muse! Ha! Just one more thing - know how much I love each one of you! Seriously, I hope you have a great day and that you will come and join our fellowship this weekend. Can't wait to see you!

Love. Pastor Mark

The Band Is Back! Sanctuary Improvements Begin!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

The praise band will be back this Sunday morning singing and playing praises to our Lord! We hope you're as excited as we are. Here's what we'll be singing and playing: (1) "You Never Let Go" by Matt Redman; (2) "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe; (3) "Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin; and (4) "Every Day" by Hillsong. 

We will also learn a brand new song that I'm hoping will become a regular worship song for us. "How Great Is Your Love" by Phil Wickham is a powerful and easy song for the congregation to sing together.

Neighborhood Meal Tomorrow Evening.

We are hoping for a good volunteer crew to come help serve our neighbors a free, warm meal Saturday night. We put out a sign up sheet last Sunday and here's who signed up: Mark & Mary Kay, Brandi, Steve and Cindy, Olivia, Chris & Tamara with kiddos, and Juanita. We would love to include you too, even if you haven't signed up to help. The more the merrier!

If you'd like to join in the Saturday night fun, show up at 4pm. We begin serving at 5pm and are usually cleaned up and walking out the door by 6pm.

February Sanctuary Construction Plans - Pardon Our Dust!

The next few weeks will bring some nice improvements to our Church Requel sanctuary! Don't be surprised if you see some scaffolding erected when you come to church this weekend. Pastor Paul would like to do some patching to our ceiling before we begin laying our carpeting.

Speaking of carpeting - we are hoping many of you will plan to stay after the service A WEEK FROM SUNDAY - Feb. 16th - to help us pull up the existing carpeting. The carpentry team from Oakland Lutheran will begin working on the new platform the following day. We have also now received a quote from Washington Floors for the new carpet install. When they came out and measured, they estimated 4 days for the installation. This means we will have one Sunday - Feb. 23rd - when we will be worshiping without any carpeting. That should be a special morning, don't you think?

Downstairs Cleaning Team - Saturday, Feb. 15th.

We are still planning on cleaning out the downstairs area a week from tomorrow morning at 9am. Everything downstairs is such a cluttered mess right now. We would like to throw away much of the clutter and find good storage solutions for the rest.

Mary Kay got a team started including Paul, Mark & Mary Kay, Dave & Becky, Brandi, and Don & Stephenie. 

We will have a sign-up sheet in the lobby this Sunday morning. If you can come for a couple hours the following Saturday at 9am to help, that would be great. We just need willing hands and organizing minds.

The Pastor's Charge Wraps Up Sunday.

We have invested the last two preaching opportunities to talk about what you should expect from a pastor. There are nine charges found in Acts 20. So far we have covered six of them. We will wrap up this mini series this Sunday morning.

I have published the sermon notes for Sunday morning here: http://bible.com/events/7056116

Why do I give you the sermon notes before I even deliver the sermon? There are three reasons. (1) I'd like you to have the opportunity to begin reviewing the Scriptures. (2) I'd like you to have the opportunity to begin praying - both for me as I deliver the sermon and for yourself that God's Spirit would also prepare your heart for what He will have for you Sunday. (3) I'd like to give you an opportunity to invite family and friends. Perhaps it helps to give you some idea of what will be happening Sunday morning.

By the way - we are very close to the end of our Sequel and Requel series. You may be saying that after 54 sermons, "It's about time!" Others may be saying, "What? We have 7 more chapters." I make no apology for working our way verse by verse through the book of Acts. I believe it has been one of the grand highlights for me personally and my preaching ministry. As far as the next 7 chapters are concerned - they all are telling one story... the story of Paul's arrest in Jerusalem and his trip back to Rome. 

SPECIAL NEWSLETTER INSIDE INFO: I'm not sure exactly which Sunday this will happen yet, but eventually Brandi and I would like to put together a Readers Theater with multiple voices reading these last 7 chapters all the way through. I think this will give you all a unique understanding of this story. It will be like having a top-down, arial view of how the Book of Acts ends. Would you like to join the Readers Theater fun? I hope many of you would like to join up! Let Brandi know and she will include you!

"March Of Prayer - Again" Right Around The Corner!

Many of us remember last year's March of Prayer fondly. The March of Prayer got started as the brain child of Paul and Jordon. They wondered if it would be possible to have 31 days in a row of worship and prayer, each night in a different Richland County church with that church's unique style. Well, not only did we fill up the entire month of Marcy but we scheduled right through Easter!

We are doing it AGAIN this year. The entire schedule from March through Easter has already been filled up. Now there's talk of filling up the rest of April! (Can May be too far behind?")

The Richland County Commissioners even recognized Religious Freedom Day this week and thanked the local clergy for leading this prayer effort!

Church Requel has signed up to take one of the first worship evenings. We will be hosting Friday, March 6th from 6-8pm. We hope our entire congregation will come out that night to support our worship and prayer team. Many thanks to Brandi, who has taken on the task of leading our worship and prayer plans for that evening.

We have published the list of churches participating in March. You can see the March schedule above right. Click on the image and it will enlarge for you. Also, you'll find the entire schedule in your bulletin this Sunday morning. We've also placed extras on the communion tables so that you might give some away to your family and friends!

Wrap It Up! Wow! Another long letter! I never know how these Friday newsletters are going to go. Believe it or not, I just open up my laptop on Fridays and begin typing. Maybe I need an editor! Ha! Seriously though, what I hope to do with these weekly tomes is not only just to inform you of all the cool things happening, but also to transparently reveal my heart to you, our loving church family. I know I am so fortunate to lead you. Thank you for all your love, support and prayers! Hope to see you all - perhaps multiple times - this weekend. Love, Pastor Mark

So Much Happening in February!!!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Can you believe we have arrived at the last day in January 2020 already?!? What's so exciting about this Friday is that I can finally tell you all about what will be happening in February. WE HAVE BIG NEWS!!! So read on my fellow Church Requelers! In the order it will happen...

February 2nd - Largest Choir YET! Every Sunday at Church Requel is special, right? But this coming Sunday holds the potential of the largest choir we've ever seen at our church. I'm so pleased that so many of you have signed up! Here is the current list of choral singers: Brandi, Chris, Tamara, Amy, Bessica, Cindy, Olivia. Alice, Skyler, Aaron, Saudaie, Bubby, Sivon, Leia, Paityn, Brian and Emma. Wow!!! If you want to sing but your name is not on this list - come and sing anyway! Just make sure you come really early. The choir will begin practice at 8:30 am.

February 8th - Neighborhood Meal.

We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal this coming Saturday, February 8th. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. We serve the meal at 5pm. We are usually walking out the door by 6pm. Your homemade desserts would be most welcome too.

If you know you can come and help, would you please sign up in the lobby Sunday morning? Thanks for helping!

Clean Up Saturday - February 15th. We are gathering a team to clean up the downstairs area. We would appreciate all the hands we can get to organize our classrooms and storage closet. Post Christmas - everything is such mess. Also, there's lots of things that just need to be thrown away. Would you join the work team that morning? So far we have commitments from Pastor Mark, Mary Kay, Brandi, Paul Lintern, Dave & Becky, and Don & Steph. Plan to meet together with us at 9am.  The more who help, the faster we will get 'er done!

Carpet Pull Sunday - February 16th. After the regular Sunday morning worship service, we need as many as can stay late to help us with a new project. We want to pull up all the carpeting in the sanctuary! If you have tools that can help, bring them. But even just your willing arms to carry off remnants would be most welcome. Why are we pulling up the carpeting you ask ... ?

Sanctuary Makeover - February 17th - 22nd. You read that right! A work team of carpenter-farmers from Oakland Lutheran Church have decided to take this project on. They will be building a brand new two-level platform that will extend out closer toward our pews. They expect to complete the work in three days, from Monday, February 17th to the 19th.

If you have basic carpentry skills (you can hammer a nail) and you have time available those days, why not join in the fun? And those of you with cooking and baking skills, perhaps you might come in and feed our carpentry team!?

Paul has also hired a local carpeting installer to come in on February 20th and 21st to install new carpeting in our aisles and upon our new platform. When you come to church on February 23rd, expect a whole new look! Isn't this exciting news?!

Leap of Faith Concert - February 29th. Did you know this is Leap Year? This February has 29 days! So what are you planning to do with your extra day this year? I have a suggestion. Why not come to church on Saturday night at 6:30 pm and celebrate all that God has done! I will be joining Paul Lintern and many other musicians with a concert of praise. The official "March Of Prayer Again" will start the next day. This kick-off event should be a lot of fun and filled with praise for our Lord. The concert will begin just as soon as the neighborhood meal is finished.

Finally - A BIG THANK YOU!  

Last Sunday I told you that we had fallen behind our 2020 budget in the first 3 weeks of January. You responded so willingly, with the largest weekly giving in this month. We are all caught up!

Thanks so much for having such a generous heart! We have such a loving and giving church family. I know I am lucky to be your pastor. 

Isn't this an exciting time for us? Love you all much! - Pastor Mark

Clergy Meets With Mayor

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Yesterday I joined many other pastors in Mayor Tim Theaker's 9th floor conference room. We prayed for our mayor and all the department chiefs. We celebrated the drop in unemployment in Mansfield from over 14% to now just over 4%. We also celebrated significant drops in major crimes. And we rejoiced over the nativity set in our town square this past Christmas.

I learned that every Monday morning at 8:15 there is a clergy prayer meeting that takes place in this same conference room, where pastors pray for the needs of our city. I want to begin making that a part of my week!

I believe we are fortunate to live in the City of Mansfield. Our cost of living is lower than just about anywhere else. But that's not the best part. We live in what historically has been known as the city of steeples. Yesterday at lunch I felt that was not just a historical description, but also a current one! I'm grateful for the many pastors who serve alongside me, for their friendship, for their dedication and for their prayers.

Soup, Soup, and More Soup For You! When Sheri and Juanita and seven others gathered on a Tuesday morning to make soup and freeze soup to give away for those who might become sick... never ever did they guess they would be needed as much as what they have been.

I suppose one could look at this as bad news - that so many have become ill. However, I choose to look at this from a confirmation viewpoint. The Holy Spirit moved Sheri, Juanita and others to meet a need before we even knew the need existed. What better confirmation of the Holy Spirit in our lives could there be?

This pastor has remained in close touch with Sheri this week. She's told me that since the beginning of this year, she has dedicated herself to be active and focused on others' needs. I love her spirit and her attitude. It's been two years since we've said goodbye to Jack. But for Sheri it feels just like yesterday. She has shared with me (and now is allowing me to share with you) that it's really easy to stay home and grieve. And for awhile that's all she could do. But now she is grieving in a different way - using her skills to share with other people going through tough times too. Thanks for the example Sheri!

Lots Of New Folks Coming To Church Requel! Have you noticed all the new faces in the congregation lately? What a joy to see our small church grow! To me there seems to be a new Spirit of love and earnestness to our Christian faith. The fellowship, if anything, seems just a little sweeter. The songs seem a little louder. The preaching feels even more connected to God and His direction. What about you? Do you feel it too?

I've mentioned before just how much I'm enjoying the new direction in our music ministry and the accompanying dedication that it requires from our musicians. But the burden has not been heavy. Everyone seems to like coming in early (8:30 am) and sharing time with each other. The practices are worshipful too! To me it feels like we're not only warming up our voices for the 11am worship, but we are also warming up our souls!

Here are the songs we are planning to sing together this Sunday morning: (1) "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews; (2) “Because He Lives (Amen)" by Matt Maher; (3) "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel; (4) “Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective. Also our ladies' trio plans to sing a special song, "Forever Reign" by Hillsong. We're hoping the worship music will be truly powerful this Sunday morning.

Sermon: "The Pastor's Charge - Part 1"  What should you be looking for in a pastor? Someone kind and understanding? Someone who agrees with you? Someone who never creates controversy?

Sunday we will join up with Luke, the author of Acts, who witnesses Paul's charge to all the Ephesians' pastors. Luke gives us a front row seat in Acts 20, starting in verse 17. As I've studied this passage I have come to the conclusion that there is more here than I can teach in just one week. It may not even be possible to get through it all in two weeks.

I have published the sermon notes in your Bible app. You can also see the notes here. Check them out. Pray over them. (Pray over me!) Allow the Holy Spirit to begin speaking to you even before you show up at church this Sunday morning. 

Next Sunday - Largest Choir Yet!  The list of people singing in the choir on the first Sunday of each month continues to grow! Here is who has signed up to sing with us two Sundays from now: Brandi, Chris, Tamara, Amy, Bessica, Cindy, Olivia, Alice, Skyler, Aaron, Saudaie, Bubby, Sivon, Leia, Paityn, Brian and Emma. We still have room for YOU! Talk to Brandi this Sunday and plan to show up for practice a week from Sunday at 8:30am.

Giving Records For 2019. Thanks so much for your generous donations this past year. Your gift records are available online on our Church Community website. See me if you've forgotten your password or just prefer me to print your record for you! Each week I come to church with the printout for someone new. I'm most happy to do it for you.

January Giving Down So Far. Speaking our our giving records, I received a call from our treasurer this week that our giving for the first 3 weeks of this month is way behind that of last year and that we aren't even meeting our minimum budget for the month. I'm praying that some of you just haven't got around to your financial support yet this month and that all is still ok for us financially. No worries. All faith! But if you haven't had the chance to give to Church Requel yet this year, make your gift a priority this Sunday.

Finally - The Answer To Last Week's Question. I told you last week that there are two new ukulele players at Church Requel this year. Were you able to guess who they are?

The picture to the left answers the quiz. Stephenie and Leia have both started learning how to play ukulele. Yay!

And these are not the only three. I also realized that my granddaughter, Sicily, is also a uke player too! Imagine 4 uke players in a church our size! Hmmm... I wonder why that is?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get a ukulele quartet going some day in 2020? No pressure! 

Here's hoping that your day today is blessed and joyful. Hope to see you all this weekend at Church Requel! Love you! Pastor Mark

Soups On!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Tuesday morning smelled so amazing at Church Requel this week! I wish every work day could smell so wonderful! Sheri, Juanita, Mary, Lisa, Becky, Dave and Stephenie cooked all morning. They made large batches of several kinds of soups and then froze them all in quart sized containers. Now whenever one of you OR one of your family or friends are sick, we can deliver soup. Already made. Already delish. Already ready to go!

Sunday Morning Worship Music

The praise team is now on a roll, showing up every Sunday morning at 8:30 am to rehearse, so we're prepared for the worship at 11am. I sure do love serving with them! How about you? Are you enjoying the live music?

Here are the songs we are planning to sing together with you this Sunday: (1) "Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin, a brand new one for us; (2) “Who You Say I Am" by Hillsong; (3) "Cornerstone" by Hillsong; and (4) “Friend of God" by Israel Houghton.

Sunday Morning Sermon - "Falling Asleep In Church"

We consider the somewhat humorous story of Eutychus - the first person recorded in Biblical history to have fallen asleep during a sermon. Eutychus may have been the first, but he certainly is not the last.

In Sunday's sermon we will consider five different ways that we Christ-followers can fall asleep. We'll learn that sermon sleeping is far from the worst kind of slumber in which we may engage in the Christian life.

Want a head start on the sermon? Want to begin thinking about it? Praying about it? Asking God to speak to you about it? Here is a link to my sermon notes in the Bible app. Allow those words to simmer in your mind. And go to bed early Saturday night! Ha!

March Of Prayer Returns to Church Requel March 6th

Remember last year's exciting March of Prayer? For those of you who don't, many churches in Mansfield participated in a worship and prayer event every evening in March and April right up to Easter. Each night we enjoyed the unique worship and prayer style of the many different churches in our community.

Good news! We are doing this again the year. The only thing different this year is that after seeing how God's Presence was experienced so powerfully last year, our churches are signing up more quickly to participate this year.

Church Requel will host the March of Prayer on Friday night, March 6th this year. As you can see from the picture above right, our sanctuary was completely filled up last year. So mark your calendar now for Friday, March 6th from 6-8pm. Actually, you should come early so you can help all our guests! More details to come as we get closer!

Our Next Neighborhood Meal - Saturday, February 8th

We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal on Saturday, February 8th. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. We serve the meal at 5pm. We are usually walking out the door by 6pm. Your homemade desserts would be most welcome too. Thanks for helping!

Bible Study Saturday at 11am

We continue our Bible survey class tomorrow morning at 11am. Many thanks to Brian for arranging this class for us. Each Saturday we listen to a 23-minute video lesson by Dr. R. C. Sproul, founder of Ligonier Ministries and author of more than 100 books, including Holiness Of God. After the video we gather around a table and talk about what we've learned. Honestly, it's been a pretty amazing discussion the past couple of weeks. Lots of different spiritual journeys represented by those who've attended. You would be most welcome to join us!

When Do We Close For Snow?

I hear we have some nasty weather coming Saturday night. Hopefully not bad enough to keep us from church on Sunday. It's very rare that we ever close. We have contracted to have our lot across the street snow plowed AND salted when it's needed. But if Richland County every experiences a LEVEL 2 snow emergency, we automatically close down. Safety first! You can also confirm by checking out our Facebook page and our website.

Last But Not Least...

Did you know that we now have 2 more ukulele players at Church Requel? Counting yours truly that makes 3!!! Do you know what the odds are that a church our size would have 3 ukulele players? Not high I can tell you. So who are the other two? I will leave it to you to guess until next week's newsletter!

Love you all much! See you Saturday and/or Sunday at 11am! - Pastor Mark

Thanks For The Food!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Before I write anything else to you, I want to say "thank you" to the many who have responded so generously to our food pantry requests over this past month. Several of you have been bringing food with you when you come to church on Sunday mornings. Thanks! Keep doing it! Then another couple showed up at my house Sunday afternoon and filled my trunk with food for the food pantry.

I called Sheri, who directs our food pantry operations, to ask her if she wanted me to put all the food in the pantry for her. She declined, saying she needed to reorganize some things with all the new donations. So I put all the extra food on the pews in the downstairs hallway. We just about filled up the two pews with all the food! Wow!

I also found out this week that we will soon be the recipients of a new to us refrigerator and also a new to us freezer. We haven't got them in place yet, but I'm hoping within the next week to be able to tell you that you can begin bringing in meat and other refrigerated or frozen foods. So - many additional thank you's to the two families who donated these appliances to us. Isn't God good?

Business And Christianity. Our sermon Sunday morning will come from Acts 19:23-41. This is the story of the riot in the city of Ephesus because silversmiths were losing business. Christianity was taking hold and hurting the Artemis statue business.

I will warn you ahead of time that my take on this will probably be a little different than you expect. As I have had a chance to think about it - sometimes in the wee hours of the morning - business and religion have always been connected. This is not necessarily an evil thing, but it does raise questions that we should try to answer.

Can you think of businesses that are connected in one way or another with Christianity? There are the businesses that provide services specifically for churches. There are the musicians that write music and play concerts. There are the bookstores that sell books written by authors specializing in the Christian market. There are the companies that make chairs and pews or the companies that design church buildings. We even have home goods stores and chicken nugget stores who appear to be oriented toward the Christian demographic.

And what about all the small Mom and Pop businesses and service providers, who are also Christ-followers. Don't many of us want to support them simply because they share the same faith as we do? Don't we often extend greater trust because "they're Christian?"

Our sermon Sunday morning, I hope, will cause us to ask ourselves some questions about how we do business and with whom we do business and why we make these choices. I'm not entirely certain why this particular passage causes so much reflection on my part. However, I suppose it may be that my first career was as a business owner. Now that I'm well on as a pastor, I think back to those business days. 

Would you like a head start on the sermon? You can find my sermon notes in your Bible app or you can simply click here to see them in your browser window.

Live Music Sunday morning! What we've been calling the great experiment of the last several months has now concluded - successfully we believe. In 2018 and 2019 we would make a big deal out of the fact that we would have live musicians for our worship time. After many years of using background tracks for our worship music, once a month or so we could have our own congregants providing our music.

Starting this month, LIVE music will be the norm and not the exception. In every week EXCEPT the first Sunday of the month, our musicians will gather at 8:30 am to practice the music we will sing at 11am. This is quite a commitment from our musicians, but they have told us they're up for it. Many thanks to Brandi, Dan, Don, Dave, Brian, Trish, Missie and yours truly for their dedication and desire to lead our worship singing.

Here are the songs we will be singing together this Sunday morning: (1) "Your Name Is Power" by Rend Collective; (2) “What A Beautiful Name" by Hillsong; (3) "The Way (New Horizon)" by Pat Barrett; and (4) “My Feet Are On The Rock" by I Am They. This week I recorded my own ukulele version of "Your Name Is Power" and uploaded it to my YouTube channel. Click here if you'd like to sing along with me!

Soup Day! Gather with Sheri, Juanita and several of our other ladies in the kitchen downstairs this coming Tuesday morning, January 14th at 10am. We'll make soups and then freeze them to use for when someone is sick or grieving in the future. Isn't this a great idea!?

Bible Study - You Can Still Join Up! Our study on the Bible continues this Saturday morning. We are thrilled with all those who have already joined us. If you missed, it's not too late to join us! This 11-week study features a video of master teacher, R.C. Sproul, followed by a time of discussion each week. Bring your Bible with you tomorrow at 11am!

Giving Records For 2019. Thanks so much for your generous donations this past year. Your gift records are available online on our Church Community website. See Pastor Mark if you've forgotten your password or just prefer him to print your record for you!

Our Next Neighborhood Meal. We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal on Saturday, February 8th. Thanks for helping!

Love you all much! Hope to see you Saturday and/or Sunday at 11! - Pastor Mark