Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Working Behind the Scenes on LIVE STREAM

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

My week has been filled with all the things one is never taught in seminary!

Those of you who participate in worship with us via the LIVE STREAM on Facebook know that we have really struggled lately with the microphone. May I tell you a little of the behind-the-scenes events to get the worship stream working well again? 

First off, I wrote the company from which we purchased the microphone and told them of our problems using their mic with Facebook. To their credit, they did write me back. But their email was of no help at all. Essentially they said that it was Facebook's problem because Facebook changed the way their app interacts with external microphones. NO HELP! They did change their website saying their mic works with Facebook as a result of my email. Small conciliation. 

Secondly, after last week's struggles I wrote my friends, Mike and Leanna, and told them I was considering just switching from Facebook to YouTube for our live stream. They wrote me back and told me about a browser software they use called StreamYard.com which can broadcast directly to either Facebook, YouTube or both. So I invested a couple days learning everything I could about this new application. I discovered that lots of churches were already using StreamYard to stream their worship services.

First the bad news. StreamYard won't work with the external mic on my iPhone either - although it does use the internal mic much better.

Now the good news. StreamYard is a much better interface that allows a great deal more flexibility for our streams than does the native Facebook app. We can use any modern mobile device - Androids, iPhones, iPads - as well as laptop computers. We can also eventually patch in our sound system itself directly to the LIVE STREAM as well as use any additional camera (or even multiple cameras) to output to the stream.

Finally, we would have the ability to include live guests within the broadcast! I'm especially excited about this possibility because it would mean that we could include other people - regardless of where they are located - to read Scriptures or to pray or to lead our communion.

So this week we will be giving StreamYard a try for the first time. None of this will matter to those who watch online. It should still show up on our Facebook page Sunday morning at 11am as always! But if things work the way I hope they will, you could be seeing some nice improvements going forward in upcoming weeks! Once again, thanks Mike and Leanna for giving me a new direction to try!

For those of you interested, we are awaiting a couple of parts to be delivered today. Once they are here, Brandi and I will head down to the church and run some tests on the new tech gear and software. So you should be able to watch that on our Facebook page as we are testing.

ONE MORE THING... If this works as well as I'm hoping it will, we could really use the support of others in helping us with this. We could use moderators to our comments,  who will help engage the streaming audience. We also could use tech minded people to help us with the actual broadcast (it is surprisingly intuitive to run.) And, as I've mentioned before, we could use guests to participate in worship activities, such as reading Scriptures, praying or leading communion.

Email me or Brandi or message us on Facebook if any of this sounds like something you would like to do!

The really good news to come out of all this is that we are taking the next giant step forward in engaging our online worship community to allow them to participate as much as they would like! This, in turn, could lead to many others beyond our existing church, to become a part of our worship community! It's just like God to take a problem and turn it into something really good! Yay God!

Sunday's Worship Service. Ok... enough of the tech jargon. I know there are some of you, like me, who really enjoy these behind-the-scenes moments. And then there are the others who just want to be able to tune in and worship our Lord Jesus. I get that. I really do. So here is what we are planning for this Sunday. 

Last Sunday's worship team

Our worship team should all be present. Here are the songs we are planning to sing together. (I know some of you like to play along from home with us, so I will also give you the key we are planning to sing): #1- "Control" by Tenth Avenue North in C; #2 - "The Blessing" by Kari Jobe in G; #3 - "This I Believe (The Creed)" by Hillsong in C; and #4 - "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel in Bb.

Don and Vanessa share Sunday morning

We are also privileged to have Don and Vanessa Causley from East Budleigh, Devon, England to share some of their reflections on thankfulness during these challenging Covid-19 times. As the Causleys mention in their remarks, England is completely shut down right now. Yet they share what they are thankful for, which by the way, includes their fellowship with all of you! Between Don's reading of the Scriptures and Vanessa's talented singing and ukulele playing, they really are a power couple for the Lord these days!

I can't help but think how God had all this in mind three years ago, when He put into my heart a desire to learn to play the uke. For 60 years I had managed to never even think much about the ukulele, and then suddenly I had a passion for it. And through that series of "coincidences" I met Vanessa, who just happened to have the same desire at roughly the same time in her life. Then 3 years later we would find ourselves worshiping together across thousands of miles during the worst health care crisis of our lifetimes. Wow!

We will continue our sermon series on being thankful during these challenging times. We will reflect on the truth that God is always listening. Our struggle is not with the FACT that God is always listening, but with our awareness of this TRUTH in our daily lives. So I plan to share with you 4 ways to help us to remember that God hears our prayers as well as that God sees our grateful hearts.

Let's encourage Christopher!   If you are like me, you were so filled with thanksgiving last Sunday as we baptized Chris Scott. His baptism was such a great source of joy for me personally as I have watched him and his family over the last decade. They first attended Church Requel when a friend of theirs was singing in the band one Sunday night. They have attended every Sunday since.

I have watched as Sara and my oldest daughter have become fast and loyal friends.

And I've watched as Christopher, in particular, challenged almost everything we have ever taught during Sunday school. When it seems like a young person is questioning everything, I have now learned that is really good news. It means they are thinking!

This past week, Christopher headed off to Texas for basic training. Wouldn't it be great if his church family flooded his mailbox with letters of love and encouragement? I know you'll do this! Here is his address. Please write often as you think and pray for him.

AB Scott, Christopher, W.
324 TRS/Dorm A9 FLT 253
1320 TRUEMPER ST. UNIT 362920
JBSA Lackland, TX 78236-6411

Isn't God good? I know these are tough days for us. And yet, we have all discovered fellowship together. This week I have watched with amazement as many of you have stepped up to challenges I have known nothing about. One good friend - in faith - purchased an automobile for another young lady, who really needed transportation for a job. I watched as others worked within the church to take down the baptism pool and in the cleaning up discovered we needed a new sweeper and immediately took care of those details. I watched with fascination as one of you, who hasn't been with us for years now, contacted me and asked if we were still meeting and could he please come back. (Easy answer - that one.)  I have watched as some of you, independent of your pastor, have gathered together to study God's Word online. I have often said, but I remind you again, that I feel I am ONE LUCKY PASTOR to be able to serve at Church Requel. Thanks one and all for your encouragement to my faith.

Hope to "see" you this Sunday morning at 11am! In Christ's love, Pastor Mark

Can We Be “Grateful” For This First Week Of 2021?

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We begin a new sermon series this Sunday: “An Attitude of Gratitude.” Brandi can confirm that we decided on this long before 2020 had ended. We thought that this would be a good way to begin the new year, to focus on the good rather than on the difficulties. We certainly had no idea of how challenging this first week would be for our country.

Many of us are still reeling from the actions of some Americans, who Wednesday broke into our citadel of democracy, the Capitol Building. Regardless of our political leanings we all have to wonder, how did we ever arrive to this moment in our country? We have become so focused on what divides us that many of us have forgotten what unites us. I truly AM GRATEFUL for all my family and friends from Church Requel, who demonstrate love and acceptance to one another REGARDLESS of political differences. You remind me each day of why I am a Christian as well as why I am an American.

You may be wondering how it is possible for us to be grateful in the absence of peace, when we don’t have unity of vision for our future.  You may say we just don’t have “enough” - of love, of leadership, of finances, of health. How can we be thankful for this?

Here is an mind blowing vision of gratefulness. We read in the Bible of six different occasions when Jesus prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. In five of those six times, Jesus gave thanks in the face of failure, the face of death, or in the face of not enough. Sunday morning we will be talking about one of those “not enough” prayers - after which Jesus fed the thousands with just a few loaves and fishes.

Both the prayer and the miracle was so profound in the eyes of those who saw it, that all four Gospel writers recorded the events of that day.  We’ll examine this from every angle and so we hope to learn the secret of contentment. We’ll learn why “not enough” is really an illusion. We’ll learn the five consequences of always struggling for more. And we’ll discover the 3 keys to contentment in the face of not enough. Do I have grand aspirations for our teaching time this Sunday morning? You betcha! I hope you’ll tune in at 11am Sunday morning!

We have so many other good things happening this coming Sunday too. We’ve invited Jack Buckley to sing again. He never disappoints! Cheryl Buckley will be leading our devotional and communion time. She is as profound as always.

Perhaps best of all, the ladies will be back on the worship and praise team Sunday morning after a two-week break. We love it when the guys lead us, but I have to admit that I really missed our female vocalists!

Here are some of our favorite songs we’ll be singing: “You Are Good” by Israel Houghton; “How Great Is Your Love” by Phil Wickham; “Tremble” by Mosaic MSC; “Praise Your Name” by Corey Voss; and “Old Church Choir” by Zach Williams.

I hope you will plan to join us Sunday morning at 11am EST - either in person or by streaming online from our Church Requel Facebook Page. Hope to “see” you then! Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Christmas Eve Streaming Service at 5pm

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

I’m very excited about our streaming Christmas Eve service tonight and want to make sure as many of you as possible will join us online on Facebook at 5pm,

We will NOT be meeting at church because of the Covid danger. According to all the numbers, Richland County is one of the most dangerous places to gather in groups right now.

However, we WILL enjoy a very special Christmas Eve service at 5pm Eastern Time Zone. Brandi and Eddie will join Mary Kay and me at our home. We will start broadcasting about 15 minutes early and hope to see many of you join us online. Starting at 5pm we will sing some Christmas carols together, Brandi playing our piano and I playing my ukulele. Eddie and Mary Kay will read the Christmas story out of Luke 2. I have some Christmas Eve thoughts to share with you.

We have brought the Christmas Advent wreath to our home and will light the Christmas candle together. We encourage you to find yourself a candle to light with us. Even though we will be dispersed across the Earth, we can still let our lights shine!

Do me a favor! Share this good news announcement about the Christmas Eve streaming service with your family and friends. I am sure many people will be looking for a Covid-safe, Christmas-appropriate way to worship tonight.

”A child has been born unto us!”

Christmas blessings to you! Pastor Mark

P.S. - We will be enjoying our normal Sunday morning worship service at Church Requel at 11am at the church. If you want to join us either in person or on Facebook, we look forward to our worship together.

Christmas Plans At Church Requel

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

I have some great plans to share with you today regarding Christmas events at Church Requel. Can you believe Christmas is just one week away? Wow!

Christmas Eve Facebook Stream at 5pm.

I am starting with our plans for Christmas Eve because I think this is the event that most of us look forward to the most. There is just nothing much better than the Christmas Eve candle lighting at Church Requel... (in my own humble opinion). Because of the risk of COVID-19 right now we will NOT be meeting together in person at the church. However...

We WILL stream our Christmas Eve Candle Lighting on Facebook at 5pm!!!

We don't want you to miss it. In fact we are hoping your families will gather together around your televisions, computer monitors, and mobile devices and share an hour with Brandi and me. Brandi and Eddie will join Mary Kay and me at our home. We will bring the Advent Wreath Candles from church to our home and will light the Christmas candle together. We actually encourage you all to find candles in your own home that you will be able to light with us. Once again - even though we cannot be together in the same physical space doesn't mean we can't be together!

We plan to sing Christmas carols and read the Christmas story out of the Bible. I will also have a Christmas Eve message to share with you all. We plan for the Christmas Eve stream to last about an hour. So plan to tune in at 5pm on Christmas Eve. It will be a great way to kick off your family Christmas plans. While you're at it, why not invite your family and friends to also join you online!?

THIS Sunday - Christmas At Church AND Facebook Stream

We will meet this Sunday at Church Requel. Our praise band will be there and we will sing together - more on the songs below.  We will light the Advent candle of PEACE. We will share communion and pray together. AND...

Don and Vanessa Causely have prepared something really special for you on video. Don has some great insights to share with you about the angel's message to Joseph and Vanessa has prepared a wonderful song called, "Joseph's Lullaby" by Mercy Me.

We'll also start our service - right before 11am - with a special song by Susie Wiegand's granddaughter, Samantha. She will be singing "Silent Night," and will be remembering when she sang her late grandfather, Fred, a friend to all of us.

Our sermon this Sunday is titled, "Good News: Great Fear or Great Joy?" We will take a one-week break from our Proverbs Wisdom series for a more traditional Christmas message. But is it traditional? With the pandemic Christmas this year? We will focus on the fact that each angelic appearance included the message, "fear not." This advice to not be afraid is especially appropriate for us this year. I can't wait to share it with you.

Here are the songs we'll be singing together on Sunday morning: "Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone" by Chris Tomlin, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" by George Handel, "Reckless Love" by Cory Asbury, "The Reason" by Travis Cottrell, and "Your Name Is Power" by Rend Collective.

New Members On The Leadership Team at Church Requel.

Finally, I'm thrilled to inform you that we have some new folks joining our membership team at Church Requel starting January 1. Brandi Walker, Brian Betts and Chris Thoman will join Nancy Roop, Dave Repp, Sheri Nichols and me. We are looking forward to working together toward a post-Covid church!

Love you all much! Hope to "see" you either in person or on the stream this Sunday at 11am. Pastor Mark

Encouraging Words

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

How is your wisdom this morning? Bet you don’t get asked that question too often. I’m thinking we should be asking - at least we should be asking it of ourselves.

We are in a study from the book of Proverbs. So far we have considered:

• Choosing Wisdom
• Earning Respect
• Reducing Stress
• Cultivating Friendship
• Slowing Anger

We will continue this Sunday with the topic, “Encouraging Words.”

So how much thought goes into your words? Do you think before you speak? Do you consciously consider the power of your words upon other people? Not just the negative, angry words, but also the positive, encouraging words?

"A word of encouragement does wonders!"  Pr. 12:25 LB

One of my favorite heros of the Bible is Barnabus.  His nickname was "the Encourager".  I can't think of a better inscription for my tombstone that it to say "the Encourager -- he lifted people up." Everybody else discourages people.  So let’s you and I be encouragers!

This Sunday we will talk about 4 ways to guard our lips so that we can share encouraging words with other people. I am excited about the talk, because this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I have discovered that encouraging others - constantly looking for the good and then affirming the good in people - is so incredibly rewarding!

Proverbs Reading During December. We have given you the challenge to read one chapter of Proverbs each day in December. There are 31 days in December. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Pretty cool how that works out! So how are you doing with the challenge?

Each day on our Facebook page, we are including the chapter for the day. Check out the comments below. Participate in the comments! What verse grabbed your attention today? Why? We would love to see even more participation on our Facebook page.

Speaking of which, thank you Brian Betts for becoming one of our page editors. Each day he has been adding something to our page. Pretty cool. Make sure you smash that “like” button!

Sunday Morning Plans. We know many of you are staying home and watching online on our Facebook Page. That’s fine! We don’t like it, but we understand completely! How great that the vaccine appears right around the corner now. We just have to hang in there for a few more months! Anyway, back to the online stream, it appears that we got our sound problems worked out. Many of you commented online that it sounds so much better. Again, thank you Mike Perdue for helping us out!

We are working on some other improvements too - but I can’t yet tell you all the details. Hopefully next week I can let you in on the other big change coming in a few weeks. Stay tuned here for upcoming details!

We are thrilled that Jack and Cheryl Buckley from Virginia will be participating in our Facebook stream this Sunday. Cheryl will be reading our Scripture and Jack has agreed to sing a special song for us - so appropriate for this time of year - “Mary Did You Know?” You won’t want to miss it!

Here are the songs we’ll be singing together Sunday morning: “King of Love” by Jesus Culture; “Living Hope” by Phil Wickham; “King of Kings” by Hillsong; “Joy Unspeakable Joy” by Chris Tomlin; and “God So Loved” by We The Kingdom.

I so look forward to worshiping with each one of you this Sunday. Hope you’ll join us! Love, Pastor Mark 

Richland County Goes Purple

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

I’m keeping my attitude positive when I say “Good Friday,” but the state map at the right shows us just how dangerous it is for many of us to be out and about these days. As we have feared, our beloved Richland County is now considered to be in the highest state of public emergency with regards to the Coronavirus.

So what does this mean for our worship plans at Church Requel?

We will continue to worship Sunday mornings at the church just as we have been. Here’s why. Very few of you are actually attending in real physical presence. We probably average less that 20 at the church each Sunday morning. Most of you are watching the stream online. We would encourage you to continue this pattern of watching LIVE or watching later. But please do continue to worship. It is so vital to your spiritual health.

By the way - we know many of you DO WATCH later. Over the last month we have had between 172 and 311 views of our worship services throughout the week. Yet we usually only have a couple dozen watch LIVE. 

For those of you who do want to come and worship with us. That’s ok too. We welcome you. We do ask that you continue to wear your masks and socially distance from others when you come. Let’s show our love to one another by protecting each other during these Covid high risk days.

Christmas Eve. We have decided to NOT offer our traditional candle-lighting worship service this year at the church. We believe this worship service - by far the most popular service that Church Requel offers each year - would be just too tempting for too many people to come and participate.

Instead, we will offer another streaming opportunity for you at 5pm on December 24th. Brandi and Eddie will join Mary Kay and me at our home, where we will offer an intimate Christmas Eve worship time together. More details to come, but for now keep the 5 o’clock hour open for your families to participate with us on Facebook Live.

Many Thanks To Mike... Speaking of our weekly worship streams on Facebook... Many of you know that we have been struggling with our external microphone the last couple of weeks. It’s been so frustrating because we have used this mic so successfully for this past year. Suddenly two weeks ago it just turned off every time we turned Facebook on.

One of our newer online viewers, Mike and Leanna Perdue, contacted me last Sunday afternoon and told me that they might be able to help with our mic problems. They have a fantastic YouTube channel, The Dry Campers, and know more than just a little bit when it comes to the technical details of streaming live videos.

Sure enough, by the end of our conversation, Mike had correctly identified the source of the problem. I have now dubbed him a member of our tech team! Don’t you just love how more and more of our online audience is participating in a very tangible way in our church?

This Coming Sunday. We are looking forward to our worship time together - either in person or streaming. Most of the worship team will be back together Sunday morning. Here are the songs we are planning to sing together: “If We Ever Needed You” by Casting Crowns (a new one for us!); “Waymaker” by Leeland; “Angels We Have Heard On High” - an upbeat version arranged just for Church Requel; “Jesus” by Chris Tomlin; and “Sing Wherever I Go” by We The Kingdom.

ALSO!!! Amy Watson will be singing a special song for us titled, “Children Of The Heavenly Father.”

We will continue our Wisdom sermon series from Proverbs. This week the title of Sunday’s Sermon is “Controlling Anger.”

Hope to join you all in worship Sunday morning! Love you much!!! Pastor Mark

Want A Friend? Be A Friend!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

They call this Black Friday because of all the sales that go on. But this year I hope most of you are shopping safely from home. Personally I took advantage of some of the Black Friday sales for tech items that we needed for church. Yay! 

So how was your Thanksgiving Day yesterday? Mary Kay and I spent a quiet day at home. Only Jessica and Dave came over for dinner last evening. But we had the opportunity to talk with all our children and grandchildren throughout the day. It was not the kind of Thanksgiving Day we normally enjoy with the house full of family. However the quiet moments gave us a chance to reflect on all the things for which we are grateful. I am so thankful for each one of you, who call Church Requel your church home. What a blessing each one of you are to Mary Kay and me!

Sunday morning we will continue our Wisdom series from the book of Proverbs. I hope you are enjoying these teachings as much as I am. It gave me great joy to be back in the pulpit this past Sunday morning.

This Sunday we will be talking about friendships. We'll be focusing on real friends and on quality of friendships, not quantity. (Not the Facebook kind of friends!) PARENTS - If ever there was a time for you to get your children to listen in, this is it! The kind of friends we make... make the kind of life we will enjoy! If you want to know the kind of person you are, look at the kind of friends you have!

The key lesson Sunday morning will be this: the type of friend you are is the type of friend you will attract!

We will focus on 6 attributes of a true and loyal friend. We will personalize it by teaching that this is the kind of friend we want to be to others. So this will be a good sermon for everyone, but I think it would be especially good for all of our younger audience to hear too!

Advent Begins Sunday! I know. It just doesn't seem possible. But we will be lighting the first Advent Candle this coming Sunday - the candle of HOPE!

We have something very special lined up for you all! Don and Vanessa Causley will be joining us from their home in England and will begin our Advent celebration this week. Don has some words of encouragement about the importance of this Advent season and Vanessa has prepared a glorious song! Then Don will pray for us all. It is so rich! You won't want to miss. Thank you Don and Vanessa for your continued contributions to Church Requel!

The Songs We Will Sing Together... (1) "Because He Lives Amen" by Matt Maher, (2) "Goodness of God" by Bethel, (3) "Nobody" by Casting Crowns, (4) "Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin, and "Friend of God" by Israel Houghton.

Let's keep on being a friend to one another and giving encouragement in any way we can. Love you all so much! Pastor Mark