Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Indians Game Tonight / Disagreement Talk Sunday!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

I look forward to my Friday morning Pen Pal opportunity with you all every week! As I write this morning I can't help but think of how this day will end - at Progressive Field together with many of you eating one dollar hot dogs.  

And - of course - we're going to watch the Indians open up this weekend against the Kansas City Royals. We are lucky. We've caught the Indians on a hot streak, going 8-2 their last 10 games. The Royals are enjoying a hot streak of their own going 7-3 their last 10 games.

It should be fun to watch. No matter who wins the game, the fireworks should be amazing afterwards. 

Sunday's Sermon. The fireworks continue Sunday morning as well! Have you ever disagreed with anyone? That's like asking if you've ever breathed! Ha! Of course you have. Have fireworks ever ensued? Sunday we're going to talk about how to agree to disagree. 

Is is ok to disagree with fellow Christ followers? We will study Acts 15:36-41, where we discover that Paul and Barnabas had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Along the way we will learn the right way to agree to disagree when we think someone else just isn't right!

Want a head start on this Sunday's talk? I've written it out for you and posted it in your Bible app. You can also read it in your browser here: http://bible.com/events/655668.

Great Music This Sunday Too! I had the privilege to run the sound for the Praise Team last night. Brandi, Bessica and Brian were wonderful together as a praise team trio!

Here's what we're planning to sing together: (1) "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews; (2) "Say Amen" by Finding Favour; (3) "Whom Shall I Fear" by Chris Tomlin; and (4) "Made New" by Lincoln Brewster.

After the praise team finished their rehearsal, I sat down in a pew and just closed my eyes as Brandi played on the piano and sang, "What Do I Know Of Holy" by Addison Road. Such a beautiful song and performed brilliantly too! I'm so proud of Brandi. Playing the piano and singing at the same time has been a real stretch for her, but over the last 18 months she has come so far! Way to go Brandi!

Back To School Collection Box. My fingers got sweaty just typing those words! But there are some wise people among us who have reminded me this week that if we want to be able to help out our students when they return to school, we should start collecting supplies now. So Sunday morning look for the collection box in the lobby and each Sunday over the next month bring some back to school supplies with you. Our students - and especially our parents - will  greatly appreciate your generosity.

Pool Party in August! Despite the previous paragraph, summer is not over yet by a country mile! Baseball tonight and pool party next month. August 23rd to be exact!

The picture to the left is from last year's fun event. This year we will also meet up at Shelly Acres, 1002 Twins Lane. We have reserved the entire pool from 6pm to 8pm. This should be a funtastic event for the whole family!

And while it's still a little on the early side, make sure you keep September 15th on your calendar too. That's the day we will enjoy our annual picnic. After church we will meet together at North Lake Park. Lots of games too. Plus this is the time we take our annual group photo!

Love you all much! Hope to see all of you soon! Pastor Mark

Waymaker Sunday!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

How are you doing this fine Friday morning? We are in the middle of summer and enjoying the sunshine AND the Son-shine!

This Sunday our ladies trio of Brandi, Missie and Trish will lead us in a couple new songs, including one I've been listening to for a few months now - "Way Maker" by Sinach. I love those lyrics inspired by Isaiah 43 - "Way maker, Miracle worker, Promise keeper, Light in the darkness, that is Who You are!"

I don't know about you, but sometimes I need to gather with the saints and sing songs like this to remind myself of the truth and power of Christ in our lives. Thanks ladies for leading us this Sunday!

Speaking of gathering with the saints and the encouragement we derive together, I'm still awash in enthusiasm from our students leading us in so many ways last Sunday! Our hats off to Cindy Thoman as she led our students in their sketch, "Hats Remind Us." What a fun way to be reminded of God's goodness to us!

And I loved all the singing and flute playing and tech booth and ushering and greeting accomplished by our students. They are truly a vital part of our Church Requel today!

Finally, weren't we blessed all the way through with Brian's teaching last week? I couldn't believe that this was the very first time he had ever preached. I am marveling that God has provided our small church with multiple teachers between myself, Bethany and Brian. Yep - blessed all the way through!

This coming Sunday morning I will be back in the pulpit continuing our Sequel and Requel series. We will focus on Acts 15:20-35. This will be our 37th sermon from Acts. Yay! 

Is it possible that we rely too much on the outside marks of pretend Christianity rather than the inside marks of the Holy Spirit's life within us? After the circumcision crisis of the early church, the apostles gave only 3 instructions for outward living. We will take a behind the scenes look at why they chose these three and what it might mean for us in this day and age. Want a head start? Here are the sermon notes.

Keep Praying! Last weekend we received 15 prayer requests from old and young alike. I love the fact that we are a praying church. When you hear those prayer requests in church, write them down so you can pray too. If you'd like to be included on the official prayer team, let me know. Right now we have 3 people who have committed to praying each week for these requests - Loni, Don and Roger. 

Thanks For Your Faithfulness. Today I received a six-month year to date financial statement from our treasurer, Nancy Roop. We are in very good financial shape right now thanks to so many of you being faithful with your tithes and offerings. Thanks and blessings upon you!

Love you all much, Pastor Mark

We Welcome Brian To The Pulpit!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We have planned a special treat for this Sunday morning. Brian Betts will preach! Yay! Brian has demonstrated his excellent teaching skills in the Bible study this past Spring. During one of the sessions I challenged him to consider teaching the whole church on a Sunday - to which he responded: "I don't think that's ever going to happen." I asked him to pray about it and he did. About a month ago he let me know that he felt the Holy Spirit urging him in this direction.

One of the things that I am most excited about as your pastor at Church Requel is encouraging people to seek out and develop their gifts and talents and to use them for the Lord and His church. I feel like this is happening at CR with both Bethany and Brian. Bethany is currently enrolled in a ministry degree program at Ozark Christian College. Brian will be starting at Liberty University this fall. Why wouldn't we, as a church, want to encourage them as much as possible?

I assigned Brian the task of continuing the Resolutions sermon series we have been working through on the first Sunday of every month. The planned topic for July? "Diligence Not Laziness." Brian's starting point was to find what God's Word had to say on this particular topic. He found more than he ever could use. It turns out that the Bible has a lot to say on the topic.

From there, Brian wrote out what would turn out to be the first of three sermon outlines and sermon drafts. Each time he would submit them to me and each time it was excellent. But each time I would make a suggestion of how he could improve it. I have loved Brian's teachability throughout this entire process. Each time he would completely re-write and re-submit his sermon and would incorporate my latest recommendation. The last one was just right.

This afternoon I will be meeting with Brian over at the church and we will work on his presentation skills. I know you all will love the final result this Sunday morning. A person's first sermon is a big deal in my book. I hope you all will join me on Sunday and be there to support Brian in his newest effort. Let's let him know how much we love him and encourage him all that we can!

Wasn't last Sunday Amazing? Speaking of encouraging one another to explore our gifts and talents and use them in the church... didn't you just love seeing all those who came forward to share their music with us? I'm still glowing from it all. Here are just a few pictures I thought you might enjoy. If I did it right, you should be able to click on any one of them to see a larger image.

Everyone I have spoken with has told me they loved the whole thing. So I'll chalk the "Singspiration" idea up as a good one. Don't be surprised if we try it again during a 5-Sunday month.  

I also loved the potluck meal we all enjoyed together right afterward. Thanks to all who shared an encouraging word, gift or card with Paul Scott for his graduation. I know he appreciated it so much!

Students Lead This Sunday! This will be the first Sunday of the month, when we try to involve as many of our children in the worship service as possible. I think this Sunday may be a new record for how many students will be involved. Joining Brandi, Cindy, Stephenie, Chris and Tamara will be Leia, Tre, Saudaie, Bubby, Sivon, Sisilly and Gus. (Yep - our largest praise team to date.)

Our Missionary Class and KidsMin class have been working on a special skit for Sunday morning called, "Hats Remind Us"! The last I heard these students will be involved: Anna, Grayden, Lila, Cohen, Lincoln, Leia, Tre, Sophie, AJ, Claira, Sisilly, Gus and Saudaie.  Speaking of Saudaie, she has also prepared a special song for us. And Grayden and Cohen will be manning our tech booth Sunday morning. We like to say that our students are not the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. We are living that out this weekend!

I love watching all of you roll up your sleeves and take on the work of the church. It is Christ's church. We are here to serve and praise Him. When each person finds their fit and plugs in, the easier and richer the experience for all of us in the body of Christ.

Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Sunday Singspiration and Potluck!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Summer has finally arrived in all its warm glory! To celebrate that along with all the other great things going on these days at Church Requel, we plan to enjoy a singing inspiration Sunday morning.

We're calling it "Singspiration" for short. This will be a Sunday morning filled from top to bottom with musical praise honoring our Lord Jesus. Many of you are participating. Normally we say the more the merrier. Perhaps in this case it should be the more the melodious-er? Ok, not a word. But I should get points for trying.

We've never attempted a singspiration before at Church Requel, and we have attempted a lot of things. So that's saying something. So for you loyal newsletter readers, what's it going to be like? Well, like I wrote earlier, we are planning for 100% music from beginning to end. Our ladies trio will open up our special worship morning with 4 wonderful songs sure to get your adoration for Jesus flowing.

On the 4th song, Anna Scott will come forward with her flag waving and banner flying! Anna is well trained - you'll be able to see her skills Sunday. What I love about her, though, isn't her ability to wave a flag, but the infectious smile she shares. You just know her heart is in the right place.

Others who will be singing and/or playing their musical instruments Sunday morning will be Dave Johnson and Bethany Pierce singing a couple duets while Dave plays his guitar. Violet Carrick and Cohen Pierce playing a saxophone duet, Bessica Brilla & Amy Watson singing a duet, Brian Betts singing a solo, Sicily Carrick playing a flute solo, the Angel family singing together, Leia Walker singing a solo, and finally yours truly closing out the day with a couple of new ukulele worship songs.

So what about other staples of our normal worship service like communion, prayer and God stories? I plan to open up the Singspiration with some instructions - which will go something like this.

The communion table is set up with the elements of the bread and the cup. At any time during the morning, you may go to the communion table and celebrate Christ's victory in your life.

I will be emceeing between the various worship teams coming up to the front and during those times, if any of you place a prayer request in the basket, we will pray for those requests as we transition from one group to the next.

Lastly, if God's Spirit moves in your heart Sunday morning by the music, then by all means stand up and tell us how God has been blessing you this week! We want to hear it!

And Potluck Too!? Wow!!! The Sunday Singspiration by itself would be awesome enough, but we're not done yet! When the singing celebration ends, we will all go downstairs for an amazing potluck meal together.

Not that we ever actually need a reason to enjoy a potluck, but in this case we do! We'll be celebrating Paul Scott's graduation from high school! So bring a card filled with encouragement for Paul. Let him know how much you love him. As far as the potluck goes, the church will be providing ham, paper plates, plastic eating utensils, napkins and water and lemonade to drink. You all bring the rest. You know the drill. We never ever have a shortage of food to eat at one of these potlucks. I don't know about you, but my mouth is already salivating!

New Prayer Team Starting Up! We have all seen the exciting results of prayer this year, haven't we? With the March of Prayer to the Prayer Burns, it feels to me as if the Holy Spirit is moving even more in our lives to be diligent in the discipline of prayer. 

Yesterday I visited with Mark and Loni Baserman for a couple hours while Loni was receiving chemotherapy. Loni's heart and conversation with me were humbling, to say the least. She lamented her physical inability to be present very often in the worship services. (Though she never misses - she and Mark watch online every week!)

Loni told me that she was praying recently and admitted that she felt she had a complaining spirit about her life recently and specifically about her inability to participate in church. She then told me that she felt that God was telling her very clearly that He had a most important role for her to play at Church Requel - and that was to pray, pray, pray. She then told me that she has been praying as much as she could for each one of you by name!

That got the brain cells in my little head firing through their synapses. Why not send Loni a list of all the public prayer requests each week from the Sunday morning worship service? That way those prayer requests would continue being lifted up by someone other than me. Loni loved the idea and as soon as I got home, I sent her the list from this past week.

Then, I thought to myself, perhaps there are others in our congregation, who would also like to pray regularly for those prayer requests. Perhaps there others who feel like they can't do other things for one reason or another, but they DO have the time and discipline to pray regularly. I could easily add other people to whom I send out these weekly prayer requests. Would you like to be included? You could even be like Loni - someone who watches regularly online. We'd love to include you too. Let me know.

I really love how so many of you are looking for your spiritual gifts to share with the body of Christ. I'm so excited to share this ministry with you. Thanks for your willing and cheerful spirits. Hope to see most of you Sunday morning. Love always, Pastor Mark

Putt Putt Saturday / Jam Band Trio Sunday

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

The monsoon rains have stopped just in time for our Summer Fun events to begin! Tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) at 1pm, we will kick summertime off the right way with some Putt Putt golf at Kelly's Dairy Bar and Miniature Golf located at 1280 S. Main Street. 

This family friendly event is always such a blast! You can purchase old fashioned burgers, milkshakes, and a round of miniature golf. If you feel like playing corn hole, you can do that too! Bring a lawn chair or enjoy the picnic tables that are available.

Brandi will be there with camera in hand. Make sure she gets a photo of you and your group. We'll make a Facebook photo album collage for everyone to see and share!

Sunday - Jam Band Trio! What's this about a trio? Well, Dan and Don are on vacation this week and Brian wasn't feeling well for our rehearsal. So last night, Dave, Brandi and I jammed out together for Sunday morning's worship. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

Here's what we'll be singing together Sunday morning: (1) "Blessed Be Your Name," (2) "King Of My Heart," (3) "Great Are You Lord," and (4) "Friend Of God." We are hoping you enjoy it just as much as we are. Don't you just love it when you walk around with a song on your heart!?

Sunday's Sermon. Our sermon Sunday morning will come from Acts 15:1-19. I've titled it "Grace Crisis." We'll look at the first theological question the church faced and how they resolved it. Down through the centuries the church has faced many questions and debated and prayed over these questions. We'll see how God's Holy Spirit has guided us to the orthodox Christianity that we celebrate today. Want a head start? Check out your Bible app or click on this link: https://events.bible.com/en-US/event/edit/640403

Indians Tickets Are Sold Out! Our Indians Game with Dollar Dog Night and Fireworks has completely sold out. As a church we reserved 30 seats in the upper deck behind home plate and you all bought every single one of them! We called up to Progressive Field and paid them for the seats. They promised to do their best to give us a Cleveland win!

Singsperation Next Sunday! We are all so excited about our all music worship Sunday on June 30th. You all responded so well! Our ladies trio will start us off with some great worship singing. Dave Johnson and Bethany Pierce will sing a couple of duets! Violet Carrick and Cohen Pierce will play their saxophones together. Bessica Brilla and Amy Watson will sing a duet. Brian Betts will solo. Sicily Carrick will play her flute for an offertory. The Angel Family Singers will debut! Leia Walker will solo. And yours truly will teach a couple new worship songs using my ukulele! Should be a terrific morning! Definitely an opportunity to invite friends!

Potluck Next Sunday! After all the singing we will go downstairs for a potluck meal and celebrate Paul Scott's graduation from High School!We hope that many of you will plan to stay after church to encourage Paul in his success!!

Please be sure to bring a side dish or dessert to share! Families bring two dishes. Single folks bring one. We love our potlucks! There's never a shortage of food. The church will provide paper plates, plastic cutlery and napkins, along with lemonade and water to drink.

With the sunshine finally breaking through, let's all plan to take advantage of the outside weather! As of today, summer is officially and fully here! I don't know about you, but my heart is leaping for joy. Hope to see most of you sometime this weekend. Blessings and much love, Pastor Mark

Summer Fun!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Our local temperature got down below 50 degrees last night. In June! Brian Betts said this morning he refuses to turn on his furnace. He's not the only one. Yes, it's a tad cool to be talking summer fun - but this too shall pass. We have such a wonderful summer fun activity schedule! Hopefully you already have one of these stuck up on your fridge. If not grab one Sunday morning. They're going fast.

Cleveland Indians Baseball last call THIS Sunday! We know it's more than a month away, but we have to pay for our tickets this coming week. So if you want to go to the game with us sign up AND PAY by this Sunday ($20). For those of you who like to use the online payment system (give.ChurchRequel.org), you'll find that there is a dropdown box for the Indians game. Last time I checked, there are 29 of us signed up! Yay!

Worship Plans For This Sunday. We are blessed to have Brandi, Brian, Amy, Bessica and Stephenie lead our worship singing this Sunday. Last time they were together I captured this terrific photo! What a great group!

Together we will all be singing "This Is Amazing Grace," "What A Beautiful Name," and "Our God." Bessica will also be singing a special song for us: "On My Knees." She says she was inspired to sing this after some comments I made about prayer a few weeks ago. Yay for you Bessica!

I love how many people within our church are venturing out to discover their spiritual gifting to share with the rest of us!

Our sermon Sunday morning is titled "Committed To Committed" and is from Acts 14:21-28. Want a head start? Check out your Bible app or click this link: http://bible.com/events/636258

Singsperation Booked Solid For June 30th! We put it out there for just one Sunday - last week. We made ONE announcement. And wow did you ever respond! Let me pull the curtains back and tell you just a little about it.

Brandi received all your ideas by Tuesday. On Wednesday she and I sat down and put it all together.

The ladies trio will kick us off. Then there will be flag waving by Anna. Dave will sing us a couple songs with his guitar. (He is secretly working behind the scenes on an amazing duet, but I'm not allowed to tell you about that - oops.) There will be a saxophone duet as well as a flute solo. Bessica and Amy will sing a duet. Brian will sing a special. Leia will sing a special. Mark (yours truly) will lead us in a couple new worship songs with his ukulele. And debuting for the first time ever: The Angel Family singers!!! Doesn't that sound like a great morning!

Graduation Potluck on June 30th! Even after we are all inspired by all the great singing, our church morning won't be complete. We're all going to head downstairs to celebrate with Paul Scott for his graduation from high school!

Plan to bring a couple side dishes for each family or one side dish for single folks. Bring your words, wishes and cards to shower upon Paul. He's been a big part of Church Requel almost since the beginning of the church.

12 Hour Prayer Burn - Amazing! Finally - allow me to say what a terrific time many of us enjoyed together last weekend. I saw most of you at some time or another throughout the night.

Our own Jam Band kicked things off at 6pm and trust me when I tell you - they did a super job! There were still about 3 dozen folks - including more of you than I ever expected - who stayed up until I sang a one-hour worship set with my ukulele. If you were one of those dedicated people - well, God bless you.

I was also surprised by how many of you stayed up almost the entire evening - the Betts family and the Angel family both made it almost all the way. There were about 12 of us who shut it down at 6am. I loved the entire thing. Our worship sanctuary is such a perfect venue. I sure hope we get to do it again soon!

These are good days for our church! Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you for stretching for your spiritual giftedness and being willing to share with the church family. I look forward to every opportunity to be with you all! Love you much, Pastor Mark

Prayer Burn TONIGHT!!!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Do you remember when you were a little kid and Christmas Eve rolled along. You were so excited you could hardly wait for the big day to arrive. You could hardly sleep. Suddenly you discover you did indeed fall asleep and you wake up and THE DAY HAS ARRIVED! That's how I'm feeling right now! How exciting to be alive and to be God's child!

Tonight is the Prayer Burn at Church Requel. Worship begins at 6pm - though I think I shall be worshiping all day. ('Slow down big boy,' the voice in my head reminds. 'Long night tonight. Pace yourself!')

Church Requel's Jam Band kicks off the worship from 6pm to 7pm. We rehearsed for 2 1/2 hours last Saturday. I think we would have gone for another 2 1/2 hours for we were having so much fun - but our voices and fingertips said, "Enough!"

All night long we will have different worship lead teams up front hailing from many different Mansfield churches. Music will be only one of many worship events going on. There are now 3 large easels set up on the front right side of the church - where the old choir loft was located for a hundred years. Multiple artists will be painting new creations all night long. This includes our own Roger Marvicsin.

So why am I so excited? Is it just the music? Is it the novelty of being all night long? For me I think it is the closest taste we will have of what worship in Heaven will be like someday. The Bible teaches us that our Lord Jesus will be worshiped all day and night with voices crying out, "Holy Holy Holy!"

In my imagination I can envision that many different groups and choirs from many different cultures and time periods will spend considerable time preparing for their moment to go before the throne and worship the Lord. Some will sing. Some will play musical instruments. Some will paint. Creation in all the arts will be inspired like never before. That's what tonight will be like. Just a little taste of Heaven here right now on Earth. 

Is is beyond imagining that God Himself could be tuning in tonight to receive His praise, His glory? Personally I would not want to miss a single second. Come when you can. Stay as long as you can. (I hear there will be a ukulele player at 1am!) If you can't come, tune in via Facebook. Watch for the live feed on the Burn 24-7 Mansfield page. https://www.facebook.com/burn247mansfield/

Community Meal Saturday! When 6am Saturday morning arrives, our weekend will have only just begun. Get some sleep during the day because we will be gathering back at the church at 4pm to prepare to serve our local community a free, warm, delicious, healthy meal! The more hands the merrier and easier the workload. Thank Sheri Nichols for leading us tomorrow evening. If you can bring desserts to share, that would be so wonderful!

Sunday Morning at Church Requel! Remember those bygone days when the Sunday morning church service was the lead headline for the weekend? How perfect that we will come together for a worship service Sunday morning after already having worshiped and served Friday and Saturday!

Our ladies trio of Trish, Missie and Brandi will lead the worship singing Sunday morning at Church Requel. I had the privilege of running sound for them in their rehearsal last night. Wow! No wonder my heart is so full this morning! Their voices mesh together so well. We should start calling them "One Voice."

Also helping out for the Sunday worship service will be Paul and Chris Scott and Don Angel in the tech booth, Dan and DeeDee setting up the communion table, Trish and Missie greeting, Bessica teaching our Missionary class, Tamara teaching our KidsMin class, Jennifer teaching our Pre-schoolers and Chris leading our counting team. I never cease to be so thankful for so many volunteers in our small church. To God be the glory!

Putt Putt Golf on Saturday June 22nd. Two weeks from tomorrow will be our annual Miniature Golf event at Kelly's. This event is always such a blast! You can purchase old fashioned burgers, milkshakes, and a round of miniature golf. Or you can play cornhole. Or just sit around and chat with all your friends. Bring a lawn chair or enjoy the picnic tables if they are available. Location - 1280 South Main Street. Cost: Depends on what you buy.

June 30th - Sunday Singsperation! June is a 5 Sunday month, so we are planning something special for June 30th. For our entire morning service, we will be worshiping in song! The Jam Band will be playing. The ladies trio will be singing. And we hope that many of you will want to offer your musical talents for worship too. If you or a group of you would like to sing or play something special, please let Brandi know by Monday afternoon. She will be planning out the entire service this week. Should be amazing! After the singsperation we will enjoy Paul Scott's graduation potluck together. 

Paul Scott's Graduation Potluck - June 30th. We are so looking forward to celebrating Paul's graduation from high school. Paul serves at Church Requel once a month in the tech booth as our sound technician. He and his family have been regular attenders going all the way back to the Sunday nights at OCF. We've watched Paul grow up before our eyes. Let's celebrate with him and his entire family with a potluck meal after the Singsperation on Sunday June 30th. Let Paul know how much you love him and wish him the best!

Indians Baseball Game / Fireworks / Dollar Dog Night - Friday July 19th at 7pm. Normally I wouldn't even be mentioning this yet since there are so many other things happening in June. However I remind you of the Indians Game because we only have two more Sundays to sign up and pay for the event. We have reserved 30 seats at $20 each. Right now I think more than 20 of you have signed up. If you want to go, make sure you're signed up and paid for your ticket by June 16th.

How wonderful to be your pastor! How wonderful to be a fellow parishioner of Church Requel. We are family together. I love you all much! Hope to see all of you several times over the next 3 days! Pastor Mark.