Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

How To Test Impressions From God

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

I am writing you from my hotel room in downtown Dayton, Ohio. Mary Kay and I arrived yesterday and we are planning to spend a couple days with Jillian and her family.  Last night we hiked through the woods of Englewood Metropark near sunset. It was so beautiful. And if I may proudly boast - my grandsons were terrific little hikers!  After our hiking adventures we came back to Jillians home, where she served us Grandpa's chili. I wolfed down two bowls! It was so hearty and flavorful.  This morning I ran alongside the Mad River as I jogged out of the city along some gorgeous countryside. In this time of trouble and turmoil, it is good to remember that life is good!

This Sunday we will continue with the sermon concept we began last week about the different ways that God speaks to us. Do you remember the six ways we talked about? (Through the Bible, through gifted teachers, through other godly people, through circumstances, through pain, and through impressions.) If you want to review it, check out the YouTube video here.

Picking up where we left off last week, I'd like to delve a little more into the feelings or impressions we think may be from God. How do we know that an impression or feeling or dream is really God given? In this week's talk we will consider 7 tests to know for sure. If God is the Source of the impression, it will pass all seven tests.

I'm looking forward to our worship time together too! The worship band will all be here and we have some favorite songs that we will be singing together. I really love this group of people and I love their dedication to practicing each week to lead us in worship.

Here are the songs we will be singing together Sunday morning: "Cornerstone" by Hillsong; "You've Always Been" by Unspoken; "Living Hope" by Phil Wickham; "King Of My Heart" by Bethel; and "Forever" by Kari Jobe. It should be a wonderful morning together. Can't wait to celebrate with you! Love you all! Pastor Mark

How Does God Speak To You?

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

So how does God speak to you? My first response is always, "Any way He wants!" Right? God is God, after all. There is nothing He cannot do. However, from a practical matter, it does seem like there are some ways that we hear from God more than others. This will be the topic of my talk with you this Sunday morning. We'll start with 3 reasons why it is important to hear God's voice. And then we'll finish with six of the most common ways God talks with us. I hope you'll join me Sunday morning.

The Songs We Will Sing.  I sure am looking forward to worshiping with you Sunday morning. Here are the songs we are planning to sing: "Your Grace Is Enough" by Chris Tomlin; "How Great Is Your Love" by Phil Wickham; "Do It Again" by Elevation Worship; "Tremble" by Mosaic; "Fighting For Me" by Riley Clemmons; and "Only A God Like You" by Tommy Walker.

I don't know about you but I am so thankful for our band that sacrifices their time every week to lead our worship. We are indeed so blessed!

Hope to see you in person or online this Sunday at 11am EST. Love you! Pastor Mark

Your Best Life Now

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

My friend Paul sent me this cartoon earlier this week. It is spot on! Ha! Who knows what the long term results will be of all the online worship streaming that is happening during this Covid-19 year of 2020? In our darker moments, we pastors are concerned for people who had formed a lifetime habit of going to church and now may find themselves adrift and not ever return.

I choose to see the brighter side - more people than ever may be engaging with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! We certainly have seen more people participate at Church Requel online than have ever physically attended our church. I say, "good news!" We sing a song at church named, "See A Victory." The lyrics are so applicable:

"You take what the enemy meant for evil and You turn it for good!"

Do you believe that? In almost every area of my life - especially when I've gone through hard times, I have been an up close and personal witness of this truth. With all my heart I believe that more people are turning to Christ in the most unusual ways BECAUSE of the current health care crisis... even though we often cannot meet together as easily as we did before. God is once again taking what was meant for evil and turning it for good!

Thanks For Praying For Our President. At lot can happen in one week. Seven days ago we heard the bad news that President Trump had come down with Covid-19. I asked you - in this same newsletter space - to pray for the healthy restoration of our president. How ungrateful would we be today if we didn't say, "Thank-you" as well as "Thank-You!"

By the way - for our new folks watching from afar - I am an equal opportunity praying pastor. I pray for our president whether Republican or Democrat. It's just what we are supposed to do!

Your Best Life Now! Speaking of last week, how are you doing with the challenge of last Sunday's sermon? Are you living a Masterpiece kind of life this week? If you're not sure what I'm talking about, please go back and watch or listen to the sermon again. God created a masterpiece when He made you!

Every morning when I get dressed - especially when I see a clothing label - I remind myself that I am wearing the most important label of all: "Made By God!"

This really does make a difference. My first response is to thank God for His goodness and kindness.

My second response is to step just a little higher with my spine just a little straighter. Each day I vow to make this day the best day possible. Each day I strive to live a life of encouragement to others because I am made by God for this purpose. How about you?

Four Attitudes To Hear From God. This Sunday's focus will be a natural extension to last week's focus. If you want to live your best life as a made by God kind of person, how do you hear from God? How do you know what's best?

I've found that in my life there are four different attitudes that I need to continuously work on in my life to keep the communication channels open between me and Him. I want to share those four attitudes with you on Sunday. If you'd like a head start, read the familiar passage of Luke 8:5-15. I don't know about you, but these verses never get old for me.

The Music Of Our Praise. I mentioned last week how much I loved the participation from our online streaming viewers. This continues to be true this week as Jack Buckley sings our special song of the day, "Someone's Been Praying." How appropriate for this week's theme!

Our very first song that we'll all be singing together will be a brand new one to us: "Love Is The Reason" by Unspoken. The opening lyrics are so apropos for this year.

"This year's felt like four seasons of winter. And you'd give anything to feel the sun. Always reaching, always climbing. Always second guessing the timing. But God has a plan, a purpose in this. You are His child and don't you forget."

WOW! Talk about being spot on! Would you like to hear the whole song? Here is a great YouTube video with lyrics: https://youtu.be/xFLNQVM51AU

Here are the other songs we'll be singing together: "Faithful Now" by Vertical Worship; "Oceans" by Hillsong United; "The Way (New Horizon)" by Pat Barrett; "No Sweeter Name" by Kari Jobi; and "You Are Good" by Israel Houghton. Yes it's going to be a good morning! You won't want to miss it!!!

That will do it for this Friday's newsletter. I pray that it has been an encouragement to you. If it has, why don't you forward it to a friend or family member. You just never know - maybe they could really use a Church Requel moment right now. Hope to see you Sunday at 11am EST.

Love you all much! Pastor Mark

We Pray For Our President

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

This morning I'm asking each of you to pray for our president and First Lady. This is not a political request. It matters not whether you are on one side of the political aisle or the other. This is a matter of biblical instruction. Paul wrote to Timothy:

“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for all people—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:1-4

So this morning I am praying that President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump may come through this positive test of Covid-19 in good shape. May the God of all healing keep them healthy. And may our president gain good and usable insight into this terrible disease that he may use for the good of all Americans. Finally, Our Lord, as challenging as this request is, may we come together as a people and remember what unites us more than what divides us. Amen.

Speaking of Covid-19 our Richland County has now risen to the very highest level of emergency alert in our fair state of Ohio. You'll also notice the star in Richland County. This indicates that we are actually approaching Level 4 - the highest level of public emergency. With this in mind, we completely understand any of you who choose to watch online rather than coming in to church Sunday, especially those of you who are at the higher end of the risk factors - age and ongoing health compromises. 

No one wants to get back to normal Sunday morning church than me. But out of love I urge you to be careful in your interactions with others right now. As tired as we are of hearing it - please keep wearing those masks, keep washing your hands, keep your social distance. Please hear these admonitions from me not through political ears, but through loving ears. I do love each and every one of you and desire your health and safety!

This Sunday Morning - You will want to make sure to arrive early (or tune in to Facebook early) this week and hear the very first song. Your praise team is learning a brand new song named "Revival Anthem" by Rend Collective. I have no doubt that this will soon become a new favorite at Church Requel.

This song is driven with strong percussion - I'm so excited for Brian. If you don't know it, Brian had never played the drums prior to joining the band two years ago. He wanted in the band and we needed a drummer. So he learned. That simple. What a humble heart and attitude of serving our Lord! He could never have played this song a year ago. So when you're enjoying and singing and praising and celebrating Sunday morning, say a special thank-you prayer for Brian!

We also will be singing "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel, "How Great Is Our God" by Chris Tomlin, "Ever Be" by Bethel, and "Sing Wherever I Go" by We The Kingdom. What a joyous time we are planning!

We also have another very special new plan for Sunday morning. We have asked Cheryl Buckley from Virginia to lead our communion time together. I must tell you that she does a beautiful job of it!

One of the best things that has come out of the Covid 2020 nightmare of a year for us has been the much greater participation of people all over the country (and even world - looking at you Causley family from England!) So thank you to all of our new participants from all the new places. We see this as nothing less than a blessing of God to bless our efforts to worship Him. Who ever would have guessed that our church would have actually grown during Covid-19?

Our Sermon Time... So maybe the secret is out. Ha! I actually have been preaching a clandestine 4-part sermon series these past 4 weeks. They each connect together. We wrap it all up this Sunday with "Made By God" - a close look at Ephesians 2:10. Here is how it reads in the English Standard Version:

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

As I was thinking about it this week I came up with the idea of labels on clothing. There are the labels that tell us where an article of clothing is made. There are the labels that tell us the brand of clothing we are wearing. All these labels tell us something not just about the clothing itself, but of the one who wears the clothing. (By the way, I'm not saying that this is how it should be. I'm just acknowledging the reality of it.) So what does the Ephesians 2:10 label of "Made by God" say about you and me? Tune in Sunday morning to find out!

Let me wrap up this week's newsletter with these appropriate lyrics from "Revival Anthem": 

We will praise You when our hearts are breaking

Praise You when our world is caving

We will not, we will not be moved!

Amen. Love you each and every one! Blessings, Pastor Mark

Life Is Like A Blanket...

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Wow! What an amazing Sunday we enjoyed together last week. We began the day with a great illustration of what our own righteousness really looks like. If you haven't yet heard the story of Jillian's baby blanket, I greatly encourage you to go back to last week's sermon and watch it online!

This week we are going to continue this theme with a sermon I'm calling, "Life Reset." How do we change from living the raggy blanket type of life? How do we change our holey lives to holy ones? (Get it? If you don't - look at the blanket picture again!)

Sunday morning's worship service was just the beginning of a great day. The worship team stuck around most of the afternoon and practiced together for the concert that evening. What a wonderful time together we all enjoyed. Many others joined us at 6:30pm for 90 minutes of praise and prayer. Truly - this was the highlight of our year!

If you haven't watched it yet, I encourage you to go to our Facebook page and watch the concert. It is - by far - the most watched video we have offered. As of this writing it has been viewed over 800 times! Yay! Here is a link if you want to check it out for yourself. https://www.facebook.com/ChurchRequel/videos/658210648136724

Of course we will not rest on our laurels. We look forward to worshiping together again with you this Sunday morning and we hope you all come back for our 11am worship service. Here are the songs that we will be singing together: "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews; "Revelation Song" by Kari Jobe; "Great Are You Lord" by All Sons & Daughters; "The Blessing" by Kari Jobe; "Word Of God Speak" by Mercy Me; and "Glorious Day" by Kristian Stanfill. Sounds like another great morning!!! 

I hope to see you either in person or online this Sunday at 11am! Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Concert of Praise & Prayer Sunday Night!!!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

The big weekend is upon us! Honestly, I've been practicing so much that my wrist is sore and my fingers no longer feel much of anything at all! No lie!

What am I talking about? Sunday night we will be celebrating with a concert of worship music, praise and prayers. Our Requel band will be playing and praying for about 90 minutes from 6:30pm until 8pm. You won't want to miss it! You can either come in and sit in one of the pews... or bring a lawn chair and sit outside... or you can watch online. Although if you're in Mansfield, we hope you'll come and encourage us. It looks like the weather is going to be beautiful - cool and sunny! Perfect conditions!

This is all part of The Return - a national and global week of prayer and praise culminating on the Mall in Washington D.C. on September 26th. We are one of ten local churches celebrating and praying each evening in Mansfield leading up to the National event on the 26th.  Here is the schedule of events beginning tonight:

• Friday, Sept. 18 — The ARC, 378 Park Avenue West
• Saturday — Kingdom Grace Fellowship, 105 Reba Ave.
• Sunday — Church Requel, 2 Marion Ave. (THIS SUNDAY NIGHT!)
• Monday — Maddox Memorial COGIC, 1148 Walker Lake
• Tuesday - GracePoint Sanctuary, 36 Eagle Court, Lexington
• Wednesday — First Church of the Open Bible, 1150 Rayfield
• Thursday — Ontario Christian Fellowship, 636 South Lex-Springmill
• Friday — Bible Walk Museum, 500 Tingley Rd.
• Saturday — Fusion Church, 220 Industrial Pkwy, Lexington
• Sunday  —  Evening Prayer Walk, 6-7:30 p.m, at a location to be named.
• Monday, Sept. 28 — Sar Shalom Messianic Congregation, 2510 W. Fourth St., 6-7:15 p.m.

Each church will praise and pray in their own style. If you can go and support another church, that would be great! Make sure you come this Sunday to Church Requel... and bring someone with you! You won't be sorry!

Sunday Morning At Church Requel. Of course we will still have our normal worship time together this Sunday morning as well. We will be singing "Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin, "Whole Heart" by Hillsong, "Mighty To Save" also by Hillsong, and one of our all-time favs - "You Are Good" by Israel Houghton. This will be the first time our band will play the music live for this song (hence the reason for my sore wrists)! We will close the service with another fav - "Old Church Choir" by Zach Williams.

We also have something very special for you Sunday morning. Don and Vanessa Causley, our good friends from England, have recorded a special presentation for you. They will sing and quote Scripture for us and ultimately we will use this as our lead in to our communion time together. Thank you Don and Vanessa for being such loyal supporters of your church across the pond!

Our sermon Sunday morning will be titled, "Saying I Love You To God," and comes from Philippians 3:7-12. My daughter, Jillian, who lives in Dayton, Ohio, has helped me with a crucial sermon illustration that I think you will remember forever, once you see it... and FEEL IT! I know I've said this already elsewhere in this newsletter, but it's true: You really won't want to miss it!

On A Personal Note... Thank you all so much for praying for my Dad and his surgery yesterday. He came through the very long procedure (3 hours!!!) in good fashion and is recovering. He was texting me and my sibs several times already today. He plans on going home later today and hopefully will be back to his normal self soon. Mary Kay and I appreciate your many prayers and words of encouragement these past several days.

Hopefully I'll see you Sunday! Much love! Pastor Mark

September RETURN Services

Good Friday morning Church Requel!    

    September will be a time to return to pray, according to organizers of a 10-day series of prayer services in the Mansfield area.
    Return to Pray, Sept. 18-28, will feature musical praise and worship, repentance and prayer, in conjunction with the lead-up to a national prayer march in Washington, DC, Sept. 26, says Paul Lintern.
    “Franklin Graham, Jonathan Cahn and a host of other national Christian leaders are planning the event, not as protest, but submission to God as a nation.  We have invited local congregations to host a night, in whatever way is authentic to their style, tradition and calling,” Lintern says.
    The Rev. El Akuchie, of the Richland Community Prayer Network, says prayer lays the foundation for individual, community and national relationships with God.
    “It begins with the one who submits to the Lord, and joins them with a community of believers to stand before God humbly and faithfully,” he says.
    Locations reflect a diversity of styles, cultures and geography in the area, which points to the unity that is our in Christ alone, he adds.
    The event, which begins on the day of the biblical Feast of Trumpets, and concludes on the Day of Atonement, is scheduled for 6:30-8 p.m. each evening at the following locations:    

• Friday, Sept. 18 — The ARC, 378 Park Avenue West
• Saturday — Kingdom Grace Fellowship, 105 Reba Ave.
• Sunday — Church Requel, 2 Marion Ave.
• Monday — Maddox Memorial COGIC, 1148 Walker Lake
• Tuesday - GracePoint Sanctuary, 36 Eagle Court, Lexington
• Wednesday — First Church of the Open Bible, 1150 Rayfield
• Thursday — Ontario Christian Fellowship, 636 South Lex-Springmill
• Friday — Bible Walk Museum, 500 Tingley Rd.
• Saturday — Fusion Church, 220 Industrial Pkwy, Lexington
• Sunday  —  Evening Prayer Walk, 6-7:30 p.m, at a location to be named.
• Monday, Sept. 28 — Sar Shalom Messianic Congregation, 2510 W. Fourth St., 6-7:15 p.m.

   The times of the final two evenings is moved to 6 p.m. because of sunset soon after 7 p.m.
    The Saturday event at Fusion will be preceeded by additional two-hour prayer sessions at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
    All events will be streamed live on the Godsfield facebook page.
    The model of various congregations hosting prayer services on successive nights is a September version of the March of Prayer, held in 2019 and 2020, involving more than 50 nights of prayer with hosts representing more than 25 denominations.  This year’s event, schedule for 65 days, required an adjustment of the last 45 nights on the Godsfield page of Facebook live, plus a 28-hour prayerathon on that site, during the National Day of Prayer, May 7.
    Oktoberfest last fall involved more than 20 congregations hosting prayer events, and the Facebook site featured 6 a.m. prayer times each morning in July and August.
    “All of it is placed under the theme, ‘Mansfield is Godsfield, Richland is God’s Land,’ ” Rev. Akuchie says.
    The final night, at Sar Shalom, coincides with its regular Day of Atonement service, which concludes at sunset, ending a 10-day fast.
    “All events are free and open to all.  This is a good opportunity to experience worship in arenas that may not be what is most familiar to many, but which will be very familiar in the topic of prayers and the focus on our Heavenly Father, and his son,” according to Akuchie.

   This Sunday - Sept. 13th. As far as we know the entire Requel band will be back together again. Here are the songs we are planning to sing: "Raise A Hallelujah" by Bethel; "Reckless Love" by Cory Asbury; "Champion" by Bethel; "Good Good Father" by Cory Asbury; "Great Things" by Phil Wickham; and "Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin. Wow - those are some great songs! Thanks for picking them Brandi!

   Our sermon will be from Matthew 6:19-24 and is titled "The Divided Heart." I'm really looking forward to sharing it with you all!

Hope to see you Sunday. Blessings! Love you! Pastor Mark