It's official. A new church is born and its name is Church Requel. Mark shared this with our small gathering last Sunday, but now we'd like to share it with the rest of this blog's readership. Mary Kay and Mark have decided to plant a new church in Mansfield, Ohio. We have lived in Mansfield for 30 years and our children and grandchildren live nearby. We love this area and the people who live here. Our roots run deep. If God should give us the desire of our hearts, we would like to live out the rest of our lives and ministry right here in Mansfield. Earlier this month, we received official word that our initial articles of incorporation with the State of Ohio have been accepted.
We believe that God has given us an incredible apprenticeship at Crossroads over these past five years. We are grateful for everything we have learned. Now it's time to put our training to work. We believe it would be more productive to begin a new ministry from scratch than it would to step into the pastorate at an existing church. In addition, Mark's twenty-five years before Crossroads was spent being an entrepreneur and a businessman. After much prayer and consideration, Mary Kay and Mark would like to combine his twenty-five years of entrepreneurship and the five years of apprenticeship together with her experience of running a non-profit organization and, together, begin a church ministry that might live long past our own lives.
You may wonder why the name, Church Requel? The name is certainly unique. It combines two words together that say exactly what we want to the church to become. The first word, "Church," is well known by most people. Our ministry will be a church, the body of Christ, living and breathing and fulfilling God's commands to love God and to love people here in Mansfield as well as around the world. The second word, "Requel," is a new word in the English lexicon. It means to tell the story again, perhaps in a different or unique way. You've heard of sequel and prequel, right? Sequel is a story that follows and prequel is a story that comes before. Requel is another telling of the story. We hope to retell the story of church, without the obligation of denominational preconceptions of how to do church.
We'll have much more to write in the days to come, but please know that we would love you to join us. You can be a part of an exciting new church right from the very beginning! Currently there are about 20 of us that meet every week in our home on Sunday mornings at 10 AM. We're sure our meeting place will change someday soon, but right now we are enjoying great fellowship and teaching together. Why don't you come and give us a try? We live at 1216 Butternut Court in Mansfield, Ohio 44906. If you'd like to talk to Mark about the new church, give him a call at 
419-564-1525
. We hope to see you or hear from you soon!
