Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Dad's 80th Birthday With Memories of 8th Grade Football

Today was Dad's 80th birthday.  We went out to lunch where we enjoyed a feast of food and memories together.  The day is not even close to being over for me, but I see that Dad has already blogged about our lunch party.  I thought to myself, why not?  So I'm online in my basement office thinking about today, along with some extra servings of our past victories celebrated together.

Dad lives about an hour's drive from my home.  Along the way I thought about all my dad has done for me over the years.  He never missed a game, a concert or a play.  Not only mine, but also each of my 4 children.  We have pictures of Dad and Mom with each one of our kids on Grandparents' Day in Kindergarten at Mansfield Christian School.  And we have photos of him with each of their graduations from high school and college - (our last college grad will actually be on this June 10th and I know Dad will be there!)

I remember many of the happy and victorious times of my life with Dad.   I remember one occasion when my Dad celebrated the moment of my great 8th grade football victory.  It was the first time (oh let's be honest... it was the ONLY time) in 8th grade, when I actually got to play in the football game.  The bench and I had grown most fond of one another over that long, cold season.  All season long... every single practice and game... I was the backup to the third string.   I actually ran extra laps when all the equipment was handed out just to get a uniform and gear.  None of it fit me - it was all too big.  I had to bring it home for Mom to sew it so it would fit my smaller frame. 

Then, in the one game all season... in the only one play of the only game in the whole season - when the score was so decidedly lopsided in our favor that nothing I could do could possibly hurt the outcome - I got my chance to play.  I was to be on the kickoff return squad.  I was strategically placed in the front row - far away from where any of the action was likely to be.  My job, should I decide to accept it, was to block for the lucky guy in the back who would catch the ball and run with glory and gusto. 

Except that this one time - in the only play I would play in the only game of my entire 8th grade season, the football was kicked poorly - so poorly it came straight to me, the back-up to the third string blocker in the front row.  The football hit me squarely in the chest.   I don't know if I was more surprised or the ball - it being the only time in my young football career that the ball and I had actually made our acquaintance to one another.  The ball bounced from my chest to the ground and right back up into my arms, whereupon I commenced to run for my life. 

Up until that moment in my life, I had liked being the center of attention.  I know this well because I still have my Kindergarten report card when my teacher wrote to my parents, "Mark likes being the center of attention."  However, at that one moment when every player on the field was heading straight for me... well, I didn't care so much for being the center of everyone's attention.

When the pile came off me and I stood up, remarkably I still held the ball.  And, miracle of miracles, I had managed to run 10 yards... in the right direction even.  My glory moment had arrived and ended.  Never again in the next five years of my high school football career would I ever again be a ball carrier.  But I did have that one moment of glory.

And Dad was there to celebrate it with me.  At the end of the season, when the team held its celebratory awards banquet, the coaches passed out a stats sheet.  And guess what?  Mark Pierce averaged more yards per carry than any other ball carrier.  That's right.  No one else on the entire squad - in any of those top echelons of strings so important back in August when they were passing out the equipment and the uniforms - had managed to average 10 yards per carry! 

Dad never lets me forget my great 8th grade victory.  I don't forget.  I remember.  I remember in that one moment of my greatest 8th grade victory, my dad was there to share it with me.  That was forty-one years ago.  So today on Dad's 80th birthday I say, "Thanks Dad.  And Happy 80th Birthday!"

Video Sermon: Abide In Me

Abide in me.  3 small words.  Yet it's impossible to be a Christ-follower without them.  In this video sermon we examine the four elements of the vineyard allegory from John 15.

Abide In Me from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

 The following resources are available to support this talk.  Other pastors and ministers: you have my permission to use these resources in any way to support your own ministries.

• Weekly Program without Answers (PDF - 1.7MB)
• Weekly Program with Answers (PDF - 1.7MB)
• My personal teaching notes for "Abide in Me" (PDF - 156KB)
• My personal notes in Amazon Kindle format (AZW - 16KB)
• My notes with graphics in margins (PDF - 5.9MB) - used by our tech team
• Weekend Planning Sheet (PDF - 49KB) - worship ideas to support the theme

All of the Church Requel sermons are available either in the CR Video Library or the CR Audio Library or you can listen on the Church Requel Audio Blog.  Would you like to subscribe to the weekly audio podcast and receive the sermon each week?  Subscribe here for iTunes or here for all other mp3 devices.  You can also subscribe to the weekly video podcast!  Would you like to read my notes for this sermon? Just click on the "Continue reading" link below.

Using Kindle Collections to Sample Audible Books

Yesterday I wrote about the new ability for Kindle 3 to wirelessly download Audible books.  As a long-time Audible fan I concluded that while the new Kindle Wi-Fi connection to Audible is impressive, I doubted anyone would be using their Kindle as their primary Audible device.

This morning, however, I have come up with a wonderful use for the Kindle to sample Audible books.  One of the things I love about the Kindle Store is the ability to download a free sample of text to try out a book before I actually purchase it.  I have a Samples collection where I save all those samples.  When I'm looking for a new book to read, I'll go to my Samples collection and try out a few books to decide what my next read will be. 

This morning it dawned on me that I could use the Kindle's Collection ability to do the same thing with Audible books.  Here's how I did it.  First, I created an Audible Collection.  Secondly I went into the Kindle Store on my Kindle and selected Audible Audiobooks in the top right-hand corner.  This is a new feature in the Kindle Storefront.

Then I clicked through to the category of books I was interested in reading.  There were 18 categories and 56,124 Audible Audiobooks available from the top.  I wanted to listen to something in the Christian area.  To get there, I clicked Religion & Spirituality (2,604 books available), then clicked on the subcategory link on the top, right-hand corner of the page.  This brought up 6 subcategories, of which "Christian" was one, offering 1,454 titles. 

There were 243 pages of audiobooks available to me, with 6 titles on each page.  Relatively quickly I found a dozen or so books I was interested in sampling.  To sample a book was easy.  I clicked on the link, which brought up a description page for the book.  From here I could either purchase the audiobook using money or my Audible credit OR I could move down to "Try a Sample."  This would download a 3-minute audio file to my Kindle.  (In order to do this you must be connected to a Wi-Fi network.  Amazon won't download directly to your device using 3G.)

Here's where the power of the Kindle really comes in.  Once I downloaded a dozen samples or so, I went back to my Home Page.  These samples took up more than a page.  While I wanted to listen to a few, I knew I wouldn't take the time to listen to them all right away.  So I took the next step of making an Audible Collection.  I created a new collection named "Audible."  Then I went back to each newly downloaded file, used the right-click with the 5-way controller, and added the file to my new Audible collection.  Now instead of having several pages of Audible files on my Home page, I just have one line.  Whenever I want to sample an Audible Audiobook, I click on this collection.

When I choose a particular Audible file, I get a page like the one shown in the picture at the right.  There is a text description of the audiobook along with a media controller, which I operate using the 5-way controller.  Usually I just press the center button once to start the sample.

While you don't need to connect earphones to your Kindle to be able to hear, I recommend it.  The tiny speakers don't give much volume - especially if there is any degree of background noise.  Relatively quickly you can sample through numerous books and decide which one will be your next "read."  With audiobooks, it's not just about the writing of the book; it's also about the performance.  Some narrators are better than others.

The samples are short and, in my brief experience this morning, are always the very first 3 minutes of the audiobook program - not really the best for sampling.  Up to half of the 3 minutes are taken up with copyright, website connections, and dedications.  While not the best 3 minutes, it is enough to give you a flavor of what you might be listening to if you buy the Audible audiobook.

If you are worried about the size of the Audible sample files size, I have good news.  The files ranged in size from 1.5 meg to 1.8 meg.  While that is very large compared to most Kindle books, it still is pretty small compared to the 4 gig of storage available on the latest generation Kindles.  And these file sizes are downright puny compared to the full Audible audiobook file, which can sometimes be larger than a gig! (One of the downsides in my review yesterday was the upsides of the filesize.)

Surprisingly, there is no direct link on the Sample page for the Amazon Kindle customer to make a direct purchase.  If you want to buy the audiobook from your Kindle, you'll have to go back into the Kindle Storefront, find the book again, and click "Buy."  I have no doubt that Amazon will be fixing this oversight quickly; they are the masters of making it easy to buy books with one-click.  Personally, I think I'll be going back to the Audible website anyway and downloading the full audiobook to my primary Audible device.

Sampling audiobooks from Audible.com is nothing new for Audible customers.  But until now, one needed to be actively connected to the Audible website on the computer or use the Audible app on Android or IOS.  Now, using the Kindle device and the Collections feature, one can quickly download a selection of audio samples to be listened to anytime - whether connected to the Internet or not.  I think this could be a great tool for me to use to make buying decisions and will probably result in my downloading and listening to even more Audible audiobooks.

Review: New Audible Downloads on Kindle 3

Last week Amazon announced that Audible books would be available to download to Kindle 3 devices.  As a long-time fan of both the Kindle and Audible, I thought I would write up a quick review of this new Kindle service.

In summary this is a big step forward for Audible and may introduce more serious Kindle readers to the many benefits of listening to Audible books.  However, the Kindle device will not soon replace other Audible devices any time soon.

Let's sketch the details of the news first.  Anyone who owns a Kindle 3 device may now download directly to their Kindle any Audible file.  It is not necessary to download the Audible file to one's computer first and then transfer via USB.  In order to download wirelessly, you'll need a Kindle 3 (either 3G or Wifi version will work).  And you'll want to be connected to a fast Wifi router.  You cannot download wirelessly using 3G.

Also very cool is the fact that if you can now view your Audible files within your Kindle Archives.  In order to do this, you'll need to change your Audible account sign-in to the same log-in that you use for Kindle.  Once you've given permission to Audible, all your Audible files will show up on your Kindle archives for download directly from your Kindle.  Also you will now have a one-click ability from Audible to send and Audible book wirelessly directly to any Kindle 3 on your account.

One of the great advantages of this for Audible users with multiple Kindles on an account is that the "Manage Your Kindle" page on Amazon or the Library page in Audible can send an Audible book to any K3 on the account.  However there are some things to be aware of.

First - this will not work with any version of Kindle.  K1s and K2s are not included in the list.  (I'm not sure about DX.)  While several people have complained about this limitation in the Kindle forums, the issue here is not software.  Rather it is all about capacity.  Audible files are HUGE compared to normal Kindle files.  They take a LOT of room and a require a LOT of time to download.  For example, I'm currently reading Pandora's Star by Peter Alexander.  The Audible version is more than 37 hours long.  The downloaded Audible file takes more than 1 gig of space on the Kindle.  This would just not be very practical for a K2 with only 2 Gig max capacity.

Second - The wireless download MUST use a Wifi connection.  You will not be able to use your 3G connection to download.  The reason is obvious.  Amazon does not want to pay for your longer Audible downloads.  It's one thing to download a small eBook file.  It's quite another to download an large Audible file.  The Pandora's Star Audible book mentioned above took 26 minutes to download to my K3 - and that was with a fast Wifi connection.  You definitely don't want to try this at a public Wifi hotspot.

Surprisingly, using either the Archives from the Kindle device OR using the "Manage My Kindle" page from the Kindle website only provides the option to download the entire book.  When using the Audible website, on the other hand, the Audible customer is given the option to send smaller files to any Kindle on his account.  This breaks up the book, but uses much less of the precious storage on the Kindle device - and takes much less time to download.

Those who would like to listen to an Audible book play, while at the same time would like to read the Kindle text, will not be able to do so using a Kindle.  The Kindle Audible app does not work like the Text-to-Speech function.  When the Kindle plays the Audible file, that's all it can do.  The K3 is not a multi-tasking device.  (Though this is curious.  The Kindle does have the ability to play MP3s in the background while one is reading a book.  I'd think that it would be possible - and profitable - for Amazon to develop this ability.)  If one would like to read a Kindle book and listen to an Audible verson of the same at the same time, he will need to use the Kindle app version combined with the Audible app on any Android or IOS device.

In summary, the new download feature for Audible on Kindle is cool and does offer additional flexibility.  And it may introduce the wonders of Audible listening to a whole new group of Kindle device users.   However, serious Audible fans are not going to suddenly begin using their Kindles to listen to their Audible content.  The Kindle is a top-notch ebook reading machine.  It is, at best, a mediocre media playing device.  The size is all wrong on multiple fronts - the Kindle is too small in internal storage but too large in physical size to seriously consider using for Audible content.  But for readers who want everything on one device without the need for a computer interface, the new Audible wireless downloads to Kindle will be a welcomed new ability.

Audible Books Added to Pierce Family Archives

Here is the weekly email I send to my family members who are on my Kindle Account.

Dear Dad, Jessica, Dave, Jillian, Tim, Jennifer, and Mike:

Seems like every week we have big news for our Pierce Family Kindle Book Club.  This week is no exception.  Here are the highlights: (1) More than 100 Audible books are now available in our Archives; (2) Our freebie book list now over 400; Kindle ebooks now 597; (3) 15 new books added this week including Ken Follett's World Without End.

73 Audible Books Now Available in our Archives:
This past week Amazon connected our Audible Account with our Kindle Account.  For those of us in the Pierce Family Kindle Book Club, that's big news because I've been an Audible Gold Member for more than a decade.  My Audible archives numbers more than 70 audio books.  Now these books can be viewed in our Archives, can be downloaded directly to those of us with K3s, and can be listened to on any Kindle.

I have linked our Kindle account with my Audible account this morning.  You should now be able to view these additional 73 books plus another 40 audio programs in your Kindle Archives.  I plan to sent out special one-time email to you of these titles so you can keep it for future reference.  Then, each week as I send out the new Kindle titles to you I'll include any new Audible title too.

BE AWARE: 

• These Audible files are HUGE!  It takes a long time to download.  (Amazon says an average of 15 minutes per book.  This could be longer for long books like 45-hour World Without End.  Also impacted by Wifi speed - slower in public WiFi hotspots.)  You will only want one on your Kindle at a time because they take LOTS of space. 
• You cannot read the text AND listen to the Audible book at the same time. 
• There is no syncing between where you are in the text with where you are in the audio file. 
• You will need to have your Kindle set to WiFi.  This is only an issue for Dad, who owns the 3G version.  Dad, your Kindle is automatically set for 3G.  To download an Audible book, you'll need to change it to WiFi.  Jennifer, Mike, Jessica's and mine are all WiFi only and will work automatically to download an Audible book.
• Tim and Jillian: This new setup will not work with your K2.  However, you can listen to any of the Audible books on your K2.  You just need to download it to your computer first and then transfer over to your Kindle with a USB cable.

With that all being said, our Pierce Family Book Club just got a whole lot more valuable to all of us!  To read how to use your K3s with the Audible account, all your questions are answered here:
http://audible.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3987

420 Free Books / 597 eBooks
This past week we went over 400 Freebie books on our Kindles.  What a great deal!  The new books are listed below. According to my figures we now own 597 Kindle books altogether.  If the 73 Audible books are included, we can read or listen to 570 books on our Kindles!  The library is becoming awesome!

15 New Books this Week:
The big news this past week is World Without End by Ken Follett.  I agreed to split this new HUGE book with Tim and Jillian.  I had already "read" it by listening on Audible.  45 hours of listening pleasure!  I thought it would be good to have for the family.  Be aware that Ken Follett weaves a great story - but not without some explicit sections.

Account Balances: (I deleted the balances for the blog.)

New Book Details:  Click on "Continue Reading" below to see the new books for the week.  I didn't add any images or links.  The books are easy enough to search.

Audio Sermon: Abide In Me

Abide in me.  3 small words.  Yet it's impossible to be a Christ-follower without them.  In this audio version of last night's Church Requel talk, we examine the four elements of the vineyard allegory from John 15.

110327AbideInMe

Subscribe to this audio podcast!  It's available every week on iTunes or for any other mp3 player.

This Weekend at CR: "Final Words - Abide In Me"

Hey everyone!

This weekend at Church Requel, we continue our Final Words sermon series by examining Jesus' instructions to "Abide in me."  What is the difference between living FOR Christ and living IN him?  Jesus taught with the allegory of the Vineyard.  Sunday evening we'll consider each of four elements of this allegory: the vine, the branches, the vinedresser and the fruit. 

As always, we will try to teach these truths in both an informative and entertaining way.  We will watch a great skit from One Time Blind perfectly illustrating Jesus' desire for us to live IN him.  I've also found a really terrific short video from a modern vineyard explaining the reasons for pruning.

We'll also hear from Jana Edwards and Trisha Williams as they both read from the Bible.  We'll get an update to our Easter Meal donations - Keep bringing in the groceries!  We're in the final few weeks.  And we'll have a great time worshipping God together.  The fellowship is sweet at Church Requel. 

See you there Sunday night at 6PM! 

- Pastor Mark

P.S.  Did you miss last week's talk about Many Rooms?  Want to see or hear it again?  Click here for the audio podcast.  Or click here to watch the video.  (By the way... if you want to watch ANY of the talks since Church Requel launched publicly, just click here for the whole archive!  When you get to the web page, just click on "Launch Media Player."  Every sermon is there!

Video Sermon: Many Rooms

Jesus is preparing many rooms for his followers. What does this tell us about heaven? Jesus said he is the way, the truth and the life.  What does this mean about our journey to heaven?  Join me in this video study of John 14:1-6.

Many Rooms from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

I have made the following resources available for you.  Pastors, you have my express permission to use and reproduce any of my materials that might be of help to you or your congregations.

• Weekend Program without Answers (PDF - 1MB)
• Weekend Program with Answers (PDF - 1.1MB)
• My personal teaching notes (PDF - 143KB)
• My notes in Kindle format (AZW - 20KB)
• Notes with graphics in the margin (PDF - 5.8MB) - used by our tech team.
• Weekend Planning Sheet (PDF - 53KB) - order of service, ideas to support sermon

All of the Church Requel sermons are available either in the CR Video Library or the CR Audio Library or you can listen on the Church Requel Audio Blog.  Would you like to subscribe to the weekly audio podcast and receive the sermon each week?  Subscribe here for iTunes or here for all other mp3 devices.  You can also subscribe to the weekly video podcast!  Would you like to read my notes for this sermon? Just click on the "Continue reading" link below.

17 New Books in Family's Kindle Archives

This is the weekly email that I send out to my family to keep them up to speed on what's happening with our Kindle archives.  A couple weeks ago I began making a copy for the blog, since many of our readers also own a Kindle.  Enjoy!

Dad, Jillian, Tim, Jessica, Dave, Jennifer and Mike:

We've added 17 new books this past week to our Pierce Family Kindle Book Archives.  Also the new Readers Digest came in this past week.  I think there's something for just about everyone in the list below.  So make sure to check it out.  This brings our total books in our archives to 583 books!    What a great library we are building together.

TECH TIP:  Before I tell you about the new books here's a tech tip I've needed to share a couple times this week so it's worthwhile being reminded for all of us.  Sometimes you'll go into your archives to find a new book and discover it's not there.  Here's the deal.  Your Kindle needs to  sync with Amazon in order for it to know about all the new books.  Here's how you sync. 

1. Click Home
2. Click Menu
3. Within the Menu submenu box, use your 5-way controller to go down to "Sync & Check for Items."  Click on it.
4. Go back to your Archives and check again.  Your book will suddenly be there when it wasn't before!

GAMES ON SALE:  Amazon has placed most of their games on sale this week for only $0.99.  Many of these are marked down from 5 bucks, so get them while they're hot!  The sale ends March 27th.  Games are available across all Kindles so if you buy the game, we can all play it on our individual devices.  We own 8 games so far in our archives:  Shuffled Row, Every Word, EA Solitaire, Scrabble, Monopoly, EA Sudoku, Blackjack, and Mine Sweeper.

NEW NOTEPAD:  Want to turn your Kindle into a productivity tool?  New this week is a special notepad you can purchase for your Kindle.  Write and keep quick, short post-it style notes for yourself.  Only $0.99.  Also available across Kindles - (not your notes, just the software.)

No changes to account balances this past week.  Here's where everyone stands. (I deleted the balances from the blog post.)  Want to read about all 17 new books we bought last week?  Click "continue reading" below!

Audio Sermon: Many Rooms

Jesus is preparing many rooms for his followers. What does this tell us about heaven? Jesus said he is the way, the truth and the life.  What does this mean about our journey to heaven?  Join Pastor Mark Pierce in this study of John 14:1-6.

110320ManyRooms

Subscribe to this audio podcast!  It's available every week on iTunes or for any other mp3 player.

This Weekend at CR: "Final Words - Many Rooms"

We begin a brand new sermon series this weekend at Church Requel!  We're calling it Final Words.  Each weekend between now and Easter, we will examine the last instructions and words of Jesus from the Gospel of John.  Specifically this Sunday we will examine John 14:1-6.  We'll consider the implications of the "many rooms" in heaven and Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. 

This will be a great time to come back to Church Requel, if you've missed a few Sundays.  And it'll present an wonderful opportunity to invite a friend or family member to enjoy our Sunday night alternative!

We have lots of great things happening Sunday night!  Nate Williams and Company are back in a big way to lead our worship.  We will be hosting the largest Praise Team ever at CR with four band members and three vocalists!  Should be most encouraging and enjoyable.

Sheri Pryor and Rachel Barr will be joining me on the CR platform to talk about our plans to feed the hungry this Easter.  Rachel and Cindy were shopping for groceries on Tuesday when God provided for us in a very significant way.  Rachel will tell the story.  Then Sheri will bring us up to speed with where we are in preparing 100 meals to give away.  I've also asked Sheri to lead our prayer time and Nancy Roop to lead our Scripture reading.

You'll notice that things are special when you walk into the chapel Sunday night.  Several anonymous and creative helpers have decorated our Sunday evening space with the final words of Jesus.  Also, each Sunday evening between now and Easter, we'll take communion together at the end of our service.  Both of these small changes - to space and order - will help us recall the change in space and order that Jesus brings at Easter.

I'm looking forward to seeing you Sunday evening at 6pm at Ontario Christian Fellowship!

Men's Ministry Launch at Church Requel

This past Sunday evening I invited Randy Craig to join me on the Church Requel platform to discuss the launch of a new Men's Ministry.  Over the past few months I've gotten to know Randy better as I've counseled him and his bride-to-be, Melissa, for their upcoming wedding.  At one of our recent sessions, Randy asked me if we have a Men's Ministry at Church Requel.  The 6-minute video below is the result of that conversation.  Enjoy!

Mens Ministry Launch at Church Requel from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

Video: N.A.M.I. Richland County Health Walk

Have I ever mentioned just how proud I am of my wife?  Mary Kay Pierce is the executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness - Richland County.  She is passionate about helping families who have a family member suffering from mental illness.  And that's a whole bunch of folks!  It's estimated that one in four families in Ohio have a family member suffering from some sort of mental illness. 

That job is big enough, but like everything else, funding is now tough to come by.  Governor Kasich just released his budget and, not surprisingly, the budget for Mental Health was slashed yet again.  So how does Mary Kay respond?  Not with a "woe is me" attitude.  She is out trying to raise funds.  Next month, on April 16th, N.A.M.I. Richland County is sponsoring a walk / 5k run out at the Richland County fairgrounds.  I'm going to be out there!  How about you?  I'd love to put together a team from Church Requel!

Two days ago, Mary Kay was interviewed by WMFD Anchor Brigitte Coles.  Here is that interview.  Way to go, Mary Kay!  Keep up the great work! (You can download the show from WMFD here.)

N.A.M.I. Richland County Health Walk from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

Video Sermon: W.O.R.K. at Work

Does our Christian faith actually W.O.R.K. at work?  This is a timely message with the backdrop of the collective bargaining issue in the news headlines.  Does the Bible have anything to say about how we relate to our employers?  What about the way employers should treat employees?  Join me in this Sunday evening video as we study Ephesians 6:5-9.

W.O.R.K. at Work from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

I've made the following resources available.  You may download (and re-use) any of the following:

• Weekend Program without Answers (PDF - 999KB)
• Weekend Program with Answers (PDF - 1MB)
• My personal W.O.R.K. at work teaching notes (PDF - 172KB)
• My teaching notes in Kindle format (AZW - 20KB)
• Teaching notes with graphics in margin (PDF - 2.5MB) - used by our tech team
• Our Weekend Planning Sheet (PDF - 45KB) - what the whole service looked like

All of the Church Requel sermons are available either in the CR Video Library or the CR Audio Library or you can listen on the Church Requel Audio Blog.  Would you like to subscribe to the weekly audio podcast and receive the sermon each week?  Subscribe here for iTunes or here for all other mp3 devices.  You can also subscribe to the weekly video podcast!  Would you like to read my notes for this sermon? Just click on the "Continue reading" link below.

New CR Website Front Page: Final Words

We begin a new sermon series this coming Sunday at Church Requel.  Final Words.  When the condemned man is asked for his final words, they are usually carefully chosen.  Jesus knew what was ahead of him.  What were his final words to his disciples... and to us?  This will be the focus of our next six weekends leading into Easter.  Along with the new series, we've created a new front page for the church website.

This would be a great time to give Church Requel a try.  We are the newest Sunday night church in Mansfield.  We meet every Sunday evening at 6pm in the Ontario Christian Fellowship chapel.  You're already coming?  GREAT!  This would be an excellent opportunity to invite a friend!  No matter what - don't miss this coming Sunday evening experience!

23 New Books Added to Piece Family Kindle Account

Each week I send an email out to my family members who share a Kindle with me.  We have 6 Kindles, one Android app, and one Mac app on the account.  We've accumulated 565 books in our archives of which 391 were freebies.

This past week our family Kindle account was featured on the Kindle Chronicles Podcast by Len Edgerly.  You can listen to the interview here.  In the interview I mention some of the blogs I follow in my RSS reader that clue me in on free Kindle books.  I've made the Google list of Kindle blogs available here.

Here's the email I mailed out today about our family book club.

Dear Dad, Dave, Jessica, Tim, Jillian, Mike and Jennifer -

Welcome to this week's update email on the Kindle madness taking over our family!  Here you'll find an update on the latest new books added by family members along with a current balance of your debt or available credit to buy more books. 

(Both Kimberlys, Mary Kay, Jonathan & Bethany - keeping you all in the loop in case you ever want to join the fun.  Len - thought you'd enjoy the continuing saga.)

But first!!!  Welcome officially Jennifer and Mike!  They both received their brand new Kindle 3 Wifi edition last Tuesday.  Mike was able to put his school books on his Kindle.  And Jennifer has started reading Mom's Ultimate Guide to the Tween Girl World! (See new book added below.)

Also exciting development this past week:  Our family Kindle account received notoriety from the Kindle Chronicle Podcast by Len Edgerly.  There are MANY people who listen each week to his podcast of all things Kindle.  Last weekend he highlighted the cool things we are doing with our Kindle account and the Pierce Family Book Club.  If you haven't already listened to it, you can link here:
http://www.thekindlechronicles.com/2011/03/11/tkc-138-pastor-mark-pierce/

Here are your current balances in the Pierce Family Kindle Book Club: (I've deleted this part of the email.  But it's important to keep everyone aware of their debits or credits.)

23 New Books were added to our archives this past week.  Walt was the biggest spender with two political books espousing his conservative political views.  (Makes me wonder if we'll soon see Jennifer add Audacity of Hope... just to balance out the Pierce Family Book Club... Ha!)  Grandpa also picked up a book about stretching for those of us with 50+ year old bones.  I used cold, hard cash to purchase one book for myself this week (actually paid $12.99 for it, almost unheard of for me!)  However, I'm greatly enjoying Eugene Peterson's memoir of being a pastor.

So here are the 23 new books added to our archives this week.  I'll highlight the ones we paid good money for first, then I'll tell you about all the Freebies.  Good reading! (Click continue reading link to read descriptions of the 23 books.)

 

Audio Sermon: W.O.R.K. at Work

Does our Christian faith actually W.O.R.K. at work?  Join me in this audio sermon as we study Ephesians 6:5-9.

110313AtWork

Subscribe to this audio podcast!  It's available every week on iTunes or for any other mp3 player.

This Weekend at CR: Does Our Faith W.O.R.K. at work?

Does our faith work at work?  That's the question we will be addressing Sunday evening at Church Requel.  Wow!  Is that a relevant question these days or what?  Stop and think about it - you can't turn on the news these days without seeing the protests at the state capitols of Wisconsin and our own Ohio!  Do you think the Bible is relevant to this conversation today?  We'll find out Sunday night.

We'll be introducing a brand new ministry at Church Requel on Sunday.  Randy Craig has agreed to lead our Men's Ministry.  We'll invite Randy to the platform and hear his thoughts about leadership and men as well as what may be coming to CR down the road.

We'll also be enjoying a wonderful worship time, taking communion and then, praying for the needs of our congregants.  Also, for the first time ever at Church Requel, Carol Bowie will be reading our Scripture for the evening - Ephesians 6:5-9. 

Finally, we have a very funny, short video to watch that fits right into our evening: "The Christian's Guide to Excuses At Work" by Moving Pictures.  You won't want to miss a single moment of Church Requel this Sunday night!  See you at 6pm! - Pastor Mark

Lent: According to Patty

Some of the greatest joys in my life are the relationships I've formed within the family.  And none are more joyous than the one I share with Patty Hawk Chappie.  She is my wife's younger sister.  When you see Mary Kay and Patty side by side, you know they're sisters.  Some have even asked me if they are twins.

In my last post about Lent, I mentioned my "wonderful and Catholic sister-in-law."  Patty is a loyal reader of ChurchRequel.com and she wrote a beautiful comment about my latest post.  It was so good I thought it deserved it's own post.  So here is Lent... according to Patty.  This is what she wrote on Facebook:

Enjoyed reading your blog Mark! Lent is a always such a spiritual reflective time for me! ( BTW- I gave up more than chocolate! I also have a revitalized commitment to do for others). I love the traditions of Lent (not in the Bible), focused on remembering Jesus' teachings, resistance of temptation, his sacrifice (gift) to us and renewing our lives to try to live what Jesus taught us in the Bible. It is the very essence of Spring!

And here is what Patty wrote in the comments of the Church Requel blog:

Welcome to Lent Mark! In response to your above reference to chocolate... if you have already given it up and it is of no self discipline or matter of sacrifice then "No... it doesn't count!" The idea is to remember what Jesus did for each of us and to do things for Jesus! So giving up things as well as doing things that Jesus spent his whole life teaching us to do as his followers, spending time in reflection and prayer...THAT is what happens during Lent! It is important to spend a special time to refocus on our spiritual commitment and place. One may argue that everyday we should focus on prayer, self discipline and doing for others...no doubt I agree! But like all things... daily things done without a revitalization become lost in the shuffle... "Why do we do this everyday without thinking?" Lent is a special tradition if you will... a time to remember,reflect, reconcile, pray, renew and celebrate... and to be ever so humbled by Jesus' death and resurrection for each of us. This is nothing I know you don't already realize. It has always been a HUGE part of our Catholic Faith, and I have been deeply touched by and thankful for that. Another tidbit about Lent... the ashes used on our foreheads to make the sign of a cross are from the palms we get on Palm Sunday and have in our homes throughout the year. I also agree with the extra time spent with my fellow church community... it is a wonderful gathering together for extra services, stations of the cross, socializing at Fish Fries, sharing in the joy of new members of the church being baptized at the Easter Vigil on Saturday evening before Easter. I hope your Lent is full of spiritual witness,growth, reflection, and community...You always did have good ideas!!! I enjoyed your article... thanks!

Patty, thanks so much for your input and your reminder of the true meaning of Lent.  As I mentioned in my last blog post, I'm observing Lent this year in my own personal devotional life by reading through the gospel of Matthew and the commentary from N.T. Wright in Lent For Everyone from YouVersion.com.  And... no orange marmalade! :-)

Lent: More Than Giving Up Orange Marmalade

Let's just talk straight for a minute.  You can tell a lot about a person's Christian background by this issue of Lent.  If you asked me about it as a kid, I would have made some reference to the trap in the dryer... or my belly button.  As an Evangelical, Lent wasn't something for us.  The whole concept of ashes on the forehead or giving up chocolate was foreign to us.

Now I'm the pastor of a new church - a non-denominational church, yet I find myself with the same biases of my childhood.  And yet...

Here's the thing.  Lent is actually a REALLY GOOD IDEA!  Let's think about it for a moment.  40 days to prepare for Resurrection Day.  A time of personal sacrifice to remember what Christ has sacrificed for us.  A period of reflection and refocus upon our faith.  Additional times of community with fellow believers.  The opportunity to practice our faith in a more public way - acknowleding our Christianity to the world around us.  What's there not to like?

As a pastor of a new congregation, I recognize that in many ways I set the pace for our church.  So I'm going to participate in Lent this year... even if it's mostly in my own private way.  I've added a new Bible Reading Plan to my daily routine, a daily devotion by N.T. Wright.  YouVersion.com has added 3 new plans just for the season.  I plan on fasting a meal or two per week - and during these times I plan on spending some extra time in prayer and focus. 

And just to make my wonderful (and Catholic) sister-in-law happy, I'm going to give up chocolate - though I'm not sure this really counts, since I've already been on a diet this year. 

Hmmm.  It occurs to me that an abstention for me would be more like giving up orange marmalade.  I eat it every morning... diet or not.  I LOVE orange marmalade.  Ok.  No orange marmalade until April 25th.  Each time the waitress - trained by years of experience - places the orange marmalade before me - I'm going to say a quick prayer of THANKS to Jesus - then push the marmalade away!

I'm also going to participate in our church's plan to give away 100 free meals the day before Easter!  Our version of almsgiving.  Each weekend our parishioners (and me) will be bringing in groceries to the weekend church service.  A fine Lenten tradition - as well as a Christian thing to do all 365 days of the year.

So that's my plan for Lent.  Additional Bible readings and devotionals.  Some fasting.  Some prayer.  Refocus.  Feed the hungry.  ...And no more orange marmalade.