Hey everyone! Pastor Mark here with your weekly blog post about what's happening at Church Requel this weekend. This week I will update you on what's happening with Mary Kay's family, this weekend's CR worship service, next weekend's potluck, the weekly podcast and the great job Diana is doing on the online CR photo albums.
Hope this message finds you all doing well. Mary Kay and I are traveling to Celina tomorrow to join her six siblings as they spread their mother's ashes in a private burial ceremony. Please remember Mary Kay and her family in your thoughts and prayers. I know this will be a tough weekend for her.
We'll return in plenty of time for the Church Requel worship service Sunday night at 6pm. We have some great things planned for this weekend's worship service. Sheri Pryor will tell us about the Easter dinner donations. Lisa Gilbert will teach our elementary children. Steve Thoman will catch us up on all the cool things happening at CR - including details of next Sunday's potluck meal (see below). Nancy Roop will read our Scripture from Luke's gospel.
I've worked all week on our new sermon series. The name of this seven-part series is The God Life. Each weekend we'll start with a verse from 2nd Peter 1. Then we'll study a parable or teaching from Jesus in one of the gospels. This weekend we learn about living the good life. Peter tells us to add to our faith goodness (2 Peter 1:5 NIV). We'll talk about how we do this. From Jesus' parable of the rich fool we'll discover the three fugitives of assumption, gumption, and presumption we must guard against if we want to live the good life. I think it's good, but then I'm biased. Guess you'll have to come to find out! (Want a preview? Here are the YouVersion sermon notes.)
Potluck Next Sunday! Start planning now for next weekend's potluck. Church Requel folks love their potlucks. As the picture on the left shows, Bryan plans to be back at the front of the line. I actually called Bryan two months ago when I scheduled the fellowship hall for next weekend's potluck. He told me he never wants to miss another potluck because of a work conflict! We're talking priorities here!
Families should plan on bringing two dishes, including one main dish. Single folks can bring one dish of any variety. Plates, silverware, napkins and a non-carbonated drink will be provided by Church Requel. You bring everything else. Plan on being at the church by 4pm next Sunday. We'll enjoy our regular service upstairs at 6pm. Our potlucks are a great opportunity to get to know new people - and there are quite a number of new families this year. So plan on coming to church early next week... and bring a large appetite!
Listen to the Church Requel Podcast. Do you know about this new opportunity? Each Monday morning I publish an audio podcast and make it available for free on the Internet. What's in the podcast? For the first 20 to 30 minutes I talk about whatever is on my mind - usually things happening behind the scenes at Church Requel. For example, last week I talked about the Easter weekend. ...What it was like to preach the Good Friday message. ...How the Easter CR service almost didn't happen (as we planned it) because the projector died 15 minutes before the service. ...About how cool it was to hear my children practicing their music for last weekend's service.
The last half of the podcast is always a repeat of the Sunday evening message so you can hear it again and let it soak into your brain! Think of this weekly podcast as your ability to take a conversation with your pastor with you wherever you go. You can listen in your car, while you're exercising, or at home in the easy chair. Set your computer, tablet or smart phone to automatically download the podcast each Monday afternoon. You can find the podcast in any of three places online: 1) from the iTunes Music store; 2) from the CR Audio blog feed; or 3) from the CR website.
Church Requel Photos. Have you checked out the Church Requel online photo album yet? Diana Devolder is doing an AMAZING job for us with her photography talents. The picture on the left is just one of 28 photos she uploaded to our Easter album just this past week! This album is just one of eleven photo albums she has made available for us in the past few months! Each album has a theme and is carefully edited and uploaded by Diana. The next time you see Diana, let her know how much we appreciate her pictures. They say a picture is worth a thousand words... so far Diana has told the story of Church Requel with hundreds of thousands of words worth!
That will wrap up this week's blog entry of what's happening. I always say that for such a little church we sure have a lot of things going on! Hope to see you all Sunday evening! Love you much! Pastor Mark