Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Payoff Sunday at CR: Overcoming Giants!

Sunday will be the big payoff! Last weekend we began our discussion of overcoming giant problems. It was a good talk; it really was. But last weekend was nothing compared to this weekend. Another way of putting it is that last weekend set up this weekend's talk. If you were there last weekend, you gotta come back to hear the rest!

Hi everyone. Pastor Mark here with your weekly What's Happening blog post. I hope you have great plans for this Labor Day weekend. (And I hope those plans include Church Requel). Mary Kay and I plan to visit family in Mary Kay's hometown of Celina. And I'm sure sometime this weekend I'll be firing up the grill at home for our own family here in Mansfield. We can't say goodbye to summer without celebration!

As I mentioned at the top, I am also really looking forward to Sunday night with my CR family. In our study time will we consider the 5 requirements of overcoming giant problems. The Bible tells us that we should overcome the world and its evil. How exactly do we go about doing that? We learn some great lessons about our Chrisitian faith from the young lad David, who lived a thousand years before Christ. Want a preview? Here are the YouVersion sermon notes.

CR kids having fun with the Readers Theater!

Fun For The Children. One other really cool thing is scheduled for Sunday night! We will watch the instant replay of our kiddos reading the story of David and Goliath on the big screen. Didn't they do an awesome job last weekend? I'm sure they'll all want to come back and watch it together for themselves. (Can't wait for Sunday? I've saved the video on our Vimeo site and you can watch it here - and also share it with your family and friends.) When we finish watching their instant replay the children will go with Brandi Walker, who has another exciting lesson planned for them. It's a great time to be a kid at CR these days!

Have you seen the photo album yet from last weekend? The picture above right is just one of the 45 photos uploaded this week by Diana. Check out the entire photo album here. (Thanks Diana - I love that you tell the story of our church in photos!)

Picnic Plans For Sept. 22nd. Make sure you block off late Saturday afternoon on September 22nd. We plan to meet together for a picnic at 4pm at Pleasant Hill Lake Park. Should be a fun experience with great food, fellowship and games.

Join Brandi on the Praise Team. Brandi leads our worship experience once a month. You are going to LOVE singing and praising next weekend, on September 9th. There are three others who will be joining Brandi up on the Church Requel platform. Brandi has started working on her October praise team set and is looking for even more team members! Do you have a singing voice or a musical talent you'd be willing to share on October 7th? Talk to Brandi. Or even better, email her right now while you're thinking about it.

That will wrap up this week's blog post. I have so enjoyed talking and meeting with many of you this past week. We are forming bonds of relationship that is often hard to find for most people. We are so fortunate to have this church and the bond of brotherhood that goes with it.

See you on Sunday! Pastor Mark

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My Fitness Pal Helps Me Lose Weight

Yesterday morning I enjoyed a pleasant surprise when I stepped on the bathroom scale. For the first time in many years the first digit was a "1"! So far this year I've dropped 30 pounds. Much of that loss came with the aid of a calorie counting and exercise tracking app called My Fitness Pal.

My Fitness Pal boasts nutritional information on over a million foods, and I believe it. I have yet to find a food that's not already included in theIr database. The genius of this tool is that several times throughout the day I enter the foods I've eaten into the MFP diary. Using the free mobile app available for iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows devices, recording the foods I've eaten is fast and easy.

There are no restricted foods or particular diets to follow. Simply being aware of the nutrition I've consumed combined with my exercise is enough to keep me on track for weight loss. Keeping a daily journal is the key for me and many others. Studies have shown that those who maintain a daily diary of their eating lose twice as much as those who don't keep a journal. I know that one of my biggest challenges has been eating junk late at night. Now, with my food journal as close as my phone, I have learned to just say no.

One of the other things that's been really helpful to me is the community aspect of MFP. I am reminded regularly by the app that those involved in like-minded community lose more weight. I have about a dozen friends who also use MFP. They have given me permission to follow their progress and I have given them the same permission to hold me accountable. The MFP app provides a page for my friend's comments. There are lots of encouraging words that flow back and forth as a result. This friendly accountability really came through for me in a big way when I quit for about a week. I received texts, emails and phone calls encouraging me to get back on track. For those who want it, MFP also offers a group feature.

One does not need to have a smart phone app to use MFP. The MFP website provides the same food and exercise database along with access to one's network of friends. However, the MFP mobile app is the secret sauce for weight loss as far as I'm concerned. My sister-in-law told me last week that she thought recording her foods all the time was a tedious chore. (Yet, she is sticking with it!) I wondered about that for a while until I remembered that she does not own a smart phone with data access. Therefore she has to turn on her computer every time she wants to make a diary entry. Yes, that would require a bit more dedication.

One of the best things about the MFP mobile app is the barcode reader. More than half of the time I don't type anything in to the app. Rather I focus my iPhone camera on the barcode on the food package and the MFP app automatically brings up all the nutrition info for me. One more click adds the food to my diary. Simple. Easy. Convenient.

Finally I love all the help and advice that is offered on the website. There is a full featured and active forum where anyone can ask a question and receive answers quickly. There is something really cool about a community of helpful people supporting one another as they experience the trials of weight loss together. I would highly recommend these posts for anyone just getting started.

If you are wanting to lose weight and get yourself into better physical shape, I can't recommend My Fitness Pal highly enough. I don't know how they keep it free. I've never experienced any solicitations or ads on the mobile app. Honestly, when you consider the alternative costs that result from poor health, this app alone is worth the cost of your phone and data plan!

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Pastoring Children Brings Me Great Joy

I've been going through a metamorphosis.  I've never considered myself to be a children's teacher.  On the other hand almost all of my adult life, I've been an adult teacher of one kind or another.  Before I became a full-time pastor, I taught adult Sunday School - usually young married couples - for two decades. Then I taught a larger group of men on Saturday mornings.  When I made the decision to become a church planter 3 years ago I was sure that the group I would most attract would be adults.

I'm so glad that God is not impressed with my resume. This year He has been bringing children to Church Requel. For sure, there usually are adults connected with them somehow. Without any question the fastest growing demographic in our small church are elementary age children.  And I'm thrilled!

This past weekend we invited our children to read the story of David and Goliath from 1 Samuel 17. One of our parishioners, Diana, took some great photos and posted them up on Facebook last night. (I'm pretty sure you need to have a Facebook account to see them.  We hope to have them on our public website soon. UPDATE: The photos are now also on our public website here.)  The picture above is one of those pictures from Sunday night, when I had the privilege to talk with our kids afterward.

That brief conversation has stuck with me.  I asked the kids what they learned from the story.  Little Cohen with all the pre-Kindergarten wisdom he could muster said, "God is bigger than anybody!" Anna wondered if it really was appropriate to talk about such violent stories in church as she pointed to the verse where David cut off Goliath's head.

When I was a kid, I took for granted being in church Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.  Sunday School was an automatic. Then there was Bible Quizzing and Awana.  While I've never thought much about it before, all of those experiences have a lot more to do with me now being a pastor than any of my seminary training.

When I then think of today's kids, including my own grandchildren, I'm wondering what the next generation of Christians will grow up to become.  Seated in my small congregation could be one of the next great pastors.  Perhaps Church Requel is not so much about my ministry as it is about the next generation's ministry.  Another way of thinking about it is this: Maybe my ministry is about training them for their ministry.

I know this is true for all of my congregation, adults included.  All year, though, I've been reminded about the brutal honesty of children.  They have the same questions about God and the spiritual life as everyone else, but they haven't yet been trained to ask only polite and acceptable questions.  This is the time to reach them.  This is the moment to answer questions - while they're asking!

I don't know exactly what God is calling me to do about this.  I do know this - I need to do more for our kids than what we're doing now.  I also know one other thing.  This is not something that I can just assign to someone else and check off "children's ministry" from the list.  I know I can't accomplish it alone.  We will need a team.  But that team will have to include me.  

I want the kids who grow up at Church Requel to know that they had access to their pastor.  I want them to grow up knowing that their faith was as important as more important than soccer and music lessons.  I want there to be a time in my weekly schedule when I can interact with our children, teaching them, modeling the Christian life to them, sharing life with them, knowing them.  

This is the real change.  The big change is not what God has been doing to bring children to CR.  The big change is the what God has been doing in my heart to love our children and see them for who they are - individual souls with their own need of our Lord and Savior.  The big change in me is that I no longer see our children as the church of tomorrow, but as the church of today!

Overcoming Giant Problems - Part One [Sermon Notes]

We all will face giant problems in our lives. Mine are different than yours. Yours are different than your neighbor’s - but they are all giants of problems.  There are evils of sickness, financial, and relationships that we will all be forced to face at one time or another.  In today's sermon notes blog post, we'll learn 5 lessons from the story of David and Goliath about life's biggest challenges.

Every week I publish my sermon notes so that you may read them for yourselves.  For my parishioners, this could be a good review from the weekend before.  And it gives you a chance to see what I intended to say!  For other pastors and ministers, feel free to borrow and use any of this material.  I'd love for God to be glorified by you incorporating these notes into your own worship.

Summer Singles: "Overcoming Giants - Part 1" 08.26.12

Scripture:  1 Samuel 17  NIV / Follow the YouVersion LIVE Event Notes

Listen to this week's CR Sermon & Podcast (fast forward to 20:30 to listen to sermon):

Intro: Today we consider the story of David and Goliath - what may be the most well known in the OT.  I don’t think God included this for just our entertainment. 1st - it really happened. 2nd - God wants us to know that this isn’t just about David.  It’s also about us and for us! 

Today’s Single: God grants me the power to ___OVERCOME GIANT PROBLEMS___.

We all will face giant problems in our lives. Mine different than yours. Yours different than your neighbor’s - but they are all giants of problems.  There are evils of sickness, financial, relationships that we will all be forced to face.  The moral of David and Goliath is found in 1 John:

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:4a ESV

You are not meant to be overcome by the world.  God designed you to be overcome the world! Evil can seem overwhelming. God’s solution is His power combined with YOUR faith!  The Bible paints this epic battle in black and white contrasts:

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21 NIV

We are going to consider the giant story of David and Goliath this weekend and next. It’s just too big to fit into one week!  Over these two weeks, we’ll learn 10 Giant Killing Lessons.  Next week we’ll talk about overcoming.  This week we want to put our toughest problems under God’s microscope. We learn 5 lessons about our toughest problems.

#022: Overcoming Giants - Part 1 [Podcast]

Click to Listen!

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.

This week we listen to the children of Church Requel read us the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17. Then we hear a fascinating and insightful discussion with these same children about the meaning of the story.  Finally we listen to this weeks sermon, part 1 of "Overcoming Giants."

Music for this week's podcast is Giants by Evan Kraft from the Giants album.

When Workplace And Church Meet - Slow Down, Relax, Smile

This past Sunday I worshipped with my friends, Roc and Kim. Attending another church with friends is a rare and welcomed opportunity for this pastor. I tried to leave my pastor's hat behind. I really did. I wanted to worship, not analyze.

The first thing I saw, however, when entering this large, 3,000-member church, was a young woman running down the hallway. She wore the name tag of officialness and was focused on the urgent problem of elsewhere as she rushed by. I don't know exactly what was going on, but I completely understood her general situation. She was working where I was worshipping.

The problem. I have been where that woman was so many times. People forget that their church happens to also be where I work. I'm sure they might also be hurried and hassled sometimes at their place of employment. What would their face look like when I walked into their workplace? What would their pace be like as I casually strolled by? The problem of church goers and workers mixing is not a problem of the worshiper forgetting that this is where I work. It IS a problem of me forgetting that my workplace is where they come to worship... and adjusting my face and my pace accordingly.

Just doing my job. Perhaps you are like me. You are just more naturally task oriented. You like getting the job done. It just so happens that our job is people and they are not cogs in a wheel. They expect a smile, a friendly greeting, a handshake, a pat on the back. And when you and I rush by because of a work-related issue, some people will take offense. Even the most charitable parishioner will wonder what's wrong.

Why Pastors Should Develop Internet Platforms

I've enjoyed a week's respite from work while vacationing with my friends, Roc and Kim. One afternoon while the girls were off enjoying their shopping, Roc asked me about all the work I do here on the blog and with the podcast. His question challenged me about the results that came from all the work. The short version of his question: "Why bother?"

I like to think of these Internet platforms of blog and podcast as the new pulpits of the electronic age. Consider the history of the pulpit. There is no evidence that either Jesus or Paul ever used a pulpit. The first mention of a pulpit in historical documents is not until the mid-3rd century. Yet for more than a thousand years, pastors have used the raised platform as both a way to see and be seen by their congregations.

The blog and podcast is the equivalent of the raised platform of the 21st century. The speaker (or writer) can use the blog and the podcast to reach an audience of readers and listeners. If the pastor has a message to deliver, he now has some of the most powerful and inexpensive communication tools ever known to broadcast his message.

I love the intimacy of these new platforms. When Jesus called his disciples his invitation was, "Follow me." Follow him is exactly what they did, in the dust of his footsteps, for 3 years. When Paul preached and planted new churches, he lived with the people of these churches sometimes for years at a time. He wrote, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ" (1 Cor. 11.1).

This Weekend at CR: Water Walking

Have you ever "almost" succeeded?  In your Christian faith, have you stumbled when you were so close to finishing?  You're in good company!  One of the first disciples, Peter, got out of the safe boat, stepped out onto the stormy sea AND WALKED ON THE WATER!  I think I'm pretty safe in saying that he's the only one who accomplished this feat, other than Jesus himself.

Hi everyone! Pastor Mark here with your weekly "What's happening" Church Requel blog post on this Friday morning.  Mary Kay and I are enjoying a week away from the church with our good friends, Roc and Kim Marietta. Just because I am gone this week does not mean you will want to miss Sunday night at CR.  I have asked Pastor Aaron Rose from Pavilion Community Church to preach for me Sunday evening.  He will be teaching about Peter's "Almost" making it to Jesus by walking on the water.  I've seen Aaron's sermon and trust me when I tell you, it's going to be a good one!  You will be encouraged to not give up, to keep on keeping on with your faith!

In addition to listening to my friend Aaron preach, you'll also enjoy following the worship leadership of our own Dave Johnson and his friend Monica Clevenger.  Monica is a recent graduate of Madison High School and is heading for Malone College.  She has agreed to partner with Dave for us Sunday night.  You'll LOVE listening to her sing "Revelation Song."

I also have a little surprise for you.  Even though I won't be with you Sunday night, I've left a little video surprise of my own.  I wanted to support Pastor Aaron and give you some love at the same time, so I've created the sermon intro video for you!  Hope you like it!

How to Insert an HTML5 Audio Player into a Typepad Blog

All I wanted to do was include an audio player in my podcast post in my Typepad blog. Should be simple, right?  After waiting for almost a year for Typepad to improve it's own audio player. I invested a day two weeks ago figuring out how to do it myself. This article is written for those who also want to include an up-to-date audio player in their Typepad blog (or any other blog, for that matter) and don't want to move their blog away from Typepad. Why should you have to invest an entire day of your life, when you could learn from my experience?

Click to Listen!

The Problem With Typepad's Audio Player. Typepad provides an icon in its Rich Text menu to upload an audio file and to insert an audio player. But the player doesn't work in all browsers. In IOS, for instance, a dialog message regularly comes back stating, "The operation could not be completed." Even when it does work, the player is so simple that there isn't even an option to scrub forward or back.  On top of everything else using Typepad's provided audio player also inserts a lot of white space or padding at the bottom of the blog page.

It's not like Typepad isn't aware of this issue. I wrote a help ticket 11 months ago (Sept. 2011) and received back these responses:

It's actually the audio player in your post here - http://www.churchrequel.com/church_requel/2011/09/audio-sermon-why-we-remember.html - that is causing the extra padding at the end of the page. We're going to further investigate why the built in audio player is causing the problem.

In the meantime, you may want to remove the audio player from the post to restore your blog's design and instead place a link to download the file in post.

After a week had gone by, I naively thought that maybe some progress was being made and wrote to ask. Here's what I heard back.

When an issue is reported, we go through a specific, formal process in which the issue is discussed with the development engineers and a priority assigned. Once we can determine the cause of the problem, the code changes must be made in development, tested, and verified. Finally, they are assigned to a release and pushed into production.

Since this process does take some time, we are unable to give a specific date at this time when the change would be made. This will be determined during the development process, as we said.

We understand and appreciate your concerns. That we are unable to give a specific date before this issue has gone through the development process does not mean that we take it lightly. We do appreciate your taking the time to let us know how important this issue is for you though.

It's now been 48 weeks and nothing has changed. So I guess if it's to be it's up to me.

7 Olympic Inspirations For Pastors

The 2012 Olympic Games are now finished. Mary Kay and I were two of the 210 million Americans who watched on NBC. We watched together every night and are now wondering what else we ever did with the television in August. Last Sunday morning at breakfast I reflected on the previous two weeks and came up with the following 7 inspirations for pastors. I'm sure these encouragements would be good for any profession, but since I'm a pastor I will write for my brothers and sisters in ministry.

Olympic Inspiration #1: The little changes make the BIG difference. These top notch athletes in every field were no longer working on getting the basics down pat. The elite do whatever they do so often and so well that the difference between the winners and the rest are the small, little things. These subtle differences are neither easy to know about nor easy to execute. I'm wondering what are the little things in my own pastoral ministry that could take me to the next level of effectiveness?

Olympic Inspiration #2: Even individual winners have a coach and a team. None of the celebrated gold medalists accomplish their feat of athletic leadership by themselves. The most medaled Michael Phelps has Bob Bowman. America's newest gymnast sweetheart, Gabby Douglas, has Liang Chow. Even the all-star U.S. men's basketball team has "drunk as a skunk" Mike Krzyzewski. Without a coach, how will the pastor figure out the little changes needed in Olympic Inspiration #1? As a church planter, this is the thing I miss the most from my days working for a mega-church: working with a coach and a team of other ministry professionals. I do my best to make up for it with other pastor mentors, online pastor friends and local pastor associations. I'd love to hear in the comments below what you are doing to get the coaching you need.

Olympic Inspiration #3: Don't celebrate with hubris. Usain Bolt hurt his own image by his endless bragging of being a "living legend."  Then he disrespected nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis : "Lewis, nobody remembers who he is."  There is no question that Bolt is the fastest man alive today just like Carl Lewis was in his day.  There's also no question that in the future there will be somebody else even faster.  One might think that pastors don't need this reminder, but I've met plenty who think they are pretty impressive stuff.  Arrogance and pastoring - well really, arrogance and anything - don't mix well together.

3 Waypoints of My Freedom in Christ [Sermon Notes]

It's easy to talk about our freedom in Christ without stopping to consider its significance.  In this sermon post we'll stop at three waypoints of our Christian freedom journey to fullytake in the view of liberty.  Along the way we'll consider the loyalty, love and redemption of our heavenly Father.

Every week I publish my sermon notes so that you may read them for yourselves.  For my parishioners, this could be a good review from the weekend before.  And it gives you a chance to see what I intended to say!  For other pastors and ministers, feel free to borrow and use any of this material.  I'd love for God to be glorified by you incorporating these notes into your own worship.

Summer Singles Part 11: "Sealed With A Sandal" - 08.12.12 

Scripture:  Ruth 4:4-9 / Song: “Redeemer” by Nicole Mullen

Click to Listen!

Scrub forward to the 1 hour 4 minute mark to hear the sermon.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.

Intro: Today we consider the story of Ruth and Boaz - what may be the most romantic story in the Bible! A story of loyalty and love-and ultimately a beautiful illustration of the care God provides for us, His beloved! 

Today’s Single: If I am a Christ-follower, I have been  _REDEEMED_.

This concept of redemption is crucial to our understanding of our relationship to God. Sadly, many misunderstand it. It is one of the cornerstones of our faith.  The word “redeem” or “redemption” is mentioned 167 times in the (ESV) Bible. The Apostle Paul states:

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” Ephesians 1:7 ESV

Meaning of Redemption - “the purchase back of something that has been lost by the payment of a ransom.” - Easton’s Bible Dictionary. 

As we read through the story of Ruth - a story of loyalty from Ruth to Naomi, we also see shades of God’s loyalty toward us.  As we read about the romance of Ruth and Boaz, we see the foretelling of God’s love for us.  And as we read of the redemption of the family land, we also see the transaction that Christ paid for our own freedom.  Let’s look at each part of this love story together!

#21: Redemption [Podcast]

In this episode I talk about redemption, what it is and how it should impact us.  We have stories of redemption, both in and out of the church. Catch up with Mary Kay and me and hear about the changes I've made in my online security.

Click to Listen!

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.

Here's what I have lined up for you this week:

This Weekend At CR: Ruth, Boaz, Magnets and Redemption

Mark at work on the podcast.

Good Friday morning to you Church Requel! I pray that this has been a good week for you, filled with God's love and grace. This is your weekly "What's Happening at CR" post. Read it, pray for it, and share it with your friends.

This Sunday our Summer Singles Sermon Series takes us to the most romantic story in the Bible: Ruth and Boaz. We will learn that this is more than just a love story. It's also a story of loyalty and redemption. I remember even as a child I would often read this in the Old Testament. Read it for yourself! It's a mere 4 chapters long.

Children's Readers Theater. Speaking of children reading, our own kiddos will read to us the story of David and Goliath on August 26th. I will be passing out the reading assignments this Sunday night to give the children a full two weeks to practice their verses. They don't have to memorize them. But they should be familiar enough with their verses to be able to read dramatically. At this time we have 7 children signed up: Kailey, Paityn, Grayden, Sicily, Anna, Dylan, and Drew. If you have a child who wants to be included, but is not on this list, contact me right away. Also let me know if you won't be at CR Sunday so I can send you your child's reading assignment. This should be a lot of fun. Plan on inviting friends and family and bringing your cameras!

Magnetic Children's Sermon. We continue to focus on our precious young ones this weekend with a children's sermon. We'll talk about the importance of loyalty in our relationships. You know how we LOVE object lessons in our kid's talks, and this week will be no exception. I don't want to give it all away, but let's just say the talk will be "magnetic!" Make sure your children are there for the fun and the chance to be up close and personal with yours truly.

Lincoln is off the vent!

Answered Prayers For Lincoln! You have been so faithful in praying for Lincoln Bohnke. Please don't stop now. There is so much good news to report. As we told you last week, Lincoln is off the ventilator. He is now on the CPAP machine, and his oxygen is down to 28%. He may be off the CPAP next week. Even more good news, this week he began sucking from a bottle. This is incredibly positive news because it requires him to manage his breathing, sucking and swallowing. Katie and Dan are hoping for a Thanksgiving homecoming! If you haven't gone there recently, I encourage you to encourage the family on their Caring Bridge site.

Pray for Marci, Dick and Steve. Marci has been suffering from severe sciatica pain. She has missed the last couple CR services as a result. She is a real trooper and continues to publish our weekly printed programs for Church Requel. Give her a call or send her a card. I know she misses you. Dick continues recovering from triple bypass surgery. He celebrated another birthday last week. He's made it to one CR service since surgery, but often by the time Sunday night comes, he's exhausted from his recovery regimen. Pray that he can soon become a regular at CR again. Finally pray for Steve, who has 2 problems with his leg. One is a vascular problem, which he hopes to have corrected soon. (He has an appointment.) The other problem is great pain in his knee, which only hurts when he moves. Hmmm. Obviously he is not as mobile as he'd like to be. Knee surgery looks likely in his future.

I love that we are a Bible believing, faith practicing, praying, joyous, partying church! Your love for one another and for Christ is getting attention. As the writer to the Hebrews wrote to his or her audience, so I write to you: "So let's do it - full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:22-25 MSG).

With great affection, Pastor Mark

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Church Ministry And Servant Entrepreneurs

Sheri and her husband are doing ok for themselves now, but Sheri remembers leaner times. She remembers being hungry as a child. She remembers struggling to feed her own children as a young mother. After hearing a sermon on Christian purpose and Christ's calling, Sheri contacted me about feeding the hungry.  Three months later our church of 40 people took full turkey meals to 100 families in our community.

How does such a little church do such mighty things for Christ? First and foremost is because of the impressive power of God's Spirit moving among His people. Second, and the subject of this article, our church has accomplished great things for Christ because of the freedom granted for our members to serve in unique and entrepreneur ministries.

 

What is an entrepreneur ministry? It's a service project or ongoing ministry that people in our congregation come up with on their own. Servant entrepreneurs consider their own experiences, talents, skills, and connections and then ask God to show them how they might serve Christ. It's service that is planned from the bottom up rather than the top down. 

Online Hacking Impacts My Backups and Passwords

Online security is no longer someone else's problem.  With the proliferation of online services combined with often lax security measures, pastors should be aware of and prepared for the protection of his work and the privacy of his church.  In this post I'd like to share with you my own response to the recent acceleration of online security threats.

First, the news.  This past Friday, Mat Honan, a writer for Wired Magazine, was hacked hard. He tells the story as he experienced it: playing with his daughter, discovering his iPhone went dead, trying to recover his phone by plugging it into his MacBook, watching in horror as his laptop also fades to a gray screen.  He grabs his iPad only to see that it had been reset too.  He had been hacked and lost control not only of his devices, but also of all his online services like iCloud, Gmail, and Twitter.  His laptop, along with all the photos of his one-year old daughter, had been remotely wiped.  

On Monday evening, Mat wrote for Wired Gadget Lab:

In many ways, this was all my fault. My accounts were daisy-chained together. Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter... Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn’t have had to worry about losing more than a year’s worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and e-mails that I had stored in no other location. Those security lapses are my fault, and I deeply, deeply regret them.

Does this frighten you as much as it does me?  The news is still developing. The hackers allegedly contacted Apple Care pretending to be Mat.  Armed with the 4 last digits of Mat's credit card - obtained from Amazon - Apple sent out a new password to Mat's iCloud account. My purpose in writing this is not to disparage online services provided by Amazon and Apple.  Surely there will be some major security changes coming from these and other companies.

Here's the question people should be asking themselves today - and that includes pastors: What am I doing to prevent Mat's nightmare from becoming my nightmare? What horrified me so much as I was reading Mat's story was how easily his story could have been mine.  Mat's security lapses, sadly, are also my own.  Just because it has been so easy - and because of my own laziness - I have used mostly the same password and username combination in so many different online places.  "Who would ever want to hack me?" I've asked.  I'm sure Mat thought the same.  

Pastor, consider not only your own personal data that might be at risk, but also the data that could involve your parishioners.  What about your journals?  Your church's financial records?  Your own preparation for this Sunday's sermon?  What would your life look like if you were hacked hard?  How would your congregation respond to you if their private information became public?  If ever there was a time, pastor, when you need to "be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves," this is that time!

Playing With Seduction [Sermon Notes]

The Biblical character of Samson played with seduction. He was a mighty warrior of God, a Nazarite who had been dedicated to the Lord’s work from birth.  He knew God’s law and he was disciplined in body, mind and soul. In today’s terms, we’d call him a super Christ-follower.  He’d be the kind of guy that all of us would want to imitate! Sadly, when we arrive at Judges 16 we discover him sleeping with prostitutes.  And we find him playing seduction games with Delilah - an evil woman willing to sell him out for a few pieces of silver.  He knew this! Yet he still played the seduction games with her. We also know the dangers of seduction, yet we too sometimes play games with sin.

Every week I publish my sermon notes so that you may read them for yourselves.  For my parishioners, this could be a good review from the weekend before.  And it gives you a chance to see what I intended to say!  For other pastors and ministers, feel free to borrow and use any of this material.  I'd love for God to be glorified by you incorporating these notes into your own worship.

Summer Singles Part 10: "Playing With Seduction" 08.05.12

Scripture:  Judges 16:15-19 NIV / Follow the YouVersion LIVE Event Notes

Listen to this week's CR Sermon & Podcast (fast forward to the one hour to listen to sermon):

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Today’s Single: I must not ___PLAY GAMES WITH SIN___.
You might think this is so simple and so obvious that it doesn’t even need to be taught. However, too many of us are like Samson.  We know better. We are Christ-followers. But we play games with sin.  Like Samson, we think because of God’s goodness and God’s grace that we can play with sin and not have it hurt us. Or that in the long run it won’t matter.  Nothing could be more false. Sin - doing what doesn’t please God or not doing what does please Him - is dangerous and demands we keep a border around it - a safety zone for our souls. Today we must know these dangers: sin will tempt us, compromise us, force us into self-defeating secrecy, and ultimately kill us.

#020: Temptation [Podcast]

In this episode I talk about Temptation, what it is and how we should handle it.  We consider temptation from a Biblical spiritual perspective as well as physical and psychological.

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Here's what I have lined up for you this week:

This Weekend at CR: Playing With Seduction

Church Requel Picnic, July 28, 2012

My, Church Requel, how you've grown! This is the photo from our picnic this past Saturday. I LOVE this picture! Diana posted a link to over a hundred photos up on our Facebook page. For those who don't have Facebook we hope to get the photos posted on our website soon.

Hi everyone. This is Pastor Mark with your weekly "What's Happening" blog post. I hope this has been a good week for you. The week has been a whirlwind for me. I spent the first couple of days with my grandson Grayden. Then, on Wednesday, Mary Kay and I celebrated my sister Kimberly's 49th birthday at a Villa in Gervasi Vineyard in Canton, Ohio. The photo below right is another favorite of my dad, brother, sister and me taken at dinner Wednesday night.

Dad, Kimberly, Todd, and Mark

Playing With Seduction. The whirlwind continues with another big weekend at Church Requel Sunday night. Brandi Walker will be back leading our worship and praise songs. (Don't you just love it when she leads us?) Our teaching theme will focus on the story of Samson and Delilah. We will meet 4 different personalities of Sin. The conclusion of the evening will feature a music video of the song, "Beautiful Things" by Gungor. Of all the videos we've ever shown at CR, I think this one is my all time favorite! Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to miss this Sunday. Want a head start?  Here is the link to the YouVersion sermon notes. 

Children's Readers Theater on August 26th. Our elementary kiddos will be reading our Scripture reading on the story of David and Goliath the last Sunday in August. What is a Reader's Theater you ask? Each child will read one verse at a time in as dramatic a form as possible. We anticipate that each child will have 2 to 4 verses depending on how many sign up. We'll give out the verse assignments by August 12th so your children will have plenty of time to practice. Please let me know if your child wants to participate. Should be way cool!

New Worship Team Forming. Brandi Walker has asked for others to join her monthly worship leadership. Brandi has told me she loves leading, but knows there are others who can sing or play a musical instrument. If you would be interested in being a part of this new team, talk to Brandi or Pastor Steve. Thanks Brandi!

I hope you have a GREAT weekend. And I hope you can finish your weekend with your Church Requel family Sunday night. It's always a party at CR when we celebrate Christ's grace and love! With great affection, Pastor Mark

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Making Church A Summer Attraction - Fun, Family, Focus

For most of us summer is for barbeques, for vacation, for getting away from the routine, for family and friends. For most pastors, summers also means church doldrums. Let's face the truth that church attendance usually drops in the summer months.  Our competition is not another church or pastor, but everything else that is going on in the summer months.

This year at Church Requel we decided to go with the flow.  No, we didn't shut down and tell people to come back in the fall.  We did decide to make the most of the summer trend.  We did our best to turn church into a summer attraction.  We did this with fun, family and focus.

We are having fun at Church Requel this summer!  Each weekend we've celebrated something. A birthday. A balloon launch. A baptism. Our only limitation has been our imagination.  We talk about the Sunday night party that happens every week at Church Requel.  People come early and stay late because of the festive atmosphere.

We are enjoying and becoming our own family.  More of us are single than are married.  This wasn't intentional on our part. It just seems to be the way it's worked out.  We like to say that we are a motley crew of misfits. Somehow, though, we've found a place where we all do fit together - in God's family at CR. Each week this summer - after our singing time and before our communion time - we greet one another.  That sounds typical enough, but doesn't begin to describe what happens.  We've been playing the song "Centerfield" by John Fogerty as part of our Summer Singles baseball theme. When the music comes on, people don't just shake hands with someone next to them.  They get out of their seats, into the aisles, and they hug just about everyone they can.  I usually have to stop it after two to three minutes or they would just do it all night.  They have become a family.

We are focused in our teaching.  At the beginning of the summer I explained our summer singles theme.  Each Sunday night we would have a single sermon - not connected with another sermon.  We are not in a summer series of sermons.  I told our congregation: "If you miss one, come back the next weekend.  You won't be behind."  Each sermon has one single big idea, which I give away right at the beginning of the talk.  I give them big ideas focused on encouraging their Christian faith.  I tell them lots of stories - personal stories, Bible stories, their stories.  They listen with amazing focus! Everyone likes a good story.  The stories themselves always tie back in to the big idea: the focused, single theme of the night.

Our summer has not suffered as much of a decline as we have seen in the past. Our morale is better than ever.  As best as we could accomplish, we have turned Church Requel into a summer destination on Sunday nights. We will be going into our back-to-school, back-to-routine in better shape than ever. But I don't think we'll go back to any kind of a routine at church.  Unless that routine happens to include fun, family, and focus!

3 Lessons Learned From Child Master Teacher

My grandson, Grayden, at Natural History Museum

I'm exhausted this morning. And I have a smile on my face. The past two days I've been studying at the feet of a master teacher: my oldest grandson, Grayden. We enjoyed a day at the Cleveland Natural History Museum, watched the movie Brave, ate at a Chinese restaurant we picked at random off my smart phone, read books together, ate a picnic lunch together, and played a never ending game of Pretend, where I was always the bad guy.

Jesus taught, "Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). I am most grateful for these past couple of days. In my dedication to work this summer, I had almost forgotten to be like a little child. Grayden reminded me of 3 important "becoming child-like" lessons.

The universe is wondrous to Grayden

#1 - The Lesson of Wonder. Everything is wondrous to a child. Every exhibit we saw at the Natural History Museum held endless fascination for Grayden. He would point, stare, read, talk, and ask questions. I had forgotten the wonder of our world around us. The largeness of the universe. The smallness of cellular biology. The grandness of the Earth's tetonic plates. The infinitesimalness of Earth compared to other planets, the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe! Life is so amazing and is deserving of my continuous fascination. When did I become such a big deal that I lost the wonder of God's creation?