Hi everyone! Pastor Mark here with your weekly "what's happening" blog post. I'm writing you a day earlier than normal because I want to remind you about tomorrow's Good Friday service.
Good Friday Service at Noon. We are hosting all the downtown churches for a traditional Good Friday service. Pastor Paul Lintern and I have worked to combine the new (multi-media) with the old (pipe organ) for this worship experience, when we remember Jesus' ultimate sacrifice for us. We have programmed the service to end slightly before 1pm, for those of you who have a lunchtime deadline.
New "Toxic" Sermon Series begins Easter morning. We also have big plans for our Easter service on Sunday morning at Church Requel. Cindy and Trish will be joining me on the praise team. We will be singing some celebration-oriented, contemporary songs about Jesus' resurrection. You'd have to be literally dead not be inspired by the music! Steve will lead our prayer and communion time. Nancy will read our Scripture about the Emmaus Road encounter.
I will be starting our new series, "Toxic," with an emphasis Sunday on our thought life. Many of us suffer from negative, fearful, discontented and critical thoughts - otherwise known as "stinkin' thinkin'." The Bible teaches us that as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. It really is our thoughts that count. Resurrection Sunday really should make a difference in how we think about everything! We'll talk about how to identify and reject our toxic thoughts, and then how to replace them with God's truth.
This is just the first in a 5-sermon series and I'm hoping that it will be a great introduction to the weeks to come. This will be an AWESOME OPPORTUNITY to invite your friends and family to come and see what goes on at Church Requel!
In Other News...
Five New Members. We had a wonderful Saturday "Belong Class" last weekend. Five people made new commitments to join our fellowship. They are Jack and Sheri Nichols, Sara Scott, Sheri Shick, and Marilyn Baumann. We will officially welcome them all into our church on April 7th. In the meantime, let them know how very glad we are that they've made our church their home.
Game Night on April 12th. Our party planners, Diana Devolder, Sara Scott and Paul Lintern, are planning a Spring Fling Game Night to be held on Friday, April 12th at 7pm. Mark your calendars and plan to bring a snack and/or 2 liters of pop along with your favorite game to share. It promises to be an evening of fellowship and fun with your Church Requel friends!!
Listen to this week's podcast. Every week I record a podcast. What's a podcast, you ask? It's just an audio letter. I think of it as a conversation that I have each week with all of you - the parishioners of Church Requel. You'll hear a lot of the back story of what goes on at CR behind the scenes, things we probably would never publish or print. If you have a smart phone or tablet, I'd recommend getting a podcast app. Most are free. Then, whenever we publish the podcast it will automatically download to your mobile device. You also can listen to the prior week's sermon at the end of every podcast. It's a great way to reinforce the things you're learning on the weekends. Here's a link to this past week's edition - Podcast #50: Be Happy Do Good!
I love, love, love how our church is growing. New location. New people. New members. And this weekend, a brand new sermon series! If you receive this newsletter every week, but haven't been to Church Requel yet... or in a long while... what are you waiting for? Come join us this weekend for a grand celebration! Hope to see you all soon! With great love and affection, Pastor Mark
