Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

This Week at CR: Toxic Religion

Steve begins work on the tech booth.

Hello Church Requel!

When you show up for church Sunday morning you'll see another big change.  Pastor Steve has been hard at work this week beginning construction of the tech booth. When finished in another week or two, our tech team will be able to sit high and centered working the sound, video, and computer technologies that we use every week during our worship experiences. Pictured at the right you can see Steve standing on the new floor of the tech booth, about the same height as the back of the back pew.

Sunday morning we will have another surprise announcement - but this I cannot write about here. Otherwise it would not be a surprise. I can say that it's a big deal. And it's an idea that comes not from me, but from two of our members. I don't think I've ever been more proud of our church. I can't wait for Sunday. You won't want to miss!

I can tell you that our Toxic sermon series will wrap up this Sunday with the "Toxic Religion" talk. Many of you have told me that this has been one of the most practical and helpful series of talks we've ever had at Church Requel.  I hope this last talk will wrap it up well. I'm really looking forward to Sunday morning.

Church Requel begins at 11am Sunday at the Point of Grace, 2 Marion Avenue, at the corner of Marion and Park Avenue West in Mansfield. I hope you can come and bring your friends with you!

#054: Toxic Words [Podcast]

In this week's podcast we talk about how to handle toxic words in our lives - words others say to us as well as words we repeat to ourselves. I also talk about this past week's CR worship experience, including celebrating a young Kindergardener, who makes a public confession of faith.

Click to Listen!

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

Here are links to the things mentioned in this week's CR Podcast:

• More information about the portable baptistry can be found here.
• Andy Stanley's leadership podcast can be found here.
• The Catalyst Leaders' podcast can be found here.
• The Beyond Pod podcast app can be found here.
• The Apple Podcast app can be found here.
• The Instacast podcast app can be found here.

Music for this week's Church Requel Audio Podcast is "Words" by Hawk Nelson.

Prayer For Those With Hatred To Boston Bomber

I wrote this last Wednesday, two days after the bombing at the Boston Marathon, for publication in this past Saturday's News Journal.

I am mad. Angry beyond reason. The evil and cowardly bombing of the Boston Marathon chews my guts inside out. The photo of the smiling eight-year-old victim, Martin Richard, reminds me eerily of my own eight-year-old grandson. Martin was described by his school as a “kind, caring, and loving young boy who had great excitement for learning.” He stood at the finish line of the Boston Marathon to celebrate the achievement of others. And now, because of the despicable act of another, Martin is dead while his mother and sister fight for their lives.

I am mad. Angry beyond reason. The tragedy in Boston is the latest in a long string of senseless, murderous acts of terror, which now includes the innocent victims of children. How should a pastor, believing in a loving and merciful God, respond to such senseless evil? 

I am mad. Angry beyond reason. How should we pray when our own honest emotions of grief and outrage collide with our Christian values of love and mercy? Would you like to hear my prayer for those who are responsible for spilling the blood of our innocent children? “I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies.” Before you condemn me for hate speech, consider that this is actually a model prayer found in Psalm 139:22.

Christians may erroneously think that their faith takes hatred off the table. Nothing could be further from the truth. The psalms of David in the Bible, particularly, provide us a roadmap when we are mad and angry beyond reason. “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?” (Psalm 139:21) Another psalm actually commands those who love God to hate evil: “O you who love the LORD, hate evil!” (Psalm 97:10) 

It’s ok to hate evil and evildoers in life. In fact, the Apostle Paul explains to us how to handle this hatred. “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9) The kind of love that ignores evil isn’t sincere. It’s fake. You want to be the worst kind of hypocrite? Pretend like you don’t hate the bomber who murdered Martin Richard. I can hear some of you arguing that we shouldn’t hate the person, just the evil act. Poppycock! Sincere love hates what is evil and nothing could be more evil than the person who fills a pressure cooker with nails and ball bearings and sets it to explode in the midst of a crowd of innocents.

Christianity is not about nice. It’s not about polite. Are you mad? Angry beyond reason? Admit it to God and to one another. Let our love be sincere. Let’s hate what is evil. But let’s not stay here. Let’s not allow our own honest hatred to become our own cesspool of revenge. We have to take the Apostle Paul’s next step: “Cling to what is good.” 

God is good. He made us to be good. He made us to change the world for good. At times like this it’s hard. Next to impossible. That’s why Paul uses the verb, “Cling.” Hold tightly.  Your hands may be cramping with the hatred welling up inside you, but you grip tightly to the good! Don’t let go!

How do we hang on to the good in the midst of such devastating evil? Not on our own. Not without God’s help. This is why David’s prayer of hatred for his enemies in Psalm 139 takes a sudden and unexpected turn at the end. Many of you know this verse, but not as the way it should be known - as the conclusion of the hate prayer. 

“Search me, O God, and know my heart... see if there is any offensive way in me.”

I am mad. Angry beyond reason. Help me Lord to hate evil as perfectly as You do. Help me to see the evil even within me. Take my imperfect hatred and replace it with Your perfect love.

This Weekend at CR: Toxic Words

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

This has been a good week as we have made our plans for a meaningful worship experience Sunday morning. As you can see from the picture above, our theme Sunday will be "Toxic Words." This may be one of the most important weekends to attend Church Requel. You've probably heard that "stick and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Not true! Words are powerful. They have the power to heal or the power to hurt. Words can build us up or they can be TOXIC to us. 

To help us fully grasp the power of words, many folks from CR have been working and preparing:

• Pastor Steve will have a very special children's sermon. We'll discover that words are like toothpaste - once they're out it's hard to put it back.
• Brandi and Haleigh will be leading our worship singing together. Brandi will also sing the current musical hit, "Words," and with the magic of the movies, she'll be backed up by Hank Nelson and his band.
• Speaking of videos, Toxic Man will be back Sunday. Wearing a yellow toxic suit everywhere subjects him to taunting words like "Banana Boy."
• Randy will read to us the words of Jesus about the power of words from Matthew 12:33-37.
• In our teaching time we'll hear words of wisdom about the words we hear and speak. We'll learn the importance of guarding our heart against toxic words as well as the importance of speaking life-giving words to others and to ourselves.
• We've posted an early version of the Toxic Words sermon notes on YouVersion. I love how you are bringing your mobile devices - tablets and smartphones - to CR every Sunday!

Church Requel begins at 11am Sunday at the Point of Grace, 2 Marion Avenue, at the corner of Marion and Park Avenue West in Mansfield. I hope you can come and bring your friends with you!

053: Game Night [Podcast]

This week on the podcast we go to both ends of the emotional spectrum. I talk about the fun of game night last Friday. On a personal note I talk about my plans to attend my 8th GOBA - the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure in June. I also share an audio preview of my Saturday News Journal Viewpoint essay responding to the Boston Marathon bombing. Finally I playback last Sunday's sermon, "Toxic Relationships." 

Click to Listen!

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

Music on this week's podcast is "We Go Together" by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the Grease Soundtrack album.

This Weekend at CR: Toxic Relationships

Hi everyone! Pastor Mark here with your weekly Church Requel electronic newsletter all about the whos, the whats, the wheres and the whys behind a growing small church we call Church Requel at the Point of Grace. Why is this coming to you on Saturday instead of Friday, you ask? Let's all take a multiple choice quiz and see if we can figure out why this is!

A) Pastor Mark wanted people to wonder if he had forgotten to include them in the weekly distribution of this informal and informational post. (Ok, be honest... did you wonder? Just a little?)

B) Pastor Mark accidentally stepped through a black hole vortex that transported him mysteriously through time and space delivering him to Saturday on Friday morning.

C) Pastor Mark figured that if he waited until Saturday he could include some cool photos from the game night the evening before.

D) Pastor Mark is just really behind and didn't get to writing the weekly newsletter until Saturday.

All those of you who guessed "D" are the winners.  What do you win? The privilege of taking care of all those who hoped it was "B"! At least you know we're not taking ourselves too seriously here at CR! And yes, we are still having fun together with this new church.

Game Night Last Night. Speaking of fun, we sure had fun together last night at the Spring Fling Game Night. Many thanks go out to Diana, Sara and Rachel for planning such an enjoyable evening for our church family. We played relay races up in the church sanctuary with big kids and little kids alike. We played a round of Sardines and once found all of us hiding together in Paul's big closet in the Chome. I learned that no matter how hard I work at my exercise program that the youngsters always outlast me in the dodgeball-type game they play called "Gau Gau". I also learned that the big kids like to play Upwords, but they don't like to keep score. (I still think I might have won... we'll never really know now for sure. Ha!)

The snacks were delicious and the fellowship sweet. I'll make sure to watch for the next game night - probably sometime in June. Here are a few pics from our fun time last evening. I'm sure Diana will have a whole bunch up on our Facebook page later tonight. She'll also probably have at least one embarassing video of me in the relay races. (Click on any of these small pics to see the full image.)

Sunday Morning - Toxic Relationships. We've been in the Toxic sermon series now for a couple weeks. We began by talking about toxic thoughts - and that we need to replace our toxic thoughts with God's truth.  This week we'll talk about one of the areas where some of us struggle the most - with other people who poison our lives with the controlling nature, with their own negative outlook, or with their temptations. I encourage you to come tomorrow morning and to bring a friend with you!

In other news...

Listen to the Podcast. Each week I publish an audio version of our story. I tell you the behind-the-scenes stories that could never be printed. If you want to be an insider at Church Requel, this is the place to go. Here is the latest podcast put up earlier this morning! If you have a smart phone I suggest you download a podcast app - there are many free choices available. Then search for "Church Requel Audio Podcast." If you download the app and then subscribe to the CR podcast, you won't have to remember. It will download to your phone automatically each week.

Women's Bible Study. Our ladies are really enjoying the teachings of Beth Moore every other Wednesday night.  Wednesday, April 24th, the glory gals will meet again at the Pierce's home at 6:30. They will continue their book study, "Esther: It's Tough Being A Woman." Food, fellowship, fun. What's not to love? 

Isn't this the finest group of people you ever saw?

Our Next Neighborhood Meal - May 4th. We love serving our neighbors, don't we? Our next turn to cook and serve will come on Saturday May 4th. Sheri Nichols will lead the charge for us. We're still figuring out what the menu will be, so stay tuned. But we know we could use cans of fruit, if you want to start bringing food on Sundays. Of course on May 4th we'll need lots of volunteers and lots of desserts. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. The hungry will be fed at 5pm.

You are all doing such a great job of becoming the body of Christ. You love being together, working together, serving together, worshiping together, praying together, and sometimes just having fun together. It's a great pleasure being your pastor!

See you tomorrow at the Point of Grace! Pastor Mark

#052: Toxic Influences [Podcast]

This week I talk about the week after Easter and the fun involved in keeping the excitement level high. We also include the second sermon in the Toxic series, "Toxic Influences."

Click to Listen!

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

Music for this week's podcast is "Rise Up and Praise Him" by Paul Baloche.

This Weekend at CR: New Members, Pew Bibles, and Guest Singers! Oh My!

Hi everyone! Pastor Mark here with this week's most AWESOME blog post about all of the FANTASTIC things happening at Church Requel this Sunday.

Now I know some of you may be skeptical. It's true that I tend to be overly excited about everything at CR. But really, you have to read this post. This week is incredible! You'll be so enthused about your church!

Five New Members! First of all the church is growing! Jack, both Sheri's, Sara and Marilyn have all decided to make Church Requel their home church! YAY! We'll celebrate with them Sunday morning. You won't want to miss the opportunity to welcome them aboard the good ship, Requel!

Guest Singers! My good friends, Roc and Kim Marietta, will join me as our praise team Sunday. The three of us (along with Sue) sang together for five years. Those were such happy times. I looked forward to each and every opportunity. Sunday we're singing together again - and we've chosen 3 songs that we loved then and that you still love now: "Majestic," "Rise Up And Praise Him," and "Open The Eyes of My Heart." We practiced together last night at the Point of Grace until almost 11pm. Paul couldn't resist and came over from the Chome and listened too. Thanks Roc and Kim for being such good friends - both of mine and Church Requel's!

Also singing Sunday morning will be my niece, Christy Anne Pierce. It's been over a year since Christy's beautiful soprano voice graced CR, so some of you newer folks may not have heard her before. I know I'm biased, but you are in for such a treat! A few years ago at the Great Ohio Bicycle Advenure Christy sang for the 3,000 cyclists. They loved her so much they gave her a free pass to next year's GOBA! Christy will be singing one of our most popular songs - it's played all the time on KLOVE. Perhaps you've heard it: "Not For A Moment" by Meredith Andrews. I love the lyrics, because it's a theme we repeat often here at CR: "Not for a moment will You forsake me!"

We received enough NIV Bibles to put 2 in every pew!

Kids Pass Out Pew Bibles! This weekend will be the big reveal for our kiddos, who have been working so hard on their Parable of the Talents exercise. Some of our kids took $10 and turned it into more than $50! With the help of a local businessman, who matched the children's offerings, we had enough to purchase the pew Bibles.

You should have seen it when the UPS truck pulled up. The delivery guy had to use a hand cart because the boxes were so heavy!

I've asked Mike and Lisa Gilbert to help me out with the Children's sermon Sunday morning. They have wrapped each of these gigantic boxes, which will be stacked mysteriously up front Sunday morning. Our kids (big kids and little ones alike) will learn that we can't outgive God. He matches our little bit of faith with His gigantic resources!

Oh, one more cool thing about the kid's sermon - we've received TWO MORE bean bag chairs! Our eclectic collection of kid's seating is growing almost as fast as the number of kids, who are coming to Church Requel! If you have access to a bean bag chair, please donate it! We still need more!

#051: Glorious Day [Podcast]

Easter Sunday was certainly a glorious day at Church Requel. Get caught up with all the great things happening at Church Requel by listening to episode 51. Pastor Mark talks about the behind-the-scenes stories behind this past weekend along with plans for upcoming Sundays. Also included in this podcast is the sermon from Easter Sunday: "Toxic Thoughts."

Click to Listen!

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

Music for this week's podcast is "Happy Day" by Tim Hughes.