Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

This Week at CR: KidsMin Celebration

Good morning Church Requel!

I hope this Friday morning finds you well - no small assumption with Stephanie recovering from surgery this week and Lisa anticipating surgery next week. Our prayers go out to both ladies this morning. 

This Sunday morning at Church Requel we will celebrate the holiday weekend with celebratory, upbeat music combined with a focus on our new KidsMin launch the following week. Cindy and I will be leading you in 3 CR favorite songs: "Only A God Like You," "Day By Day," and "You Are The Way." We've added one new song to the worship song playlist for this weekend: "Praise Like Fireworks" by Rend Collective Agreement. I listened to this song many times as I was bicycling on vacation a couple weeks ago. I can't wait for you to sing it with me!

The focus for this weekend at Church Requel will be our new KidsMin children's ministry. I hope you are looking forward to this as much as I am. Our leadership team has been working toward this day all summer long. Back in June we made the decision that our next giant step forward would be a step toward our children. We've purchased a 3-year curriculum, which will help our teachers and children explore the whole Word of God. We've also hired Diana to lead our KidsMin children's ministry.

If you know Diana, you know that she has shifted into overdrive to launch with as great an impact as possible. She's been talking to parents and potential teachers and assistants. If you and Diana haven't talked yet, send her a quick email and I promise she'll respond lickety split!

Sunday we'll be calling all our children up front to tell them about the changes they will be seeing at Church Requel. If you have an important child or grandchild in your life, please bring them with you Sunday. They'll hear about the new lessons they will be enjoying and will even be singing and dancing to one of the new songs. Our kiddos also put together an really cute, homemade video to show you.

After our talk Sunday morning, I plan to bring Diana up front so we might pray for her and dedicate her to this new challenge in her life. I hope you will make Sunday morning at Church Requel a priority.

Record Attendance at Picnic. Last Sunday's 3rd annual Church Requel Summer Picnic was a huge success. What fun! The food was abundant, the conversations flowing, and the fun overflowing! I enjoyed leading the relay games for our kiddos. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this photo (above). It shows just how much we've grown over the last few months. Also notice my granddaughter, Violet, at the bottom of the slide. Clearly she is not a "shrinking" Violet! Ha!

You Make Me Crazy! Labor Day weekend is also a time to look forward to some of our other awesome Church Requel opportunities coming this Fall. I'm really excited to announce our new sermon series, You Make Me Crazy, which will begin September 8th and run three months through November 17. If you've ever said or thought "You make me crazy!" - and who among us hasn't? - then this is a sermon series you won't want to miss. We'll make an extended study of the great advice the Bible provides us about our relationships.

Here are the sermon titles and schedule for You Make Me Crazy:

• September 8th - "Three Keys To Peace in Relationships
• September 15th - "Three More Keys To Peace in Relationships
• September 22nd - "Who's Pushing Your Buttons?"
• September 29th - "Five Ways To Disarm Your Button Pushers"
• October 6th - "Boundaries and Your Relationships"
• October 13th - "Taking The Initiative To Resolve Conflict"
• October 20th - "Resolving Conflict - 7 Biblical Steps"
• October 27th - "Why People Pleasing Is A Trap"
• November 3rd - "Escaping The People-Pleaser Trap"
• November 10th and 17th - "Keeping The Crazy Makers From Making You Crazy"

As you can see, this will be a very applicable and practical sermon series that can help all of us - yours truly included! Let's not keep this sermon series a secret. Tell everyone you know about it and invite them to come with you to Church Requel. To help you do this we'll give you promotional brochures this Sunday, which you can share with your family and friends. I'm praying that this Fall will be a season of spiritual, emotional and numerical growth for our CR congregation.

New Women's Bible Study. This Fall we also welcome a brand new Beth Moore-led Bible Study, Living Beyond Yourself.  We have offered other Beth Moore DVD studies in the past and always with a great reception. This will be no exception. Known for presenting Scripture in living color, Beth Moore will teach from the Book of Galatians. Beth walks participants through each gift of the Spirit and encourages women to know the freedom of the Spirit-led life. Talk or write to Mary Kay Pierce for more details. All women are welcome. The cost of the study workbook is $16. Financial help is available to those who need it.

There's never a lack of great opportunities at Church Requel. I'm excited to see how God is blessing us as we serve His Kingdom here in Mansfield, Ohio. I know you are excited too. I can't wait to see you all this Sunday morning. Come to the celebration. Bring someone new to party with you. We have the greatest good news possible - good news worth the best party we can throw!

Love you all much! Pastor Mark

P.S. I had the privilege to write the News Journal Viewpoint article in this Saturday morning's paper. Make sure you check it out!

Life Without Limits [Video Sermon]

On Sunday, August 25th, I wrapped up the Christian ID sermon series by talking about our last two fingerprints in Christ: We are totally forgiven and are fully capable. I also talk about how to recover our identity in Christ.

Life Without Limits from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

#071: Life Unlimited [Podcast]

Church Requel is growing! The cover art for this week's podcast compares the photo from this past weekend's church picnic to the year before. I talk about that and share the final sermon in the Positive ID in Christ sermon series. This week's sermon title is "Life Without Limits." We discuss the final two fingerprints of our Christian identity - that we are completely forgiven and that we are fully capable.

Click to Listen!

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

The music on this week's podcast is the song, "Build Your Kingdom Here," by Rend Collective Experiment. The recording is from this past weekend at Church Requel and features Dave Johnson, Christy Anne Pierce, Jana Edwards and Ryan Shoemaker.

My True Identity In Christ [Video Sermon]

On August 18th, 2013, Pastor Steve Thoman talked about the first three fingerprints of our identity in Christ: We are completely accepted, extremely valuable, and eternally loved.

My True Identity In Christ from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

#070: My Identity In Christ [Podcast]

When you know who you are in Christ, it changes how you see yourself and everyone else! Pastor Steve Thoman discusses the first three fingerprints of our Christian ID. Also Mark and Steve talk about the book bag giveaway, the record attendance at CR, and Mark's visit to another new church - The Summit Church in  Green, Ohio.

Click to Listen!

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

Music for this week's podcast is Praise Like Fireworks by Rend Collective Experiment.

This Week at CR: My ID in Christ + Free Backpacks!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Mary Kay and I have been enjoying a little R&R, staying in Celina, Ohio most of the week. This is Mary Kay's hometown - and also my second home for the past 34 years. YES! 34 years THIS SUNDAY! Yay! Want to see a photo? You may not recognize me. Of course Mary Kay hasn't changed a bit. She's even more beautiful than the day we got married! I love this photo. It captures how I was really feeling - like I had just got away with the greatest heist in the world. Little did I know that Mary Kay had really stolen my heart. Ok, I'm done waxing poetic. On with this weekend at CR!

My True Identity in Christ - Over the next two weekends, we're going to look at our 5 fingerprints that really identify us as Christ followers. I'm so excited about these two sermons. I've been waiting all summer for you to hear! Pastor Steve will give you the first 3 fingerprints this weekend and I will wrap up the whole series with the last two next weekend. 

The last time Pastor Steve taught, you really packed the Point of Grace out. Can you do it again this Sunday? You won't be sorry. Steve's topic would be enough to get you excited by itself, but we've added in the musical abilities of Steve's daughter, Brandi. She's going to sing two songs - right in the middle of the sermon - that will add just the right touch: "Don't Try So Hard" by Amy Grant and "Free To Be Me" by Francesca Battistelli. What a great father-daughter team!!!

While we're on the topic of packing out the Church Requel pews, did you hear the news from last weekend? We enjoyed a record attendance and had more guests last Sunday than ANY WEEK EVER!!! Thanks so much for inviting your friends and talking up the wonderful things going on at the Point of Grace!

Book Bag - School Supply Sunday! There's yet another reason why we might see a lot of new families at Church Requel this Sunday. We're giving away free book bags filled with school supplies to kids from Kindergarten up through 5th grade.  If you know of a family who has children in this age group, you definitely want them to come to CR Sunday morning at 11am. Have you seen how ridiculously expensive it is to send a child to school these days? Let's help out our friends and neighbors and tell them about the book bag giveaway. We will have between 60 and 100 book packpacks to give away on Sunday morning at 11am. We are most appreciative to Randy and his connection to The Cellular Connection, who made this generous donation to us!

This will also give us an opportunity for all of our children to meet Diana, our new Children's Ministry Director. Diana will be sharing our kids' sermon Sunday morning up front. I know she will be as creative as she always is! I'm really pumped about our news kid's ministry, which we are calling KidsMin. KidsMin will start this September. Over the next 3 years our kids will receive a complete teaching and overview of the entire Bible! Yay! Our children have been the fastest growing demographic within our church - and I have a feeling that will only get better with this new curriculum.

Picnic In Only 9 Days! We've been talking about this day all summer long. And now it's only a week away! We've reserved North Lake Park for the Church Requel summer picnic. As you can see from the photo on the left, there is a wonderful kids' playground. Also the building in which we will eat all that delicious food you're going to bring, has great air conditioning. So - rain or shine - the picnic will be a BIG GO for right after our morning church service.

Bryan will bring his huge Benford 5,000 grill and make all the hamburgers and hot dogs you can eat. The church will provide the meat, the buns, all the paper products and silverware (well, plastic ware), and lemonade. Families bring two side dishes or desserts. Single folks bring one dish. If you want to drink pop, you'll need to bring that too. We'll have fun and games for big kids and small kids alike! Don't miss out. It's a great opportunity to get to know everyone in a laid-back, family atmosphere.

Isn't this all such great news? It's so easy to write to you every Friday, because you are such a wonderful, loving - and growing - congregation. I appreciate you keeping Mary Kay and I in your prayers. We both love you all so much!

Have a great weekend! Pastor Mark

Identity Theft [Video Sermon]

I talk about the 6 phases Christ followers go through in resolving their crisis of confidence over their true identity in Christ. This is the sermon from Sunday, August 11, 2013.

 

Thanks to Dave Johnson for editing and uploading this video for us.

#069: Identity Theft [Podcast]

Has your identity in Christ been lost? Today we learn how people go from a lost identity to a found identity. We also continue our conversation with Diana Devolder, our new Children's Ministry Director. The picture above is of Sara Scott, who was baptized Sunday morning. We hope to have her testimony and baptism video up within the next 2 weeks.

Click to Listen!

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

Music for today's podcast is "Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective Experiment

This Week at CR: Sara's Baptism + ID Theft

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Welcome to the weekly Church Requel digest, where the Son is always shining and the news is always good! This week's newsletter is no exception. I woke up this morning and thought to myself: 'I can't wait to share the excitement!'

Sara's Baptism. This weekend we make it three weeks in a row for baptisms, this Sunday celebrating Sara Scott's commitment to her Christian faith. I had the privilege of sitting down with Sara to talk to her about her baptism and hear her faith story. The whole time I'm thinking, 'Wow! Wow! Wow!' 

Sara and her children were invited by another CR parishioner on an evening when we had a live worship band. They had not been attending any other church. She says that in Church Requel she discovered a welcoming atmosphere - a loving family! Of course I know you feel the same about her. 

You will definitely want to hear about her initial prayer of faith that took place where??? Let's just say that her prayer closet is a room in her home that also includes faucets.

Sara's children are also participating this weekend with Anna joining the praise team up front and Paul working behind the scenes in the tech booth. Let's all show up in a big way to celebrate with the Scott family. 

Have you missed any of the baptisms over the last two weekends? Or do you want to see them again? Sheri Shick's baptism video along with Jack and Sheri Nichols' baptisms are all available online.

Book Bag Give-Away! This weekend we also will be announcing some more great news for our church and our neighborhood. In one week - on August 18th - we will be giving away book bags and school supplies to any elementary children who show up - while our supplies last.  And we have a good supply, thanks to Randy's partnership with The Cellular Connection, who also gave book bags away in their Verizon stores this past week. As of this writing, it looks like we'll have between 60 and 100 book bags to give away to children next Sunday. 

This could be an answer to prayer on so many levels! Certainly our families and our neighborhood families could really benefit financially with schools supplies going up so much lately. Just this week I was reading how the rapid increase in back-to-school costs have left many parents struggling.

This could also be a great opportunity for local families to see our commitment to them in a tangible way. I plan to print up flyers for you Sunday (thanks Mid-Ohio!) so you can give them away to anyone you know who could benefit. I'd love it if some of you would pass them around the neighborhood next week and make them available to those families who come for the meal Saturday evening, August 17th. We'll have the book bags and school supplies available at the 11am worship service on August 18th.

New Children's Ministry Named "KidsMin." We love our kids at Church Requel and the new KidsMin is going to be awesome! If you missed the announcement last weekend, we have hired Diana Devolder to our Church Requel staff to be the new Children's Ministry Director. Diana has wasted no time in recruiting volunteers as we can see by the new promo pic on the right. We have also invested into a new three-year children's curriculum to support our teaching volunteers and children. Our leadership team is also talking about making other investments into our kids' space and technology to support this new ministry. Can you tell we are excited about everything happening for our kids these days?

Worship and Positive ID Talk. How is it possible that I'm already 600 words into this week's newsletter and haven't even talked about our worship or sermon this weekend? So much good news! So little space to tell it!  Cindy Thoman and Anna Scott will join me on the praise team this weekend. We'll be singing a couple of favorites, "Majestic" and "How Great Thou Art." Then we're going to learn a new song - at least new to us: "Great I Am" by Jared Anderson. It should be an awesome praise time and will lead us right into Sara's baptism and testimony video. Nancy Roop will be reading our Scripture from Galatians 2 and Pastor Steve Thoman will lead us in communion.

We'll also continue our current Creating A Positive Identity sermon series with part 4: "Identity Theft." ID theft is big news these days with people stealing social security numbers. But did you know that our spiritual enemy has been working hard to steal your Christian identity too? We'll talk about the process most Christ-followers work through to figure out who they really are in Christ.

Circle Maker. Have you read Mark Batterson's book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears? I have been reading this book over the summer. So have many of the folks on our leadership team. I highly recommend it.  This book has given me an even greater boldness in my prayer life. Batterson writes:

Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn’t offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren’t impossible to you, they are insulting to God.

How is your prayer life these days? Are you praying big, bold prayers for yourself and for Church Requel? I want you to know that I am. I believe this is why God is blessing us so much these days. We pray that our Lord would be glorified by all that happens at the Point of Grace on the corner of Park Avenue West and Marion Avenue.

I hope to see you Sunday at 11am. Blessings! Pastor Mark

Jack and Sheri's Baptism & Testimony [Video]

Jack and Sheri Nichols were baptized at Church Requel in Mansfield, Ohio on Sunday, August 4, 2013. Here is the video of their testimony and baptism.

 

Winning With The Hand I'm Dealt [Video]

Life is like a hand of poker. You have to play the cards you're dealt. In this talk, I talk about the 5 factors that influence our identities and the five winning choices that can help us become the man or woman who God created us to be. Recorded at Church Requel on Sunday, August 4, 2013.

Winning With Hand I'm Dealt from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.

#068: Winning With The Hand I'm Dealt [Podcast]

We start this week's podcast with an interview of Diana Devolder, the new Children's Ministry Director at Church Requel. Exciting news! We follow that up with Sunday's sermon, "Winning With The Hand I'm Dealt." Life is like a game of poker. You have to play with the hand you're dealt. We talk about 5 factors that make you who you are along with 5 winning choices.

The curriculum that Diana talks about is Live from Group.com.

Click to Listen!

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

Music on this week's podcast is "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.

This Week at CR: Sheri and Jack's Baptism + Winning Hand

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Do you know that I look forward to my early Friday mornings just so that I might have the opportunity to sit down and write each of you. I think of you and pray for you, while I catch you up with all the cool things happening in our church. And this week I have so much to tell you!

Do You Have A Winning Hand?  No, we won't be opening up a poker parlor at CR! But we will be talking more this weekend about Creating A Positive ID. The talk Sunday will be "Winning With The Hand You're Dealt." I have been looking forward to sharing this talk with you for many weeks. I promise you won't want to miss it! Not only will it be a giant sermon for your life, but we'll be using GIANT cards to illustrate your five winning choices. It should be a lot of fun for all of us, and I'm hoping it will also be something you'll never forget. If ever there were a weekend when you should invite your family and friends, this one is it!

Jack and Sheri's Baptisms. I had the privilege to meet with Jack and Sheri Nichols this past week to plan for their baptisms this coming Sunday morning. While I was there, I video recorded their story. You will not want to miss this! Did you know that 9 years ago Sheri lost everything and found herself living in a horse trailer? She tells the story of how Christ has saved her life in more ways than one and why she has such a heart passion for feeding our neighbors on Saturday nights. After we hear their stories up on the big screen, Jack and Sheri will each come into the baptism pool to give witness to Jesus' Presence in their lives. 

Would YOU like to be baptized too? I don't know about you, but these have been such wonderful times for our church. Last week's baptism of Sheri Shick has been playing over and over again in my mind. (Want to see it again?) Later this morning I'll be meeting with Sara Scott, who will be baptized on August 11th. I promise you that we always have room for one (or two or three) more baptisms. If you've committed your life to following Jesus, and have not been baptized as an adult, I encourage you to talk to me about being baptized yourself!

Big Announcement Sunday!!! Want to hear the worst kept secret at Church Requel? Come a little closer and I'll whisper the latest  in your ear. Our leadership team has been working all summer on making big improvements in our children's ministry. Last Sunday we made the decision to hire Diana Devolder as our Children's Ministry Director. Diana will oversee the teaching of our elementary children, the fastest growing demographic at Church Requel. To support Diana and all the teachers at CR we have also purchased a new 3-year curriculum, that will be a big help to all our kids to learn key Biblical truths. Diana has more than 30 years of professional teaching experience. Both Diana and the entire leadership team are incredibly excited for the changes that will be coming - starting in just one month! You'll hear more about it each weekend in August.

Two Dates To Remember! It's hard to believe that August is here. I always celebrate the coming of August because Aug. 1 is my kid sister's birthday. (That kid - Kimberly - turned [ahem] 5 decades yesterday!) I'm heading over to her home later to party with her and the family. As a church, we need to remember TWO MORE PARTIES coming up soon.

FIRST: Our church picnic will be celebrated Sunday, August 25th. We'll have a terrific church service that morning, led by Christy Pierce, Dave Johnson and the band. (Can I hear a "Woo Hoot?") After church, we'll all head 2 miles away to North Lake Park. There is a fully enclosed, air-conditioned shelter and a massive playground for the kids. In addition to a fantastic potluck meal, we'll have games for big kids and small kids alike. It should be a lot of fun for everyone!

SECOND: Our next opportunity to feed our neighbors at the Point of Grace will be Saturday, September 7th. You can participate in a couple of ways. #1 - Bring desserts. Let our neighbors know just how sweet we are on them! #2 - Come and serve. Volunteers may serve from 4pm until 6:30pm. 

Wow! What a newsletter! I never seem to lack for good news to share with you. However, these last 7 days have been absolutely amazing!!! I know I sound like the announcer from American Freight when I use 3 exclamation marks. But I can't help it. The news these days is really that good.

Last Monday morning I went down to the church and circled the church 7 times while I prayed for us. Much of that prayer was a humongous "thank-You" for what God has already accomplished. The rest of the prayer was something like this: "What's next?"

I hope you also have such a sense of holy anticipation for what God is doing through Church Requel!

Blessed to be your pastor, Mark

P.S. - Have you listened to this week's podcast yet? It's like an audio letter from me to you, which also includes last week's sermon.

Sheri's Testimony and Baptism

Here is the video from this past Sunday of Sheri Shick's testimony and baptism at Church Requel. Thank you Sheri for sharing your faith with all of us!