Good Friday morning dear Church Requel family!
BE A BLESSING! That's our message in 3 words or less for Sunday morning. May I just say this one thing to you up front? YOU ARE A BLESSING TO ME! I don't write this casually. It's way true. The reason I get to do the two things that God has created me to do - teach and lead - is because you make it possible. I take nothing away from God's power in saying this. I believe with all my heart leading you is God's will for me. I'm also very much aware of your obedience and cooperation with God's will to support our church. So "THANK YOU!" You are a blessing to me.
Want to know what Sunday morning will be all about? Re-read that first paragraph and you'll get a pretty good idea! You bless people as you use your talents and God-given gifts to love one another. In fact, we'll learn, this is our 4th purpose - that God has shaped each one of us to serve him. Literally we are each called to be a bivocational minister of Jesus. I love serving alongside of you!
Sunday will be special for so many reasons. Cindy and Trish will be joining Brandi in leading our worship singing. All the songs are CR favorites including "Everlasting God," "Open The Eyes Of My Heart," and "Love The Lord" by Lincoln Brewster. Sara and Diana have created an exciting lesson for all our kiddos. Mary Kay and Loni will be lavishing love on our toddlers. Kay will be reading our Bible reading... and speaking of this, don't you just LOVE it when Kay reads for us? She's SO expressive! Speaking of things I love, Pastor Steve will be back leading our prayer time!!! (YAY!) Finally, I have the privilege of sharing 4 wonderful benefits that will come to you when you use your life to serve and bless others. (Here's the online sermon notes.)
Last night I met with our leadership team. I think that may be the reason I am feeling so pumped this morning. I am BLESSED (there's that word again) to be surrounded by this team of partners, who want to charge forward even faster than I do! We planned out our Sunday morning sermons through August. What a fantastic teaching roadmap! These teaching themes include 5 talks on improving the family's finances, a couple lessons on forgiveness, and 5 teachings on raising amazing kids. We have some exciting singles planned too including "Adventurous Expectations" and "Prayers That Get Things Done." Stay tuned!
Before I sign off here, let me encourage you to listen to the Church Requel podcast every week. I record this every Monday morning. You'll have the chance to hear from your pastor in a more personal way than you might ever imagine. I talk about things on the podcast that you probably won't hear anywhere else. Sometimes it's fun (like this past week's post-Super Bowl Seattle shanigans) and sometimes it's serious. The format is that I talk for 20-30 minutes before playing the sermon from the day before. Always it's designed to be encouraging. Here's a link to all the podcasts on our blog. You can also go to the iTunes Store, where we feature our podcasts. Or use your podcast or music app on your mobile device and just search for "Church Requel." We're the only "Church Requel" podcast out there!
We're playing a game over on our Facebook page. The Beatles arrived on The Ed Sullivan Show 50 years ago this weekend. Some of us (yours truly) even remember it! We're planning on including one of the more famous Beatles songs during our greeting time in our next sermon series starting February 23rd. Jump over to our Facebook page to enter your guess.
Hope you all have a GREAT weekend. See you Sunday at 11am! - Pastor Mark
