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How should we understand Jesus’ beatitudes about the poor, the hungry, the grief-stricken or the persecuted? Are these descriptions intended to be desirable for the Christ-follower? How do we enjoy a "blessings" attitude when living with a "woes" reality?
Blessings & Woes from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download this PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
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How should we understand Jesus’ beatitudes about the poor, the hungry, the grief-stricken or the persecuted? Are these descriptions intended to be desirable for the Christ-follower? How do we enjoy a "blessings" attitude when living with a "woes" reality? Join me as we study Luke 6:12-26.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download this PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.
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Good Friday morning Church Requel!
I hope this day finds you well. As always I wish nothing but God's richest blessings upon each of you!
This week I've been thinking a great deal about the topic of blessings and woes. We'll be studying Jesus' great sermon which opens with the beatitudes. In Luke's version Jesus talks about the opposing blessing and woes - both sides - of our focus on wealth, health, emotions and relationships. There is no doubt that each of these 4 areas causes us both happiness and grief. What should be our attitude toward making these our priorities? How do goals in these areas integrate into our motivations for following Jesus? I hope to be able to share some good and helpful insights for you Sunday morning.
Here's one thing to consider. As Christ-followers we are never as good as our blessings might indicate. By the same token, for we who are God's children, our woes are not the result of God's anger towards us. So how do we have a "blessing" attitude in the midst of a "woes" reality? I'm hoping you want to come Sunday morning to find out! For those of you who can't wait until Sunday, here are the sermon notes to get you started in thinking about it.
Pastors' Gathering at Church Requel! Yesterday was a special time for me. Once a month I join two dozen other evangelical pastors from this area to coordinate and pray for our ministries. It's always such an encouraging time.
Yesterday this group met for lunch here at Church Requel. It was my privilege to host. Many of them told me how much they were blessed recently by your generosity to the families in Flint.
We are looking for ways that we can work and worship together for the benefit of the entire body of Christ in our area. Our first opportunity this year will be on Good Friday when many of our churches will gather together for a Good Friday service at 7pm at Berean Baptist Church. I understand there will be a choir from many churches singing together. Maybe some of you would like to sing in it?
"This year Good Friday will be the Friday BEFORE Easter rather than
the Friday AFTER Palm Sunday like last year."
More details will follow, but we think that 700 people would not be too many to expect for such an event. Wouldn't that be cool to worship with many others in Mansfield?
Game Night Next Weekend! One week from tomorrow night will be our Minute To Win It (MTWI) game night! You most definitely won't want to miss this fun and festive experience together. This amazing photo on the right of Fred and Susie was taken with their granddaughter at last year's party.
Our game-master for the evening will be Tamira Barnes. She is not only fantastic with our kiddos, but really knows how to bring the FUN out of all of us at these MTWI events. You say you're not sure what Minute To Win It is like? Check out this video promo from last year. This is an event for kids of ALL ages! Yes that includes you!!!
Minute To Win It game night will be Friday, March 5th. We'll start at 6pm and will party until 9pm. No worries about food either. We will provide all the pizza you can eat! Fun. Food. Fellowship. All in one! Can't wait!
Last Sunday To Sign Up! Resurrection Breakfast 2016 is right around the corner - Saturday morning, March 26th from 8:30 - 11am. Coach Jim Tressel will be our special speaker. Music will be provided by the Colonial City Quartet. Tickets are $15 each and are expected to sell out soon. Please sign up (and bring your money) by this Sunday so we can make our reservations. It would be so cool to fill several tables at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center with Church Requel folks.
(If you want to go and can't afford the $15 come see me. If you can help sponsor someone who can't afford it please contact me. Thanks!)
Feed The Hungry - Saturday March 12th. Keep this date - March 12th - on your calendar. It's our next opportunity to feed the hungry in our downtown neighborhood. We expect 100 to 150 folks to come in for a warm, hearty meal starting at 5pm. Volunteers should show up here by 4pm. I always walk away from these opportunities more grateful for the blessings I enjoy.
Start Bringing Candy for Easter. It's hard to believe but we're only 4 weeks away from Easter. Last year we sponsored an Easter Egg hunt for our children as well as many who came from our neighborhood. We want to do the same thing again this year. We will be collecting candy to put inside of plastic easter egg shells. Your help in bringing in candy will be greatly appreciated.
Here is a picture of your gracious giving of candy from last Easter!!! I love celebrating Christ's grace with you in our neighborhood, don't you?
I hope you continue to pray for all the needs within our congregation. David and Doug are still in long term recovery. (Wasn't it terrific to see Doug come back last week for the first time?) Others within our fellowship to pray for include Mari, Lisa, Loni, Stephenie, Rachel and Trish.
I love how you pray for one another. Someone snapped this photo from last Sunday as we gathered around Trish to pray for her back pain to heal during our worship service:
Our goal as a church is to be a community loving God and loving people. You do this best when you pray for one another. Keep praying. Continuously. Please include me in your prayers. More than ever we must all rely upon God's great strength! With great love for each of you, Pastor Mark
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Is keeping the Sabbath a matter of keeping a bunch of rules? Is it a matter of doing nothing? Doing good? How does today's Christ-follower find the right balance? We consider the case of the grain snacks and the withered hand from Luke 6:1-11 to discover how to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
Sabbath Satire from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
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Is keeping the Sabbath a matter of keeping a bunch of rules? Is it a matter of doing nothing? Doing good? How does today's Christ-follower find the right balance? We consider the case of the grain snacks and the withered hand from Luke 6:1-11 to discover how to keep the Sabbath Day holy.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.
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Good Friday morning Church Requel!
What an amazing week! Eleven of us showed up last Monday to load up the truck with clean bottles of water headed up to Flint, Michigan. It was quite the party! Kudos to Ed Walker and Dayton Freight for making this possible. Kudos to all of you for providing the water. Your generosity even made the Wednesday morning news on WMAN. To God be the glory!
Just another reason to attend CR... Did you realize that by attending Church Requel, you are becoming a much more informed voter for the upcoming presidential election? I'm not suggesting that we are changing our topics to talk about politics. Rather, this week our presidential politics changed topics to talk about what we talk about every week!
"What does it mean to be a Christian?"
"What do the gospels say about Christians anyway?"
Could there be any time better to attend Church Requel? Could there be any time to be studying the Gospel of Luke? I hope you haven't missed a single talk, but if you have missed, you can always get caught up!
Sign Up For The Resurrection Breakfast! Jim Tressel will be the featured speaker at this year's 29th annual Resurrection Breakfast to be held at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center on Saturday, March 26th at 8:30am. That's the day before Easter. EASTER! Yes this year, Easter comes early - the last Sunday in March. With Coach Tressel coming to Mansfield, this year's Resurrection Breakfast is expected to sell out, so I'm getting this news out to you all early.
We will have a sign-up sheet in the lobby for the next two Sundays. I hope to get our ticket order in by the beginning of March. The cost for the breakfast will be $15, an incredibly reasonable cost in my opinion.
(Don't let the cost hold you back. If you really can't afford to go I know there would be people in our church who would love to help you anonymously. Just come see me. If you happen to be one who would like to help out a fellow Church Requeler go to the breakfast, also please let me know.)
In addition to Coach Tressel speaking, special music will be provided by the Colonial City Quartet. It should be a fabulous morning. What a great opportunity to invite family and friends! Every year we see people make initial commitments to follow Christ at these breakfasts. The time to be thinking about this is NOW! It will be too late the week before.
One more thing... this is not a men's only event any longer. Ladies, you are most welcome to come too! Would you like a flyer for the event to give to your family and friends? Download it here and print it out.
Church Requel to Host Brown Bag Lunch! I thought you might like to know that next Thursday we will be hosting local evangelical pastors for their monthly luncheon here at Church Requel. Each month two to three dozen pastors gather together at different local churches for mutual encouragement and support. I have tried to attend most of them.
We call them "brown bag lunches" because we all pack our own lunch when we come. It's been great for me to see so many of the other churches in Mansfield. And I have enjoyed the camaraderie and suggestions of other pastors who share a similar calling.
The last time we hosted was right after Church Requel got started here at the Point of Grace. We were just getting everything setup back then so I'm eager for my fellow pastors to see how far we've come!
Here's what's happening this Sunday... We will be changing a few things around as far as the order of our worship is concerned. Nancy will share a few announcements right up front followed by one worship song. After a greeting time we'll hear the Scripture read and then go right into the sermon.
This week's talk, "Sabbath Satire," will be focused on Luke 6:1-11. We'll learn the meaning of Sabbath and what Jesus had in mind for it. This will be followed by 4 worship songs led by Brandi, Trish and Brian, followed by communion and prayer.
I love how Brandi keeps our worship experience fresh each week, don't you?
Our children will continue the new Everest series they kicked off last week. They are learning how to conquer life's challenges. I love it! Last week they learned that God has the power to provide. They learned about the prophet Elijah and how God took care of providing food and water. The kiddos made a brook and flew around like the ravens that brought food to Elijah.
To bring the point home, our children brought snow seeds home with them. Snow seeds expand when water is added and grow into something more. Don't you love their creativity?
My daughter Jennifer will be teaching this week that God has the power to comfort. I wonder what experiential learning she might have in mind? Don't let your children miss out a single special week of this series!
Keep these dates in mind too...
Women's Bible Study - each Wednesday evening at the Pierce home from 6:30 to 8:30. They are studying about prayer, otherwise known as The War Room
Minute To Win It Game Night - Saturday night, March 5th from 6pm to 9pm. Food! Fellowship! Fun! Watch for more details to follow.
Children Lead Worship - March 6th. I've seen the planning sheet. MANY children will be involved. You won't want to miss a moment. I'm just saying.
Neighborhood Meal - Saturday night, March 12th. Help us feed our neighbors. Volunteers show up at 4pm. We start feeding folks at 5pm.
I never cease to be amazed when I sit down to write these newsletters just how many good things are going on within our church. I love it!!!
Pray! Pray! Pray! Keep in mind all those who are struggling within our church family. David and Doug are still recovering from serious illnesses in local nursing facilities. Loni and Mari are still recovering at home. Mary Kay's niece's husband Patrick is recovering from bone cancer surgery last week. Tamara's daughter, Alyssa, is suffering from seizures and headaches. Trish still is suffering with back issues. Jan and Ron's great grandson, Braydon, is recovering from an accident.
There are also quite a few family relationship struggles for members of our congregation. We don't need to mention all the details, but we are certain our Lord knows them when you pray about them.
Please remain faithful in praying for your church family. Please remain faithful to pray for me too. And please pray that God would continue to bless our church ministry. Love you all much! - Pastor Mark
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What gets you into party mode? A birthday? An anniversary? A promotion or pay raise? Your favorite team winning the big game? How about this - you are a sinner… saved by grace! In this sermon we consider three responses when the tax collector, Levi, became a Christ-follower. Along the way we will discover if we also have good reason to celebrate.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.
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What gets you into party mode? A birthday? An anniversary? A promotion or pay raise? Your favorite team winning the big game? How about this - you are a sinner… saved by grace! In this video sermon we consider three responses when the tax collector, Levi, became a Christ-follower. Along the way we will discover if we also have good reason to celebrate.
Sinner Celebration from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
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Good Friday morning Church Requel!
I hope this week's newsletter finds you all doing well. I love the way you all have been loving on and praying for each other over the course of this past week. We can all feel the closer connections that we are making with one another. Over and over I hear how much your prayers are meaning in the lives of family and friends. Keep it up!
KidsMin Everest - It's been awhile since we have featured our KidsMin ministry in this weekly journal. I'm pleased to write to you today that Everest is coming this Sunday! At Everest, kids discover what it means to hold on to God’s mighty power in everyday life.
Our children will participate in memorable Bible-learning activities, sing catchy songs, play teamwork-building games, make and dig into yummy treats, experience one-of-a-kind Bible adventures, collect Bible Memory Buddies to remind them of God’s love, and test out Sciency-Fun Gizmos they’ll take home and play with all winter long. Plus, kids will learn to look for evidence of God all around them through something called God Sightings.
Tamira Barnes has been researching and planning for this new KidsMin curriculum since the end of last year. I know she is excited about this for our children, their parents, as well as all our children's ministry team. I love the motto - "Conquering Challenges with God's Mighty Power." Seem like something that could benefit all of us! If you have a child in your life, make sure they make it to church as often as possible over the next couple of months!
Last Week To Collect Water For Flint. Speaking of mountains, did you know we are growing our own "mountain of water" at Church Requel? It seems like every day the mountain grows! This is what it looked like this morning.
In case you're wondering what this mountain of water is all about, we are collecting bottled water for the families of Flint, Michigan, whose water is contaminated with lead. This initiative is the brain child of Ed Walker and his employer, Dayton Freight Lines.
Ed tells me he is overwhelmed with your generosity. When he mentioned this to us a week ago, he honestly thought that a few people would bring a few gallons of water. Now he is revising his plans for collecting the water. Before we were going to take the collected water to the distributing hub. Now Dayton Freight will be sending an 18-wheeler to the church on Monday morning to load all the water. Don't you love it!?
You can help out this week in two ways. First, please bring more water with you Sunday morning. When you come in to church, go right up front and stack you water on the platform with all the rest. Build that mountain! Let's all be blessed through the entire worship experience with how the Spirit of God has moved and motivated His people. Second, if you have availability on Monday morning, please come help us load the water onto the truck. I'd love to see a human water chain from the church sanctuary out to the truck. What a visual! And what quick work many hands will make! We'll set a Monday morning time when we meet on Sunday at church.
How Does It Get Any Better? One of the things a pastor must struggle with is the fact that every week we prepare for a brand new worship experience. This struggle is especially real in the aftermath of a wonderful experience like last week. I'm still feeling just like our kiddos on the right, enthusiastic and thrilled with how so many of our young people were involved.
And it's not just the children that sang the music, or acted out the drama, or ran our tech, or gave our announcements - though all that was amazing. What touches my heart even more is the response of our children's hearts sitting in the pew.
At the very moment while I was writing this section to you today, I received this photo (below) from Karen Jacob. She told me that her 9-year-old grandson, Sawyer was worshiping with her last Sunday. Karen says that Sawyer doesn't have the opportunity to go to church all that often.
So Karen was especially thrilled when she saw his notes from last Sunday's sermon. With her permission I reproduce them for you here (you can click on the image to see a larger version):
Karen wrote me that she thought it is amazing for someone with so little knowledge of the Bible to have such insight. She especially loves the crosses flying up from the paralyzed man's body. How cool is that? In case you ever wonder if our children have a great benefit from worshiping with Mom and Dad or Grandma and Grandpa, remember this picture of Sawyer's sermon notes!
This week's worship plans... So back to the pastor's dilemma - how do we follow up such a great experience? We make our plans and then we rely on God's Holy Spirit to bring the experience of His Presence. For that is really what this weekly engagement is all about!
We'll continue our study of Luke, this time with the study of when Levi first became a Christ-follower (found in Luke 5:27-39.) What gets you into party mode? A birthday? An anniversary? A promotion or pay raise? Your favorite team winning the big game? How about this - you are a sinner… saved by grace! Sunday we consider three responses when the tax collector, Levi, became a Christian. Along the way we will discover if we also have good reason to celebrate.
Leading our celebration Sunday will be Brandi Walker. She reminds me that this is one of the few Sunday worships that actually fall on Valentine's Day! So she has brought a funny video from Jeff Foxworthy entitled, "Romance Tips." She will then lead us into worship with 3 songs, "You Are My King (Amazing Love)," "Spirit of the Living God," and "You Are Good." Brandi will also be closing our worship experience on Sunday with a special song. I can't wait!
Keep these dates in mind too...
Women's Bible Study - each Wednesday evening at the Pierce home from 6:30 to 8:30. They are studying about prayer, otherwise known as The War Room!
Minute To Win It Game Night - Saturday night, March 5th from 6pm to 9pm. Food! Fellowship! Fun! Watch for more details to follow.
Neighborhood Meal - Saturday night, March 12th. Help us feed our neighbors. Volunteers show up at 4pm. We start feeding folks at 5pm.
Ok folks... when my word meter goes over eleven hundred words, I know I should have stopped about 500 words ago! Ha! So much good is happening at our church. I'm so glad God has allowed me to be part of this adventure with you! Love you all much! - Pastor Mark
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What is it about forgiveness that so freaks us out sometimes? Fear of forgiveness is nothing new. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were more willing to accept a healer of the body than a man who forgave sin. We examine Luke 5:17-26 and discover 4 results of authentic faith in Jesus. Real Christianity has a lot to do with real forgiveness.
Faith, Forgiveness & Fear from Mark Pierce on Vimeo.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
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What is it about forgiveness that so freaks us out sometimes? Fear of forgiveness is nothing new. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were more willing to accept a healer of the body than a man who forgave sin. We examine Luke 5:17-26 and discover 4 results of authentic faith in Jesus. Real Christianity has a lot to do with real forgiveness.
Follow along with the online sermon notes or download the PDF fill-in-the-blanks sermon outline.
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play or Download in new window.
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Good Friday morning Church Requel!
Think about how many times a day you use tap water...
drinking, cooking, showering, etc.
Now imagine finding out that your tap water is poisoned with lead...
For the residents of Flint, Mich., this is their reality!
The poisoned water has led to a health crisis and this area is in need of ongoing water-based aid. We want to help our brothers and sisters in Flint. If you are able, PLEASE BRING IN A CASE OR TWO OF BOTTLED WATER the next two Sundays. We will make sure it gets to our fellow Americans, who so desperately need it.
One of the things I love about being a member of the body of Christ is that we can become part of the solution to real life problems! I also love how God works things out so beautifully. Our biggest challenge in this effort is not getting our people to bring in the water. You've proved yourself so generous over and over in the past. (Like last week when you filled two cars with groceries for a local family whose cupboards were bare!)
The challenge in this case is getting the bottled water you donate up to the people who need it in Flint. Our own Ed Walker works for Dayton Freight Lines, Inc. They are graciously providing FREE shipments of bottled water to Flint, Mich. beginning Feb. 16th. You bring the water to our church and Ed will make sure it arrives to the people in Flint!
My wife, Mary Kay, came up with a fantastic idea! She is taping a note to the water she has bought to let someone in Michigan know that we love them and that we're praying for them. Love it Mary Kay! Thank you Ed! Thank you Dayton Freight! Thank you people of Church Requel!
Awesome Sunday Last! Speaking of thank you's, I have to tell you how very thrilled I was to be your pastor last Sunday. We very rarely pass the offering plate at Church Requel to collect a special love offering. However, last Sunday we invited Image from Mansfield Christian School to sing for us and lead our worship for the entire Sunday morning. Our leadership team believed it would be a good thing to collect a special love offering to support Image's travel ministry.
As everyone was exiting the service and heading down to the potluck meal, our treasurer Nancy Roop took me aside. She told me that our love offering came close to $500! Wow! For our church that is an amazing display of love and faith.
So you would expect my first thought to be excitement. And it was! But I was also a little concerned. Understand that there are some Sundays when our entire offering doesn't reach that amount. Naturally - and with an embarrassment of little faith I might add - I was concerned that maybe our weekly giving would have dropped. No! According to Nancy our giving actually increased. We paid all our bills in January and even had a little left over. Wow. Wow. Wow. God is so good. Right? Thank you again for being such a generous people.
Our Children Lead Worship THIS Sunday! This Sunday will be the first Sunday of the month. As is our custom, our children (older than pre-K) will worship with their families for the entire worship experience upstairs this Sunday. Also as is our custom, many of our children will take an active role in ministry Sunday.
Emma Betts, Adele Jacobs, Leia Walker, Paityn Hall, Grace Miller and Anna Scott will join Brandi in leading our worship singing.
Cohen Pierce will deliver our announcements and also work in the tech booth. Grayden will also be in our tech booth running our sound!
Anna & Chris Scott, Grace Miller, Grayden Pierce, Paityn Hall, Saudie Sewell, and Elijah & Noah Jensen will perform a skit for us about the important meaning of communion (written by our own Cindy Thoman!)
I always look forward to those Sundays when our children take an active role in our ministry experience. Parents remember that the children's music and skit rehearsals will be this Saturday at 11am here at the church.
Overcoming the Fear of Forgiveness. What is it about forgiveness that so freaks us out sometimes? Fear of forgiveness is nothing new. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were more willing to accept a healer of the body than a man who forgave sin. Sunday morning in our sermon, we will examine Luke 5:17-26. We will discover 4 results of authentic faith in Jesus. Not surprisingly real Christianity has a lot to do with real forgiveness. Want a head start? Here are the online sermon notes.
We also will be providing some opportunity for you to pray for your needs. (We have so many - see the end of this letter.) We'll take time out after communion to pray privately and specifically for your individual needs. Three different prayer teams will line the front of our sanctuary to pray with you. Even if you don't come forward for prayer yourself, I hope you'll join together in prayer for those who do. This should be a very special prayer time.
Women's Bible Study Off To A GREAT Start! Fifteen ladies signed up for our February Bible study entitled, "War Room." They began their study this past Sunday evening at the Pierce home to watch the movie of the same name. What a fun night! What I loved most about the evening was not that our ladies saw a great movie on the topic of prayer, but that they actually began their evening praying earnestly for our church and for one another. (Another proud moment for their pastor as he couldn't help himself and took a picture!)
If you want to be a part of this study, you can still join up. The actual Bible study part will begin this coming Wednesday night. Here is the schedule for the next 5 weeks:
Each Wednesday night's session begins at 6:30 at Mary Kay and Mark's home. We also have more Bible study books available for $8 each. Email me if you need directions or more info about this study.
Roger Joins Our Leadership. We want to welcome Roger Marvicsin to the Leadership Team at Church Requel. This past Wednesday evening our leadership team welcomed him to the team unanimously. Roger will also be leading a new men's fellowship group at Church Requel. Watch for more details to come about that! Let's all express to Roger just how much we appreciate his service this coming Sunday morning.
I need to wrap up this week's newsletter. I am always amazed at how much there is to write about every week. Let's remember to pray for the many needs within our church family. Nancy's brother, Larry, is in Toledo Hospital with a heart condition. Doug is recovering from a broken leg. Mari is recovering from breast cancer. David is recovering from a stroke in Columbus. Loni is having a root canal later today. Aaron lost his mom. So many prayer needs! Remain faithful in prayer. Love you all much! Pastor Mark
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