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“Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” This famous verse forms the center of Jesus’ preaching ministry. What does it mean to repent? Is this something that we do once and then forget it? Or is there something more involved? We consider Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13:1-9. We learn that there is a limited time to take advantage of God’s most amazing offer.
Limited Offer 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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“Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” This famous verse forms the center of Jesus’ preaching ministry. What does it mean to repent? Is this something that we do once and then forget it? Or is there something more involved? We consider Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13:1-9. We learn that there is a limited time to take advantage of God’s most amazing offer.
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'm very excited about this Sunday's worship experience because of the creative talents of Colton Dixon AND Brandi Walker! Two months ago Brandi laid out an exciting new worship plan for 2017 - featuring a different song artist once each month. This coming Sunday morning is our first opportunity to appreciate the fruit of her labor on our behalf with the songs of Colton Dixon.
Some of you, who do not follow the Christian music genre closely, may wonder who Colton Dixon is and why we would feature his music first. Colton burst onto the American scene early in 2012 during the American Idol competition, where he made it to the semi-final round and placed 11th overall.
What really sets Dixon apart is his testimony, which he maintained without wavering all through the competition. Since then Colton has been prolific as a composer and performer. I'm sure there will be some songs we sing Sunday that you'll think, 'Oh I know that one. We sing it all the time!' There will also be new songs - at least new to us at Church Requel.
"Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth." - Psalm 96:1
This verse really captures what Brandi is doing for us this Sunday. Many thanks go out to her as well as to Missie and Trish for all their work to prepare. Let's gather together Sunday excited to worship together!
Dig and Fertilize. I know it's not Spring yet outside, and so the words "dig and fertilize" may seem strange in January. However, I'm hoping that our Sunday's sermon could bring on Spring within our souls. We will be dealing with the topic of repentance, and what I have to tell you from Luke 13:1-9 may surprise you. Jesus tells us in His short fig tree parable that the way we know of our true repentance is the Kingdom fruit of our lives. What must we do as Christians to bring on the fruit? Dig and fertilize!
God has really been doing a wonderful work in my own heart through the preparation of this talk for you. He brought to mind a wonderful little Navigator-published book I read when Jillian was but a toddler. The book is titled Spiritual Disciplines For the Christian Life and is written by Donald Whitney. I highly recommend this book to you!
What do spiritual disciplines have to do with Jesus' topic of a "Limited Offer" (the title of Sunday's sermon)? I suppose you'll need to come Sunday (or watch online) to completely understand. I'm really looking forward to sharing with you what God has been doing in my own heart.
In fact, I plan to give you the opportunity to sign up for a 13-week class-small-group after the end of Sunday's talk. This sermon really is the introduction of something grand. At least that's what I'm praying for many of you (and me)!
The Search Goes On. Just a word about the Children's Director position. We continue to work towards filling the open part-time staff position. Thus far we have conducted interviews with 3 different people, in some cases multiple times. We continue to pray and ask who God has in mind for us.
In the meantime we are most thankful that Karen Jacob fills in teaching our KidsMin on a week to week basis. I've also been happily informed that our Missionaries class (Jr. High age) hit an all time high this past Sunday of 15 students. Thanks Cindy Thoman! You're obviously doing something grand with God's help. Yours truly has taken over the temporary role of scheduling our Nursery-Preschool class. Thanks to all of you for your willing and generous help in teaching our children the important truths of God's Word.
Pew Enhancements. As I write this newsletter to you this morning from the tech booth, I see our Friday morning pew crew (sorry - I really could not help myself) is hard at work. Last Friday we completed 20 pew pads and as of this moment (9:33 am) we still have 29 more pew pads to go.
Ultimately our plans for the sanctuary go beyond the re-upholstery of our pews. We would like to re-design our platform, making it much better for our worship plans, our children's programs, and for potential weddings on Saturdays. We plan to incorporate better access to our mic plugs and electrical power without the need to have so many wires extending across the platform - as is the case now.
After the pews are re-upholstered and the platform is redesigned, we plan to re-carpet the entire sanctuary. It should be beautiful when completed. Many thanks go out to our ministry partner, Paul Lintern, who really is the catalyst behind this plan. He came to our leadership team in November and made us an offer we could not refuse. If we would donate the labor from our congregation for the pew work and platform redesign, then he would provide the funding for the new carpeting. Yay Paul!
Seminary Visit and Lecture. Before we bring this week's newsletter to an end, I want to tell you how much I enjoyed our visit to Ashland Theological Seminary last evening. We had the privilege of listening to Dr. John Byron talk to us about the Word of God in our lives.
Before we went to the lecture, Mary Kay and I enjoyed dinner with Dave and Jen Repp. Dinner and a lecture. Ha! Double date concept for us! I must agree with Jen, who wrote last night on Facebook: "I feel like a sponge wanting to soak up [John's] knowledge and historical facts. It went too fast tonight."
Dr. Byron has been a great friend to Church Requel, filling in for me in the pulpit last November. He also gave our group a tour of the Bible Museum last year. John has been instrumental in my own Biblical education. Each Sunday when I preach, at least a part of what you hear from me is due to his influence. Thanks John!
Keep Praying. Before we close this week, let's all continue to pray for Aimee. Thank you to those who took her meals this past week and to all of you planning to take her meals next week. We're just thankful she is feeling up to eating again! She will begin chemo next month, so I know she greatly desires your prayers.
Jack appreciates your continued prayers. Balance is his #1 goal right now. He is faithfully working his way through rehab. Jan is praying hard for both her sisters, one in hospice and another in assisted living care. Let's pray for Jan's sisters. Also we keep praying for Nancy, struggling with her dad in nursing care. We know it's heartbreaking for Jan and Nancy right now. We have a praying church family! Thank you!
With love for each of you. In Christ, Pastor Mark
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This is front and center of today’s headlines: “We Live In Divided Times.” What makes this sermon so special is not that these divisions headlined this week’s news, but that this headline was announced 2,000 years ago by Jesus himself! What should we do about the divisions that we see all around us? We consider Luke 12:49-59 and receive advice for these divided days straight from our Lord Himself.
Advice For Today's Christian 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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This is front and center of today’s headlines: “We Live In Divided Times.” What makes this sermon so special is not that these divisions headlined this week’s news, but that this headline was announced 2,000 years ago by Jesus himself! What should we do about the divisions that we see all around us? We consider Luke 12:49-59 and receive advice for these divided days straight from our Lord Himself.
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 Thursday morning Church Requel!
Wait just a doggone minute. Thursday morning? What happened to the idea of the Friday morning newsletter? My decision to move up our weekly newsletter by 24 hours can be explained by two facts:
Fact #1 - We are planning a pew rehab party Friday morning at 9:30 and I wanted to use this newsletter as an opportunity to let you know about it.
Fact #2 - I'd like to join the pew party myself and as much as I'd like to be able to do two things at once, I cannot both write a newsletter AND help out with the pew rehab party.
So far we have a good crew lined up - Dave and Jenny, Mark and Mary Kay, Don, Cindy, Brandi, and Tamara. We could always use more hands, so if you want to join in the fun just show up at the church tomorrow morning.
I know many of you work on Friday morning and cannot join the crew. We get that. We may have another work night later when you can join in the fun. I'll keep you posted. I also know some of you may want to watch tomorrow's inauguration. So we'll stream it to our big screen while we work in the sanctuary - and try not to wade into political deep waters in the process.
How To Disagree Agreeably. Since I mentioned the political changeover happening Friday, I should also mention that we are going to talk on Sunday about the great divisions we now are experiencing in our country. We continue our study of Luke and come across Jesus prophetic words in verse 51: "Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division."
You might believe that today's political arguments have nothing to do with our Christianity one way or another. I hope to persuade you that our nation's past abandonment of Christian-Judeo principles has opened the way to today's senseless and ceaseless bickering among our political leaders - regardless of party. We have lost the art of disagreeing agreeably.
Sadly, I believe, this poor example works it's way down to every level in our society, from the workplace to the schoolyard to the family dinner table. (Here I am probably being too optimistic. Do families still converse around a dinner table? Do families still have dinner around a dinner table?)
We won't take anything for granted Sunday morning. I plan to talk about how you can disagree agreeably with other people. Whether you're Facebook posting or Little League coaching, whether your issues are political ideology, Christian theology, or the Brown's garbology, I promise you will walk away from Sunday's talk with concrete ways to lessen animosity and strengthen amiability.
This could be good for you in your marriages, at school, at work, and in all areas where you disagree with someone else. It's not about whether you engage in a fight or not. Some things ARE worth fighting for. It's about how you go about it. As we will discover Sunday morning, a meaningful fight should not just be about who wins or loses. The way many of us are going about it these days, everybody loses!
The Whole Community On Sunday! There's a whole lot more going on Sunday morning than just my talk. Brandi is leading a great praise team including Bessica, Karen (first timer!), Brian, Makayla and Stephenie. We also have a Readers Theater Scripture reading by Fred, Aaron and Loni. And of course lots of folks will be working behind the scenes like Chris and Tamara in the tech booth, Sara and Scott bringing the communion bread and setting up, Nancy bringing the snacks, Trish and Missie greeting, Cindy leading the Jr. High kiddos (they call themselves the Missionaries!), Karen and Fred leading the KidsMin, Mary Kay and Susie leading our Nursery kiddos - to each and every one of you I say THANK YOU! I love serving alongside of you. The participation ratio of people volunteering to minister within our small church is simply amazing and humbling.
Hope to see some of you Friday morning. Hope to see all of you Sunday morning. God bless! Pastor Mark
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How much have you been given? Are you entrusted with much? Compared to other Christians down through the ages, the answer might surprise you! We continue our study of Jesus’ promise to return again in Luke 12:41-48. Along the way we consider 3 applications of Jesus’ instructions.
Entrusted With Much 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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How much have you been given? Are you entrusted with much? Compared to other Christians down through the ages, the answer might surprise you! We continue our study of Jesus’ promise to return again in Luke 12:41-48. Along the way we consider 3 applications of Jesus’ instructions.
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!
Goodbye. The Beatles song, "Hello, Goodbye," has been playing in my mind this week as we have said our goodbyes to Tamira Barnes. As some of you may know, Jeff and Tamira were also our neighbors, as well as friends and co-laborers in Christ. I experienced yet another twinge of sadness last night around 9pm as I watched their moving van, filled with their worldly possessions, finally pull away up the hill past our home. For a long while afterward I just sat looking into the fire I had made, hoping it would warm my soul as well as my body.
This week I have spoken to many of you about Tamira's "goodbye." We all have accepted that this is best for her and for her family. She will now be able to better take care of her parents. But for many of us, the parting is still difficult. Tamira was such a beloved pastor and teacher to our children.
Last Sunday I was overwhelmed with the love you all displayed to her, showering her with cards, letters, and most importantly your words of appreciation for her friendship as well as a job well done. No minister of the gospel could ask for a better send-off than you gave to her. From the bottom of my heart, I thank you. I am proud of you!
Hellos. While we could never replace Tamira - she is unique! One of a kind! - we must always be looking forward in the ministry of our beloved Church Requel. My prayer is that we are, with the Holy Spirit's enabling, creating a church that is bigger than any one of us - including yours truly. We are working in the ministry for something that lasts longer than we do. We are working to leave a church legacy that could benefit our children and their children after them. So in that endeavor, goodbyes and hellos are a necessary part of the ongoing life of our church.
As your pastor let me tell you a little of what is happening on the "Hello" front.
Brandi, Trish and Missie have agreed to double up their worship leadership together. While worship singing and piano playing was never an official part of Tamira's job, she and Jeff led our worship singing one Sunday a month. Brandi, Trish and Missie will fill in for that monthly leadership duty.
Not only will they "fill-in," but they actually have a new idea to which I am really looking forward. Once each month they will design a worship set with songs written and/or made famous by a single artist or group. On Wednesday of this week, I worked with Brandi to plan the January 29th worship set, when we will all sing songs written by Colton Dixon. Hopefully this new Church Requel ingredient will bring current Christian artists to the forefront of your mind - not just to become a fan, but to know the stories behind many of the songs we sing. Thanks again, Brandi, for the commitment and creativity of your CR leadership!
New Children's Director. I'm sure that many of you want to know about what we are doing to find a new part-time staff person to teach our children. We can sum up with three words: praying, searching and thanking. First off, I hope each one of you is joining me each day in praying to our Lord that He would send the man or woman of His choosing to us. I'm praying for a person who is a solid Christ-follower, who believes what we believe and has an talent for teaching it to our children, who has availability, time, and energy to devote to the job, AND would work well in partnership with our leadership team and existing staff. That's a giant prayer - and I pray it every day. I'm hoping you are too!
Second, we're searching. We've let it be known in every way we can (that hasn't cost us money) to our friends and community that we are hiring. We are open to someone coming in to our church, who is not yet a member. (Remember Tamira was once an outsider too.) This week I have spoken at length with several possible prospects and have asked each one of them to pray for God's direction in their lives. I am praying for each one of them too. I'm also keeping my mind and heart open for whom God may direct our way. You could help us with our search. If you are on Facebook, please repost our job opening on your own personal page. Also, if you know of someone who may be a candidate for the position, please send them my way.
Third, we're thanking Karen Jacob for her willingness to teach our primary age children in KidsMin on a week to week basis until we find our permanent new Children's Director. Karen is not new to our children or new to this ministry. She has helped Tamira many times in the past in KidsMin. Thanks Karen!
Meanwhile we say "Hello" to each good Sunday at Church Requel. Nothing is sweeter than the greeting between us all each week. I am back at work writing sermons from the Gospel of Luke. This week we continue to consider the nearness of our Lord's return as we study Luke 12:41-48. (Want a head start? Check out these online sermon notes.) We will rediscover together this truth: to whom much is given, much is expected.
Each week we will continue to sing together (thanks Brandi, Trish and Missie for your leadership this week), pray together (thanks Roger for leading our prayer time this week), share in communion and give generously our tithes and offerings. Especially about this, I want to thank all of you for your generosity last Sunday! We also want to thank all of you who gave financially using our new website, give.ChurchRequel.org. Also to the two families who have set up a new recurring donation to CR - thank you! You know who you are.
Bottom line, we continue to live in faith and in community together. We continue to enjoy the love and support of one another. We continue to pray for one another. At this writing, my prayers continue to join yours in praying for Aimee Medina, who learned this past week that her removed tumor was cancerous. She is home from the hospital now, but still on oxygen. She is eating a mostly liquid, light diet. She will let us know - and we will in turn let you know - when she is ready for meals to be brought in.
Love you all much! Praying for you! Please keep praying for me! - Pastor Mark
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In our fast paced lifestyles, many of us enjoy frozen and prepared-in-advance, ready to serve meals. In Luke 12:35-40 Jesus tells us that we are also to be prepared-in-advance and ready to serve. We consider exactly what this means and how to do it in what we hope will be a delicious sermon for our hungry souls.
Ready To Serve 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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In our fast paced lifestyles, many of us enjoy frozen and prepared-in-advance, ready to serve meals. In Luke 12:35-40 Jesus tells us that we are also to be prepared-in-advance and ready to serve. We consider exactly what this means and how to do it in what we hope will be a delicious sermon for our hungry souls.
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 morning Church Requel!
Our children will give say their final farewell to Tamira this coming Sunday morning. Tamira and Jeff will be moving to their new home in Florida next week and Sunday will be Tamira's last day at Church Requel.
We want to make it special.
Some special plans have been made for this Sunday. This writer cannot tell all because we would like to reserve a few surprises for Tamira as well as for our children. I will write you what I can. Let me begin by urging each family to attend this Sunday. This Sunday will be a high point for our children as well as for Tamira.
First off - many of our children will be involved in this Sunday's worship. The special children's praise team list seems to be growing by the day. Here's the list of singers as of this morning: Brandi, Cindy, Tre, Paityn, Leia, Saudaie, Emma, Grace, and Charlee. However, if your child would like to join the fun - no problem. Show up at Church Requel Saturday morning at 11am for rehearsal.
Second - we invite all who wish to participate - to write a note or card to Tamira, thanking her for serving as our children's director. This goes double for all the children. I'm sure this would be a treasure for Tamira to keep for the rest of her days.
Third - we plan to enjoy a potluck meal after the worship service. So plan on bringing a dish or two to share with others. We also will give everyone plenty of time to say kind words of farewell to Tamira as well. Let's send her off in grand Church Requel style!
Sunday we return to our Luke sermon text. It seems like forever since we've last been into this study. I'm really looking forward to it. The sermon title is "Ready To Serve" and is based on Luke 12:35-40. We also have a very special communion time planned for the adults.
While the adults are enjoying our study of God's Word and communion, our children will be downstairs watching the Christmas video with Tamira. You might recall that the week we were planning to show it, we were closed because of the icy conditions. So this has worked out really well to give our kiddos a fun time together.
You may want to know where we go from here once Tamira has gone? We are committed to our KidsMin program and are actively searching for a new KidsMin Director. We are looking for a creative person, committed to Christ, and who loves teaching children. This man or woman would need to be a member of Church Requel or able to become a member. If you know of someone who fits the bill, let them know of our part-time position that is now available. Also, will join me in praying for the right person of God's choosing?
In the meantime we'll continue to need volunteers each week in the Nursery. Karen Jacob has agreed to teach our primary-age children on a week to week basis. Cindy Thoman will continue to teach our junior-high age children. By the way our older class has decided to call itself The Missionaries. Isn't that cool?
A note about our finances... After much thinking and prayer, our leadership team has made the decision to begin passing the basket for tithes and offerings each Sunday. This past year has been a tough year financially for our church and we're hoping this weekly reminder could help. We also have set up a new giving website, give.ChurchRequel.org, which will allow you to give one-time donations with your mobile device or computer. I believe, though, the best solution is the one that Mary Kay and I use - we set up weekly, automatic, recurring gifts to Church Requel right from our checking account. Automatic electronic giving is simple, secure, flexible and convenient. Let me know if you want help getting this set up for yourself. Thank you so much for your continued and faithful financial support of Church Requel!
Before we end this letter, let us remember Amie Medina. She needs our prayers this week. Tuesday she had a tumor removed. She will probably be in MedCentral until early next week. Let's pray for a good prognosis for her and for her rapid recovery.
Hope to see you Sunday morning! Love, Pastor Mark
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