Good Friday morning Church Requel!
I hope this sunny Friday morning finds you all doing well. I have spent the week honing the message I plan to bring to you Sunday morning, which I'm calling "Cross Encounters." We'll talk about 6 different groups of people that Jesus encountered on Good Friday.
It's hard to believe, but Good Friday this year is only 2 weeks from now. I want you all to be prepared for the best Easter you've ever celebrated. My goal for this Sunday is to plant the seeds in your mind of just how miraculous and victorious Jesus was on that day two millennia ago! If you would like a head start, open your Bible app and click on "Events" and then "Church Requel." You can also check out the sermon notes here in your browser.
Easter Candy and Goodie Bags. This Sunday and next you may bring candy and goodies to give to our children on Easter Sunday morning. Next Sunday (Palm Sunday March 25th) will be the day we assemble all the baggies. Stick around after church next week, if you are able, to help us out. Many hands will make the job go more quickly! Many thanks to DeeDee for her inspiration for this project for our children!
This Sunday's worship will be lead by one of our largest praise teams: Brandi, Brian, Bessica, Brett, Aaron and Amy. They plan to practice Saturday morning at 11am and then again Sunday morning at 9:45 to be prepared to lead all of us at 11am. Thank them for their dedication!
Brandi has planned what she calls a Sunday worship sandwich! That means we'll sing two worship songs at the beginning and then another two worship songs at the end. I love it!
Here are the songs scheduled for this Sunday: "Unstoppable God" by Elevation Worship; "Friend of God" by Israel Houghton; "There Is Power" by Lincoln Brewster and "Glorious Day" by Kristian Stanfill. Want to get started with your worship singing early? I created a special YouTube playlist just for this weekend. Each video has all the lyrics so you can sing along. And for you Church Requel musicians, the final song - Glorious Day - has all the chords too. I found myself strumming along this morning on my ukulele!
Jam Band Meets Again Next Sunday. Speaking of my ukulele I met with all you Jam Banders last Sunday after church. What a wonderful time we all had. You can see all the instruments lined up in the photo above. Can you tell which one is mine? One person told me it looked like it shrunk in the wash. Another told me it looked like a hobbit's guitar. I think I may start calling my ukulele "Rodney" because he gets no respect. Ha!
Joining me last Sunday was Brandi, Chris, Don, Dan and Brett. We enjoyed pizza and about two hours of playing and singing songs. It went so well that we plan to do it again one week from Sunday, March 25th.
If you play an instrument stick around next week and play with us. Should be a lot of fun! Students - you are most welcome to join us too!
We have set up a group page on our community website and have stored all of our chord sheets there. Let me know if you would like to have access. I'll get you all set up so you can download everything you need.
Book Exchange Off To A Great Start. Also last week we saw a great kick-off to our book exchange. Each week Kay Butts sets out interesting Christian books on the piano in the back of the sanctuary. They are all free and looking for a good home! Make sure to swing by to see if there is a book there that you'd like to read. Also, if you have a good Christian book that you'd like to share with someone else, drop it off on the piano Sunday and Kay will help get the book into someone else's hands. Thanks Kay for following up on such a great idea!
Luke Sermons Now Total 90! Our very first sermon from Luke was back in December 2015. More than two years later we are coming to the end of this beautiful Gospel. Did you know that last Sunday was our 90th sermon? I have scheduled out the rest of this Gospel of Luke sermon series and if all goes as planned, we'll wrap up our 97th sermon on April 22nd. Wow. Seems like we should have a celebration of some kind. Any ideas?
By the way, you can view and share each sermon on YouTube here. And if you're not already a subscriber to the Church Requel YouTube channel, what are you waiting for? By subscribing you receive first notice whenever we add something new!
I think that will wrap up our newsletter this Friday. Can't wait to see you all Sunday morning! Love, Pastor Mark
