Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Standing On The Shoulders

Good morning Church Requel!

Happy Friday morning everyone! The sun is shining bright outside. I hope this is the start to a fantastic weekend for each of you!

This Sunday we will talk about the first Christian martyr - Stephen - from chapter 7 of the Book of Acts. Stephen was the first but far from the last. We are so fortunate here in the United States that we have freedom of worship. This has not been the experience of most Christians down through the ages. We stand on the shoulders of many, who have given their all so that we might be able to worship Jesus.

Want a head start on Sunday's sermon? Read all of Acts 7 and then check out the sermon notes in your Bible app. (Click on "Events" and look for Church Requel.) You could also find Sunday's notes here.

I just received the Facebook message from Brandi about everyone participating in Sunday's service. Thank you Brandi for so faithfully sending this notice out every Friday morning. And thank all of you, who so regularly volunteer.

Thank you Chris and Tamara for being willing to run the tech booth two weeks in a row - as you almost always do during 5-week months. 

Thank you Brian, Bessica, Amy and Brandi for being willing to lead our worship Sunday morning. And thank you all for your flexibility to work around your teammate's schedule. Brian worked 2nd shift Thursday so the team agree to come in early Sunday morning - 8:45! - so that they could be ready to lead worship at 11am. That's dedication!

Thank you Kyle and Sean for passing our offering baskets so cheerfully each Sunday. Thank you Trish for greeting! Thank you Jessica and Dave for teaching our Nursery kiddos. (This is Jessica's tenth year of service in the nursery - think of that!) Thank you Cindy for teaching our Missionary Class and Karen for teaching our KidsMin class. Thank you Shelli for counting our attendance and offering! Thank you Tamara for organizing our children's Christmas program this year. (It's going to be an Emoji Christmas. I've heard my grandchildren already talking about what emojis they want to be!)

We are just so blessed with servants at Church Requel. Each of you do so many things and I want to say "thank you" from the bottom of my heart!

Bonfire on October 6th! This annual event is always such a fun one, a winner all the way around. Thank you Sheri for opening your beautiful home for us to enjoy!

I love this picture (right) taken a few years ago. Jack and Don built the fire so big that you can see how far back Don had to stand! You can also see the beautiful landscape that we get to enjoy at Sheri's place.

The fun begins at 6pm. Bring your lawn chair, something to drink, a side dish to share and your bug spray. We will cook hot dogs and s'mores! (If you have cooking sticks, bring those along too.) Look for Sheri's address in the bulletin at church this Sunday morning.

Here are a couple last minute additions to the newsletter - Dan and DeeDee have to leave early Sunday and can't clean up like they usually do. If you could stick around for a few minutes to throw away the trash and clean up, let DeeDee or Brandi know. Also Missie can't greet Sunday morning like she planned. If you can come in a few minutes early and say "howdy do" and pass out the morning's program, that would be greatly appreciated.

Love you all much! See you Sunday at 11am! - Pastor Mark

Jam Band / Putt Putt This Sunday!

Good Saturday Church Requel!

Sorry for writing you all one day late this week. I had some business in Columbus early yesterday that ended up consuming most of my day. So thanks for understanding.

This morning was Jam Band rehearsal for tomorrow morning's worship service. This is the first moment I've had to sit down at my computer since Thursday afternoon. Jam Band was awesome this morning... thanks for asking!

Brandi, Brian, Don, Dan and Dave joined me in our rehearsal and we each had such a good time together. They told me not to say this to you since they are sure it will jinx us - but they sounded so good together. It's really starting to come together for us.

We will sing 4 songs together as a congregation: "Our God" by Chris Tomlin; "All Things New" by KXC Worship; "The Way (New Horizon)" by Pat Barrett; and "Old Church Choir" by Zach Williams. It should be a good opportunity for praise and worship!

Also tomorrow morning Brandi will be singing "Overcomer" by Mandisa. She will be accompanied by Don on his acoustic guitar. This is one that Don has worked on for a couple months now, so I'm excited to hear them team up for this special song. Also a fun one for tomorrow, during the offering I'll be playing "Can't Buy God's Love" - a Christian parody song to the Beatles original "Can't Buy Me Love." The lyrics are actually very good to this one. But I'll admit that I have a lot of fun singing it.

Sermon: "Underground Manipulation." We wrap up Acts chapter 6 tomorrow morning. This is the part of Scripture where some unscrupulous people spread false accusations against Stephen. I couldn't help but think of our own political situation today - on both sides of the political aisle - of working "underground" to achieve the end result we want. We will struggle with the ethical question of the ends justifying the means. So be prepared to be a little challenged tomorrow morning. Want a head start? Check out your Bible app and click on "Events." Or check out the sermon notes in your browser window here: http://bible.com/events/482510

Putt Putt Golf After Church Tomorrow! We have our next fun event scheduled for tomorrow after church. We're all planning to drive down to Kelly's Dairy Bar and Miniature Golf, located at 1280 South Main Street in Mansfield.  This is always such a fun event every year. The photo on the right was taken last summer.

There is something for everybody! For those who enjoy it - you can play putt putt golf outside. The weather man is predicting a high of only 71 degrees and cloudy weather. Couldn't be a better forecast for miniature golf.

For those who enjoy antique cars, there is also a free car show at Kelly's tomorrow as well. You can get up close and personal with vehicles that are older than most in our church!

Finally there is great grilled food and ice cream. It promises to be a blast for all ages! You won't want to miss this fun with your Church Requel family!

Looking forward to our worship time and then our fellowship time together tomorrow!

Love you all much! - Pastor Mark 

 

Pancake Breakfast Sunday Morning at 9:30!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We have a very special Sunday morning planned this weekend! You won't want to miss this for yourself or your church family so make a special note!

FREE BREAKFAST SERVED AT 9:30AM BEFORE CHURCH!

Don't come at the normal 11am time or you will miss out on a great breakfast and some good fellowship time with your church family!

Many thanks to Sheri Nichols and Dave Repp for organizing this event. And we should also thank Mary Kay for purchasing many of the breakfast supplies for this morning. And also by the way, the rest of the morning (read below) was also inspired by Sheri and Cindy too!

Worship - Informal and Acoustic / Telling Our God Stories!

Not only are we having a good breakfast together, but when we go upstairs for our worship time we are planning something much more personal and informal than what we usually do. Brandi will join me up front and the two of us will lead our church in telling our own individual stories of how we each have come to follow Jesus in the Christian faith. 

When did it happen for you? How did you know that you became a Christian? What is your story? Be thinking about the circumstances in your life that led to your decision to follow Christ and come prepared to tell your story to the congregation Sunday morning. The younger children will be dismissed to KidsMin, but we would like our older Missionary Class students to join us and be a participant in this very special worship event.

Be transparent. Just a few things to think about when sharing. We want to be as transparent as we can be, which means that this could be a little uncomfortable for some of us. This will require trust. We want Church Requel to be a safe place where you can share your story with others. For this reason we won't be streaming this service on Facebook. It will just be those in the room. So what is said at Church Requel stays at Church Requel!

Be positive. Many of us came to faith from difficult circumstances and so you need to be free to share that with us. We need to hear it and still be affirming to you. Your God story is YOUR God story! The Bible is filled with tough stories of people in crisis. With that said, every story of faith also has a positive element of how God was faithful or of how God was able to use the story of our faith. Ultimately our story should bring God glory. That's our purpose.

Be brief. By this we don't mean be rushed. Tell your story. We want to hear it. All of it. But we also want to hear everyone else's stories too! For this reason we won't be having Pastor Mark deliver a sermon Sunday morning. And our worship singing will be abbreviated. We will share communion together at the end. If you have a favorite Bible verse to share, or one that is meaningfully connected to your God story, please feel free to share it! And if you have a prayer request, let us know and we'll stop and pray right then and there for your request.

Brandi and I are hoping that this worship event will be a milestone for our congregation - that we will remember the Sunday when we all took a giant leap forward in our connection to one another as well as to God Himself! Be praying that God would lead you in what you might share. We don't know about you, but we can't wait for Sunday morning to come!

We love you all! (Speaking for Brandi too...) Pastor Mark

Back To Church Sunday!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

This Sunday is September 9th. It's a big deal. Why is it such a big deal you ask? Because Labor Day is in the rear view mirror. ALL of our students are now back in school - even our Morrow County kiddos are done with the County Fair and are now attending classes. Families are back into a routine. Usually back to school also means back to church on Sunday mornings too!

So let's all show back up this Sunday morning at Church Requel! So many good things are happening!

Growth & Division Sermon This Sunday. Not only do we turn the calendar page this Sunday, but we turn the Bible page too. This Sunday we begin Acts Chapter 6. I'm not sure how your Bible heads this section, but mine says, "The Choosing of the Seven." This is one of my favorite stories of the early church.

Have you ever heard that too much good news is actually bad news? No? Consider this: the church in Acts 6 was growing so fast that some parts of the church were not being cared for as well as other parts. There were complaints! The church, which had been so united only a chapter before, began seeing signs of division. But even this didn't necessarily spell bad news for those early apostles. It's not the division that leads to problems, but how we handle division. Handled correctly division actually leads to more growth! 

Want to know more about the sermon? The sermon notes can be found in your Bible app under "Events" or you can click this link to see the notes in your browser window.

Our worship praise team this Sunday will include Brandi, Trish, Missie and Haleigh! It's so great to see Haleigh back with us again! The praise team will open up our service with a special song, "Witness" by Jordan Feliz. They will also be singing a special song later in the service: "Jesus" by Chris Tomlin.

Our congregational songs will include "Call Upon The Lord" by Elevation Worship, "I Came For You" by Planetshakers, and "You Are Good" by Israel Houghton.

Loni will read our Bible Reading and Mark will lead our communion time.

We also will give individual members of our congregation the chance to share their God Stories too. So if God has been working in your life this week, come prepared to tell us all the good news!

Pancake Breakfast - September 16th. Next week Dave Repp and Sheri Nichols will provide us all a wonderful pancake breakfast before church. We'll begin serving at 9:30 am. So come hungry and ready to visit with all your Church Requel friends. No charge for the breakfast either! It just doesn't get better than that!

Putt-Putt Golf / Grill Food / Antique Cars - September 23rd. In two weeks - on September 23rd AFTER CHURCH we'll all head down to Kelly's Miniature Golf to play some putt-putt and eat some grill food! AND the antique car show is that weekend too! You won't want to miss out on having a fun adventure with all your Church Requel friends. This event has been a popular one with young and old alike in years past.

Bonfire, Hot Dogs, S'mores on October 6th. This is our annual fun get together at Sheri's place. October 6th is a Saturday. We'll plan to meet at 6pm. Bring your lawn chair, something to drink, a side dish to share and your bug spray! If you have cooking sticks, bring those too. We'll have Sheri's address for you at church, if you don't already know where she lives.

We are all still experiencing the summer warmth - so I know you won't want to hear this next bit... I've been making arrangements for our Christmas children's program this morning! I know! I know! No one wants to hear this. Just want you to know that we are thinking down the road for you and your children's benefit! Ok, go back to your grilling and football plans for this weekend!

God bless you! Hope to see you in church Sunday morning. Love you much! Pastor Mark