Good Friday morning Church Requel!
Mary Kay and I arrived back in Mansfield Tuesday evening from our vacation in Myrtle Beach. We enjoyed the company of my 88-year-old dad, his wife, Julie, along with Dave and Jessica. The six of us shared a three bedroom condo on the tenth floor directly overlooking the beach. What a wonderful, peaceful, enjoyable time together.
Dad and Julie are still there enjoying the company of friends. Alas, the Mansfield Pierces have all returned to the chilly mornings of Richland County.
Mary Kay walked 3 miles of the beach each day. I joined her about half the time. I played my uke just about every day. Dad made us all a fish fry and baked two different pies! Myrtle Beach and cherry pie - it really doesn't get much better than that!
OctoberBlest Has Begun! We've been talking about this final week of October for more than a month and it's finally here. Many different churches are involved in providing a worship and prayer experience four times a day for each of these last 7 days of the month.
So what's behind this idea? The ancient church celebrated All Saints Day on the first day of each November. The day before, October 31st, was known as the Hallowed Eve. Over time Hallowed Eve morphed into what we now know as Halloween and very few know anything about All Saints Day. What was intended to be a sacred time to come together to celebrate God and His work through His children became a secular holiday of ghouls and goblins. Many of the churches in our area would like to turn the tide and the attention back to God and His glory.
As your pastor, I am asking you to consider going to as many of these as you are able. No one expects you to go to all of them. Having four different times and four times places each day is intended to provide you the opportunity to get to at least one every day.
Usually there will be a 7am, noon, 5pm and 9pm event scheduled each day in a different part of Richland County.
I've placed the schedule in the photo to the right. If you click on the photo, it will expand into a readable size.
Please take special note of Church Requel's time in the schedule. We will host the OctoberBlest this coming Tuesday at noon. Brandi and I will be leading this one together. There will be lots of music, prayer and a short devotional. We will dismiss by 1pm, keeping it to a "lunch hour."
Please come support us Tuesday at noon, if you are able!
THIS SUNDAY!
Special New Praise Team!
We are calling it the grand experiment. Sunday morning the Jam Band will combine up with the ladies trio. We have put together a worship set that all of us can do together! Yay! Come be a part of our grand experiment this Sunday!
This newsletter has always been my opportunity to write to you some of the behind-the-scenes details you might never know by attending on Sunday mornings.
Most of you don't know this because you weren't here at the start ten years ago... - YES! - I just realized that our very first public worship service in October 2009 at the Mid-Ohio Conference Center. (Check out this post for my thoughts after that first night and for pictures - some of us looked so much younger! Ha!) Wow - what a great little surprise. I hadn't realized that this month marked 10 years. Wow!
Anyway - before I was so rudely interrupted by my own recollections... when we first started out we had live music and a worship band. But it wasn't long before our worship leader was hired by another church (completely understandable since we couldn't afford a salary for him back then.) That was the end of live music.
For almost nine years after that, we used music tracks for our worship music. We even got pretty proficient at it, if I do say so myself. But nothing on a track is as good for worship as live music, in my humble opinion. With live music we just have so much more flexibility. We can sing a chorus a second time or repeat a bridge if the Spirit moves us.
Then - about a year and a half ago - the ukulele came into my life. And (could it really be coincidence?) the bass came into Don's life. Dan and Dave got excited about their guitars. Brian decided to learn the drum set. And Sheri decided to donate a really nice drum set in loving memory of Jack. Seemingly out of nowhere we had occasional live music again. Admittedly at first it was pretty rough. But now - after a year or so of practice - we think we have enough songs that we can go with live music just about every week.
WE THINK that anyway. Hence the terminology of "the grand experiment." Sunday morning we're going to give it a try. Part of the experiment is the fact that none of us can meet twice every week - once for a rehearsal and then again for a rehearsal and worship event Sunday morning. So the grand experiment is that we will meet together much earlier - 8:30am on Sunday morning for our practice. Most of us can gather together earlier if we limit it to one day.
If the experiment works well, then this may become our normal format for 3 out of 4 Sundays in 2020. We will reserve the first Sunday for special music, choirs, and student participation. We will also continue our new tradition of 5th Sunday Singspirations, where everybody brings their musical talents in praise, starting again in March 2020.
Ok - enough writing for this week. I'm excited to be back with you all. I'm excited that we have survived our first decade together. I'm excited that God has continued to bless us. I'm excited that I can still be... excited (and surprised and filled with wonder!) Love you all much. See you Sunday morning at 11am (if not before at one of the OctoberBlest services.) - Pastor Mark
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