Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

So Much Happening in February!!!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Can you believe we have arrived at the last day in January 2020 already?!? What's so exciting about this Friday is that I can finally tell you all about what will be happening in February. WE HAVE BIG NEWS!!! So read on my fellow Church Requelers! In the order it will happen...

February 2nd - Largest Choir YET! Every Sunday at Church Requel is special, right? But this coming Sunday holds the potential of the largest choir we've ever seen at our church. I'm so pleased that so many of you have signed up! Here is the current list of choral singers: Brandi, Chris, Tamara, Amy, Bessica, Cindy, Olivia. Alice, Skyler, Aaron, Saudaie, Bubby, Sivon, Leia, Paityn, Brian and Emma. Wow!!! If you want to sing but your name is not on this list - come and sing anyway! Just make sure you come really early. The choir will begin practice at 8:30 am.

February 8th - Neighborhood Meal.

We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal this coming Saturday, February 8th. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. We serve the meal at 5pm. We are usually walking out the door by 6pm. Your homemade desserts would be most welcome too.

If you know you can come and help, would you please sign up in the lobby Sunday morning? Thanks for helping!

Clean Up Saturday - February 15th. We are gathering a team to clean up the downstairs area. We would appreciate all the hands we can get to organize our classrooms and storage closet. Post Christmas - everything is such mess. Also, there's lots of things that just need to be thrown away. Would you join the work team that morning? So far we have commitments from Pastor Mark, Mary Kay, Brandi, Paul Lintern, Dave & Becky, and Don & Steph. Plan to meet together with us at 9am.  The more who help, the faster we will get 'er done!

Carpet Pull Sunday - February 16th. After the regular Sunday morning worship service, we need as many as can stay late to help us with a new project. We want to pull up all the carpeting in the sanctuary! If you have tools that can help, bring them. But even just your willing arms to carry off remnants would be most welcome. Why are we pulling up the carpeting you ask ... ?

Sanctuary Makeover - February 17th - 22nd. You read that right! A work team of carpenter-farmers from Oakland Lutheran Church have decided to take this project on. They will be building a brand new two-level platform that will extend out closer toward our pews. They expect to complete the work in three days, from Monday, February 17th to the 19th.

If you have basic carpentry skills (you can hammer a nail) and you have time available those days, why not join in the fun? And those of you with cooking and baking skills, perhaps you might come in and feed our carpentry team!?

Paul has also hired a local carpeting installer to come in on February 20th and 21st to install new carpeting in our aisles and upon our new platform. When you come to church on February 23rd, expect a whole new look! Isn't this exciting news?!

Leap of Faith Concert - February 29th. Did you know this is Leap Year? This February has 29 days! So what are you planning to do with your extra day this year? I have a suggestion. Why not come to church on Saturday night at 6:30 pm and celebrate all that God has done! I will be joining Paul Lintern and many other musicians with a concert of praise. The official "March Of Prayer Again" will start the next day. This kick-off event should be a lot of fun and filled with praise for our Lord. The concert will begin just as soon as the neighborhood meal is finished.

Finally - A BIG THANK YOU!  

Last Sunday I told you that we had fallen behind our 2020 budget in the first 3 weeks of January. You responded so willingly, with the largest weekly giving in this month. We are all caught up!

Thanks so much for having such a generous heart! We have such a loving and giving church family. I know I am lucky to be your pastor. 

Isn't this an exciting time for us? Love you all much! - Pastor Mark

Clergy Meets With Mayor

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Yesterday I joined many other pastors in Mayor Tim Theaker's 9th floor conference room. We prayed for our mayor and all the department chiefs. We celebrated the drop in unemployment in Mansfield from over 14% to now just over 4%. We also celebrated significant drops in major crimes. And we rejoiced over the nativity set in our town square this past Christmas.

I learned that every Monday morning at 8:15 there is a clergy prayer meeting that takes place in this same conference room, where pastors pray for the needs of our city. I want to begin making that a part of my week!

I believe we are fortunate to live in the City of Mansfield. Our cost of living is lower than just about anywhere else. But that's not the best part. We live in what historically has been known as the city of steeples. Yesterday at lunch I felt that was not just a historical description, but also a current one! I'm grateful for the many pastors who serve alongside me, for their friendship, for their dedication and for their prayers.

Soup, Soup, and More Soup For You! When Sheri and Juanita and seven others gathered on a Tuesday morning to make soup and freeze soup to give away for those who might become sick... never ever did they guess they would be needed as much as what they have been.

I suppose one could look at this as bad news - that so many have become ill. However, I choose to look at this from a confirmation viewpoint. The Holy Spirit moved Sheri, Juanita and others to meet a need before we even knew the need existed. What better confirmation of the Holy Spirit in our lives could there be?

This pastor has remained in close touch with Sheri this week. She's told me that since the beginning of this year, she has dedicated herself to be active and focused on others' needs. I love her spirit and her attitude. It's been two years since we've said goodbye to Jack. But for Sheri it feels just like yesterday. She has shared with me (and now is allowing me to share with you) that it's really easy to stay home and grieve. And for awhile that's all she could do. But now she is grieving in a different way - using her skills to share with other people going through tough times too. Thanks for the example Sheri!

Lots Of New Folks Coming To Church Requel! Have you noticed all the new faces in the congregation lately? What a joy to see our small church grow! To me there seems to be a new Spirit of love and earnestness to our Christian faith. The fellowship, if anything, seems just a little sweeter. The songs seem a little louder. The preaching feels even more connected to God and His direction. What about you? Do you feel it too?

I've mentioned before just how much I'm enjoying the new direction in our music ministry and the accompanying dedication that it requires from our musicians. But the burden has not been heavy. Everyone seems to like coming in early (8:30 am) and sharing time with each other. The practices are worshipful too! To me it feels like we're not only warming up our voices for the 11am worship, but we are also warming up our souls!

Here are the songs we are planning to sing together this Sunday morning: (1) "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews; (2) “Because He Lives (Amen)" by Matt Maher; (3) "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel; (4) “Build Your Kingdom Here" by Rend Collective. Also our ladies' trio plans to sing a special song, "Forever Reign" by Hillsong. We're hoping the worship music will be truly powerful this Sunday morning.

Sermon: "The Pastor's Charge - Part 1"  What should you be looking for in a pastor? Someone kind and understanding? Someone who agrees with you? Someone who never creates controversy?

Sunday we will join up with Luke, the author of Acts, who witnesses Paul's charge to all the Ephesians' pastors. Luke gives us a front row seat in Acts 20, starting in verse 17. As I've studied this passage I have come to the conclusion that there is more here than I can teach in just one week. It may not even be possible to get through it all in two weeks.

I have published the sermon notes in your Bible app. You can also see the notes here. Check them out. Pray over them. (Pray over me!) Allow the Holy Spirit to begin speaking to you even before you show up at church this Sunday morning. 

Next Sunday - Largest Choir Yet!  The list of people singing in the choir on the first Sunday of each month continues to grow! Here is who has signed up to sing with us two Sundays from now: Brandi, Chris, Tamara, Amy, Bessica, Cindy, Olivia, Alice, Skyler, Aaron, Saudaie, Bubby, Sivon, Leia, Paityn, Brian and Emma. We still have room for YOU! Talk to Brandi this Sunday and plan to show up for practice a week from Sunday at 8:30am.

Giving Records For 2019. Thanks so much for your generous donations this past year. Your gift records are available online on our Church Community website. See me if you've forgotten your password or just prefer me to print your record for you! Each week I come to church with the printout for someone new. I'm most happy to do it for you.

January Giving Down So Far. Speaking our our giving records, I received a call from our treasurer this week that our giving for the first 3 weeks of this month is way behind that of last year and that we aren't even meeting our minimum budget for the month. I'm praying that some of you just haven't got around to your financial support yet this month and that all is still ok for us financially. No worries. All faith! But if you haven't had the chance to give to Church Requel yet this year, make your gift a priority this Sunday.

Finally - The Answer To Last Week's Question. I told you last week that there are two new ukulele players at Church Requel this year. Were you able to guess who they are?

The picture to the left answers the quiz. Stephenie and Leia have both started learning how to play ukulele. Yay!

And these are not the only three. I also realized that my granddaughter, Sicily, is also a uke player too! Imagine 4 uke players in a church our size! Hmmm... I wonder why that is?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could get a ukulele quartet going some day in 2020? No pressure! 

Here's hoping that your day today is blessed and joyful. Hope to see you all this weekend at Church Requel! Love you! Pastor Mark

Soups On!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Tuesday morning smelled so amazing at Church Requel this week! I wish every work day could smell so wonderful! Sheri, Juanita, Mary, Lisa, Becky, Dave and Stephenie cooked all morning. They made large batches of several kinds of soups and then froze them all in quart sized containers. Now whenever one of you OR one of your family or friends are sick, we can deliver soup. Already made. Already delish. Already ready to go!

Sunday Morning Worship Music

The praise team is now on a roll, showing up every Sunday morning at 8:30 am to rehearse, so we're prepared for the worship at 11am. I sure do love serving with them! How about you? Are you enjoying the live music?

Here are the songs we are planning to sing together with you this Sunday: (1) "Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin, a brand new one for us; (2) “Who You Say I Am" by Hillsong; (3) "Cornerstone" by Hillsong; and (4) “Friend of God" by Israel Houghton.

Sunday Morning Sermon - "Falling Asleep In Church"

We consider the somewhat humorous story of Eutychus - the first person recorded in Biblical history to have fallen asleep during a sermon. Eutychus may have been the first, but he certainly is not the last.

In Sunday's sermon we will consider five different ways that we Christ-followers can fall asleep. We'll learn that sermon sleeping is far from the worst kind of slumber in which we may engage in the Christian life.

Want a head start on the sermon? Want to begin thinking about it? Praying about it? Asking God to speak to you about it? Here is a link to my sermon notes in the Bible app. Allow those words to simmer in your mind. And go to bed early Saturday night! Ha!

March Of Prayer Returns to Church Requel March 6th

Remember last year's exciting March of Prayer? For those of you who don't, many churches in Mansfield participated in a worship and prayer event every evening in March and April right up to Easter. Each night we enjoyed the unique worship and prayer style of the many different churches in our community.

Good news! We are doing this again the year. The only thing different this year is that after seeing how God's Presence was experienced so powerfully last year, our churches are signing up more quickly to participate this year.

Church Requel will host the March of Prayer on Friday night, March 6th this year. As you can see from the picture above right, our sanctuary was completely filled up last year. So mark your calendar now for Friday, March 6th from 6-8pm. Actually, you should come early so you can help all our guests! More details to come as we get closer!

Our Next Neighborhood Meal - Saturday, February 8th

We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal on Saturday, February 8th. Volunteers should show up by 4pm. We serve the meal at 5pm. We are usually walking out the door by 6pm. Your homemade desserts would be most welcome too. Thanks for helping!

Bible Study Saturday at 11am

We continue our Bible survey class tomorrow morning at 11am. Many thanks to Brian for arranging this class for us. Each Saturday we listen to a 23-minute video lesson by Dr. R. C. Sproul, founder of Ligonier Ministries and author of more than 100 books, including Holiness Of God. After the video we gather around a table and talk about what we've learned. Honestly, it's been a pretty amazing discussion the past couple of weeks. Lots of different spiritual journeys represented by those who've attended. You would be most welcome to join us!

When Do We Close For Snow?

I hear we have some nasty weather coming Saturday night. Hopefully not bad enough to keep us from church on Sunday. It's very rare that we ever close. We have contracted to have our lot across the street snow plowed AND salted when it's needed. But if Richland County every experiences a LEVEL 2 snow emergency, we automatically close down. Safety first! You can also confirm by checking out our Facebook page and our website.

Last But Not Least...

Did you know that we now have 2 more ukulele players at Church Requel? Counting yours truly that makes 3!!! Do you know what the odds are that a church our size would have 3 ukulele players? Not high I can tell you. So who are the other two? I will leave it to you to guess until next week's newsletter!

Love you all much! See you Saturday and/or Sunday at 11am! - Pastor Mark

Thanks For The Food!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Before I write anything else to you, I want to say "thank you" to the many who have responded so generously to our food pantry requests over this past month. Several of you have been bringing food with you when you come to church on Sunday mornings. Thanks! Keep doing it! Then another couple showed up at my house Sunday afternoon and filled my trunk with food for the food pantry.

I called Sheri, who directs our food pantry operations, to ask her if she wanted me to put all the food in the pantry for her. She declined, saying she needed to reorganize some things with all the new donations. So I put all the extra food on the pews in the downstairs hallway. We just about filled up the two pews with all the food! Wow!

I also found out this week that we will soon be the recipients of a new to us refrigerator and also a new to us freezer. We haven't got them in place yet, but I'm hoping within the next week to be able to tell you that you can begin bringing in meat and other refrigerated or frozen foods. So - many additional thank you's to the two families who donated these appliances to us. Isn't God good?

Business And Christianity. Our sermon Sunday morning will come from Acts 19:23-41. This is the story of the riot in the city of Ephesus because silversmiths were losing business. Christianity was taking hold and hurting the Artemis statue business.

I will warn you ahead of time that my take on this will probably be a little different than you expect. As I have had a chance to think about it - sometimes in the wee hours of the morning - business and religion have always been connected. This is not necessarily an evil thing, but it does raise questions that we should try to answer.

Can you think of businesses that are connected in one way or another with Christianity? There are the businesses that provide services specifically for churches. There are the musicians that write music and play concerts. There are the bookstores that sell books written by authors specializing in the Christian market. There are the companies that make chairs and pews or the companies that design church buildings. We even have home goods stores and chicken nugget stores who appear to be oriented toward the Christian demographic.

And what about all the small Mom and Pop businesses and service providers, who are also Christ-followers. Don't many of us want to support them simply because they share the same faith as we do? Don't we often extend greater trust because "they're Christian?"

Our sermon Sunday morning, I hope, will cause us to ask ourselves some questions about how we do business and with whom we do business and why we make these choices. I'm not entirely certain why this particular passage causes so much reflection on my part. However, I suppose it may be that my first career was as a business owner. Now that I'm well on as a pastor, I think back to those business days. 

Would you like a head start on the sermon? You can find my sermon notes in your Bible app or you can simply click here to see them in your browser window.

Live Music Sunday morning! What we've been calling the great experiment of the last several months has now concluded - successfully we believe. In 2018 and 2019 we would make a big deal out of the fact that we would have live musicians for our worship time. After many years of using background tracks for our worship music, once a month or so we could have our own congregants providing our music.

Starting this month, LIVE music will be the norm and not the exception. In every week EXCEPT the first Sunday of the month, our musicians will gather at 8:30 am to practice the music we will sing at 11am. This is quite a commitment from our musicians, but they have told us they're up for it. Many thanks to Brandi, Dan, Don, Dave, Brian, Trish, Missie and yours truly for their dedication and desire to lead our worship singing.

Here are the songs we will be singing together this Sunday morning: (1) "Your Name Is Power" by Rend Collective; (2) “What A Beautiful Name" by Hillsong; (3) "The Way (New Horizon)" by Pat Barrett; and (4) “My Feet Are On The Rock" by I Am They. This week I recorded my own ukulele version of "Your Name Is Power" and uploaded it to my YouTube channel. Click here if you'd like to sing along with me!

Soup Day! Gather with Sheri, Juanita and several of our other ladies in the kitchen downstairs this coming Tuesday morning, January 14th at 10am. We'll make soups and then freeze them to use for when someone is sick or grieving in the future. Isn't this a great idea!?

Bible Study - You Can Still Join Up! Our study on the Bible continues this Saturday morning. We are thrilled with all those who have already joined us. If you missed, it's not too late to join us! This 11-week study features a video of master teacher, R.C. Sproul, followed by a time of discussion each week. Bring your Bible with you tomorrow at 11am!

Giving Records For 2019. Thanks so much for your generous donations this past year. Your gift records are available online on our Church Community website. See Pastor Mark if you've forgotten your password or just prefer him to print your record for you!

Our Next Neighborhood Meal. We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal on Saturday, February 8th. Thanks for helping!

Love you all much! Hope to see you Saturday and/or Sunday at 11! - Pastor Mark

Bible Study Debuts Saturday! Choir Debuts Sunday!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Happy New Year! A new decade has arrived - Welcome 2020! What changes will come for you this year? As this new year has arrived I've been giving a lot of thought to the changes that have already come or soon will come to Church Requel. Two of those new events begin this weekend.

Bible Study Begins Saturday. 

Let's first off thank Brian for his dogged determination to provide high quality teaching lessons to our congregants. I can't think of anything more important than having a basic understanding and overview of the Bible. I know that many people are intimidated by the Bible and struggle understanding the different books within it and how they all come together. This study will get you started.

This particular group of 23-minute lectures by Master Teacher R. C. Sproul will cover the first five books of the Old Testament. Here are the topics you'll cover:

1. Creation
2. The Image Of God In Man
3. The Fall
4. Covenant With Abraham
5. The Patriarchal Blessing
6. Moses & The Exodus
7. The Passover
8. The Giving Of The Law
9. The Tabernacle
10. Aaron & The Priesthood
11. Old Testament Sacramental System

After each lecture, we will discuss what we've heard together. The only book you'll need is your Bible and maybe a notepad to take notes. These first 11 lessons covering the first 5 books of the Old Testament are the beginning of 53 lectures covering the entire Bible. If these first lessons go well for us, we could continue with the rest over the next couple of years. So I see this as an excellent opportunity for our church to become more familiar with the World of God! 

We plan to start tomorrow at 11am in the Chome. That's the large living room area on the other side of the front of the sanctuary. Show up at the church and follow the voices of your friends (if you don't know where to find the Chome.)

New Choir Debuts This Sunday!

This is the brain child of our worship director, Brandi. On the first Sunday of each month we will invite all singing volunteers - both students and adults - to show up Sunday morning at 8:30am for rehearsal. This choral group of volunteers will learn the four songs we will be singing and will lead our worship singing for the 11am worship service.

This will be a change from what we have done in the past. For several years we have enjoyed our student-focused vocal teams on the first Sunday of the month. But we've noticed a trend this past year - only the students of one or two families have really participated. Meanwhile, we have several other adults who would love to participate. 

We have been planning this for several months and have added some new technology to make this possible. For example, many of you have notice the new forward looking screen in front of the tech booth. This makes it possible for our volunteer choir to look up and see the words. This past week we have also added new choral microphones; they will be used for the very first time this Sunday morning.

We are excited to see how this develops. If you love to sing and would like to be a part of this new group, show up Sunday morning at 8:30. You don't need to bring music or read music. If you love to sing and love community and love worship, you qualify! Hope to see you early on Sunday morning!

Four Ways God Reveals The Way

Sunday morning we will return to our study of the Book of Acts in our sermon time. Did you know that Sunday we will hear the 50th sermon in the Sequel and Requel series?! We pick up where we left off in November, with our focus on Acts 19:8-20. These verses tell us four different ways that God has in mind to share the good news of Jesus to our world.

50 Sequel & Requel Sermons Online. Have you missed any of these great Acts sermons? You can catch up on everything we've learned over the last two years online! Check out all the sermons on our website or check out our channel on YouTube! We've recorded them just for you!

Let's Restock The Food Pantry! We have several within our congregation whose needs are basic. Each week we discreetly give away food to those in need. We so appreciate those of you who have donated food over the last several weeks. Our pantry is no longer bare. But we could still use some help. Each week this year, we are asking you to bring canned goods - vegetables and meats, cereal, Raman noodles, Peanut butter and jelly, and soups. Thanks!

Our Next Neighborhood Meal  We will serve our neighbors a warm, hearty free meal on Saturday, February 8th. For those of you who want to help (we hope that's all of you!), plan to show up at 4pm. We serve the meal at 5pm. We are usually cleaned up by 6pm. Thank you Sheri for leading the charge!

Giving Records For 2019. Thanks so much for your generous donations this past year. Your gift records are available online on our Church Community website. See me or Brandi if you've forgotten your password or just prefer us to print out your record for you!

When Will We Close? Winter is upon us. We will understand if you ever decide it's too dangerous to drive to church. If we are open when you stay home, make sure to check out our live stream on Facebook. Our policy is to close whenever there is a Level 2 Snow Emergency announced for Richland County. 

I hope your New Year has begun well. I'm looking forward to riding the next orbit with you all! Love you much! Pastor Mark