Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

New Life At The Church!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

What an exciting worship service we enjoyed together this past Sunday morning. Many of us feel like 2020 needs a reboot, filled with virus and protest. But we were reminded that God is still working within his church, bringing new life. It was my great privilege to baptize Brian Joplin this past Sunday. He gave his life to the Lord Jesus the week before and wanted to be baptized right away. Brian will continue worshiping with us each Sunday morning until he leaves to join the Marines later this summer.

Covid-19 Still With Us. I know this is a statement of the obvious, but it's worth being reminded of a few facts. The number of new cases reported in Ohio is at the highest level of the last 3 weeks (892 vs. 494 average). The number of deaths, hospitalizations and ICU admissions are at best flat vs. the average for the last 21 days. In short, this virus epidemic is not going anywhere anytime soon.

We want to make our best efforts to protect our church family. This is why we have asked you to wear a mask and to sit only in designated pews to socially distance yourselves from one another. Will we turn you away if you don't do this? Of course not. We are a family, after all. However - if we suffer an outbreak of Covid-19 within our own congregation - we will have no choice but to shut down our public worship services once again. So, as your pastor, I'm asking you to demonstrate your love for one another by following the safety protocols we have set for you.

For those of you who are remaining at home with an abundance of caution - we understand. We continue to stream each worship service on Facebook Live each Sunday morning. We continue to offer Wednesday evening prayer meetings on Zoom. Our ladies continue their 2nd Timothy Bible study each Thursday evening on Zoom. In short, there are many opportunities for you to connect to one another safely and we urge you to do so.

Our Worship Plans. Meanwhile our worship team continues to do a fantastic job of leading us in our worship experience each week. Many thanks go out to Brandi, Missie, Trish, Dave, Don and Brian for their dedication in learning the music and arriving early each week to practice. Also much appreciation to Stephenie, Mary Kay and Adam for coming early to clean our church to help protect us from the virus.

This Sunday we will be singing six songs together! Our first song will be a brand new one for all of us: "Nobody" by Casting Crowns. We also plan to sing "Faithful Now" by Vertical Worship, "Holy Water" by We The Kingdom, "Way Maker" by Leeland, "Graves Into Gardens" by Elevation Worship, and "Sing Wherever I Go" by We The Kingdom. Can't wait!

Our sermon Sunday morning is titled, "Five Steps To Change Burnout To On Fire." I know many of us are feeling burned out these days from all the stress of the news, extra work for no extra pay, or the opposite - no work at all, or many health and family struggles. This topic seemed timely to me. I hope it will be for you too.

I appreciate all of you more than you can know. Thank you for continuing to support your church with your prayers, your talents, and your finances. Hope to see you Sunday! Love, Pastor Mark

Our Summer Groove

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

How many times have you heard that we just need to reboot the year 2020? For what it's worth I don't feel that way. This has been a great year for our church in so many ways. The band is so happy about playing together that some of us are even dancing a jig! If you haven't seen it yet, check out the movie clip we posted on our Facebook page of Dave dancing a jig at the end of last week's worship service!

As of this second Friday of June 2020, we are settling into a wonderful summer groove. We are now together every Sunday morning - in person at the church as well as streaming on Facebook for those who can't make it in person. This past week we were about 50-50 between those who were present physically and those who were present Facebookly. (Yeah, I just made that up. Summer breezes do something to my brain! Ha!)

If you can come to help clean at 9am, that would be wonderful. Last Sunday we had a crew of three: Adam, Mary Kay and Stephenie. I'm sure they would appreciate more help.

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday we enjoy a daily devotional from Mark, Brandi and Brian. Each one is special with readings from Scripture, a short teaching, prayer and music. They're really special and I'm so glad we are doing them. You can follow along by bringing up our Church Requel Facebook page at 11am.

Wednesday nights at 7pm we gather together via Zoom to hear a short Biblical teaching followed by prayer. Each Wednesday lasts an hour. We leave feeling uplifted and closer to one another.

And this past Thursday night (last night), we began our weekly women's summer Bible study of 2nd Timothy. I hear that was also really special. Ladies, if you missed the first night, there is still plenty of time to join in. Each week you will study a little on your own, join in to the group discussion, and then watch the lecture online from Dayton Women In The Word. Here is a link to this week's teaching. There are 4 different teachers this summer. The first one is kind of special to me! 

http://www.daytonwomenintheword.com/2-timothy-week-1

So we have plenty of opportunities each week to connect to one another and to our Lord!

Neighborhood Meal Saturday. We will be gathering tomorrow at 3pm! Note the special time. We have decided to meet an hour earlier that usual because everything we make for the meal will be distributed to be eaten off site. Sheri has done all the shopping for us. Thank you so very much Sheri! Let's join together to support her work and to be Jesus' hands and feet to our surrounding neighborhood. 

Sunday Morning Worship. We will be gathering together for the second time this month down at our 134 year old church house at 11am Sunday morning. Our band will be leading us in many songs. We also have something very special arranged for you this coming Sunday.

One of our newest virtual attendees is Wendy from Alabama. She has become a good friend of mine over the last 3 years. In 2018 we participated in 100 Days of Ukulele Songs together. During the Coronavirus Pandemic she became one of our regular participants in our daily devotionals. Wendy will be reading our Scripture this Sunday and then singing a special song related to what she read. You won't want to miss it!

We love that so many of our regular participants and supporters at Church Requel are now part of our virtual community. We want to do everything we can to continue to include each one of them!

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy this beautiful weekend. We don't get that many of them here in Ohio. Consider this to be God-provided air-conditioning in our church this Sunday morning! 

Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Sunday - WE'RE BACK!!!!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

This Sunday is the day we've been looking forward to for ten long weeks! Whoever would have guessed in March that it wouldn't be until June 7th that we would meet together again at Church Requel.

But finally... FINALLY! That day will be arriving this weekend.

Things will look a little different when you come Sunday morning. For one thing we have taped off every other pew, encouraging you to socially distance yourselves by families. And yes, please do show love to one another by volunteering to wear a mask. This will help protect our most vulnerable, older congregants.

Also when you come into the sanctuary, you'll find a table with an offering basket and a plate filled with communion elements. You'll want to take one communion cup per person with you back to your seat. These are very special - they actually have two lids. You peal the top one off to access the bread. You then peal the second to drink the juice.

We will not be serving coffee and cookies as we normally do. The idea will be for you to find a seat and make yourself comfortable. Members of our band will be playing music for you as you come in, so enjoy the sounds of the church re-opening!

For those who live far away from Mansfield - like in England, Virginia, Alabama and Oklahoma - as well as those who are concerned about the risks of the Coronavirus, and obviously for anyone not feeling well - we will continue to stream our 11am worship services on Facebook!

Pray For Downtown and Our Church Building. There are many rumors of violence in Mansfield and Ontario this evening. These rumors were affirmed to us this morning as police officers stopped by our church to tell us that some of the stones we were using for landscaping could be used for destructive purposes. So please pray for our church as well as other downtown churches and businesses to be protected by those bent toward evil.

Ladies 2 Timothy Summer Study. This coming week we begin the ladies summer study of 2nd Timothy. If you have not yet registered to be a part of this great study, there is still time for you to join up. You don't even have to register any longer. Just let Mary Kay know you want to participate.

You can download your FREE 2nd Timothy companion guide here:

http://www.daytonwomenintheword.com/preparing-for-summer-study

The weekly format for you will be to study on your own first, then join the discussion on Zoom on Thursday nights with the other ladies, and then tune in at your convenience to listen to and/or watch the free lecture from one of the Dayton Women In The Word teachers (one of whom is my daughter, Jillian!)

May I encourage you to give this a try? Don't be intimidated by the study guide or the format or your lack of Bible knowledge. Do as much as you are able to do and allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen you this summer. If you give it a try and do what you can, you'll come out the other side of summer more encouraged than when you started.

Neighborhood Free Meal - Saturday June 13th. We WILL be the hands and feet of Jesus one week from tomorrow by serving a free meal to everyone in our church neighborhood. Because of the Coronavirus we will have to do this differently than we have in the past. We won't be able to invite people into our fellowship hall. It is just too small and doesn't allow us to socially distance. However, we will gather at 3:30 (a half hour earlier than normal) and will be assembling dinner bags/boxes that people will be able to take home with them. We will make this available to our neighborhood outside the church at 5pm. You'll find a sign-up clipboard at church this Sunday morning.

Ok - that will do it today! Back to Friday newsletters!  Back to Sunday church! Let's pray together that everything goes well this weekend. Love you all much! Pastor Mark