Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Cure For The Covid Blues

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Recently there has been much political controversy over a particular drug touted as a possible cure for the Covid-19 pandemic. I won't weigh in on that issue, but I do believe I know the cure for the Covid Blues.

You know about the Covid Blues - that feeling that no matter what you do or where you go, the Covid virus is looking for you and sure to find you. It's a feeling that weighs you down with concern and worry about your family and your friends. On top of everything else the Covid Blues sprinkles controversy and division over us at the very time when we need to come together in unity and resolve.

How do we stand up to the Covid Blues?

This week I received a video from our good friends, Donald and Vanessa Causley. The Causleys, who live in England, have been worshiping with us via Facebook Live for a couple years now. They became quite active in our church during the days of Covid lockdown and Zoom worship. The Causleys also have friends who gather with them for a weekly Bible study and they often use Church Requel sermons for their study. 

The video the Causley's sent me was the result of a request from Brandi for Vanessa to sing and for Donald to read Scripture. We didn't tell them what to sing or what Scriptures to read. As some of you know, without direct selection guidance, the picking out of Scripture or music can become an overwhelming task since there is so much from which to choose.

Don and Vanessa made it a matter of prayer. What resulted was clearly the act of the Holy Spirit in answer to their prayers. I'll not tell you more now because I want their video to have the same impact upon you all as it did on Brandi and me. I will tell you this - after watching their video - I felt the Holy Spirit also moving upon me and decided to make their Scripture selections the basis upon which I would preach this Sunday.

So back to the question: How do we cure the Covid Blues?

I believe the answer can be found in worship. Specifically - and here is my thesis for our sermon this Sunday: One excellent way to deal with the turmoil and pain of the Covid crisis is when we choose to worship the Lord God with gladness, in Spirit and in truth. Here's hoping you tune in Sunday morning for the details!

In addition to the music provided by Vanessa, the Church Requel band is working on six different worship songs, which we hope will guide you closer to our Lord Jesus. Here's what we'll be singing Sunday morning: "Open Up The Heavens" by Meredith Andrews, "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel, "Love The Lord" by Lincoln Brewster, "Evidence" by Josh Baldwin, "Faithful Now" by Vertical Worship, and "God So Loved" by We The Kingdom. Wow! I'm pretty excited about Sunday morning. How about you?

In addition we will pray together, give together, and take communion together. So whether you are able to come and be with us in person or whether you worship with us online - we look forward to our worship together experience this Sunday morning at 11am EST. Hope to "see" you there!

Love you all! Pastor Mark

This Sunday - The Nike Advantage

Good Friday Church Requel!

I pray that this is a GREAT DAY for each one of you! I can't wait to visit with you on Sunday morning at 11am EST. We have a special theme for our morning. I'm calling it the Nike Advantage. Bet you didn't know that Nike is very Biblical. I encourage you to read 1 John 5:1-5, where you will find Nike repeated over and over! What's that, you say? You don't see Nike anywhere? Guess you better tune in on Sunday then!

We have lots more going on Sunday morning too. Wendy will be leading us into Communion with her voice and ukulele singing "Grace That Is Greater." It's really powerful. Especially when she tells you about the acapella church in which she grew up.

Karen will read our Scripture for us on Sunday - 1 John 5:1-5.

Ken will lead our prayer time together.

After the sermon on the Nike Advantage, Yours Truly has also prepared another special song to go along with our day's theme. The song is titled, "Champion" by Bethel Music.

Our band will be leading us in lots of great singing too! Here are the songs we've picked out for you to sing Sunday morning: "Only A God Like You" by Tommy Walker, "Oceans" by Hillsong, "Old Church Choir" by Zach Williams, and "Glorious Day" by Passion.

Looks like good things are happening at Church Requel! Whether you come in person or tune in via Facebook - we will enjoy the Presence of our Savior and Lord Jesus together! It's going to be so... NIKE!

What Is Your Job Description, Christian?

Good Friday afternoon, dear Church Requel family!

I always look forward to writing you. It gives us the opportunity to consider the latest happenings with one another.

I am well aware that our Richland County has climbed to a more dangerous level of Coronavirus outbreak and that at 6pm today, we are all required to wear masks in public. Several of you have reached out to me asking what this means for us as a church family? Well... as far as meeting together Sunday morning - nothing has changed. We already ask each of you to wear masks when you come to church and to socially distance yourselves while in church. If you would be so loving to your fellow church goers to wear your mask and socially distance, we should be able to continue to meet with one another.

For those who continue to watch from home on Facebook - we are completely committed to offering our worshiping together on the live video feed. We experienced some problems with the feed midway through last Sunday, right after the sermon. We don't know if the problem was our end with our WiFi or with Facebook. Hopefully this Sunday will go better for us with our online worship. We SO APPRECIATE all of you who continue to offer your special videos for us to enjoy on Sunday morning.

As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter whether you are with us physically or with us virtually - you are with us! That's what counts! You are all a vital part of our Church Requel family!

I am very excited about our worship experience together this coming Sunday morning. I have asked Brian to continue to develop his teaching gift and give us a good Word from the Lord this Sunday morning. I've had the privilege of reading his sermon already and I can promise you it is his best yet! He asks us the question, what is our job description? I know it will challenge your hearts.

We will sing "Everyday" by Hillsong, "Do It Again" by Elevation Worship, "Stand In Your Love" by Josh Baldwin, "Loved Moved First" by Casting Crowns and "My Story" by Big Daddy Weave - another nice blend of old and new. Thank you, Brandi, for keeping our worship services so interesting! As far as I know - the entire band will be present Sunday morning too!

Allow me to close this newsletter with a couple encouraging stories. First - I discovered that we have had mail waiting at the church for about six weeks. I didn't know it was there or I would have gone looking for it. (I will now each week.) The reason I tell you this is that several of you have sent in your tithes and offerings and these will be deposited into our offering baskets this coming Sunday morning. Thanks so much for your faithfulness. And sorry if your checks have not cleared as fast as they should have. But what a blessing I received when I saw them!

Second - and also so encouraging - I received a phone call from Mark Strong this past week. He told me that he has to work every other Sunday morning, but on the Sundays he doesn't have to work - he wanted to volunteer at the church. I told him we have several volunteer jobs, including both tech booth and cleaning, that need doing each Sunday at 9am. He told me that he would show up every Sunday in which he was available at 9am and then just fill in wherever we needed him most. What a great attitude!!! Anyone want to join in with him this Sunday at 9am? We do appreciate our volunteers. Thanks Mark!

For everyone else... I hope to connect with you this coming Sunday morning at 11am... whether it is in person at the church or whether it is online on Facebook. Can't wait! How about you?

Love you all much, Pastor Mark

Summer Heat - God's Love For Us!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We sure have been broiling so far this summer! So hot! So dry! I hear thunderstorms are in our future, but the summer heat shall remain. And you know what? I, for one, will NOT complain. The memories of the cold winter are still too frosty fresh in my mind. So I say we do what we can to enjoy. Get out for an early morning walk or run or bike ride. Sit in a park as the sun rises and listen to the birds sing. Meet a friend for a picnic breakfast.

It's easy to be down with Covid-19 bad news combined with our political and social unrest. Yet we have so much good news to cheer our hearts. I've found my early mornings with 1 John to be a good reminder of the good news of God's love for us. I am blown away that He chose to love me, not the other way round. My task - and yours - is to ABIDE in God's love.

Really, that task of remaining in God's love shouldn't be a challenging one for us. His love is so broad, so large, so high, so deep, so comprehensive (I could go on, but I never claimed to be the Apostle Paul), that we find we have to work to escape the FEELING of God's love. We never escape His love. We are His children. But I do believe that we can choose to ignore the greatness of His overwhelming love and further choose to focus our attention elsewhere - Covid, civil unrest, politics, poor health, financial difficulties, relationship disappointments, job challenges. Really, the list could go on and on.

The question we must ask ourselves, and the one I've been asking myself this week, is what do I choose to focus my attention upon? It feels to me as if the bad news quite literally wants to scream for my attention. Have you noticed? Everything is a NEWS FLASH. Everything is RIGHT NOW. All the news is BREAKING NEWS.

What if we gave the same attention to 1 John? NEWS FLASH! God IS love! RIGHT NOW! God loves us even as we are sinners! BREAKING NEWS! God has made a way for our sins to be atoned for! THIS JUST IN! We are hearing about something called "propitiation!" We are scrambling our reporters to uncover more!

As I have been preparing our sermon this week, the little doubter that sits on my shoulder tells me that there's nothing NEW here. Really? Another sermon about God's love? Yes, even pastor's have the little doubter that sits on their shoulder. But the Spirit inside of me reminds me that God's love IS NEW and fresh and abundant every day. The question for me and you is where do we REMAIN? In God's love? Or anywhere else?

1st John is a small letter. Only takes ten or fifteen minutes to read from beginning to end. I challenge you to read it this weekend - before Sunday. Pray that the Lord gives you a mindset to read it as if you've never seen it before. Make it personal. Imagine the Lord Himself reminding you of just how much He loves you. Then ask yourself, 'Why would I ever want to live anywhere else rather than right in the middle of God's love?'

We have some great things planned for this Sunday morning. Fittingly the band will actually open with the new song, "God So Loved" by We The Kingdom. (Bet you didn't see that one coming. Ha!) We'll take communion together right after while we are still in the glow of those glorious lyrics. Bethany Pierce has prepared some special instructions for our communion together this week. 

We will enjoy LOTS more music this week all helping us focus on God's amazing love for us including, "Praise Him Forever" by Chris Tomlin, "The Way" by Pat Barrett, "The Blessing" by Kari Jobe and friends, "Ever Be" by Bethel, and "My Feet Are On The Rock" by I Am They. What a great mix of songs!

I surely do hope I might see most of you this Sunday morning at 11am. For those who cannot be with us in person, we understand completely and will continue to stream our worship service over Facebook on our Church Requel page. Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Happy July 4th Weekend!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Welcome to the 4th of July 2020. Like most everything else this year, this July 4th will probably be different than we usually celebrate here in America. A little more laid back? A little more stay-at-home?

Regardless of the Covid-19 restrictions, we have some big plans for Sunday - whether you come in person or watch online. Our praise band will be singing some great songs: "Raise A Hallelujah," "Great Are You Lord," "See A Victory," and "Great Things."  Notice the "great" theme? Hmmm...

We've invited one of our online congregants, Jack Buckley, to sing the perfect solo for the weekend: "I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb." Wow! Wait until you hear. Jack has an amazing tenor voice and he really knows how to use it!!!

Cheryl Buckley will be reading our Scripture Reading from Philippians 1:27-30, which is the perfect segue into our sermon topic: "Four F-R-E-E-doms from Self."

Of course we will pray together, take communion together and worship through giving together as well.

Sunday morning should be a great celebration! Can't wait to worship with each of you! Hope to see you Sunday at 11am!

Love you! Pastor Mark