Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

Weekly Worship Stream Now On YouTube

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We continue to work to improve our weekly Sunday worship stream. We recognize that more of you now participate online than actually attend in person. And we greatly appreciate your loyalty, patience and continued support!

Last week we changed the streaming software we use to broadcast our services. Those of you who use Facebook to watch our weekly worship services will still be able to tune in just like always. And that won’t change.

Now - IN ADDITION - we will begin broadcasting our weekly worship services on our YouTube Channel.  How can you watch on YouTube? Here is the YouTube link for this Sunday. You can also go to YouTube and search for our Church Requel channel.

Why might you prefer to watch on YouTube rather than on Facebook? Well, we wondered that too. So last Sunday we asked you that very question. Several of you responded and told us why. Many of you have a big screen smart TV with YouTube included. That means you can watch on your larger screen TV rather than on your smaller screen phone or tablet with Facebook.

There is another advantage too. YouTube gives us the opportunity to reach a larger viewing audience than we would ever likely have with Facebook. So if you do choose to watch on YouTube, please give us a “thumbs up” and click the Subscribe button. The more people who do that, the more YouTube will offer our worship video to other potential viewers.

Regardless of whether you watch on Facebook or YouTube, make sure you comment with your affirmations and/or prayer requests. We will do our best to actually share those on the stream itself in the lower third so that the rest of the church can see and pray - regardless of which platform they use.

We also are continuing our efforts behind the scenes to improve both the sound quality and the picture quality. We are working with multiple microphones and cameras to achieve a better sound and look. We are learning one week at a time what is working and what isn’t - so we ask for your continued patience and feedback!

This Sunday At Church Requel. Our worship experience will be awesome! We can't wait to praise our Lord Jesus together with you. We'll sing praise songs including "Revival Anthem" by Rend Collective, "Mighty To Save" by Hillsong, "Evidence" by Josh Baldwin, "Unstoppable God" by Elevation Worship, "Living Hope" by Phil Wickham, and "Made New" by Lincoln Brewster.

Yours truly will also begin a new sermon series that will take us through Easter. The new series is called "Hard Times, Holy Living" and will come mostly from 1st Peter. I’m very excited for this study together with you. I encourage you to begin reading 1 Peter. It is a short little New Testament book with only 5 chapters. It is filled with hope for those who are going through life challenges. I believe you will be greatly encouraged!

We'll also pray for our congregation's needs and share communion together. Whether in person or on Facebook or YouTube, join us 11am EST Sunday morning, January 31st!

As always, I thank you for your continued support and participation. You encourage me and I hope I am returning the favor. May God bless you richly this weekend. Love you much, Pastor Mark

Working Behind the Scenes on LIVE STREAM

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

My week has been filled with all the things one is never taught in seminary!

Those of you who participate in worship with us via the LIVE STREAM on Facebook know that we have really struggled lately with the microphone. May I tell you a little of the behind-the-scenes events to get the worship stream working well again? 

First off, I wrote the company from which we purchased the microphone and told them of our problems using their mic with Facebook. To their credit, they did write me back. But their email was of no help at all. Essentially they said that it was Facebook's problem because Facebook changed the way their app interacts with external microphones. NO HELP! They did change their website saying their mic works with Facebook as a result of my email. Small conciliation. 

Secondly, after last week's struggles I wrote my friends, Mike and Leanna, and told them I was considering just switching from Facebook to YouTube for our live stream. They wrote me back and told me about a browser software they use called StreamYard.com which can broadcast directly to either Facebook, YouTube or both. So I invested a couple days learning everything I could about this new application. I discovered that lots of churches were already using StreamYard to stream their worship services.

First the bad news. StreamYard won't work with the external mic on my iPhone either - although it does use the internal mic much better.

Now the good news. StreamYard is a much better interface that allows a great deal more flexibility for our streams than does the native Facebook app. We can use any modern mobile device - Androids, iPhones, iPads - as well as laptop computers. We can also eventually patch in our sound system itself directly to the LIVE STREAM as well as use any additional camera (or even multiple cameras) to output to the stream.

Finally, we would have the ability to include live guests within the broadcast! I'm especially excited about this possibility because it would mean that we could include other people - regardless of where they are located - to read Scriptures or to pray or to lead our communion.

So this week we will be giving StreamYard a try for the first time. None of this will matter to those who watch online. It should still show up on our Facebook page Sunday morning at 11am as always! But if things work the way I hope they will, you could be seeing some nice improvements going forward in upcoming weeks! Once again, thanks Mike and Leanna for giving me a new direction to try!

For those of you interested, we are awaiting a couple of parts to be delivered today. Once they are here, Brandi and I will head down to the church and run some tests on the new tech gear and software. So you should be able to watch that on our Facebook page as we are testing.

ONE MORE THING... If this works as well as I'm hoping it will, we could really use the support of others in helping us with this. We could use moderators to our comments,  who will help engage the streaming audience. We also could use tech minded people to help us with the actual broadcast (it is surprisingly intuitive to run.) And, as I've mentioned before, we could use guests to participate in worship activities, such as reading Scriptures, praying or leading communion.

Email me or Brandi or message us on Facebook if any of this sounds like something you would like to do!

The really good news to come out of all this is that we are taking the next giant step forward in engaging our online worship community to allow them to participate as much as they would like! This, in turn, could lead to many others beyond our existing church, to become a part of our worship community! It's just like God to take a problem and turn it into something really good! Yay God!

Sunday's Worship Service. Ok... enough of the tech jargon. I know there are some of you, like me, who really enjoy these behind-the-scenes moments. And then there are the others who just want to be able to tune in and worship our Lord Jesus. I get that. I really do. So here is what we are planning for this Sunday. 

Last Sunday's worship team

Our worship team should all be present. Here are the songs we are planning to sing together. (I know some of you like to play along from home with us, so I will also give you the key we are planning to sing): #1- "Control" by Tenth Avenue North in C; #2 - "The Blessing" by Kari Jobe in G; #3 - "This I Believe (The Creed)" by Hillsong in C; and #4 - "No Longer Slaves" by Bethel in Bb.

Don and Vanessa share Sunday morning

We are also privileged to have Don and Vanessa Causley from East Budleigh, Devon, England to share some of their reflections on thankfulness during these challenging Covid-19 times. As the Causleys mention in their remarks, England is completely shut down right now. Yet they share what they are thankful for, which by the way, includes their fellowship with all of you! Between Don's reading of the Scriptures and Vanessa's talented singing and ukulele playing, they really are a power couple for the Lord these days!

I can't help but think how God had all this in mind three years ago, when He put into my heart a desire to learn to play the uke. For 60 years I had managed to never even think much about the ukulele, and then suddenly I had a passion for it. And through that series of "coincidences" I met Vanessa, who just happened to have the same desire at roughly the same time in her life. Then 3 years later we would find ourselves worshiping together across thousands of miles during the worst health care crisis of our lifetimes. Wow!

We will continue our sermon series on being thankful during these challenging times. We will reflect on the truth that God is always listening. Our struggle is not with the FACT that God is always listening, but with our awareness of this TRUTH in our daily lives. So I plan to share with you 4 ways to help us to remember that God hears our prayers as well as that God sees our grateful hearts.

Let's encourage Christopher!   If you are like me, you were so filled with thanksgiving last Sunday as we baptized Chris Scott. His baptism was such a great source of joy for me personally as I have watched him and his family over the last decade. They first attended Church Requel when a friend of theirs was singing in the band one Sunday night. They have attended every Sunday since.

I have watched as Sara and my oldest daughter have become fast and loyal friends.

And I've watched as Christopher, in particular, challenged almost everything we have ever taught during Sunday school. When it seems like a young person is questioning everything, I have now learned that is really good news. It means they are thinking!

This past week, Christopher headed off to Texas for basic training. Wouldn't it be great if his church family flooded his mailbox with letters of love and encouragement? I know you'll do this! Here is his address. Please write often as you think and pray for him.

AB Scott, Christopher, W.
324 TRS/Dorm A9 FLT 253
1320 TRUEMPER ST. UNIT 362920
JBSA Lackland, TX 78236-6411

Isn't God good? I know these are tough days for us. And yet, we have all discovered fellowship together. This week I have watched with amazement as many of you have stepped up to challenges I have known nothing about. One good friend - in faith - purchased an automobile for another young lady, who really needed transportation for a job. I watched as others worked within the church to take down the baptism pool and in the cleaning up discovered we needed a new sweeper and immediately took care of those details. I watched with fascination as one of you, who hasn't been with us for years now, contacted me and asked if we were still meeting and could he please come back. (Easy answer - that one.)  I have watched as some of you, independent of your pastor, have gathered together to study God's Word online. I have often said, but I remind you again, that I feel I am ONE LUCKY PASTOR to be able to serve at Church Requel. Thanks one and all for your encouragement to my faith.

Hope to "see" you this Sunday morning at 11am! In Christ's love, Pastor Mark

Can We Be “Grateful” For This First Week Of 2021?

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

We begin a new sermon series this Sunday: “An Attitude of Gratitude.” Brandi can confirm that we decided on this long before 2020 had ended. We thought that this would be a good way to begin the new year, to focus on the good rather than on the difficulties. We certainly had no idea of how challenging this first week would be for our country.

Many of us are still reeling from the actions of some Americans, who Wednesday broke into our citadel of democracy, the Capitol Building. Regardless of our political leanings we all have to wonder, how did we ever arrive to this moment in our country? We have become so focused on what divides us that many of us have forgotten what unites us. I truly AM GRATEFUL for all my family and friends from Church Requel, who demonstrate love and acceptance to one another REGARDLESS of political differences. You remind me each day of why I am a Christian as well as why I am an American.

You may be wondering how it is possible for us to be grateful in the absence of peace, when we don’t have unity of vision for our future.  You may say we just don’t have “enough” - of love, of leadership, of finances, of health. How can we be thankful for this?

Here is an mind blowing vision of gratefulness. We read in the Bible of six different occasions when Jesus prayed a prayer of thanksgiving. In five of those six times, Jesus gave thanks in the face of failure, the face of death, or in the face of not enough. Sunday morning we will be talking about one of those “not enough” prayers - after which Jesus fed the thousands with just a few loaves and fishes.

Both the prayer and the miracle was so profound in the eyes of those who saw it, that all four Gospel writers recorded the events of that day.  We’ll examine this from every angle and so we hope to learn the secret of contentment. We’ll learn why “not enough” is really an illusion. We’ll learn the five consequences of always struggling for more. And we’ll discover the 3 keys to contentment in the face of not enough. Do I have grand aspirations for our teaching time this Sunday morning? You betcha! I hope you’ll tune in at 11am Sunday morning!

We have so many other good things happening this coming Sunday too. We’ve invited Jack Buckley to sing again. He never disappoints! Cheryl Buckley will be leading our devotional and communion time. She is as profound as always.

Perhaps best of all, the ladies will be back on the worship and praise team Sunday morning after a two-week break. We love it when the guys lead us, but I have to admit that I really missed our female vocalists!

Here are some of our favorite songs we’ll be singing: “You Are Good” by Israel Houghton; “How Great Is Your Love” by Phil Wickham; “Tremble” by Mosaic MSC; “Praise Your Name” by Corey Voss; and “Old Church Choir” by Zach Williams.

I hope you will plan to join us Sunday morning at 11am EST - either in person or by streaming online from our Church Requel Facebook Page. Hope to “see” you then! Love you all much! Pastor Mark