Church Requel Blog - Writings of Mark Pierce

God's Continued Blessings!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Some weeks I sit down to write you this weekly newsletter and wonder what to write. Then there are weeks like this one - how can I possibly write everything? God has been so very good to us!

Over the past week we have been so blessed to be a blessing to others! Saturday night we served a hot meal to our neighbors in our church kitchen. Monday afternoon we partnered with People Helping People and served lunch to our neighbors outside at the Pavilion down the hill from our church. How cool is that!?

I feel blessed in so many ways. First, just to know that we can once again meet face to face with others is so glorious! Second, that after more than a year of Covid, many weeks not being able to meet together at all, that we are financially able to meet the needs of other people. For all of you who have been so very faithful with your giving to Church Requel over this past year - THANK YOU! We could not have blessed others without your blessings to us!

Here's yet a third way I have experienced blessing this week.  When we served at the People Helping People pavilion Monday afternoon, I saw this large sign inside the pavilion with Matthew 25:36 written upon it. Most of you don't know this, but in the early days of Church Requel, it was my ongoing prayer that we as a church would be able to fulfill this Matthew 25 challenge. Our leadership team talked about it quite often.

Sadly, over the years, there have been many times when we did not know how we were going to pay the basic expenses of operating a church. Many months, we actually didn't even have enough to do that. Yet here we are now - after a year's pandemic - when every human prediction would have forecast that our small church could not have survived - yet here we are providing the needs of others and fulfilling Christ's calling for us.

For me it was like God saying, I got you. Now you know. It's not about your cleverness or your planning or your predicting. It's all about your trusting. God provided for us to be able to fulfill His Matthew 25 calling upon us through His provisions and His blessings. Wow! 

All that should be enough blessings for one week, don't you think? But no! God's not through with me yet! This past Wednesday night I received an urgent text from Brandi asking me if she could FaceTime with me ASAP. This had me plenty concerned because Brandi is on vacation and rarely do we FaceTime. Usually we just text or when necessary have a normal phone conversation. She and her family are vacationing in California this week and I wondered what could possibly have gone wrong!?

So when I FaceTime her, Mike and Leanna Perdue pop up in Brandi's camera feed! At first I thought, did I dial the wrong number somehow? But then it quickly dawns upon me that Brandi and Eddie have managed to connect with Mike and Leanna! Wow... I mean it's not like this is a big country or anything, right? What are the odds of Mike and Leanna, who travel the entire country each week for their jobs, just happen to be in the same place as Brandi and Eddie on vacation!?

Coincidence? I don't think so. God once again was telling me that He is using me in my small way to connect people together in God's big way! Mike and Leanna are two of our newest Church Requel members, who like many others, have become a vital part of our church ministry through our online church this past Covid year. God just keeps doing God things when we give Him our everything!

So do you think God is done with His Godinidences? I'm not sure. Could it be a coincidence that earlier this year several people from my past 30-40 years ago decided to hold a Sunday school class reunion this Saturday - tomorrow? This is the Sunday school class where I first felt God's calling to teach, which ultimately led to my becoming a pastor, which in turn, ultimately led to becoming your pastor. And the reunion just happens to be THIS week. Hmmm... Don't know about you, but I'm getting what Cindy calls "God-bumps" on my arms! Can I say it again? Wow!

This Sunday. Normally I would tell you all about what we have planned for Sunday. But honestly, this is one of those weeks where I'm just trying to get caught up with God for so far this week. So here's my advice. About Sunday. Plan to come and participate in any way you can!

Yes, you know we will sing some great songs of praise. We will pray together for the needs of the congregation. We'll participate together in the Lord's Supper. And we'll hear another sermon from the beatitudes. The whole morning will be awesome! 

How To Watch Online. Some of you I will "see" online. We attempt to make each Sunday's worship service available on Facebook and on YouTube. You can watch on Facebook by going to our Church Requel page, https://www.facebook.com/ChurchRequel/. You can watch on YouTube by clicking on this link, https://youtu.be/14taWqrMRhU.

Love you all much! Pastor Mark

Serving Meals To The Hungry! Post Covid!

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

My youngest daughter sent out a post to our extended family this morning asking what everyone was doing this weekend. I found myself so happy to be able to answer: "We are feeding the hungry in our neighborhood at church Saturday night!" How cool is that!? This will be our first time to use our kitchen and fellowship hall / basement in over a year... since pre-Covid!

So let's not take anything for granted! We appreciate Don Angel for taking the leadership of this event. Volunteers should show up at the church by 4pm. We begin serving food at 5pm. We are usually all cleaned up, finished and walking out the door by 6:30 pm. It's a great opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus!

This month we are serving twice as much as normal! We have also volunteered to serve the hungry a lunch meal downtown this coming Monday. The meal is scheduled for 11am. If you would like to volunteer you should report at the church by 10am. We will bag lunches and then take them to the pavilion at 10:45. There usually are between 60 and 100 people who come to eat lunch. The name of the organization we are partnering with is "People Helping People." We are the people in that title... Ha! I've always thought that the ones helped the most are the one helping others!

Worship On Sunday Morning. We will begin our worship with a wonderful new song, "By The Spirit," written by Pat Barrett.  The song is perfect for our theme of serving others through strength. The Biblical term for this is meekness. Yes, it takes strength to be meek and it takes strength to serve others! We do not find this strength within ourselves, but within the Holy Spirit. 

"No weapon against me, Your Spirit within me, my help is from the Lord! In joy and in sorrow, today and tomorrow, my help is from the Lord!"

Aren't those words the perfect way to begin our worship on Sunday? We'll also sing "Dwell In The House" by Yours Truly, "Love The Lord" by Lincoln Brewster, and "Your Grace Is Enough" by Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher - all perfect songs to compliment our Meek Not Weak theme of the day.

Mike and Leanna will be reading our Scripture. Brandi will sing a special song for us, "Into The Sea (It's Gonna Be Ok)" by Tasha Layton. Brandi will also lead our communion time together. Brian will lead our prayer time.

How To Watch Online. Some of you I will "see" online. We attempt to make each Sunday's worship service available on Facebook and on YouTube. You can watch on Facebook by going to our Church Requel page, https://www.facebook.com/ChurchRequel/. You can watch on YouTube by clicking on this link, https://youtu.be/sPtp75ZfVek.

Sermon Notes In Bible App. Here's one more way I've tried to make Sunday's sermon practical and helpful. I have published it for you in your Bible App. If you open your YouVersion Bible app, then click on the "More" button in the bottom menu bar, then click on "Events" - about halfway down the page. From there, search for Church Requel. You'll see all my notes as I've worked on them this week. Some of you learn best by reading - so here is your opportunity. You could also just click on this link to see it in your browser - http://bible.com/events/48713662.

Sure hope this email finds you and yours doing well. And I hope you can join us one way or the other this weekend. Lots of opportunities! Could you do me a favor? Could you pass this email along to someone else who could benefit from our church's worship experience Sunday morning? They will thank you. And so will I! Blessings and love! Pastor Mark

Regarding Comfort - Sunday Morning

Good Friday morning Church Requel!

Friday has become my second favorite day. Like most of you, I wake up on Friday mornings and think TGIF.

However, I think I'm going to start thinking TGIS on Sunday mornings. I just LOVE Sundays. That's the morning I get to spend time with all of you!

Some of you I see in person. I arrive at 8am and I have to say I really love it now that Don and Stephenie are living in the Chome. When I arrive at Church Requel, the doors and windows are already opened and so inviting!!! Don even has the coffee already brewing!

The rest of the praise band arrives at 9am. It's just such a pleasant time. Lots of hugs and catching up on the past week.

A few of you have figured out that you don't have to wait until the official start to the worship service at 11am. You too can come to the party early. The praise team will be practicing the morning's songs, but there are plenty of folks with whom you may visit. There's usually plenty of coffee and snacks to go around too.

How To Watch Online. Some of you I will "see" online. We attempt to make each Sunday's worship service available on Facebook and on YouTube. You can watch on Facebook by going to our Church Requel page, https://www.facebook.com/ChurchRequel/. You can watch on YouTube by clicking on this link, https://youtu.be/qR3VRQzj9yM.

2nd Beatitude - Regarding Comfort. This coming Sunday our sermon will focus on Matthew 5:4 -

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted."

We will make liberal use of the RE prefix in this sermon. For those of you who are mourning in one way or another, consider Sunday's sermon as God's message back to you... If God was sending you an email, the subject header would read, RE: Comfort.

We will talk about how we realize that God is with me, even when I am mourning. We'll talk a little bit about how to release the hurt that we may be experiencing. Finally we'll talk about how to rely upon God during our mourning. I've really tried to make this Sunday's sermon a practical and helpful time together.

Here's one more way I've tried to make Sunday's sermon practical and helpful. I have published it for you in your Bible App. If you open your YouVersion Bible app, then click on the "More" button in the bottom menu bar, then click on "Events" - about halfway down the page. From there, search for Church Requel. You'll see all my notes as I've worked on them this week. Some of you learn best by reading - so here is your opportunity. You could also just click on this link to see it in your browser - http://bible.com/events/48709624

Upcoming Neighborhood Meal Dates. We will be serving the Neighborhood Meal here in our own church building on Saturday, June 12th at 5pm. (Volunteers should come at 4pm.) The following Monday, on June 14th, we will be serving a lunch downtown at 11am. Volunteers should arrive by 10am. More details to come, but get these dates on your calendar now. We're hoping everyone can serve at least one of these opportunities. There are sign-in sheets in the lobby of Church Requel. If you come, would you please sign up so we have an idea of upon whom we can depend?  Thank you Don Angel for taking the lead for us!

The Songs We Sing And Other Special Stuff! Here are the songs we plan to sing this Sunday morning: "Sing Wherever I Go" by We The Kingdom; "No Sweeter Name" by Kari Jobe; "WayMaker" by Leeland; "See A Victory" by Elevation Worship; and "There's Nothing That Our God Can't Do" by Passion.

Jack and Cheryl Buckley from Louisa, Virginia will be joining us remotely. Jack will use that sweet tenor voice of his to sing a special song to us. Cheryl will read our Scripture Reading for us.

And Also Special... Steve Thoman will reprise his role as "announcement guy" to remind us of what's coming up this summer. He and Brandi have worked out a special video you won't want to miss!

That wraps up this week's Church Requel newsletter. If you have read this far... THANK YOU! Could you do us one more favor? Why not forward this to a friend, who could use some encouragement this coming Sunday morning? Love you all much! Hope to see you Sunday! Pastor Mark