Good Friday morning Church Requel!
It's a victory Friday for those of us who wear the Cleveland Browns colors. For the many of you who watch us from afar, it's difficult to explain just how much we here in Mansfield live and die with the Browns NFL team. (Actually we have a hard time understanding it ourselves.) But last night we enjoyed a rare and unexpected Thursday night victory. So some of us are walking around with a little more hop in our step than usual.
We are every bit as excited about our worship plans together Sunday morning! As far as I know, the whole gang will be here singing some of our favorite worship songs: "Faithful Now" by Vertical Worship; "Evidence" by Josh Baldwin; "You've Aways Been" by Unspoken; [NEW] "O The Blood" by Gateway Worship; and "Graves Into Gardens" by Elevation Worship.
We did some tallying this past week - just out of curiosity - and learned some interesting stats about our worship team. Since we first played together in April 2018, (1) We have led worship 115 times; (2) singing 580 songs; (3) that's 128 song titles at least one time. I think that's pretty cool!
We will continue our Ephesians Chapter 1 study with a close look at verses 11 - 14. Mike and Leanna have agreed to lead us off with their reading of the Scripture verses. I love it when they do this! We are going to discover that God gives us an inheritance, which we both receive now and also in the future. How can that be? Tune in Sunday morning!
For those of you who really want to dive into the study now, check out the sermon notes in your Bible app under Events. Or you can use this link: http://bible.com/events/48785327
For those of you who will be joining us online, you can tune in either with Facebook Live or with YouTube. Here is the YouTube link for Sunday. https://youtu.be/UoDi1ZdVlVU
The Student Ministry, The Sequels, are really thriving under Eddie Walker's leadership. We have a curriculum that will take our students through the major stories of Scripture. Each week we see some growth in our student ministry, both in terms of number of students, but more importantly in their grasp of the principles Eddie is teaching them.
If you know of a student who is in your circle of friends and family and could benefit from being a part of the Sequels, why don't you invite them? And if you would like to be a part of this ministry in any way that works for you, contact Eddie at his new email address, [email protected]
Speaking of supporting our ministries, I received a very interesting package in the mail from Cheryl Buckley in Virginia. She had three really super nice, deluxe, leather Bibles that she didn't need and decided to mail them to me so I could give them away at Church Requel. If you or someone you know could use a nice Bible, I will have all three available Sunday morning. First come first served! Thank you Cheryl!
Speaking of Cheryl, I hope you all are keeping the Church Requel Prayer Chain at the top of your Facebook links. Each week Cheryl posts all the prayer requests from Sunday's service along with some of her own encouraging words. I have noticed a definite pick up in the number of people who are posting prayer requests there, as well as the number of people who say they are praying.
And speaking of people using Facebook well, I should also give a shout out to Brian Betts for his terrific work too. You may not know this but Brian is one of our admins on our own Church Requel Facebook page and is responsible for many of the posts you see there throughout the week. Brian also hosts a private group, which he has named "Coffee & the Bible" in which he shares some truly uplifting and encouraging info. Thanks Brian!
November is Thanksgiving Month. I know a lot of you are probably saying "Duh" to me right now (assuming you've read this far.) Beyond the traditional American Thanksgiving holiday on November 25th, there is a whole host of special events taking place next month and I'd like to get these on your calendar early.
Worship Night - November 13th. Our own Brandi Walker, Trish Trubachik and Missie Miller are joining lead worshipers from 5 different churches for a very special worship concert at Grace Church in Lexington on Saturday, November 13th at 6:30 pm. This is a free admission concert. I hope many of us will attend and show support for our ladies, who are so dedicated to leading us each week in our worship time together.
Godsfield Thanksgiving Week. There will be seven different Thanksgiving celebration services at seven different churches each day from Wednesday Nov. 17th to Tuesday, November 23rd, and then at Church Requel on Sunday, Nov. 28th (more on that in a moment). We would love to have at least one representative from Church Requel at each of these Godsfield events. I will have a schedule of times and places and a sign-up sheet in our our lobby on Sunday morning. Lets support our fellow church families within our Godsfield neighborhood!
Church Requel Potluck and Thanksgiving Concert - Nov. 28th. Hopefully I've saved the best to last. Ha! On the Sunday AFTER Thanksgiving we are planning a very special day. We will have our normal worship service in the morning at 11am. After that we will enjoy a Thanksgiving Potluck Meal to share together. After that - at 1pm - the worship team is planning a special Thanksgiving Concert upstairs. Many of our Godsfield church neighbors will join us for this concert. More details to come, but do get this one on your calendar now. And for our online congregants... YES! We will stream this concert for you as well!
Aren't these days so filled with God's good news? There is so much negativity going on all around us, but God's love and His grace for us has not wavered one iota! So let's keep focusing our attention on the gospel and our opportunities within the Kingdom of Christ!
Love you all much! Pastor Mark
