News

This week concludes Brian’s Sunday School class based on the book, a Theological Interpretation of American History. This means, of course, that we needed to look for a new study topic for Sunday mornings. So we decided that for the next two weeks, Abe will lead our Sunday Morning Sunday School, and then on May 30th, Pastor Thacker will begin a Sunday School study into Covenant theology.

Because God relates to his people through covenant, we believe such a study brings many benefits and helpful understanding — particularly as our culture drifts further and further away from a covenantal understanding, and becomes more focused on God as having individual relationships with individual people only. And yet one of the most important aspects we see of God is that he has always had a people with whom he has established a covenant. This starts at the beginning of creation even with Adam as we see the first covenant promise given to him in Genesis.

There is much to learn and we hope you’ll make plans to join us each Sunday in June and July (tentative length of this study) as we look at how covenant shapes our understanding of scripture and how God relates to his people in history, and yes including even us, His people now.

As we renew our singing efforts today with the hymn sing and hymn of the month, we wanted to provide you with tools for continuing to learn and practice and grow in your singing and learning parts. So on the website, in a “members” area, we have both the music sheet and some practice tracks for you to download. As we move forward, we’ll try to provide these for each hymn of the month, but based on copyrights and licensing terms we may not always be able to do that. This month, we can because the licensing agreement from Crown and Covenant for Psalm 148 from the Book of Psalms for Singing permits it. However, we do ask that you keep this within our congregation and not share it with others.

All that out of the way, here is where you can get these tools:

stmarkreformed.com/members

On that members page, each month, hopefully, more resources will be posted. Hymns of the month are organized by month so just follow the links.

We hope the music and practice tracks will be a blessing to you in whatever way you and your family can use them as we put in the work to sing to the Lord and to one another both joyfully and skillfully.

Today is the fourth Sunday of Easter. We often think of Easter as that one Sunday in the year that follows Good Friday where we have flowers in the sanctuary and take pictures of ourselves in our nice clothes, and we (rightly) say to one another, “Christ is risen,” and hear (again rightly) the refrain, “He is risen indeed!” However, Easter is not over. During the rest of the Easter Season, we continue the story of God’s magnificent salvation of His people. Right now in the story, Christ has not yet ascended to the Father and we, knowing the rest of the story, look forward to His ascension and commissioning of His people with great anticipation. In the meantime, we remember the glorious days that changed everything as we recall with awe that Christ rose from the dead. This was, no doubt, a source of continued joy for Christ’s apostles, who had only just a few days ago considered Him dead and gone. And now, here was Jesus, the Lord, with them for forty days.

Of course, like every Sunday, we celebrate Christ’s presence with us, even today, in the body and blood, the divine food Christ shares with us. And Easter made this possible. Christ is, indeed, risen! Therefore, let us keep the feast. Alleluia!

We’re excited to announce that in two weeks time, on May 2 at 9:45 AM during our Sunday School time, we’ll be resuming our monthly Sunday morning hymn sings. In the past this time has been vital to our congregation as we learn and prepare new material to add to our arsenal of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We are told in many places in scripture how vital singing is. See, for instance, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. In fact, Colossians 3:16 says: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Singing, and singing well, is important in the life of God’s people.

To that end, we’re introducing a new element to our hymn sing: the hymn of the month. The way it will work is this: at the end of every hymn sing, we’ll take some time to learn the hymn of the month, breaking down the various parts. And we’ll give you a good handle on how to sing it. Then we’ll also sing it at the end of Sunday School each week to keep it fresh. We’ll also provide printed copies of the music so you can take it home with you and sing and practice as individuals and families as you are able and desire to do so.

Over the coming months, we believe this will equip the congregation of St. Mark for our duties to God in worship and praise.

If you follow Jamie Soles on Facebook, you may have seen a video he shared of the RCMP (Canadian police) taking over and physically fencing off Grace Life Church — a Reformed Baptist congregation in Edmonton, Alberta Canada — to prevent access since they have been meeting “in an unsafe way.” Needless to say, this is of great concern to our Canadian brothers and sisters in Christ. Please keep this congregation (and others in Alberta) in your prayers as they seek guidance and direction from the Lord on how they should act, when they should act, what they should say, and more.

This week, we’d like to draw your attention to the ministry Hope Russia. We’ve had Founder & President of Hope Russia, Rev. Blake Purcell, speak at St. Mark more than once and the ministry is one we encourage folks to support. The last time Rev. Purcell was with us, the Drapers had him in their home, and Denise McLain was able to record a video of some of the stories he shared about the work they are doing. You can go to stmarkreformed.com/blake-purcell to be taken to that video to hear and learn more. The work and ministry is worthy of your support if you are so led. And certainly support them in your prayers as they pursue the work of making Christ known in this largely Godless country.

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! The grave could not hold Him and because that is so, He has secured the forgiveness of our sins so that we may live forevermore with Him!

A very special thanks goes to the Sadlers for our floral arrangements this morning to help brighten up our worship area.

And we’re also happy to report that Phil and Leslie did close on their home in a timely fashion as we prayed would happen. And now comes the fun part: moving. They’re looking for volunteers to help with the moving on Saturday, April 17. We hope to have more details as that date approaches.

As some of you may know or remember, just before all the COVID craziness, we had started a men’s choir but had to drop that for a while during our time looking for a place to meet and our transition to TCA. As we look to the future, now more than ever our warfare through music is of great importance. With that in mind, we will be picking up men’s choir rehearsals again starting on April 11.

We hope you have a happy Easter with your friends and family as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ!

Today on Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry. In Bible times, palm branches were a symbol of victory and could be found on coins and important buildings. We read in 1 Kings 6:29 that Solomon carved palm trees into the walls of the temple. It was symbolism the Jews were well aware of when they spread the palm branches on the road before Jesus. We know the rest of the story: how Jesus’ triumph looked very different from what those spreading the branches pictured. Nevertheless, we celebrate the triumphal entry precisely because of Jesus’ triumph over death.

This week is known as Holy Week as we lead into the Easter celebration. We will hold our traditional Maundy Thursday Agape feast on April 1. “Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum, or commandment, reflecting Jesus’ words “I give you a new commandment.”

We then proceed to the Good Friday Service of Darkness as we “tell the story” of Holy Week and enter into this dark period between Jesus death on the cross and His rising again from the grave that could not hold Him.

Holy Week culminates with the celebration of the resurrection of our Savior! We celebrate this every week, but we mark this time of year in the Church calendar to culminate the telling of the story. Christ is Risen!

Every now and again, we like to highlight some ministries so that you might know how to be praying, and if God lays it on your heart, where you might direct any gifts above and beyond the tithe. This week, we’d like to draw your attention to Peru Mission. They plant churches, provide Christian education to children, help at-risk children, and much more in Peru. They are a commendable ministry and you can learn more about them at perumission.org.

Ministry and mission happens both abroad and nearer to home. The church in Bristol, TN continues to wage both spiritual, and unfortunately a somewhat physical battle with the forces of evil bent on destroying unborn human life. Erica, who helps lead a lot of the protests of abortion, was attacked and thrown to the ground some time back. The lawsuit to bring justice to this situation was, unfortunately, dismissed. A case involving violence against another in their ranks, Sammy, is ongoing. Pray that justice can be brought out of the clearly corrupt court systems there in Bristol.

And to end this newsletter out on a more positive note, we’re thankful to hear that Phil and Leslie are nearing the closing of their new home purchase. Pray that the process will continue without problems and will go smoothly for them so that the closing can proceed at the end of March, as planned.

We’re thankful for the report that Jim and Misty are recovering well from COVID and are getting back into the swing of things and their normal routine. Sickness of any kind can be disruptive to life and means of income, and COVID carries it’s own set of challenges. So we’re thankful for this report.

We’re also thankful this week to have a few of the Sensings with us. Before they moved away from the area they were members of St. Mark and a big part of the life and work of the church here and we’re happy to worship with them once again this week.

Speaking of the life of the church, the Drapers will be hosting their monthly fellowship and hymn sing for March on the 26th. This event starts with food and general fellowship at 5:30. You’re welcome to bring a dish to share, or just come and enjoy the food provided. The singing begins around 7:00 with a mixture of psalms put to tune from various sources, and the great hymns of the faith from the church’s rich musical history. And occasionally, there’s also a chant pulled from the Sunday liturgy.

And just a bit of housekeeping so we can be good guests at TCA: remember to keep any food or drink in the large room we worship in, or in the foyer just outside the room. Classrooms should not have food in them and should generally be considered off-limits. This will help us keep TCA in good shape.

For the last few weeks, we have been blessed by the weekly Sunday School class, which is an overview of the way theology has shaped our history in America. The topic is a timely one, as we attempt to make sense of our modern troubles by studying our past. While we hope everyone can attend, we know that it can be difficult with the amount of driving some have to do, so we’ve been making the series available on the website in MP3 audio format. We have added a short link that will take you to a filtered view of just the audio of Brian’s Sunday School messages. Go to stmarkreformed.com/sms to see this view.

Speaking of how we got here: our brothers and sisters in Moscow, ID are in need of prayer as they face charges for hanging signs and posters deemed offensive. When you have a moment to pray, lift them up.

Please continue to pray for the Pyle family. During the recent winter storm, this family lost their home and most earthly possessions to a fire. While the funding goal has been met (and exceeded), you can visit their GoFundMe page for continued updates and prayer requests. For the ease of use and this newsletter, we’ve made stmarkreformed.com/pyles redirect to their GoFundMe page.

Last week saw a huge community effort to clear a significant amount of snow and ice from the TCA parking lot. A big thanks to all who were able to participate. It was an unexpected but welcome opportunity to serve our community and work alongside our gracious hosts at TCA and it was a blessing for them on Monday as much as it was for us on Sunday.

While our Shrove Tuesday pancakes were quite good, they were only outdone by the talent show, which was also a great success. All of those who participated brought joy, laughter, and a sense of awe at the talent God is fostering within our community. We should not take for granted what God has given us. And many thanks to Marc Hays for his annual antics as Master of Ceremonies.

As a final reminder, the baby shower for the Hollands will be held following the fellowship meal next Sunday, March 7. The theme is books and diapers. If you would like to give a book to begin James’ library, please let Carolyn Thacker know of your choice so that we don’t duplicate titles. If you would like to give diapers, please do not choose newborn size.

Snow, ice, sleet: these things can only delay us, not stop us! This Tuesday, February 23rd, we will feast on the pancakes that the snow deprived us of last week. We realize, of course, that technically, Shrove Tuesday was this past week. But, to borrow Pastor Thacker’s repurposed phrase, “the church calendar was made for man, and not man for the church calendar.” We’ll still have a grand time together as we take liberty with the church calendar.

Given the delay, there’s still time to sign up for the talent show at stmarkreformed.com/talent-show. And if you plan to bring food items or pancakes, let us know at stmarkreformed.com/pancakes.

Following this delicious feast and display of talent on Tuesday, we’ll proceed with our Service of Ashes on Wednesday February 24th at TCA. The service begins at 6:00 PM.

The Ash Wednesday Wednesday service traditionally marks the first day of Lent. While the snow and ice caused us a week’s delay, we will continue forward with this service in the same spirit of liberty with the church calendar. The service is a solemn occasion and dark clothing is appropriate to wear. During the service, ashes are placed on the foreheads of those wishing to receive them. In keeping with the solemnity of the season, this reminds us of our condition after the fall, and our need for Christ.