Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday we start Reconnect, and I have been waiting on this one for weeks.

One church, two campuses, one family.

RECONNECT, Week 1: NO BARS. Starts Sunday.

You have not missed church in months. You also cannot remember the last time you talked to God about something real.

Your phone shows five bars in every room you walk into. Your connection to God shows one, and you stopped noticing because everything else in your life still runs fine without it. That is exactly why it went quiet. Nothing broke loudly.

Sunday we open John 15 and look at a vine that stops drawing from the root. It does not die today. It just stops bearing anything worth picking.

“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4, NLT)

Write this down: Remaining connected is a decision you make before you feel like it.

This is week one of six. Six wires that came loose one at a time, and nobody decided to cut any of them:

⓵ October 11: No Bars. Prayer and worship went quiet and nobody noticed.
⓶ October 18: Static on the Line. Scripture reads like noise instead of a voice.
⓷ October 25: Interference. What you carry and keep calling fine.
⓸ November 1: Dropped Call. The name in your phone you have not texted in months.
⓹ November 8: Signal Out. The gift you have been sitting on.
⓺ November 15: Full Bars. What you hand to somebody else.

Your practice this week: ten quiet minutes with God, on three days. Phone face down until the ten minutes are done. Pick the three days now, before Sunday picks them for you.

Go deeper: The RECONNECT Playlist

Between this Sunday and the next sits a Tuesday commute, a Wednesday meeting, and a Thursday night you will spend scrolling. Put something better in your ears.

Twenty tracks of gospel and worship, sequenced to the six weeks. Start with the Week 1 set, including Fred Hammond’s Running Back to You and Israel and New Breed’s Your Presence Is Heaven.

👉 Play the RECONNECT Playlist on Spotify

Save the Date: Reconnect Life Groups, October 11 to November 15

Sunday gives you the message. By Tuesday lunch, it is gone. A Life Group is how it stays.

Reconnect is six weeks. The Sunday message sets the theme. Your group talks it through, practices it together, and every person leaves with one challenge small enough to finish before Friday.

Nobody in the room is teaching a second sermon. It is a table where the truth gets said out loud and nobody flinches.

In person. A real room, real people, one table.
Virtual. Same guide, same rhythm, on a video call from wherever you are.
Self guided. One email a week tied to Sunday. Reply with what you noticed, and a real person reads it.

Two ways to get placed:

⓵ Text LIFEGROUP to 33777.
⓶ Go to marshillchicago.org/life-groups.

Do it before Sunday, so Week 1 is not your first day behind.

Already in a group? Stay right where you are. Your group runs this material starting Week 1. And to every Life Group leader who said yes: you ask the questions and you make room. That is the whole job, and it matters more than you know.

👉 Join a Reconnect Life Group

This Sunday: Our Monthly In-Person Gathering

Sunday, October 11, 10:30 AM Central. In person at 7941 47th Street, McCook, Illinois, and online at the same time. Same service, same family, wherever you sit. Can’t be there live? The replay goes up on YouTube after service. Pick your screen:

👉 Website: marshillchicago.org
👉 YouTube: youtube.com/@ClarenceStowersTV
👉 Facebook Live: facebook.com/MarsHillChicago/live

Thank you for holding this house up

This is a hybrid church with two campuses: the room in McCook and the campus that’s wherever you’re sitting right now. Your prayers and your giving keep both of them open.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. The signal never dropped on His end. See you Sunday at 10:30.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Open your calendar right now and block three mornings for the ten quiet minutes. If it is not scheduled, your phone will eat it before you notice.

A word from this week’s sponsor

This week’s sponsor is my own podcast, Still Standing. It is for the person who carries other people and has not been carried in a while. No theory. I teach from survival, and every episode says the hard thing plainly. Press play on one this week.

👉 Listen on Apple Podcasts

Still Standing on Apple Podcasts

Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday we closed CHECK YOUR SOURCE online, and the Spirit of the Lord was in that room. I felt it on the other side of the screen. If you were there, thank you. If you missed it, keep reading, because I’m not letting you miss what He said.

One church, two campuses, one family.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 5: GOD SAID NO

Five Sundays ago we started checking the sources on sentences church people repeat like Scripture. God won’t give you more than you can handle. God helps those who help themselves. Everything happens for a reason. If it’s God, it will be easy. Sunday we took on the last one, and the one underneath all the others: if you have enough faith, you’ll get it.

Not one of those is in your Bible. Now you know what God said, and what He never said.

Paul begged God three times to take the thorn away. The thorn stayed. Nobody in this house questions Paul’s faith. And God did not go silent on him either.

“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.'” (2 Corinthians 12:9, NLT)

Write this down: Faith that only survives yes was never faith at all.

Your practice this week: say the no out loud to one trusted person, then keep praying anyway. Not the person who will fix it. The person who will not flinch.

Watch the Replay

Missed it, or watched it and need the middle part again? This is your seat.

👉 Watch “GOD SAID NO” on YouTube

Go deeper: Your Three Weekly Growth Tools

Sunday lasts thirty minutes. Your week lasts 168 hours. By Tuesday lunch, most of what you heard is gone. Not because you didn’t care. Because nothing carried it into Monday.

Three tools do the carrying. Every week. Use all three.

⓵ The Spotify Worship Playlist. The worship set from the series, ready for your commute, your kitchen, your 5am. Put it on before you put on the news.

👉 Play the CHECK YOUR SOURCE playlist

⓶ The 5-Day Devotional. Two minutes a day, five days, built on Sunday’s message. Read it before you open anything else on your phone. You’ve spent longer than that on worse.

👉 Start the 5-Day Devotional

⓷ The Sermon Application Guide. This is where the message stops being something you heard and becomes something you did. Keep it next to your Bible.

👉 Get the Sermon Application Guide

Every message, every week, is also waiting for you at marshillchicago.org/messages.

Save the Date: Reconnect Starts Sunday, October 11

Five weeks of CHECK YOUR SOURCE cleared out what was false. Now we build with what is true.

Here is the honest question. When was the last time you had a real conversation with God? Not a grace before dinner. Not a prayer in the car because you were late. A real one. If you have to think about it, you already know why this exists.

Reconnect is a six week Life Group reset. Six Sundays. Six honest conversations. Six next steps small enough to take. The Sunday message sets the theme, your group talks it through and practices it together, and every person leaves with one challenge for the week.

⓵ October 11: Reconnect with God
⓶ October 18: Reconnect with Scripture
⓷ October 25: Reconnect with Your Soul
⓸ November 1: Reconnect with People
⓹ November 8: Reconnect with Calling
⓺ November 15: Reconnect with Mission

Week 1 asks for ten quiet minutes with God, on three days. Thirty minutes total. You will spend more than that scrolling before you get out of bed.

Three ways in, so nobody gets left outside:

In person. A real room, real people, one table.
Virtual. Same guide, same rhythm, on a video call from wherever you are.
Self guided. One email a week tied to Sunday. Reply with what you noticed, and a real person reads it.

You do not need to have it figured out. You need to show up honest and take one next step. And to every Life Group leader who said yes: you are not teaching a second sermon. You are asking good questions and making room. That is the whole job, and it matters more than you know.

👉 Your move today: reply to this email with the word IN. Tell me whether you want an in person group, a virtual group, or the self guided track, and our team will get you placed before Sunday.

This Sunday: Our Monthly In-Person Gathering

This is our monthly in-person Sunday. Come to the room in McCook, bring your friends, or come as you are. The same service streams online, so wherever you sit, you are in the house.

RECONNECT, Week 1: NO BARS

You have not missed church in months. You also cannot remember the last time you talked to God about something real.

You didn’t walk away from God. You stopped checking the signal, and now you’re surprised it’s weak. Sunday we open John 15 and look at a vine that stops drawing from the root. It doesn’t die today. It just stops bearing anything worth picking.

“Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5, NLT)

Sunday, October 11, 10:30 AM Central. In person at 7941 47th Street, McCook, Illinois, and online at the same time. Pick your screen:

👉 Website: marshillchicago.org
👉 YouTube: youtube.com/@ClarenceStowersTV
👉 Facebook Live: facebook.com/MarsHillChicago/live

Thank you for holding this house up

This is a hybrid church with two campuses: the room in McCook and the campus that’s wherever you’re sitting right now. Your prayers and your giving keep both of them open.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. The lies are checked. The thorn is in the light. Now go reconnect with the One who never needed you to earn a stronger signal. See you Sunday.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Know somebody who drifted quiet with God and is too embarrassed to say it? Forward this to them. They don’t need a lecture. They need a seat at the table on Sunday.

A word from this week’s sponsor

This week’s sponsor is my own Substack. I write there for people carrying real weight: leaders, builders, and professionals who want faith that holds up on a Monday morning. No theory. Straight talk from someone who has survived what I write about. Take ten seconds and see what’s there.

👉 Read My Substack

clarencestowers.substack.com

Grace and peace to you this week. Rain hit our attendance on Sunday. It did not hit the Spirit of the Lord. He showed up on every screen and in every living room where somebody logged on. If you were there, thank you. If the weather kept you out, keep reading, because I’m not letting you miss what He said.

One church, two campuses, one family. Storm or sunshine, you belong to it.

Church News: We’re Back in the Room October 11

Put it on your calendar now. Our next in-person gathering is Sunday, October 11, at 10:30 AM Central in McCook, and it streams online at the same time. Same morning, Reconnect begins. Come to the building, or log on from wherever you are. Either way, you are expected.

Mars Hill Chicago, 7941 47th Street, McCook, Illinois.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 4: IF IT’S GOD IT WILL BE EASY IS A LIE

You signed something because you were sure. A lease. A resignation letter. A text you can’t unsend. Then the money didn’t come, and the first thing that cracked wasn’t your bank account. It was your confidence that God talks to you at all.

Or you’re the other one. You did hear from God. You started. It got expensive, and you quit at month four because somebody told you that if it’s God, it flows.

Sunday we put three sayings on the screen. God is about to fund the move He told you to make. Speak it into existence. If it’s God’s will, it will be easy. Not one of them is in your Bible. Then we read the one sentence where Paul puts an open door and a crowd of opponents in the same breath. And he stayed.

“There is a wide-open door for a great work here, although many oppose me.” (1 Corinthians 16:9, NLT)

Opposition is not a verdict on direction. An open door can still have people standing in it.

Write this down: Human confidence becomes dangerous when it wears God’s name tag.

Your practice this week: take the one decision you are calling God’s will and run it through four tests. Scripture. Wise counsel. Fruit. Calling. Write down what each one says. On paper, not in your head. Your head negotiates. Paper doesn’t.

Watch the Replay

Rain kept you home, or you only caught part of it? This is your seat. Pull it up tonight with your Bible open to 1 Corinthians 16.

👉 Watch “If It’s God’s Will, Is It Supposed to Be Easy?” on YouTube

Go deeper: Your Two Weekly Growth Tools

Sunday lasts about thirty minutes. Your week lasts 168 hours. By Tuesday lunch, most of what you heard is gone. Not because you didn’t care. Because nothing carried it into Monday.

These two tools do the carrying. This week they matter more than usual, because this week you are putting a real decision on paper.

The 5-Day Devotional. Two minutes a day, five days, built on Sunday’s message. Read it before you open anything else on your phone. Two minutes. You’ve spent longer than that on worse.

👉 Start the 5-Day Devotional

The Sermon Application Guide. This is where the message stops being something you heard and becomes something you did. Open the folder, grab the guide, and keep it next to your Bible.

👉 Get the Sermon Application Guide

Pick one today. Better yet, pick both. Don’t let Sunday die in the parking lot.

Save the Date: Reconnect Starts Sunday, October 11

Nobody drifts on purpose. You didn’t decide to stop praying. You got busy, then tired, then quiet. One missed morning turned into a month. Now God feels like somebody you used to talk to every day.

That doesn’t fix itself. Somebody has to put it on the calendar. So I did.

Reconnect is a six week Life Group reset. Six Sundays. Six honest conversations. Six next steps small enough to actually take. The Sunday message sets the theme, your group talks it through and practices it together, and every person walks out with one challenge for the week.

⓵ October 11: Reconnect with God (prayer and worship)
⓶ October 18: Reconnect with Scripture (meditation and obedience)
⓷ October 25: Reconnect with Your Soul (silence, confession, and rest)
⓸ November 1: Reconnect with People (community and encouragement)
⓹ November 8: Reconnect with Calling (service and generosity)
⓺ November 15: Reconnect with Mission (witness and hospitality)

Here is what Week 1 asks of you: ten quiet minutes with God, on three days. Thirty minutes total. You will spend more than that scrolling before you get out of bed this week.

Three ways in, so nobody gets left outside:

In person. A real room, real people, one table.
Virtual. Same guide, same rhythm, on a video call from wherever you are.
Self guided. One email a week tied to Sunday. Reply with what you noticed, and a real person reads it.

You don’t need to have it figured out. You need to show up honest and take one next step. And to every Life Group leader who said yes: you don’t have to teach a second sermon. You have to be there and ask good questions. That’s the whole job, and it matters more than you know.

👉 Your move today: reply to this email with the word IN. Tell me whether you want an in-person group, a virtual group, or the self guided track, and our team will get you placed before October 11.

This Sunday

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 5: GOD SAID NO

You have been carrying a no you never told anybody about. A prayer you stopped saying out loud. A diagnosis that didn’t change. A marriage, a child, a door that never opened. And somewhere along the way, somebody told you that if you had enough faith, you would have gotten the yes.

Sunday we close CHECK YOUR SOURCE with the hardest sentence in the series. Paul asked God three times. The answer was no. And nobody in this house questions Paul’s faith.

Online only this Sunday, October 4, 10:30 AM Central. Come with one name in mind, the one person you could tell the truth to. Pick your screen:

👉 Website: marshillchicago.org
👉 YouTube: youtube.com/@ClarenceStowersTV
👉 Facebook Live: facebook.com/MarsHillChicago/live

Thank you for holding this house up

This is a hybrid church with two campuses: the room in McCook and the campus that’s wherever you’re sitting right now. Your prayers and your giving keep both of them open, whatever the forecast says.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. Rain thinned the crowd on Sunday and God still showed up. The no you’ve been carrying has thinned your confidence, and He is still in the room. Bring it Sunday.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Know somebody who quit praying about something because the answer was no? Forward this to them. They don’t need a lecture. They need to know they are not the only one carrying it.

A word from this week’s sponsor

This letter lands in your inbox free, and part of what keeps it that way is the sponsor below. This week it’s Morning Brew, a daily newsletter that gives you the business and tech news in a few minutes instead of a few hours. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about.

Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday the rain came down hard enough to leave empty seats in McCook. Some of you looked out the window at 9:45 and made the call. I understand. But ask anybody who came, or anybody who logged on from the couch, and they’ll tell you the same thing. The Spirit of the Lord was in that room. The rain thinned the crowd. It did not thin the presence.

One church, two campuses, one family. Wet shoes or house slippers, you were part of it.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 3: IT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR A REASON

Somebody said it to you in a hospital hallway. Or at the repast, holding a paper plate. Everything happens for a reason. They meant well. And that one sentence kept you quiet about your grief for three years.

Sunday we checked the source. That sentence is not in your Bible. What is in your Bible says something harder, and better.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28, NLT)

Read it slow. Everything works together for good. It never says everything is good. And verse 29 tells you exactly what good He means: being shaped into the likeness of His Son. Not a better outcome. A deeper you.

Joseph got this right. He looked at the brothers who threw him in a pit and sold him, and he said, you intended to harm me. He never renamed it. He left the evil labeled evil and still gave God the credit for what came out the other side.

Write this down: Redemption does not require us to call the wound good.

Your practice this week: pick one loss. Not all of them. One. Give it five uninterrupted minutes and tell God the truth about it without softening it and without explaining it. Then stop hunting for the reason for seven days. When your mind goes looking, say one sentence out loud: God, I’m not asking You why anymore. I’m asking You to redeem it.

Watch the Replay

Stayed home because of the rain? This is your seat. Pull it up tonight with your Bible open to Romans 8.

👉 Watch “IT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR A REASON” on YouTube

Go deeper: The 5-Day Devotional and the Sermon Application Guide

Sunday lasts about thirty minutes. Your week lasts 168 hours. Most of what you hear on Sunday is gone by Tuesday lunch. Not because you didn’t care. Because nothing carried it into Monday.

That’s the job of these two tools.

The 5-Day Devotional. Five days of Scripture and prayer built on Sunday’s message. Read it before you open your email, before anybody else gets a vote on your day.

The Sermon Application Guide. This is where the message stops being something you heard and becomes something you did. One verse and one move per day, straight off Sunday’s text.

Use one. Use both. Just don’t let Sunday die in the parking lot.

👉 Get the 5-Day Devotional and Application Guide

Save the Date: Reconnect Starts October 11

Be honest about where you are. You still believe. You still watch on Sunday. But somewhere this year your prayers got shorter than the drive thru line, your Bible became an app you haven’t opened since spring, and the last time somebody asked how you were really doing, you said “blessed” and changed the subject.

That’s not a faith problem. It’s a connection problem. And connection does not come back by accident.

Reconnect is a six-week Life Group reset starting Sunday, October 11. Each Sunday message sets the theme. Your group talks it through, practices it together, and every person walks out with one challenge for the week.

⓵ Reconnect with God, October 11
⓶ Reconnect with Scripture, October 18
⓷ Reconnect with Your Soul, October 25
⓸ Reconnect with People, November 1
⓹ Reconnect with Calling, November 8
⓺ Reconnect with Mission, November 15

Three ways in, so nobody gets left on the outside:

In person. A real room, real people, one table.
Virtual. Same guide, same rhythm, on a video call from wherever you are.
Self-guided. One email a week tied to Sunday. Reply with what you noticed, and a real person reads it.

You don’t need to have it figured out. You need to show up honest and take one next step.

👉 Your move today: reply to this email with the word IN. Tell me whether you want an in-person group, a virtual group, or the self-guided track, and we’ll place you before launch.

This Sunday

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 4: IF IT’S GOD IT WILL BE EASY IS A LIE

You already signed something. A lease. A resignation letter. A text you can’t unsend. You signed it because you were sure. Then the money didn’t come, and the first thing that cracked wasn’t your circumstances. It was whether God talks to you at all.

Or you’re the other one. You did hear from God. You started. It got expensive, and you quit at month four because somebody told you if it’s God, it flows.

Sunday we take apart three sayings that are all over your feed and nowhere in your Bible. God is about to fund the move He told you to make. Speak it into existence. If it’s God’s will, it will be easy. Then we’ll read the one sentence where Paul puts a wide open door and a crowd of opponents in the same breath. And he stayed.

Online only this Sunday, September 27, 10:30 AM Central. Bring the one decision you’ve been calling God’s will. Pick your screen:

👉 Website: marshillchicago.org
👉 YouTube: youtube.com/@ClarenceStowersTV
👉 Facebook Live: facebook.com/MarsHillChicago/live

Thank you for holding this house up

Rain doesn’t cancel church, and it doesn’t cancel what it takes to keep the stream live for the family member watching from a hospital bed, a job site, or a kitchen table three states away. This is a hybrid church with two campuses: the room in McCook and the campus that’s wherever you’re sitting right now. Your prayers and your provision keep both of them open.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. The rain didn’t stop God on Sunday. Don’t let a slow week stop what He started in you.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. If you know somebody who just signed something big because they were “sure,” forward this before Sunday. Four honest tests cost a lot less than one long regret.

A word from this week’s sponsor

This letter lands in your inbox free, and part of what keeps it that way is the sponsor below. This week it’s 1440, a daily news brief built for people who want to stay informed without losing their morning to it. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about.

Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday we checked the source on the line that runs more of your life than you probably want to admit. One church, two campuses, one family. That’s true whether you were watching from your kitchen table or sitting in a car with the engine off, not going in yet.

This Sunday

September 20, 10:30 AM Central, live in person and online. CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 3: IT DIDN’T HAPPEN FOR A REASON. If somebody handed you that line at a funeral or in a hospital hallway, be here. Bring the person who needed it more than you did.

7941 47th St., McCook, IL, 10:30 AM Central. Full details at marshillchicago.org.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE: What We Actually Said This Week

Somebody knocks on your door unannounced. Watch what you do before your hand touches the handle. You scan the room. You clear the counter. Then you open the door. Nobody taught you that, and nobody taught you to do the same thing to God. Good week, long prayer. Empty week, silence. You called it reverence. It was a payment.

“God helps those who help themselves” is not in your Bible. Benjamin Franklin put it in print in Poor Richard’s Almanack in 1736. Not Paul. Not Proverbs. And it does not just miss the text. It reverses it.

“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” (Romans 5:6, NLT)

Read the timing word. While. Not after. Not once you finally got it together. While you were still flat on the floor.

Write this down: Grace doesn’t meet you halfway. It meets you while you still can’t help yourself.

Your practice this week: name the one place you’ve been trying to earn what God already gave you, and stop working on it for seven days. Not stop working. Stop working on that. Then bring Him the helplessness instead of the progress report. Say it out loud: I cannot help myself. Then read Romans 5:6 back to Him as the answer.

Watch the Replay

Missed Sunday, or need to hear the Romans 5 part again with your Bible open? Start here.

👉 Watch “GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES” on YouTube

Go deeper: The Most Misquoted Verse in Your Bible

Want to sit with this longer than Sunday gave you time for? The full breakdown of where this line actually came from, and what it’s been quietly billing you for, is written out.

👉 Read the study guide

This Series, Set to Music

Five weeks of correcting what you’ve been told changes what you can actually sing. The CHECK YOUR SOURCE playlist is worship built for a season of relearning what’s true, not performing what sounds spiritual. Play it on the drive this week.

👉 Listen to the CHECK YOUR SOURCE playlist on Spotify

This Fall: Life Groups Get a Name and a Plan

This fall, Life Groups are getting a plan: Reconnect. Six weeks, one practice each week. Prayer, scripture, soul care, community, calling, mission. Every week ties straight back to Sunday’s message, so people don’t just hear it, they practice it with somebody else in the room.

Leaders get a one-page guide and real support, not a binder to figure out alone. A launch video opens it. A celebration video closes it out.

Materials and dates are coming soon. If you lead a group, or you’ve been waiting for a reason to, get ready. This fall we’re building the room, not just filling a calendar slot.

Thank you for holding this house up

You didn’t earn what keeps this ministry running either. The stream, the team, the hybrid church that reaches somebody who can’t walk into a building this week, all of it runs on people who give before they’re asked to prove anything.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving, or text MHGIVE to 33777. Give as response to grace, not as another line item on a payment plan.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. Whatever you’ve been trying to earn from God this week, put it down. He was never waiting on your progress report.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. You have a payment plan with God and He never signed it. Find the one line item on it this week and cancel it.

A word from this week’s sponsor

This letter lands in your inbox free, and part of what keeps it that way is the sponsor below. This week it’s HubSpot. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. Supporting them helps us keep showing up in your inbox every week.