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That verse is not in your Bible. We’re in the room Sunday.

That verse is not in your Bible. We’re in the room Sunday.

by | Sep 15, 2026 | Empowerment

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.

In-Person Service, September 2026

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

CHECK YOUR SOURCE: What We Actually Said This Week

CHECK YOUR SOURCE

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.
That verse was never about your suffering.

That verse was never about your suffering.

by | Sep 9, 2026 | Empowerment

Grace and peace to you this week. Sunday we opened a brand new series, and the first message met a lot of you somewhere you don’t usually admit to being on a Sunday morning. One church, two campuses, one family. That’s true whether you watched from your kitchen table or you’re reading this from a hospital chair somewhere else in the country.

Mark Your Calendar: In-Person Returns September 20

In-Person Service, September 2026

Mars Hill Anywhere gathers in the room once a month. This Sunday, September 13, we’re online only again. Save the trip. But circle September 20. That’s the next time the building in McCook opens its doors, online and in person, same service, same time.

If you’ve been waiting for a Sunday to walk back through those doors, that’s the one.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE: What We Actually Said This Week

CHECK YOUR SOURCE

This series is called CHECK YOUR SOURCE. Five weeks testing the sayings you’ve built your life on, the ones that sound like Scripture and aren’t. Week one went after the biggest one: “God will never give you more than you can handle.”

MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE

Somebody did math at 2:14 this morning. Phone face down, adding up their strength against the weight for the third week running, coming up short again. If that’s been you, keep reading.

That sentence, “God will never give you more than you can handle,” isn’t in your Bible. It’s a paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 10:13, and that verse is about temptation, not suffering. Paul wrote it to a church flirting with idolatry. It caps temptation. It guards an exit. It never once measured your pain.

Three chapters into a different letter, Paul tells you what actually happened to him:

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NLT)

Past his strength. Not near it. And that wasn’t the accident in the story. The end of his self-reliance was the point.

Write this down: God never promised manageable trouble. He promised sufficient grace.

Your practice this week: name the one weight that’s currently past your strength, out loud to God, and say plainly that you’re not carrying it on your own capacity this week. Car, radio off, two minutes. Then stop asking Him to make it lighter and start asking for the grace that holds while it stays exactly as heavy as it is.

Watch the Replay

Missed Sunday, or need to hear the 1 Corinthians 10:13 part again with your Bible open? Start here.

👉 Watch “MORE THAN YOU CAN HANDLE” on YouTube

Go deeper: The Problem With “God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle”

Want to sit in this longer than Sunday gave you time for? I broke down where this saying actually comes from and what it quietly does to people who believe it.

👉 Read the study guide

New on Still Standing: “10 Minutes Is How You Get Your Week Back”

Somebody handed you six months of work back in one sentence, and now you’ve replayed that conversation forty times looking for the moment you could have stopped it. That’s not processing. That’s just re-injuring yourself on a loop.

New episode of Still Standing is up now. One practical move for getting your week back after a setback that wasn’t your fault and isn’t going away by rehearsing it.

👉 Listen to “10 Minutes Is How You Get Your Week Back”

This Sunday

September 13, 10:30 AM Central. Online only, we’re back in the room together on September 20. CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 2: GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES. It’s the most quoted non-verse in American Christianity, and it isn’t in your Bible either.

Watch at marshillchicago.org.

Thank you for holding this house up

Everything you are watching right now was built by people who give. The stream, the team, the ministry that reaches somebody who cannot walk into a building this morning.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving. That link is in the chat and in the description.

Give as worship, not as pressure.

👉 Give here

Here’s where I’ll leave you. You’ve been keeping score with a measuring stick God never handed you. Put it down. What holds you up was never your grip in the first place.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. There’s one person in your life who’s been getting the fine version of you for months. Send them the replay this week, then tell them the real number.

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. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. Supporting them helps us keep showing up in your inbox every week.
No building this Sunday. Same 10:30 message.

No building this Sunday. Same 10:30 message.

by | Sep 4, 2026 | Empowerment

Reader, quick update before Sunday.

This week, Mars Hill Anywhere is online only. No in-person gathering. If you were planning to walk through the doors Sunday morning, save the drive. The building is closed. The service is not.

CHECK YOUR SOURCE, Week 1: More Than You Can Handle

Things God Never Said — Familiar Sayings. Deeper Truth. Better News.

You did not fail the test. You were handed a weight that verse never promised to keep off you.

“God will never give you more than you can handle” is not in your Bible. What is in your Bible is a temptation verse, cropped and handed to you at the worst possible moment, usually a funeral. This Sunday we go get the real text.

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NLT)

God never promised manageable trouble. He promised sufficient grace.

10:30 AM Central. Online only. Watch at marshillchicago.org.

Send this to someone who was never coming to a building anyway

An online-only week has one advantage. The person who was never going to walk through a church door this week can watch this one from exactly where they are. Forward this email or send them the link. Nobody has to get dressed for this service.

Give

Everything you are about to watch, the stream, the team, the ministry that reaches somebody at two in the morning who is not ready to walk into a building yet, was built by people who give.

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

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Week two is already loaded. “God helps those who help themselves” is not in your Bible either. It is Ben Franklin. Same time Sunday.

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. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about.
God never promised manageable trouble.

God never promised manageable trouble.

by | Sep 3, 2026 | Empowerment

Good morning, Reader.

Three days ago, two churches raised one prayer in one room. Here is what actually happened, and where we go from here.

The Gathering

The Gathering: One City. One Savior. One Worship Experience.

What happened at The Gathering was more than a joint service.

As we worshiped alongside our sisters and brothers from Ebenezer Baptist Church, shared a meal, and talked with one another, something beautiful happened. There was joy in the room. There was connection. It reminded us that we are part of one body, serving one Savior and carrying one message of hope.

For a hybrid church like ours, gathering in person with another congregation showed us what’s possible when churches choose partnership over isolation.

What if churches with different gifts, resources, and spaces could come together more often to worship, fellowship, and serve our communities? What if we could strengthen one another without each church having to carry every burden alone?

The Gathering gave us a glimpse. We are grateful to Ebenezer Baptist Church for the welcome, the worship, and the fellowship. We are praying about what God may be building next.

What was your favorite part of The Gathering? Hit reply and tell me.

This Sunday: A New Series Begins

Check Your Source

CHECK YOUR SOURCE starts this Sunday. Five weeks testing the sayings you have built your life on, the ones that sound biblical and are not: “God will never give you more than you can handle.” “God helps those who help themselves.” “Everything happens for a reason.” Sayings that feel true right up until the day they cannot hold the weight you are putting on them.

Week one is called More Than You Can Handle. Here is the line we are testing against Scripture: God never promised you manageable trouble. He promised sufficient grace. If you have ever quietly believed your faith failed because your life got too heavy, this one is for you.

“We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9, NLT)

10:30 AM Central. In person or online at marshillchicago.org.

Worth Your Time: Your Saved Posts Are a List of Things You Quit

Going deeper this week. New on Second Act: your saved folder is not a to-do list. It is a record of every intention you talked yourself out of.

Your brain gets the same reward from saving something as it does from doing it. That is why the folder keeps growing and the shelf stays empty. The rule that fixes it is not complicated. It is just uncomfortable: engage now or let it go.

👉 Read Your Saved Posts Are a List of Things You Quit

Give

Everything you are watching right now was built by people who give. The stream, the team, the ministry that reaches somebody who cannot walk into a building this morning.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving. That link is in the chat and in the description.

Give as worship, not as pressure.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Week two is already loaded. “God helps those who help themselves” is not in your Bible. It is Ben Franklin. Same time Sunday.

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. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. Supporting them helps us keep showing up in your inbox every week.
Grief does not require a death.

Grief does not require a death.

by | Aug 26, 2026 | Empowerment

Good morning, Reader.

Four days from now, Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church walks into a room with Mars Hill Anywhere for the first joint service either congregation has held in years.

That is not a small thing. Two pulpits do not share one microphone by accident.

This Sunday: The Gathering

The Gathering: One City. One Savior. One Worship Experience.

The Gathering: One City. One Savior. One Worship Experience.

This Sunday, Mars Hill and Ebenezer combine into one 11:00 AM service, done by 12:30. Tag-team welcome and announcements, one combined worship set, Pastor Barry carrying intercessory prayer, one sermon, one invitation. A Fifth Sunday scholarship offering will be taken.

Watching from home? Skip the YouTube and Facebook buttons below this week, they won’t carry it. Marcie (Mars Hill) and Jalen (Ebenezer) have the joint service running straight through Restream instead.

When the benediction lands, stay. A reception with light refreshments follows immediately after in Ebenezer’s upstairs dining hall.

Final artwork is approved and already moving across every channel we have. Full run-of-service details and team assignments land in your inbox this week. For now: get August 30 locked in before anything else claims that morning.

This Week’s Message

The Last Passenger You Have to Release Is Not a Person. There’s a folder on your phone you haven’t opened in four years. You know its exact name. This week closed WHO’S IN YOUR BOAT by asking who’s still sitting in the seat behind you, grading every Tuesday against a Tuesday that never came.

👉 Watch Why You Can’t Move On (And How to Fix It)

New Episode: Still Standing

Going deeper this week. Answering Everybody Is Costing You the Work just dropped on Still Standing. You are not slow and you are not disorganized. People keep bringing you their fires because every fast reply has trained them that you will put yours out to handle theirs. The episode names the eleven words that retrain it and hands you a seven-day audit to catch the pattern before it costs you another week.

👉 Listen to Answering Everybody Is Costing You the Work

Give

Everything you are watching right now was built by people who give. The stream, the team, the ministry that reaches somebody who cannot walk into a building this morning.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving. That link is in the chat and in the description.

Give as worship, not as pressure.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. Sunday’s room will hold more people than either building normally does alone. Get there by 10:45. The scholarship offering opens with the welcome, not after 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 1440. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. Supporting them helps us keep showing up in your inbox every week.
Ebenezer and Mars Hill share a room again.

Ebenezer and Mars Hill share a room again.

by | Aug 19, 2026 | Empowerment

I was gone. Not glancing-at-the-phone gone. Actually gone. And Mars Hill Anywhere did not fall apart without me, because this was never supposed to run through one man’s exhaustion in the first place.

Family. Friends. This church. You pushed me out the door and then held the ministry down while I was out of pocket. That is not a small ask, and you did not treat it like one. Thank you.

Homegoing: Vevely A. Parker

Before anything else this week, we hold a family in our arms. Our sister, Vevely A. Parker, has gone home to be with the Lord. We celebrate a life that touched this church as a sister, an aunt, a family member, and a friend.

Service Announcement for Vevely A. Parker

Thursday, August 20, 2026
Wallace Broadview Funeral Home · 2020 W. Roosevelt Rd, Broadview, IL 60155

Visitation
10:00 to 10:30 AM

Funeral Service
10:30 to 11:30 AM

Burial Following
Oakridge Cemetery, Hillside, IL

Church, wrap this family in love. If you can be present, be present. If you cannot, cover them in prayer.

Save the Date: The Gathering

Sunday, August 30. One address. Two churches that have not shared a room in years.

The Gathering: One City. One Savior. One Worship Experience.

The Gathering: One City. One Savior. One Worship Experience.

Mars Hill Chicago and Ebenezer Missionary Baptist Church go back further than either building. Northwood River District. Navy Pier. This is not two churches meeting for the first time. It is two churches finishing a sentence they started years ago.

11:00 AM, about 90 minutes, done by 12:30. Tag-team welcome and announcements, one combined worship set, Pastor Barry carrying intercessory prayer, one sermon, one invitation. A Fifth Sunday scholarship offering will be taken. Jalen from Ebenezer and Marcie from Mars Hill are already coordinating the broadcast so both congregations can watch it live on Restream.

When the benediction lands, stay. Weber Bakery is catering a reception upstairs in Ebenezer’s dining hall.

Artwork is approved and already moving across every channel we have. Full run-of-service and team assignments are coming in the next few weeks. For now: get August 30 on your calendar and do not put anything else on it that morning.

This Week’s Message

The Wall Has Your Name on It. Nobody Else Is Coming to Build It. Nehemiah got the same interruption four times and gave the same answer four times. If your assignment has been sitting on page two while you answer everybody else’s emergency, this one is for you.

👉 Watch The Wall Has Your Name on It

Growth Resource: Hands on Stone

Ten minutes on Sunday will not fix a calendar that answers everybody but you. Hands on Stone is the eight-page workbook built off this week’s message. It names the four symptoms of a broken boundary, breaks down Nehemiah’s refusal at the Plain of Ono line by line, and walks you through writing your own “come down sentence” before the next interruption tests it. It ends with a manifesto you sign with your own hand.

Download Hands on Stone (PDF)

Take This

Ten questions. Two minutes. No email required to see where you land. The Second Act Assessment will not hand you generic advice about “seasons” and “next chapters.” It names exactly how deep you are and what staying there is already costing you.

Take the Second Act Assessment

This Sunday

We are online only, August 23. Join us at 10:30 AM Central.

Give

Everything you are watching right now was built by people who give. The stream, the team, the ministry that reaches somebody who cannot walk into a building this morning.

Give at marshillchicago.org/giving. That link is in the chat and in the description.

Give as worship, not as pressure.

Pastor Clarence E. Stowers, Jr.

P.S. August 30. Two churches, one room, one Word. If The Gathering is new to you, this is your heads-up. Full run of service coming soon.

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 Superhuman. Take ten seconds to see what they’re about. Supporting them helps us keep showing up in your inbox every week.