A Look Ahead

Dear Resurrection Family,

I got an early start on Mother’s Day this year. I bought my mom’s card two weeks ago and had dinner with her this week. And LaVon’s gift is in the closet waiting to be wrapped. We’re having lunch with one of our daughters Saturday and dinner with the other on Sunday night. Between all of that is worship, where we’ll catch glimpses of what a mother’s love can do and how it illustrates something deeply true about the Christian life as we continue our study of 1 Thessalonians.

If you are a mom of grown kids, suggest that they join you for worship this weekend – the awesome thing about having online worship is that you can worship with your family, hear the message and talk about it afterwards.

If you are able, join us in person. We’ll have carnations at each location for moms, grandmothers and special women in our lives. You may remember at the first Mother’s Day (which was started in a Methodist Church!) white carnations were handed out.

By the way, last weekend I mentioned that this weekend’s sermon would focus on sexuality – and that it might be appropriate for 11 and up. The original title was, “Sex and the City” as Paul devotes part of chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians to the topic of sexual ethics. But as I worked on the sermon this week and thought about Mother’s Day, I shifted the focus a bit.

In 1 Thessalonians 3 and 4 Paul does touch on Christian sexual ethics and we’ll touch on it, too, but the primary focus of the sermon will be on his call to love, which is the guiding principle behind his sexual ethics. Behind this is a bigger idea, the one that will be the overarching focus of this weekend’s message: The call to “live a life that is pleasing to God.”

This Weekend’s Message – Faithful: Living a Life Pleasing to God

This weekend, I’m continuing a series of messages called People of the Light: A “How-To” Guide for Faithful Living, focusing on Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica. In Chapter 3, Paul challenges them to love one another and live a life pleasing to God. Please bring your Bible to worship to follow along as we look at how Paul’s words speak to us.

As an aside, my message this weekend begins with a Toyota commercial that highlights the importance of moms. It ends with a Proctor and Gamble commercial that left me in tears as it highlights the power of a mother’s love. And, in the middle of the sermon you’ll see an interview I had this week with 94-year-old Pat Robertson, her daughter, Libby, her granddaughter Katie, and her nine-month-old great-granddaughter, Annabelle. It was beautiful.

Here’s the promo for this series of messages to share with your friends and family and invite them to join us!

CDC Guidelines and a Look Ahead

“To mask, or not to mask, that is the question.” I’ve been in conversation this last week with various members and staff as we look at our protocols going into the summer. We’ll be reviewing our policies later this month, but for now, just a reminder that we’re still requiring masks inside the building and during worship. Social distancing, too.

I also want to remind you that our ushers and greeters are volunteers – giving their time to welcome everyone and to ensure a positive and safe worship experience. If they remind you to wear a mask, they are just doing what we have asked them to do to make sure everyone feels comfortable in worship. I was disappointed to learn that there were a couple of instances last week where individuals attending worship treated our volunteers in ways that didn’t represent who we are as followers of Jesus.

Here I remind you of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13, describing what the Christian life is meant to look like:

Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t jealous, it doesn’t brag, it isn’t arrogant, it isn’t rude, it doesn’t seek its own advantage, it isn’t irritable, it doesn’t keep a record of complaints, it isn’t happy with injustice, but it is happy with the truth. Love puts up with all things, trusts in all things, hopes for all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Let’s love one another as we gather for worship.

Additional Worship Services?

Each week we’re seeing more people returning to in-person worship. I love this. Yet, at most services, at most of our locations, we’re still running 20% to 25% of our pre-COVID numbers. My hope, over the next year, is to see our in-person worship attendance reach 50% of pre-COVID numbers, maybe higher, but it is impossible to predict at this point how many people will ultimately return to in-person attendance. We know that our total attendance is up nearly 300% right now, but how this translates into in-person attendance, only time will tell.

I’ve been asked when we’ll return to our pre-COVID worship schedules – at Leawood that was six services per weekend. At two of our other campuses this was four services per weekend. We may not need six worship services at Leawood for several years. I do anticipate adding a third service back this fall. It would be great if we needed a fourth next spring. What we don’t want to do is add a service and have only 60 people worshipping in a 3,200 seat sanctuary.

Knowing that you are anxious to reconnect with friends when you come to worship, we’re working on a plan to have areas of the sanctuary where Saturday night, 7:30 am, 11 am Foundry and Sunday 5 pm are invited to sit so that you will be able to find and sit with your friends from your usual pre-COVID service. We’re also looking at fellowship events to connect you together.

For now, we are watching our attendance grow at the 9 and 11 am services. This fall we’ll look at adding additional service times as we need them. Stay tuned!

Suggestions for Sermons You’d Like or Need to Hear?

This summer during my study leave, I’ll be working on outlining sermons for the next two years. I’ve got a handful of sermon series already planned but will be looking at developing five additional series. As I do this, I like to invite our regular worshipers to submit your best ideas for sermons or sermon series. Some of the most meaningful sermon series I’ve preached were originally suggested by you, our members.

I’d love you to copy these questions, paste them into an email and offer your responses, then send them to my assistant. Here are the questions:

1. What theme, question, or topic could I (Adam or one of our other pastors) address in a sermon series that would be interesting to your friends who don’t go to church, or to which it would be easy for you to invite them to attend?
2. Are there theological questions, topics, texts or portions of the Bible, or questions about the spiritual life that you would like me to address in upcoming sermons?
3. Are there places you or someone you love is hurting or struggling that you wish I would speak to, and unpack what the Bible says about them in a sermon or sermon series?
4. When you think about the world around us, what suggestions do you have for a sermon series that would connect our faith and scripture to everyday life?

You can email your responses to stephanie.hubers@cor.org. I will read every one of your suggestions and pray over them as I’m working on our upcoming sermon plan.

Foster Child Ministry – Advocate, Care, Connect

This weekend, in honor of Mother’s Day, we’re highlighting our Foster Child Ministry. This ministry offers a variety of ways to support and care for children and teens in foster care, and their biological and foster parents. Learn more about becoming a foster parent and check out some of the ways you can advocate, care and connect on our website.

Our donation drop-off next Saturday, May 15, at each of our locations between 9 and 11 am, will be for summer toys and diapers to support foster families. Here is the list of requested items.

I’m Speaking in Alabama next week

Next week I’ll be speaking in Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, on May 11 and 12. I’ll be meeting with United Methodist pastors and church leaders in the afternoon discussing the future of the United Methodist Church. Then, in the evening, I’ll be giving a talk based upon my January sermon series here at Resurrection: “A Thinking Person’s Guide to Christian Faith.” We’ll talk about Science and Faith, Making Sense of the Bible’s Challenging Passages, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, and more.

If you are interested, both presentations will be live streamed from the churches:

• Asbury UMC, Birmingham, Tuesday, May 11, 7 pm, at asburyonline.org/live
• Dauphin Way UMC, Wednesday, May 12, 6:30 pm at dauphinwayumc.org/livestream

Tuesday Vespers: Because I’ll be speaking in Birmingham, Alabama, next Tuesday night, I won’t be hosting my regular Tuesday night Vespers. Instead, I’d love for you to tune in to the live stream from Asbury Birmingham from 7 to 8:30 pm.

Invite friends to join you for worship this weekend, in person, online or on TV:

• In-person at all five Resurrection locations at 9 and 11 am (masks and social distancing required).
• Online at cor.org/live, Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 7:30 am, 9 am, 11 am or 5 pm.
• KMCI 38 the Spot, Sunday at 8 am or 11 am (click here to find KMCI on your local cable provider)
• YouTube, Saturday at 5 pm and then on demand all week;
• Resurrection Online channels on your smart TV via Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV or Google TV

Don’t miss this weekend’s services – whether your mother is living or deceased, you’ll find worship and this weekend’s message deeply moving. Invite a friend or family member to join you!

Adam