Weekly Updates from Pastor Adam - April 22, 2022

Dear Resurrection Family,

Happy Earth Day! I want to begin with a word about Easter. We had a moving and exciting Easter last weekend, and I want to thank, in particular, all of you who volunteered and helped make 19 services possible at five locations – from parking lot greeters, to nursery workers, to ushers and greeters, CART team members, lights, sound, video and all of our musicians and vocalists, mug delivery teams and a host of others. I’m so proud of, and grateful for you. I saw volunteers at Leawood who were there for all of our services, Saturday and Sunday, serving. The same was true at each location. Amazing.

We don’t have final numbers yet for television – parts of the data trickle in over two weeks – but at this time we know that over 91,000 people worshipped with us for Easter, 15,600 in person, 11,000+ online, and 65,000 on TV. I suspect the TV numbers will be higher than this by the time they are all in. Together we helped people sing, pray, worship and reflect upon the meaning of Easter and how we live not only the crucified, but resurrected life. We also provided two $100,000 grants from our Easter offering – one to support the work of Reconciliation Services at 31st and Troost as they provide counseling and social work services to bring healing and help to their community, and another to aid in counseling services for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. It was a great weekend! More information on this below.

THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP: PLAYING IN THE DIRT

Today is Earth Day, and this weekend, Pastor Scott Chrostek will share a special message titled Playing in the Dirt. We’ll be taking a look at what it means in Genesis where we read that God gave humans “dominion over every living thing on the earth.” We’re also going to be kicking off a four-week “Creation Care Celebration” with new opportunities each week to care for God’s creation. This week we’ll learn about how we can make a global impact by helping plant fruit and nut trees. I love this, and that in caring for God’s creation as an act of Christian discipleship, it benefits all of us, and there are things we all can do. You’ll love this weekend in worship!

Invite a friend to join you for worship in person at one of our five locations, online or on television:
Leawood location Sunday at 7:30, 9, 11 am (traditional at 11 in the sanctuary, modern at 11 in the Foundry) or 5 pm
Downtown location Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 9 or 11 am
Blue Springs, Olathe (West) and Overland Park locations Sunday at 9 or 11 am
Online at cor.org on Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 7:30, 9 and 11 am or 5 pm
On KMCI Channel 38 television at 8 am or 11 am
On demand on YouTube throughout the week

RELATIONSHIP SERMON SERIES BEGINS APRIL 30/MAY 1

I’ll be back the following weekend to kick off a May sermon series we’re calling 5 Keys to Relationships that Last. More than 8,000 of you have completed a survey about your relationships. This is the largest response we’ve ever had to these surveys we conduct every five years. We’ve heard from people who are single, divorced, married, widowed or in a committed relationship. The data is fascinating. I’ll be sharing, in the weeks ahead, what we fight about and what makes us feel loved, and for those who are single, what you are looking for in a relationship and what your biggest turn-offs are. We’ll find out what couples who’ve been married over 50 years can teach us about what it takes to pull that off. We’ll also be seeing the connections between what couples do, or don’t do, and the happiness of their relationships.

Here’s the survey link if you haven’t taken it yet. I do want to make a special request to men – we’ve heard from almost 75% women and only 25% men. Men, your wives, partners and significant others are interested in your responses, so help me out and take a few minutes to complete the survey. Invite your friends, and plan to join us for this series. Here’s a light-hearted promo that you can share with your friends.

By the way, I’ve had some say, “I’m never interested in being in a romantic relationship, why should I attend this series?” Here are a few thoughts: 1. We attend worship to honor God – to sing, pray and listen for his voice. 2. Every sermon will be unpacking biblical principles that apply to almost any relationship. 3. You have friends and family who may benefit from what you hear in these messages. 4. They will be interesting, informative, inspirational and sprinkled with humor that will lift your heart. Resurrection has thousands of singles – never married, divorced, widowed, and these sermons are for everyone. But if someone feels like these sermons may be difficult to attend because of loss or painful relationships in the past, we have years worth of sermons online that you could check out too. I appreciate that sermons like these might be difficult for some. I also feel a strong conviction that if we don’t talk about how our faith should shape our relationships, I have failed as your pastor in caring for you.

COUPLES RETREATS SCHEDULED IN MAY

As part of this relationship series, our discipleship teams at each of our locations have planned special retreats and classes throughout the month. Click here to see the opportunities coming up at all our locations. We’ve been through a tough season with the pandemic over the past two years, and we can all use some refreshment and reconnection with our partners.

INTERESTED IN JOINING RESURRECTION? COFFEE WITH THE PASTORS IN PERSON OR ONLINE

If you’re considering membership at Resurrection, join me for Coffee With The Pastors this coming week. At this informal gathering, you’ll learn more about the church, get to know our pastors and staff and review expectations regarding membership. Then, toward the end, there is a short joining ceremony for those ready to become members.

We will have in-person Coffee With The Pastors at all of our locations Sunday, May 1 at 2 pm. If you worship with us from outside of Kansas City, or you’re not able to attend in person, we’ll host Coffee With The Pastors online Thursday, April 28, at 6:30 pm. Learn more and register for either in person or online.

“HOLY FRIT” DOCUMENTARY ABOUT RESURRECTION WINDOW SHOWING WEDNESDAY IN KC

One of the films in the Kansas City FilmFest International this year will be Holy Frit, the documentary about the making of Resurrection stained glass window. The film will be shown Wednesday, April 27, at 7 pm at AMC Ward Parkway Theater. If you are interested, here’s the link to buy tickets.

Holy Frit has won numerous awards at film festivals across the country. The film was four years in the making and was created by documentary filmmaker Justin Monroe, who followed the progress of the window from conception to installation. The Resurrection Window took 14,000 hours to complete and is believed to be the largest single art glass window in a church, and the second largest stained-glass window in the world. It tells the biblical story from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. The film documents the challenges that nearly kept the window from being completed. You can learn more about the Kansas City FilmFest and see the complete schedule of films on their website.

HELP UNITED METHODIST WOMEN FILL THE BOOKMOBILE THIS WEEKEND!

This week, United Methodist Women are kicking off a Scholastic Book Fair to fill the Resurrection Bookmobile! Last year, even though our numbers were down because of COVID, our bookmobile distributed more than 43,000 books to children in our city through our partner schools and other community groups. In a normal year, we supply close to 70,000 books annually. We have three ways you can help shop and donate:

• If you worship at our Leawood location this weekend, you can shop the Scholastic book displays and purchase books to fill donation bins. You can also tour the Bookmobile onsite.
• At all locations, you can donate monetarily by texting COR to 77977 and select Book Fair, or visit cor.org/giving and select Book Fair.
• At all locations you can also shop online at Scholastic website to select and purchase to ship to church.

SPECIAL WEEKENDS COMING UP IN MAY…

We have some special recognitions coming up this month, and I hope you’ll plan to be in worship each week.

• May 1, Teacher & School Staff Appreciation: If you work at a school, we want to thank you. After each of our worship services, you can pick up a special sweet treat on us. Please register so we’re sure to have enough!
• May 8, Mother’s Day: We want to recognize all the special women in our lives this weekend with a special gift. Bring your mother, or if you’re a mother, bring your kids to worship.
• May 15, Graduation Weekend: We’ll be recognizing graduating high school seniors at all of our locations. Please register for more details.

EASTER GRANTS PROVIDE $200,000 FOR COUNSELING AND TRAUMA CARE

Recognizing our responsibility to be the hope of the Resurrection to others, each year, we give the first $100,000 of our Easter offering to an organization that is sharing hope in tangible ways in our community. This year, we decided to give two $100,000 grants.

The first went locally to Reconciliation Services, an amazing organization working to break down racial divides, provide social and mental health services and create economic opportunities. Here’s a link to the video we shared on Easter about their work. You can learn more about Reconciliation Services and their project to renovate their 100-year-old building at 31st and Troost and find out how you can individually help if you are interested on their website.

The second $100,000 grant will go to the United Methodist Church in Ukraine and Poland as seed money to help launch counseling and trauma care for refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine. I will be traveling to Poland with a team in May to see how Resurrection can continue to offer help in this part of the world.

JOIN ME TUESDAY NIGHT FOR VESPERS

To those of you who tried to join me for Vespers last Tuesday, thank you for your grace and understanding. After a very busy Easter week, I decided that I should practice what I preach and spend some quality time with LaVon. I hope you’ll join me this coming Tuesday at 7:30 pm CT on Facebook Live, on my Facebook page: Pastor Adam Hamilton on Facebook for Tuesday Vespers. I plan to share some of the things I’d never seen before in Luke’s account of Easter, but which I didn’t have space to include in the sermon. You’ll also be able to view Vespers on my Facebook page or on the Vespers YouTube page after Tuesday night.

I’ll end noting that I spent the last few days at the lake, completing the final revisions for a book on John the Baptist that comes out this Advent called Prepare the Way for the Lord. I just sent the last revisions and a postscript on the Second Coming of Christ to the editor this morning! LaVon and I also did a podcast on marriage and spirituality with Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling podcast. As I write this note, I just got off of a Zoom call with the team traveling to Poland in two weeks. And, I’ll be spending the next couple of days with LaVon while also working on the upcoming sermon series on relationships. It’s been a fruitful week away, and I look forward to being back in the office this week.

I am so grateful for you, Resurrection!

Adam