HONORING REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. THIS WEEKEND

Dear Resurrection Family,

This is Martin Luther King, Jr. Weekend, the Chiefs are in the playoffs, and we’re continuing in our doubt series focusing on the answers to two big questions that many of you reported lead to doubts. More about all of this below; and, for those who missed worship last weekend, I’ll share with you the total of the Christmas Eve offering and an update on our effort to encourage healthcare workers.

THIS WEEKEND’S MESSAGE AT RESURRECTION

We continue our sermon series on Wrestling with DOUBT, Finding Faith this weekend with a sermon I’ve titled “The Gospel Truth: Is the Bible True? Is Jesus the Only Way?” We’ve had 1,872 people take the doubt survey. These two questions came up again and again as among the top sources of doubt. We’ll begin by looking at some of the specific questions you raised about the Bible and then two broad and very different ways Christians deal with these questions and doubts about scripture. Ultimately we’ll talk about why the Bible matters, and how we can read it for all its worth.

If we have time, I’ll close the sermon responding to a question a friend texted me after last week’s message: “I’m an agnostic with Christian roots…I’m super excited about next weekend’s message. Those are among my biggest struggles with the whole Christian thing. I cannot accept that a good, kind, loving, gracious, just God would send a kind, caring, loving, faithful Hindu to hell simply because they didn’t accept Jesus. That literally doesn’t make sense to me.” If we have time, I’ll offer three possible responses to this question, if we run out of time, we’ll cover this the following week.

Chiefs Fans: Wear your Chiefs gear to worship Sunday as the Chiefs take on the Steelers in the first round of the playoffs!

Do you have a friend or family member who has questions or doubts? Please invite them to join you for worship this weekend. I heard from a man this week who sent a touching letter to his son inviting him to join him for last week’s message. Click here to view the promo and then you can click the paper airplane in the top right corner to post it to social media, or copy the link and paste it in your social media. It takes less than a minute to share and invite others.

Join us for worship this weekend:

In person at one of our five locations:

–Leawood location 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

WANT TO JOIN A CONVERSATION ABOUT DOUBTS AND FAITH QUESTIONS?

Anne Williams, Downtown-Location Pastor, and Matt Bisel, Lead Pastor of Discipleship and Worship Leader, are leading a three-week class “Live and Let Think” starting Monday, January 17, at 6:30 pm. The class is offered through Zoom, and you need to pre-register.

Register for “Live and Let Think →

HONORING THE LEGACY OF REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

We have several ways you can honor Dr. King’s legacy this weekend by serving in the community on Saturday or Monday. Click here to sign up now. Due to the potential severe weather, many of the agencies we will be serving are postponing their projects on Saturday until Monday. If you have signed up to serve, please make sure you check your email for an update as to whether your service project is still on or if it is moving to Monday. Details will be included in that correspondence.

Take some time this weekend to watch this 18-minute video produced as a tribute to Dr. King by Allies for Racial Justice, a partnership between St. James United Methodist Church and Resurrection. You’ll hear reflections from Rev. Jacqueline McCall Campus Pastor, St. James Church and Rev. Cheryl Jefferson Bell, Community Justice Pastor at Resurrection along with powerful music from Isaac Cates and the group Ordained. Each of us is called to do our part in continuing Dr. King’s legacy of pursuing justice. Think about the words and songs and reflect on how God may be calling you today and throughout this next year. Please be aware portions of this video contain images of mature themes of social justice which may be unsettling to some viewers.

Check out the Allies for Racial Justice website, for upcoming events and opportunities to get connected with Church of the Resurrection’s partnership with St. James United Methodist Church, as well as articles, videos and book suggestions that help us better understand our differences, appreciate our similarities, and establish Christ-centered solutions to end racial and social injustices.

CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE OFFERING AND WORSHIP TOTALS

In case you missed worship this last weekend, I wanted you to know that the Christmas Eve offering set a new record once again this year. While there are still funds coming in, the preliminary total is over $2.3 million dollars that you gave to benefit children and families living in poverty in Kansas City and in the developing world. I am so proud of you, and grateful for the sacrifices you made to bless and care for kids. The impact of this offering will be huge, and thousands of kids will be impacted.

I also received word today of the final attendance for Christmas Eve – we ended up with 132,737 (17,341 in person, 19,318 online and 96,078 on television).

DATE CHANGE: BRING HOUSEHOLD GOODS AND PROM WEAR DONATIONS TO WORSHIP SUNDAY

Due to the predicted bad weather on Saturday, we are rescheduling our monthly collection drive from Saturday to this Sunday, January 16, before or after worship at all locations. If you can’t make it Sunday, you can call your location and ask for the mission staff person to coordinate a time to drop off items.

This month we will be collecting for two different projects – household supplies for resettled refugee families in Kansas City, and formal wear that will be donated to a local prom drive for students in need. We have a specific list of items needed for both collections on our website.

SCREEN SANITY SUMMIT FOR FAMILIES

We’ve got something coming up later this month that might just be life-changing for your families. Beginning January 19, we’re going to host the first ever Screen Sanity Summit at all our locations and online. The summit is at 6:30 pm on Wednesdays, January 19 – February 2, offered online (cor.org/live) and at the Leawood, Downtown, Overland Park and Blue Springs locations. It will be offered Thursdays, January 20 – February 3 at the West (Olathe) location.

Resurrection is partnering with the Kansas City-based nonprofit START for a unique nationwide event that will bring parents together to discuss one of today’s most pressing topics—digital health. Whether you attend in person or virtually, you can will hear from experts in the digital field, have rich conversations with other parents, reflect on the role technology plays in your life, and leave with realistic tools for improving your family’s digital health. The Summit will provide practical ways to talk to your kids about everything from smartphones to social media at every age and stage of digital parenthood and provide tips and tools to help you create screen-life balance. Learn more here.

Register for Screen Sanity Summit →

JOIN A SMALL GROUP THIS WINTER

Registration is opening this weekend for new small groups at all of our locations. Small groups are a great way to get connected with others in the church while you study and share together. You can look through the open group options and find a time, location and demographic that works for you.

Here’s the sign-up link →

NEW WAY FOR ONLINE WORSHIPPERS TO STAY CONNECTED

In addition to this enote which we send to our congregation on Fridays, we have location specific email newsletters called “Next Steps” that your locations pastors send out on Tuesdays. Next week we are launching a weekly email newsletter just for those of you who are part of our online community. If you sign up, you’ll receive an email for Pastor Ashley Morgan Kirk in which she’ll share opportunities to study, connect and grow, as well as ways you can get the most out of your online worship experience.

To receive this “Next Steps” email, you can sign up here. If you are currently worshipping online, but you also want to stay connected with a Resurrection location you can sign up for as many locations emails as you want, they’ll all come on Tuesday late afternoon.

HOSPITAL WORKER ENCOURAGEMENT

Last week I mentioned that we had been in conversation with several area hospitals about how we could encourage hospital workers in our community. We heard from so many of you who work in healthcare expressing your gratitude. And so many of you who gave to buy a cup of coffee for a health care worker – more than 10,000 cups of coffee have been donated so far! On January 24, we will be giving out coupons for free coffee at two area hospitals’ coffee shops with a note of encouragement to the employees. At a third hospital they asked if, rather than coffee, we could support snacks and treats for each department and we’ll do that instead of coffee for them. I’ll be inviting you to join me on January 24 in praying for each hospital.

We’re also going to be inviting our members to send notes to the hospitals, particularly children. We heard that the notes our kids sent 18 months ago were particularly meaningful to the hospital workers. These will be available in employee break rooms. At this point there are about 17,000 hospital workers you will be blessing and encouraging in this effort, but we’re looking to expand to other area hospitals. We learned that one of these hospitals decided to pay this forward and their employees are doing this for another hospital, and that second hospital decided to do this for yet a third hospital! How cool is that?

Thank you to all who have contributed to buy a cup of coffee (or snacks) for a healthcare worker. If you would like to donate to the healthcare worker encouragement fund, click here and your gift will be used bless and encourage healthcare workers here in Kansas City!

TUESDAY NIGHT VESPERS

Don’t forget you can join me for Vespers Tuesday night at 7:30 pm on Facebook Live, at my Facebook page: Pastor Adam Hamilton on Facebook. You’ll also be able to view it on my Facebook page or the church’s YouTube page after Tuesday night. This week, I’ll be tackling some of the specific questions about the Bible that people noted caused them doubts – questions we’ll only address in the broadest way in the sermon this weekend.

I’m really looking forward to worshipping with you this weekend!

Adam