Patience, Kindness and Goodness

Dear Resurrection Family,

What a glorious day here in Kansas City! I’ve got several important things to share that I think you’ll want to know about, including what researchers say are the keys to happiness, healthy marriages and raising successful kids – be sure to read all the way to the end!

Happiness, Healthy Marriages and Successful Children

In preparing for this weekend’s message on the Fruit of the Spirit, I was reading research out of Harvard, the University of California and the Gottman Institute all pointing to how the fruit of the Spirit we’ll explore this weekend, Patience, Kindness and Goodness, play a pivotal role in living significantly happier lives, raising successful children, and, in the case of one of these fruits, was the common characteristic of the top third of marriages.

Don’t miss worship this weekend as we continue our focus on The You YOU Were Meant to Be: Growing in the Fruit of the Spirit. Invite a friend, family member or neighbor to join you in worship. They will be glad you did.

Here’s the promo for the sermon series. Share it with your friends to invite them to join you for worship this weekend.

Memorizing the Fruit of the Spirit

On another note, I’ve encouraged you to memorize the nine Fruit of the Spirit Paul mentions in Galatians 5:22-23: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” We’re looking at three each week in worship – they are easier to memorize in groups of three. To help you remember them, you can go to cor.org/next where you can download a screen saver for your phone or computer.

If you worship in person at one of our locations this Sunday, make sure you stop by the Fall photo booth and take a photo with family and friends – another reminder of the Fruit of the Spirit – and share it with your friends on social media!

“I didn’t realize how much I was missing!”

Last weekend we had a lot of first-time visitors as members for whom it was their first time back to in-person worship since the pandemic began. Again and again, I heard people say, “I didn’t realize how much I was missing being in person.” Two different people came to me after church to say that they had started to cry when they saw children being baptized – they hadn’t seen this in 18 months since we only baptize at in-person worship. Others spoke of seeing friends they hadn’t seen in a long time. One family spoke of how awesome it was to have their kids in Sunday School in person. Others loved singing together.

One couple said to me, “It wasn’t COVID that had kept us away at this point, we’d just gotten used to worshipping on our couch with a cup of coffee. But we decided today we needed to get back in person.”

I’m so grateful for online and our televised services, and for all who worship with us in these ways. We try to make them outstanding services of worship to help you worship God and grow in your faith. But if you live in Kansas City and you are not back in person because you’re out of the habit, I want to encourage you to be back in person. This is in part because there are things I think you are missing, but also because there may be people who need you – someone you’ll speak to, smile at, encourage, or bless by your presence here.

When we began in-person worship we were running about 25% of our pre-COVID in-person attendance. Last Sunday we were at 42%. Our total in-person and online was almost exactly what it was for the same weekend two years ago, but we had another 15,000+ people joining us on television in addition to that. I’d love to see us be at 50% or more before the end of the year.

7:30 am Worship Service Test Continues

Speaking of being back in in-person worship, last weekend we launched a test run of our 7:30 am Leawood service to see if we had enough people to make this service work. The service is meeting in the Foundry Hall in building B. It was exciting to see 150 people return, half of whom had not been back to in-person worship since COVID.

The service has traditional music, and you’ll have my weekend sermon on video. I’ll be in the service again in person this weekend, assisting with worship and connecting with our 7:30 worshipers. We’ll continue this service through November 7 and, if we’ve been able to maintain these kinds of numbers, the service will continue.

Pastor Wendy sent a survey out to Foundry worshippers and Saturday night worshipers last night – please look for it in your email.

Conference Next Week for Young Clergy and Leaders of Large Churches

Next week, we are hosting 560 pastors and lay leaders from the 400 largest United Methodist Churches, as well as a gathering of 150 young United Methodist clergy from across the United States.

The event, organized by Resurrection, will consist of a series of seven conversations, led by panels of United Methodist leaders, focused on the future of the United Methodist Church. Young clergy begin gathering on Sunday night and will meet on their own through Monday lunch. Teams of large church pastors and laity will be arriving Monday morning and the two groups will kick off a joint conference Monday at 2 pm and continuing, until Tuesday at 3 pm.

The hope is to focus on what unites us as United Methodists, to consider what needs to change in our denomination, and to encourage these leaders to play a part in positively encouraging and influencing others to remain United Methodists as around 15% of the denomination is planning to leave to form a new denomination. Would you please pray for this gathering?

Trunk or Treat Celebrations

October 30 and 31

Trunk or Treat is going to be awesome! Next weekend, each of our locations will host this event for families in our communities. Maybe it’s been a long time since you went trick or treating, but I don’t want you to miss out! Here are three ways you can join in the fun:

1. Volunteer: We can always use more volunteers and decorated trunks! Go to cor.org/events at your location to sign up.
2. Come: Bring your kids, grandkids, neighbor kids or just come by yourself and join in the fun of welcoming our community.
3. Share: Who do you know that doesn’t have a church home for their family? Invite them to join you.

In case you missed it, here’s the 30-second promo video our team talked me into doing in my Alexander Hamilton costume that I’ll be wearing at Trunk or Treat. I hope you’ll join me as we fill our parking lots with trunks, treats, children and lots of fun!

Holy Frit Documentary Showing at Resurrection Leawood

Friday, November 5

The stained-glass window at our Resurrection Leawood location tells the story of our faith, from Genesis to Revelation, but there’s also a unique story behind the creation of this amazing work of art.

Did you know the window almost didn’t get completed? Or that the leading art glass artist in the world helped design and create it? That the company who made it took on this project without knowing exactly how they would create it, or if it would sink them?

Filmmaker Justin Monroe spent four years documenting the making and installing of this window, then created a remarkable film called Holy Frit that tells the story. The film has won numerous awards at film festivals across America and around the world. We showed it this summer in the Leawood sanctuary – a unique experience where the audience could watch the film in the very room the window is located. It was a terrific experience.

There were so many people who could not be there or wanted to bring their friends that we are showing the film one last time in the Leawood Sanctuary (Building A) on Friday, November 5. Doors open at 6 pm and the movie begins at 6:30 pm. The film is free, but we ask that you reserve your spot ahead of time. Here’s the link to register, and check out the movie trailer.

If you’ve been worshiping with us online or on television in the Kansas City area, I invite you to join us for this incredible opportunity to watch the movie and see the window in person. Again, this would be a great event to invite friends to, but please note that it is best suited for more mature audiences due to some of the language.

Register for “Holy Frit” →

Tuesday Night’s Vespers: The Original Ted Lasso

Join me this Tuesday night for Vespers on Facebook Live. Kansas City native, actor Jason Sudeikis, has created a smash hit television show, Ted Lasso, about a Kansas football coach that goes to coach a soccer team in England. The show recently won five Emmy Awards. The inspiration behind the character of Ted Lasso was, in part, Jason’s high school basketball coach at Shawnee Mission West High School – coach Donnie Campbell. I recently sat down to interview Coach Donnie to talk about leadership and faith. This coming Tuesday night on Vespers, I’ll share the 25-minute interview.

If you have friends who love Ted Lasso, invite them to join you for Vespers this 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.

Voting as an Act of Christian Discipleship

On November 2 there are several important elections taking place. Locally, in Johnson County, there will be elections for school board members, Johnson County Community College trustees, Water Board members, City Council members and mayors of various cities. There are similar elections in Jackson County, Wyandotte County, Miami County and other surrounding communities. I want to encourage you to vote in these elections and to see this as one way of living out your faith.

Often voters do not turn out for these local elections, which can be a tragic mistake. Those we are electing will shape our communities, schools and children in more direct ways than those running for national office. We pray, many of us daily, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven.” We’re meant not only to pray this, but to live this prayer. And, one of the most important ways we shape what happens here on Earth is through electing people to public office whose vision and values align with our own.

I was reading candidate profiles for the local elections I’ll be voting in. There are candidates’ vision and values that are more closely aligned with my values than others. I never tell people who to vote for, but I do want to encourage you to vote and to take the time to find out about the candidates you are voting for. Johnson Countians can find candidate profiles for all elections at this website. Jackson Countians can find their information here.

I want to encourage you to vote. You can request an absentee ballot to vote by mail, vote early in-person beginning October 23, or vote in person on the day of the election.

That’s all I’ve got for today. I hope you’ll join us for worship this weekend!

In Christ’s Love,

Adam