Weekly Update from Pastor Adam - April 5, 2024

Dear Resurrection Family,

What a joyful Easter we had last week, and the hope of Easter continues to reverberate. As I write these words, I’m preparing to head into the Wesley Chapel here at our Leawood location to celebrate the life of Dee Ann Attaway. Dee Ann directed our preschool from 2005 to 2013, having devoted her life to educating and positively shaping the lives of children. I’ll be reminding those present of the impact she had on the lives of countless children, and sharing with them the hope we have in Christ – “death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Early this morning I finally completed my reading through Paul’s letters that we’d challenged you to do for Lent. I found it a blessing. I heard from several of you who also read through all 13 of Paul’s letters during Lent. I’m so grateful and proud of all of you who read through Paul’s letters during Lent!

I’ve got some important things to share with you in today’s eNote!

THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP – RESTORING FAITH: A FAITH FOR CRITICAL THINKERS

People reject religion for a variety of reasons. They may have struggled with questions and doubts, or they’ve been turned off by the way they see Christians acting “unchristian.” Others see faith as outdated and worn out. But what if the problem isn’t faith, but the way it’s been practiced? And what if faith could be restored, positively impacting our lives and the world around us? Over the next three weeks, we’re going to consider what a meaningful, authentic and compelling faith could and should look like.

I’ll be sharing this weekend some of the data released in the last month on why approximately 40 million people who used to go to church no longer attend. The top reason is they struggle to make sense of some of what they were taught, and no longer believe it. There’s even a name for this phenomenon: deconstruction. Churches where these people often rediscover faith are those that invite questions, where it is okay to struggle with doubt, and which encourage critical thinking that helps people make sense of faith.

My sermon this weekend is entitled, Erudito et Religio: A Faith for Critical Thinkers. Maybe you have questions about faith, or you have friends who are curious about faith, invite them to join you and worship with us this weekend. Here’s the video promo for the new series – I’d love you to share it on your social media.

CELEBRATING EASTER

Easter services were amazing! I am so grateful for the hundreds of volunteers and staff who served at all our locations. The buildings were beautiful, the music was powerful, and the welcome was amazing. I’m so proud of you, Resurrection, and am grateful for all you did to pull off 22 services across Kansas City, online and six televised services. This year we had 159,308 people worship with us – 20,385 in person, 9,285 online, 6,847 on demand, 106,387 on Kansas City television and 16,404 on Tulsa television. These are not just numbers, these are individuals who you welcomed and offered an Easter message of hope. As an aside, this was up from 95,584 last Easter. And looking back to 2019, the last Easter before COVID, when we were not on television yet, we had 31,890 people in worship in person and online for Easter that year.

READY TO OFFICIALLY JOIN RESURRECTION? COFFEE WITH THE PASTORS APRIL 14

If you are a regular worshiper at Resurrection but haven’t yet officially joined the church, I’d like to invite you to join us at any of our locations on Sunday, April 14 at 2 pm for Coffee with the Pastors. This is an inspiring gathering in which you’ll get to know others considering joining, we’ll share with you a bit of the history of our church, what it means to be a Christian and a United Methodist, and what it means to be a member of Resurrection. At the end, should you decide to join, we have a brief but moving joining time after which you will be officially members of Resurrection! Childcare is provided, and you can register and get the details here.

REGISTER TODAY FOR VACATION BIBLE CAMP, JULY 15-19

Get ready for “The Jesus Tour,” Vacation Bible Camp’s exciting adventure for kids currently in kindergarten through 5th grade. We’ll have VBC at all of our locations and have morning and evening options. Get the details and register here.

PHILIP YANCY AT RESURRECTION IN MAY

One of my favorite Christian authors is Philip Yancy. He’s written dozens of books selling over 15 million copies. Philip will be speaking here at Resurrection on Saturday, May 4, from 9 am – noon about his memoir Where the Light Fell. His presentation will touch upon challenging upbringings, toxic religious environments, racism, doubt, questions, fear, and ultimately, grace and God’s abundant love as he shares his personal story. I’ve read the book, and it is excellent. The event is called “What Was God Thinking?” and will be live in the Leawood Foundry and also streamed online. On that Sunday, I’ve invited Philip Yancy to preach at Resurrection. You won’t want to miss this insightful and inspiring event. For more information or to register, click here.

COLLEGE STUDENT BIBLE STUDY BEGINS APRIL 9

If you are a college student or know someone who is, I want you to know that we’re kicking off a three-week study just for college students that dives deep into Christianity’s toughest questions. The class starts at 7 pm and is offered at Resurrection Leawood and online. There’s a free pizza dinner at 6:30 pm for those who attend in person. Find out more and register here.

2024 KINDNESS CAMPAIGN: DO UNTO OTHERS

Exciting plans are in the works for our bi-annual Kindness Campaign. This year’s theme is Do Unto Others, based on the scripture known as the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Matthew 7:12). As part of our initiative to close the Kindness and Justice Gap, making our world look more like the kingdom of God, we made a commitment to lead a kindness campaign every two years, coinciding with the national elections. Our objective is to encourage people to be intentional about treating one another with kindness and respect, even those with whom we disagree. We believe that our individual actions matter. When we choose kindness during moments of disagreement, we create ripples of respect that change relationships and entire communities.

Like a political campaign, we’ll have buttons, posters, t-shirts, yard signs, social media, advertising and more to help us spread the message and encourage others to make a conscious decision to treat one another with kindness and respect. We’ll officially kick off the “campaign season” in August, but you can get a jump start by ordering your Do Unto Others t-shirts now. Here’s a link to the Resurrection webpage where you can learn more about the campaign and order t-shirts. While you’re there, take a look at the short video about GOEX, our t-shirt vendor, and the way this company embraces the Do Unto Others idea by creating fair-wage jobs in the US and Haiti.

If you or your friends are part of another church or organization that would like to join our campaign, we have a special website with information here.

DO YOU HAVE FRIENDS NEAR SMYRNA, GEORGIA OR IN THE ATLANTA AREA?

I’ll be speaking next week on Wednesday, April 10, at 7 pm at Smyrna First United Methodist Church in Smyrna, Georgia, on my book Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith. Here’s the link to register. Please share this with them.

VESPERS THIS TUESDAY

I’ll be back live this Tuesday night for Vespers. I’ll be on at 7:30 pm Central Time on Facebook Live.

ROYALS STADIUM – WHAT COMES NEXT?

If you live in Kansas City, you likely have heard that the sales tax vote that would have funded a new stadium for the Royals failed. What happens now? Here’s a note from Pastor Scott Chrostek that captures well what all of this means for us:

After this past Tuesday’s “No” vote regarding the Royals’ proposed downtown stadium, you might be wondering what that means for the future of our Resurrection Downtown locations. First, as you might recall the most recent vote was not a vote of approval for the construction of a downtown stadium, nor was it a vote that determined its ultimate location, it was specifically for a tax incentive that would serve as a funding source for a proposed stadium development.

All that is to say that the Royals could still plan to build their proposed stadium in the Crossroads, but as of right now, that location is still undetermined. Secondly, in a press conference following the recent vote, John Sherman mentioned that the Royals would be regrouping and evaluating their alternatives in the coming days.

That said, what that means for us is that for the time being we are going to be patient and waiting in confidence for the dust to settle as the Royals regroup and evaluate their future. We will stay in communication with their leadership during that same time, knowing that we have a signed agreement with them that has provisions that take this exact kind of scenario into account.

As we learn of the Royals’ plans going forward, we will communicate those updates with you, and we anticipate that we will know more within the month. In the meantime, our construction project will remain on pause until we have better clarity surrounding the Royals’ future plans. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Pastor Scott Chrostek or Pastor Anne Williams.

After an amazing weekend of Easter worship, I’m excited to begin our new sermon series on Restoring Faith. In my Easter message, I talked about the resurrection past, future and present. I believe this series will help us live into what it means to live as resurrection people in the present. Bring a friend and worship with us!

Adam