Church programs for Monday, Jan. 22 will resume their normal schedule at all locations this evening.
Leawood’s Sunday night in-person worship has been moved to 4 pm for Sunday, February 11.
This weekend is Labor Day and we will have a great time in worship as we conclude our series on God and Cars. I’ll end the sermon driving the 1967 Mustang off the chancel in our sanctuary and out for a spin as we talk about God’s purpose for our lives! More about this below. At the end of the eNote, I want to give you an important update on 2024 giving and the Generation to Generation campaigns and projects.
It’s going to be a great weekend in worship as we conclude our series of sermons looking at the connection between restoring, maintaining and driving classic old cars and the Christian life. I’m excited to share this message with you as we look at how routine oil changes, filling up with fuel, and actually driving a car, point us towards important biblical truths about life. The sermon, focused on Ephesians 2:8-10, includes a bit of video from the Pixar/Disney animated film Cars, a couple of great interview clips, Tom Chochrane’s song, Life is a Highway, and, as noted above, will end with me driving the 1967 Mustang GT off the chancel to take it for a spin. It will be memorable as we look at the aim of the Christian life. Invite a friend to join you for this fun and inspiring weekend.
This is also a worship together weekend when we encourage families to worship together. We will not have Sunday School for students and children so they can join us for worship, but we will have childcare for children 4 and under. Your kids will love the message! If you are in town, plan to worship in person, and if you are traveling or out of town, join us by worshiping online.
While in Poland, the General Superintendent asked if Resurrection could help with the purchase of a new or gently used van for use by the Tarnow United Methodist Church. We thought it would be fun, during this series on cars, to invite you to help with this van. Each week at Leawood, we’ve had cars parked outside the sanctuary and people have been able to vote on their favorite by giving an offering for the van in Poland, placed in the box corresponding to their favorite car. Last weekend’s top vote-getter was Max Sherman’s 1964 Ford Fairlane station wagon followed closely by the Drake’s Model A pickup.
All together you’ve donated $13,668 towards the purchase of a new or gently used van for Poland. We’ll have a few more fun cars outside the Leawood sanctuary this Sunday and we’ll vote on those, but if you would find joy in helping to purchase a van for use at Tarnow UMC, you can donate by clicking here.
We had 205 people join Resurrection during our recent Coffee with the Pastors, 178 adults and 27 children. There were 84 from Leawood, 27 from West, 15 from Downtown, 6 from Blue Springs, 16 from Overland Park, 24 from Brookside, 19 from Spring Hill and 14 from Online. Here’s a link to the names of our new members. Take a look so that you can welcome them. Chances are there is a co-worker or neighbor on that list.
I’d like to invite you to join us at our Recovery Ministry Kick-off and Open House on Thursday, Sept. 12, at 5:30 pm at Resurrection Leawood, Online, and all Kansas City Resurrection locations. This free event, open to everyone, will feature a powerful family panel discussion about addiction, mental health and learning how to support our loved ones facing these challenges. At the Leawood location, free childcare will be available, but you need to register for it by clicking here. Also, for those attending in person at the Leawood location, we’ll be serving a delicious Nick & Jake’s pasta dinner. Learn more about Resurrection Recovery here.
We have a series of television spots that will begin airing this weekend about our Do Unto Others campaign. I thought you might like to see this and share it with a friend. Click here to see the first TV spot that will run before CBS Sunday Morning.
We’ll have yard signs available at all our locations again this week, and outside the bookstore at the Leawood location (Building B Commons) during the week. Our campaign blitz is coming up on Saturday, Sept. 21, when you can volunteer to help blanket the city with our signs.
Over the past two weeks a total of 739 units of blood were collected at five of our Resurrection locations. Our August drives are held to boost our local Community Blood Center’s supply before the Labor Day holiday. Thank you! Our next blood drive will be in November.
The next group that kicks off its fall season is our Men’s Fellowship group. Join us as we begin the fall season on Tuesday, September 10 at 7 am in Building B at the Leawood location, with a delicious breakfast, where you can connect with other men, and hear from guest speaker Justin Schoolcraft, our Leawood Adult Discipleship Director. Get more information and register, here.
On Sunday, September 8 at 2 and at 3 pm we will have special baptism services at our Leawood location. Whether you’re taking your first step in faith or recommitting to your spiritual journey, we invite you to join us for this celebration of Christian baptism. You can learn more about this special baptism service and register to take part by going to cor.org/next.
Last Monday,134 people joined us at an informational meeting about launching our new Resurrection Liberty location at William Jewell College. It was exciting to see the interest and enthusiasm for this new location, including many who have only worshiped online or TV and who have not been to any of our locations. Weekly services will be held in the Gano Chapel on the William Jewell Campus starting in December. In the meantime, we’ll have other special gatherings. If you are interested in being part of this launch team, reach out to location pastor Shannon Starek at Shannon.Starek@cor.org.
We had over 100 young adults at The Dwelling this week. It was awesome. I’m so proud and grateful for Sierra Glaser who heads up our young adult ministry across locations and the amazing team who helped make this happen. This Tuesday, I’ll join once more for an evening fielding questions from young adults – theological, biblical, ethical and spiritual. We’ve invited them to submit their hardest or most difficult questions. Tuesday night, we’ll share in a conversation discussing their questions and possible answers. We’ll have powerful music and a time of fellowship following. If you are 18-35 join us at 1522 McGee in downtown Kansas City.
This Tuesday night we’ll, once again, livestream Vespers from The Dwelling. We go live at 7:30 pm but the program may be in the midst of music when Vespers goes live – enjoy the music. I’ll be on when the music is concluded, and you’ll have a chance to listen in as we discuss the questions of young adults at The Dwelling. We’ll return to normal Vespers programming the next week. If you didn’t catch last week’s vespers, you can watch it here. It began with LaVon sharing about our life in our 20’s and 30’s, and a bit about her battle with anxiety at that time. Click hereto go to my Pastor Adam Hamilton Facebook page. You can also access it here later on YouTube.
At Resurrection, our Ministry Fund, your regular giving of tithes and offerings to the church, make everything that we do possible – our worship, programs for children, students, and adults, missions, care and outreach at all our locations. For the first six months of the year, we were on budget in giving, but July and August fell short and below projections by several hundred thousand dollars. This is a gentle reminder that if you’ve been away during the summer or fallen behind in your pledge, fall is a great time to get caught up. Your giving matters. Thanks to your generosity and faithfulness, Resurrection ministry happens. Help us finish the year strong. Commitment and Contribution statements will be emailed around September 19. Please take a look to confirm we have your intentions correct. If you have questions or need help, please contact our Donor Relations Team at development@cor.org or call 913-544-0256.
It’s been an exciting few weeks for our Generation to Generation projects. Resurrection West opened and dedicated the new Student Center and remodeled classrooms two weeks ago! Blue Springs dedicated their new student center and expanded narthex last weekend. Downtown’s addition is well underway. The remodel of Overland Park is progressing nicely. Playground equipment is going up at Brookside.
At Leawood, the new speakers will be installed in the sanctuary in November, orders are being placed for the outdoor playground and recreation equipment now that it has been approved by the City of Leawood. Progress has been slowed on the remodel of the student center and building of the chapel as we went through a significant and improved redesign this spring. But this is now back on track and plans for these go before the city this fall with the construction of the playground, the remodeling of the student center, and the building of the chapel happening over the next year.
The Generation to Generation giving has been strong and we’re at just over 48% of what has been pledged that has been fulfilled to date, which is outstanding. These spaces and places will have an impact on Resurrection now and for future generations. Thank you for your generosity! To keep up to date on what is happening at all locations, check out the Generation to Generation website.
We’ll be closed on Monday for the Labor Day Holiday. If you ever have a critical pastoral care need after office hours, please call 913-544-0799. The pastor on call will return your page as soon as possible.
Looking forward to an amazing weekend in worship!
Adam
Reverend Adam Hamilton is the senior pastor of Church of the Resurrection and the author of 22 books. He has been married to LaVon since 1982, and she has been a critical partner in every dimension of Adam’s work. They have two daughters and one granddaughter.
Adam’s writings are known for helping readers make sense of challenging theological questions, exploring the significance of the biblical stories, and equipping Christian leaders to be more effective in their work. He earned his MDiv from Perkins School of Theology and graduated with honors from Oral Roberts University with a degree in Pastoral Ministry.