Weekly Update from Pastor Adam - December 15, 2023
December 15, 2023
Dear Resurrection Family,
It’s been a beautiful week at Resurrection. Last weekend was Christmas at Resurrection, the most beautiful Christmas musical I’ve ever experienced. I’m so grateful for the hundreds of volunteers and staff who made this possible. It was so moving. Thank you! We’ve got a powerful weekend of worship coming up, and then on to the season highlight, Candlelight Christmas Eve. I’ve got a number of exciting things to share with you today!
THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP: “WELCOMING ANGELS”
This weekend, we’ll celebrate the fourth Sunday of Advent in which we focus on “Love.” We’ll continue our series on angels as we focus on how people in scripture welcomed angels, and scripture’s call to welcome others as if they were angels. Paul noted in Galatians that the church there received him as if he were an angel. The writer of Hebrews notes that we should be careful to welcome strangers, as some, in welcoming strangers, were actually welcoming angels. There are several examples of this in scripture. It will be a powerful weekend of worship as we mark the fourth Sunday of Advent!
LOOKING FOR A LAST MINUTE GIFT? I’LL BE SIGNING MY NEW BOOK AFTER CHURCH
If you are looking for a last minute Christmas gift, I’ll be signing my new book, Wrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith this Sunday after the 9, 11 am and 5 pm services. I’ll be in the narthex outside the sanctuary at Leawood at 10:15 am, 12:15 and 6:15 pm. The bookstore has them on sale for $13.49 plus tax and will have them available for purchase in the narthex. I wrote the book to address the faith questions that many struggle with: Is there a God? How do we make sense of the violence in scripture? Does God really send all non-Christians to hell? Why do my prayers go unanswered? Why do bad things happen to good people? My hope is that this book will bless both you and those you know who may wrestle with doubt.
Our bookstore, The Well, has a lot of terrific books and items that make for great Christmas gifts. Here is the bookstore’s website for store hours and online ordering information. LaVon and I have given the proceeds of this book to the Generation to Generation campaign.
JOY IN SERVING CONTINUES WITH OPPORTUNITIES THIS WEEK
We still have opportunities for you to serve in the community and also donate to those in need through our ministry partners. You can learn more here.
One special opportunity on Sunday, Dec. 17, is to join Resurrection at Mill Creek Park (43rd and Broadway near the Country Club Plaza) to serve a Christmas Meal, hand out items from our winter warmth collection and Christmas cookies, and spread Christmas cheer as the Resurrection orchestra and choir lead Christmas Carols from 3:30 – 4:30 pm. Here’s a link to sign up to serve, or just show up for the singing!
CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES
Then, in the evening on Dec. 24, we’ll have 15 candlelight services across all of our locations. They will each be amazing and beautiful. At all the services, we’ll sing carols, have beautiful special music, and we’ll read the Christmas story from Luke, focusing on the angel’s message to the shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus. Then, we’ll pass the candlelight as we sing
Silent Night.We anticipate that some of our services will be very full. If it works with your schedule, you can help make sure that there is room for our guests by attending one of the less crowded services that we’ve highlighted in bold below. For many of our guests, Christmas Eve may be the first time they’ve been in church in a long time, and we don’t want to turn them away because there is no room.
7 pm – Leawood (for those traveling on the weekend)
5 and 7 pm – Leawood (modern music)
5 pm – West
5, 7 pm – Online streaming*
10 am – Children’s Interactive Service
9 and 11 am – Children’s Interactive Services
3, 5, 7, 9, 11 pm** – Leawood
3, 5, 7 pm – Downtown
3, 5 pm – Blue Springs
3, 5, 7 pm – Overland Park
3, 5 pm – Brookside
ONLINE STREAMING*
Saturday, Dec. 23 – 5 and 7 pm
Sunday, Dec. 24 – 7:30, 9, 11 am; 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 pm
Sunday, Dec. 24 – 8 am, 11 am and 7 pm – KMCI 38 the Spot
9 pm – Fox 4
11:35 pm – KCTV5 (CBS)
Monday, Dec. 25 – 11 am – KSHB 41 (NBC)
Sunday, December 24 – 10 pm NBC
HELP WELCOME OUR GUESTS THIS CHRISTMAS EVE
You can serve this Christmas Eve as greeters, ushers, candle distributors, and more. Sign up here. I encourage you to worship at one service and serve at another. I know you will be blessed by the chance to welcome others and share the light of Christmas.
CHRISTMAS EVE OFFERING: PURCHASING MOBILE DENTAL CLINIC AND MUCH MORE
As I shared this past weekend in worship, we will once more be giving away the entire Candlelight Christmas Eve offering, as we have since 2009. This year, one of the local projects funded will be to purchase a second mobile dental clinic operated by Swope Health. This mobile clinic will help meet the overwhelming need for children’s dental care in underserved parts of our city.
A year ago, our Pre-K Leadership Team (part of our 2030 Vision work) began looking at how we might address health care needs of low-income children here in Kansas City, with a focus on our partner schools. They met with leaders at our partner schools and a variety of health care providers, and they saw a huge opportunity. One of the great needs is for preventative dental care. As much as 40% of low-income children in Kansas City are affected by tooth decay. Many single moms cannot take off work to take their children to go to the dentist. Several years ago, Swope Health in Kansas City commissioned a mobile dental clinic that can take the dentist’s office to the elementary schools where the greatest number of kids are not seeing the dentist.
This year they will see 2,700 children, providing dental care, taking x-rays, and other dental services. Many of these kids share a toothbrush with their siblings, some have no toothbrush, so they provide these, and toothpaste and floss as well. Swope noted that they could easily double the number of children they could serve if they had a second bus. The Pre-K Leadership Team, led by Rick Kastner, felt God calling Resurrection to provide a second bus. They brought this to our leadership at the church and they, too, felt compelled that God was calling us to fund this through our Christmas Eve offering. I’ll share more about this mobile dental clinic on Christmas Eve, I’m so excited about this.
Each year I invite Resurrection members to consider giving an amount on Christmas Eve equal to what they spend on their own family at Christmas. Many cannot do that, but are generous nonetheless, and some give many times what they spend on their own family. LaVon and I have found joy in this for the last 14 years.
Since 2009, Resurrection has given $19 million through our Candlelight Christmas Eve offering to projects supporting children and families – half to local organizations and projects and half to our global partners. I am so proud of the generosity of our congregation and the impact your gifts have had. I’m excited to see what we can do this year. Gift cards that can be used to share with friends or family the gifts you’ve given in their name are available at the Connection Point at your locations, or you can download at cor.org/next.
Here are a couple of photos of “Winnie the Winnebago” – the nickname the dentists and hygienists call Swope Health’s Mobile Dental Clinic. You’ll be providing a twin to this clinic. I’m so excited about the impact we will have this Christmas Eve!
SONFLOWER RINGERS CHRISTMAS RECITAL SUNDAY
Sonflower Ringers, a handbell choir of students and adults with special needs, will share their much-anticipated annual Christmas recital on Sunday, Dec. 17, at 4 pm in Wesley Chapel at Resurrection Leawood. I promise your heart will be filled with Christmas cheer as these special Resurrection congregants share their music.
BRIDGING CULTURES PODCAST SEASON 5 AVAILABLE NOW
The Bridging Cultures Podcast, produced by our Global Ministry team, shares stories of hope from around the world. From war-torn Ukraine to an earthquake-ravaged town in Haiti, from a school in Honduras to a forgotten community in Haiti, this season shares how ordinary people are loving in extraordinary ways, even in the face of danger. How they are “walking on behalf of God.” Here’s a link to the podcast.
DO UNTO OTHERS CAMPAIGN – YARD SIGNS!
Thank you to all who helped vote for your favorite yard signs a few weeks ago in worship for the Do Unto Others Campaign that will begin in the fall of 2024. Here are the results of the survey:
JOIN ME FOR VESPERS TUESDAY NIGHT – WE’LL FOCUS ON THE CHRISTMAS STORY
This Tuesday night, join me live on my Facebook page at 7:30 pm. You can also catch it afterward on our YouTube channel the next day.
AN IMPORTANT WORD ABOUT END OF THE YEAR GIVING – MINISTRY FUND CONCERN
Whenever we conduct a capital campaign, we seek to be intentional about emphasizing the importance of our pledges being over and above our regular giving and that we cannot give to the capital campaign at the expense of the ministry fund. Without the ministry fund we don’t need additional facilities. In November, as people began their capital campaign pledge, we saw a 15% drop in giving to the ministry fund, and it looks similar so far in December.
I am so grateful for your generosity, and your giving to the Generation to Generation Campaign is many times g the decline in ministry fund giving the last two months. But as we come to year-end giving, I wanted to encourage you to remember our regular ministry fund.
As we approach the end of the year, I know many of you are preparing to fulfill your 2023 ministry fund commitment. I want to remind you that you can
make a gift online or visit our website to learn more about additional ways you can easily make a gift through check, stock, or IRA distributions. Your year-end gifts help us meet our ministry fund budget and continue to provide our ministry to our community and the world.If you haven’t already, check out the new feature on our website where you can access your online account to view your 2023 commitment and giving history.
2. Under Account Info click on “Giving and Commitments.”
3. Here, you will see the history of your contributions. Using the left-hand menu, you can navigate to Commitments to view the amount you prayerfully wrote on your commitment card at the end of 2022 for your anticipated gifts in 2023.
If you need any support, our Donor Relations team is here to serve. You can email them at development@cor.org or call 913-232-4113.
Thank you so much for your generosity!
Adam Hamilton
Resurrection Senior Pastor
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.
