Weekly Update from Pastor Adam - March 10, 2023

March 10, 2023

March 10, 2023

Dear Resurrection Family,

This weekend we begin DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME, so don’t forget to set your clocks ahead one hour so you don’t miss worship!

Also, please bring your Bible with you to worship this weekend, in person, online or on TV. I’ll tell you why below…

THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP – WORDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD: THE MESSAGE OF JESUS

I’ll be continuing our Lenten sermon series Words that Changed the World: The Message of Jesus this weekend. Have you ever heard the phrases, “salt of the earth,” “don’t cast your pearls before swine,” and “take the log out of your own eye”? Do you know what they have in common? They all come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This “sermon” is also where Jesus gives us the Golden Rule, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes and his call to love our enemy.

The Sermon on the Mount is the most influential message ever preached, and some of the most essential of Jesus’ ethical and spiritual teachings. This weekend we’re going to walk through the Sermon on the Mount – this is why I’d love for you to have your Bible, so you can follow along as we quickly summarize its monumental teachings – teachings Thomas Jefferson felt you could build a nation upon; teachings that have literally changed the course of history. We’ll catch the big ideas and ask how these words are meant to shape our lives today.

Do you have friends who don’t go to church? Invite them to join you in person, online or on TV this weekend! Don’t forget to set your clocks forward!

You can continue to explore the message of Jesus during the week as we read the Gospels through our daily GPS scriptures and devotions. Here’s the link if you haven’t signed up to receive this daily email yet. On Mondays, you’ll also receive a video devotion from a Resurrection leader.

TRAVELING DURING SPRING BREAK?

If you are traveling during Spring Break, I hope you’ll make plans to gather with your family and worship with us online. You can select from either a traditional or modern service at a variety of broadcast times or on demand. In case you haven’t worshiped online in a while, the link is simply: resurrection.church/live. Sometimes when I travel, the worship times don’t work – know that that you can also worship on demand on the website or our Resurrection YouTube channel found here.

LENTEN CONCERT SERIES

Resurrection Leawood, Wednesdays, 12:15 – 12:45 pm, Leawood Sanctuary and live streamed here. The March 15 concert features Adoration, the resident women’s choir at Resurrection, under the direction of Lin Sanford.
Resurrection Brookside, Tuesday, March 28, 7 pm, Brookside Sanctuary, organ concert.

SEVERE WEATHER PLANS IN PLACE

This is severe weather awareness week, and the beginning of tornado season in the Midwest. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that all our locations have plans in place in the event of a severe weather warning during worship or programs on site. There are two important things for you to remember. First, follow the directions of pastors, staff, leaders or ushers and go immediately to the designated shelter areas. Secondly, if you have children in our nurseries or classrooms, do not go get them. They will be taken directly to a shelter area and cared for until they can be reunited with you. (If you try to pick them up, this will delay getting them to a safe place).

SIGN UP TODAY FOR SERVE SATURDAY ON MARCH 18

March 18 is our next Serve Saturday, an opportunity each month to serve in the community. There are a variety of times and a few alternative dates to choose from for you, your family, friends, and small group. Save this link to sign up each month for 2023 serve opportunities. Let us know if the projects offer don’t appeal to you or if you are serving somewhere else so we can create new opportunities and celebrate your unique experiences by emailing us.

VESPERS TUESDAY, MARCH 14

Join me for Vespers this Tuesday, March 14, at 7:30 pm CST on my Pastor Adam Hamilton Facebook page. If you can’t join us then, you can always watch the replay on my FB page or on our YouTube channel after Tuesday.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 228 CONFIRMANDS!!!

Congratulations to the 228 students who were confirmed as full members of Resurrection last Sunday at four of our locations. Many of these were baptized at Resurrection, received their third grade Bibles here, were nurtured in nurseries, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School and youth group by you, and now have personally accepted Christ and pledged to follow him. We are so proud of these students and their commitment to Christ and to the Church. It was exciting to have two of our confirmands come into town with their families as they are a part of Resurrection in other cities and joined confirmation online – one family came in from Boston and the other from Arkansas!

I can’t wait to see what lies ahead for these confirmands. I hope you will continue to pray for these new Resurrection members. In case you missed it last week, click here for the list of students so you can pray for them by name.

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH: RECOGNIZING MAI GRAY

March is designated Women’s History Month, and I thought it would be appropriate to share a little about an amazing woman who played an important role in the history of Kansas City and the United Methodist Church. Mai Hutson Gray is one of the women featured in the Resurrection Window at our Leawood location. (She’s on the far-right side, just above the tree branch. You can see this segment below.) Education and the church were Mai’s priorities throughout her life. She spent 40 years in public education, served on the Board of Trustees of St. Paul School of Theology for over 25 years, and was active on other boards of civic and non-profit organizations.

As a leader in the United Methodist Church, she helped develop the United Methodist Women’s program, and then was the first woman of color to serve as the national president of United Methodist Women. She was also honored with the establishment of the C. Jarrett and Mai Hutson Gray Chair in Education at Africa University. Her legacy of faithfulness, service and compassion, for all people, remind us of what it looks like to follow Jesus.

By the way, did you know that we have a resource to help you explore the Resurrection Window online and learn about the lives of each of the people in it? Here’s a link to use this interactive tool.

FINANCIAL UPDATE

Finally, I wanted to give you a brief financial update. We develop our annual operating budget based upon ministry goals for the year, our projected giving, and the economic outlook. Generally, it is a very conservative budget. As of the end of February, our year-to-date giving is slightly less than our projected giving budget. Driving this seems to be a shortfall in the amount of actual giving from pledged gifts.

We’re not concerned by this, I’m confident that we will catch up, but I do share it as a reminder that your gifts support the ministry of the church. We are grateful for you and your generosity. If you are interested in setting up an account to ensure regular giving, even when you are out of town or can’t attend church, our donor relations team can help you. If you are going through a financial challenge, our pastors want to care for and support you.

As an aside, I thought I’d mention that our in-person worship attendance continues to climb from COVID – last Sunday, we had 5,751 in person across our locations, up 1,326 from the same weekend last year. Online is about the same as last year, running over 7,000 per weekend and often over 8,000. Television fluctuates and is down some from last year but runs consistently over 16,000 per weekend. Overall worship attendance is running from 28,000 to 32,000 each weekend.

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward! Bring your Bible to worship. And if you are away on Spring Break, join us from wherever you may be as we worship and study Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount!

In Christ’s love,

Adam

P.S. Make sure you check out all the exciting things that are happening at Resurrection during the season of Lent at resurrection.church/next.

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.

Learn More About What's Happening Now at Your Location

Watch for the “Next” newsletter in your email on Tuesday. This newsletter includes a personal message from your location pastor (Wendy, Anne, Bill, Penny, Joshua and Ashley) and opportunities for you to engage and connect at your location. If you’re not receiving it right now, you can sign up here.

Weather Alert:

Programming Note: