Weekly Updates from Pastor Adam - Aug. 5, 2022

Dear Resurrection Family,

It was a busy week here at Resurrection with our normal programming, our various sites hosting voting stations, and the last two days we’ve been hosting the Global Leadership Summit with remarkable speakers from the business and church world. It’s been great to have folks from other churches and Kansas City area businesses. Our teams have also been working on plans for our fall launch happening in two weeks. And tonight is our annual Resurrection Night at the Royals.

Here’s a little of what’s coming up at Resurrection in the coming weeks:

THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP: REMEMBERING THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES

Pastor Scott Chrostek is preaching a series of sermons on the book of Acts, examining the lives of the early Christians. This week he’s going to explore the role and power of the Christian community. It’s often said that the Christian life was never intended to be lived alone. There’s a lot we can learn from Acts about what it means to live in community with one another. I’m looking forward to hearing Scott’s message.

BRING YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY TO WORSHIP THIS WEEKEND

Join us in person at one of our five locations, or online or television.

• Leawood location at 7:30 am in Wesley Chapel, 9 am in Sanctuary, and 11 am traditional in Sanctuary and modern in Foundry, or 5 pm in Sanctuary
• Downtown location Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 9 or 11 am
• Blue Springs, Olathe (West) and Overland Park locations Sunday at 9 or 11 am
• Online at cor.org/live on Saturday at 5 pm or Sunday at 7:30, 9 and 11 am or 5 pm
• On KMCI Channel 38 television on Sunday at 8 am or 11 am
• On demand on YouTube throughout the week

HOW WILL YOU MAKE AN IMPACT THIS FALL?

Last weekend, Pastor Scott challenged each of us to make an impact by “checking the box” and volunteering at Resurrection. We are grateful to all of you who submitted an interest form to let us know where you might want to serve. We had a huge number of people sign up to serve. Thank you! Our teams are following up with each person invidivually. If you haven’t shared your interest yet, you can take a minute and do it now online here.

JOB OPENINGS AT FUTURE RESURRECTION LOCATION

Earlier this week, I spent a couple of hours at Central United Methodist Church with our team making plans for this December when we launch Resurrection’s new location. We discussed tech upgrades, parking and traffic flow, and staffing needs. To see job openings for the new location as well as our existing locations click here.

SPECIAL 6TH GRADE EVENT AND STUDENT MINISTRY FALL KICK-OFF

Rezlife, the Resurrection Student Ministry, is gearing up for their fall kick-offs at all locations. Rezlife is for all students grades 6 – 12. Each location will have an open house for parents and students at 6 pm on Wednesday, August 24, to meet our incredible staff and learn about plans for this year. Then, Youth Group kicks off on August 31 at 6:30 pm with an evening of high-energy games and fun!

For incoming 6th graders, this is an important transition time, and we want to make sure they get off to a great start, so we are have a special event to welcome them to rezlife. It’s called rezlife Belong, and will be Saturday, August 27, from 8:30 am – 5 pm at Youthfront West (a UMC camp near Edgerton, Kansas). This will be a fun day of games, food, swimming and worship, designed to help student get to know one another, our staff and volunteers. Here’s the link for more information and registration.

RETREATS COMING UP FOR MEN AND FAMILIES

Retreats are a great way to step away from your day-to-day world and really connect with God and others. We have two special opportunities coming up – one for men and one for families.

• Men’s Retreat: A Weekend On The Lake, August 26 – 28 at Table Rock Lake Clearwater Cove. Join other guys for a weekend of fishing, skiing, fireside chats, teaching, meals and more. Pastors Joshua Clough (Overland Park), Bill Gepford (West) and Matt Bisel (Discipleship) will lead this retreat. Cost is $150. Register here.
• Fall Family Retreat, October 14 – 16 in Branson, MO. Connect with other Resurrection Families as we visit local attractions, stay at a resort, and have a weekend of family fun. This will fill up fast, so learn more and register here.

SPECIAL NIGHT OF WORSHIP SEPTEMBER 3

I hope you will put Saturday, September 3, on your calendars and plan to join us at 6 pm in the Leawood Sanctuary (Building A) for Affirmation: A Night of Worship. This inspirational night of worship will feature Isaac Cates (one of Resurrection’s talented worship leaders), Isaac’s group, Ordained, the Resurrection gospel choir, One AcCORd, and worship leaders from the Kansas City area. The event is free and open to the public. Invite your friends! Here’s where you can learn more.

TUESDAY NIGHT VESPERS THIS WEEK

This Tuesday, I plan to go back to answering some of the questions you submitted on a recent survey about things you wish you could ask God. I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll be offering answers from scripture to a couple of the top questions this coming Tuesday, August 10, at 7:30 pm central time on my Facebook page: Pastor Adam Hamilton on Facebook. If you follow my page, you can get an alert when I go live. After Tuesday each week, you can watch a replay on the Vespers YouTube page.

UPDATE ON MY PRESENTATION IN HOUSTON AND LUFKIN

As you may remember, I was speaking in Houston and Lufkin, Texas, last weekend. We had about 2,000 clergy and laity join us at the two locations and online on Sunday night in Houston and Monday night in Lufkin for the presentation on A Future with Hope for the United Methodist Church (UMC). It was a terrific gathering in both locations. I’d love for you to watch the presentation and share it with friends from other United Methodist churches across the country. You can view it here.

As you may know, a group of conservative leaders in the UMC began working several years ago to form a new Methodist denomination. This has been discussed for at least twenty years among some of them. Their new denomination, the Global Methodist Church (GMC) would retain the current policy of our Discipline (or something similar) prohibiting same-gender marriages and continuing to speak of “the practice of homosexuality” as “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The United Methodist Church, on the other hand, is anticipated to remove the language about gay and lesbian people that many find exclusionary and hurtful, and, instead, allow local churches and clergy to make the decision about how they will minister with gay and lesbian people.

Currently, only a small number of churches have left the denomination to join the GMC. Others have left to become independent community churches. There will be more leaving in the year ahead, though most anticipate the total number, in the US who leave and join the GMC, to be around 10%. In Kansas and Nebraska, leaders expect less than 10% of our churches will leave; mostly small and rural churches. In Kansas City, I don’t know of any of the 110 UM churches in the metro who are leaving. But in places like Houston and Lufkin, and several other conferences in the south, the numbers could be twice that.

Again, if you are interested in hearing the presentation, you can watch it here.

Okay, that’s all I have time for today! I’m looking forward to worship this weekend as Pastor Scott leads us in exploring the Acts of the Apostles!

In Christ’s love,
Adam