Weekly Updates from Pastor Adam - Dec. 23, 2022

Dear Resurrection Family,

I’m so excited about our Candlelight Christmas Eve services! Despite the cold outside, it will be warm and beautiful inside at each location and at every service. My Christmas message will conclude our series on Christmas through the lens of Christmas movies. We’ll see how Dickens’ A Christmas Carol helps us understand the significance of the birth of Jesus. I’m including clips from various film versions of A Christmas Carol in the sermon including a couple of versions aimed at children.

CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT SERVICES TONIGHT AND TOMORROW

We held our first candlelight service on Wednesday night of this week for those traveling on Christmas. It was so moving! Thank you to all who joined us and all who volunteered, making the service possible. Here are the times and locations. If you are going to the Chiefs game join us tonight or after the game tomorrow at 5, 7, 9, or 11 pm. Wearing Chief’s gear is fine. Typically, at Leawood, our 3 and 5 pm services are overflowing while the rest of the services have seats available.

Friday, December 23:

• Leawood – 5 and 7 pm (Modern worship band)
• West and Downtown – 5 pm

Saturday, December 24:

Please note: the 10 am at all locations will be a children’s interactive service. I’ll share the same sermon at 10 am, but this service will have an interactive children’s message too!

• Leawood – 10 am, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 pm (Various choirs, orchestra, bells, and instrumentalists)
• West – 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm
• Downtown – 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm
• Blue Springs – 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm
• Overland Park – 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm
• Brookside – 10 am, 3 pm, 5 pm (modern at 10, choir at 3 and 5)

(Childcare is available for children 4 and under at all services and locations except 9 and 11 pm)

Resurrection Anywhere

Online @ cor.org/live

• Dec. 23: 5 pm, 7 pm
• Dec. 24: 3 pm, 5 pm, 7 pm, 9 pm, 11 pm

TV: Kansas City

• Dec. 24: KMCI 5 pm, 8 pm
• Dec. 24: NBC 10:30 pm · Dec. 25: CBS 7 am
• Dec. 25: NBC 11 am
• Dec. 25: KMCI 2 pm

TV: Tulsa

• Dec. 24: NBC 6 pm
• Dec. 25: NBC 12 pm (Noon)

If you are joining at home, have a couple of candles ready so that you can share in the candle lighting with us at the end of the service.

SPECIAL INVITATION FOR UNITED METHODISTS OUTSIDE OF KC

Over the past few months, about 10% of United Methodist Churches have voted to join a new Methodist denomination or become independent. If your church has voted to leave, yet you wish to remain a part of the United Methodist Church, and there is no UM church in your area, we’d love to invite you to join us online for Candlelight Services and, following that, for worship any time. If you’ve got another United Methodist Church in your area, give it a try. If you don’t, we hope your annual conference will be launching new UM churches in your area, but until then, we want you to know that you are welcome to join us for worship online here at Resurrection.

You can join us online from anywhere at cor.org/live. If you are in the Kansas City or Tulsa areas, we will also be broadcasting our Christmas Eve service on local television. (Television stations and times are listed above.) I am excited about the future of the United Methodist Church and am grateful for our denomination’s continuing commitment to “make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world” and to welcome all people to join us for worship.

VOLUNTEERS STILL NEEDED FOR CHRISTMAS EVE!

We have a few volunteer openings at all locations for all Candlelight Christmas Eve services. If you can help at one of these services it would be greatly appreciated, and I know you will be blessed with the opportunity to welcome others. Here’s the link to sign up.

CHRISTMAS EVE OFFERING FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES GLOBALLY AND LOCALLY

I want to remind you that our entire Christmas Eve offering is given to support local missions and international partnerships and projects. I’ll share more about these projects with you in my sermon. We have 26 total projects we’ll be supporting. I’ll share with you two of them during the sermon: supporting over 400 orphans in Malawi and Uganda – an amazing project I’ve witnessed with my own eyes while in Malawi and ensuring that 100 low income preschoolers can go to preschool at Operation Breakthrough here in Kansas City. I want to challenge you to join LaVon and me in participating in this special offering. If you are out of town or want to give in advance, here is the link to give online.

CHRISTMAS DAY WORSHIP AT 9 AM AT ALL LOCATIONS, REGULAR TIMES ONLINE AND TV

On Sunday, December 25, we will have one worship service at 9 am at all our locations. The location pastors will be sharing a special Christmas message. We will not have childcare at the 9 am service, but children are always welcome in worship.

Online and TV broadcasts will be a replay of the Candlelight Christmas Eve service. You can also watch the Christmas at Resurrection musical production on demand at any time on the christmasatresurrection.org website through December 31. And, if you are looking for a different sermon, you can always go to our sermon archive and rewatch a previous message.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS TO RESURRECTION BROOKSIDE

Last weekend we celebrated the launch of Resurrection Brookside, our sixth location. On Saturday, the day before the launch, we had a Coffee with the Pastors at Brookside and 32 people became the first Resurrection members at Resurrection Brookside. Please welcome these new members to the Resurrection family. Here is a link to the names so you can welcome them personally.

HOLIDAY HOURS AND PASTORAL CARE

Church offices and buildings at the Leawood location will be closed Monday, Dec. 26, Tuesday, Dec. 27, and Monday, Jan. 2, except for scheduled programs. Offices at the Leawood will be Dec. 28 and 29 from 9 am – 5 pm and on Dec. 30 from 9 am – 4 pm.

Offices and Buildings at the West, Downtown, Blue Springs, Overland Park and Brookside locations will also be closed Dec. 26-30 and Jan. 2, except for scheduled programs.

If you have a pastoral care emergency, you can call the after-hours care pager at 913-544-0799.

A WORD ABOUT YEAR-END GIVING

If you are giving your end-of-year tithe or offering at our Christmas Eve Services, please make sure that you note that on the offering envelope or make sure you select “2022 Ministry Fund” if you give online. This is important as all undesignated gifts will go to our special Candlelight Christmas Eve Offering.

To be attributed to 2022 giving, all year-end gifts must either be postmarked by Dec. 31, contributed online by the end of the day Dec. 31, or dropped off no later than 5 pm on Friday, Dec. 30 at the Leawood Location, Building C, South Entrance. If the building is closed, there is a drop box located next to the south entrance door, but the gift must be dropped off by 5 pm.

VESPERS RESUMES ON JANUARY 3

I’ll be taking a break from Vespers this coming week, but I hope you’ll join me on Tuesday, Jan. 3, at 7:30 pm CST on my Pastor Adam Hamilton Facebook page. If you missed any of our Vespers, you can replay them at your convenience on our YouTube channel.

I love you, Church of the Resurrection, and on behalf of my family, I wish you a blessed and merry Christmas!

Adam