Weekly Updates from Pastor Adam - Jan. 20, 2023

Dear Resurrection Family,

When I arrived at our Leawood location Monday morning for our Martin Luther King, Jr. serve day, I was met with long lines of families with small children, teenagers, singles, married people, and grandparents who were taking part of their day off to serve the community, doing justice, practicing kindness and seeking to walk humbly with God. In all, 1,700 people came out to serve. Thank you to all who served across Kansas City and to those who packed meals and other items at our various locations. I’m so proud of you!

I’ll conclude today’s eNote with some thoughts about the bigoted vandalism at Blue Valley High School this week, so please be sure to read to the end.

THIS WEEKEND IN WORSHIP: “A BYTE FROM THE APPLE AND THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS”

As we continue our series of messages on What the Tech?! The Promise and Peril of the Digital Age, we’ll talk about temptation and ways that technology feeds into our struggles with the Seven Deadly Sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, anger, and pride. Yet, that same technology can encourage us to pursue the seven cardinal virtues. I’ll be sharing a couple of clips from my interview with four teenagers and from my interview with the head of the non-profit group, Screen Sanity. I’ll also share with you a video of a terrific mouse trap, a bug zapper, a couple of helpful resources for parents to talk to their kids about pornography, and a simple tool one of our teens shared with me for resisting temptation. I think you’ll find the message relevant, helpful and encouraging as we look to apply the Bible’s teaching about the temptation to our lives in this digital age.

Here’s the link to our video promo for the series that you can share.

SCREEN SANITY SUMMIT THIS WEDNESDAY!

The Screen Sanity Summit, co-sponsored by Screen Sanity (the Kansas City non-profit committed to bringing people together to discuss digital health) and Resurrection is this Wednesday, Jan. 25. You can attend the summit at any of our Resurrection locations or online. The evening begins with an optional meal at 6 pm at our physical locations, with the program starting at 6:30 pm. Our purpose is to equip participants with a variety of tips and tools designed to help families maximize the benefits of technology while minimizing the harmful side effects.

Whether you attend in-person or virtually, you can expect to hear from experts in the digital field, have rich conversations with parents like you, reflect on the role technology plays in your life, and leave with realistic tools for improving your family’s digital health. While content is designed for adults, the Screen Sanity Summit will provide practical ways to talk to your kids about everything from smartphones to social media. Click here and register now.

WHERE ARE YOU BEING CALLED TO SERVE THIS YEAR?

Last weekend, we talked about how we might move from “slacktivism” to “activism” – acting instead of just commenting on social media. At Resurrection, we have a variety of upcoming opportunities for individuals, families and small groups to serve. Registration is now open for 2023 serve trips. Whether you’re looking for a spring break trip for families with children, a trip to support a global ministry partner, or a trip for studentshere in the U.S., we have an option that will work for you! You can learn about our global partnerships on the Global Impact webpage.

If you are interested in serving in the Kansas City area, check out the opportunities on our Local Impact webpage. In a couple of weeks, we’ll kick off our Sack Hunger drive to support our ministry to address food insecurity.

BELIEVE: INSPIRED FOR LIFE WOMEN’S CONFERENCE FEB. 3 & 4

The “early bird” pricing for the Resurrection Women’s Conference on Feb. 3 and 4 ends today (Jan. 20). You don’t want to miss this amazing event at our Leawood location. This gathering for women, led by women, will be filled with hope and feature well-known keynote speakers who are nationally recognized as leaders in faith today. Here’s the linkto register.

CHURCH CONFERENCE SET FOR FEB. 7

A Church Conference will be held Tuesday, Feb. 7, from 7 to 8:30 pm to approve elected leaders for governance committees, candidates for ministry, and the 2023 budget, and to receive church committee reports. The conference will be in the Foundry Hall (Building B) at the Leawood location and also online through a ZOOM link. Voting is limited to members of the church who are present either in person or via Zoom.

For those of you who may be new to the structure of a United Methodist Church, a Church Conference is our annual meeting, in which all members of the church are invited to attend and vote on committee leadership, budgets, and candidates for ministry. At Resurrection, it is also an opportunity to share visions and initiatives for the coming year.

In between annual Church Conferences, the Church Council serves as the chief governing body of the church, assisted by committees for Nominations, Finance and Staff Parish, the Board of Trustees. and the Foundation Board. These committees, which are composed of a diverse group of leaders from all locations, are elected at the Church Conference. If you have questions about our governance structure or the Church Conference, they can be directed to Dan Entwistle.

VESPERS JANUARY 24

Join me on Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 7:30 pm CST on my Pastor Adam Hamilton Facebook page. You can also replay Vespers at your convenience on our YouTube channel. I’ll be sharing a preview of next weekend’s sermon on “Separating Truth from Fiction in the Digital Age.” By the way, Facebook made some changes over the last few months, and many are not being notified that I’m going live at the time Vespers starts. Here’s a link to some help from Facebook on how to turn on notifications on your Facebook app.

SPOTS STILL AVAILABLE FOR THE JOURNEYS OF PAUL CRUISE

This October I’ll be leading a group from Resurrection on a cruise through the Aegean Sea retracing a major portion of the Apostle Paul’s second and third missionary journeys. We still have 53 cabins left for this amazing adventure.

This will be a very special cruise, sailing on a smaller cruise ship, about 700 passengers, with the Azamara cruise lines – they have received numerous awards and been named by USA Today as the Best Boutique Cruise Line. Resurrection has half of the rooms on the ship and the other will be filled by United Methodists from across the US.

The cruise leaves the US on Oct. 20, 2023, and returns on Oct. 30, 2023. We’ll fly to Istanbul and spend a day touring the city, visiting Hagia Sophia and other important sites. We’ll then set sail following Paul’s journeys, visiting Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and Ephesus. Additionally, we will visit the amazing Meteora as well as a day on the Greek island of Santorini. We’ll enjoy amazing tours, great food, times of worship, and daily lessons about Paul’s journeys and letters. You can view the brochure by clicking here. If you would like to register, please send an email to my assistant by clicking here. It will be an amazing adventure!

STEWARDSHIP COMMITMENTS FOR 2023

This week we sent one final reminder to those members who have not returned a commitment card for 2023. If you haven’t done so yet, you can complete a commitment card right now online here. I am grateful for those of you who have returned your commitments. The average commitment this year is up, but the number of cards received is down slightly. My hunch is that many of you who are actively involved and give regularly have just not returned your cards. If you could let us know your intentions for 2023, it will help us with our planning for the year.

Interestingly, LaVon and I received this letter! I was perplexed as we turned in our pledge card on pledge Sunday. I called the church to make sure they had received our commitment which they had. I then looked at the envelope and saw it was addressed to one of our daughters who no longer lives with us! If you are like us and have grown children out of the house, please send their current mailing address to churchrecords@cor.org and we will update their record. And, if you have not been able to make your 2023 Commitment yet, I invite you to prayerfully consider your gifts to help support the mission and ministry of the church this year. You can complete your commitment to help as we finalize the budget at cor.org/commitment.

VANDALISM AT BLUE VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL

As most of you know, on Dr. King Day the press box at Blue Valley High School was vandalized by a group of teens who spray painted antisemitic, anti LGBTQ and other bigoted slurs. These comments and this act of vandalism must be condemned in the strongest of terms. For parents, this is an important opportunity to talk about this with your kids; to discuss the impact of these acts in harming others. It is a chance for the community to come together and speak up for, and stand with, those targeted by demeaning and hate-filled speech, and to speak against bigotry and hate in all its forms.

We condemn the act and the sentiment behind it. But we also pray for those who painted these words, that they will be changed; and that whatever their punishment, it would lead to genuine repentance – a change of mind that leads to a change of heart that leads to a changed life.

I mention this because I learned this morning that I know one of these teens. I baptized him as an infant, gave him his third-grade Bible and confirmed him. I love his parents and know them to be people who seek to do justice, practice kindness and walk humbly with God, and they condemn this act. They love their son. With them, I pray that this might be a turning point in their son’s life, and in the lives of the other young people involved, and that they would understand the seriousness of their actions and the harm it caused.

I look forward to worshiping with you this weekend.

In Christ’s love,

Adam