Friday, October 23, 2015
Dear Resurrection Family,
I’m looking forward to tonight’s ballgame and hoping this game is the end of the ALCS series, but if not, I’d like to invite our Saturday worshipers to wear your Royals gear and join us for worship before heading to parties to watch the game. For those who are going to the possible game 7, plan to join us on Sunday for worship! This is an exciting time for Kansas City. By the way, last weekend I showed three of four video clips from my interview with Royals GM Dayton Moore about leadership. I’ve had leaders in our community want to share the clips with their staff members. You can see all four (I only showed three in worship) by clicking here.
This weekend we’ll wrap up our series of sermons on Changing the World by turning to the Book of Micah in the Old Testament. Our text will be Micah 6:8, one of the most beloved verses in the entire Bible. It says, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” We’ll also focus on the third part of our vision here at Resurrection: Transforming our community and world so that it looks more like the Kingdom of God. We’ll celebrate what you’ve done in the last 25 years, and dream together about how God will use us, individually and as a church, to change the world. This is a great weekend to invite a friend – the stories I’ll share with you will inspire you, and the message will help us all to hear God’s call on our lives. I’m excited about this weekend!
This weekend we’ll also kickoff our Joy In Service campaign for the holidays. Each week there will be new opportunities to serve. This weekend we’re signing up to provide Thanksgiving meals at four shelters and community ministry centers in Kansas City as well as opportunities to provide bedding for families moving from homelessness and meal bags to bless Saint Paul seminary students. You’ll be able to stop at tables in the narthex to sign up to serve, or you can go to the website today and sign up here. Over the next two months we’ll work with 16 local churches and social service agencies and our six partner schools to bless and serve thousands of people this season.
Parents, I don’t have to tell you that parenting can be frustrating, confusing and just downright hard sometimes. There are no perfect parents. To help we’re offering a Parent Summit on Saturday, November 7 from 8:45 am to noon. You can find out more on the website or click here to register. In addition we’re offering a three-week workshop on Thursday nights called, with a nod to our all being imperfect parents, “Good Enough Parenting.” This is going on November 5-19 on Thursday nights. Here’s the link. Finally, we also offer an ongoing support group on Thursday nights for parents who are facing challenges with your teens or adult children called StandUp Parenting. For more information about it, contact Cheryl Greenough by clicking here, or call her at 913-544-0238.
As part of our 25th Anniversary we held our neighborhood food drive. This is one of three food drives we participate in each year. If you took bags, it’s not too late to turn these in. We had twice the number of neighborhood food bags taken this year than last year! We received 15 tons of food – 23 pallets! – distributed to 14 area food pantries. Resurrection West collected another 320 bags of food that they distributed directly to pantries in their area. What a terrific neighborhood drive. Our congregational food drive – the biggest drive of the year – is our Souper Bowl drive coming up in January. Thank you to all who participated in the drive this year!
This Tuesday night the Rev. Dr. James Forbes Jr. will be delivering the Saint Paul School of Theology Peace Lecture at Church of the Resurrection. The lecture is at 7 pm in our Leawood sanctuary and is free and open to the public. Dr. Forbes holds the Harry Emerson Fosdick professorship at Union Theological Seminary. He is Chairman of the Drum Major Institute whose focus is on championing Dr. King’s dream of civil rights and economic justice. He served as senior pastor of the Riverside Church in New York City from 1989 to 2007. Newsweek described him as one of the “12 most effective preachers in the English speaking world.” Twice he was named by Ebony magazine as one of America’s greatest black preachers. He is a living legend among preachers.
I’m excited to share with you, Dr. Forbes has accepted our invitation to preach next weekend in worship. This is a most remarkable opportunity to welcome him and to hear this remarkable preacher and leader. We offered this invitation as a way of bringing to a close our 25th anniversary celebration here at Resurrection. I know you will be blessed by hearing him at the lecture on Tuesday night, and next weekend preaching at all of our Leawood services.
Lastly, I thought I’d mention a little book I recently wrote for public speakers called, Speaking Well. After delivering over 5,000 sermons, talks and lectures, I wanted to share some of the simple tips that can improve public speaking. I intentionally wrote this book with business leaders and other public speakers in mind. My hope was that non-religious people might read it for help in speaking, but in the process hear intertwined in the book a subtle witness to faith. The book is 19 short chapters with very simple tips and ideas. LaVon and I are donating all proceeds from this book to seminary scholarships for Resurrection young adults who answer God’s call to ordained ministry. If you have someone you know who would benefit from this book, you can pick it up at our bookstore at the church, or order it online from Cokesbury where you can view the table of contents and endorsements and read a sample chapter.
See you in worship!
Adam
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, Kansas 66224, United States
913.897.0120
913.897.0120
www.cor.org
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