Weekly eNote from Senior Pastor Adam Hamilton from The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Friday, 9 September 2016Friday, September 9, 2016
Dear Resurrection Family,
I hope this note finds you doing well today. The weekend is supposed to be absolutely magnificent. I’d like to encourage you to make worship attendance a priority for this weekend.
As we continue our series on Moses, this weekend I’ll preach through the Ten Commandments, arguably the most important text of the Old Testament. You likely learned them when you were growing up. Can you recite all ten right now? I lay awake in bed one night this week recounting them but for the life of me I could not remember one of them! I finally had to get up at 4 am and grab my Bible to find which one I had forgotten (I’ll tell you which one this weekend in my sermon). My hope is that, after worship, those of you with kids will teach them what you learn in worship this weekend, and talk to them about the Ten Commandments. These commandments are meant to play an important role in shaping the rhythm and values of our lives.
I’ll begin the sermon by taking you to Mount Sinai. One of the great spiritual pilgrimages is to travel to Mount Sinai, to wake up in the middle of the night and to hike to the top of the mountain so that you can watch the sunrise over the mountains. I’ll take you there by video as the sermon begins. Then we’ll focus on the meaning of the Ten Commandments for us today – I think you’ll find these 3,200-year-old commandments, the centerpiece of God’s covenant with Israel, still speak in profound ways to us today. The six days at Mt. Sinai that include God’s giving the Ten Commandments, ends in Exodus 24 with God entering into a covenant with the Israelites – it is this event that forms the backdrop of Jesus’ words at the Last Supper. We’ll talk about the connection and then share Holy Communion together.
Are you looking to grow deeper in your faith, to make friends or to find authentic Christian fellowship? Each Tuesday night hundreds of Resurrection members and their friends show up at the Leawood campus for an array of interesting and spiritually enriching classes and an opportunity for great Christian fellowship. The offerings on Tuesday nights include young adult classes, women’s and men’s groups, Bible studies, classes that watch films and discuss them, classes focused on faith and the environment and a lot more. I’ll teach on Moses this coming Tuesday night – showing clips and pictures I’ve been unable to include in the sermons and sharing some of the historical background I have not had time to share in the sermons. I’ll also talk about travelling to Egypt and mentioning a possible 2018 trip to Egypt for Resurrection members. To find out more about the many opportunities click here,www.cor.org/grownight.
Our first Louisiana Disaster Response Trip will take placeSeptember 18-24. We’re looking for volunteers to travel to the Baton Rouge area to remove water-damaged sheet rock, mud and debris from flooded homes. Safe Gatherings certification is required and you must be 18 or older. Click here to register, online.
I’m excited about our upcoming Leadership Institute September 28-30. We’ll have over 1,800 pastors and church leaders joining us for a time of inspiration, encouragement and equipping as we share 80 workshops focused on every dimension of ministry. I’ll teach in the plenary sessions on the leadership lessons we learn from Moses – his is the greatest case study of leadership in the Old Testament. Entire books have been written on leadership lessons learned from Moses. Our aim is to demonstrate radical hospitality to each of these pastors, staff members and lay leaders who are attending the Institute. Can you help? We’re needing hundreds of volunteers to make Institute happen. You’ll find it to be a rewarding experience. Invite a friend and plan to join us. You can sign up by clicking here,cor.org/sharechurch (go to the Volunteer tab).
This weekend is the 15th anniversary of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. While our pastors will remember the events in our time of prayer, I also wanted you to know that there will be, as happens each year, a special time of remembrance and tribute at Kansas City’s 9/11 Memorial located at 12401 Hemlock in Overland Park. There you can touch the 14 foot steel beam from the World trade Center and follow the events of that day. This is a come-and-go service that will take place between 7:30 and 9:30 am at the memorial. Church of the Resurrection helped provide funds for this memorial and it is very well done – located at the Overland Park Fire Training Center, 12401 Hemlock.
Finally, I wanted to mention that we’ve been discussing possible changes in worship as we prepare for the move into the new sanctuary at Leawood next spring. We’ve looked at when and where the 7:45 am service will meet (chapel or new sanctuary, 7:45 am or earlier). We’ve talked about possible changes in worship style at 9 amaimed at better connecting with young families and what those changes could look like. We’ve talked about whether the pastors wear robes or not at 10:45 am; and, we’ve talked about whether Vibe would join the 9 am sanctuary service for the 9 months after the new sanctuary opens until the Vibe worship space is completed in the new fellowship hall (our current sanctuary). Some of these changes are simply logistical. Some are missional. I’ll share the recommendations on the weekend of September 26 in our morning services. That weekend we’ll end worship a bit early and you’ll have the chance to walk into the new sanctuary and to sign your names and write your prayers on the floors of the sanctuary before the final surface coat is poured, thus sealing your names and prayers in the foundation of the sanctuary. This will be an exciting weekend!
That’s all I have for today. I look forward to seeing you in worship this weekend!
In Christ’s love,
Adam
One additional note... This weekend at 10:45 am, we’ll recognize Lester Reed, Resurrection’s most mature member - he turns 107 this weekend! The year he was born Theodore Roosevelt was president, the Cubs won the World Series, and Oklahoma became the 46th state in the union. Lester is here in worship and SundaySchool nearly every week. If you see him this weekend, wish him a happy birthday!The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
www.cor.org
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