Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection for Thursday, 3 July 2014 Enote from Pastor Adam Hamilton

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection for Thursday, 3 July 2014 Enote from Pastor Adam Hamilton
Dear Resurrection Family,
I hope you are doing well on this beautiful Thursday! Having spent much of June speaking at annual conferences, I'm taking a few days vacation with LaVon, Danielle and JT and our granddaughter at the lake. Jeff Kirby is preaching this weekend on the Hebrew roots of the Lord's Prayer and helping us think about the meaning of each phrase of this important prayer. Late first and early second century Christians prayed this prayer three times a day. On many occasions I've been with persons as they approached death, and this was the final prayer on their lips before they died. I'm looking forward to Jeff's teaching on this prayer and will be worshiping with my family online this weekend.
I want to thank those of you who submitted ideas for future sermons. I spent the last few days reading and praying over your ideas as I have been outlining sermon series for the next two years. There were several hundred sermon series ideas submitted which equates to about 40 years' worth of ideas! I've been looking for trends, for the needs of our congregation, and for ideas that I would never have thought of, but which will help us to "build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians." Some of the ideas submitted are things I've preached on in the not too distant past. Just a reminder that nearly all of my sermons of the last ten years are posted on our website in the sermon archives and are available in The Well Bookstore located in the Narthex of Building B on the Leawood Campus.
This week two new pastors joined our team. I've mentioned them in the last few weeks. The Rev. Dr. Doyle Blanton, with his wife Christie, comes to us having served as senior pastor of First UMC in Appleton, Wisconsin. He's a terrific pastor and we're blessed to have him join our congregational care team. Rev. Katherine Ebling is a newly commissioned Deacon in the UMC, having just graduated from Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, our UM seminary in the Chicago area. Katherine grew up at Resurrection and is one of the young people you've helped send to seminary. She's a terrific young pastor. We're excited to welcome them both!
Next weekend, July 12/13, I'm turning 50 and plan to preach a sermon looking back at the things I wished I'd known about life and faith when I was 25 and looking ahead at what adults who are 75 and up can teach me, and you, about what they wish they had known when they were 25 and 50. We'll look at what the scripture has to say about growing older. One interesting study I read this week in preparation for that sermon considered the greatest regrets of people 75 and older as they look back over their lives. That study found the single greatest regret of those 75 and older was that they worried too much during their lives. We'll look at this and more in a sermon that will explore aging from a biblical perspective - a perspective that gives me hope as I turn 50!
As we celebrate our nation's birthday, I thought I'd share George Washington's words to the various governors in the United States in 1783 describing what he prayed for our country:

I now make it my earnest prayer that God would [keep the people of the United States] in his holy protection; that he would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for brethren who have served in the field; and finally that he would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.

Wishing you a blessed, safe and celebratory Independence Day!
Adam Hamilton
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The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection
13720 Roe Avenue
Leawood, KS 66224 United States
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