Friday, May 27, 2016
Dear Resurrection Family,
I am hoping each of you will have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend as we mark the unofficial beginning of summer! We have a wonderful summer planned at Resurrection with opportunities for great fun and fellowship, to grow deeper in your faith and to serve in the community. We also have some terrific sermon series planned that I and some of our other pastors will share.
This weekend, we’ll celebrate Memorial Day by remembering and honoring our loved ones who have passed away. We’ll do this during our time of prayer over the weekend. I want to take this opportunity to thank those who lost loved ones in the last year who designated the church as the recipient for memorial gifts. Over $57,000 was given in 2015 in these memorial gifts. Some was designated by families to the art and stained glass window fund for the new building. Some was given for Bless the School, Matthew’s Ministry, Backpacks for Hunger just to name a few. If you’re interested in designating a Memorial Gift please contact Pastor Clayton Smith.
In worship this weekend, we’ll begin a new sermon series titled “Unsettled”. Pastor Scott Chrostek will share the message, one that explores the importance of asking questions as we grow in faith and become the people God longs for us to be. After all of our worship services at Leawood this weekend, our Boy Scout Troop will have a cookout with hamburgers and hot dogs available for purchase in the Narthex, so plan to stay and eat, get to know some other Resurrection members, and help the Boy Scouts raise funds for camp.
Memorial Day was conceived as a day to remember those who died in service to their country. On Saturday night, you can enjoy a wonderful evening of patriotic music featuring the Resurrection Choir and Orchestra, COR's youth choir and featured soloists. The free concert begins at 7:30 pm in the Sanctuary and is open to all. Come celebrate America and get a preview of this concert which will be presented June 5 at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The church offices will be closed on Monday, May 30, in honor of Memorial Day, but the Memorial Garden in the courtyard of Leawood Building C will be open from 10 am – 3 pm. Please use the south entrance to enter the building. With the addition of the final columbarium in our current memorial garden we once again have niches available for those who wish to have their ashes inurned at the church. I love our memorial garden. It is beautiful and there are people who are constantly out there stopping to remember their loved ones before they go to worship. We also have baptismal services, small weddings and funerals there, as well as a steady stream of people who simply go outside to pray.
I know many of us will be taking vacations and traveling out of town this summer. Several years ago, we noticed that worship attendance was dropping off in the summer months. That’s when we launched Destination Resurrection to remind and encourage us to “Make Resurrection one of your summer destinations.” I hope you’ll plan to be in worship every weekend that you’re in town, and when you’re out of town, you can always join us online on Sundays at 10 am and 5 pm or at various times during the week. Just go to rezonline.org for the schedule. We’re going to have great worship, interesting classes and lots of opportunities to serve in the community this summer. In addition, it’s going to be a fun way to get connected and make new friends. You can check all the Destination Resurrection activities at www.cor.org/summer. Here are just a few of the things coming up at the Leawood campus:
On June 7, Pastor Jeff Kirby will lead a study exploring how the Book of Psalms can deepen our faith and understanding of prayer—and it’s a part of our summer Tuesday Grow night offerings. Tuesday Grow night from 6:30-8:30 pm in the Student Center.
Resurrection Night at the Royals is Friday, June 17 at Kauffman Stadium at 7:15. Purchase tickets online. My daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter will be joining me for the game to celebrate Father’s Day together.
This last week we passed a major milestone in our blood donations as a church. We have now given over 35,000 pints as a church(4,375 gallons)! A very special thanks to the 581 individuals who registered for our three May drives at Blue Springs, RezWest and Leawood The 565 pints donated will impact the lives of over 1,100 people.
Please join me in welcoming our newest Resurrection members. 26 individuals joined Resurrection at Coffee with the Pastors, May 22 at Resurrection West. This includes 14 adults and 12 children. Their names are listed at the bottom of this email. Please welcome them.
I leave this week for Syracuse, New York where I will deliver three 90-minute talks on leadership, preaching and missional outreach at the Upper New York Annual Conference and hosting a late night gathering to encourage their young clergy. There will be about 1,600 pastors and church leaders there. The next week I’ll be at the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference offer the same “leadership revival” for that Annual Conference. Thank you to each of you who picked up a prayer tent and are daily praying for a pastor and a local church. Don’t forget to send your note of encouragement to them, and to continue to pray for them for a total of 30 days.
Finally, as you know I’ve been recording one to five minute messages by video each Sunday aimed at making it easy to share the big idea from the previous weekend’s sermon with your friends on social media. I see these as a simple opportunity to touch others and for you to share your faith. Here’s a link to last weekend’s clip focused on conflict in the church. You might want to watch this video and share it on social media.
Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
In Christ’s love,
Adam
Welcome new members:
Rusty and Tiffany Arnold
Olivia, Beck and Vera
Joe and Shannon Gouger
Devin and Kiersten
Andy and Debra Hartman
Zach
Debbie Hinman
Matt and Kerryann Kocher
Clea and Kirby
Randy and Stephanie Lininger
Brooke and Blake
Diana Miller
Ted and Laura Vanzante
Sammy and Blake
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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