December 16, 2005
Dear Resurrection Family,
Before I begin I want to express several words of thanks: 1. To those who joined us for the prayer vigil on the week of Thanksgiving. I always find the vigil to be a great blessing to me as a participant, but I am also blessed when, at the end of the day I come in and see the list of every member of Church of the Resurrection and see initials on each page indicating that someone prayed for all of you by name. I am personally blessed to participate in these prayers - this year pausing to pray for several hundred of you by name. It was a joy. 2. Thanks to all who have sent Christmas cards to the church, the staff or me. What a blessing these are. I wish I could personally respond to each one, but I want you to know how much your notes, stories and encouragement mean - what a blessing. 3. Thank you to all who made possible the Christmas at Resurrection. It was a great blessing and an absolutely awesome event. The aim of this event was to bless the audience, to honor God and to create an event that the unchurched would come to and have such a great experience they would want to come back to the church to find out more about the Child born at Christmas. There were so many guests here, and among those I met the response was wonderful - they can't wait to attend next year, and bring friends. There are many of these who will be here for Candlelight Christmas Eve. Again, thank you to all who made this possible - it was terrific!
Here's what I'll cover in today's brief e-mail:
1. This Weekend: What Kind of King?
2. Sunday, Christmas Day - Worship at 10:45 a.m.
3. Thank You from the Youth Music Scholarship Fund
4. Change in Communion: How Does This Help?
5. Two Other "Cool" Events at Resurrection Last Weekend
6. Invite a Friend to Christmas Eve - by e-mail!
1. This Weekend: What Kind of King?
On this weekend, the fourth weekend of Advent, we'll begin by looking back to a promise God made to David, around 1000 B.C. that a descendent of his would reign forever. This is known as the Davidic Covenant and can be found in II Samuel 7 (to read the passage, click on this link: http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=1134763477 ). This promise was all that sustained the Jewish people during dark times of their history when all seemed lost. It was this promise that was fulfilled when the Angel announced to Mary she would bear a son who would reign on the throne of his ancestor David. Jesus is that King who would rule forever. We'll consider what kind of King Jesus is, and what it means for us to hail him as our king. All of which will prepare us to celebrate his birth. This week's study guide will lead you on your own study of these themes in Scripture.
2. Sunday, Christmas Day - Worship at 10:45 a.m.
There was an article recently in the newspaper about churches canceling services on Christmas Day - which seems an odd thing to do - to cancel Sunday services on the second holiest of church holy days! We will be holding worship on Sunday morning, Christmas day - but we will have only one service on that day. At Church of the Resurrection there will never be a Sunday when we don't hold worship services - we've been open even during the ice storms when other churches closed (though we encourage you to use your discretion and to be safe in inclement weather). Having said that, we are only holding one service on Christmas Day. We will have seven candlelight services on the 23rd and 24th and our experiences is that when Christmas is on a Sunday we have much smaller attendance. Having just one service at 10:45 a.m. also allows families to spend the morning together opening gifts and sharing in your own family devotions before attending worship. So, don't forget, on Christmas Day we'll have just one service at 10:45 a.m.
3. Thank You from the Youth Music Scholarship Fund
Our youth in the music ministry wish to thank all of you who so generously supported them at the intermission at Christmas at Resurrection. You gave $6,000 dollars to our kids to support scholarships for youth to participate in the summer music mission trip. This is an awesome trip. Last year our teens sang and played in prisons and senior care centers and a host of other places and saw God working through them in wonderful ways. Thank you for supporting them!
4. Change in Communion: How Does This Help?
Earlier this month we announced we were changing the type of bread we use for Holy Communion during the flu season - we're now using large round discs of unleavened bread. Here's how this helps:
Our communion servers use a hand wash before serving you the bread. They are to hold it out for you to take with your fingers (not placing it in the palm of your hand). As you take the bread with your fingers, you intinct (dip) the bread in the cup and receive - the only portion of the bread touching the shared cup is the portion of the bread, which was handled by the server. The size of the host (the bread) also avoids fingers accidentally being dipped in the wine. This may make more sense when we explain it next time in worship. This is a small step and one that may be unnecessary, but it arises out of my concern for our congregation, particularly those most susceptible to illness, during this time of year. Thanks for your understanding and your willingness to try something new.
5. Two Other "Cool" Events at Resurrection Last Weekend
In addition to Christmas at Resurrection and our regular weekend service we had two other events at the church this last weekend I wanted you to know about; both were on Saturday. One was a breakfast we hosted for 550 Down syndrome children and their families. This event was sponsored by the Down Syndrome Guild and held at Church of the Resurrection in conjunction with our Matthew's Ministry. The second was the Community LINC Christmas lunch in which the families of Community LINC, a transitional housing ministry in the urban core, were served a meal and shared in fellowship and gifts here at the church. You blessed and touched these persons who have moved from homelessness on their way to full independence. Things like this happen all the time here at Resurrection - how cool is that? Thanks to all of you who made these two events possible.
6. Invite a Friend to Christmas Eve - by e-mail!
Would you like to invite a friend to join us for Candle Light Christmas Eve? If so, you can invite them by e-mail by clicking on this link: http://www.cor.org/Invite_a_Friend.1533.0.html
7. Youth Staff Search Update
This weekend we will host a candidate for our youth director position. I can't release his name, but I can tell you he has 16 years youth ministry experience and has led an exciting ministry in the church he is now serving, which includes a weekly after-school program, a coffee house for teens, cell groups, youth group, mission trips, ski trips and a host of other really exciting ministries for teens. His program has grown from 70 youth to 1,000 in the last five years.
We have two other candidates we're also speaking to in the next week. Please continue to pray for this search.
In other youth related news:
I had a chance to meet with some of our youth leaders this week and hear their hopes and dreams for our student ministries. I loved meeting with and hearing from them. We have some incredible teens who are leaders in our youth ministry.
We just hired a full time Event Coordinator for our Student Ministry - he has 10 years experience working with teens. He will handle the coordination of our large events for our student ministries, which allows us to plan in house, rather than using outside groups to plan ski trips and mission trips - this will bring the cost down for the kids and allow us to do a better job of planning these events. I am excited about the types of events and ministries, which will be possible with this new staff person.
In January I will give the messages in youth group on Wednesday nights - I'll speak on James in a series entitled, "Where the Rubber Hits the Road." We'll talk about temptation, taming the tongue and living for God. I'm excited to get to hang out with our youth in January. We'll move into our new youth room in January, and have the official grand opening and dedication in February.
We're looking for 50 to 75 new adult volunteers who will answer the call to be in ministry with youth beginning in January. I hope a number of you will plan on joining me in this ministry - we'll take sign-ups this weekend and January 1st.
Well, that's a bit of what's happening around the church this week.
God is doing many exciting things here at the church.
In Christ's Love,
Adam Hamilton