February 28, 2008

Dear Resurrection Family,

I am writing a bit earlier than normal this week - Rebecca, our youngest daughter, and I are traveling today to Ciudad Espana, Honduras with our mission team as we consecrate the new church building that you has been pivotal in providing for that community. I was present three years ago for the ground breaking, and many of you have been to Ciudad Espana to be a part of the construction teams working on the building. As a congregation you have funded this project through our mission's auction and golf tournament and your regular offerings. More about this, along with photos, next week!

I just left the Wesley Chapel (I'm writing this email on Wednesday afternoon) where a group of Resurrection members gathered to welcome Helen Pearson into the membership of our church. Helen is 99 years old, and as far as I am aware, she is now the oldest member of our congregation (she has bumped another member, Lester, from that spot - he is 98. He had hoped to be here for Helen's joining but he is on vacation, sitting on the beach in Cancun!). 

I was reminded, as we received Helen into the membership of this church that the Bible never speaks of retirement as we think of it. As long as we have breath we are called to serve the Lord. God has a purpose for Helen's life, and a calling for her to fulfill. I've preached on many occasions that many of the greatest heroes and heroines of the Bible did their most important work as senior adults. Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Naomi, Elijah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Paul and John all had their greatest impact for God after what we think of as retirement. I love that line from Browning, "Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be." Here's a photo of Helen, along with her daughter Elaine (already a member here) on her joining day.

1. This Weekend: Forgive us Our Trespasses as we Forgive…
2. Easter Worship and Spring Break
3. Resurrection Children's Choir Leads to Professional Acting Career!
4. Resurrection Sports Teams - Great Way to Make Friends
5. Some Stats and Thoughts From the Pew Study on Religion in America

1. This Weekend: Forgive us Our Trespasses as we Forgive…
This weekend our sermon series on the Lord's Prayer continues with a focus on forgiving and forgiveness. Every year when I invite you to submit topics for sermons via e-mail forgivingness ranks among the most frequent requests. Some struggle to accept their forgiveness from God. Some struggle to forgive others. Perhaps this perpetual struggle with forgiveness is why Jesus included this line among the few phrases in his pattern prayer. Come this weekend and learn what Jesus meant, and how we live into this prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

2. Easter Worship and Spring Break
This year Easter falls at the end of Spring Break for Blue Valley, Olathe, Shawnee Mission and some of the Missouri districts as well. Spring Break starts on Thursday before Palm Sunday. We're encouraging you to plan to be back in time for Easter worship. This is the most important day of the year for Christians. We'll have an awesome weekend of worship. Our special music on Easter, in addition to our choirs, orchestra and bands, will feature Larnelle Harris who has won five Grammy awards and was just inducted into the gospel music hall of fame. He performed here last in 2002 - he's amazing. We'll also join forces with Grand Avenue Temple for worship on Easter morning. Those who worship at Grand Avenue will have a chance to hear their amazing organ, which is on the National Historic Registry, to get a sneak peak at worship in this historic building where we'll launch Resurrection Downtown, and the chance to build bridges as you worship with Grand Avenue's congregation. For those who are out of town, we'll live web-cast our 11:00 am service on the Internet so you can join us at this service wherever you are. Our hope is that, even if you are traveling on Sunday, you'll be back for Easter worship in time for the Sunday night service, which will again feature Larnelle Harris. As you make your Spring Break plans, plan to be back for Easter worship!

3. Resurrection Children's Choir Leads to Professional Acting Career!
We've had a number of our young adults go on to professional careers in music and theatre. The latest is 12 year old Cooper Scott who began singing and acting in our Christmas at Resurrection children's choir performance of "Charlie Brown Christmas" when he was in 4th grade. Cooper just finished performing in 78 shows at the Coterie Theatre in "The Happy Elf." He spent three days with Harry Connick Jr. who wrote the music for the show. He'll be in "To Kill a Mockingbird" at the Kansas City Rep later this month. His mom writes, "I assure you that none of this would be happening in Cooper's life if he had not had the Children's Choir opportunities at COR." I am grateful for our children's music program - our staff and volunteers are wonderful and are committed to helping children grow in their faith through music. To find out more about children's choir, click on this link.

4. Resurrection Sports Teams - Great Way to Make Friends
Did you know we have a men's pick-up basketball team starting in a few weeks? How about a ladies tennis group? We have co-ed kickball, volleyball, and dodge ball too! We offer sports teams as a way of building a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians. The teams are opportunities for you to invite your friends who are not actively involved in church. They are also great opportunities for you to make friends, get exercise and have fun. I've found that developing friendships is so important to our spiritual and mental health. We were created for fellowship with others. The older we get, the harder it can be to find the time and means for developing friendships. Small groups, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, men's and women's groups and a host of other activities we offer are all opportunities for you to develop meaningful friendships. That's part of what we hope happens as a result of our sports teams. To find out more about these ministries, click on this link.

5. Some Stats and Thoughts From the Pew Study on Religion in America
The results of an important study of religion in America were released this week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. You can read the full report here. I'll share a few of the interesting findings in this post: 78.4% of Americans aged 18 and older claim to be Christians. Two out of three of these are Protestant. One in twenty people in America claim to be United Methodists - making us the third largest religious group in America after Catholics and Southern Baptists. The number of non-religious or strongly nominally religious people in America has grown from about 5% in 1972 to 16% today, yet one third of this group described religion as very or somewhat important to them! Only 1.6% of Americans identified themselves as atheists and 2.4% as agnostics. Among the interesting findings, but no surprise to most of us, 44% of Americans are not a part of the religious tradition in which they were raised. Most were Christians who changed from one denomination to another. Among Protestants the more education one has the more likely it is that they will be a part of a mainline denomination like United Methodism. 11% of those without a high school diploma are members of mainline denominations verses 23% of those with post-graduate degrees. Among evangelical churches the opposite trend prevails. 31% of people without a high school diploma are members of an evangelical church but that number declines to 16% of those with post-graduate degrees. A disturbing trend among young adults aged 18-29 is the turn away from churches - both evangelical and mainline - 25% of young adults are unaffiliated with a religious group compared with an average of approximately 14% of all other adults.

I've been hosting focus groups this last week aimed at inviting feedback on several proposed initiatives we hope to pursue at the church in the coming years. Among these is a significant increase in our efforts to reach young adults. Finally, among the findings, and again no surprise, evangelical churches increased while mainline churches decreased over the last forty years. Our church is among many exceptions to this rule. Those mainline churches that have grown often integrate characteristics of some evangelical churches with what are characteristics of the mainline church. This includes, from the evangelical tradition, an emphasis on a passionate, personal faith in Christ, the need for conversion, a regular pursuit of the spiritual disciplines of prayer, scripture study and small groups coupled with, from the mainline tradition, an emphasis on the intellect, a passion for the social gospel, a broader perspective on many issues, and a valuing of the traditions of the church. Methodism, in its inception, was a church that brought together these two traditions. At our best I think we continue to hold them together. Here's a question for those of you 18 - 29: What must church look like to reach your generation?

Please pray for our team as we travel to Honduras, and for the United Methodist Church at Ciudad Espana.

In Christ's Love,

Adam Hamilton