March 14, 2008
Dear Resurrection Family,
As you read this e-mail I am sitting in a series of interviews with nine candidates who are being considered for the office of Bishop in the United Methodist Church. In the United Methodist Church bishops are elected at what’s called “Jurisdictional Conference” which is held once ever four years. There are five jurisdictions in the United States. We are a part of the South Central Jurisdiction which encompasses Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas. Delegates will gather in Dallas in July to elect four new bishops. Bishops are elected for life, but must retire at the age of 70. Nancy Brown, a lay member of our church, and myself, are a part of the delegation from Kansas who will vote on these new bishops. The interviews are important as we seek to discern God’s will in this process.
We are at a critical moment in the life of the United Methodist Church – a kind of fork in the road. There is great opportunity and a bright future down one path, but it will require exceptional leadership, courage, sacrifice and a willingness to embrace change. Down the other path is a long period of continued decline as the denomination grows older, loses vitality, and eventually is only a former shadow of itself. I believe the persons we elect as bishops now will play a key role in which of these two paths we take.
What qualities do you think we need in bishops who will help lead us into a bright future? Share with me and others your thoughts by posting a comment on my blog – click here to got to my latest post and offer your thoughts: http://adamhamilton.cor.org.
Here's what I'll cover in today's email:
1. This Weekend – Palm Sunday: Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
2. Resurrection Team in Russia Training Pastors – Please Pray for This Team
3. Holy Week: Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services
4. Easter Worship: Please Read This!
5. Have You Lost a Loved One This Year? Special Easter Opportunity
1. This Weekend: Palm Sunday: Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory
This weekend I’ll conclude our series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer by focusing on the closing doxology of the prayer, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.” I’ll share with you why this phrase was likely not in the original prayer, why it was added by the early church, and what it means as we allow it to shape our spiritual life. The doxology was likely drawn from King David’s words of praise found in I Chronicles 29:10-13, as David was nearing his own death. See if you can find the closing line of the Lord’s Prayer in this passage,
Then David blessed the LORD in the presence of all the assembly; David said: “Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of our ancestor Israel, forever and ever. Yours, O LORD, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. And now, our God, we give thanks to you and praise your glorious name.
Invite a friend to join you in worship this weekend!
2. Resurrection Team in Russia Training Pastors - Pray for Them
This week we have four mission teams who will serve as Christ’s hands and voice in other places. We have a family mission trip where the team is serving with the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Another team is building cabinets and doing other finish work on the church we just dedicated in Honduras, and we have a team helping with the disaster relief efforts in Bay St. Louis, MS. We also have a team in St. Petersburg, Russia that is offering leadership training to all of the pastors and lay leaders in three districts of the Russian United Methodist Church. This team has taken the leadership training materials that I use with churches across the country and adapted them for Russia.
We recorded a series of videos with my teaching that were dubbed into Russian – these are five and ten minute segments introducing key ideas. The rest of the material will be given live by the team. The team is led by Debi Nixon and Jonathan Bell and includes Dave Pullen and Paul Tabaca. I did the first two of these trainings live last year in Kiev, Ukraine and in eastern Siberia. Teams from our church will offer these training events across Russia over the next several years. Would you pause for a moment to pray for each of our mission teams, and for the pastors and lay leaders at the leadership training in St. Petersburg? Please pray that God will use our mission teams to strengthen, encourage and bless others this week.
3. Holy Week: Maundy Thursday and Good Friday Services
This weekend is Palm/Passion Sunday, marking the beginning of Holy Week. Around the world Christians will begin the week with the palm procession, a reenactment and reminder of the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey to the shouts of “Hosanna!” as some of the people hailed him as the long awaited Messiah. The waving of the palm branches was a sign of both rejoicing and victory. We also refer to Palm Sunday as Passion Sunday because on this weekend we remember the death of Christ. Throughout the last week of Jesus’ life he went to the temple courts and taught the people. He challenged the religious leaders; and he disappointed those who were expecting him to call the people to rebel against the Romans. On Thursday of that week Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples. He gave them three mandates or commandments on that day: “Love one another,” “serve one another” and “remember me” through the sharing of a meal (Holy Communion).
We mark this evening through our Maundy Thursday service (“Maundy” comes from the Latin word mandatum – commandment). Join us for this powerful service on Thursday night, which includes a re-enactment of the Last Supper and music and a meditation on that evening. This service will be Thursday, March 20 at 7:00 pm in the Sanctuary. On Good Friday we remember Christ’s crucifixion by hosting our Good Friday Prayer Vigil in the Wesley Covenant Chapel from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. You are invited to come and pray for as long as you like. We’ll have devotionals and prayer concerns and the names of people for you to pray for. I find this a powerful way to pause, on the day when Christ was crucified, to honor him and to reflect upon the meaning of his suffering for us. Would you like to read of the events of that final week of Jesus’ life? They are recorded in Matthew 21 – 28.
4. Easter Worship: Please Read This!
We’re encouraging each of you to be back from Spring Break in time to attend one of our Easter Worship services. Easter is the most important day in the Christian year. This year as we tell the story of the resurrection of Christ the focus will be on hope. It’s been said that “what oxygen is to the body hope is to the soul.” We can’t survive without hope. You have friends, neighbors or family who may not have a church home and who may be in need of a word of hope. Would you invite them to church for Easter? If you’d like to send them an e-mail about the Easter services click here.
On a related note, I often tell pastors how proud I am of you as a congregation and how you are willing to give up the “prime time” seats and services in order to make room for others to come to faith in Christ. Thank you to all who will join us for the less crowded services. If you can avoid the 9:00 and 11:00 am Sanctuary services it would be great and would make room for persons who may not know Christ.
A reminder – Larnelle Harris will be our special musical guest for Easter – he has won five Grammy awards, three times he was Male Vocalist of the Year for gospel music, and he was recently inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. He’ll be joining us in six of our services (Saturday 5 and 7, Sunday at 7, 9 and 11, and Sunday night at 5).
Once again this year we’ll have Easter in three primary locations (Leawood, Olathe and Grand Avenue Temple), and we will have members of our church leading Easter worship in dozens of area nursing homes and care centers. I’ll send you additional information about the services next week or you can click here to find out about all of our worship times and locations.
One service I would love to recommend to you, if you have young children, is the 3:00 pm Sunday afternoon Family Service; I’ll preach at this service. We’ll also have a children’s sermon and our children’s choir will provide the special music.
5. Have You Lost a Loved One This Year? Special Easter Opportunity
If you have lost a loved one and would like to remember them in a special way on Easter, I’d like to invite you to attend the 9:15 am service in the Student Center (sermon on video, live music from our youth choir and orchestra) or the 3:00 pm Family Service in the Sanctuary. At the end of each of these services we’ll have a cross upon which flowers will be placed in honor and memory of loved ones we remember on this day. You are invited to bring a flower with you to worship that day to place on the cross. There are a number of our members who bring flowers to the Memorial Garden regularly in remembrance of their loved ones – we felt this could be a powerful way of remembering our loved ones and the hope we have in the resurrection. The adorning of the crosses will occur at the conclusion of the 9:15 am service in the Student Center and the 3:00 pm Family Service in the Sanctuary.
In Christ's Love,
Adam