Check out all of this week's content from Church of the Resurrection. 

Pastor Adam's Weekly eNote:

Dear Resurrection Family,

Tomorrow LaVon and I head back to the U.S. from the UK. After spending a week retracing the life of John Wesley and the beginning of the Methodist movement, we spent a week in the Cotswolds where I was writing. This last week I set aside my computer and we just explored Scotland. We spent a couple of days in Edinburgh, then we traveled to the Scottish highlands near Loch Ness, and today we're back on the east coast of Scotland preparing to come home.

My sabbatical leave officially ends on August 14 when I return to the office. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be trying to complete the manuscript for the book I've been writing this summer, outlining the sermons for this fall, and I'll be in meetings related to our upcoming building efforts.

This weekend I look forward to being in worship live at Resurrection. I'm so grateful that we have Resurrection Online which has allowed me to be in worship each weekend. This is a commitment I've asked each of you to make: to be in worship every weekend of the year, either live or online. What percent of the time have you been in worship this year (counting both online and in person) - 50%? 70% 85%? My hope is that, if your getting a grade for attendance you'd all have an "A"!

This Saturday night, following worship on the Leawood Campus, food trucks will be set up in the parking lot for worshipers to enjoy supper, then there's a concert with Justin Huey, our worship leader at Resurrection Downtown and other of our worship team members, at 7 pm in the Student Center. This will be an awesome event!

This week I visited the royal castle at Edinburgh, the palace at Holyrood, and the castle Stirling. I spent time reading a bit of Scottish history, particularly the stories of the kings and queens of England and Scotland since the 1500's. Meanwhile, the future king of the UK, Prince George, was born in London. Being surrounded by the symbols of monarchy, I began thinking about the primary theme of Jesus' preaching and teaching: The Kingdom of God and how the gospels portray Jesus as the Prince who rules on behalf of his Father. He is our King.

At one point the monarchs ruled over their kingdoms, not always with justice or righteousness, but often with sweeping powers. Today the monarchy is largely symbolic of the culture and history of the UK, with very little power. The Queen and royal family represent the UK, they play some diplomatic role, but they are loved by many.

What role do we allow Christ as King in our lives? How much power and authority do we allow him in our lives? Is he largely a figurehead that we keep around for sentimental reasons - someone who represents our heritage and culture? Or do we allow him real authority to reign in our lives?

What's interesting about Christ is he won't seize power. He invites us to come to him, and to follow him. Unlike many of the kings England and Scotland of old, He rules with justice and righteousness. He is humble and seeks to serve his people. This King we serve suffered for his subjects, giving himself "as a ransom for many."

Each morning we are meant to wake up and yield our lives to Christ our king. We invite him to send us on his mission, and we live our lives in service to him and his kingdom. Today, I'd invite you to once again offer your life to Christ your King. It is in doing this that we find life and joy and peace.

I look forward to being in worship, in person, this weekend at Resurrection. I hope you'll make a commitment to be in worship as well.

In Christ's Love,

Adam Hamilton

Pastor Scott Chrostek's Weekly eNote

"It is great to be writing you this Friday morning back at home from downtown Kansas City! I hope this email finds you doing well and I hope you have had a great week. For me, it has been a busy week of getting back into the swing of things after being in Honduras with our mission team. What I’ve discovered this week, however, is that there is a lot going on in this community of faith!  I’m excited about this coming weekend, not only because Kansas City will be welcoming soccer fans from across the country for this year’s MLS All Star Game Celebration, but I am looking forward to a weekend filled with some pretty great events and opportunities to connect at RezDowntown." Read more here

 Pastor Penny Ellwood's Weekly eNote

"I've had conversations with a couple of teachers I know this week.  They've started ticking down the final days of summer and beginning preparations to head back into the classroom.  It's hard to believe that school will be starting back up in just a few short weeks!" Read more here

Pastor Jason Gant's Weekly eNote

"What an amazing week we had here at Resurrection West! Over 250 of attended last Sunday evening's picnic. Incredible food made from your hearts and hands brought together a spirit-filled night of fun, laughter, and praise with the "Chasing Grace" concert. It was a great joy to move from table to table meeting, greeting, and listening to your story. Over and over I hear you saying how much you feel God's presence here in our Church. I feel it too and I believe God is calling us to great things beyond what we can imagine today! Our worship attendance has grown each week over the past three weeks and it's July!! I am so inspired to see you inviting friends to worship. We had ten first times visitors one Sunday this past month and I have met so many new faces at the doors each week!" Read more here

 Daily GPS Insights

Monday's from Melanie Hill: "So often when I read through the story of Abram I tend to focus on the amazing amount of faith it must have required to trust God completely at his word.  And that faith still stops me in my tracks. What a precarious and exciting place Abram and Sarai found themselves in.  Today though, as I read through this passage again I keep getting caught up in the promise that God makes not only the Abram, or to Christ followers, but to “all the families of the earth”.  God promises to bless us all through Abram.  Once again God is at work creating a means for restoration in relationship with him.” Read more at: http://gpsinsights.cor.org/?p=9308

Tuesday's from Lucas McConnell: “What was Abram thinking? This is the question that goes through my mind, and I’m sure went through Pharaoh’s as well, when I read about Abram and Sarai’s exploits in Egypt in Genesis 12:10-20. Why did Abram lie about Sarai being his wife and sacrifice her to the Egyptians so that his own life could be spared? While justification for Abram’s actions cannot be established in today’s passage alone, further information can be gleaned from before and after this story. In Genesis 12:1-3 we read about God blessing Abram and promising to create a nation through him. In the patriarchal culture of Abram’s time, it would be natural that Abram would see himself as a VIP in this nation building promise and would thus want to preserve his life, even at the expense of Sarai’s.” Read more at http://gpsinsights.cor.org/?p=9311

Wednesday's from Angela LaVallie: “Patience is a virtue. Patience is one of those things that we as Christians should be striving for. I have jokingly heard others say they don’t want to pray for patience because they are afraid God will give them situations where they would need to exercise patience in order to develop it. I think a further complication of developing patience is that it is difficult to have patience when we don’t know what we’re waiting for.” Read more at http://gpsinsights.cor.org/?p=9314

Thursday's from Celicia Hiatt: “I have experienced many times in my life where I have found myself laughing at God because he has made sure his plans have trumped mine. I’ll be honest – this is a lesson that God has to teach and re-teach me on a daily basis, and I am thankful that God is so patient and understands that there is a learning curve, because I often let the misguided notion that I’m the one at the helm get the best of me. I have to tell myself again and again, that, yeah, my plan might work, but God’s plan will work better.” http://gpsinsights.cor.org/?p=9317

Friday's from Darren Lippe: “Today’s scene needs a little context to be fully appreciated.  Back in Genesis 18:1-15, we read of 3 messengers from God who boldly predicted to the elderly Abraham & Sarah that they would have a son within the year.  Sarah’s response to this seemingly ridiculous prophecy was to laugh.  When later pressed by God as to why she laughed, Sarah asks innocently, “Who me?” Read more at http://gpsinsights.cor.org/?p=9322

Resurrection Stories

Partner School Series - Welborn Elementary School: Every school year Church of the Resurrection teams up with our partner schools to provide them with support during the school year. Through our partner school series we will look at each school and preview their needs and goals for the upcoming school year.  We talked with Welborn Elementary School’s volunteer liaison Ann Carter. Read more at https://blogs.cor.org/?p=315

Volunteer Spotlight - Karin McCrary: This week’s Volunteer Spotlight features Karin McCrary. She serves as a Grief Ministry Coach for Congregational Care. Read more at:  https://blogs.cor.org/?p=311  

Glory Revival Concert Preview: Glory Revival is playing at the Leawood Student Center this Saturday at 7 pm. The concert is free and there will also be popular local food trucks outside the East Building before the event. We talked with Justin Huey and Matt Bisel to preview the concert. Read more at https://blogs.cor.org/?p=322

Other Resurrection Blogs

Honduras Blog: “Our last day in Danli began with one final visit to the Expresso Americano for one last round of macchiatos and mochachino supremos.  What made this last trip to the café especially sweet was that our coffees were picked up at the graciousness of one the locals in line.  He told us that he wanted to buy our coffee because of our willingness to help transform Honduras.  What a blessing!” Read more at  http://honduras.rezmissions.org/

Navajo Nations Blog: "We are so tired, but happy. Day 3 of VBC included 43 joyful kids. When picking up children from as far as 20 miles away, I was blessed to see the morning sun bouncing off giant red rock formations." Read more at  http://navajo.rezmissions.org/