Heading to Kansas!
Today my family and I are heading out for a weekend trip to the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City, Kansas.If you’ve never heard about Church of the Resurrection, here’s some info from their website.
The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has grown from four people in 1990 to over 12,000 adult members with an average weekly worship attendance of over 7,500 in 2008. The church was listed as the most influential mainline church in America in a 2005 survey of American pastors. The Church of the Resurrection has a three-fold focus: 1. Reaching non-religious and nominally religious people and helping them become committed followers of Jesus Christ; 2. Equipping and inspiring members to live their faith in mission to the community and world; and 3. Acting as a catalyst for renewing the mainline church.
I’ve had the opportunity to participate in the Leadership Institute sponsored by COR each year. In this past year, I’ve also been a part of the Young Pastors Network which Adam Hamilton, COR’s Senior Pastor, co-leads with Mike Slaughter, Senior Pastor of Ginghamsburg UMC in Ohio, but I’ve never had the opportunity to experience the weekend at Church of the Resurrection. We’ll be attending four of their weekend worship services including their Saturday Night service, their 9:00 a.m. Traditional service, a new service they’ve started called Vibe, and their Sunday afternoon service at 5:00 p.m. So we’re going to get some church this weekend!
We’ll be looking specifically at their welcoming ministry, children’s programming offered during their services, how they are handling a concurrent service [two at one time on Sunday morning at 11:00 with Vibe] and how they have grown their 5:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon service into one of their largest services. This will be my first “research excursion” as we continue to make plans to add additional worship opportunities at First UMC Mansfield.
On the way, we’ll also be stopping in Oklahoma City on Friday night and catch a Redhawks minor league game as well. I’ll try to post some pictures over the weekend and a wrapup of the trip on Tuesday!
