Celebrating 35 Years | Rev. Adam Hamilton | Church of the Resurrection

5:26 Man, I love that video. Thank you, Becky Bean, for filming that and sharing your story with us. And I want to welcome all of you to Church of the Resurrection. My name is Adam Hamilton. I'm the senior pastor here. And today is a very special Sunday. Today's sermon is a little different than normal because today it's our 35th anniversary. 35 years ago today, I was 26 years old and preached the very first sermon at Resurrection. We had our very first gathering as a congregation and it was an exciting day and God has done so many amazing things since then. So in today's story, in today's sermon, we are going to try to remember, first of all, what did Jesus and to do. And what does the rest of the New Testament teach us a church is supposed to be and supposed to do? And then we're going to reflect upon why people need a church. Why does anybody really need a church anyway in a day and time when many people aren't sure they do need it? And then finally, I'm going to share some things with you about what God has done through this congregation in the last 35 years that I hope will touch your heart and inspire you. And I'm going to end with a wedding picture from my daughter's wedding last Sunday. So that's where we're heading. I want to start by welcoming online two of our new locations at Church of the Resurrection. So we have, up to this point, we've had eight locations in the Kansas City area, and a few months ago, Resurrection Lee Summit started. And today is their official grand opening. So they've been worshiping and kind of getting ready for this, but today's the official grand opening, Resurrection Lee Summit in the Kansas City area. And I just want to say we are so proud of you, Res Lee Summit. You have over 600 people already in this baby, you know, congregation, we already have 600 people who've become a part of Resurrection Lee's Summit in the last five months. That includes a great group of people from Aldersgate United Methodist Church who voted to close and become a part of Resurrection Lee's Summit. And the building where we meet in was the building that you nurtured and built and cared for. I just want to say thank you to all of you. And we are so excited about what God is going to do through Resurrection Lee's Summit in the decades ahead. And then I want to say a special, by the way, we've got a little video footage of Resurrection Lee's Summit. Can you put it up there just so people have a chance to see it?

7:29 And so this is what it looks like. If you were to worship, if you have friends who live in Lee's Summit, send them over here. It's a great community, a beautiful building, and we'd love for them to be a part of Resurrection Lee's Summit. If you're watching on TV or online and you live in that area, join us at Resurrection Lee's Summit next week. All right, then I want to say a special word of welcome to those of you in Mason, Ohio. This is about 25 miles north and northeast of downtown Cincinnati. And they're coming in line today. And this is so exciting. I am thrilled. This is a new model for us. So the Ohio West Annual Conference has funded the launch of Resurrection Ohio and asked, would we be willing to start a location there? And we said, yes, if we had the right location pastor. And the right location pastor was Jen Lucas. When I heard Jen might possibly consider this. I'm like, we would do this if Jen Lucas would join and be the location pastor. She's a rock star in my book. And I'm so excited for those of you who are sitting in the sanctuary at Mason, Resurrection Mason, at this very first service of worship. And I just wanted to share for the folks at all of our other locations, here's a little video we shot several months ago when I was up in Ohio at Mason. Take a look. Hi, my name is Adam Hamilton. I'm the senior pastor at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection. And I'm Jen Lucas, the pastor here at Resurrection Mason.

8:45 35 years ago, we started Church of the Resurrection to build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians to help people come to know Christ and then turn them inside out with the love of Christ and help the world, help our communities look more like the kingdom of God. And we're getting ready to launch. What are we launching? We're launching on October 5th at 9 a.m. And we hope that you will be a part of this new launch that we begin to share that love out in the Mason community. And so we're so excited to be collaborating with Church of the Resurrection in Kansas. We are so excited too. And we love Ohio. And I just got to tell you, I mean, I love Ohio an awful lot. I got to tell you, I brought my jersey with me today. Now, the people at K-State and KU are not that fond of this jersey, but I am really proud to be able to wear this red and to say we're a part of Mason, Ohio. And I look forward to seeing you at the launch on October 5th. I love it. I love it.

9:36 So we're cheering you on. We're praying for you. And I'm going to pray right now for those of you in Mason who are worshiping with us at this very moment. Lord, I pray for the folks in Mason and for Pastor Jen and everyone who's volunteering and helping. Pour out your spirit in that place. Give them a vision of what could be and do amazing things through the congregation there to reach people in their community for Christ and to transform their community so it looks more like the kingdom of God. In Jesus' name, amen. Hey, one last thing I wanna tell you about being up there. So Brad Aycock said, you know, there's one thing you gotta eat when you're up here in Mason or in the Cincinnati area. So here's a picture right there. and some of you will recognize this as Skyline Chili Dog. And yes, it was delicious. All right, so there are eight other locations in Kansas City in addition to Lee's Summit and now our newly formed congregation in Mason, Ohio. But I wanna mention 35 years ago, we started with four people and a dream.

10:33 I was 25 when I was assigned to start the church. LeVon was 26. Our kids were two weeks old and three years old. And the dream was that we might be able to reach people who didn't go to church anywhere else, thinking people who, for whatever reason, had opted out of church or walked away from church. We wanted to be a church for them, a place where you could ask questions, where you could have doubts, a place that would warmly welcome you, no matter who you are or where you were coming from, a place where your life could be changed. And then in turn, you'd be sent out every week to go change the world. That was our dream and our vision. Here's just a little bit of cover, a little bit of footage, 20 seconds of that very first worship service. Go ahead and toss it up if you would. What amazes me is all those children who are sitting there for the children's sermon, those kids now are, the youngest of them is now 40, and the oldest of them is now 48 or 49 years old.

11:37 And it's been an amazing, amazing journey. And I'm glad that you're a part of it today. Even if you're a first-time visitor and you're just sort of finding out about resurrection, I'm really glad that you're here with us, joining us today. Our name, Church of the Resurrection, came from the fact that we were meeting in a funeral home. It was the only place that was free. Jim McGilley of McGilley Chapel Funeral Home said, you know what, you can use our funeral home if you'd like to have worship there. And if you'd be willing to do the funerals for unchurched people, I was happy to do that. So I did funerals for unchurched people. They let us have the building for free. And I know his thought was maybe, you know, this is going to be good for future business because people in resurrection are going to die and they're going to need, you know, a place to have their funerals. And so it was just a great place to start. And that's, again, resurrection seemed like the perfect name for a church meeting in a mortuary. We did kid around about this and say people were just dying to get into our church. But it was great. We started again with 90 people and the church grew from there. And we met there for about two years and then finally moved to an elementary school gym and then to our very first building here.

12:34 All right. So in the time that remains, I want to take the time to look at what Jesus said about the church. So the church was his idea, not my idea. The church was his idea. And so I want us to think about the things that he said about it. Now, first of all, in the New Testament, there's over 100 passages that mention the idea of church. And typically, the Greek word that's used there is ekklesia. Ekklesia means to be called out. Ek is out, and kaleo from the word call, to be called out. And so an ecclesia in a secular city or secular context could be a town hall meeting. It was an assembly of the people in a community. But if you look at the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament, when it was translated into Greek before the birth of Jesus, they used the word ecclesia, and it was used to describe the gathering of God's people. So an ecclesia for the Jewish people, the Greek-speaking Jewish people, was a God's community, God's gathering of his people. And so that's what Paul and Jesus and others, so Jesus wasn't speaking Greek, but when the Jesus' words were translated into Greek, they used the word ekklesia. This is not just any old assembly, it's God's assembly. It's God's people or God's community. So that's the first thing to recognize is we are God's community or God's people. Now in Matthew chapter 16, we find Jesus only uses the word ekklesia twice in the Gospels. So the first one is in Matthew chapter 16, and there Simon Peter, Jesus actually turns to all of his disciples. He says, who do you say that I am?

13:56 Like, it's time to say, who do you think I am? Am I a good teacher? Am I the Messiah? Am I, what do you, I mean, you've been following me. Who do you say that I am? And they're all quiet because they're afraid it's a trick question. You know, they're gonna get the answer wrong. Simon Peter, though, always bold, he speaks up. And Simon says, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus says, flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you, Simon, but my father in heaven revealed it to you. And then he says this, you've told me who I am. Now I'm gonna tell you who you are. You are, and again, Simon was his given name. He says, I tell you, you are Peter, Petros in Greek, and on this rock, and the word rock is Petra, so I'm gonna call you Petros, and on this Petra, I'm gonna build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. Three things I want you to notice from this passage. First of all, again, the church was Jesus' idea. So we live in a time when a lot of people say, hey, I'm into Jesus, I really like Jesus.

14:49 I'm spiritual, but I'm not religious. I don't really want organized religion. I don't want a church. By the way, if you came to my office, you would see our church is not very organized when it comes to religion, at least not me. But when it comes to organized religion, we think, well, the church is organized religion. We don't really need that. Well, Jesus had another idea there. He says, I'm gonna build a church. So the church was his idea, not my idea, not your idea. It was his idea. So Jesus thought we would need church. He thought it was gonna be important for us to become the people God wanted us to be and for us to do the things God, you know, Jesus wanted his followers to do in the world, they would need each other. They would need church. They would need a community of people. So that's the first thing to notice is it was Jesus' idea. The second thing is he calls the church my church. He says, I will build my church. The church does not belong to the pastor, doesn't belong to the lay leadership, doesn't belong to the denomination. We are a United Methodist church, but it doesn't belong to the denomination. It belongs to Jesus. We can't forget that. The church belongs to Jesus. So the driving question we have to ask is, what does Jesus want to do with us?

15:53 What does he want to do with his church? Because it doesn't belong to us, it belongs to him. So that's the second thing to know, it's his church. And then I want us to recognize one last thing, and that is that not only do we need a church, Jesus felt like we needed a church, and it is his church, and it's his idea, but the Apostle Paul captures something really important. In 1 Corinthians 12, 27, he says this about the church that Jesus formed. He says to the Christians at Corinth, you together, it's a plural, you, you together are the body of Christ. That's an interesting phrase. You're the body of Christ. And what he was saying was that you together are the incarnation of Jesus in the world. You put flesh on Jesus. So Jesus died, rose again. As he prepares to ascend to heaven, he says, now I'm leaving you and I'm going to give you the Holy Spirit. And now your job is to do the things that I've been doing. You continue my presence and my work in the world. And he tells them to go teach everyone what he'd been teaching, and he calls them to make disciples and to baptize people and to continue the work that he'd done. So we are his church, and we are meant to embody his presence in the world together and individually. As a part of the church, we are meant to continue Jesus' presence in the world. So often, I think churches forget this, that this is our task, is to be his presence, his incarnation in the world. By the way, the word church is interesting because it reinforces what we just learned. It comes from a different Greek word than ekklesia. So ekklesia is typically translated church, but the word church etymologically comes from a Greek word kuriakon. And kuriakon means belonging to the Lord.

17:25 So in kuriakon, when it was translated into German, it became kirch. And when it became, you know, it moved into English, it became church. But what church literally means, I mean, the etymological framework for church is something that belongs to the Lord. So we belong to the Lord. We are his idea. He felt like his people would need the church. And in order to do what he needed done in the world, he would need people to be a part of a church. And we are his continuing presence in the world. All right. So there's another way of looking at church in the New Testament. That is the church is the family of God. So we are family together and we are the family of God. So over and over again in the New Testament, you hear the ideas of brothers and sister being used to describe the church. You know, the apostles greet the brothers and sisters in the faith. So we are a family in the church. And that points to, and so we are the family of God.

18:19 And that points to something else that's important. So I love this idea of family. There are people who are part of our congregation, have no family here in Kansas City or maybe in Mason, Ohio. But you have a family in the people who are in the congregation. If you invest in them and they invest in you. And I love this phrase, you know, the only way to have a friend is to be a friend. The only way to really have family relationships within the church is to do that for other people, to care for them. I'll describe that in a moment. But I want you to hear some of the commandments in the New Testament about how churches are to live towards each other, right? And so there's commandments about, we're meant to forgive each other and put up with each other and a whole host of other things. But I'm just gonna read a few of these to you. So Jesus says, love one another as I have loved you. These are the one another commands. The apostle Paul says, bear one another's burdens. And in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. He says also teach and admonish one another. He talks about forgiving one another, bearing with each other. The writer of Hebrews says, let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not to provoke one another to irritation, but to provoke one another or urge one another to love and good deeds. So we help each other become more loving by our presence with each other. James says that we're to pray for one another. First Peter says we're to serve one another. And there are many other of these one another's in scripture. All of it points to the fact that we need other people and they need us. I think a Bill Withers song, you know, we all needs somebody to lean on? Well, Jesus knew that, and so he started the church. All right, and I think about, you've heard this phrase before, it takes a village. That's true. Every time we baptize a baby, we ask everybody, will you support this child and their parents, their family? But you know, it takes a village for all of us, even us grown-ups. And as we get older, it still takes a village, maybe even more of a village as we get older, and then we become homebound, and we need people who are going to see us in the hospital. It takes a village for all of us. Now, this week on Facebook, I asked folks, you know, how has the church impacted your life? Now, this was on Friday, and I'd love for you to go to my Facebook page and just take the time to read some of the answers.

20:11 You can add some of your own answers to how the church has positively affected your life. But I want to read to you just a few of these to give you an idea of the impact of the church and what Jesus had in mind. So one woman wrote, the Divorce for Women group saved my life when I was on the brink of ruin with my two young babies and going through divorce. I honestly don't think I would have made it through without them. Another member wrote, my family is all over the country. Attending resurrection gave me and my daughter and my grandkids a church family who are present when others are not. I am very grateful. I mean, my kids had, you know, after their grandparents, my, LaVon's grandparents were gone, they have other people who've become sort of surrogate grandparents for them as LaVon's mom and stepdad and dad passed. Now, one woman wrote, when I went into premature labor the day before moving into our first house, people from the church, dropped what they were doing, came over to help us move while we were in the hospital. They painted the nursery, put together our crib. Someone else came to the hospital to make sure we were okay. Once we got home, it was someone from the church who taught us how to swaddle my tiny little newborn. Another said, for me, church is a place that continually calls me back to kindness, forgiveness, and generosity, a steady reminder of hope. It gives me a deep sense of community with opportunities to serve and support in ways I could never do on my own. Another wrote, We joined Resurrection West right before our youngest was diagnosed with autism.

21:27 We've always felt the support from our small group families, Matthew's ministry, Building Better Moms groups, and now he's a part of the day program that was recently started at Resurrection OP. Sometimes I just can't believe the blessings and the people who are still a part of our lives since we first joined were forever grateful to our faith and our church home. There are so many other stories just like this that are on my Facebook page right now of the power of the church, the power of the ecclesia, the power of the family of God. Now, when I was growing up, people had a sense that, you know, you needed church, that, you know, when you had kids, you needed to find a church, you needed to get involved in church. Today, I don't think people really have that sense anymore. We really don't have a sense of why we need church. And we've forgotten the fact that Jesus said church is important and we need it. And so I want to remind you of a few things that are just basic information about why church is beneficial in our lives. And it's interesting as you look at these, these sources are coming from secular sources. So the T.H. Chan School for Public Health at Harvard, the National Institutes of Health, you can find all kinds of research that's been done on the power and the benefits of being a part of a faith community. So we prepared, we began doing this research, and I thought, you know, maybe we should prepare some spots for the radio and internet and TV that could help the entire Kansas City area, remember why church is important. And our thought was, it'd be great if they came to resurrection, but we want them to go to church somewhere. May not be here, but somewhere else.

22:54 And I thought you might enjoy hearing. And so every one of these spots, there are four 30-second spots. Every one of them has information that comes from reputable sources and real research on the power of being a part of a faith community. So I'm going to play them really quickly back to back. Take a listen. Did you know that a recent study found that children who attended religious services weekly, were more likely to report being happy as young adults. They had lower instances of depression and they were less likely to use illicit drugs. Raising kids is hard and a church can be there to support your family. If it's been a while since you've been to church, why not give it a try this weekend? Visit a church in your neighborhood or join us at Resurrection, a United Methodist Church with nine locations in the Kansas City area. Go to cor.org for more information. Did you know that church attendance might increase your lifespan? Data from a Harvard study on religious communities and human flourishing indicated that attending a religious service weekly may actually lead to better physical and mental health and add years to your lifespan.

23:57 If it's been a while since you've been to church, why not give it a try this weekend? Visit a church in your neighborhood or join us at Resurrection, a United Methodist Church with nine locations in the Kansas City area. Go to cor.org for more information. Multiple studies of older adults have found lower instances of depression and anxiety, increased resilience, greater life satisfaction, and increased happiness for those who are practicing their faith and involved in a faith community. If it's been a while since you've been to church, why not give it a try this weekend? Visit a church in your neighborhood or join us at Resurrection, a United Methodist Church with nine locations in the Kansas City area. Go to cor.org for more information.

25:05 that couples who prayed together and went to church together were 50% more likely to report that they were very happily married than people who didn't do that. A lot of stats like that. The benefits of being a part of a faith community. All right. So I want to mention, you know, part of what we do as faith communities is, you know, you don't naturally, a church doesn't naturally become that. You've got to decide, you know, if you're a part of a church, that part of my task is not just to, you know, get something out of it, but to put something into it. And so when I think about this, I think about, you know, healthy churches, vibrant churches. They're places where the people sitting around come and they know my job today isn't just to soak up this great message or inspiration, it's to care for other people. We're to do that one another stuff. And I think about, as an example, this Marty Mather, who died several years ago. Some of you remember Marty. She lived into her 90s. And she was known for baking this amazing egg bread. And in her 80s, she started bringing five loaves of bread to church. She would sit, and when we moved in the sanctuary in 2017, where I'm standing now, she would bring five, remember, she'd sit right back over here, five loaves of bread, and she'd put them under her seat. And what she'd do is she'd look around to see who looks sad today, who's sitting by themselves. And she'd get up and move over to where they were sitting by themselves, who looks like they're unhappy or just needs a bit of encouragement. And she wouldn't know these people, but she'd just go and say, you know, I make bread and I've been a part of this church from the beginning. And I just thought you could use a loaf of bread today. You know, can I give this to you? And she just blessed people. Like she, I don't know how many hours it took to make the bread and then to carry it in. And you know, she was a little, at this point, she was, you know, hunched over a bit, but carrying those loaves in about a pound apiece just to bless someone else. Mason, I want to ask you, what are you going to do to bless the people who walk in the doors at Mason and Lee's Summit and all of other locations. And, you know, what can we do to look around and see who needs a word of encouragement? Who needs kindness and care today? Who's sitting by themselves that I need to go over and sit by them? That's what healthy churches do. Churches that understand this is what it means to be the church. It's not just about what I get out of it. It's how I give back to it. It's how I pour myself into the lives of other people. By the way, we are also putting up billboards that are going

27:15 to do some of the same kinds of things, really simple billboards. And I think about some of the religious billboards I see driving around, you know, not so much in Kansas City, but other places are like this one that you see here. You look at these billboards and I think, I wonder how many people see a billboard like that driving by and go, gosh, I want to go to that church. So our billboards look a little different. Let's go ahead and put them up there on the screen. And these billboards are meant, again, to make the case for church. Church fosters hope. Check out a church near you. The next one, church to strengthen families. Check out a church near you. The next one, churches build community. Check out a church near you. And we're trying to make the case for church because we know it makes a difference. We know it was Jesus' idea. He knew we needed it. We know we need it, and we know it makes a difference. I want to encourage you. You have friends and family that need a church. Their lives would be enriched if you invited them, and they won't come because of a billboard. That might get them thinking about it. They won't come because of a TV spot, but they might come because you called and said, hey, you want to go to church with me this weekend? Or, you know, do you want to sit by me in church? Or, you know, I worship online, but, you know, you want to join me online, and you live in one city and I in another, but I really love this church. Would you like to join me? And you might be surprised how you would enrich somebody else's life and help them to find life in Christ's name. All right, so the church is a family, a community, it's a congregation. It's a congregation that represents Jesus, represents Jesus, is Jesus' body in the world. And there are so many ways in which we have a chance to be the body of Christ, the presence of Christ in the world around us. Jesus had a passion for reaching people who were disconnected from God. So when you read the Gospels, he is constantly looking for the marginalized. He's constantly looking for what were called the Amha'aretz, the people of the land, the people that others, you know, the religious people look down their nose at. He was constantly looking for them. He said in the Gospels that he came to seek and to save those who were lost. And his heart went out for people like that. And so when we started Church of the Resurrection 35 years ago, it really seized my 26-year-old, 25, 26-year-old heart. You know, like, we're the body of Christ. We have a chance to be Jesus in the world. Let's go do that. And he was always

29:22 looking for people who weren't connected. Let's find people. Let's not take people from other churches. Let's find people who are disconnected from church, who have somehow, for whatever reason, become alienated. Maybe they felt ostracized. Maybe they felt judged. Maybe they just were turned off. And let's find them, and let's show them what Jesus was really like. That became the vision for our congregation. I love what it says in Matthew's gospel. It just describes or summarizes what Jesus did. It says, then Jesus went about all the cities and villages. He didn't stay in his office. He went to where the people were, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news, good news of the kingdom of God, and curing every disease and every sickness. And this is the line I love. Matthew chapter 9, verse 36. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. He had compassion on people who were separated from the synagogue, who were not involved in the faith community. He had compassion on them and he longed for them to come back to God. So, you know, those people that Jesus hung out with, they were non-religious and nominally religious people. And almost all the gospel stories are focused on, how he cared for the sinners and the tax collectors and the broken and all of these people, he was constantly seeking and trying to help them see the love of God. In Luke 15, 10, a verse that we've asked many of our members to memorize, we find that Jesus on his way to be crucified is eating with Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector. And the religious people are upset that he's eating with somebody like Zacchaeus. And Jesus comes up to them, he says, you don't get it, do you? And then he says, it's the son of man, which is what he called himself, the son of man came to seek and to save those who are lost.

31:01 And that's why he came. There's a lot of lost sheep out there. We've been them. You've been a lost sheep. Maybe you are right now and you just happen to tune in today. But he cares for you. And he wants his church to be people, to be a community that cares for the lost sheep. That's been our driving passion for nearly 35 years. So at Resurrection, we have a purpose statement. It shows up at every one of our buildings. I'll show you the picture of it from our Leawood location just outside of the sanctuary. It says, our purpose is to build a Christian community. Why don't you say this with me if you would? Our purpose is to build a Christian community where non-religious and nominally religious people, the people Jesus looked for, are becoming deeply committed Christians. I spoke with somebody recently who said, this church has saved my life. I came here pretty broken and lost, and I found God and healing and love in this place. You know, there are 24,000 people in the last 35 years, 24,000, that's a conservative estimate.

31:55 24,000 people. who came back to Jesus through a church of the resurrection or met him for the very first time. These aren't people who transfer from another church who are actively involved. These are people who are not actively involved in church. 24,000, and I can say this with pretty good confidence, there's not another Methodist church in the history of Methodism for the last 300 years that's seen 24,000 people come to faith in Christ through the ministry of that church. You know, that's just staggering, I think. But that's who we are, and that's what matters to us. Can I share a few more statistics celebrating our 35th anniversary? So 24,000 people who came to faith or returned to faith in Christ. There were 10,373 baptisms here at Church of the Resurrection in the last 35 years. You gave 6,300 third graders their first Bible. You gave 5,000, or you confirmed 5,836 teenagers who professed their faith in Jesus Christ as they began their teenage years.

32:51 And that's just a small sampling of the impact you've had on people's lives, helping people come to faith in Christ. I want to mention just a couple of other things too. These are just kind of fun facts. We've had 1,706 weddings in the history of our church and 1,787 funerals since we started 35 years ago. All right, part of our dream as a church was to not only reach people and help people's lives be changed by the power of Christ, part of our vision, but part of our vision was also to help strengthen other churches. So most churches are, you know, understandably pretty much focused on what are we going to do for us? But when we started the church, you know, part of what I felt God calling us to do is anything we learn, anything that, you know, that works, we're going to give it away to other churches. How can we give it away and encourage other congregations? Now, this week, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday was our 27th annual Leadership Institute. And we host pastors and lay people from across the country come to resurrection just to have a chance to learn, to grow, to, you know, we give away everything we've learned. We have amazing speakers. Here's some photos of it.

33:54 So you have a chance to see what was happening at Leadership Institute this week. We had 1,600 pastors and church leaders who joined us for this, and it was exciting. There's another picture there of one of the, this is actually lunch, I think, during one of the time slots. We had people in workshops and classes all around the building, and it was awesome. I had people walking away, leaving, just saying, I have been renewed. I came here empty or drained, and I'm walking out excited. I can't wait to get back to my local church. And, you know, it was exciting. as people were leaving, I saw there was two buses of people that came from Wisconsin. I think it was, yeah, it was Wisconsin. And I saw them as their buses were pulling away and I ran after them and I got on each of their buses. I said, stop, stop. And I got on their buses and I just said, I want to take a picture of you. Two busloads of pastors and lay leaders from Wisconsin who drove all the way here by bus just to be a part of your leadership institute. I was like, you know, it was just, it was so cool. 44 states represented this last week. I wish you could hear all the stories, but I do want you to know this. So over the last 35 years as a congregation, both what we've done here and what we've done in our staff going out to train in other places, we've trained over 60,000 different leaders, 60,000 unique individuals, pastors and church leaders that we have trained and given away our resources to. We have 25,000 churches that have used one or more of our resources from resurrection in their local church settings. So 60,000 leaders, 25,000 churches, and that's conservative. I'm sure there's many more that have used resources from resurrection.

35:22 This is the impact that you have had, Church of the Resurrection, on the world and on the church. And not all of those are United Methodist. Finally, I want to mention that in addition to helping people come to faith and strengthening other churches, our driving passion has been to transform the world. Just in whatever small ways we could do that, but we wanted to be a part of helping the world look more like the kingdom of God. And we recognize Jesus in his ministry, he was feeding people, he was healing people, he was casting out demons, he was dealing with mental illness, he was calling his people to care for the prisoners and to welcome the strangers. All of this was part of what Jesus talked about, proclaiming good news to the poor and actually living good news for the poor. And so this is part of what we have been about at Resurrection as well. And so I wanna share with you just a few facts that you might find interesting. and these are conservative estimates. We went back through 35 years and tried to add up everything we could find to come up with these estimates for you.

36:16 So I want you to know, in that period of time, we've given away 64,600 pints of blood. I mean, this is something you've actually literally given, 64,608 pints of blood. You've given over 10 million pounds of food in the Kansas City area. 794,000 backpacks for hunger for kids who are going to school and they don't have enough to eat on the weekends. They have the free and reduced breakfast and lunch on the weekends, on the weekends they don't have that, you've given 794,000 backpacks for hunger. 487,390 books that you have given to children in the Kansas City area who couldn't have afforded to go out and buy their own book at the book fair. And so you deliver them by means of our bookmobile. 30,000 children in the Kansas City area, 30,000 unique children in the Kansas City area that you have served, cared for, blessed, ministered to, tutored in their schools. You've provided food, you've provided school supplies, Christmas gifts, and so much more in the Kansas City area. I mean, I just want you to take that in for a minute. Because there's not, I don't know of another church that's having this kind of impact that you're having. And I don't say that pridefully, I just mean, God has done something through you. And you were willing to say, yes, here I am, Lord, use me internationally. And I'm only sharing a few things, I just didn't have time to pull all the data together. But you have provided 215 freshwater wells to communities in Africa who didn't have clean drinking water. 215 towns and villages who now have clean drinking water because of what you've done. You provided solar lights in communities where they had no light, only candle light or oil lamps. You provided 4,730 homes with solar lamps. I mean, it's amazing to see these communities that were completely dark, these little villages with 50 or 100 people in them, and now they have light for their families. Those homes have an average of, I think they're like five or six people. There's 20,000 plus people who now have light in their homes because of what you've done. You've built orphanages, medical clinics, preschools. There are 25,000 minimum, 25,000 people, children in these developing countries that you have ministered to.

38:20 I can't imagine the ripple effect of everything that you've done. All right, I want to end with this. Last weekend, I officiated at my youngest daughter's wedding. She's 35. She was born two weeks before I was assigned to start Church of the Resurrection. And so I've always sort of tracked time with Rebecca. And it was such a joyful moment to be able to officiate, to walk her down the aisle and officiate the wedding. Here's a few pictures. So this is LaVon and I giving our daughter a kiss before the wedding. We walked her down the aisle and here they are after they had gotten married or as their vows were being said and had a chance to pronounce them husband and wife. Now, when I first saw my daughter, there was a van, a limo van that had brought all the bridesmaids to the wedding. And the door opened up and I had not seen her dress yet.

39:14 And I saw her and I started crying. And I could not stop. There were like multiple moments, you know, where I'd find myself in tears again. And somebody asked me, well, why were you tearful? Why were you in tears? and I said because I am just so proud of her. I love her so much and I am so proud of the woman that she is and what's happened in her life and I'm so excited about what the future holds. I mean, she's 35 years old but all of her best years are ahead of her and I want you to know in the New Testament the church is also called not only the family of God but the bride of Christ and I think he looks at you at least if my heart is any indication, I look at you And there are times I cry. And I think, I love you so much. And I am so proud of you as a church. And I think that's how Christ looks at you. So proud of you.

40:07 And I also know this, at 35, all of your best years are way ahead of you. Church of the Resurrection, happy 35th anniversary. And I can't wait to see what God has in store for you in the years ahead. Would you pray with me? God, we thank you for church, for our church. We thank you for calling us and inviting us to be your people. We thank you for what you've done with this tiny little church that started 35 years ago as a dream with just a handful of people. And all of those people who were pioneers and who gave themselves to build this place, to build this community, to care for one another. Thank you for all that's happened at all of our locations, all nine of our Kansas City locations, and now in Mason. God, thank you for all of this. and we pray that you would help us to be the church you want us to be. We are yours.

41:00 Help us to be the church you want us to be. Use us, we pray, for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray.