HEMI stands for Heartland Extension Ministries. HEMI Week is April 6-13th, and this year will feature special guest, Rabbi Avi Mizrachi, from Israel. In addition to speaking at Heartland morning services on April 13th, Avi will be featured at a mini-conference that will focus on Connecting with Your Jewish Roots. Click here for more information.

1340 people attended this past weekends services. However, almost 800 of them attended at 11:00 which creates a challenge for us to provide spots and seats. Tthe parking team let us know that they had to turn away over fifty cars for the late service. folks.

Would you consider helping out by riding Heartland's shuttle? It's a great opportunity to serve the Unchurched and also a neat opportunity to meet people.

Consider renaming the shuttle the "Happy Fun Bus", as in "Hey kids, let's ride the "Happy Fun Bus!"

Did you know that Heartland now has a "Girl Band"? That's right, step back boys. This coming Monday, April 7th in the sanctuary at 6:00 PM we are debuting Women of Voice for our April Women At the Well series.

Please join us for an evening of appetizers, great conversation, and a concert of original and familiar music as we discover our voice in song. For those of us who call Heartland home, this is a great opportunity to invite other women for an evening of encouragement, good fun, and music. Childcare will be provided. Click here to contact Lori Roy for more information.

The Japanese word for crisis uses two characters, one that means “danger” and the other “opportunity”. Grant Wood, a local counselor specializing in adolescence, will help us better understand, prevent and walk through the dangers of adolescence and see them for opportunities for growth for both the teenager and their parent. Click here to register with Youth Director Scott McDonald.

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Begin planning for family fun in the Ozarks at Tan-Tar-A Resort this summer! The Ozark Family Adventure (OFA) is family vacation experience to help families move closer together and closer to God.

Week #1 July 21-24; Week #2 July 28-31

OFA is offering a pre-payment plan for those who would like to spread their payment out over several months. Click here to contact Missy or call 913.341.5820 x102 or for more information.

We are finally ready to "break ground" on our new facility and you have an opportunity to be a part of it. Because our South Campus is a remodel of an existing structure there is a fair amount of demolition to be done before construction begins. Many of the finishes currently in the building can be recycled, resold or reused. Our construction company, A.L. Huber and I are working together to organize a volunteer workday on Saturday April 19th from 9AM to Noon. The specific tasks will probably include pulling and rolling up carpet to be recycled and removing ceiling tiles to be recycled or reused. You may want work gloves and warm clothes as the building is cool. We will meet at 12175 Strangline and begin promptly at 9AM. Click here to email Ryan Heckman if you plan to attend.

Take this go opportunity to provide clothing for homeless men served by the Reaching Out ministry. Clean out your closets and donate new or used shirts, t-shirts, jeans, shoes, and socks. Spring/summer clothes are especially needed. If you do not have used clothes to give, we really need new socks and underwear. Clothing donations will be collected on April 20th in the circle drive on the west side of the church and at the Broadmoor Technical Center satellite lot before and after the Sunday morning services. Donations are tax deductible and a donation form will be provided. Click here to email Ryan Fagan for more information.

This is included to let you all know about the faith and science dialogue that will take place in the coming weeks.

Ben Stein's movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed opens in two weeks. The documentary explores why teachers in universities are being fired or not having their contract reviewed for even mentioning God or Intelligent Design. He builds a strong case and takes on some of the leading neo Darwinists of today such as Richard Dawkins (writer of The God Delusion). Learn more about the movie by clicking here. (Click here to watch Ben Stein as the teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Voted one of the 50th funniest scenes of all time).

Click here to read from the Christianity Today website.

I am engaged to a beautiful girl that I'm sure you'll recognize from our very own Heartland hallways. Her name is Anna, and we got engaged on Wednesday night. (Yep, I skipped New Community!)

Here are some photos we took after I popped the question.

Your prayers and thoughts are coveted.
I love you all, and will see you soon.

Shibu

Elise: "Do you carry any PVC in a quarter inch?"
Employee : (who turns to me) "We carry only copper."

I nod knowingly, as if she always does my bidding.

Elise: "But wouldn't we need to sweat that to make it fit?"
Employee : (again, he turns to me) "You could, but you'd need some flux."

Nervous - I glance away, feigning a bored look that said, "Must we explain everything to her?"

Employee : (still looking at me) "How much do you need?"
Dan : "220, 221.." I sniff. "Whatever it takes."

Michael Keaton (in "Mr. Mom") is a personal hero of mine.

So last night, Burt, another friend named Chris, and I worked on the swing set. I felt like such an idiot. These guys worked fast. The way they whipped out the tape measure and cut and mounted and drove the screws into that wood with such authority was astounding.

And they could talk while they did it - in fact, they could even read each other's minds (e.g. "Burt, hand me that... deal.” And Burt would hand Chris a square - or a drill - or a saw - whatever "deal" happened to mean at that particular moment.) Good thing they couldn't read my mind. Because it was filled with thoughts like "Lefty loosey..." and "Who is Phillips?"

This isn't the only time I've felt like an idiot. It, of course, even happens to me at church - like the time I was attending New Community and Tom asked us to open our Bibles to the book of Jonah. Well I had forgotten my Bible so I had to borrow the paperback version from the stack in the back. And, in that version, Jonah (I later learned) fit all on one page. ONE PAGE out of 1341 some-odd pages. And that page happened to be stuck to another page. So I flipped back and forth, back and forth, back and forth... and I - for the life of me - could not find bloody Jonah and the whale and those crazy Ninevites.

Before I knew it, the general ruffling sound of a congregation collectively finding a passage had long passed and I was still flipping. And do you know how loud it sounds when you're the only flipper left? Well it's loud enough for people to notice that you're the last man flipping. Which people did, I'm certain of it. I could feel hundreds of eyes searing into me. I could sense their confusion and I felt their pity. It didn't help matters that my dear sweet wife poked me in the side and whispered, "How's it going... Senior Pastor?"

So I began to act like I DIDN'T want to find Jonah. As if Jonah were child's play and I was far more interested in, say, Obadiah - the one book that I could find. Ultimately, I had to break down and use the table of contents - a very helpful resource, I might add.

It's moments like these when I'm reminded, "Oh, so this is why people don't like church!" Because when they do come, they're inadvertently made to feel like idiots. Church idiots.

Fewer and fewer today people "get" our church lingo, our liturgies, nor do they know the secret handshake. According to Stephen Prothero, chair of Boston University's Dept. of Religion, "Half of Americans can't name any of the four Gospels, and that includes the Christians, and half don't know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible."In ever increasing amounts, the majority of people in our country did not grow up in the church and they did not win their Sunday School "Sword Fight" contests. In fact, in just the last 3 years the number of "unchurched" people has grown from 17% to 22% across the country. That's now one in five. Interestingly though, spiritual hunger remains at an all time high - an opportunity to which Jesus would smile, I think, and say: "the harvest is plentiful."

But here's the absolute tragedy: when they finally do brave the doors of a church - we pass out the dunce caps. They just sit there. They read their bulletin for the eighth time just to look busy. They meticulously follow the order of service - wondering if it will ever end. And, when the Bibles are opened, they lower their heads, fidget, and think "lefty loosey..." and "who is Jonah?"

God has commissioned Heartland (and I would argue, every church) to be a church that is for them. All 800,000 of them in our city. All 400 or so that entrust us with an hour of their time every Sunday. We are called to take the transforming truth of Jesus and translate it in such a way that makes sense, if not change in their minds, hearts, and lives.

So, thank God - literally - for such things as projectors and screens. Thank Him for a software called PowerPoint or Keynote that allows us to take the inerrant word of God - which is "...God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousne..."(2 Peter 3:16) - and illuminate it on a wall so that NO ONE misses it!!! So that no one feels like an idiot.

Now, of course, we ultimately hope that they'll pick up their own Bible and that they will learn how to find Jonah and, most importantly, encounter a living God. But, to start, we have to continually find new ways to share timeless the truths of Jesus. We have to find new ways to become better hosts and give our guests what they deserve: dignity.

Because no one wants to feel like an idiot and no one comes back when they do.

www.npr.org, "Understanding the Gospel According to Huckabee."
LifeWay Research; USA Today: "Faith found Outside Church"

Heartland Community Church
Overland Park, KS 66207
913.341.5820