Great Adventure invites all families of 1st-5th graders to our Family Fun Festival on May 4th after the 9:00 service or after the 11:00 service in the gym. Come and enjoy a snack, fellowship and highlights of the year!

Fusion, Heartland's ministry to single adults, will next meet on Sunday evening May 4th.

Fusion meets at Paddy O'Quigley's at 6:00 pm. Click here for a map with directions. For more information on this and other great activities click here.

Click here to contact Harold Eastman, Fusion Director. Click here for more detailed 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. Click here to view the recently updated web page with registration forms!

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.

Imagine Yourself in Medical Missions! Physicians, Nurses, Dentists, Therapists, Residents, Pharmacists, Public Health Specialists and all Health Profession Students, have you ever dreamed of volunteering in a needy nation? Envisioned saving a child who had no other hope? Stop dreaming and learn more at the Exploring Medical Missions Conference at UMKC on May 30-31. Click here to see detailed conference information or contact INMED at (816) 835-1899. Click here to email Skylar Rolf.

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 tomorrow, 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 to bring work gloves, warm clothes and your own water bottle.

We will meet at 12175 Strangline and begin promptly at 9AM with a safety briefing. Click here to email Ryan Heckman if you plan to attend.

In addition, for all interested, Mary Beth McGrew is organizing a prayer walk around and through the Rhodes facility in conjunction with the Work Day. God is at work and this is a great opportunity to humble ourselves before Him and seek to honor, praise and thank Him for all He is doing now and in the future at Heartland and throughout the world. Click here to email Mary Beth.

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.

There are many, many opportunities for serving at Heartland Community Church. We are currently looking for volunteers for:

children's ministry
tech
stage management
series design team
parking lot team
shuttle drivers
connect ministry and many more.

Click here for the entire list.

Heartland's Ministry Fund (Operating) Budget is 2.5 Million for the 2008 Fiscal Year (Jan. - Dec. 2008). The church has traditionally received 23% of ministry fund contributions in the first quarter. The projected revenue would then be $575,000 for the first quarter of this year's budget.

Heartland's go. Campaign (Capital) Account has received $4,292,916 to date from 773 pledges totalling $9,249,336.

Thank you to all who have contributed to the Ministry Fund and the go. Campaign!

Yes. We absolutely run that risk.

Should we, then, just try and remain a neighborhood church? Which I must add isn’t even accurate. In actuality, we are a regional church stuck in a neighborhood. But the idea of a neighborhood church feels, in the least, a lot more cozy. At best, it may even feel more spiritual.

So should we stay out of the commercial area? No. Absolutely not. To vacate this area of our community would be, in my opinion, to fly against the very methodology of the early church.

When Jesus told us to go into all the earth, the implication was that we would go to where the people are and not to where they are not. That was the genius of the early church - they took the story of Jesus and went two primary places: the synagogue and the market place. The synagogue was the religious, civic, and community center of the Jews. You might say it was where they went for their quiet time, their pray168, to pay their taxes, to make their case in court, and to drop off their kids for Summer Bible Camp.

The disciples also went to the marketplace because, again, that’s where the Gentiles (non-Jews) were and where the conversation of their culture was held. In the book of Acts, Paul was in Athens observing all of their idol worship. Unable to restrain himself, Paul did not go house to house. He did not call neighborhood association meetings. Luke writes, “So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well in the market place day by day with those who happened to be there.” (Acts 17:17, emphases mine).

His courage and persistence ultimately led to an invitation for him to articulate the claims of Jesus at the Areopagus, a forum where all the best conversations were held among the scholars, intellectuals and philosophers. This would be akin to if I went to Harvard Square every day until someone invited me to speak at Harvard Hall.

The sad truth is that more people are out shopping than they are at home. The conversations of our culture are not happening in the home, around the table. They take place in the 30 little mini amphitheatres just across our parking lot, every day. They take place at the shooting gallery just over the highway. And, yes, there are far more conversations over Buffalo wings and a beer than we’ll ever know. And I just think that Jesus would want us right there, in the fray, in the mix, putting ourselves at great, beautiful risk.

To put it plainly, our mission demands it. To “build a church for the unchurched” requires that we have to be right where the unchurched are. And can you think of a better place than Rhodes? Can you just imagine the new conversations we’ll have? Can you even fathom what an opportunity we’ll have to be like Jesus, whose greatest transaction was rendered in love?

Heartland Community Church
Overland Park, KS 66207
913.341.5820