Vol 1, Issue 6 |
May 16, 2008 |
| Infant Baptism and Dedication | |||||||||
The baby boom at Heartland Community Church continues! Forty-two children were dedicated or baptized this past weekend during ceremonies at 10:30, 11:30 and 12:30 pm. Click here to see photos from the ceremonies. The next infant baptism and dedication will be held on November 9th. The all church baptism celebration for adult baptism will be held Sunday, August 24th. |
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ........................................................................................................................................................ | |||||||||
| What If The Church...? | |||||||||
The following is an article from Tim Overby, Discipleship Pastor, of Westside Family Church: We live in a world full of mission and vision statements – used by organizations and churches of all kinds to distinguish themselves and their product from their competitors. However, the early church used creeds or statements of beliefs to distinguish themselves from the rest of the world’s religions and worship practices. These creeds were foundational to the life of the early church as it provided the Biblical and theological backbone of their existence. One such creed was called the Apostle’s Creed dated back to about the third century. In addition to definitive statements as to the nature and work of Jesus Christ and the salvation found in Him, it also made an astounding statement about the church. The Apostles’ Creed described the community of Christ-followers as the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. |
 |
||||||||
The church was to be one, unified body as Jesus intended and modeled through His relationship to the Father (John 17). The church was to be holy – set apart, sanctified by the blood of Christ to be His people dwelling in His eternal presence (1 Pet. 2:9). The church was to understand itself as a collection of local assemblies making up a much larger “universal” (the simple meaning of catholic) church. And, the church was to follow after the example and teachings set before by the apostles – the special emissaries of Christ that established His presence in the world through the body of believers (Acts 2:42). As a whole, this is scarcely the way the church looks today. Divisions abound in the church threatening its unity. Morality and worldview in the church is remarkably similar to that of the world, demonstrating that we are not set apart as living under God’s lordship. Many churches are so focused on building their own numbers that they forget they are apart of a much larger, universal church that God is at work in throughout the globe. And worse of all, some churches have even left their apostolic roots, allowing messages that compete and contradict Jesus as the one and only true way to relationship with God. So, how do we respond? During the months of May and June, Westside Family Church will be attempting to recover the unified, holy, universal, and apostolic nature intended for the church as we come alongside two other Christ-centered, Kansas City area churches – Heartland Community Church and Cedar Ridge Christian Church. During our three week series titled, “What if the Church...?”, WFC will be joining with these other congregations to worship together, learn together, pray together, and serve together in hopes that the community will take notice - not at us - but at the one that binds us together... Jesus! Watch for more details and don’t miss this chance to demonstrate that you are part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. |
|||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ........................................................................................................................................................ | |||||||||
| Children's Ministry Year End Celebration | |||||||||
Join us for the Children's Ministry Year End Celebration June 1st on the big playground at 10:00. All children's ministry volunteers and families are invited. Please bring your children to the 9:00am service that day. There will be no Great Adventure that day and scaled back baby-sitting for Great Beginnings so all volunteers can attend the pancake breakfast. Parents: On June 1st you will have a chance to say a big "thank you" to the wonderful volunteers who helped your kids fall in love with Jesus this years by bringing them to the 9:00 am service. We are celebrating all volunteers at the breakfast that morning at 10:00 am.
|
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| Homebuilders' Picnic | |||||||||
On behalf of Heartland Homebuilder’s we will be having a picnic on Sunday, June 1 from 12:00 - 3:00. Location is at Harmon Park – located within blocks of the church at 77th and Delmar. Click here for a map. Click here to email Christy Randa of Heartland Homebuilders. |
|||||||||
| ........................................................................................................................................................ | |||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| Fusion next meeting May 18th | |||||||||
Fusion, Heartland's ministry to single adults, will next meet on Sunday evening May 18th. 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. |
|||||||||
| ........................................................................................................................................................ | |||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| Leadership Training Project (LTP) begins May 18th | |||||||||
Our Leadership Training Project begins Sunday May 18th and ends August 4th. We are SO excited about this summer and our 16 interns! We are praying for all the things the Lord wants to do in them while they are at Heartland. Here are a few opportunities to serve the interns:
|
 |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
| ........................................................................................................................................................ | |||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| Summer Bible Camp | |||||||||
It's time to sign up your kids for the best week of Children's Ministry of the whole year! We want two hundred kids from four-years-old to those kids who have completed fifth grade to come the Heartland June 23-26th from 9:30 to noon to have a blast and learn to fall in love with Jesus. Registration forms available on the web site or the information booth at Heartland. Click here for more information and to download the registration forms. Register now, there will be no walk up registration available the week of camp. We will need 100 volunteers to create the best week of Children's ministry. Click here if you're interested in volunteering. |
 |
||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Ozark Family Adventure - check out new webpage | |||||||||
| 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. |
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Men's Journey Summer Break | |||||||||
It’s time for the large group Men’s Journey gathering summer hiatus so we will not be meeting in the Auditorium over the summer. We will resume on Friday, September 19. Most Men's Journey small groups meet at various places around the area throughout the summer. For information about connecting to one of these small groups click here to email Dave Swob or call (913) 205-5851. |
|||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Financial Update | |||||||||
Where does the Budget expense item come from? Based on historically accurate trends, the church traditionally receives 35% of its budget by week 19 (May 11th this year). Simply put, we're $115,791 below meeting our budget at this point in the year. Your contributions matter. Thanks for supporting the work of Heartland Community Church. If you would like more information about giving click here to contact Patty Johnson. Heartland's Ministry Fund (Operating) Budget is 2.5 Million for the 2008 Fiscal Year (Jan. - Dec. 2008). Thank you to all who have contributed to the Ministry Fund and the go. Campaign! |
|||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| go. Campaign Update | |||||||||
| As of May 11th, the church has received $4,429,395 of $9,249,336 pledged toward the capital campaign. Worship services have started at Mission Adelante in Kansas City, KS which was a portion of the go. Campaign that went to "multiplication". Click here to read more about Mission Adelante. The initial drawings of the new church building are in the final stages. Another work day will be scheduled soon to recycle ceiling tiles and light fixtures. We expect to 'break ground' on the remodel of the new facility in August of 2008 with the hope of moving in late 2009. |
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Volunteer Opportunities - We Need You! | |||||||||
There are many, many opportunities for serving at Heartland Community Church. We are currently looking for volunteers for (italicized means 'urgent'): children's ministry volunteers** **Urgent Needs for Great Beginnings: Great Beginnings is blessed with lots of children. We need lots of adults to provide a safe and happy place for kids. We would like to create a list of people who are willing to be "on-call" to fill on Sunday morning in any room that may be short-handed due to a last minute cancellation. If you are willing to be on our on-call team, click here to email Jennifer Giuseffi or call 341.5820 x 320 Click here for the entire list. |
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Costa Rica Mission Trip | |||||||||
Recently, nine people ventured into a mountainous region of Costa Rica, spreading the seed of the gospel as they went. Their main objectives were to encourage and support our brothers Tali and Mauricio in their personal lives and ministry to the Guaymi people, construct a schoolroom in the Guaymi style, and build relationships with the Guaymi men, women and children. Click here to see photos from the trip. Click here to learn more about HEMI - Heartland Extension Ministry Initiative. Here is Heartlander Kirk Kaiser's story of his experience: Both Quinton and I had arrived two days early to secure supplies for the upcoming project, to build a one-room schoolhouse so that the kindergarten age children did not have to sit in the cook house all day competing with smoke to begin learning. We met with Stefan at the airport, a Heartlander who now lives in Costa Rica who would join our group and also act as interpreter. Read more...
|
 |
||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Job Opportunity | |||||||||
| The front office at Heartland is currently looking for a person to work approx. 20 hours a week on a several month project. We are looking for a detail-minded person who has experience with database administration. The goal of the project is to prepare for a transition to a web-based system by getting our current information updated and ready for migration. Click here to email Patty Johnson if interested or call (913) 341-5820 ext. 103. | |||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ....................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
| Heartland Christian Academy | |||||||||
| Heartland's homeschool program, Heartland Christian Academy, is currently enrolling for the 2008-09 school year. If you are homeschooling or thinking about homeschooling, we would love to talk to you and let you know what Heartland Christian Academy has to offer. HCA is a one-day-per-week supplement program for homeschool students in K-6th grades. Classes meet on either a Tues. or a Thurs. at Heartland. Heartland families have priority in enrollment until March 25th. After that date, we open enrollment, but you can enroll any time we have openings. Click here to see the HCA website with FAQs, Registration Information and Forms. Click here to email HCA or (913) 341-5820 ext. 812. | |||||||||
| return to top | |||||||||
| ...................................................................................................................................................... | |||||||||
This e-mail has been sent to you from Heartland Community Church. Click here to read past newsletters. Would you like to see past newsletters? Click here to see the archives. Heartland Community Church |
|||||||||
The three of us then made the five hour drive and met up with Tali, the local Costa Rican pastor who has taken it upon himself to minister to the Guaymi people. The four of us were then able to secure our supplies the first day. As we had another day, Tali suggested we take the two hour hike (each way) to Cecilia's house to deliver her some food and also minister to a few other families. Tali has "adopted" Cecilia, a roughly 90-year-old village grandmother who was just evicted from her one room "house" by her son who is now staying with aunt who is even older and on her own! One of the families we went to minister to was a family with a middle-aged mother, two daughters and roughly ten kids who were at home. After a couple of minutes Tali asks us if we want to preach anything from the Bible. |
 |
||||||||
We chose a couple of verses in the Bible that spoke about Jesus sending his disciples out into the world to serve and pass along the good news. All of this was spoken in English by us, translated to Spanish and then to Guaymi. |
|||||||||
It was at this point that something really interesting happened. In response to what we were talking about, the woman to whom we were ministering stated that she knew who we were. She said that she knew our group had now come there four times. We had never asked for anything. Last year we even donated the funds to build a bridge. She used to be the cook in the schoolhouse for the kids. To do this she would have to cross the river. There were many days when the rain would come and she would often have to wait, sometimes overnight, until the river went down so that she could cross and come back home. Also her children would have to do the same, and sometimes could not even go to school because of this. She thanked us for the bridge and said it was because of this she was willing to listen about Jesus Christ. It was the fact that Heartland has coming there for multiple years, never asking for anything, and giving of our time and resources that God has blessed us with, that has helped to open this opportunity for Tali to minister to this woman and her family. This was an eye opening moment for me is so many ways -- from seeing the fruit of past Heartlander's efforts and wondering the they knew or could fathom what is taking place now all of the way to what the Lord is doing with Tali in this remote corner of Costa Rica and ending with how blessed we were to be there experiencing this and hopefully the Lord will use us to bear more fruit. This was just the beginning of the trip also -- so many more wonderful things that I had no idea were to come! While progress is happening among the Guaymi, much prayer is still needed for the unity of the Guaymi people, protection of Tali's family (physical, spiritual, emotional), and for the gospel to take root in their community. |
|||||||||