The final weekend of the "What If the Church..." series culminated with a Serve Day last Saturday, June 7th in both KCK and KCMO. Here's what Brian Wright, Pastor of Cedar Ridge had to say:

We had our bumps, but not so many when you consider...

• 900 Volunteers
• 5 Sites
• 4 Urban Ministries (five if you count Chuck’s back yard)
• 3 Churches from the suburbs (WFC, HCC, CRCC)
• 2 Churches from the city (Servant Community Church and Mission Adelante)
• 1 Great Big Serve the World day!
• 0 Fatalities

Click here to read more...

Fusion Sunday Night, Sunday June 22nd @ 6:00pm -- @ Our New Location Kansas City Public House (12030 Blue Valley Pkwy in Overland Park). Click here for a map. This is the last chance to sign up for the Smoky Mountains trip (August 1st - 5th) and get the discount rate of $127 (gas and meals while on the way are additional). Click here to more information. Click here to learn more about Fusion.

Stay informed by checking out the websites for Heartland's High School and Middle School Ministry.

Click here for High School. Click here for Middle School. Learn more about great events and meetings for the summer.

High School: We have our summer college interns here and they are ready to hang out! We are going to be hanging out every Thursday night for the next two months. The next one will be next Thursday, June 19th from 7 - 9pm. The location and what we'll be doing will be announced on Sundays during our High School Time and here on the web.

Middle School: REVO is our Thursday night community time this summer.  Come join us Thursday June 18th for a night at the T-Bones game. Bring $10 for ticket and concessions if you like. Depart Heartland at 6 pm, arrive back at HCC at 10ish Questions?  Call Travis at 913.999.4073

Fusion, Heartland's ministry to single adults, is planning an adventure to the Smoky Mountains August 1st - 5th!

One day will be spent rafting, one day will be spent hiking in The Great Smokies National park, and you will have one free day to explore the area or just hang out in the lodge!

The cost is $147, but if you sign up prior to June 22 the cost is only $127. (The final deadline is July 13th) The cost covers lodging, food and whitewater rafting. Meals and fuel on the road are extra.

We will be staying in a lodge with full amenities in Sevierville, TN. This trip is limited to the first 22 to sign up so don't delay. For more information on this and other great activities click here. Click here to contact Harold Eastman, Fusion Director.

The High School group is going on a Mission Trip to Lakeshore Baptist Church in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi on July 19th-25th. The cost is $300. Parents are welcome to come with their high school student.

Click here to email Caley Bowen, High School Director, for more details. Click here for more details on High School Ministry.

If you thought you missed this weekend of outdoor adventure and fun originally scheduled for May 16, you have a second chance. The event, including canoeing, a ropes and zip line course, and cave exploring has been rescheduled. Deadline to sign up is June 20th.

When: Fri. June 27, 6:30pm - Sun. June 29, 1:00pm

What: Canoeing, Ropes Course, Cave Spelunking

Where: Camp Windermere, Camdenton, MO

Click here for more details and to register.

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.

Begin planning for family fun in the Ozarks at Tan-Tar-A Resort this summer! The Ozark Family Adventure (OFA) July 28-31 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!

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.

Children's Ministry Awards were given out at the Celebration Breakfast on June 1st. Here are the recipients - let's thank them for their faithfulness and service!

At their recent graduation, WATS (West Africa Theological Seminary) broke ground for a four-story Africa Center for Urban and Holistic Ministries and their new chapel. The building of the chapel is expected to begin within the next month, and work on the Africa Center will hopefully begin in September! Pictured to the right is Eric Rochester, Hemi Director, at the groundbreaking. HEMI is Heartland Extension Ministries Initiative.

A percentage of the funds given to the go. Campaign helped to fund the center. Click here to see more photos of the graduation.

Our Leadership Training Project has begun!  On Sunday May 18th, 13 interns and 4 directors landed at Heartland.

Two ways you can continue to help:

1.  YES Day sponsorship- Each of our interns have to raise $1000 for YES Day.  (YES Day is an 8 hour work day dedicated to service out in our community held on July 12th and it helps raise money for the 2009 interns).  You will see the interns around with their orange YES day packets and they may even ask YOU to sponsor them!

2.  Corporate sponsorship of LTP/YES Day:  If you are a business owner or your business has the capability of making financial donations, and would like to contribute to LTP in this way- Click here to contact Scott McDonald or click here to contact Glenn Kahler for further information.

Where does the Budget expense item come from? Based on historically accurate trends, the church traditionally receives 41% of its budget by week 23 (June 9th this year). Simply put, we're $124,374 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). Heartland is accredited by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Click here to view their website and the standards under which we operate.

Thank you all very much for contributing to the Ministry Fund and the go. Campaign! Your support helps make lives change so that more will come to know Christ. Thanks to you it's possible.

So read the headline that was featured in the Olathe Neighborhood News of the Kansas City Star last Saturday, June 7th.

The article begins with "An Overland Park church is moving to Olathe and plans to occupy an unusual space — a vacant big-box furniture store. The old space at 12175 S. Strang Line Road has sat vacant for nearly four years..." Click here to read the entire article.

The church will be featured in the Faith section of the Olathe Daily News tomorrow.

There are many, many opportunities for serving at Heartland Community Church. We are currently looking for volunteers for (italicized means 'urgent'):

Bookstore - cafe hosts
Bookstore - front desk
children's ministry volunteers**
Red Hot Summer Hosts
tech - for Sunday and Great Adventure
stage management
series design team
parking lot team
shuttle drivers
small group leaders
summer bible camp group leaders
1:1 spiritual mentors and many more.

Click here for the entire list.

**Urgent Needs for Shuttle Drivers. 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

This e-mail has been sent to you from Heartland Community Church. Click here to read past newsletters.

Please let us know if your email address or contact information has changed. If you were forwarded this and would like to subscribe click here and put 'subscribe' in the subject line. If you would like to unsubscribe to this list click here and put 'unsubscribe' in the subject line and you will be removed from our mailing list.

Would you like to see past newsletters? Click here to see the archives.

Heartland Community Church
Overland Park, KS 66207
913.341.5820

Heartland is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

From Jarrett Meek (Executive Director, Mission Adelante, Inc.)...

Dear Leaders, I was dazed and amazed most of the day on Saturday as I saw hoards of people, materials, and equipment converge on our site, work together in an amazingly efficient manner, and accomplish some very significant projects at Mission Adelante. Our little congregation was impressed and thankful last night as we gathered in the building for our worship celebration. Your service blessed us tremendously in some obvious and tangible ways, but maybe more importantly, you also set an amazing example for our young congregation of mostly new immigrant believers who still have a hard time grasping why American believers would go out of their way to serve them. THANK YOU!

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From Chuck Allen (Pastor, Servant Comm Church & Exec Director, The Urban Scholastic Center)...

I can’t wait to see what ministry passions are birthed in the individuals in your respective churches, all because you have encouraged people to embrace the idea of living a missional life! Thank you for bringing the Church together!

Click here to email Chuck if you're interested in finding out more about the Urban Scholastic Center.

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From Brian Wright (Pastor at Cedar Ridge)...

I got to sneak through all five sites – Mission Adelante, The Urban Scholastic Center, Pastor Chuck's house (aka the community basketball court), Rachel's Tea House, and The Hope Center. They were all cooking with natural gas. Stuff was getting done in big and little ways. Team leaders were terrific and the teams of servants were just getting 'r done.

Tammy Jehle stopped me at Hope Center and Said "This was great." Carolyn from Rachel’s Tea House said "We had no idea." Jarrett from Mission Adelante complimented "We got so much important stuff done today." Chuck from USC encouraged "You showed us what serving is." Gracious compliments from humble leaders. Thanks for being used by God to serve our world.

Jesus answered the man who asked him “And who is my neighbor?” With a story Jesus essentially said “Your neighbor is the one in your path in need.” Thanks for changing your route to put new neighbors in your path.

P.S. fun stories: Last night I walk out of our elders meeting at 10p and these 6 people are hanging in the coffee shop just chillin' and doing some bible study. Guess where they are from? Westside - They just decided to do their group thing at our coffeehouse instead of wherever they normally plunk down. And then we called the pediatrician about Abby's tonsils and the nurse/reception lady is from Westside. We had a new couple at church last week that hasn’t been in church in awhile - we asked how they found us-they said that a sister or brother that goes to heartland and recommended us because they live in our neighborhood. There was a couple (Cindy Lemmon) that used to be here at CRCC, that we totally lost track of - they landed at Heartland and love it-they said hi when I was there. On the front row of Westside at 8:30 was a couple that used to be in our small group - Todd Weltmer - they found a home at WFC. James (our family pastor) is planning to get together with Scott from HCC and talk family stuff. Our extend team wants to promote a few of your (WFC and HCC) mission trips for 09. Chuck Allen is planning on talking to HCC about LTP (interns) doing something with USC. Our Men’s ministry team leader is dreaming about a men’s event in conjunction with all three churches on super Bowl Saturday-maybe John and Brody Croyle speakers...And the “what if’s” just keep rollin'... 1 Church.