Address: 2100 Highway 150
Floyds Knobs, Indiana 47119
Phone: 812.944.2570
Email: wesley@wesleychapel.org
Reservations for worship are no longer required.
This month Pastor Tony will be talking about Spiritual Gifts. If you do not know what your spiritual gifts are you can take the assessment here.
O U R C H U R C H
We are a church family rooted in Christ and growing in grace.
At Wesley Chapel, it is our mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We do this by focusing on four areas: Worship, Faith Development, Serving, and Generosity. We live together as people of faith to grow as disciples in each of these four areas.
W H A T W E D O
Our Mission
Serve the Church
When we serve we are being like Jesus. Jesus calls us to serve within our faith community so that we can grow in our faith and be equipped to go into the world to share the love of God with all people. The primary areas of Serve Here are Hospitality and Food Service. Serving at Wesley Chapel also includes other ministry areas such as Worship, Faith Development, and Facility Team just to name a few. There are always opportunities to serve and we would love to have you connected to Wesley Chapel through service.
Serve the City
We believe serving those around us is central to growing in our relationship with God. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we serve our local communities in Southern Indiana.
Serve the World
We are a church on mission to go into the world and share the hope of Jesus. Through local and global ministry partnerships, we are working diligently to be the hands and feet of God.
New Here?
Join us for worship on Sundays at 8:30 am or 11:00 am. Our campus is located in the heart of Floyd County, Indiana. No matter who you are, or where you’ve been, we welcome you with open arms.
M I S S I O N
We are traveling this journey of faith together, developing the character of Jesus within, and sharing the love of God with our community.
Tony Alstott
Lead Pastor
L E A D E R S H I P
Our Team
Tony Alstott
Lead Pastor
Cory Feuerbacher
Director of Worship +
Director of 20’s/30’s Ministry
Becky Perkins
Director of Faith Development
Peter Williams
Associate Pastor
In charge of Youth and Mission
C H U R C H M E D I A
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Recent Articles
12
Aug '20
Spin, Sink, or Row Ahead
12
Aug '20
Written by Rhonda Alstott
The alarm hit my house hard this morning. The first day of school for the 2020-2021 school season has begun and we’ve already messed up virtual period zero Latin before in person school for the first day. My huge anxiety has quickly turned to huge frustration that the Alstott household has been unsuccessful at getting this new normal down. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that it does not matter how badly I want something to succeed, if the team isn’t rowing in the same direction, the boat ends up spinning. I can apply this to so many different situations in my life right now. I’ve actually spent the last few months of my life letting go of some situations that I love because all the oars weren’t rowing in the same direction, the boat started spinning, even taking on water, and I felt my boat sinking.
Sinking… that’s a word that describes so many of my emotions right now. I think my lack of control over so many issues all at once gets the best of me at times. When I look at the root of my control issues (or lack of control in my case), fear is the underlying issue that gets the best of me. Let’s face it, we’ve never been in a pandemic before. I’m 54 and I’ve never experienced such social unrest, our country so divided, high unemployment rate, blatant disregard for human life and a constant barrage of misinformation along with incivility amidst pain, loss and suffering…I could continue, but you get the point. In the midst of this sinking chaos, I’m supposed to make a decision for my child to either attend school virtually, home-school or attend in person. I know this has been on the mind of several of my friends with school age children as they’ve shared the same kind of emotions…And on top of that it could change at any moment…and there goes the lack of control, triggering my fear. The decisions so many of us have been making in regards to school, work, worship and such are constantly being attacked by others with differing opinions, just adding to the sinking feeling. Oh and information we’ve used to make our best decisions change daily… You get the picture.
Lucky for me, scripture is full of confrontations with fear and out of control situations. In Mark Chapter 4, Jesus and His disciples set sail on the Sea of Galilee. This would have been roughly two years into his ministry after the disciples had witnessed His great power and teaching. They had been witness to Jesus feeding multitudes with a few loaves and fishes, His healing of many sick and even raising the dead, but when a storm came upon them while Jesus was asleep in the stern, they become so afraid and wake Him up (v38) asking Him if He even cared that they were perishing. After Jesus quiets the storm, He asks the question of them, “Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?” Those are two questions I think we all have to continually ask ourselves during this Covid season of life that we are in. Sometimes the storm is overwhelming us and I feel like Jesus is asleep at the stern of the boat, while I am either spinning in circles or worse, sinking.
Why am I so afraid?
How is it that I have no faith?
When my older 3 children were small and afraid of the dark, I posted Psalm 56:3 above the light switches of their rooms, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you”. Why on the light switches? They were terrified of the dark when I turned the light off…Why the dark? We cannot see in the dark and all of those unknown monsters threaten to grab us by the ankle and pull us into the unknown. It’s no different for me today as I send my precious Mary into the dark of the unknown. Will she get Covid? Will she get really sick if she does? Will she give it to me, to the others that live here in this safe space we designate as home? I know statistically the chances for her well being maintained are 99%. I also know that if she’s in the 1%, it can be devastating. That 1% is the monster in the dark that I’m afraid of. Psalm 56:3 will be ever on my lips this day. I might add that my oldest child is a teacher and has been in her classroom with students for a week now…she’s got a heart condition, and asthma and there’s already positive students in the building…see there’s a monster in the dark there… there’s a monster in the dark for everyone I love. Why do I keep forgetting that “The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?”(Psalm 27:1). Jesus is my light and the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it” (John 1:5). It doesn’t matter what shade is thrown my way or whether I, or someone else is doing the throwing, Jesus has enough Light to overcome all of it.
When I am afraid, I will trust in you…
Tony has traveled a lot in the past ten years of his ministry. When he’s gone overnight I let Mary sleep with me, stuffed animals and all. She’s always been anxious when her dad travels, but especially when he flies. You see we have lost a lot of family in the past few years. She has seen her cousins her age lose their 42 year old dad unexpectedly. She has lost her grandfather in a sudden car wreck. The list of family losses has jolted her into a reality that no one is immune to loss. The last time Tony flew, she told me she was so afraid something would happen to him. I usually shrug it off and tell her he will be okay, but I didn’t this time. I told her the truth. I told her the truth that chances are nothing will happen to her dad, but if it did, it would be okay, we would be okay. I told her it would be hard, but that we have Jesus and his Spirit and all would be well because we have faith.
Death….Isn’t that the answer to what most of us are afraid of? Isn’t the death of what we love and hold dear including our homes, businesses and our way of life, including worship, on the table during this pandemic? Isn’t death and losing someone we love the biggest monster in the dark? As so many of us are grappling with this fear as we send our kids to school (or not), my prayer is that we remember that God promises us that no monster in the dark will overtake us that we cannot handle with Him (1 Corinthians 10:13).
We’re all making decisions for what is best for each of us, our families, our workplaces and our churches in the midst of this pandemic. My prayer is that we offer love, grace and support for these decisions with one another, even if we have different opinions, after all they are just that, differing opinions. The love and care we’ve made these decisions with can be the direction we all are rowing in and that can keep all of us from spinning circles in our boats, or worse, sinking in them.
Shalom-
Rhonda
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28
Jul '20
Parting Ways
28
Jul '20
Written by Rhonda Alstott
One of the things I’ve personally been working on during this pandemic is my health by focusing on adding healthier foods and more steps to my day. The benefit of this is I have been losing weight. The baggier fit of my clothes, renewed energy and my bathroom scale have been my positive reinforcements in this. The past two days I’ve had my scale give me a hard time. It has told me I have dropped 20 pounds in two days. Now I love good news, but this is great news. Almost too good to be true, so I changed the battery. Same weight…hm… I go to the kitchen and grab a 5 pound bag of flour. I learn my scale has decided to give me faulty information and seems to be lying. My scale and I are parting ways after an 18 year relationship because it’s broken and can’t give me accurate information. I usually donate my belongings to the Salvation Army when I get something new, but sadly I cannot do this with my scale. It will lead the next unsuspecting person astray as well and it might not be for just a few days.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like every day I experience whiplash from hearing something different from the day before…don’t wear a mask/wear a mask, children don’t transmit COVID/children can transmit COVID, don’t trust the numbers/trust the numbers… the list goes on and on. What I do know is that misinformation and conspiracy theories travel faster than the virus itself. I’ve decided that when it comes to deciding whether something is a truth or a lie, I better wait before I post, like, or share because real understanding comes with time. That was true of the prophets and prophecies in scripture. Time showed whether a prophet was telling the truth and time showed whether the prophecy was true. Scripture gives us plenty of examples of what happened to those that were involved in falsehood.
When I go back to Genesis and see the story of where sin entered the world (Genesis 3), the serpent enters the scene questioning Eve regarding God’s instructions. When looking at this I’ve always focused on how the serpent took God’s instructions and manipulated them in a way that caused Eve and Adam to partake from the tree causing sin to enter the world, but recently I’ve realized there’s another issue I may have overlooked. A lesson for me is to pause and think that maybe a broader issue than eating the fruit is the issue of who they chose to listen to. Who we listen to is important. Listening to the serpent as authority cost them everything.
My question for all of us is this, whose voice are you listening to as your authority?
In John 8:44, Jesus tells us himself that Satan is the father of lies. I have spent the past few years of my personal study with scripture in the gospels because it is there that I see the very words of Jesus, a savior I choose to follow. It is in the gospels I see Jesus speak grace and truth into his community where political and religious systems had misrepresented His Father. I see Jesus confront the lies that had been perpetuated by the father of lies and dismantle some strongly held beliefs of his time. Did it cause some discomfort? It sure did. That, along with God’s plan of redemption for us, is what got him arrested, beaten, and killed. God’s plan for redemption was for all nations and people. He has invited us into that work when He invites us into a personal relationship with him. It was his charge to us from the mountaintop in Matthew 28 in giving us His Great Commission.
Confession time… there was a time in my personal life that I valued the acquiring of knowledge over my relationship with Christ and those around me. Why? Truth be known, I’ve always had this misconception that knowledge is power. Arguments can be made for or against, but my faith journey has painfully taught me that doing what Jesus says is the real power, not knowledge. Following his voice and doing what His Spirit shows me is the truth I cling to these days. It’s the only comfort I have on some days when I see so much pain and heartbreak inflicted on social media. I ask all of us these two questions:
Whose Voice are you listening to?
Could I be participating in misleading others in what I share?
So for now, I am seeking and setting my mind on things above (Col 3:1-2). I’m focusing on my life that is hidden with Christ and not on the special knowledge some claim to have on social media (Col 3:3). And I’m parting ways with anger, wrath, malice, slander and obscene talk and lies with the help of the Holy Spirit (Col 3:8-9). I’m reading, fact checking, and parting ways with the misuse of knowledge and lies on social and mainstream media, just like I’m parting ways with a scale that can’t tell me the truth, even if I like what it’s saying.
Peace-
Rhonda
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15
Jul '20
Humility or Defensiveness: Racism and the Human Reaction
15
Jul '20
Written by Pastor Tony Alstott
If someone asked you if you were a racist, how would you respond? Most of us would respond from a position of defensiveness. We are taught that being a racist is a bad thing so we have worked hard to not be a racist. While working hard not to be racists, we have well-developed arguments as to why we are not racists. Our arguments to defend that we are not racists are developed from a position of defensiveness.
If you would have asked me if I was a racist when I was 20 years old I would emphatically have told you no. Denny and Reggie were some of my best friends. We often met at the elementary school which was between our neighborhoods. As kids, we played on the playground. As teenagers, we played basketball on the outdoor goals at the school. In middle school, Jamie and I became friends when we played football and ran track together. When we were able to drive we went to the park, to baseball games, and to King’s Island. When I was 19, we even took a trip to New York City together just because we could. We freely went into each other’s homes. I was invited to gatherings where I would be the only white person. I never felt uncomfortable or out of place.
A racist is someone who hates black people. I do not hate black people. A racist is someone who kills black people because they were black. I do not kill anyone. A racist is someone who joins the Ku Klux Klan and terrorizes black people. I did not join the KKK nor do I terrorize black people. I was not a racist because I had black friends that I would love and defend. I did not have a prejudiced bone in my body.
When I was in college, a history teacher challenged me to reflect on my views and discover my prejudices. I told the teacher I was not prejudiced. He pushed back with questions that led me to discover stereotypes that I held about groups of people. Rich people were smart. People who went to college had ambition. Of course I had never said any of this out loud before but the conversation forced me to self-reflect. My realization that I believed rich people were smart also led to an underlying belief that poor people were not as smart. By thinking that people who went to college had ambition gave me the false belief that people who didn’t go to college didn’t have ambition. These stereotypes were prejudices. Unconsciously these prejudices impacted my attitudes, words and actions. It was one of those “a-ha” moments that changed my life. I would never be able to work on my prejudiced thoughts, words, and behaviors until I was willing to admit that I had them. I had prejudices.
So the question I had to ask myself wasn’t, “Do I have racists thoughts?” The question I began to ask was, “What racist thoughts did I have?”
Today I’m 57 years old. I have spent a lifetime trying to remove prejudice and stereotypes from my life. I believe that if I humble myself, I can learn something from any other person on the planet whether or not they are rich or college educated. I can learn people’s stories. I can discover that we all have hopes, fears, and feelings. I have also discovered new stereotypes that emerge in my life that I need to ponder, identify, and confront.
Am I a racist? If I take a position of defensiveness I would give you an emphatic no and tell you all the reasons why I am not a racist. The result of my response would be that the conversation is concluded. A direct question was given a direct and decisive answer. However, if I take a position of humility, I’m prepared to discuss with you how I may be holding some racist views that are systemic in the society I live in. With the position of humility, I may be able to self-reflect and remove some unconscious racist stereotypes so that I may be less racist than before. Today if you ask me if I’m a racist, my response is, “I’m working toward the goal of being anti-racist.” An anti-racist is someone who is against racist ideas and systems, first from within himself or herself, and then in society.
Are you a racist? If you answer no and give me a wonderful list about how you are not a racist, then I know you are answering from a position of defensiveness. If you answer, “I hope not,” and are willing to self-reflect to discover if you hold any racist views, then you are answering from a position of humility and you are ready to identify and confront racist views you may be unconsciously holding.
If you would like to be join me in the journey of becoming an anti-racist, Dr. Erica Lawrence and I will be leading a four-week discussion on “Becoming an Anti-Racist.”
Each session will begin at 6:30 p.m.
August 6: I live in a racist society
August 13: I am not a racist
August 20: The Real Message
August 27: Becoming an anti-racist
Click here to register for the class.
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A F A V O R I T E R E A D
Forgotten God: Reversing our tragic neglect of the Holy Spirit.
A follow up to the profound message of Crazy Love, Pastor Francis Chan offers a compelling invitation to understand, embrace, and follow the Holy Spirit’s direction in our lives.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and … the Holy Spirit. We pray in the name of all three, but how often do we live with an awareness of only the first two? As Jesus ascended into heaven, He promised to send the Holy Spirit—the Helper—so that we could be true and living witnesses for Christ. Unfortunately, today’s church has admired the gift but neglected to open it.
Breakthrough author Francis Chan rips away paper and bows to get at the true source of the church’s power—the Holy Spirit. Chan contends that we’ve ignored the Spirit for far too long, and we are reaping the disastrous results. Thorough scriptural support and compelling narrative form Chan’s invitation to stop and remember the One we’ve forgotten, the Spirit of the living God.
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