Category: News + Updates

If you are local to the Winona, Minn., area, you can view broadcasts of our most recent Sunday worship services on HBC Channel 20 on Sundays at 11:00 a.m and 5:00 p.m., and also on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m.

All of us are concerned about the coronavirus spread as well as the basic spread of the flu.  Wesley will be using best practices during our gatherings to ensure the maximum safety of our congregants.  Here are some immediate steps we will take:

• Communion juice will be served in individual cups.
• There will be plenty of hand sanitizer containers (Purell) in different locations in the church.  Please use them.
• During the passing of the peace, we recommend smiles and elbow bumps over shaking hands and hugging.  This is a tough one, but we should all agree together not to extend the hand and that it is okay to tap elbows or just smile when you greet fellow worshipers.  We will make this public through announcements and printed reminders.  Our pastors will greet you with a warm smile at the end of the service, but no handshake—doesn’t mean we don’t love ya lots, because we do!

 

 

This Lent our children’s Sunday School program will be studying the story of  Nicodemus, the Pharisee who snuck out in the night to ask Jesus questions about salvation and was told he needed to be born again, of water and the Spirit. Our kids will be building kites (to blow in the Spirit’s wind), doing experiments, making fizzy lemonade and learning the difference between change that is on the surface and change that touches our hearts.

 

March 1: 1^st Sunday in Lent  This year we will begin the season of Lent, as we always do, with the story of Christ in the wilderness and his temptations.  This scripture provides the foundation for our entire Lenten journey because our theme for Lent is “Wilderness Wanderings: Journey to the Cross.”  Each week we will be looking at the story of a biblical character; times they wandered in the wilderness, why they kept struggling, where they have found hope.  We will Celebrate the Lord’s Supper with the assistance of our Confirmands and we will also bury the Alleluia with the children.  Scriptures today are Matthew 4:1-11 and Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7.

March 8: 2^nd Sunday in Lent  Our “Wilderness Wanderings” continue as we hear Nicodemus’ story and reflect on his journey to salvation using John 3:1-17 and Psalm 121.        Diane Amundson will present the message while our pastors are away for a memorial service.

March 15: 3^rd Sunday in Lent  This morning we will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and hear about the “Wilderness Wanderings” of a woman caught up in a conversation with Jesus at a well and her thirst for living water. Scriptures for our Journey to the Cross are John 4:5-42 and Exodus 17:1-7.

March 22: 4^th Sunday in Lent  Today we will hear the story of the man born blind in the gospel of John, a man who truly was trapped in the wilderness of darkness, having lost any hope of a future outside of begging.  We will also hear about the Pharisees who were trapped in their own blindness, not able to understand who Jesus really was.  Worship includes the Lord’s Supper.  Our texts are John 20:1-41 and the familiar 23^rd Psalm.

March 29: 5^th Sunday in Lent Our “Wilderness Wanderings” this last week before Palm/Passion Sunday and Holy Week takes us into the wilderness, pain and hopelessness of grief as we gather with Mary and Martha outside their brother’s tomb.  This is a fitting place to pause in our Journey to the Cross where we will see our Savior take on on death.  Scriptures are John 11:1-45 and Psalm 130.