Fostoria Wesley UMC

05/31/2026

We had a great service today! Started out by recognizing Alex Fitzpatrick’s graduation and honoring him with a scholarship to help as he goes on to Wilmington College to study agriculture in the fall. Then we collected a noisy offering to put towards VBS. But the majority of our time together today was blessed by the musical talents of Echoes of Grace! They sounded wonderful! Thanks to them for a beautiful concert.

05/29/2026

Check your couch cushions and car!

05/29/2026

Looking forward to some beautiful music this Sunday!

05/25/2026

Join us next Sunday for a service full of special music!

05/24/2026

There were balloons on the altar today. Did you see them? Don’t we have balloons every week? So many colors!

Pastor Duane asked kids questions about them during the Children’s Message.

When do we usually have balloons? Celebrations like birthdays or anniversaries or weddings … maybe even on the 4th of July. When we celebrate things.

Celebrate is something we should do often. Maybe with party hats and noisemakers, too! When we celebrate happy and important things. When we have special things to celebrate, we should show that we’re celebrating. The balloons today are something to remind us to celebrate. We should look and feel like someone who is celebrating.

And what are we celebrating today? Today is Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian Church.

Pastor Duane’s message today, “Empowered by God’s Spirit,” told more about that origins celebration as described in Acts 2:1-21.

There were there great Jewish festivals. Every male within 20 miles was expected. All others were expected from time to time, or at least once.

Passover occurs near our Easter. Pentecost is 50 days later. And Feast of the Tabernacles or Sukkot is in the fall.

Pentecost is the 50th day after the Sabbath after Passover. Some say Pentecost is the feast of weeks. A week of weeks as seven weeks and a day after Passover equals 50 days.

By this time of year, the traveling conditions were at their best, bringing even greater crowds, more intentional crowds than Passover.

The disciples of Jesus were all together in one place.

AND THEN IT HAPPENED.

A sound … like the rush of a mighty wind.
A sight … like divided tongues as of fire.
A feeling … heart, mind, body … filled, energized, empowered.

It was the coming of the Holy Spirit. The birthday of the Christian Church.

Over the years and centuries there have been many beliefs and doctrines regarding the Holy Spirit.

But let’s look at some basic, primary thinking. The Holy Spirit is that part of God’s nature that connects with a part of our created selves.

This, of course, is inadequate in describing what cannot be conceived in human terms. It helps us to flesh out the idea of the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three in One. A united and uniting idea. Not separate entities.

The Holy Spirit is not separate from God; the Holy Spirit is an aspect of how God relates to us.

The Holy Spirit connects with a part of our created selves. It is like a vaccination. The Holy Spirit works within us like something injected that calls forth what is naturally a part of us.

The Holt Spirit is that part of God’s nature that connects with a part of our created selves. The Holy Spirit is also our comforter, our guide, our teacher, and reminder …

The Holy Spirit helps us know what we do not know. Holy intuition. Just know what is right. Draws us to seek out a God we cannot comprehend.

The Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds to new ideas. Sometimes radical. Unconditional love, prevenient grace, forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of what we already know and have experienced. A “nudge” or a motivator.

On the day of Pentecost, we celebrate the unleashing of God’s presence within us. Teaching us, enabling us, empowering us

To
Go
Make Disciples
Baptize
Teach

That outpouring of the Spirit began then never stopped. We may have stopped seeing it or witnessing to it in our midst, but it has not stopped.

Today is a day to live in the flow of the Spirit in every way we can, not just in worship, but in our awareness of all the ways the Spirit already flows among and through our worshipping community and the community around us.

Today is a day for those who may have been discerning their ministries throughout Eastertide to be blessed with an anointing in the power of the Spirit to engage the ministries they have discerned.

Where God is calling us as a church. Where God is calling you as a faithful individual.

Empowered by God’s Spirit for a purpose - to bring others to faith.

05/24/2026

Come out for coffee and conversation!

05/10/2026

During the Children’s Message today, Pastor Duane showed the kids a picture of Waldo along with a scene with Waldo hidden. You know the idea … Where’s Waldo? Look close to see if you can find him. We tend to find who we’re looking for. If we go into a room with a lot of people but we’re looking for our friends, that’s who we’ll spot. We won’t necessarily notice the others.

Our message today talks about looking for unusual people. It’s ok to find our friends, but sometimes we need to keep our eyes open for people who need help, need a friend, need a kind word. That’s a different kind of looking. We need to look at the big group with a different set of eyes to look for those who need help.

Today’s message comes from John 14: 15-21 when Jesus instructs the disciples.

“God’s Word Moves Us Forward”

Unlikely places, unlikely people. Let’s consider these situations:

Her classwork is a constant struggle.
He feels alone and rejected.
His addiction has imprisoned him.
The previous customer called her worthless.
Their marriage is barely surviving.
She wonders if God even cares.
He has given up on life.

If we have eyes to see and ears to hear … how could these stories be changed?

A mentor’s help gave her confidence.
One of his neighbors reached out to him.
A simple invitation led him to freedom.
A stranger’s heart lifted her spirits.
Their small group helped them to heal.
A friend’s kindness renewed her faith.
He has been given new life in Christ.

If we open our eyes and our hearts, together we can change the story.

Jesus is preparing his disciples. Keep my word/commandments. A commandment followed by a promise.

The promise of the Holy Spirit. To teach. To remind.

Later in the same chapter, John records these words of Jesus: “All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

The Holy Spirit will be the factor that makes faith, and belief, and mission, and ministry possible.

In money matters, it is the percentage factor. In blood issues, it is the clotting factor. In baking, it can be the altitude factors in bulb growth, it is a temperature factor. In our faith, it is the SPIRIT factor.

In Acts, chapter 16, it says: “During the night, Paul had a vision of someone from Macedonia who was standing there and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us!’ After Paul had seen the vision, we began looking for a way to go to Macedonia. We were sure that God had called us to preach the good news there.

We sailed straight from Troas to Samothrace, and the next day we arrived in Neapolis. From there we went to Philippi, which is a Roman colony in the first district of Macedonia.

We spent several days in Philippi. Then on the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to a place by the river, where we thought there would be a Jewish meeting place for prayer. We sat down and talked with the women who came. One of them was Lydia, who was from the city of Thyatira and sold expensive purple cloth. She was a worshiper of the Lord God, and he made her willing to accept what Paul was saying. Then after she and her family were baptized, she kept on begging us, ‘If you think I really do have faith in the Lord, come stay in my home.’ Finally, we accepted her invitation.”

Paul’s account of his vision of the Macedonian reminds us of how mission and ministry often take shape.

We go places we did not intend to go and we do things we did not intend to do.

Paul did not intend to go to Macedonia, gentile country. Paul did not intend to be converting Macedonian gentiles.

Paul was from Tarsus, a Greek influenced city. Filled with Greek culture, Greek philosophy and thought. Paul read and wrote fluently in Greek.

Paul was a Roman citizen. Paul was a Hebrew scholar.

There was a certain type of person that he was most comfortable with: educated, connected, religious.

Paul’s ministry ended up being with many who were not.

Paul had been raised in a culture of knowledge and ‘doing all the right things.’ Paul was called out of his comfort zone, and out of his personal history, to be a pioneer and trailblazer, to boldly go where no Christian missionaries had gone before.

Where is our Macedonia? Our unlikely place? Our excuse-laden place?

Who are our Macedonians? Those unlikely people. Those people that we have many excuses why we don’t reach out to them.

The research surrounding Natural Church Development, developed by Christian Swartz, informs us of eight quality characteristics in the life of a local congregation. These characteristics are indicators of the overall health of the church.

They are:
* empowering leadership
* gift-based ministry
* passionate spirituality
* effective structures
* inspiring worship
* holistic small groups
* need-oriented evangelism
* loving relationships … even obviously loving relationships

The key to overall health is the strength of each of the quality characteristics.

How is God calling us (you) to live out the commandment to love?
How is God calling us (you) to live out the challenge to the unlikely place and the unlikely mission?

Where is our Macedonia? Our unlikely place? Our excuse-laden place?

Who are our Macedonians? Those unlikely people. Those people that we have many excuses why we don’t reach out to them.

One thing for certain: if we are truly comfortable where we are, we can be almost certain that we are NOT doing the will of God.

Her classwork is a constant struggle.
He feels alone and rejected.
His addiction has imprisoned him.
The previous customer called her worthless.
Their marriage is barely surviving.
She wonders if God even cares.
He has given up on life.

If we have eyes to see and ears to hear … how could these stories be changed?

A mentor’s help gave her confidence.
One of his neighbors reached out to him.
A simple invitation led him to freedom.
A stranger’s heart lifted her spirits.
Their small group helped them to heal.
A friend’s kindness renewed her faith.
He has been given new life in Christ.

If we open our eyes and our hearts, together we can change the story.

05/08/2026

Please consider supporting Wesley Center’s fundraiser Friday from 5 to 8. Dine in or carry out.

Wesley Center would love your support if you choose to eat out on May 8 and go to Beer Barrel in Findlay. Show this image or mention Wesley Center and they’ll donate 15% of you total bill! Works for carry out as well!

05/03/2026

Lynnlee started the Children's Message today by showing the kids a house Declan built last night using Legos. She had another house made of paper. The Legos represent a solid foundation built to withstand the weight of our troubles and worries, but the paper may blow away in the wind and quickly crushes with any outside pressure.

If we have a firm foundation, we can handle anything that comes at us. If our foundation isn't strong, those things that challenge us will bring us down. Our foundation is strong when we pray and have faith, when we rely on our church family for support.

Reverend Amy Haines, District Superintendent of the Maumee River District, was here at Wesley today as we transition to a new minister. Her message, "Built on a Strong Foundation," is based on 1 Peter 2:2-10.

Growing up, her house had a long gravel driveway composed of a variety of small stones. One reason she never learned to ride a bike was because she was afraid to fall on the gravel and get scraped up. Occasionally, she and her sister would throw stones at one another until they got into trouble. And she remembers as a youngster collecting what she thought were the prettiest stones and lining them up on their windowsill.

Another memory was 30 years ago on a class trip to Israel and Palestine where she saw a landscape much different than she imagined. Near Nazareth were gently sloping green hills and farm fields. The Sea of Galilee is really a small lake with the Golan Heights easily in view on the other side. The wilderness between Jericho and Jerusalem is barren desert hills and caves. And along the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem are many rocks and boulders of all shapes and sizes scattered among the fields.

Jerusalem is a city of stone. Gravestones on the Mount of Olives. Stone walls surrounding the Temple Mount. The cobblestone path of the Via Dolorosa. Everywhere one looks in the old city of Jerusalem there is some type of stone.

Pastor Billy Strayhorn reminds us: We've walked or driven on cobblestone. We all know our birthstone. We've experienced milestones in our lives and sharpened knives on a whetstone. We grew up, got a job, and put our nose to the grindstone. And now we hope that the Rosetta Stone of our faith, Jesus, will help us avoid the brimstone.

Rocks and stones are part of our lives. We can use them to build or we can use them to destroy. David used a small stone to defeat Goliath and deliver Israel. Certain offenses in the life and faith of early Israel called for death by stoning. But mainly, rocks and stones have helped us build sturdy homes and protected cities. They have helped us build places of refuge, learning, and worship. And those are the images Peter wants us to think about. The positive images of what stones can do for us. (Strayhorn, "Chosen and Precious")

What kind of stone would you use to describe the church of Jesus? is the church a fortress of rock where few are allowed to enter, is the church a place that hurts others with the stones of our words, or is the church a group of living stones who seek to share the good news of Jesus?

Look around you and consider the many building materials that compose Wesley Church. Brick, stone, wood, glass ... all come together in this building we call a home for faith. Across our district, a few of our church buildings were built in the past 50 years. Many more are over 100, even closer to 200 years old. These buildings were built to weather the storms of life and faith, built to last as places of worship and fellowship, places to learn and grow a firm foundation of faith.

Yet our faith is about more than a building, as some of us know from the recent closures of Shiloh and High Street. Our buildings are only places to gather as we seek to be living stones following The Living Stone who is Jesus.

The men and women who have worshipped here prior to us were also living stones, those who sought to live by faith and pass down the good news of Jesus from generation to generation no matter where they physically found themselves for worship.

Jesus is the one upon whom we are to build our faith, our lives, our salvation. He is our strong foundation.

Think of Peter's image of Jesus as the cornerstone. In classic architecture, the cornerstone was the first stone laid upon the foundation, the stone that everything else is built upon and measured against. As the anchor stone the cornerstone sets the rest of the building in place. If that cornerstone is off by even a little, then the rest of the building will also be crooked since the entire building is based upon the chief cornerstone.

In Christianity, Jesus is the cornerstone upon which to build a strong foundation of faith. Ephesians 2:20 declares: "(You are) built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone."

While we all have our favorite authors and pastors and theologians, none of them are Jesus. We cannot build our lives on authors or celebrities or politicians or even our parents. Jesus is our true baseline for faith, for morality, for grace. It is His word, His ways, His love upon which our lives are to be built.

Yet God has given us free will to accept or reject Christ as our cornerstone. When we accept Jesus as our cornerstone, then together we can be living stones, building up our communities with hope, love, and grace. We can live into who God created and claimed and called us to be as God's people.

But when we take our eyes off Jesus, then we are like builders who reject a perfectly good stone, who do not see a certain stone's value. We then become like the Israelite leaders of old who did not see Jesus' value, those who stumbled over his claim to be the Messiah, the son of God.

When we take our eyes off Jesus, we become more concerned about our own wants rather than God's ways. We build upon other stones that are more like shifting sand than a solid foundation. We move Jesus to the side rather than the center of our lives.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we are reminded to choose to follow Jesus. To choose to be living stones, guided by the Holy Spirit, following in the ways of Jesus. To choose to be the body of Christ together in this world, seeking to share God's ways with the world around us.

God's spiritual house is not built by just the great men and women of the Bible. Peter calls all who follow Jesus living stones, members together in the body of Christ. We can remain as random rocks scattered across the landscape, so to speak, or we can belong together to a structure built to honor God, the structure of the church.

04/26/2026

Brooks Hall served as our lay speaker today. He started his Children's Message by asking the kids who brought them to church today. Moms and dads ... grandparents ... families. Brooks shared how he used to come up for the children's time when he was a little tyke. He didn't realize it then, but the family who brought him to church was just a part of the bigger church family he has.

Declan said there were maybe 13 people in his family, but our church family is even bigger! Everyone here at Wesley is part of our church family. They'll be here for us whenever we need them to help guide us and pray for us.

As Brooks began his message today, he reminded us that he's not a preacher by trade ... he's a police officer. Those careers seem quite different, but they are similar in many ways. People don't become preachers or cops without receiving a calling. Unfortunately, most cops may not realize that calling is a divine one, but preachers do!

He also thanked Rick Finley from Amsden for reaching out and asking him to give a sermon today. An encouraging reminder that "Well, your dad did it, so I'm sure you'll be fine" helped Brooks say yes.

Brooks shared some lessons he learned from the book Tight the Good Fight by Robert Rayburn, a chaplain in WWII. When the war ended, he became the pastor of a church in Illinois. Not long after settling into that role, he received a letter from the Army: his reserve unit was being reactivated for Korea.

This must be a mistake. Isn't someone else better suited for this? Haven't I sacrificed enough?

But for Chaplain Rayburn, those thoughts were fleeting. He quickly settled his mind on what he had preached to young people ... that when you turn your life over to the Lord, He makes no errors in what He does with it. The Lord's ways are perfect. Even though we may be called upon to face difficult things that are not of our choosing, He works according to His promise in Romans 8:28: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

God works in all things ... not just here and there. That doesn't mean all things will be good. Evil exists in our fallen world. God is not working to make us happy; He's working to fulfill His will.

To fulfill His will.

To a Christian, there is no worse place than outside of the Lord's will. Jonah was outside of the Lord's will ... and ended up swallowed by a fish. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and brought sin into the world. Samson succumbed to pride and lust and he lost his strength and eyesight.

A believer may have everything he desires on this earth and still be totally miserable, if he is living outside of the Lord's will.

For Chaplain Rayburn, he would rather be sitting in the mud of a rice paddy in Korea, far from his family and comforts, with a glad and singing heart because he was conscious of the Lord's will and knew he was where God wanted him to be.

He did not want to miss God's perfect directive will ... and neither should we.

While in Korea, Chaplain Rayburn learned of a need for a Protestant chaplain in the 87th Airborne. He had no desire to jump out of airplanes and was concerned his wife would think he was taking unnecessary risks as a father of three. So he did what we should all do in times of trouble -- he prayed.

He confessed his concerns to the Lord, and as he prayed, the Lord spoke to him. Not an audible voice, but a voice nonetheless. And he knew the voice because he knew who spoke the words:

"The Lord is my refuge, and you make the Most High your dwelling; no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways" Psalm 91: 9-11.

Can you think of a better answer to his concern?

The Lord promised protection. His angels would guard him. And while scripturally those were spoken in a different place and time, that day they were a personal promise to him.

Hearing the Word of God isn't always that clear to us, is it? Because in order to discern God's voice, we have to know His words. And to know His Word, we have to study it -- through Scripture.

Reading His Word helps us discern His voice and, in turn, know His will for our lives. Our questions and prayers will be answered as plainly as Chaplain Rayburn's -- because He hears us.

1 John 5:14 says: "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us."

He hears us -- not to make our path easy or glamorous, but to make our path lead to what fulfills His will for our lives.

That path can be challenging. At times, you may find yourself crawling instead of walking.

Chaplain Rayburn describes a time in Korea when his unit had settled into a small valley and set up camp. In the morning, they planned to continue north toward their objective. As they awoke, they heard the sound of mortars, small arms fire, and machine guns. They had camped beneath an enemy stronghold -- a fortified position of bunkers and nests. Rayburn knew they couldn't continue their mission without first eliminating that stronghold. It would cost lives and equipment. But it had to be done.

He compared that enemy stronghold to the strongholds erected by the archenemy of the souls of me -- Satan himself. These strongholds are sins we permit to remain in our lives. They give the devil areas where he can press his will and attack our hearts, robbing us of real victory and making our lives something less than what God intends.

When we rationalize or avoid confronting these sins, we distance ourselves from God's path -- from God's will.

So, how is God leading your life?

Are you allowing Him the opportunity to lead, or are there too many strongholds that have been build up? The more we can be like Chaplain Rayburn -- turning to God with our worries and confessions, and being still long enough to listen to His reply -- the more we'll find peace in His will.

Listening to God is a newer concept for me and my faith. I do a lot of talking to God, but not enough listening. Listening for the still, small voice, and being able to discern it because I know His Word, and, in turn, His will for my life.

Holding God's hand as He directs our lives is much easier than being outside of His will.

Pray to the Lord. Hear His voice. Hold His hand. And let Him lead your life.

So today, I challenge each of us to listen -- really listen -- for God's voice. To hold His hand, trust His will, and fight the good fight.