A West Side Cornerstone Since 1950
Wesley United Methodist Church has stood at the corner of 60th Street and 47th Avenue on Kenosha's West Side since the first building opened in 1958. Three generations after a small group of 27 members organized the congregation on May 21, 1950, Wesley still gathers each Sunday at 9:00 a.m. for worship, Sunday School, and a long-running rhythm of outreach that includes a soup kitchen partnership and a relationship with the surrounding neighborhood school that stretches back decades. The church's stated mission is "Love God - Welcome All - Serving Kenosha and Beyond," and a visitor arriving for the first time will find a congregation that prides itself on being intentionally inclusive and ready to receive them.
Seventy-Five Years on the West Side
In 1950 a meeting of Methodist officials and the existing Methodist churches in Kenosha confirmed a need for a new Methodist church on the city's West Side. Twenty-seven members gathered for Organization Sunday that May and elected officials for a new congregation, Wesley Methodist Church. Reverend Myron Z. Hovda Jr. was assigned to the new church in June 1950, and in 1952 twelve lots between 46th and 47th Avenue on the north side of 60th Street were purchased for $6,000 - the funds raised and the property paid for in nine months. A building fund kick-off in February 1955 raised more capital and brought five additional lots on 47th Avenue, and groundbreaking ceremonies took place on September 6, 1957. On April 20, 1958, the new church home opened.
Two wings, one on either side of the original building, were added in 1965 to provide classrooms, a nursery, a pastor's study, a furnace room, and storage. The 1968 merger of the United Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches brought the fellowship under its current name, Wesley United Methodist Church, and tightened the bond with a neighboring church. A 1986 groundbreaking led to a major addition dedicated in 1987 with a larger church entrance, a spacious narthex, a kitchenette, and additional bathrooms. The original structure was remodeled in 1991, and the 2007 to 2008 sanctuary renovation updated the lighting and sound system and reoriented the sanctuary to face west rather than east. A double garage added in 1984 still shares space with church equipment and a Wesley Boy Scout Troop.
Through the decades the congregation has partnered with neighborhood schools, welcomed refugees from Burma in 2007, sent youth on mission trips to San Diego, Thunder Bay, and Denver in the 2000s, and hosted National Night Out for several years in the early 2010s. In December 1992 Memorial United Methodist Church closed and merged with Wesley, with the Memorial building sold to the Boys and Girls Club. In 2023 Spirit Alive Church began sharing the Wesley facility, holding Sunday worship and conducting its mission from the same address.
Sunday Morning at Wesley
Sunday begins early at Wesley with hospitality between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. in the narthex, followed by worship at 9:00 a.m. The service is the heart of the week, and Pastor Rev. Dr. David Kim - who began his appointment in 2024 - regularly welcomes children to the front of the sanctuary for a brief Children's Sermon before they head off for the day's lesson. Nursery care is offered throughout the morning for children kindergarten age and under, during both worship and Sunday School. After the service, hospitality resumes between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m.
Services are livestreamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person, and a monthly newsletter called Good News keeps the wider congregation connected between Sundays. The parking lot and entrance are accessed from 47th Avenue, a short drive from Highway 31 after taking Highway 50 east from I-94. The Wesley sanctuary's Christmas Concert Service each December has drawn the attention of the Kenosha News for its choir and instrumental music, and the music program has grown to include new choirs alongside annual Christmas and Easter cantatas.
Learning From Pre-K Through Senior High
Sunday School runs from 9:15 to 10:15 a.m. between September and May, beginning with the children joining their families in the sanctuary for announcements, greeting, opening prayer, and a hymn before moving into their own age-appropriate classes. The curriculum works through the Book of Genesis from September to December, with units on Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah's Family, Abraham and Sarah, Lot, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph and his brothers. From January to May, attention turns to Heroes of the Bible, with characters like Daniel, Jonah, Joshua, Noah, David, Esther, Miriam, Moses, Jesus, Peter, John, Dorcas, Paul, and Lydia taking their turn at the center of the lesson.
Confirmation is offered to sixth through eighth graders in a five-month journey through Wesleyan principles, led by a team of parents, church members, and staff. Each confirmand is paired with an adult mentor who meets with them four or five times during the program, and every mentor completes Ministry Safe child abuse training. On the adult side, Wesley offers seasonal study series such as a Lenten course on William H. Willimon's "The Last Supper," with dinner provided and a sliding-scale fee of $18 per person. Family Game Nights bring the whole church together around the table for dinner and fellowship, with adults required for each family.
Play 75: A New Sports Ministry for All Ages
To mark its seventy-fifth anniversary, Wesley launched Play 75, an intergenerational sports and faith program for students in grades 1 through 12 and their parents. The motto is "Play together. Help each other. Grow in faith," and the activities include ping pong inside the church, soccer outdoors on the church's grassy area off 60th Street, and snacks and community time together. Beginners are welcome, volunteers offer ping pong lessons, and paddles are available for those who need them. Students in grades 10 through 12 can serve as junior leaders.
Play 75 gathers every Sunday at 10:00 a.m., right after the 9:00 a.m. worship, and on alternate Wednesdays at 5:30 p.m. Pastor David, an avid ping pong player, teaches children correct form and tips during the colder months, while in warmer weather parents and kids have been known to take over the lawn for a casual soccer game. A registration form is available at the church office or the welcome desk.
Christian Hearts Sharing God's Love in the Community
The Outreach Committee leads the congregation's local, state, national, and international mission work under the vision "Christian Hearts Sharing God's Love," a statement that means the church exists to serve others so that lives - including its own - are transformed by the grace of God. The committee meets Thursday evenings at 6 p.m., usually every four to six weeks, and plans field trips of service throughout the year.
Volunteers help at the Shalom Center Soup Kitchen on the first Saturday of every month, serving food and preparing sandwiches for the meal. Mission trips have included packing food at Feed My Starving Children, scrubbing tile floors and sorting donated clothing at Northcott Neighborhood House in Milwaukee, and helping the ELCA in Kenosha prepare rooms for painting. The church also donates to local food pantries and distributes holiday food baskets to families in need.
Melodies of Compassion directs the loose change collected in the Sunday offering plate to a chosen mission each quarter - one local, one state, one national, and one international each year. Recent recipients have included Curtis Strange Elementary, Sleep in Heavenly Peace, the Underground Railroad, UMCOR, Special Olympics, the ELCA, and Northcott Neighborhood House. Each year the program contributes more than $2,000 to mission beyond the church walls.
A Steady Partnership with Curtis Strange Elementary
The longest-running community partnership for Wesley is with Curtis Strange Elementary School, the neighborhood school that surrounds the church. About 80 percent of the school's students live in poverty, and Wesley holds monthly meetings with school leadership throughout the academic year to identify needs. Congregants collect school supplies each August, hold Undie Sunday shortly after the school year begins to provide underwear, pants, and socks for younger students who need a change of clothes, and gather snowpants, boots, hats, mittens, and sometimes coats in November so children can play outside in the snow.
At Christmas the congregation adopts several school families, providing each member with two gifts plus food for breakfast and lunch during the school break. Wesley volunteers also help with Santa's Workshop at the school - serving as shoppers, gift wrappers, and craft helpers for the school's holiday fundraisers - and assist at parent curriculum nights, field days, and an after-school tutoring and mentoring program during the lunch hour.
United Women in Faith and the Wesley Yarners
Wesley's local chapter of United Women in Faith, formerly United Methodist Women, gathers women for Bible study, fellowship, leadership development, and mission. Two circles meet at the church: Elizabeth Circle on the first Tuesday of the month at 9:30 a.m., and Deborah Circle on the third Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. The wider organization describes itself as "a sisterhood connecting us together as community leaders, justice champions, and brave changemakers," and the Wesley chapter points to the new logo - a Christian cross in muted yellow, blue, orange, and green - as a symbol of forward-looking faith and the diversity of God's world.
The Wesley Yarners, a separate but related fellowship, knit and crochet together on the first and second Thursdays of the month at 10:00 a.m. and on the second Monday at 6:00 p.m. Members make prayer shawls for those in need, hats and mittens for children at Curtis Strange, knitted prosthetics for women recovering from mastectomies, and caps for newborns at local hospitals and for Kairos and Eastern Star weekends. Beginners are welcome; supplies are provided; and prayer shawl requests can be arranged through the church office.
A Whole-Church Welcome
Wesley is governed by a Church Council chaired by Andrew Hansen, with Pastor David Kim, Lay Leader Alan Mulroy, and members from across the congregation serving on teams for Staff-Parish Relations, Trustees, Nominations and Leadership Development, Nurture, Outreach, and Witness. Music Director Tom Shaughnessy leads the church's choirs and instrumental groups, supported by the grand piano acquired in 2004.
The congregation's welcome statement is unambiguous: members of every race, gender, and sexual orientation are welcomed into full participation in the church's rites and sacraments, and the building itself is named "a safe haven for all those hurting and searching." Wesley offers parking off 47th Avenue, a nursery for the youngest worshipers, livestreamed services on YouTube, and a calendar of weekly circles, study groups, and outreach opportunities that visitors can sample at any time.