We discovered that God had created us to be a place of healing in 1996. This defines what we do and do not do as a church. We studied praying for the sick, added email prayer chains, sent two nurses to Marian College for training as parish nurses, added prayer partners to our worship services, have paid for six of our people to enter into the program and become certified Christians counselors, added face to face support groups, have an ongoing healing prayer and deliverance ministry, etc.

In 1997 we realized that God made us to be people for whom worship is all about Jesus. When the focus is on Jesus it does not matter what the person in front, behind or to the side is doing during worship. Nor does it matter what that person is wearing if the important one in worship is Jesus. We just need to be whom God created us to be – quiet in worship style, or raising hands to praise the Lord, or moving from side to side – even dancing behind the congregation, who prefers for either traditional or contemporary styles.

 Then in 1998 God revealed that we are also called to model unity. Here traditional Presbyterians, evangelicals, and charismatics are all accepted and valued. Through the Holy Spirit we became such an inclusive church that each stream of the Christian faith feels welcome and loved.

Isaiah 61:1-3 is the life verse for our church:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come, and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies. To all who mourn in Israel, he will give beauty for ashes, joy instead of mourning, praise instead of despair.”

Our theme song is Crystal Lewis’ “Beauty for Ashes”.

Our pastor, David Flucke, came to us on Oct. 30, 1982. He graduated from St. Andrews Pres. College and San Francisco Theo. Seminary, was a Dean’s student at McCormick Theo. Sem. for a semester, and took 4 courses at Louisville Pres. Theological Seminary, as well as completing all the doctoral courses at both Fuller Theo. Sem. and Oral Roberts University. He served Lexington Presbyterian from Dec. 1, 1972 to July 16, 1980 (which his wife’s family helped to found in 1818), and the First Presbyterian in Fort Branch from July 17, 1980 to Oct. 29, 1982.

    We have 12 part time paid staff people and 3 people working on a contract basis. When we had the free summer day camp our part time staff included an additional 10 people under the supervision of Aaron Flucke. We have four seminarians. Aaron Flucke and Garrett Schindler are under care of our Presbytery and attend Louisville Presbyterian Seminary. Scott and Shana Cress take classes at Gordon Conwell Seminary and are currently applying to Covenant Presbyterian Seminary in St. Louis. Tom and Dana Cook are in the Commissioned Lay Pastor training program of our Presbytery. Three others are studying the CLP books and reviewing the Cooks’ class notes. We have an active ministry to our seniors. We have 6 certified lay counselors in our counseling ministry. Another 6 people are involved in our deep level healing and prayer ministry. We have 30 people on our email prayer chain, 16 prayer intercessors for the church, 2 prayer chains for our pastor, and draw on 20 different people to partner with those requesting prayer at the end of our worship services. There are 17 people in various stages of being trained to preach (6 have preached here on Sundays and at other churches). Four of them will preach at the Festival of Preaching for young preachers in Louisville this January. We have 2 youth leaders. There are 3 choirs – Anthem for traditional music, Praise Team for contemporary music, and the Hands of God Choir sings thru sign language, 3 organists, 3 guitarists, 3 pianists, 1 keyboard player, 1 drummer, 3 sound board technicians, 2 projectionists, 1 computer specialist, 3 lead cooks (1 down home country style, 1 down home country and elegant style, and 1 elegant style), a stained glass window team, and 3 worship services.

        Our small groups include: the Presbyterian Women’s Morning Circle; Women of Faith, Senior Outings; Men’s Breakfast; Scrapbooking/Faithbooking; Heal Tender Loving Care Group; Youth fellowship, and Church School classes.

        In our Fellowship Hall you will see the flags of nations where we sent our people to do mission work. This includes: Mexico, Canada, Nicaragua, Cambodia, and Australia. We provide for Day Care Centers for refugees from Anti-semitism in Israel, church school classes for inner city children in New York City, maintenance needs for an orphanage in Myanmar, animals for the Heifer Project International, clothing at Christmas for children in Charlestown and New Washington, funds for the Family Health Center of Clark County, food for the North Clark Outreach Center in Charlestown and the Community Needs Ministry in New Washington thru the Angel Food program that enables people to buy a box of $ 60 worth of groceries for $ 30, and we provide funds for our own local Social Outreach ministry.

        We invest in equipping people for works of ministry which includes our church intercessors, Elders, our worship leader, those in the Commissioned Lay Pastor program, and those in our leadership program. We also give $ 3,000 for each seminarian, and are covering the full cost of the Commissioned Lay Pastor program.

        A team from our church created each of the stained glass windows. Descriptions of the windows have been placed beside each one. We are creating a new window to go behind the organ.

        Our praise team uses a computerized system and screens for music rather than paper. And our church is transitioning from incandescent and fluorescent lighting to LED lights, and water saving restrooms, and added double-paned windows.

        We hope this helps you get a sense of our church. God bless!