​

Warm greetings in Christ Jesus, sisters and brothers. The First Presbyterian Church of Hays welcomes you to our family. Well, it’s really God’s family, and we are simply blessed to be a part of his wide and wondrous reign. In December 2021, the session (governing body) of the church in cooperation with the Presbytery of Northern Kansas called me as “Transitional Minister.” What is transitional ministry? We acknowledge that as a church we are in “in between” times and probably have been for a while now. Covid contributed to that altered reality. Transitional ministry provides a time for a congregation to ask who we are and to celebrate and deepen whose we are. What is church? Why are we here? To what purpose is God calling us? For almost one hundred and fifty years people have gathered as a Presbyterian congregation in Hays to live these questions and into the answers. The answers have changed over the decades and will continue to transform the church.

​

What has not changed is that we exist by the gracious provision of God—Creator, Christ and Holy Spirit. We gather to listen, learn, study, sing, praise, pray, celebrate and serve, all in the name of the pioneer and perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ. In dependence upon him and trusting in God, we are living our church’s mission into 2022 with energy, intelligence, imagination and love . . . to receive God’s love and grace and to pass it on by the power of the Holy Spirit as we worship and learn together, nurture relationships, and reach out to others as Christ’s disciples for the healing and wholeness of humankind. Perhaps that last line might better read, for the healing and wholeness of creation. In any case, we try to remember that we do all things through Christ who strengthens us, for as Scripture reminds us, without him we can do nothing.

​

Please join us in the on-going adventure of growing in the love of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit within and among us.

​

Rev. Christine Wagner (Chris, Christine)