Rev. Troy Bowers has been our Pastor since March of 2004.   He grew up in several Kansas communities before graduating from Wabaunsee High School in Alma, Kansas.  He earned a B.A. in Sociology and Religion from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas, and a Master of Divinity Degree from Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri. 

In addition to pastoring United Methodist Churches in Kansas, Pastor Troy has also served in International Ministries.  He has served as Pastor/Director of the La Paz Community Church and International Center in La Paz, Bolivia, and Senior Pastor of the Antwerp International Protestant Church in Antwerp, Belgium.

In addition to his pastoral responsibilities, Pastor Troy serves on various conference ministries in the United Methodist Church.  He is currently serving on the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, Dean of the Area License to Preach School, and Chairs the District Committee on Superintendency.  Locally he is involved with ministries to the homeless, and dysfunctional families.  

First United Methodist Church is pleased to have experienced significant growth over the past three years with average weekly worship attendance growing from 285 in 2003 to 379 today.  The church has also experienced growth in children’s and youth ministries.

Troy has been married to his wife, Amy for 20 years and they have two teenage daughters.

Connie Christopher is the Church Administrator.  This position is responsible for maintaining membership records of the church; scheduling/ calendaring activities; and recording all programs and reports about the church.  She also oversees the Church Secretary and Building Superintendent.  She is the staff representative for the following teams:  Finance, Scholarship, Foundation, Investment, Memorials and Trustees.   

Connie is a life long Kansan and a life long member of First United Methodist Church, Salina.  She grew up in Salina graduating from Salina High School South.  Her husband Mike is retired from the U.S. Army and now works at Kansas Wesleyan University.  They have lived many places being in the Army including, Texas, Kentucky and several places in Germany.  Mike and Connie have two children.  Abigail is a teacher at Schilling Elementary School in Salina and Jeremy is a senior at K-State Manhattan majoring in Mechanical Engineering.  

Connie has been a member of the Professional Association of United Methodist Church Secretaries for 7 years. She has been working for the church for 14 years.

In her spare time Connie enjoys doing genealogy and scrap booking.

Jan Holmes is the secretary of First United Methodist Church.  Jan Holmes has worked as the secretary at 1st UMC for 9 years.  She enjoys helping the congregation, answering the phone and doing the paperwork involved with the bulletin and newsletter.  She is a member of PAUMCS and enjoys the fun and fellowship of getting together with other secretary’s of United Methodist Churches at the state and national level.  Jan belongs to Belmont Boulevard Christian Church, Salina, KS.  

Jan grew up in Western Kansas and graduated from Rexford High School.  She went to Ft. Hays State College where she met her husband of 43 years, Lee Holmes from Utica, Kansas.  Lee taught school for 25 years in various schools in Western Kansas and during this time they had 2 children, Reed and Kristi.  The couple enjoy their 9 grandchildren whose ages range from 20 years to 4 years.

Arleta Crane is the Director of Congregational Ministries.  Arleta provides support for many of the ministries of FUMC’s congregation in the primary areas of prayer, spiritual growth, missions, evangelism, church family, spiritual gifts, and adult Sunday school.  

Arleta is a lifelong Kansan and brings to our congregation a lifetime of experience as an active lay member of various Methodist congregations after her parents first brought her to church in a basket at approximately 2 weeks of age.   She has served Christ through her church in a variety of different ways including staff parish, finance, mission, church council, lay leader, UMW, choir, hand bells, and Sunday school teaching.

She came to our congregation in 2003 with more than twenty years of corporate experience in the areas of customer service, supervision, and training; and several years of teaching at the elementary level.  Her undergraduate degree is in Elementary Education with an additional emphasis in Early Childhood.  Her Masters degree is in Adult Education from Newman University.  

Arleta would be happy to help individual members of the congregation to become more involved in the life of the church and in serving Christ.  She loves to hear those three magic words, “Yes, I’ll help!”

Barbara Balser is the Coordinator of Children’s Ministries at First United Methodist Church.  She is the staff person in leadership of the Children’s Ministries Team.  She recruits and trains volunteer leaders and helpers for on-going ministries such as Sunday School, Children’s Worship, and Finders Keepers, as well as seasonal ministries such as Vacation Bible School, Children’s Christmas Program, Easter Celebration, and Fifth-Sunday celebrations.  Barbara is also a certified Boundary Awareness Trainer for the United Methodist Church.  She is president of the Northern Cluster of Christian Educators Fellowship. 

Barbara grew up in Northwest Kansas and graduated from Kansas Wesleyan University with a BA in elementary music education and K-9 education.  She has post-graduate hours from Kansas State University in Education Administration.  She taught in Salina Public Schools for 12 years and has been on staff at FUMC for four years.  She is the mother of three grown daughters and Gramby to two grandsons.

Barbara’s passion is working for and with children and providing them opportunities to grow in their relationships with Jesus Christ.  She enjoys writing and adapting curriculum on various topics and for a variety of settings and age groupings.  She says one of the wonderful things about children’s ministries is being able to participate in learning, prayer, praise and worship with the unfettered joy of the children!

Todd Just is the Youth and Young Adult Director.

Todd joined the staff of First UMC in August 2004.  He currently serves as our full time Youth and Young Adult Director.  Todd graduated from Bethany College in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and minored in Youth Ministry.  He currently is pursuing his Master’s Degree in Youth and Young Adult Ministry from Southwestern College.  

Todd is married to Melissa Just who works as an Elementary Physical Education teacher in McPherson, KS where they currently reside.  They were married on November 3, 2006.  Todd is an avid Kansas City Chiefs fan and regrets to inform you that his wife cheers for the Denver Broncos.  On the side Todd works as the Color Commentator for Bethany Swede football games.  If you would like to give a gift to him, you would do well to give him tickets to see Shane & Shane, a t-shirt from randomshirts.com, a new Taylor guitar, a pecan pie, or an Harley Davidson Low Rider. 

You can learn more about Todd by visiting his blog – www.toddjust.blogspot.com or add him as a friend to your Facebook. 

As Coordinator of Parish Care, Amy coordinates and trains all the volunteers that are in our visitation programs.  These include Hospital visitors, Homebound Communion servers and the Rays of the Son volunteers who are paired with a homebound member. 

Amy works with the Health and Wellness Ministry Team to implement and lead programs that inspire the people of First Church to be well in body, mind, and spirit.  These include Exercise for Seniors, monthly Blood Pressure Checks, Bi-monthly Red Cross Blood Mobile, Health Education classes, support groups and many others. 

Amy works part time and can be found in the office or visiting members Mondays and Thursdays 10:00 – 2:00, Wednesdays 10:00 – 5:00.