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 five years with average weekly worship attendance growing from 285 in 2003 to 404 today.  The church has also experienced growth in children’s and youth ministries.

Troy has been married to his wife, Amy for 22 years and they have two teenage daughters.

Connie Christopher has worked as our Church Administrator since December 1993.  She works with many areas in the church along with doing the financial records.  She has been a member of First United Methodist Church, Salina all her life.  She grew up in Salina graduating from Salina High School South.  Her husband Mike is retired from the U.W. Army and now works at Kansas Wesleyan University.  She and Mike have been married 28 years. They have two children.  Abigail is married to Adam Burchfield and they live in Derby, KS.  She is an elementary school teacher in Derby.  Their son Jeremy is a mechanical engineer for J3 and lives in  Royce City, TX.  He is marrying Kelsey Losey in  October 2010.  Connie has been a member of the Professional Association of United Methodist Church Secretaries for 9 years and is the Kansas Chapter President at this time.  In her spare time Connie enjoys doing genealogy and scrap booking.  

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 Equipping Director.

Todd joined the staff of First UMC in August 2004.  He currently serves as our full time Youth and Equipping Director.  Todd graduated from Bethany College in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communication and minored in Youth Ministry.  He received his Master’s Degree in Youth and Young Adult Ministry from Southwestern College in 2008.  

Todd is married to Melissa Just (married on November 3, 2006) who works at home caring for their son Owen who was born to them on May 11, 2008.  Todd is an avid Kansas City Chiefs fan and regrets to inform you that his wife cheers for the Denver Broncos.  In his spare time Todd spends his time playing with his family, playing volleyball, and playing guitar.  He also enjoys spending time reading and would strongly suggest anything authored by Reggie McNeal, Dan Kimball, Mark Devries, and Walt Mueller.  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 Taylor guitar, a pecan pie, or a Harley Davidson Low Rider. 

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.

Susan Borthwick is the Graphic Artist at Salina First United Methodist Church. 

Susan grew up in Salina and graduated from Salina High School South.  She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree with a major in Graphic Design from Fort Hays State University.  After college she returned to Salina and worked at Tony’s Pizza for five years, ending up in their drafting department.

She married Cory in 1984.  They have two sons, Evan and Grant.  Susan was a stay at home mom for 23 years with the exception of working one fall helping out as a graphic designer at Great Plains Manufacturing.  During her years at home she free-lanced occasionally and volunteered at the church doing graphic design work.  Susan is a life-long member of Salina First church.