We Were Spiritual Refugees
A Story to Help You Believe in Church
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- $32.99
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- $32.99
Publisher Description
Church reimagined for a new day
Katie Hays, planter-pastor of Galileo Church, shares the story of departing from the traditional church for the frontier of the spiritual-but-not-religious and building community with Jesus-loving (or at least Jesus-curious) outsiders. Now well-established, Galileo Church “seeks and shelters spiritual refugees” in the suburbs of Fort Worth, Texas—especially young adults, LGBTQ+ people, and all the people who love them.
Told in funny, poignant, and short vignettes, Galileo's story is not one of how to be cool for Christ. Like its founder, Galileo is deeply uncool and deeply devout, and always straining ahead to see what God will do next. Hays says curiosity is her greatest virtue, and she recounts how her curiosity led her to share the good news with people who are half her age and intensely skeptical.
If you are all-in with Jesus but have trust issues with church, We Were Spiritual Refugees will give you hope for finding a community-of-belonging to call home.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pastor Hays recounts the roller-coaster ride of her first four years starting the Galileo Church in Fort Worth, Tex., in her illuminating and animated debut. Hays designed the church as a shelter for spiritual refugees (particularly those who feel alienated by mainline Christianity), and considers it an experiment in the "next church" model strongly relational and transparent, welcoming to all, and including such modern innovations as tithing through Venmo. As a result, she writes, the church, which opened its doors in 2013, has built a congregation larger and more connected than she ever anticipated. Hays reveals many pastoral failures (and some shining successes) along with the intense spiritual hunger and loneliness of the "spiritual, not religious" people she encounters daily. Believing that "infrastructure follows ethos," she includes samples of Galileo's mission statements, grant proposals, job descriptions, and snippets from blog posts, all of which can make this part-memoir, part DIY church manual feel unwieldy. But those who can look past the clutter will appreciate this endearing introduction to a "church for people who hate church."
