This image is the cover for the book We Were Spiritual Refugees

We Were Spiritual Refugees

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.

Katie Hays, Doug Pagitt

  Katie Hays is the founder and lead evangelist of Galileo Church, a church that seeks and shelters spiritual refugees, especially young adults and LGBTQ+ people, on the outskirts of Fort Worth, Texas. She is also the author of We Were Spiritual Refugees: A Story to Help You Believe in Church and the coauthor, with Susan Chiasson, of Family of Origin, Family of Choice: Stories of Queer Christians.

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company