On Sunday, September 30, worshipers at the Waverly First Presbyterian Church marked the 20th anniversary of their pastor’s service with a special fellowship time following the service.

The Rev. Richard S. Hays began his ministry in Waverly October 1, 1987, following an eleven year pastorate at the Rockford, Ohio, Presbyterian Church. With his guidance and support, in 2001 the congregation moved out of an 1840’s inaccessible downtown building into a contemporary, functional, hospitable (and, since 2005, debt-free) building with room to grow and expand if the need presents itself.

The church session surprised Rick and his wife Paula this summer by presenting them with a four week sabbatical opportunity. They attended the National Pastor’s Sabbath in Snowbird, Utah, spent a week at Ghost Ranch, and attended a week-long training event on church transformation in Chicago, in addition to wonderful sight-seeing in the Southwest.

Since becoming a member of Scioto Valley Presbytery, Rick has been involved a many aspects of the presbytery’s work. He chaired the former Division of Care of Churches, the Bills and Overtures committee, and the Hanging Rock Area ministry. He was presbytery moderator 1998-99 and was a commissioner to two General Assemblies. He was recently elected Stated Clerk of the presbytery and will be installed at the November presbytery meeting.

Paula serves as choir director the Waverly church. For seven years she was a Christian Education consultant for the Hanging Rock Area and coordinator for the presbytery’s Jackson resource center.

When Rick and Paula moved to Waverly their children Elizabeth and were ages 11 and 7, respectively. Today, Elizabeth uses her Ph.D. in physics at NASA’s Goddard Space Center, Greenbelt, MD, and Drew recently completed work for his D.F.A. in Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is teaching at Greensboro’s Guilford College.