FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Our Staff

Fred Darbonne - Pastor

Pastor Fred came to First Christian Church in April 2006, having served previous congregations as pastor in Washington, Idaho, Kansas, and Iowa.   He has undergraduate degrees from Seattle Bible College and Northwest College in Kirkland, Washington, and is a graduate of the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.  He completed two units of Clinical Pastoral Education at the VA Medical Center in Wichita, Kansas, with a special focus on family systems and post-traumatic stress disorder.  After seminary Fred did further graduate studies at the University of Iowa School of Social Work.  He was ordained in 1994.

 Personally, Fred enjoys classical music and jazz, particularly anything by Handel or Vivaldi on the classical side, and anything by Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr., or Rosemary Clooney on the jazz/popular side.  His favorite music of all time is Handel’s Messiah.  An avid reader, Fred is particularly interested in works on leadership, technology, and systems theory.  He also enjoys many periodicals on culture and current events.  The best food this side of heaven in Fred’s opinion is Italian, followed closely by pancakes, preferably multi-grain.  And then there is a good, strong, hot cup of coffee, which Fred enjoys sharing with anyone who has time.

Gwen Meek – Music Director

Gwen started playing piano when she was 5 years old and started playing the organ at 10.  She performed in various recitals and competitions throughout her school years and even learned to play the flute.  She was in band and orchestra in high school as well as in the choir. 

Gwen attended Mt. Mercy College and graduated in 1982 with a BA in Piano Pedagogy (Piano Teaching).  Although she has had a few piano and organ students over the years, she has done a lot more playing for churches in the Cedar Rapids area.  Some of these have been St. John’s Lutheran in Ely, St. Stephens Lutheran in Cedar Rapids and First Christian Church.  She also has done fill in work for at least a dozen other churches.  She says because of this she has gotten to play many of the best organs in the area.

She is a currently a member of the Cedar Rapids Beethoven Club.

Mary Flock – Secretary

Mary attended Western Wisconsin Technical College to pursue a degree in Visual Communications.  Mary and her husband moved to Cedar Rapids exactly one week after getting married and have lived here for over 20 years.  After the births of their two daughters, Mary went back to work various jobs in the editorial field including Telecom USA Publishing Company (now known as Yellow Book), Henry Russell Bruce Advertising Agency and Aegon.  While at HRB, Mary also worked as the backup Administrative Assistant.  As a former resident of Wisconsin, Mary is, of course, a Green Bay Packer fan and went so far as to buy stock in the team to become one of the owners of the only publicly owned team in the NFL.

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