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OUR PASTOR
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STAFF
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MINISTRY BOARD
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ELDERS
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Reverend Monica L. Banks has served as Senior pastor, worked with regional youth programs, and founded a non-profit. She enjoys music, reading, activism, and hiking in her free time
Education:
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Monica L. Banks was raised by baptist grandparents from the age of ten. She was baptized at the age of 12 and grew up attending youth group at First Baptist Church in Fremont, Nebraska. Ms. Banks was also active in church camp and statewide youth events.
Ms. Banks is a first generation college graduate. She attended business school and pursued a B.S. in Business Leadership and Management. She graduated from College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska in 2002. Ms. Banks spent much of her early career in the hospitality industry, was a corporate trainer and general manager at chef-owned and farm to table restaurants. She is passionate about food, service, and radical hospitality. In 2012, Rev. Banks felt a call to explore a call to ministry. She began her theological education at Wake Forest School of Divinity. She studied food, health, and ecological well-being under Fred Bahnson. Rev. Banks was ordained and graduated Wake Forest May 2017 with her Master of Divinity and Concentration in Food, Health and Ecological Wellness. Rev. Banks was one of 8 awarded the 2017 Re:Generate Fellowships, which provided an opportunity for emerging leaders to consider how they might further engage pressing ecological issues, connect with peers, and better tell the story of why this work matters for the world. During her second year of seminary, Rev. Banks attended the Wild Goose Festival[1] and was selected to be part of Lead Now. Drawing on the cutting-edge leadership of the Wild Goose Festival, LEAD NOW was a life-changing opportunity that put seminarians and first-call ministers in up-close and personal practice settings with cutting-edge faith transformation authors and activists. Beginning the festival with the LEAD NOW cohort provides an opportunity to share stories and connect with the narratives of other faith leaders. This was Monica’s first…but not last time at “Goose.” She went on to be a Festival Chaplain and eventually a Co-Creator sharing the story of faith based nonprofit work and Communion as Dessert. Reverend Banks is the founder of New Communion[2], an interfaith nonprofit focused on Asset Based Community Development and food justice. She is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). She also has served as Chaplain Resident at Moses Cone hospital in Greensboro, NC and Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center with focus on pediatric chaplaincy. Rev. Banks has served as Senior Pastor of New Disciples Christian Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Upper Midwest Region of the Christian Church) and of Hyattstown Christian Church in Clarksburg, Maryland (Capital Region of the Christian Church).She is active in the Ministerial Association of the Capital Region and has shepherded Hyattstown Christian Church (most recently) in becoming officially Open and Affirming as of 2020. She enjoys music, reading, activism, hanging out with her dog JoJo, and hiking on the Appalachian trail in her free time. “I was a pebble. I was a leaf. I was the jagged branch of a tree. I was nothing to them and they were everything to me.” Cheryl Strayed Wild: From Lost To Found on the Pacific Crest Trail [1] https://wildgoosefestival.org/?v=2e5df5aa3470. [2] http://www.newcommunion.org/. |
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Music
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Support
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Susan Doherty, organist.
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Patty Markwell, Ministry Assistant/Communications/Administration
Barbara Ireland, Accountant/Bookkeeper
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The Ministry Board is the leadership group responsible for guiding the vision and mission of the church. While the church staff gets to work on the day-to-day work of preparing weekly services and tending to spiritual needs of our community, the Ministry Board develops policies and strategies to spread the Good News of the Gospel through action, word and deed.
The Ministry Board includes the following groups: Administrative Committee: Moderator, Vice-Moderator, Secretary, Treasurer Members At Large: 3 members The chair from the following groups serves on the Ministry Board: Trustees and Elders The Ministry Board hears reports from the following groups in our church which have the following composition: Trustees: Chair, 4 additional members, 1 staff member Elders: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, 6 additional members Stewardship & Finance Committee: Chair, Vice-Chair, 3 additional members, 2 staff members Nominating Committee: Chair, 5 additional members, and 1 staff member Personnel Committee: Chair, 3 additional members, 1 staff member Missions & Outreach: Chair, 5 additional members, 1 staff member |
“We value all of God's diversity in the world and we try to embody that in all areas of our church leadership and staff”
FCC's elders consist of a Chair, Vice-Chair, and 6 members. The elders rotate each Sunday to help in communion and offering. Our elders are the spiritual leaders in all aspects of our church. They also make visits to our fellow disciples in the hospital or in care facilities.
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First Christian Church