Our Staff

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Chris Carlson, our Transitional Pastor, began his service at First Presbyterian in April 2021.  A Transitional Pastor is just like any other Pastor. They preach teach, lead, and provide all types of Pastoral Care. However, they also have the important task of helping a church prepare for the arrival of a new Pastor.  Pastor Chris believes that one of his main goals is to make the transition to a new Pastor and the new ministry come as smooth as possible. 

Pastor Chris was ordained in 1983. Over the years, he served churches from small to very large in North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Minnesota, and Florida. In 2017, he retired from the installed pastoral ministry and became a part of ECO’s Certified Transitional Pastor Program. He has served two churches as a CTP: Haines Presbyterian Church in Haines Alaska from 2018-19, and Westfield Presbyterian Church near New Castle, PA from 2019-20. In addition to his pastoral ministry, he also had the privilege of serving as a Chaplain in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1987-2014. 

Chris has been married to his wife Cyndi for 42 years. Cyndi is a retired R.N and over the years worked in many areas of Nursing in both full and part-time roles. She retired in 2014. They have three daughters who are married, and each have a boy and girl of their own. They both greatly enjoy their roles of Nana and Papa to their grandchildren.

Cyndi and Chris have lived in a fifth-wheel RV off and on for the last several years. Both have enjoyed traveling and experiencing many different parts of the country. Chris loves to play golf and will play as often as he can, especially in the summer. Chris looks forward to being the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church during this season of its church life and seeing what God will do in the church as it prepares for its new Pastor and ministry. 

• Our Youth Director is a veteran of Youth Ministry with over 28 years of youth ministry experience. Steve is in charge of our Highlife and Frontline youth programs as well as doing many “techy” things around the church. Steve is married to the love of his life, Susan. Together, they have three adult children Stephen, Joshua, and Laura. In his free time, he enjoys coaching football for Albert Lea High School and for the Albert Lea Grizzlies. Steve has been at First Presbyterian Church since 2001.

•  Our Director of Children and Family Ministries is Dean Christianson. Dean is the stereotypical "kid who never grew up." As such, he is a perfect leader for KidZone - the cornerstone of our Children's Ministries. Dean’s wife, Kay, is a perfect match for Dean. Together they have two adult children. Dean’s faith can be summed up in this statement; “I believe that LIVING for GOD is dangerous, miraculous, thrilling, powerful, on-the-edge, amazing!” Dean loves gardening and has one of the “showcase” yards in town.

• Our Tech and Programming assistant is Dan Jones. With our growing ministries we felt that we needed help with our kids in the church so we brought on Dan. Dan was apart of our high school ministry and felt called to go into ministry because of what he learned through our church. Dan attended Ozark Christian College where he earned a degree in general ministry. Dan is a guy who loves family and friends. He enjoys many sports but his favorite team will always be the Minnesota Vikings! Dan also enjoys being able to minister to an online community through playing video games! Dan is glad to be working at the church he went through youth group in and is excited about the great things God is doing at First Presbyterian Church.