“I love the Free Methodist Church, and I love
pg. 24 — lightandlifemagazine.com
urfm You are the church
and am called to youth ministry.”
— Zach Fleming
Fleming becomes director after serving on the
FM:Infuse team for 10 years. He joined the executive
leadership five years ago, and he was heavily involved
in planning and hosting the Free Methodist Youth
Conference three years ago. Teens and youth leaders
who participated in FMYC 2017 may remember him
from his creative antics onstage as an emcee alongside
Chadwick Anderson.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to be able
to serve the denomination in this way. I love the Free
Methodist Church, and I love and am called to youth
ministry,” Fleming said. “I am so thrilled, honored and
humbled honestly to lead and serve in this way.”
He recently was asked by the Board of Bishops to
lead FM:Infuse after being recommended by outgoing
Director Jeremy Lefler. Fleming studied youth ministry
in McPherson at Central Christian College of Kansas
and, while serving at the McPherson FMC, later earned
a master’s degree in youth ministry leadership from
Huntington University.
Fleming said he sensed a call to youth ministry a little
later than the typical youth pastor.
“I graduated high school in 1998. I really came to
know the Lord and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior
when I was 20,” Fleming said.
After his conversion, he began serving and volunteering
through the local Youth for Christ organization. He felt
God calling him to youth ministry and began to look
into where he could receive more training. A Yahoo
search changed the course of his future.
“Central was one of the hits that popped up,” said
Fleming, who liked that the college would allow him
an experience somewhere other than his hometown
of Mattoon, Illinois. “I felt like a fresh start was really
important and met with Lenny Favara who was teaching
youth ministry and was the campus pastor at the time. I
really connected with Lenny.”
Favara is now Central’s president, and Fleming is now
the longtime youth pastor at the FM church bordering
the Central campus.
“I came to McPherson in the fall of 2001, and I’ve been
here ever since,” Fleming said. “I didn’t know what a Free
Methodist was until I came to Central. I had no idea.”
Fleming soon developed a love for the Free Methodist
denomination. He even met his wife, Suzanne, while
they were both college students serving as summer
staff at Sky Lodge Christian Camp, a Free Methodist
campground in Montello, Wisconsin. They married in
2005, and they now have three children, Isaac, 11; Karis,
9; and Bella, 8.
Fleming emphasizes the freedoms of Free Methodism
to students, and he and other FM:Infuse leaders believe
FMYC is key to students understanding and connecting
with the denomination.
“For any church, you have so many options for what
to do with teenagers for a week during the summer,” said
Fleming, who described FMYC as “distinctively Free
Methodist in that we want to create an environment that
helps our Free Methodist students know that they’re
part of something bigger than their local church, that
they’re part of a larger family that’s a global family.”
FM:Infuse leaders are currently planning the next
FMYC to be held from June 28 to July 2, 2021, on the
campus of Colorado State University in Fort Collins,
Colorado.
“We’re so excited with some of the things that we see
being birthed for FMYC 2021 especially as it relates to
helping teenagers identify calling, identify gifting and
how to lean into that gifting,” said Fleming, who added
that instead of merely using the resources of the Fort
Collins community and then leaving, organizers are
looking at ways to incorporate elements of service to the
community that reflect “the heart of Free Methodism.”
More information about FMYC 2021 is expected
soon. Follow the event’s Instagram page at instagram.
com/fmyc2021 for updates.+
Jeff Finley is this magazine’s
executive editor. As a teenager,
he attended IYC (forerunner to
FMYC) in 1988 and 1991 and then
covered FMYC in 2014 and 2017
for LIGHT + LIFE.
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