7th-12th Grade

Katie Strickland

Children & Youth Minister

Katie has grown up at Fleming Island UMC.  After being formed by both the children's and youth programs herself, she now helps lead the next generation of Fleming Islanders as they grow in their spiritual journey. Katie and Dusten have two children: Henry who's in preschool and Addie who's an active toddler. They also have a dog named Tater.

Katie wants to help students find their place in the church now, believing that they have as much to give as the adults do. She helps every student who wishes find ways to use their gifts, and is seeking ways to disciple them through relationship building and mentorship. It's her goal for students to learn the joy of asking questions and discovering the Biblical truths.

Our Program

Our youth ministry has gone through some changes since COVID. Currently, we're in a rebuilding stage.  What that means is we are able to adapt experiences that meets the needs of every student.  We are currently building a new program with a three-fold approach for growth through for your student through Fellowship, Mentorship and Service.

Fellowship

Starting in April, students from 7th through 12th grade are invited to join us in the Youth Café after the service for a light lunch and fellowship. This is a very informal get together for students to give them a chance to get to know each other. We hope by doing this after church once a month, we will be able to build connections and relationships with each of our students, so we are better able to create a program that is just for them.

Mentorship

If you have a teen and are interested in connecting them with a mentor,  please fill out the Student Ministry Connection form and Pastor Faith will meet with you. We'll talk about what interests your student, how we can connect them with an adult from within our church for mentoring, and do so within a safe space for discipleship. We also want our students to feel they are valued, so we'll talk about how we can use their passions to connect them into the body of the church.

Service

Serving others is one way we are able to show Jesus' love to others.  We believe that service can be done at any age and encourage our Students to participate with our church's mission and outreach events whenever possible.  As a bonus, it will help fulfill their community service requirements for school! We have multiple ways students can be active participants in our church and earn community service hours, including helping out with children's during summer VBS, volunteering in the office, serving in worship, and many other places that may interest them. Contact Val in the church office for more information.

Upcoming Youth Service Opportunities

Upcoming Student Events

Summer Events & Activities Coming Soon

Recent Student Ministry News

October in the Bag
November 10th, 2022
October was a busy month, but we have so many things to celebrate. Many know this, but I wasn't in favor of doing the pumpkin patch this year. Why? Because I was worried it would over-tax our congregation's time. Why am I telling you this? Because I was wrong and I'm glad to be wrong.I'm a firm believer in sharing my opinion and then stepping back. The church council rallied together to bring the ...
Joseph and Pharaoh
October 25th, 2022
Joseph in the Old Testament is known for lots of things:The Coat of Many Colors (Genesis 26)Being Sold into Slavery by his Brothers (Genesis 37)Being Thrown into Jail after Refusing Advances from his boss Potipharar's Wife (Genesis 39)However, what made him famous, was the gift God gave him to interpret dreams. His talent started long before his life's troubles, and he never lost hope. His gift of...
What is the Point of Confirmation?
October 11th, 2022
Type your new text here.......
Our "In Progress" Café
August 25th, 2022
Admin West, or the Youth Room, has undergone a transformation over the past few weeks. The Café, as I'm now calling it, isn't done. With a little bit of paint, some cleaning, rearranging, and some new furniture, we hope this transformation project hope we've started down a road for our students to have a place they can call home.Years ago, the students had a space that was theirs. Many have shared...
Exciting Things for the Children & Youth
August 11th, 2022
A lot's been done in a small amount of time! I want to give Katie a big thank you for all her hard work to get ready for the Back to School bash we had this past week. It was a different kind of Sunday from what we had in the past, but we consider it a success. The kids had fun, and we got to talk with some families we hadn't seen in a while. Kids' rooms were cleaned and refreshed for the start of...

Student Ministry Connection

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Student's Info:

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Other Info:

Please enter any information regarding when you'd like to get together, information about your student, and so forth. We look forward to helping your student connect.

Adult & Youth Policies

We have strict policies regarding any person under the age of 18 being alone with an adult they aren't related to. Because are youth program is currently not in a formal format, we'll work directly with each family to work out an arrangement that ensures we do not violate these policies. Every person who volunteers in our church with children or youth are background checked and trained. These policies are in place to ensure the ongoing safety of those who volunteer and our minors, so the church is always a safe place. We appreciate your flexibility if we have to be a little creative to ensure we have proper adult ratios for your student's meeting with their spiritual mentor.

Parent Consent Forms