Who's on Staff?

James Leman - Senior Pastor

James grew up a missionary kid on a Indian Reservation in eastern Montana. This childhood helped shape his worldview and his desire to see people come to a life changing knowledge of Jesus. He felt called into full-time pastoral ministry as a freshman in college, but it took another 8 years for him to end up in a church setting.

Now at FFMC, he is excited about pushing and challenging people to order their entire lives around Jesus Christ. His heartbeat is connecting those who currently know and passionately worship Christ, and those who are willing to live in authentic community, with those who have not yet had their lives transformed by Jesus.

James is also passionate about his family. He's been married to Abby since 1999. They are blessed with two sons, Sam and JJ.

James loves being in God's creation - backpacking, bicycling, rafting, camping, and the list could go on. But what he really enjoys is a good round of disc golf in just about any weather. He believes the disc golf course is the best place for an official "meeting!"

Kenji Nitta - Associate Pastor - Youth and Young Adults

Kenji was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Having grown up in a non-religious home, Kenji explored spirituality through his study of the martial arts and philosophy. He went through high school as a practicing Buddhist and a devoted atheist. Eventually, in his late teens, Kenji converted to Christianity.

Kenji has worked a variety of jobs outside of church organizations, including tutoring reading, coaching and competing in mixed martial arts, managing a retail store, teaching guitar, and doing many kinds of grunt work. Kenji has also served the church passionately in a variety of ministry positions. Kenji has been a church planter, administrative assistant, youth pastor, music director, and a lead pastor within church organizations. Kenji now serves First Church as an Associate Pastor. He will primarily be of help in preaching and ministering to the younger generation at First Church, although he will also assist in other areas as well.

Kenji is married to his lovely wife of ten years, Michelle. Together they have three daughters, Hope, Liliana, and Alyssa. Kenji often watches kung fu movies to re-affirm his manhood!!! Kenji oversees the Ikon Gym, a mixed martial arts ministry. He and his family live in Spokane, WA.

Tim Scully - Director of Worship and Technology

You might be thinking to yourself "Worship and Technology? That's a weird combo..." But that's exactly what Tim loves to do! Born and raised in the Spokane Valley, Tim has a passion for all things geek, as well as a deep love and appreciation for the arts. But when he's not on the computer, tinkering with something, or playing his guitar, you can find him working on his house, watching a movie with his wife of 3 years, playing a video game, or reading a good book.

Tim grew up in a Christian home and invited Jesus into his life at a very young age. He stepped into the music world taking piano and clarinet lessons from his mom, and picked up the guitar from a friend. Starting out in the youth group band, and eventually leading on the Sunday morning worship team, Tim has been leading worship for about 10 years now, and will admit that he still gets a little nervous when speaking in front of people.

Tim is the incredibly blessed husband of Christine, the goofy human of his dog Mac, and the proud father-to-be of his son, Tayne, due in July! They currently live in the Spokane Valley.

Orval Dean - Pastoral Care

Orval is a native of Eastern Washington. He grew up in the Colbert area and lives there today. Over the years he's tried more than a few things to stay out of trouble: dairy farmer, merchant seaman, logger, truck driver. But now days when someone goes into the hospital we call on Dr. Orval Dean. And that makes sense - after graduating from Whitworth College he went on to the University of Washington, School of Medicine, served his internship at St. Luke's Hospital became a flight surgeon (USAF), then went into general practice and occupational medicine. Yet, that's not the only reason we ask Orval to fill this role. The real reason is Orval has an incredible gift and deep desire to care for people in crisis. Imagine, a doctor who wants to make house-calls. Over the years he has also traveled annually to Honduras to provide medical service and supplies to a mission school.

He's married to Josephine, his wife of 50 years. They have two sons, a daughter, and six grandchildren.