New England's Youth Ministers DAVID BIELIK

This is the fifth in a series on youth ministers serving in New England.
This week is an interview with David Bielik, student and worship minister at
CrossWay Christian Church in Nashua, NH.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I grew up in St. Charles, Missouri, just outside of St. Louis. I have two brothers. My parents divorced when I was two years old, so I don't remember my parents ever being together. My mom wanted us to be involved with a church, so she started taking us to Harvester Christian Church. Growing up in a church like Harvester was helpful on multiple levels because there were great people influencing all of our lives and supporting us through healthy relationships. And I became very involved in the youth group.

When it came time to decide where I wanted to go to college, I was wrestling with whether to pursue teaching or music and working with a church. I ended up attending Milligan College where I took a lot of Bible classes, but I was still struggling with whether I wanted to teach or get into music. Because I valued my student ministry experience at Harvester so much, that finally influenced me to want to make a difference in the lives of students in the context of ministry.

How did New England enter the picture?

Ron Kastens, the preaching minister at CrossWay, graduated from Milligan and had the same preaching professor that I had. So when it came time for me to fulfill my internship requirements, he suggested I come up to CrossWay.

How was the internship?

It was great! I witnessed a community in worship, not just a group of individuals worshipping next to each other. There is a hunger for community in New England that I had not experienced before. As a result of my internship in New England, my desire to do full-time ministry was renewed. At that point in time I planned to return to the Midwest with the hope of implementing some of what I had seen and learned. Returning to New England for ministry was not even on my radar.

So you went back to finish school. What happened next?

After being back in Missouri for awhile, Ron Kastens called and asked me if I would be interested in filling the Student Ministries position at CrossWay. I have to admit that I hesitated at first because I had not even considered doing ministry in New England. Besides, I was engaged at this point, so the decision was not mine alone to make. But my fiance responded by saying, "I guess we're going to New England." So we both graduated in May of 2006, were married two weeks later, and were in New Hampshire two weeks after that.

What was your Student Ministry experience before you arrived?

I have been leading out in student ministries ever since high school on a volunteer basis. I continued helping out in any way that I could during my college years. My limited experience was with students who for the most part had grown up in the church.

Okay, now that you have arrived in New Hampshire, what were those first months like?

There was no formal middle school ministry. However, there was a very active high school group. The interesting thing to me is that when I came to CrossWay to do my preaching internship, I had very little interaction with the students. Since most internships are pretty focused, I did not share with anyone that I could lead in music and even had to turn down some opportunities to help out with the students so that I could fulfill my internship responsibilities. The first area where I focused my energies was in working with the adult volunteers to prepare a mission statement for the student ministry. This time working together helped in bonding and building relationships as we worked together for the benefit of our students. They have a passion for and take ownership in serving our students.

What does building relationships with the students of CrossWay look like for you?

I try to simply meet them in the context of their everyday lives. Many of them have jobs, so I try to stop in where they work just to say "hello." I also enjoy going to their games, concerts, and plays. They really appreciate it when someone other than their family takes time to do that. CrossWay is very relational in its approach to discipleship, teaching, and modeling life. We are not a program driven church, and I really want to build genuine relations with the students here.

What are some of your goals for 2008?

Since several of our students will be moving from middle school to high school, we want to help them manage this change in their lives. Many of these students are making steps towards Christ before they enter high school, so we want to empower and encourage them this year. Another goal is preparing for growth. Being in a new facility, we have new families coming to CrossWay every week. As new students come to CrossWay, we want to be ready to meet them and provide opportunities for them to connect with our youth.

Our church has a group going to the Dominican Republic this winter, and there are four students going on this trip. It was scheduled to fall during the winter break so the experience will be fresh in everyone's mind when they return to school. It will be neat for the students to talk with their friends about the tremendous experience they had over break.

Any conversion stories you'd like to share?

I immediately think of a girl whose rough exterior is beginning to transform. The change can be seen in what she now puts on her MySpace page, as well as the way she asks questions and responds in conversation.

So much of student culture is about simply giving an answer for what you believe in--whether it's to fit in or just to get by. I hope and pray that our students are beginning to see that it is about how we live our lives that speaks louder than the answers we give.

To read more about CrossWay Christian Church, go to www.crosswaycc.org.