Rising Stars: Meet David Welker

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Welker.

Hi David, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m just a guy from the wrong side of the tracks who has lived a blessed life by the grace of God. After growing up in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in Painesville, Ohio, I married my now wife of 34 years. We married at 20 and were not even old enough to toast at our wedding! Six months later, I made another life-changing decision to follow Jesus, a decision I have never looked back on. Shannon (my wife) & I would then attend a Vineyard church in Wickliffe, Ohio. We learned about God’s love, how to be a Christian & demonstrate the love of Christ to the world around us. I would then become an assistant/associate pastor at that church before joining another Vineyard church meeting in Berea, Ohio (the church is now in Parma, Ohio). In our 17 years of helping lead and becoming an assistant pastor at Vineyard Parma, Shannon & I had the unique opportunity to be involved in international missions. We traveled to Mexico, Siberia, Russia, India, and South Africa and led teams to Brazil’s Amazon region. We would then spend six years pastoring a church in Mankato, MN, before moving in August of 2022 to Urbana, Ohio, to pastor Crossway Vineyard. We’re honored to serve alongside a beautiful community church to bring hope to our community, demonstrating and sharing the love of Jesus with our neighbors.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Living forward in life’s trajectory has been challenging. Marrying so young presented its complexities, being a young parent and raising a son and daughter with little resources in the way of money. We had plenty of resources regarding family support, a church family, and a love of Jesus at the center. Growing in our faith has also had its disappointments and pains. Pastors feel things a little differently. I’ve had moments of performing marriages, being at the hospital for the birth of babies, then at the hospital again to be with families as they said goodbye to their loved ones. We sometimes shared life with families, resulting in them moving away or leaving the church. I can tell you that even though we want God’s best for those we care about, pastors tend to feel a particular pain when those relationships end. But from early on, we’ve had challenges. When Shannon & I first married (we lived with our parents then), we had very little. Regarding furniture, we owed a swivel rattan chair, and that was it! We used a cardboard box as our dinner table for our first dinner in our apartment. I gave Shannon the swivel chair to sit in, and I sat on a milk crate. Today, we look back at those challenging times in life with fondness. Not just because of its romantic notions but because, looking back, there was always a sense of God’s nearness and care for our lives.

Let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I pastor a church in rural Central Ohio called Crossway Vineyard Church. I regularly teach on Sundays and at special events. I get the most joy out of raising leaders and seeing them succeed in the gifts they’ve been given. I told my church that I began working myself out of a job the day I started. That’s one area I see as a need in the church (or any other organization), but we aren’t very good at giving leadership away. If we don’t do that, we risk seeing vision & purpose dying off in one generation.

At the moment, I’m most proud of our “Seeds of Love” food pantry & ministry. Not only are we confronting the felt need for security in our county, but our church has grasped the vision for this ministry. Nearly every person at Crossway Vineyard is involved in some way. We’re building a relationship with our greater community.

For a rural church, we can make a significant impact on hope. We have relationships with the Sioux Falls Vineyard, the Vineyard Church in Brazil (Igreja da Vinha), an orphanage in Kenya, and local works in our city, such as Sycamore House (a pregnancy & family life center that serves Champaign County, Ohio. We’re what I’d call a “global” (both global & local) church. We’re also exploring creative ways to offer a place for community for those in Urbana. We’re looking forward to starting “Urbana Ukulele,” a local / community ukulele group meeting at our church. I’m also excited that our online presence is making a difference, particularly our YouTube channel. We don’t have a high-tech presentation, but we’re a growing resource to churches in Ohio & the more significant US and different places worldwide. We have a solid following and have impacted the UK, South Africa, and other parts of the globe.

What makes you happy?
My two-year-old granddaughter (whom I call Lil’ Boo) makes me most happy. Spending time with my wife and family is a high priority and keeps me happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crosswayvineyard.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crosswayvineyardchurch
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrosswayVineyardChurch
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/CrosswayVineyard

Image Credits
Images have been taken by David Welker, participants in our mission teams and church members. We own the rights to all images.