Who We Are
We are a youth group based out of Broadway Church in Chilliwack, BC focused on apprenticing under Jesus Christ. Our staff and volunteers are followers of Jesus, and we pass on His teachings, yet students of many different faith positions call our community “home”. We exist to give youth a safe and enjoyable space to grow, ask questions, laugh, cry, pray, worship and belong. We think it’s important to just be a kid sometimes and we plan some pretty sweet activities with that in mind. We also see the value in growing into adulthood with intention and support, so we spend time learning God’s Word and building life long relationships too. We know life is full of challenges and uncertainties, and we aim to equip the students we meet to persevere and overcome. Ultimately, we desire that our students would know and model their lives after Jesus. Our program isn’t perfect and our leaders don’t always have all the answers, but we are carefully following a God whose strength is made perfect in weakness.
Our Staff Team
Zack Melhus, Youth and Young Adults Pastor
Zack has been on staff here for 10 years and currently serves as our Youth and Young Adults Pastor. He provides guidance for our highschool and young adults ministries and works alongside a fantastic team of passionate volunteers. Zack is thankful that he gets to learn so much about Jesus from his students and loves seeing people develop a sense of joy and anticipation as they discover their part in God's big story. Zack and his wife Riley-Ann love living in an area as beautiful as this, and they spend a lot of time together out on the trails in the mountains of Chilliwack, often with books and cameras in hand. The book Zack recommends most often is A Creative Minority by Jon Tyson and Heather Grizzle. It is a short, realistic and encouraging handbook to being a part of God’s Kingdom in our cultural moment.
Richard Franckiewicz, Middle School Youth Pastor and Media Director
Richard and his wife Jennifer married in 2020 and have two sons, William and Thomas. Richard and Jennifer both grew up in Chilliwack, and absolutely love this city. Richard is passionate about seeing God move in the lives of teens, and helping them understand and experience God’s unconditional love. Richard happily refers to himself as a ‘jack-of-all-nerds’ who enjoys a little bit of anything nerdy, be it a sci-fi or fantasy movie, board games, card games, video games, or pretty much whatever you can do while sitting on a couch or around a table. He also enjoys the getting outside to play with his sons, throw frisbees, and search for waterfalls. One book Richard recommends as beneficial for anyone who wants to be winsome in their faith is Messy Truth by Caleb Kaltenbach.