David Nickel was raised in the Mennonite congregations of Mountain Lake, Minnesota. He graduated from Hesston College in 1999, Goshen College in 2002, and the Duke Divinity School in 2010. He served in Ukraine with Mennonite Central Committee from 2004-2007.
Nickel volunteered in prisons in Ukraine, North Carolina, and Nebraska for 15 years and served four years as a community-funded prison chaplain from 2011-2015.
Nickel has been the pastor at First Mennonite Church in Lincoln, Nebraska since 2015.