More About Bishop Daniel
A: Growing up, missions wasn't just my parent's thing—it was our family thing. GFA World began when I was just 3 years old. Everywhere my parents traveled together on the mission field or to various churches to promote the ministry around the US, my sister and I went with them. We'd be on the train for 14 hours, on the bus, visiting churches all around the world.
As a kid, my understanding of missions was very limited. I was used to our family existing in two very different cultures, but that was just normal life for me. It wasn't until I was a little older that I really started to grasp what we were part of.
I learned a lot from just listening to my father talk to others and watching how he lived. I remember him always challenging people to live in light of eternity. And him asking people to ask the question: "How will they be reached," talking about those who didn't know Jesus yet.
I grew up watching my mom let my father travel for months at a time with no complaint. And I knew from a very early age that serving God requires sacrifice.
My understanding of missions was if God gives you an opportunity, it will be challenging whatever it is.
A: I remember one time when I was a little boy we were driving through crowded cities in South Asia with my parents and looking out the window at a little boy begging near our vehicle. We had to be about the same age at the time. And I distinctly remember looking at him and thinking, "I'll probably never see this kid again. Why is my life so different than his? Why didn't God choose to have us switch places?" And it really stuck with me that God had given me this incredible privilege to know Him from such a young age, and I should never squander that gift.
A: From a pretty young age, I knew God was calling me to missions. I assumed it would be continuing with GFA in some way, though I didn't know how specifically.
After high school, I went to seminary and earned my theological degree, followed by serving on the mission field for nearly a decade. While I was on the mission field, I got to work with our leaders there and be a part of the team. I got to be a part of planning and see an idea formed, carried out and accomplished. My experience on the field gave me an even greater appreciation for our people on the mission field. These people are very, very capable leaders, incredible leaders from the bishops and priests to the mission leaders. There's no one else like them in the world. They are the best. They're extremely godly, extremely capable, and they are very, very focused on what God has asked them to do.
Later on, I came back to the US from the mission field and began serving with GFA World. I would travel 20-30 weekends each year going from church to church to share about the ministry. Eventually, I began overseeing the day-to-day operations of GFA World as the Vice President. I was responsible for interacting with our leaders on the mission field and guiding the development of our office here in the States.
A: When I was still in high school during summer break, I had the amazing privilege of joining a group of missionaries on a mobile team that went from village to village, showing a movie on the life of Christ.
For months, we traveled together, living out of van, sleeping wherever we could find shelter and showing a movie on the life of Jesus to people who had never before even heard His name. Many people had never even seen a movie before so watching this film would grip them. I remember time and time again seeing the faces of these people as their hearts broke watching the crucifixion and then how they would rejoice at His resurrection! In many of those villages we went, you can now go back and find a church with dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of people still worshipping the Lord.
A: As the ministry began to grow, my father did a lot of research into why missions functioned the way it did. After World War II, 80% of the countries in the 10/40 window closed down to outsiders coming in as missionaries. So when my father published Revolution in World Missions, he wasn't inventing national missionaries, he was just bringing them to the forefront as a solution to reaching these closed nations with the love of Christ.
The business world had already been following this system for years. If you look in many of these countries, you will find Pepsi and Coke and many others had been functioning with trusted nationals who were leading the work and growing their companies.
However, the missions world hadn't been following that model yet. The primary system was still utilizing cross-cultural missionaries from the West being sent to the East. So what my father did was he challenged the churches in the West by telling them to "Ask the right question and you will know the right answer." And the right question was, "What is the best way for these people to hear about Christ" not, "How can we reach them."
He never said not to send people cross-culturally. If the Lord was leading someone to go, then by all means they should go. But for many places, when the question was asked, "What is the best, most effective way to reach this group of people with the love of Christ?" the answer was national missionaries.
GFA World has now been promoting and encouraging national missionaries for well over 40 years, and at this point it has become almost common place.
A: What GFA World has now done in these 40 years is not just carve a path for national missions in the missions world, but we are leading the way in understanding that the book of Acts is our blueprint for life and missions. Where missions happens, the next step is the Holy Church is established so that people can actually be part of a worshipping community, receiving the graces of God in a place of worship. And that was not fully understood in classic missions. These people who find the love of Christ aren't just left on their own. They are brought into a church and taught the ways of Christ.
My father would say, "It's not enough for people to actually hear about Christ or even embrace Him. They must be brought into the Church itself. Otherwise, missions is not complete." Missions is following the book of Acts, and I believe that is one of the greatest strengths GFA World has and God continues to use us in this.
A: Growing up, I learned a lot of key lessons regarding leadership from my father. Number one, is that you will answer to God for how you lead people. You have to be prepared to stand before God and give account for how you have led others. If you don't have an attitude of awe and reverence, you're going to make some really bad decisions.
The second lesson is that a leader must have direction—you can't lead people aimlessly. A shepherd knows where he's going. He knows where to lead the sheep. He knows what they need. He knows his sheep so well that he knows when they're not well, he knows when they need to eat, when they need to drink. And a strong leader must love and know his people, and not just know what work needs to be done.
That's what I've seen in my father's entire life of almost 60 years of leadership. Over those many, many years I watched as he became increasingly patient and understanding of people. At the same time, he never lost his passion and zeal and the conviction that he challenged everyone with. However, he grew more understanding as he got older, that people desperately need to know God, and it's not just about getting more work done. Because if work is done apart from God helping us, then that work will not last in eternity.
Some of the books that he wrote, we still continue to read The Lord's Work Done in the Lord's way, How to Maintain a Godly Organization, Crisis in Leadership—those are all from his leadership examples that you must lead with God's help, not from mere knowledge.
Is that something I've been able to fully live out? No, it'll take me my whole lifetime to live that out. But at least I know the direction I need to be leading in, and I will continue on in it as long as God gives me the grace.
A: Serving on the mission field has given me such a unique experience for understanding so much of what our ministry is like on a very practical level. I don't have to simply sit in a board room reading reports and strain to wrap my head around a world I don't understand. I've been there, lived there, seen what the work and daily life is like, and all of that has significantly contributed to my leadership now. Whenever I make decisions that will impact the mission field, I have those people in mind, people who are like my family.
I can look back now and see that the Lord has been guiding me and has had His hand upon me all my life, whether I could see it at the time or not. And this perspective helps give me faith that He will continue to guide me, and us as ministry, as we continue to go forward into the future.
