Wild lifestyle turns into passion for Christ
Twenty-two years ago wild teenager Danny MacKay found Christ in the backseat of a stolen car.
“When I met Christ in 1991 I was totally lost and caught up in the world and living for myself. When I hit rock bottom I stole a car and ran away from home. In the back of that car I got a hold of a book that led me to Christ two days later,” MacKay, a Briercrest College and Seminary graduate, explained.
“I just remember hearing the gospel and experiencing Christ at such a hopeless place. It is just a fire in my soul to turn that around and declare Christ to as many people as possible. To continuously reach out to the lost and broken because it is everything I want to do on this earth.”
And declaring Christ is a passion that MacKay didn’t waste any time in pursuing.
“My first year of high school after I got saved I led about 25 people to Christ in the school. Since being saved sharing Christ has always just kind of poured out and has been the way that I roll,” he laughed.
Since then MacKay has been involved in a variety of different ministries that focus on sharing Christ with others. Currently he is the director of community development at Camp Arnes, but is transitioning into his new position as director of ministry advancement with an organization called I am Second.
While the transition out of his current role at the camp is bittersweet, he feels his newest position is where God has been leading him his whole life.
“Every other ministry I have been a part of has been these steps towards this. I honestly feel this position at I am Second is what God has been preparing me for all along,” he said.
MacKay explained I am Second is a movement that started in the States and has only recently been introduced into Canada.
“It is a movement that is meant to inspire people to live for God and to find His purposes for their life and to equip them and train them to share the gospel with those around them,” he said.
“We are also in 60 different countries sending out a team every second day of the calendar year. We have thousands of missionaries getting mobilized. Our whole goal is to take the gospel where there is no local church within walking distance. So we are in some pretty crazy places and that is pretty cool.”
In his new position MacKay will be responsible for leading the national team across Canada and getting people exciting about sharing Christ.
“Basically I look after partnerships and recruitment. I am kind of a spokesperson for the organization,” he said. “So I do a ton of speaking across Canada and get people excited about missions and putting God first and getting them equipped to reach their networks and bring the gospel to whoever is around them.”
MacKay said one way God prepared him for this position was his time as a Briercrest student.
“Briercrest really grounded me in a lot of knowledge about the Bible and how to study scripture and I think my favourite classes were missions,” he said.
“I learnt so much about it and I got so passionate about bringing the gospel to the nations under Jean Barsness, as well as learning to develop spiritual discipline and learn how to pray. It helped to get my thoughts and theology organized. I just grew so much in that time.”
MacKay hopes in his new position he will help others come to know the love of Christ that saved him, especially in the parts of the world that have never heard the gospel before.
“That to me is the ultimate goal, to plant churches amongst the worlds most unreached and to inspire as many people along the way to get involved with that mission,” he said.
“Basically if I were to sum up my life it is to go to some of these places, bring a team with me, have them experience God on the absolute front lines, have them come back motivated, inspired and changed and ready to reach their people in telling their stories in a public platform and bringing more people on the next trip.”