Danny Walters graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Engineering. He was heavily involved in Chi Alpha as a small group leader, president, and resource leader. Danny now lives right outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with his wife where he is working for Phoenix Contact (an industrial electronics and automation company) and he is a part of the product marketing team for their networking products. He also serves at a local church where he continues to pursue college students to live on mission.
What was your involvement in Chi Alpha like?
I was involved with Purdue XA all 5 years I was there. During that time I served as the student president for two years, a small group leader for 3, and a resource leader for my last year.
How did Chi Alpha impact your life?
Chi Alpha impacted my life many times. The biggest impact it had was helping me discover my identity as a disciple-maker and viewing my life, not through the lens of what was comfortable, but through the lens of having gospel impact. When choosing a job or where to live. I learned I should be focused on where God might want to send me to make disciples instead of how to make the most money or what area had the best weather. I was to partner with God in whatever He was doing in and around the city where my job was. I was to follow God’s lead through whichever door He opened and trust His provision every step of the way.
How are you continuing to live on mission and be involved in discipleship?
The primary way that I am live on mission is by serving on the leadership team for the college student and young professionals ministry at a local AG church (Christian Life Assembly). There are 6 colleges within 35 minutes of our church and God has opened some really cool doors to serve my local church by ministering to college students and recent college grads that are in transition. At work, I have had some small discipleship opportunities with new hires that are going through the same rotational program I went through when I started.
What advice would you give other alumni who are trying to live on mission in the marketplace?
My best advice would be the advice us seniors got from our campus pastor before we graduated. She told us that we should not walk into our local church with pride, questioning why they did things the way they did. She encouraged us to serve at everything we possibly could and “become like the wall paper” at our church. She said that we didn’t need an official platform as a small group leader to find a Timothy to train or a Paul to be trained by. This advice has been extremely helpful for me as I have navigated how to transition out of XA and fall in love with the local church. Through submitting to what God was doing through my local church and the authority of my pastor, God showed me ministry opportunities and ways to serve that I didn’t even think existed. Oftentimes our plans for ministry and God’s plans for ministry look different. Sometimes we may think our church should do ministry differently; However, God is not holding us responsible for changing our local churches and reaching an entire city. God is holding us responsible for what He places in front of us. He is holding us responsible for how we honor the authority of our pastors and other leaders at our church. At the end of the day, we need to be ok with being “entrusted with little.” As we are faithful with little, we will be entrusted with a lot. As we honor authority and trust that they probably know things that we don’t, we will find favor with them and learn the answers to questions we didn’t even know to ask.