Daniel Fusco is that rarest of people – he’s been blessed with the talent to live out his dream! So when the budding jazz musician began touring professionally as an upright bassist, he figured he’d found his path. It turned out, a surprise was on it’s way.
“I’m living my dream – ever since I was a teenager I wanted to be a professional musician. And I’m on the road, and I’m doing this as a career. Everything’s taking off!”
“I remember I was reading about fasting. I’d never fasted before. Being Italian, the idea of skipping food didn’t make any sense. So I was talking to my pastor, and I said, ‘Hey – what is the deal with fasting?’ He started laughing, and he explained it to me.”
“I decided I was going to fast for forty eight hours. Sure enough, by about lunch time my blood sugar was so bad that I was kind of angry, and I took a nap because I couldn’t handle it. I had never skipped a meal before. And I woke up from that nap, and I began praying. God really began to speak to me in some really unique ways as I was reading the Word, and as I was journaling, and as I was praying.”
In that powerful moment, he felt something life changing.
“I felt God saying, ‘Daniel – I’ve given you music as a gift. But I have anointed you to be a minister of the Word.'”
“It was so clear that after I finished those two days of fasting, I told the group I was playing with, ‘Listen. I will be leaving the group.’ I took that step almost immediately, and literally within three months I was taken on staff at the church I was going to.”
It’s an amazing journey. But was Daniel tempted to pull a Jonah and keep chasing his dream?
“There was a good bit of grappling going on internally. Part of me was like, ‘I have got to be out of my mind!'”
“Then you start thinking, I can never be a pastor! I mean, I made so many mistakes. Famous mistakes. Nobody would ever want me to minister to them. You go through all that stuff, and then you also feel, okay, I’ve been pursuing music as a career, and it’s taking off.”
“But ultimately – once I got that word – prayed through it, and sought out godly counsel from people – I just knew that it was an invitation from the Lord. So I just said, ‘Okay! I’m going to take the step, and we’ll see where everything lands! God is faithful, and I’m working on it!”
Daniel Fusco is the lead pastor of Crossroads Community Church, with campuses in Vancouver, Washington & Portland, Oregon. His new book is called
On the Road with Daniel Fusco
