MY AWAKENING

I've had a bit of people ask me what my story is. So here it is. The 700 club will be doing a piece on me soon. So I'll keep you posted as things unfold. Shine on!

I entered the world in two bold moves: I was the first baby born in the city of New Orleans in the year 1982. That, right off the start, marked something special. Second, when I made my appearance, I was an interesting shade of blue and not breathing. The story goes that after four or five minutes of bright lights, codes, and the doctor and nurses franticly trying to resuscitate me, my dad broke through the commotion, touched my body, and commanded life to fill my lungs in the name of Jesus. Well, life indeed entered into me at that moment, and ever since then it has been quite an incredible adventure! I should also mention that my dad, Dick Bashta, was actually the Area Director of the New Orleans 700 Club Counseling Center when I was born!
I grew up in Reserve, LA, a small town outside of New Orleans, until I was almost 17. I never appreciated the crazy culture of the city until I moved away, but now looking back on it, I can see how influential its style truly was in my life. That - and two other things - mission and music.
My dad helped pastor a radical church in Reserve, LA, as well as direct a mission sending organization. My parents instilled in me and my four siblings a passion for mission and church planting around the world. From a young child through my teenage years, I was a part of some pretty powerful missions work. Before I was 16, I had traveled to Mexico 17 times and lived in Russia with my parents from 1993 – 1995 (helping to start 25 different churches in 25 different cities of a million or more population east of Moscow). I also went to China three years in a row, smuggling in suitcases of Bibles, spent a summer in Amsterdam (more on that later), and participated in trips to Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.

Music was also branded into my DNA when I was very young. When my mom was a teenager, she played piano for the New Jersey Philharmonic, so my love of music was destined from the start. I started playing music when I was three. My first instrument was the violin, which I played until I was eight. During the time that I was 8 – 12 years old, I learned how to play the drums. While we were living in Russia, I was able to play for many of the crusades that we had and saw thousands and thousands of lives changed because of the power of worship. When I lived in Russia, I started teaching myself guitar. So through my early teenage years, I really focused on playing guitar, bass, and piano. In the process, I also started singing and writing songs. One of my best childhood memories is waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of my mom sitting at a piano writing a new worship song. Both of my parents were very instrumental in encouraging my pursuit of music.
I was a typical pastor’s kid growing up. I was at every church service, every special event, and every prayer night. I had to sit in the front row of every service, and I was expected to participate in every youth group function. I played on the adult worship team, starting at age 10. I was even a part of the LA pro-life movement. I can remember rallies at the Baton Rouge state capital and getting up early on Saturday mornings to travel to different abortion clinics where churches throughout the New Orleans area would rally together trying to save the lives of unborn babies. Many times our worship team would actually set up their instruments on the sidewalk and play music for hours and hours, as others reached out to mothers coming into the clinic parking lot. I guess you could say that growing up in my family was pretty intense! This was all for the name of “church” and “God.” However, as I look back, I’m not sure I really understood what a true relationship with God meant or really what worship was even about. For even in the core of all this “Christian” activity, I was empty and had no direction or idea what I actually believed.
That all changed the summer of my junior year in high school. Somehow my parents trusted me and my best friend, Ben, enough to let us move to Amsterdam and help a pastor friend and his wife who had started a church there, right outside the red light district. We had taken a youth mission trip there that spring, and as soon as I got back to the US, something inside of me knew I needed to go back. That summer, I had a crash course in learning more about God, more about love, and more about how broken our world truly is. One of the first things that shocked me is that most of the time, I was hanging out with a ministry that was doing radical outreach in the city. One night they told us where we were meeting, and it turned out to be a bar! I was so offended as I walked into the bar and saw these people I knew actually laughing, talking, and befriending sinners who were drinking and lighting up cigarettes. I just couldn’t believe it, as growing up, I was taught that drinking, smoking, and listening to rock and roll music would send you straight to hell. So my first thoughts were astonishment that all the new friends that I had made had somehow lost their faith and now were going right to hell. I completely missed the meaning of what was happening. This was actually worship in motion; true faith in action. Obvious the culture in Amsterdam is that of a different world. But up until that point, all I had known of missions was someone passing out a Gospel tract or standing on a street corner preaching and hoping some poor soul would hear their words and fall on the ground to beg for God’s mercy. I really don’t believe that this evangelistic approach is the most effective. What I did learn that summer is this: I saw a group of people identify with what the culture of a city was, target a specific group of people, and then build true relationships with them, regardless of what they were into. I saw trust form and that brought radical change and repentance in many lives.

This new breed of missions forever wrecked my life. I had finally found a call and a cause that I could recklessly run with. I truly found the merciful God of the universe, who bleeds with such love for the outcasts of this world, that He would give His life. Then my question to answer was, “Why should I not give my life in endless return?”

That next year my family moved to Colorado Springs. There I started leading worship for an incredible youth group named tag out of New Life Church. From there I decided to move overseas and attended the International Bible Institute of London. This was probably the most significant year of my life. There was such impacting worship coming out of the UK at that time with guys like Delirious, Matt Redman, and Tim Hughes. I just knew I needed to breathe some of that same air in. I started attending the church, Soul Survivor, where Matt and Tim led worship. This experience completely helped shape me into who I am today. Hearing songs like “Heart of Worship” and “Here I am to Worship” come out of this local gathering really provoked me into action with the thought of how I could be a part of an awakening that not only would change a generation, but fuel it! My worldview continued to expand. I visited Paris, Whales, Scotland, and Ireland. As my view expanded, so did my heart!

After school, I moved to Birmingham AL. I was honored to be on staff at a new church plant called Church of the Highlands. Through the next few years, I saw God move in a community and a city like I had never seen before. In 2009, Church of the Highlands was ranked the fastest growing church in America, with over 10,000 people. Being part of this church plant was an incredible adventure! While on staff, I met and married my incredibly astonishing wife, Taylor, who was also on staff at the church. Together we led mission trips with high school and college students to Romania, the Germany World Cup, Hong Kong, and China. It was a great chapter in our lives, but we sensed that God was calling us into a different season. In the beginning of 2008, we resigned from being on staff and began a new, ground breaking journey together.

We went into the studio and recorded an EP called My Worship in Motion. The EP was based on everything I have learned about worship and missions, with the concept that worship with no action equals a dead God and dead faith. Basically, God challenged me to answer the question, “What can we give and live with our lives to put our worship into a living motion and provoke change in our local communities, our nation, and then the world?” Since then, God has opened up many awesome doors and I have been blessed to lead worship throughout the US and internationally.

Out of my new zeal for the nations, I wrote a song called “Awakening.” God showed me a generation of dreamers that have been cast away; a roaring generation that has been silenced; and such a powerful army of worshipers that the devil would try with all his might to kill. Basically, the song talks about the Valley of Dry Bones having a defying, “come to life” moment; that out of this generation there would arise an Awakening unlike anything ever seen in history. That out of the ruins, the Living God would build His Kingdom with broken vessels that would shake and change this planet. In Birmingham, God is doing that through churches like Church of the Highlands and gatherings like The Basement, with Matt Pitt, both of which are forcefully advancing the love of God and new hope for broken lives.

The other thing God has shown me is that this is one of the most creative generations ever to live. So out of that, Taylor and I have formed a non-profit ministry called GoMotion Worldwide. Our vision is to see music, media, and missions unite; to see the Creator Himself breathe over this generation. We believe that, instead of following the pop culture of our time, our generation will arise with passion and be marked as the “Roaring Generation.” Could it be that in our day and in our time, we will see the Great Commission become the Great Completion, as we hear the most beautiful chorus of heaven echo through the streets!

Taylor and I now live in Atlanta, GA, where I am the worship pastor of an awakening church called RiverStone. We believe that if we continue to put our worship into motion, the world will take notice and see both the Hope and the cross and join the ranks of love. When that happens, without a doubt, the gates of hell will collapse and the Kingdom of Heaven will explode through this planet! It’s time to shine!

Daniel Bashta