The youngest regional director of Youth for Christ in Accra, Ghana. A chaplain in Croatia ministering to those affected by war. A young man being mentored by top theologians. An older man getting diagnosed with cancer.
Dan Darko, professor of biblical studies & leadership and global scholar-in-residence, has lived a life full of twists and turns. Now, he finds himself in Indiana, a state whose flat cornfields contrast the hills and valleys of Darko’s life.
Of course, Darko never could have expected a life of such eventfulness. Growing up in Ghana and born into a business family, he thought he had his life planned out for him.
“I thought my whole life was going to be developed around business, retail business in textiles,” Darko said.
However, he later felt God calling him to ministry — a call that would set the tone for the rest of his life.
Leaving his family’s business, Darko started working for Youth for Christ in the Greater Accra Region. He took the role of regional director at just 23-years-old, making him the youngest person to have assumed that position, he said.
While working for this organization, God continued to narrow his calling. While serving as regional director, Darko developed a passion for leadership development. Additionally, his desire to pastor grew from seeing young adults in the region graduating from universities and then failing to find good churches that could meet their spiritual needs.
“Out of the back of my mind, I wanted to be the pastor for the educated folks, for the business folks that people don't understand,” he said.
This new desire led him to Croatia, where he pursued studies to equip him for pastoring. His original plan was to return to Ghana with this new training and pastor people back home. However, after arriving in the United States, a series of events left him putting down roots.
In addition to needing to fulfill the residential requirements for eventual U.S. citizenship, Darko also had tragedy strike a friend’s family. This friend had started a church but could not continue leading it following the tragedy. Darko took it over for him.
Since inheriting this new church meant staying in the U.S. longer, Darko decided he also wanted to move forward in his academic career while in America. This took the form of teaching in higher education — something he never thought he would end up doing.
The University of Scranton, a private Jesuit university, hired him despite his being a protestant evangelical. Later, he taught at Gordon College alongside current Taylor President Michael D. Lindsay. He served with Lindsay for 10 years at Gordon before transitioning to Taylor.
From pastoring to teaching to leading in Africa, Europe and Asia, Darko has experienced life in many different roles and places. Furthermore, the experiences themselves have been a diverse array of good and bad.
While doing ministry, Darko has gotten to walk alongside people during the most joyous seasons of life, like marriage or the birth of a child, he said. He also has ministered to people going through hardship like war.
When Darko lived in Croatia, it was following the war between the Croats and Serbs. Most people in the region knew someone who was shot or died, he said; these were the people he found himself ministering to.
“So almost every evening for my first year, I may hear mine explosions or some kind of other gunfire of sorts,” he said. “It’s normal for me to be going through that. And walking alongside people who have gone through war and living near Vukovar, a city where about 30,000 people died – in itself, I thought I learned something no university will teach me.”
In his life Darko has also been accompanied by the best people, but also very cruel people, he said.
He has eaten with, traveled with and been mentored by many influential Christian leaders, like John Stott. These mentors have been a main way God has molded him, so Darko has learned to never take for granted people of great spiritual maturity.
However, living outside of his home country for approximately 30 years and working in predominately white spaces, he has also experienced blatant racism and prejudice. At times, this cruelty came from people labeling themselves as Christians, causing him to wrestle with his faith at times.
These inconsistencies have highlighted for Darko a characteristic of God he has come to cling to: God is consistent, he said.
“There are things that are not within our control; we can not spend a lot of time (on them),” Darko said. “There are things that are within our control; we should spend our time (on them)...but God is trustworthy. God is powerful, and God is real. In my weakest times, I have found strength from God. In my most confusing times, I have gone before God in prayer with questions, and God has found a way to settle me. I think I trust God because of that consistency.”
Confronting the best of what life has to offer as well as the worst and seeing God remain the same has bred in him an unshakeable faith.
Darko’s steady faith was for all to see in 2023-2024 when Darko was diagnosed with cancer right after accepting a job at Taylor. He had to undergo intense treatment, and Taylor faculty and staff could not help but note his faith in the midst of that season.
“Dan was literally dying of cancer, and he would look at me smiling and say, ‘God is good,’” Hank Voss, associate professor of Christian ministries, said.
Similarly, Karen Elsea, dean of nursing, remembers visiting Darko in the hospital around that time. She showed up concerned for him and his health, only to experience him being worried about her, how she was and the fact that she had made the trip to see him.
Darko gives a shoutout to the students of his 2024 J-term class who helped him during this time.
He had undergone intense treatment one Tuesday but still decided to show up and teach the next day. He collapsed during class, and the students immediately jumped in and tried to save his life, he said. This was a remarkable testimony of support, he said.
In life, there will be suffering, he said. It is part of living a life for God.
“I have learned there is no way I can serve God faithfully and run away from suffering,” Darko said.
Twists and turns, mountains and valleys. Darko has seen it all. Yet now he finds himself in Indiana, a state where the land stretches for miles towards the horizon, flat and even — a reminder of the God Darko has come to know: consistent, even, steady, faithful.
