Daniel “Danny” Fernandez thought he was ready for the microphone.
God gave him chairs.
Years before Fernandez joined the Goodsource creator team, he was a sophomore at Florida State University interning with the college ministry at Downtown Community Church in Tallahassee, Florida.
When the church announced plans to launch a college night, Fernandez was excited. He believed this might finally be his opportunity to preach.
Then the assignments came out.
Volunteer coordinator.
Worship director.
Prayer leader.
And next to Fernandez’s name?
Chair setup.
“I remember that in that moment, I just thought everything was crashing,” Fernandez recalled.
Driving home, however, disappointment gave way to conviction.
“I felt the Lord, in this small whisper in my heart, say, ‘Are you too good to move my chairs?’”
It was a question that would help shape not only his ministry, but the way Fernandez understands calling today.
Listen to the full God Stories podcast with Crystal Thornton and Daniel Fernandez below.
Character before calling
A mentor soon gave Fernandez words he has never forgotten.
“He said, ‘Listen, I love you too much to not let your character build before your calling, because if not, your character will destroy your calling.’”
The message was unmistakable.
Fernandez would not preach. He would not touch the stage, lights or microphone.
Instead, he would move chairs.
Sometimes he did it alongside others. Sometimes he arrived alone at 5 a.m. There were prayers, tears, laughter and quiet moments when no audience was watching.
And something was happening in those unseen hours.
God was preparing him.
A year later, the young man who had been told he would not touch a microphone was preaching while the mentor who had challenged him sat listening.
Fernandez had learned a lesson he still carries.
“I know that You are intricately and very intentionally ordaining things in my life for the betterment of my character before anything else.”
A door only God could open
During that same season, another unexpected opportunity arrived.
A friend invited Fernandez to help with a Bible study. Fernandez agreed without realizing exactly who would be waiting for him.
“When I show up, it’s the whole baseball team.”
The next day, his friend asked whether Fernandez would help lead it regularly.
For the next three years, Fernandez helped lead the Florida State baseball Bible study, building relationships with athletes and earning the trust of a community he never could have strategically positioned himself to enter.
“That was a door that only the Lord could have opened,” he said.
Fernandez was not a seminary graduate or someone with an impressive ministry résumé. In his words, he was “just a random kid from Miami.”
But God had opened the door.
And it would not be the last one.
“Lord, I don’t know why I’m here”
Years later, another seemingly ordinary decision would change the direction of Fernandez’s life.
He attended a Unite gathering at the last minute after both a church meeting and the Bible study he was leading had been rescheduled.
He had not planned to be there.
During the event, Fernandez slipped away for a moment to pray.
“Lord, I don’t know why I’m here right now,” he prayed. “If You’re going to do something, You got to make it clear.”
Then he saw Sara Laine McNew.
The two knew one another, and McNew told Fernandez about Goodsource, a growing community of young creators using digital media, podcasts and honest conversations to point their generation toward Jesus.
Fernandez jokingly offered, “Well, if you’re looking for one more...”
McNew’s answer caught him off guard.
“Actually, we are.”
Suddenly, the joke did not feel like a joke anymore.
Fernandez learned that Goodsource had been praying specifically about the person who would become the next member of its creator team.
“It was just God ordaining that moment,” he said.
Still, Fernandez hesitated to apply.
A friend finally challenged him to take the step.
“If that’s the Lord, He’ll close the door. He’ll open the door. But you don’t take a step, you won’t find out.”
Fernandez stepped.
Within two months, he had moved to Tennessee.
“That’s a God thing,” he said.
Telling stories that point to Jesus
For Fernandez, joining Goodsource is about far more than creating content.
It is about testimony.
“Storytelling is exactly that,” he explained. “It’s that God has moved, how God is moving and how God will continue to move.”
That conviction fits naturally with Goodsource, where creators use their individual voices and experiences to reach a generation Fernandez believes is hungry for authentic faith.
“I really want people to know how approachable and how simple the Gospel is,” he said. “The Gospel isn’t easy. Being a Christian is not easy by any chance, shape or form, but it is simple.”
That simplicity, he says, begins with loving God and loving people.
Fernandez also wants young people watching Goodsource to see Christians who are authentic, not polished people pretending to have everything figured out.
“We don’t have it figured out. We don’t have it made,” he said. “We’re all people and authentically doing it together.”
His hope is that authenticity gives others courage to believe God can use them, too.
“I think that will spur younger individuals to say, ‘I can do it too. Maybe in a different space, but I can do it too.’”
A Generation ready to live it out
As a member of Gen Z himself, Fernandez pushes back against the idea that his generation’s spiritual passion is merely emotional or temporary.
He sees young believers taking their faith beyond social media and into places of real need.
“I have so many friends that are going to be missionaries, going to these communities, going to the prisons, going to the homeless and doing the things that Jesus called us to do,” he said.
He believes older generations have an important role to play, not by dismissing that enthusiasm, but by helping direct it.
“I see all this energy. I see you’ve got the bow with an arrow. Push back all the way,” Fernandez said. “Now let’s direct it.”
For Fernandez, authentic Christian community also requires something deeper than simply spending time together.
It means allowing yourself to be known.
“I’m not preacher boy. I’m not the perfect guy with the words and the Bible verses memorized,” he said. “I’m the dude that struggles sometimes to get into my Word.”
That kind of honesty, he believes, allows believers to carry one another’s burdens and grow together toward who God is calling them to become.
The one thing He is asking God for
Now Fernandez has the opportunity he once imagined.
There are cameras.
There are microphones.
There is a platform.
But when asked what he is believing God for in this new season, Fernandez did not say influence, success or even impact.
He answered with one word.
“Humility.”
“I don’t want to lose that humility that God built in those chair moments,” he said. “I want to find more moments to do that, to do the things that nobody sees when no one’s recording.”
It is a striking prayer for a young communicator stepping into a ministry built around cameras, microphones and digital platforms.
And perhaps that is precisely the point. The chairs were never a detour from Fernandez’s calling. They were part of the preparation for it.
Walking through the door
Fernandez knows there are others standing where he once stood, looking at an unexpected opportunity and wondering whether they should take the risk.
His advice is to bring everything to God, including the motives that may not be perfect, and then trust Him enough to move.
“Remember God is ordaining your steps,” Fernandez said.
He encourages believers to hold their ambitions with open hands before God, trusting Him either to close the door or allow them to continue walking through it.
“I’m going to walk forward trusting that You will either stop me or You’re going to let me keep going.”
It is the same lesson Fernandez learned moving chairs. The same lesson he learned walking into a baseball Bible study. And the same lesson he learned after showing up at an event he had never planned to attend.
Sometimes faithfulness means waiting. Sometimes it means serving where no one sees you. And sometimes, when God opens the door, it means trusting Him enough to walk through it.
For Fernandez, the mission on the other side remains remarkably simple:
“At the end of the day, what we’re called to do is to love God and love His people.”
The microphone came eventually. But first, God gave him the chairs.
Connect With Goodsource
Want to hear more from Danny Fernandez and the Goodsource creator team?
Goodsource is a community of young creators using digital media, podcasts and authentic conversations to help a generation discover and grow in faith.
Visit MyGoodSource.com and follow @MyGoodSource on social media to connect with the team and discover more content.