Pilgrims. Brothers. Allies.
The Warrior's Path is not some theoretical concept, the next "great idea" in re-packaging the Christian message to a new generation. It's who we are. It's who we are becoming. And it's who we hope to be.
It's who we are:
Everything the Warrior's Path is about rings true with our own hearts. To steal Chesterton's phrase, we did not make it, but it is making us. Elsewhere he also suggests that an adventure is not something we choose, but something that chooses us. This adventure has chosen us. And when it did we found that the hard-wiring of our hearts had been designed to fall in love with this life like nothing else we had ever known.
Also, the entire structure of the Warrior's Path rests upon the great gift and blessing of our life-long friendship. Without it we would not be pursuing this Path. Without it we might not understand what it takes to walk the Path. Without it we certainly would not have the strength and courage to go the distance. We preach the beauty and necessity of companionship because, without it, the Warrior's Path could not exist. The Spartans had it correct - you truly are only as strong as the man on your right.
It's who we are becoming:
Inherent to the Warrior's Path is the concept of training. Sure, we teach and encourage others that "physical training is of some value, but training in godliness has value for all things.." (I Timothy 4:8), but we don't teach as a lecturer teaches a student - we teach as one Pilgrim calls back to another about what they will meet around the next bend. Our lives are marked by a perpetual hunger for More. We, no less than you, are always training, always pushing. We are truly walking this same Path with you, and in many ways we are learning on the fly - making this up as we go.
It's who we hope to be:
"The world has yet to see what God can do with one man fully committed to Him".
We'll be the first to admit that the Warrior's Path is about raising the bar and setting it higher than any of us originally hoped or imagined for ourselves.
"And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever increasing glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18)
And why not? Since when did pursuing the life promised in the Scriptures become a bad idea?
"The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed..." (Romans 8:19)
"Because we are the sons of God, we must become the sons of God." - George Macdonald
The Warrior's Path Fellowship:
Derrick Steele
A philospher and romantic at heart, Derrick tried for many years to discover a Christian experience full enough and complete enough to satisfy his deepest longings. Having found enough scent of that trail to at least discover a direction for his ongoing pilgrimage, he founded the Warrior's Path with his best friend of 30 years' adventures. Now his great obsession is "the fairy-tale of the Gospel" - the conviction that all our wildest hopes and most beautiful dreams are not only more True than these present Shadowlands, but that they pale in comparison to the wonders yet to be revealed in the Life that lies before us, both here, if we will let it engulf us, and on the Eternal Shores in those Undying lands that lie "east of the sun and west of the moon". Derrick personifies the "warrior-poet" - splitting his time between the quiet pleasures of a scholastic life and the joys of physical training, most notably the German longsword and the English longbow. He has authored the Warrior's Path blog, and recently published his first book in the Warrior’s Path series, “The Last Lone Wolf: Recovering the Lost Sacrament of Friendship.”
Derrick has been ministering to teens, young adults, and people all over the world with encouraging words of hope in the midst of spiritual warfare.
Derrick loves the outdoors, writing, solitude, literature, fighting the Enemy, counseling, and most of all traveling. He is a self-educated enthusiast of the writings of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. He holds a Masters Degree in Educational Ministries from Wheaton Graduate School. He currently resides in Farmington, Michigan with his wife Robyn and four children: Tristan David. Nathaniel Riley, Cody Jedidiah, and Gwendolyn Rose.
Derrick can be reached at: derrick.thewarriorspath@gmail.com
David Anderson
David grew up loving the grit, rugged courage, adventure, and wildness of a good Louis L'Amour western novel. Along the way something stuck with him. He moved to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and began to emulate the larger-than-life heroes of his childhood. Almost daily he can be found hiking the hills, listening to the voices of rushing streams, fly fishing -- and above all communing with his Heavenly Father. Like very few people in today's modern western culture, David's entire life flows out of his extensive periods of silence and solitude.
Although a lifelong disciple of Jesus, in 2006 a personal struggle with chronic, debilitating pain led David to a healing conference where he received far more than he had bargained for. Now, not only are his own health issues a thing of the past, but David has become a powerful conduit for bringing God's healing touch into the lives of others. Travelling and teaching with mentor Mike Evans, founder of Wholeness Ministries, has given David a wealth of experience in the areas of spiritual warfare and healing.
David is exuberant, upbeat, charismatic, and a natural influencer of people and situations. He exudes both physical and spiritual strength. The product of an amazingly Godly home, David has become a finely-honed instrument for the Lord's holy use through countless hours of prayer, solitude, and silence. Anywhere he goes, if the sun is shining, David will be re-arranging his schedule to leave time for a little "son-worshipping".
