Worship Leader, Are You Leading Out Of Faith?

For those of you who downloaded my ebook yesterday, thank you.

Thank you for serving your local church so faithfully. Thanks for being a visionary leader. And thanks for helping make this community what it is. I appreciate you.

Today I wanted to present a follow up post to the message in Beyond Sunday.

There’s always a tendency among visionary leaders to lead from their task lists – to plow through and get things done. Many call it “hustle”.

It’s the place where we stop depending on God and simply work hard to achieve.

We forget that “all things are possible” with God and simply buckle down and work hard to accomplish goals.

Let me say, there’s nothing wrong with hard work. Of course not.

There’s nothing wrong with goals. Umm…I wrote a book on it.

Please, my friend, hustle until the cows come home (what does that phrase even mean?)

What Makes Our Leadership Spiritual?

But here’s the question: what will truly set us apart as spiritual leaders? What qualifies our leadership as spiritual leadership?

You ready?

Faith. Faith in a miracle-working God. That’s why our visions must rise above what we can accomplish on our own. Our visions need to be stained with the impossible so that God gets the glory.

You know something? I’ll bet you’re extremely talented. Effective worship leaders have worked hard on their craft. That’s precisely the reason we need to lead from faith. We’ll be tempted to rely on our own understanding of ministry, music, leadership, and creativity.

In a recent staff discussion, my pastor Jeff Leake taught us what it means to lead in faith. I wanted to share a few of those insights.

5 Tips For Leading Out Of Faith

How do we lead from a place of faith and not striving?

1. Get a Word From God

Whereas much of our generation would rather “wait on God” for an eternity as an excuse for inaction, that doesn’t hide the fact that we need a word from Him. We need our plans to be rooted in His heart. We need our task list to reflect His passion.

How do you get a word from God? Well, don’t try so hard. Don’t stand in His presence like the priests of Baal and scream, cut yourself, and demand God to speak.

Simply worship. Simply step aside from your productivity and spend a couple hours gazing at Jesus. I’m sure you’ll hear something. It’s when you stop striving that you start hearing. And that’s probably the most productive thing you could do anyway.

2. Write It Down

When you feel that God has spoken to you, or if you’re not even sure, write it down. Carve your tablet of stone and come down from the mountain. As I mentioned in Beyond Sunday, it will probably be impossible. God speaks in interesting ways (think Gideon or David & Goliath and you’re on the right track).

The vision will probably feel overwhelming. Because that’s how God rolls. He doesn’t like to share his glory with anyone. Trust me, it’s better that way. Write down the vision. There’s something that happens when you write. You begin to internalize the truth in a deeper way.

3. Declare It

The Word you receive from God needs to move beyond your thoughts. You need to declare it. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to tell anyone yet. But in the presence of God, begin to declare the vision. Make it a declaration.

Say, “God, I don’t know how I’m going to do this, but my eyes are on You. I relinquish striving and I rest in your ability to do the impossible.”

4. Make A Plan

Now it’s OK to get to work. In Beyond Sunday, I guide you step by step how to craft this vision, connect with your senior pastor, and make it actionable for your life and ministry. But through it all, realize that it’s not just your hard word or the hard work of your team that will accomplish this.

Biblically based hard work is marked by weakness. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians, “For when I am weak, then I am strong.” It’s the Christian productivity paradox. God uses the weak to display His strength in every increasing glory. Delight in that truth. And give God glory through your work.

5. Return to Jesus

As we take new ground, see God’s vision come to pass, and work our tails off, there will be a tendency to feel proud in ourselves – to forget God. Make it a habit to return to Jesus.

After every failure, stand in His presence and receive your acceptance. After every success, stand in His presence and receive your identity there.

Develop a habit of breathing in God’s goodness and breathing out praises day after day after day. A thousand distractions are at war for your worship every day. Fight to pour it all on your Maker. Fight, my friend. Fight for that.

I’m praying for you to hear from God today for your ministry. I’m praying you move Beyond Sunday and accomplish the impossible with your team. I’m praying heaven throws a party for all the glory God receives through your life today.

You’re awesome.

Question: Why do you think it’s important that we lead from faith? How else can we lead this way? You can leave a comment by clicking here.