19 Lead in Faith

[00:00:09] Welcome to the creative team talks podcast for Hillsong Creative. [00:00:19] Hey, everyone, my name's Steve and I'm part of the vocals team at the Hills campus. Anyone who knows me knows that I love musicals and I love theatre. The redemptive story of Les Miserables, the intricacies of Phantom of the Opera, even the struggling attempts at explaining Jesus in Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar. [00:00:40] So ten years ago, for various reasons, I decided to try something new and audition for a role in a musical theatre performance. [00:00:50] Since that first show and all the shows and plays ive been a part of since, in all the rehearsals, in all the warm ups, in all of the notes, like pre briefings, there's never been a goal of bringing a bad performance. [00:01:05] There's always people encouraging each other with a call out of chookers as we're getting into starting positions, waiting for the curtain to rise, the lights to come up, the first note of the overture. [00:01:16] Everyone was hoping for a great show. [00:01:20] What are you hoping for this weekend? What are your expectations? [00:01:26] What do you have faith for? In proverbs 21 31, in the new living translation, it says, the horse is prepared for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord. [00:01:37] Or in the message version, it says, do your best, prepare for the worst, then trust God to bring the victory. [00:01:45] So we really have to just do one thing, and that's just trust God, and that's having faith. We know who God is, we know what God does, so we trust God to bring the victory. It's in God's strength and it's in God's power. And the victory is that it's his plan and his desired outcome. All we have to do is to do our best, prepare for our worst, and trust God. So above all, this weekend, and even every week moving forward, is live and lead with faith to our staging teams oversee the platform with faith. Worship leaders speak faith into the congregation. Vocalists sing with faith. Musicians play with faith. Audio teams help our congregations hear faith. Our video teams show faith, and our lighting teams display faith and highlight faith. For as it says in Hebrews eleven one, faith shows the reality of what we hope for. It's the evidence of things that we cannot see. So again, what are you hoping for? What are you praying for? What are you expecting this weekend? [00:03:04] One of the memorable things from my first show was the musical director and the assistant director preparing the cast for their first show. And the assistant director finished his little speech saying, today will be someone's first time seeing the show, and it may be someone's last time seeing a show that really highlighted the fact of what I did wasn't something just to throw away and do half hearted, but to actually come in with a sense of strength and a sense of focus. [00:03:36] I won't go on and repeat the thing that the MD said, but I will paraphrase and adapt it. And it comes down to just this. Lead with faith.