What inspires you, moves you or drives your passion? Stephen Brewster inspires me.
I first encountered Brewster through his weekly blog posts entitled Monday Morning Inspiration. In each of these posts, he shares a ton of images which inspired his creativity. We “met” on Twitter and I’m looking forward to meeting him in person when I’m in Nashville in early 2016.
Brewster is the Creative Arts Pastor at CrossPoint Church in Nashville. His background includes work at a record company. Brewster now leads a team of creatives at CrossPoint, who are doing (in my humble opinion) some of the best communication work I’ve seen in the church today.
Brewster inspired my ebook, The Greater Than Challenge: A Guide to Reframing Your Life. I knew I wanted to interview him when I had the idea for this Overcoming Fear interview series. I’m so grateful to share his persepctive with you.
Brewster on Fear
Savage: Brewster, thanks so much for sharing with my readers. As someone who is making things everyday, what does fear most often look or sound like in your life?
Brewster: Thanks Scott. For me fear always looks and sounds a little different but where it usually ends up landing is that what I am going to do is not valuable to the rest of the world. Fear is a funny thing. It is going to prey on whatever the biggest insecurity you have in that moment. I love Joshua 1:9 because God commands us to be full of courage and courage and fear really struggle to live in the same zip code. Failure is a big one. I fear failure in both a healthy and unhealthy way. I never want to waste or not steward the opportunity to get the most out of it.
Savage: What has fear kept you from doing? Was there a specific moment when fear defeated you and cost you something?
Brewster: We did a worship night and I feared people showing up. So rather than allowing faith and confidence to guide my decisions and leadership I let fear keep me from promoting our internet experience. I was really afraid people would stay home. Our room was packed but we robbed several hundred people the opportunity to worship online and that was a huge fail on my part.
Brewster on Courage
Savage: What helped you become courageous in the face of fear?
Brewster: Community & Leadership are probably the 2 things, besides a LOT of prayer, that have helped me beat fear. When your team needs you to make decisions based on faith it motivates you. Also, when you have amazing people in your life challenging you and cheering you it give you a lot of ammo to beat those voices in your head. Also, writing down the ridiculous things that those voices say. When you write them down you see how ridiculous they really are and that disarms them right away!
Get 2 > Have 2
Savage: How do you stay hopeful and positive as you hustle?
Brewster: I love the hustle. It DRIVES me. I can’t believe I get to create for a living. It is really easy to stay positive and hopeful when you realize how good of a life we live. I create for a living. That blows my mind. God as been so good to me; why would I not be positive? On top of that, I get to live in a city I love, work with people I love who inspire me, work on a team of creative monsters who are full of passion….man, life is good. The problems we have today, other people are praying they get to have those problems someday…I tell my team all the time “We Get 2 Do This”. When you recognize that and make it the primary lens of your life it changes EVERYTHING.
Savage: What would you say to encourage readers who are battling fear? Any tips or encouragement for them?
Brewster: Yes! First, read Joshua 1:9. Memorize it. Then remember that God has called you to do this. It’s a gift and you are capable. And on the days you are not capable…He is! So trust and lean on him.
[Tweet “God has called you to do this. It’s a gift and you are capable. @B_REWSTER”]
When I sent Brewster a copy of the ebook he inspired, he replied, “WOW. This blows me away. Love the book and love that you created something so cool. Glad I could be part of the process.” To get your copy for FREE, click here.
