Follow forward in prayer: leadership lessons from Andy Hawthorne
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ChatGPTAdapted from a conversation with Andy Hawthorne, Founder and Global CEO of The Message Trust, on the Follow Forward podcast.*
One of the defining marks of enduring Christian leadership is not charisma, strategy, or innovation. It is prayer.
Movements that last are not built on gifted individuals with great ideas, but on people who have learned to listen to God before acting for Him.
Prayer is not an optional extra; it is the engine room of mission. Over decades of ministry, Andy Hawthorne has repeatedly learned that good ideas are plentiful, but God‑ideas are born in prayer.
Prayer before ideas
It is easy to confuse activity with obedience. Leaders are often wired to solve problems quickly.
But prayer slows us down enough to ask a deeper question: Is this what God is saying now? As Andy reflects candidly:
"You can have good ideas, but the God‑ideas are the ones that win."
That distinction matters. Many initiatives look right and sound spiritual, yet lack divine timing or direction. Without prayer, leaders risk building momentum around ideas that God never asked them to pursue.
Do you not perceive it?
Prayer is not simply about asking God to bless what we have already decided. It is about perceiving what God is already doing and aligning ourselves with it.
The founding scripture of The Message Trust is from Isaiah 43, which includes the following verses:
"Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland." (Is. 43:18-19).
Prayer sharpens discernment. It helps leaders recognize when to move forward rather than recreate former victories.
As Andy reflects on Isaiah's challenge to "perceive" the new thing God is doing, the implication is clear: God is always active, but leaders must stay prayerful enough to notice.
Without prayer, leaders often default to repeating what once worked rather than responding to what God is saying now.
Keeping prayer hot
Sustained leadership requires sustained intimacy with God. Passion that is not rooted in prayer eventually burns out or drifts off course.
Prayer must be intentional and intrinsic to our leadership. Andy puts it plainly:
"Our job is to keep prayer hot and keep mission hot. It's prayer‑fueled evangelism, prayer‑fueled ideas."
Prayer and mission go hand in hand. Healthy leadership holds both together.
Personal prayer and team prayer
The Message Trust has developed a rhythm of prayer that has been at the heart of the ministry for decades.
Andy offers a sobering but hopeful reminder:
"If you go lax on spiritual disciplines—personal prayer, praying with your team, studying the Word—you can go off the boil."
Prayer is not only private. It is also relational. Leaders who pray alone but never with others will struggle to sustain shared vision and accountability.
Praying in our teams builds unity and dependence on God rather than on personality or position.
It also enables teams to keep short accounts of one another's wrongs, as praying together is often a precursor to repentance and forgiveness.
Prayer that fuels the long road
Prayer does more than guide decisions; it sustains leaders over decades. When leadership becomes costly and downright exhausting, prayer keeps the heart soft and the calling clear.
It recenters leadership on obedience rather than outcomes, faithfulness rather than applause.
Andy captures this connection between prayer and perseverance when he says:
"If I can pray every day—pray with my wife, pray with my team, and have personal time of prayer—happy days. Things seem to come together."
Prayer does not remove difficulty, but it anchors leaders in God's presence when difficulty comes.
A leadership question worth asking
In a world that prizes speed, scale, and visibility, prayer can feel inefficient.
But history shows that the leaders who finish well are those who learn to wait on God in prayer.
Therefore, the question is not simply do we pray? It is do we lead from prayer?
Following the example of prayer means allowing God to shape not just our actions, but our instincts, pace, and priorities.
It means choosing discernment over urgency, obedience over impulse, and intimacy over image. Prayer does not slow the mission of God. It ensures we are walking in it.
Do you need to rediscover a passion for prayer?
Are you following the example of Jesus, who regularly escaped from the noise and activity of his daily ministry to fellowship with His father?
Let's choose to follow Christ's example so we can move forward in prayer-fueled leadership, walking faithfully in the things God has prepared for us to do.
*This post relates specifically to Episode 2 of the Follow Forward podcast, which features The Message Trust Founder and Global CEO, Andy Hawthorne.
 | Dr. Tim Tucker is the Africa Development Director on the global leadership team of The Message Trust. He has a PhD in Practical Theology from North-West University (South Africa) and has written four books, including Grab a Towel: Christ-centered Servant Leadership for the 21st Century (Message Books 2018), Grief and Grace: Facing the Future I Didn’t Choose (Message Books 2019), and The Pace Setter: Paul, Timothy and the Art of Multiplying Leaders(Message Books 2014). Learn More » |
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