A group that is likely best known for their heart for ministry, the Big Daddy Weave crew turns their concerts into church every night as they set an atmosphere of worship and invite the audience into a time of powerful prayer at the end of every show. 

We sat down with frontman Mike Weaver before a recent tour stop in Tennessee to discuss their focus on ministry in this upcoming fall tour.

So you're currently out on the road with Brandon Heath for the second leg of the Jesus I Believe Tour—what are you looking forward about this fall run?

It's been awesome! This is like the year of Heath. We toured together in the spring, now in the fall, and they just announced that we're actually on the K-Love Christmas Tour together, so that's going to be fun. That tour is with some amazing artists, too. Kim Walker Smith and Sarah Reeves--man! Us guys are going to be like, "let's let the real singers do this thing." It's going to be so fun, but my thing is I'm going to want Kim Walker Smith to sing for hours and me just sit out there and worship Jesus. We were talking about it because every day at 4:30 when we pray over the room for the night, we have Jesus Culture on in the background, so my brother was like "dude, do we just get her to sing over the room then and do this live?" 
 
You talked about Brandon a little already, but what do you love about touring with him? 

It's just kind of easy. He's really low-key. He's not a prankster. He's kind of a sight-seer, so you'll just look and Brandon won't be there. He'll be like "oh, I'm two hours away at such-and-such," and then he'll be back in time for the show or whatever. He loves to take in whatever's local, which is cool. I'm like the opposite of that--we went to Alaska and everyone went to see the Glacier, but I stayed at the hotel and went to the little market down there. He's great though. The set he plays is just kind of power-packed because he's a great songwriter and has a natural rapport with people. There's no telling what he'll say, so that's always kind of a fun surprise. It's been great, and it's been easy. I think that's how I would describe it--just easy. I think after the couple years that we've had before this, easy is a really welcomed thing. 

Nice! So "Redeemed" just went platinum—congratulations on that!

Yeah! You know? I always feel kind of dumb because I always—and this is my problem—I always see what's not rather than what is, when it is pertaining to us. When it's somebody else, I can celebrate like the smallest achievement, but when it's us, it's like "it should have been such-and-such." There's a lot of multi-platinum selling artists out there, but the idea of that song specifically being used by Jesus in so many people's lives...I celebrate that because that number represents people. I'll tell you what's more, and this is, even more, a favorite thing--we were writing in Texas and we were playing that day. A friend of mine was driving the van and we were coming back to the venue from the hotel. I saw this homeless guy on the side of the road at the exit we get off to go to the church we were playing at. I never have cash, I'm like that cashless society member, but for whatever reason, I had cash in my pocket. So I told my friend to pull over and I handed her this cash to give the guy. He kind of almost doesn't even look at the cash for a minute. He notices that she's going to give her something, but he looks past her to me in the passenger seat and says, "Are you Big Daddy Weave?" and I'm like how in the world does he know that I sing for Big Daddy Weave? He goes, "I have been in and out of so many rehab situations, but dude, every one I've ever been in always plays your songs." That was awesome to me. That was the one I want to celebrate. I thank Jesus for record sales and all that stuff, but I'm praying that even more than that is that people are receiving what that means. I think I'm trying to learn how to receive it too. But that was really cool to me. People in Nashville tend to get excited about that kind of stuff, I've always felt kind of funky. I have no trouble celebrating someone else, but it's always awkward when it's you, you know? We're looking for those other stories--we really value those.

When you're on the road so much, especially as ministry-focused as these nights are, how do you guys stay filled up while you're constantly pouring into other people?

How it happened today is there's a guitar tech on our crew named Ben George, and he led a Bible study and talked about the righteousness of God applied to our lives. I'm telling you, I was jazzed after that. It was awesome, and it was our little community. Again, it's this awkward factor where it's a bunch of people sitting in this room and you're trying to have this thing and you don't necessarily know how to do it, but then there are these moments where it breaks through and you realize we really are this family out here. We're constantly in pursuit. On a daily basis, we mark off 4:45 and we sit together, awkward or not. This has been crazy this run because our tour manager Brad Fogarty, who has been a pastor to us for a long time, is not with us. It's a lot more low-key when he's not here, so all of us are trying to figure out how we carry what he carries. In the struggle of that has been a really cool comradery. We celebrate Brad, but we also are having to learn some real lessons when he's not here, which is really healthy for us actually. 

Your music, especially going back to "Jesus I Believe," is something that has helped a lot of people when they're walking through difficulty—what is that music for you? 

When we talked about Kim Walker Smith...some of that worship music is that for me. Honestly, "Peace Be Still" by Lauren Daigle has been that. Even a few years ago, a few of the songs that Bethel put out on those first few albums...those ones that Jenn Johnson sang--it was like she was just singing my guts or something. There was a song she has called "God I Look To You," and for like eight months, I'd put that song on, and by the end of it, the Lord would just have it settled. "Peace Be Still" is kind of like that song for me right now.  I don't know what it is about those girl singers, but there's something about that heart that comes through in Jenn's voice and Lauren's voice and some of the others that are powerful, but it's also beautiful. It really gets me and helps me settle down and just go, "okay, I'm alright, I'm not going completely crazy." 
 
You guys are constantly praying for other people—how can people be praying for you guys as a band in this season?

Man, we're just going through things with our families. My dad passed away last Christmas day. We found out my mom has a type of cancer, and she went through a surgery the other day. She's recovering right now. It's a different season, and it's a battle, so pray for our families and pray for us. Pray that we just really keep Jesus at the center. This thing is like a giant train that gets momentum, so pray that we would be so sensitive to Jesus that we wouldn't be carried away by the momentum of this thing. We want to hear Him when He's talking, right now, today.