EQUIPPINGTHESAINTS
BANNING LIEBSCHER
BY DOUG DOPPLER
Our mission at Worship Musician is to provide practical help for Worship teams . With Chris McClarney on the cover , we decided to launch this new column by interviewing Banning Liebscher , Jesus Culture founder and Pastor . True to form , Banning ’ s words are inspirational , practical , and applicable . I ’ ll be sharing them with my team and I invite you to do the same . If you wish to tap deeper into Banning ’ s wisdom I encourage you to pick up his latest book “ Rooted ” at www . jesusculture . com / store .
WORSHIP MUSICIAN : I loved seeing that you guys are doing Church in a High School auditorium . What are some of the best takeaways in doing Church like this ?
BANNING LIEBSCHER : We love doing church in a High School theater . It has been fun to build there . I wouldn ’ t want to be here forever , but I have loved and am loving the experience . You have to get creative in these environments . You narrow it down to what is really needed to fulfill the vision and create the environment you want . We have a huge value for excellence in all areas and doing children ’ s ministry well . It is always a stretching area to try and figure out how you can keep the level of excellence up in a temporary space , as well as continue to up our level of taking care of families . One amazing thing that comes from setting up and tearing down each week is that you have to get good at building a volunteer culture . Some of the best community we built in the early days of our Church has been on the teams that show up early and set up . It ’ s been special to see the level of connection on those teams .
WM : What are some suggested best practices for Churches that set up and tear down each week ?
BANNING : Create a culture of volunteers . Refuse to settle when it comes to excellence . Pay attention to the details . Things begin to fall apart quicker when they are constantly being moved , so you have to stay on top of that stuff . Be really intentional with what you are trying to create with the environment to best serve guests , families , and the elderly . You also have to be intentional about creating an environment where people can encounter God .
photo : jesusculture . com
WM : Banning , you were the Youth Pastor for Jesus Culture . What things were you most missional about as you poured into the team ?
BANNING : First and foremost , we pushed hard that our job is simply to bring people into an encounter with Jesus . At the end of the day that ’ s what we are all about . If our team leads worship anywhere in the world and people walk away talking about the band or the lights we haven ’ t done our job . We want them walking away talking about Jesus , more in love with Jesus . We realize that what we do is pointing people to something greater , which is God and His cause in the earth .
WM : I remember being floored by the presence of God I experienced as I heard Kim Walker-Smtih sing “ All I Need Is You ” for the first time . Can you talk about how she became the voice of the Jesus Culture movement ?
BANNING : It was just a natural outflow of what we were doing at our conferences and youth group . There were three worship leaders when we started , Kim , Chris Quilala and Melissa How . I knew that God had put something special on the worship and that ’ s why we even decided to record albums . You could always tell with Kim , even in the early days , that there was something special on her . And then How He Loves blew up on YoutTube and the world was able to hear her . It ’ s been fun to journey with her and Chris from the beginning and see what God has done with them .
WM : Can you share some of the things you did as a leader to shape the worship team in the early days that you feel were most fruitful ?
BANNING : I answered some of this earlier with what our main goal is . We go after making sure that you are the same on the stage as off the stage . Your internal world needs to be bigger than any stage you are ever on . You can only give from your secret history with God . That we want to serve and lay our lives down for others . That this isn ’ t about getting a name for ourselves but making the name of Jesus famous . It ’ s not about Twitter followers it ’ s about being obedient to what God has asked of us .
WM : The mantle that is on the music Jesus Culture creates is huge - what things as a leader did you do to keep growing and prepare yourself to lead the team and the Jesus Culture movement ?
BANNING : Just learn to love the cave , establish a secret history with the Lord , make sure you have a correct definition of success , and understand that everything we do is simply a gift we give to God , what He does with it is up to Him .
WM : You suggested to my Pastor that we
50 Jul � Aug 2016 WorshipMusician . com