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Enjoy these top ministry insights and resources to encourage and equip you to lead with inspiration.
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LEAD • with Banning Liebscher
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Lead With Inspiration interviewed Banning Liebscher, founding pastor of Jesus Culture, to discuss key elements of healthy leadership and the Jesus Culture School of Leadership. Enjoy these highlights of our conversation, exclusive access to the video and audio of
Jesus Culture’s last Pastors Conference and special discounts and promo offerings.
One thing that just about everyone can agree on is that the last two years have been brutal for pastors! Although there were blessings along the way, if there was ever a time to cash in a do-over, most of us would like another version of 2020. The reality that COVID-19 emphasized is that “it takes courage to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.”
Banning continued, “The enemy of our soul traffics in lies and uses them to sow discouragement in our hearts and minds. That’s why, especially now, after the past two years, we need to be positioned for encouragement.” More than a whimsical hope or intellectual acknowledgment of the need for encouragement, this is a diligent and intentional effort to position yourself to stay encouraged.
Here are a few simple questions from Banning to help us receive courage:
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Are you in the Word? Yes, this one seems obvious, but it’s fundamental. The best strategies, tactics and advice will only get us so far. We need to be in the Word and the Word needs to be in us!
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Are you seeking God’s Presence? Again, this feels like a no-brainer, but if we’re not in the Word and seeking God’s presence, we’re not on the right path. We may be successful on some levels but we’re missing the mark if we are not cultivating Christ as our first love (Rev. 2:4).
- Who encourages you? Identify the people who are for you and consistently leave you encouraged when you’re with them. Prioritize and invest in these relationships.
- Who do you encourage? Embrace the Kingdom dynamic of sowing and reaping. If you need courage, sow courage into those around you. This requires a 360-degree type of approach: As leaders encourage the people they’re leading, they also need to give and receive encouragement at a peer level, and they need to receive encouragement from their own leaders and mentors.
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Are you self and others aware? How well do you know who you are? Do you understand who and how God made you? And do you know those same things about the people you lead? This is vital for personal growth and equipping a healthy and effective team.
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Fruit of Insecurity
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Earlier we touched on how to experience a measure of success outside of maintaining the fundamental disciplines of spiritual health. If you’ve been in ministry long enough, you may have wrestled with this yourself or know someone who has. There’s a temptation to go on autopilot and allow the disciplines and practices of first love to go idle. Success isn’t impossible on autopilot but can become shallow and lack the life-giving dimensions of the Kingdom. Banning identified the “fruit of insecurity” as a companion to autopilot success. He’s witnessed countless leaders striving from a place of comparison and working really hard to compensate for their insecurities…and it’s working!
Sadly, autopilot success often lacks depth and transformational impact. It tends to have a short shelf life.
One of the many benefits to being in the Word and seeking God’s presence is receiving His insight into ourselves and who He made us. God designed you and your personality to be a vehicle for the Kingdom, and there are a plethora of tools out there to help you understand how you and those around you are wired. This new insight into what motivates you and others can bring your team-building skills and execution of vision to a whole new level.
If you’re subscribed to Lead With Inspiration, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with tools like Enneagram, StrengthsFinder, DISC, etc. All it takes is a quick Google search to have dozens of options at your fingertips. In fact, we plan to feature one of the best tools we
use for our teams in a future issue.
This isn’t groundbreaking stuff, and many tools have been around for decades; yet, we’ve seen too many churches and ministries fail because of relational breakdown. It is rarely for lack of vision, finances or talent. The majority of the time it’s the result of leaders lacking awareness of themselves and others.
Banning’s advice, after 20+ years of leadership in ministry, is that a leader’s No. 1 priority, after their relationship with the Lord, is understanding themselves and others. Without hesitation, he told us, “After the secret place, this should be your main priority.” This is why Jesus Culture recently launched a School of Leadership to help leaders from all walks of life pursue leadership that’s spiritually mature, relationally healthy and effective. Again, the church isn’t
suffering from a lack of vision, finances or talent. What’s lacking are the tools and know-how to execute vision.
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From Paper to Reality
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Banning recalled his time as a youth pastor, saying, “On paper we had the best youth group in the country. I just didn’t know how to take that vision from paper to reality.” Without the right tools, we’re left feeling powerless and discouraged. The dream that’s burning in our heart never crosses the threshold from paper to reality. The plan is there. The ideas are there. The people are there. So what’s missing?
Jesus Culture School of Leadership (JCSL) was created to help with what’s missing. For example:
Do You Know How to Build a Team?
Do You Know How to
Problem Solve?
Do You Know How to Execute Vision?
Do You Know How to Stay Healthy: Spiritually, Emotionally and Physically?
In addition to helping with these critical skills, JCSL introduces students to a host of speakers and their expertise. We encourage you to explore JCSL and learn more about their focus on awakening the church to bring people to Jesus and transform culture. If you’re interested in either online or in-person participation, use the code JCINSPO to waive your application
fee. Jesus Culture would also like to invite you to their annual Pastors Conference. You can use the code INSPO23 for a discount on your registration.
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Banning Liebscher is the founding pastor of Jesus Culture, a ministry of worship, events and leadership development. Jesus Culture has released 29 albums and hosts numerous conferences and events around the world annually. In 2014, Banning and his wife, SeaJay, their family, and the Jesus Culture team planted Jesus Culture Sacramento, a church committed to seeing believers encounter God, be empowered as world changers and engage their city as leaders. Banning is the author of four books, the latest one being The Three-Mile Walk: The Courage You Need to Live the Life God Wants for
You. Banning has been interviewed on media outlets including Relevant, The 700 Club, TBN and CCM Magazine.
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| JESUS CULTURE PROMOS |
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7 Reasons Volunteer
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Ministries Fail
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For more than 30 years, High Impact Volunteer Ministry has trained and consulted churches and Christian organizations to catalyze volunteer ministry effectiveness. High Impact is currently taught and applied in more than 100 countries. Their clients have included Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child, Precept Ministries International, Prison Fellowship, American Heritage Girls, OMF International and many more.
Volunteers are an untapped and unoptimized resource. Below, High Impact’s founder Al Newell shares “Seven Reasons Why Volunteer Ministries Fail.” I trust you’ll find it deeply insightful, and we encourage you to check out their ministry
and use promo code HighImpact2023 to receive a $50 discount on their Executive Course.
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Golf great Ben Hogan said that when a person stands over a golf ball, every natural inclination is wrong. For instance, I once swung so hard that the ball lifted two inches straight up and plopped back down in a fresh, deep divot. Lifting my eyes too quickly and bending my knees were just a few of my instinctive tendencies that were all wrong.
That experience taught me that Hogan’s dictum about natural tendencies is dead-on when it comes to volunteerism. I’ve been a volunteer ministry consultant and trainer for over twenty years. During this time our ministry has had the privilege of working with countless Christian organizations and churches.
Leaders tend to think more volunteers are better. They want to reward volunteers based on the number of hours served, but those, and other natural tendencies, are detrimental to volunteer ministries.
Let’s explore seven reasons why volunteer ministries fail so that you can avoid these pitfalls and create a thriving culture of service:
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Mistake #1: Executive Evasion
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Ministry CEOs and pastors frequently embed themselves in fundraising or new-building strategies because they know it will 1) enhance their ability to accomplish their God-given vision and 2) impact future acts of ministry. But when it comes to directing an organization’s powerful volunteer resources, leaders often demonstrate the “get-it-out-of-my-office” approach. If CEOs experienced the power of a highly effective volunteer ministry, like many of our clients, they would likely invite the volunteer program to sit squarely inside their office.
Volunteer directors often attend our training alone. They return to their organizations with eagerness, yet
their enthusiasm is quickly curbed because of the resistance they experience throughout their organization. However, when tracing it back to a common source, the resistance is often due to the very person who initiated the training: the unwitting CEO.
Leading an on-site training a couple years ago, I was pleased to see every key executive of this large organization present. Top-level leader participation showed that they valued their volunteer resource, and they were going to hold their staff accountable to making a successful change. What an example! Volunteer ministry leaders face an enormous challenge; they require a sympathetic and informed CEO. Sending your volunteer director off to training is a good step but going with them or sending senior officers is much better. Also, give the volunteer ministry shelf-space inside your office. If a CEO hopes
to leverage volunteer resources, keeping close watch, as you would a major funding effort, is what is required.
Another question may soon arise: Which training events, volunteer philosophies, and leaders should we listen to amidst the ever-growing number of volunteer management advisors?
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Mistake #2: Volunteer Voodoo
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Leading an effective volunteer ministry is not brain surgery. I’m the proof case. In fact, you may be more likely to come across good neurosurgical advice than you are good volunteer ministry development advice.
Be careful what you read and who you listen to. Research the authors, leaders, and trainers. Have they actually applied what they are teaching? Do they have more than one successful volunteer implementation story? Very specifically, do they share a distinctly Christian and biblical view? Following a one-war-general may prove dangerous when it comes to fighting your volunteer ministry battles. Don’t let a so-called leader infect your ministry
with bad advice.
Who you chose to be your advisor is critical and impacting. Yet, another “who” question remains: Who steers your volunteer ministry effort? Again, another natural tendency is revealed.
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What Your Worship Leader Won’t Tell You from a Worship Leader Coach.
Formed in the Image of Your Habits, a conversation with author Justin Whitmel Earley. How to identify the spiritually deformational patterns of daily life and replace them with Gospel Liturgies.
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