"Leaders Training Leaders" Has Failed as a Church Growth Strategy
Leaders training leaders is a pretty common strategy within the leadership world. I heard it again recently on the John Maxwell podcast . However, it has also been popular in the church world - including more conservative evangelical churches. In terms of the church, the idea is that if the pastor is fairly unselective on where (or specifically who) he focuses his time then he can do all kinds of good work to grow the church - evangelistic outreach, Bible studies etc. and in doing so he may well be used to bring growth to the church. However, the growth will be additive (for which read slow). In contrast, if the pastor wants to be effective and bring multiplicative growth (for which read fast), then he should focus on raising up more leaders. This appears to make sense, if you do it right you will raise up more and more people to do the work and stimulate the work. I first experienced this idea in the church in the early 2000s and I have to admit was immediately concerned. I think it
