The most important ingredient in building movements may be the local team leaders. Thus, finding and preparing local team leaders may be the most difficult part of movement building. For without the right leaders, few ministries can take place and prosper–allowing for a movement of evangelism and discipleship to develop.
Reflecting on several articles by Todd Hunter and others, I wonder if we should consider a practical set of criteria in choosing and developing movement builders. Church planters within Vineyard Movement, for example, argue that the following two criteria are critical:
Does this person have the ability to gather people, and
Does this person have the ability to develop and lead leaders?
It might be an interesting exercise to evaluate the success or lack of success of our local movements by whether the local team leaders possess these qualities. Try it.
Another interesting exercise involves asking how we might develop these two qualities in our local team leaders.