Neil Cole has a provocative article on Paul’s Leadership Progression over his four missionary journeys. I’ve extracted his points on multiplication movements below.
Third Journey (Acts 18:23-21:16) reached all of Asia with the Word of God, yet Paul spent the whole three years in only one city—Ephesus.
Employing the lessons learned on the third journey, Paul began a true multiplication movement by releasing workers for the harvest from the harvest and started all the churches if Asia Minor without going to all the locations himself (Col. 2:1).
1. Paul established a regional base of church planter (or movement building, Jay) development (Acts 19:9, 20:18).
2. Paul implemented a teaching/mentoring strategy by life example, both in large gatherings and small groups (Acts 20:19-20).
3. Paul integrated evangelism into the spiritual formation of his disciples as a foundation for training leaders for ministry (Acts 20:21).
4. Paul released the power of God’s word in people’s lives to carry the grassroots movement of multiplication (Acts 19:20).
5. Paul gave the Holy Spirit His rightful place in leading his disciples into ministry (Acts 20:28).
6. Paul mentored everyone (Acts 20:31) holding back nothing from his apprentices.
7. Paul empowered his leaders with accountability to God for the work that he modeled for them, so that his presence wasn’t needed for the work to continue after him (Acts 20:32).
