Howard Snyder is one of the best when it comes to insights on movements.
Here’s his characteristics of movements that renew and extend the church in mission.
1. A thirst for renewal, for recovery of an earlier dynamic, or for better times in the life of the church. This is how renewal movements arise. A perception grows that the church has declined from its early purity or power, and that somehow the vitality and perhaps the patterns of the early church must be recovered.
2. A stress on the immediate operation or new work of the Holy Spirit in the present day. The Holy Spirit is seen to be active in the present, in new ways. The work of the Spirit recorded in Scripture is seen not only as important for the past but also as a model and expectation in the present.
3. Relatedly, an institutional/charismatic tension appears in the church. Whenever the Holy Spirit is perceived to be doing a new work in the present, tension with existing patterns is almost inevitable. Suddenly the status quo is questioned. Is the new thing of the Spirit or not? And if it is, what kind of judgement is this on existing patterns?
4. A concern with being a countercultural community over against the world; a strong sense of being the community of the church. Renewal movements call the church to a more radical commitment and a more active tension with the world.
5. Nontraditional or nonordained leadership in the church, including openness to the gifts and leadership of women. Renewal movements often are led by people with no recognized leadership status in the church who usually emerge through a new burst of charismatic gifts. In this freer, less institutionally regulated environment, women are often more noticeably active than in the church generally.
6. Ministry to the poor, or those at the lower end of the socioeconomic scale. Often (though not always) renewal movements are movements of the masses, or the unlettered or uncultured.
7. The energy and dynamic of a new movement. One of the most fascinating features of any renewal movement is the energy it demonstrates and its ability to excite and enlist others as leaders and participants.
Signs of the Spirit: How God Reshapes the Church (Howard A. Snyder), pp. 24-25.
This is one of the best books around on movements. It’s out of print but you can find it second hand.