Reproducing reproducers by Mac Lake

One of the primary goals of leadership development is not just to produce a leader, but to produce a leader that produces leader. Developing a leader will last a season, but developing a leader that reproduces leaders lasts generations. Several years ago a young man walked into my office and with great enthusiasm in his voice said, “Mac, if you know anyone who needs Jesus please give me their name because I love to witness and I just want to share my faith all I can.” Knowing this guy had the gift of evangelism and was leading people to Christ regularly, I said, “Tim, do you want to live a life of addition or multiplication?” He paused, thought, and said, “Multiplication of course, but what are you getting at?” I said, “You have an amazing gift for evangelism and you can keep winning people to Christ one at a time, living a life of addition or you can live a life of multiplication. Then looking him in the eye I said, “Tim, I want to challenge you to train 100 people in our church how to share their faith.” This was like pouring fuel on a fire, he was now a man on a mission and said, “Yes! That is what I want to do.” I gave him the Becoming a Contagious Christian curriculum and set him loose. Within six months he had trained dozens of people how to share their faith. He never made it to the 100 goal because during that six months God called him into ministry and he left to go to seminary. I still hear from him on occasion and he is still equipping people to share their faith, in fact he has trained way more than 100 over the years. God’s impact through our lives will reach its maximum influence when we focus on reproducing reproducers. Are you focusing on raising leaders, or raising leaders who raise leaders?