On Leading Well

Year: 2007

  • What Is A Movement? Part 2

    A couple of years ago a friend of mine asked: “If I were to parachute into a city where I could observe a true movement of God on a campus, where would you drop me and what would I see?” We discussed several potential locations in East Asia, then we realized we might be overlooking an obvious one staring up at us from the pages of Scripture.

    The movement at Antioch truly changed the known world. In just 10-15 years – only half a generation – key cities among four provinces of the Roman Empire (Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia and Asia) were “turned upside down.” Several of us sat down and began a long period of group study on this radical church-planting church. The highlights can be found in the New Testament record of the book of Acts, mainly between chapters 11-15. Many of the apostle Paul’s letters also illuminate the DNA flowing from this new missions-sending base.

    We asked ourselves two simple questions:
    1. What happened at Antioch?

    2. What principles can we take away?

    I’ll fill in the specifics in a later post.

    The conversation, though, has now become global. Many people have been asking the question, and here’s what we believe the old principles and new practices indicate as a working definition.

    Definition. A Campus Movement is where God is working supernaturally through a team of like-hearted people to Win, Build and Send toward fulfillment of the Great Commission. True spiritual movements cannot be created by men, but are founded by prayerful dependence upon God.

    Measurable results. Over time God’s grace would be increasingly evident in each of these behaviors:
    1. Connecting lost students to Jesus
    2. Life-changing discipleship
    3. Multiplying student leaders (who mobilize and mentor others to lead)
    4. Generation of local resources (vision, people, money, ideas, etc).

    The first two elements describe non-negotiable personal MINISTRY components that form the foundation of any healthy movement. Points three and four reflect the difference between ministries that gather and MOVEMENTS that reproduce.

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  • Two Common Movement-Killers

    I hate to admit this. I have made this mistake three different times. Each time it happened after I had been assigned to a new campus. The first time the mistake could have been expected. The second and third times, well, that was my own fault.

    What was my mistake? At the beginning of a new school year I simply began discipling the first students in the ministry who expressed need. I thought I was being helpful and loving these students. All three times I ended the school year with very emotionally needy or fun-loving students, but not with whole-hearted disciples of Christ. What went wrong?

    Movement-Killer #1 – Hasty (or No) Selection

    “…and He spent the whole night in prayer to God. And when day came, He called his disciples to Him; and chose twelve of them…” Luke 6:12-13

    “It does not matter how many we enlist for the cause, but how many conquer for Christ. That is why all along our emphasis must be upon quality of life. If we get the right quality of leadership, the rest will follow; if we do not get it, the rest have nothing worth following.”
    -Robert E Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism

    My problem was that I lacked the foresight and courage to realize: If I commit myself fully to this small group of 5-8 students right now, then I am consciously making a choice to say “no” to the other 20,000 students on my campus for the rest of the year.

    I observed wiser and more successful friends do three things to help avoid this mistake.

    1. They prayed. They spent extended time in prayer, like Jesus did, before selecting any students to invite into an ongoing discipleship relationship.

    2. They took their time. They did not rush to “get a group.” They kept sharing their faith and doing basic follow up through November and December. They invited faithful believers to the weekly fellowship. They brought them to retreats and invited them to pray. BUT they had the wisdom to wait on God, observe their behavior over time, and let God bring more new believers into the movement before selecting and committing themselves to a few.

    3. They avoided…

    Movement-Killer #2… Filling Their Schedule with 1-1 Appointments.

    Yep, nothing helps justify our existence more than staying busy with a full schedule. And few behaviors ultimately kill a genuine movement more stealthily than regular 1-1 appointments.

    Sometimes it seems like the weekly 1-1 ministry appointment is a hallowed requirement. Why is that? When I study Jesus’ three years of ministry, I cannot find a single time that he met 1-1 with any of his 12 disciples after calling them to follow Him. I’m not saying that Jesus never had personal time with a disciple, simply that the 1-1 discipleship appointment was not part of his core development strategy for his men. He met in 2’s, 3’s, small groups and larger groups. He confronted disciples in front of each other. Anyway, it seems odd that the greatest movement builder of all time did not incorporate the weekly 1-1 into his strategy. Go figure.

    Why can 1-1 appointments kill movements?

    Leadership Challenge: If you can find Jesus having a 1-1 appointment with any of his 12 disciples, please post a reply. I’ll buy you a dinner. Seriously.

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  • What Is A Movement?

    Here’s the best definition I’ve seen recently:

    “A movement is a group of people who consciously, and at their own cost, connect to change the status quo.”

    This simple definition applies to any type of movement that is focused on change. We’re interested in spiritual movements – movements that seek lasting transformation of hearts and lives while honoring the one true God.

    Most historical movements go through a fairly predictable life-cycle. The birth usually centers around a charismatic personality who champions a compelling cause. During this phase, most outsiders view the movement as odd, fringe, or something to be ignored. Following some early successes or positive comes a recruitment phase. Wikipedia comments:

    After the social movement is created, there are two likely phases of recruitment. The first phase will gather the people deeply interested in the primary goal and ideal of the movement. The second phase, which will usually come after the given movement had some successes and is trendy; it would look good on a résumé. People who join in this second phase will likely be the first to leave when the movement suffers any setbacks and failures.

    Eventually most movements dwindle or die. This may be due to fulfillment of the stated objective (i.e. women granted the right to vote) or loss of momentum due to poor leadership, lack of ownership among the masses, or a cause that is less-than-compelling.

    Any honest student of history must acknowledge that the movement begun by a carpenter’s son 2,000 years ago in Israel which continues to grow today meets all the qualifications of a successful spiritual movement. In fact, we could easily argue that Jesus Christ was and is the most successful movement leader of all time. Why?

    • This movement is centered around a Person, not just a charismatic personality.

    • It is empowered by humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit, not fads and trends.

    • Its driving force is the most compelling cause in the universe: the glory and fame of the One true, loving God among all peoples and all nations.

    • Millions of true followers have endured harassment, persecution, torture, death, defamation and hardship with love, joy, peace and self-control.

    • The movement (aka the church) continues to rapidly grow with amazing fruitfulness after 20 centuries.

    • It is completely inclusive: no one is excluded due to gender, race, financial status, ethnicity, social caste, intelligence or religious background.

    • Its visionary end possesses the broadest possible scope. In other words, it is worthy of giving one’s entire life to help fulfill.

    Next topics:

    1. Four marks of a movement that changed the world in half a generation.

    2. Common mistakes that we all make in building movements.

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