The Multiplication Challenge begins with a story about a serious leadership shortage in our Every Nation church in the Philippines. We were growing rapidly, but our discipleship had outpaced our leadership development. When this happens in your context, don't be fooled by good growth numbers.

Why? Because if we intentionally make disciples and don't intentionally identify and train leaders, then we will have two big problems on our hands.

1. The Present Problem. If we don't train leaders, our growth will either plateau, or it will crush our current leadership team. Healthy discipleship growth will always threaten to overwhelm current leaders and leadership structures. The only way to solve this problem is to either stop growing or to train and empower new leaders. Doing something to deliberately stop God-given growth is not an option. So really, there's only one viable solution to this multiplication challenge: accelerate the equipping and empowering of new leaders.

2. The Future Problem. If we don't constantly train new leaders, we won't experience multi-generational growth. Being one-generation wonders is not an option. Throughout the Bible, God often identifies Himself in multi-generational terms. For example, He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God expects His people to grow, multiply and labor multi-generationally. This can only happen when we intentionally train next-generation leaders.

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If we don't multiply leaders (especially in seasons of great growth), then our only other option is to hire from the outside.

Many church leaders opt for this solution. But I think there is a better way. We've had seasons in Manila with serious leadership shortages. But during those times, we never looked outside to solve our leadership gaps. We never put job ads on seminary bulletin boards or in Christian magazines.

Even during our most severe leadership droughts, we have always assumed that our future leaders were right in front of us—hiding in plain sight, waiting for us to identify and instruct them. A little impartation and an internship would also help, but we know they are already in our church, waiting for an opportunity to minister and lead. Like diamonds in the rough, many times our future leaders are buried in the dirt. Leadership shortages are a clarion call for us to get our hands dirty—to dig for leaders who will sparkle like diamonds as soon as we clean, cut, polish and set them.

Steve Murrell serves as the president of Every Nation Churches and Ministries, a ministry that does church planting and campus ministry in over 70 nations.

This article originally appeared at stevemurrell.com.

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