Last week Marc van der Woude and myself were invited to give some input at an Agape Europe meeting concerning Leader Development. Marc made some great comments on the basics of leader development:

1. Nothing can replace living/walking with Christ. People who breathe the presence of Christ impart even without teaching.
2. Train with multiplication in mind and expect leaders to multiply themselves in others and make themselves redundant in an early phase. This aspect is often overlooked. The leadership solution: praying for laborers (Luke 10:2b). The real test is whether you can leave in six months and the organisation or community continues.
3. You can only multiply who you really are, and lessons and experiences you’ve really incorporated. In other words: don’t preach anything that doesn’t match with your lifestyle. Head knowledge accomplishes close to nothing.

I was asked to give some input from the perspective of a National Director, and I came up with three other basic statements:

1. We are to develop spiritual leaders rather than organisational leaders
2. Leaders have the capability to develop themselves, so a program should provide context rather than content
3. Leader development takes place by definition in the context of everyday life. Any program should be holistic and integrative, not just a conference twice a year.