What Does it Take to Reproduce a Leader?

Joel Comiskey interviewed hundreds of leaders from around the world with the goal being to find out why some leaders reproduce and others don't.

Here's what he found.

These are the factors that had no impact on reproduction:

The Leader's:

•Gender.
•Social class.
•Age.
•Marital status.
•Education.
•Personality type.
•Spiritual gifting.

None of these were factors in a leaders effectiveness at reproduction.


Here are some of the factors that did have an impact on reproduction:

The Leader's:

•Devotional time. Key finding: There is a direct correlation between reproduction and a leader spending time with God.
•How often the small group leader invites people to the group.
•The small group leader’s intercession for the small group members.
•The leader spending time with God to prepare for a small group meeting.
•Setting goals for reproduction.


In his book, Leadership Explosion, Joel Comiskey writes this:

I have researched small groups around the world. Here's what I have discovered: Small groups are not the answer...Small groups come and go, they rise and fall over time. Unless small group members are converted into small group leaders little long-term fruit remains. Churches do not reap the harvest because they have small groups. They reap the harvest because they have harvest workers.

The most important factor in leaders reproducing leaders is the time they spend alone with God. And that, makes perfect sense. We can't give out, for too long anyway, what we are not receiving for ourselves. If we are going to impart to others we must take part ourselves.