Catalysts are more likely to start a movement the more they grow

Introduction

A widespread notion is that missionaries either have leadership skills or not: good leaders are “born to greatness.” Such conviction leaves only limited incentive to intentionally invest in missionary development, both on the side of missions organizations and the individual. However, over the past 50 years a myriad of studies in the field of leadership development has demonstrated that the traits and competencies of effective leaders are not exclusively innate; on the contrary, they can be developed to a very large extent. Unfortunately, this paradigm shift does not seem to have made a deep enough impact on our collective psyche in the mission community. Increasing ministry fruitfulness will require understanding how pioneer missionaries develop their leadership over time and finding ways to support them in those efforts.

This article describes how the passage of time impacts the development of pioneer missionaries who start Christward movements. Specifically, it offers insight into the relationship between the development of the traits and competencies that mark effective movement catalysts and ministry longevity.

Background

To put this analysis in context, the following two questions formed the basis of a major empirical study:

The study began with an extensive literature review, encompassing leadership trait theory, apostolic leadership, and movement leadership publications. Through this, a large number of traits and competencies of effective leaders were catalogued from those referenced across a wide variety of publications. All traits and competencies cited by three or more publications were explored via the empirical research, which was accomplished by mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative. ¹ A list of the 24 traits and competencies is found in the appendix at the end of this article. The quantitative part consisted of an online survey with 95 questions, completed by a total of 307 pioneer missionaries, of which 147 had catalyzed a movement and the remaining 160 had not.

For the purposes of this study, we defined a pioneer as someone who takes the gospel to a previously unreached people group. Those the study considered to be “effective movement catalysts” were pioneers who had (1) catalyzed a movement with churches that have multiplied to the fourth generation, and (2) were the first to engage that particular people group with the gospel. They may not necessarily have been the first to ever share the gospel among that group, but they proved to be the most influential pioneer, even though others may have made significant contributions to launching the movement. Building on the definitions of David Garrison (2004) and the 24:14 Coalition (Parks et al., 2018), we define a movement as “a rapid indigenous multiplication of disciples making disciples and churches planting churches in multiple streams, within a people group to the fourth generation”

The study included participants representing the six largest mega-cultures of the world, with a focus on the regions or groupings where most movements have occurred, specifically Francophone Africa, East Africa, India, Indonesia, Latin America, and Ethnic Chinese. In the quantitative portion of the study, respondents were asked to evaluate themselves, on a Likert scale of 1 to 5, on a series of statements designed to assess their personal traits and ministry competencies.

Since these two items, traits and competencies, form the basis of the entire research, it is important to define them very clearly and differentiate between the two. The study posits that in this context, traits are the personal characteristics that contribute to consistent leadership effectiveness, simply put, those “qualities that differentiate leaders from non-leaders” (Zaccaro, 2007: 8). Competencies differ from traits in that they are “an area of knowledge or skill that is critical for producing the outputs” (McLagan, 1989: 57). The distinction between the two is succinctly captured by influential skills theorist Robert Katz (1955: 34, emphases in original): “Traits are who leaders are, competencies are what leaders can accomplish.” However, in practice the two are deeply interconnected and should not be seen as absolutely distinct. Or in the words of two key leadership theorists, once “traits are requirements for doing something, they are called ‘competencies’” (Bass and Bass, 2008: 103).

Using traits and competencies as the lens through which to understand the effectiveness of movement catalysts, this study produced a wealth of insightful data, some of which has been published elsewhere (Prinz and Goldhor, 2022a, 2022b). This article will focus on only one issue: how effective pioneer missionaries develop their key traits and competencies over time—with emphasis on the word “develop.”

This analysis was performed by evaluating survey responses against the factor of the respondents’ number of years in ministry residence. Although this was not a longitudinal study, the collective data on years in ministry serves as a reasonable proxy measure that allows us to get a sense of the changes that generally occur in pioneer missionaries. Evaluation of this factor was conducted by means of a statistical measurement called the coefficient of determination, also known as the “goodness of fit,” which examines the amount of change in one variable caused by changes in another variable, thus allowing a particular outcome to be predicted.

We will start by examining the changes we found among effective movement catalysts: those pioneers who had actually catalyzed a movement.

Effective movement catalysts

In the data concerning only the effective movement catalysts in our study, we found two traits and competences having a clear positive, correlation with years in ministry, meaning that the longer the catalysts remained on the field, the more they grew in these areas: flexibility and emotional stability. Figure 1 depicts how strongly both are exhibited by catalysts with different ministry longevity, in contrast to the average change for all traits and competencies.

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Figure 1.

Years in Ministry.

Flexibility refers to a person’s willingness and ability to adapt to new situations, cope with change, and approach demands in novel ways, especially when stressors or unexpected events occur. Emotional stability means being emotionally mature and stable, and able to regulate one’s emotions in ways helpful for interactions with others. Three aspects of the positive correlation of these two traits benefit from further examination.

First, both flexibility and emotional stability belong to what is often referred to as the “Big Five” personality model (Goldberg, 1981; McCrae and Costa, 1985), and are usually considered positive traits associated with personal maturity. For this reason, it is not surprising to see catalysts’ rating of these two traits rising over their years of ministry. This represents growth in their personality, not in measures of behavior or proficiencies. This may imply that a major part of what separates effective catalysts from their peers is the ability to change at a deeper personal level, rather than a behavioral one.

Second, the growth of effective catalysts in these two traits is apparently related to their overall growth. The data indicates that emotional stability and flexibility had significantly lower median scores than the other traits in the personality category, such as for example persistence or drive to achieve. These two qualities rated over 1 full Likert point below the average rating of the others in the personality category. So we might say that the significant growth in these two traits serves as evidence that effective catalysts were able to correct a deficit in their personality, and that such ability to correct was related to their development into effectiveness.

Finally, although the increase in rating for emotional stability and flexibility was not large, it proved to be statistically significant when considered over decades of ministry longevity. For each decade in ministry residence, “higher flexibility” rises by 1/5 of a Likert point, and “emotional stability” rises by 1/2 Likert point. In particular, the increase in emotional stability for these catalysts was more than three times as high as for the control group. We propose two possible explanations. It could be that the reason for this is that the rapid growth of movements spurs, even forces, catalysts to grow in this quality as they deal with ever-increasing numbers and complexity. On the other hand, perhaps the catalysts’ proactivity and God’s sovereign actions bring events into their lives that serve to spur on their emotional growth and capacity to grow a movement. Probably both dynamics are at play.

Next, we consider the striking fact that for effective catalysts, 22 out of the 24 traits and competencies have no significant correlation to increasing years in ministry. This finding provides both surprising and fascinating insight into how missionaries develop. Conventional wisdom would suggest that the longer pioneers remain on their field, the more they grow and develop all or most of the traits and competencies needed to be effective. However, the fact that the vast majority of the catalysts’ traits and competences did not change significantly over time suggests that ministry longevity does not in and of itself have a major impact on catalyzing a movement. In other words, most of the traits and competencies related to starting movements are not only the domain of veteran missionaries.

This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that catalysts’ age at the time when they catalyzed a movement varies significantly, ranging from 21 to 76, with 44 years the average (both mean and median) age. Thus we conclude that these traits and competencies can be developed to a high degree irrespective of age or experience. This is supported by a wider review of competence theory in the secular literature. Studies have shown that the determining factor for how well these traits and competencies are developed is not the passage of time—in this case the years of ministry experience or age—but rather the amount of effort put into their development by the leader (Ericsson, 2006; Ericsson et al., 1993).

The control group of non-catalysts

Before considering data from the control group, meaning pioneers who did not catalyze a movement, we must recognize a potential limitation. The research approach used in this study produced only a “snapshot in time.” Thus it could be said that the control group may have contained some pioneers who are “not yet effective” in catalyzing a movement, but will be later in their career. Given that possibility, the study used a mitigation strategy of only assessing pioneers with a minimum of four years’ field ministry. This time frame as a baseline was derived from another study, which found that 70% of movements are catalyzed within that four-year time period (Prinz, 2016, 2022). Therefore, this strategy greatly reduces the chance that some of the control group might later join the effective catalyst category. Nevertheless, we recognize the results are a snapshot of a moment in time when these pioneers were not effective in starting a movement, regardless of how their effectiveness might change in the future.

The results for the control group provide the disconcerting finding that six of the 24 traits and competencies have a negative correlation to years in ministry. That is, the self-scoring of those who have not catalyzed a movement goes down for these six qualities the longer they have been on their field of ministry, as shown by Figure 2.

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Figure 2.

Years in Ministry Residence.

The declines were slow, nevertheless statistically significant when considered over decades. ² In this section we will specifically consider only three of the six: agreeableness, expectant faith, and confidence in local disciples. We will examine the other three, which have negative correlations in the following section because they showed decline in both the control group and among effective catalysts.

Agreeableness

The study defined agreeableness as a concern for social harmony that motivates individuals to seek out and maintain close social relationships, to be considerate, kind, generous, trusting and trustworthy, helpful, characterized by pleasant companionship, and willing to compromise one’s own interests when interacting with others.

A decline in this quality could be viewed as part of the natural psychological changes that occur as people age, since it is not uncommon for people to become somewhat less agreeable as they struggle with the realities of aging. However, the data argues against such a generalized explanation because this score does not go down among the catalyst group. Only those pioneers who have not seen a movement are found to become less agreeable the longer they live on the field. Furthermore, the score for agreeableness does not go down when measured against the variable of age of the respondent, only against years in ministry residence. This means it is specifically during the years spent on the field of ministry that the control group becomes less agreeable.

Perhaps this reflects the larger issue of the way the control group handled the disappointments, difficulties, and hardships of pioneer mission life? This is only conjecture; however, the life of a missionary has many opportunities for hardening, and it seems that those who become effective movement catalysts find a way to go through those without losing this winsome aspect of their character.

Expectant faith and confidence in local disciples

By expectant faith we mean the person exercises faith that God will show his power through their life, in particular that he will grow a movement and save many soon. We define confidence in local disciples as the confidence that God, by the efficacy of his word and Spirit, will grow and use new and immature believers, and hence launch a local movement from local resources.

We will consider the decline of these two traits and competencies in the control group together because for a pioneer church planter, faith in God is closely connected to confidence that God really can grow a movement from local human resources. Thus it is noteworthy that pioneers who have not catalyzed a movement become less and less confident as the years go by. It is impossible to say if one causes the other; it may well become a vicious cycle.

Taken together, this leads us to an important observation: over years in ministry, the traits and competencies of missionaries can not only plateau, but even decline. Since this decrease occurs only in those who have not catalyzed a movement, we may conclude that a key quality of the effective catalysts is their capacity to maintain their cutting edge over their time on the field; particularly with regard to these three qualities. To use the metaphor of a knife: repeated, prolonged use against hard surfaces tends to dull the edge. So its cutting edge must be maintained by repeated and intentional sharpening. Effective movement catalysts stand out through their intentional efforts to hone their personal traits and competencies through lifelong learning and ministry development. This fits well with our finding that effective catalysts demonstrate a greater openness to experience than the control group.

All pioneers combined

Finally, we look at the data as it concerns all pioneers, specifically changes that were not explored in either of the earlier sections that dealt with the catalysts and control group separately. This helps us isolate ways that mission pioneers in general change over years on the field. Looking at the relationship between traits and competencies and length of years in ministry, we found that three traits or competencies showed a positive correlation, and six, a negative one. In other words, the rating of three traits and competencies increased the longer a pioneer was on the field, and six decreased over the same measure.

Traits and competencies that increased

Looking at the three traits and competencies that increased first and having already examined emotional stability at length in the “Effective movement catalysts” section, we will look now at persistence and empowering.

We have defined persistence as the capacity to work with distant objects in view and be tenacious in spite of challenges; to overcome obstacles and not give up amid difficulties. It is not difficult to understand the relationship between persistence and longevity on a pioneer mission field. All pioneer missionaries need to cultivate the ability to stand firm in their calling and overcome obstacles as they push forward toward goals that are only seen by faith at the start. The best place to begin developing this trait is before they go to the field. Sending agencies can play an important role here by being brutally honest about the realities of life on the field, and by being more transparent about the struggles others have had. Rather than scaring away potential recruits, this might set them more firmly on the path toward long-term fruitful ministry.

Empowering is the other competency that increased over years in ministry for all respondents. By this we mean recognizing the gifts of others, enabling them to develop these gifts, assigning responsibility and authority to others (including the relinquishing of control and the risk of failure), and equipping them to carry out those responsibilities by means of mentoring, coaching, or training. This dimension of pioneer ministry is rooted in Ephesians 4:12, where we see that one of the primary roles of an apostolic worker is “to equip the saints for the work of the ministry” (ESV), which is all the more applicable when we remember that Paul’s epistles were written in the context of pioneer church planting. Our findings show that frontier missionaries today are applying Paul’s words to their work and bearing fruit as a result.

Traits and competencies that decreased

Alongside the traits and competences that increase, we note that others actually decrease among pioneers the longer they continue in ministry: evangelistic zeal, assertiveness, and disciple-making. Because these decrease over time for all pioneers, this means their decline does not have a measurable impact on effectiveness in catalyzing a movement. However, it is still important to consider the reasons for this decline.

First, assertiveness: the quality of being able to influence people and situations, even to the extent of dominating; sharing one’s beliefs and convictions clearly so that people take notice; and being bold and courageous even when facing opposition and threat. Perhaps the key to understanding the decline in this quality lies in recognizing it has both a positive and a negative side. Our interpretation is that the data may be showing that pioneers soften a domineering or overbearing side of their personality over the years, thus rating themselves lower for this trait. Here the insights on assertiveness from the studies of Ames and Flynn (2007) help us understand this dynamic. They conclude that the relation between assertiveness and effective leadership is curvilinear, which means while too little assertiveness hampers effective leadership, too much can undermine social relationships and thus hinder leadership outcomes. We can deduce our findings show that pioneers who have spent many years in ministry have identified a healthy middle ground of the right measure of assertiveness.

We now consider two traits and competencies together: evangelistic zeal and disciple-making. Evangelistic zeal means being driven by a passionate urgency to see the good news shared with all the lost, and passionately sharing it with everyone possible. Disciple-making we have defined as intentional Bible-centered teaching in the context of a transformational relationship that leads to heart obedience, encompassing spiritual disciplines and character transformation. We theorize that the decline in these two represents the flip side of the increase in empowering noted earlier. The key to understanding this is best seen by the statements participants were asked to rate for these two.

For evangelistic zeal, respondents had to rate on a five-point Likert scale the statement “I am highly motivated about sharing the gospel with others”; and for disciple-making, “My disciples give me feedback that my discipling them has led to character formation and greater obedience to God.” Note that both of these relate to personal ministry behaviors. The most likely explanation for the decrease in these two qualities is that the longer apostolic leaders stay on the field, the more likely they are to focus on mentoring and developing local people, while their own ministry takes more and more of a background role. Thus it would be quite natural for them to rate themselves low on these statements at a personal, behavioral level. In fact, we might go so far as to say that a decrease in these traits and competences could be a mark of a maturing pioneer leader because it demonstrates a focus on reproducibility in ministry.

Averages of all traits and competencies

Figure 3 shows trend lines of the average collective ratings for all traits and competencies, for both effective catalysts and non-catalysts.

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Figure 3.

Trait and Competency Averages in Comparison.

Three important inferences can be drawn from this graph. One, that effective catalysts start out with a slightly higher overall level (1/5 Likert point) of the traits and competencies needed to catalyze a movement, and they continue to grow in these over their years in ministry. Two, it seems that even very early in their ministry, people who go on to become an effective catalyst already have a high enough capacity in these qualities to start a movement. And three, non-catalysts in comparison not only begin their ministry with a slightly lower level of traits and competencies, they tend to decrease in these over their years in ministry. Both changes are gradual and relatively small, but the opposite trajectories of the personal development between catalysts and non-catalysts could be the key to understanding the difference between the two groups. In other words, it is not just that effective catalysts score higher on these traits and competencies, but they are set apart by their ongoing personal development.

Summary and conclusions

It comes as a surprise that most traits and competencies of pioneers (15 out of 24) show no correlation at all with ministry longevity. This discovery has important—and encouraging—implications. Since most of the specific traits and competencies needed by kingdom pioneers are not directly related to development over years in the field of ministry, they are not in any way limited to seasoned missionaries.

However, we found that effective catalysts not only grow in a general sense, they also demonstrate significant growth specifically in the traits of emotional stability and persistence. This is not surprising, as both traits are associated with increasing personal maturity. Catalysts also become more empowering the longer they remain in ministry, which may be explained through a maturing ministry philosophy of equipping as well as a growing competence in knowing how to empower effectively.

At the same time, some traits and competencies correlate negatively with increasing years in ministry. Thus over years in ministry, the traits and competencies of mission pioneers can not only plateau, but also decline. While the two that decrease can be a marker of maturity in reproducing ministry, most of the decreases we found occur only in those who have not catalyzed a movement. Therefore, we can conclude that one key mark quality of an effective catalyst is that of life-long growth and learning, which translates into the capacity to maintain their cutting edge throughout their time on the field.

From the perspective of training and development, these findings are significant. This means that with only three exceptions, the development of relevant traits and competencies associated with the catalyzing of a movement is not correlated with length of time in ministry. From this we infer that they also do not correlate with life maturity. Therefore, we conclude that there is little correlation between the traits and competencies of an effective movement catalyst and ministry longevity.

In positive terms, this means any missionary can develop to a high degree the traits and competencies necessary to catalyze a movement, irrespective of how long they have been on the field. This fits with what is known as “deliberate practice,” which has long held that the determining factor for effective leadership is not the amount of time passed, but the amount of effort put into development (Ericsson et al., 1993). Effort here means a combination of training, mentoring, and the deliberate practice of the pioneer. What matters in enabling movement catalysts is not their “ministry experience”; it is the amount of effort they put into intentionally developing their movement-oriented traits and competencies. Since all catalytic qualities can be developed to a significant extent, movement practitioners should be encouraged that they too can develop these qualities, even if they exhibit them only partially at present.

When and where the Holy Spirit blows to create a Christward movement is not in the hands of a movement practitioner; however, we are fully in charge of our growth and development to become the kinds of people God can use. These findings should spur practitioners to place a whole new degree of emphasis on the development of their catalytic qualities, and so improve their ability to partner with God in catalyzing a movement.