Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Multiplication Effect: Building a Leadership Pipeline that Solves Your Leadership Shortage

Rate this book
Do you wish you had more qualified, committed, and mission-oriented leaders in your church to share the ministry workload? Do you have a passion for cultivating the God-given leadership gifts in others?

Most pastors say that the need to identify and develop leaders is critical to the health and growth of their church, yet most churches do not have an intentional plan for doing this. In The Multiplication Effect, Mac Lake reveals his practical, biblical, and proven strategy for addressing this leadership shortage and equipping future leaders to fulfill their kingdom mission.

In this book, Mac Lake will help you:


Identify potential leaders using unique training modules
Equip and disciple leaders at every level of their leadership journey
Empower leaders to multiply themselves by developing other leaders
Inspired by the greatest leadership example of all, Lake writes, “Jesus was a master of leadership development who saw something in people and then patiently walked with them to transform their spirit and their skills.”

 

Learn how to lead like Jesus and create a culture of multiplying leaders to expand God’s work in your community and beyond

224 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2020

79 people are currently reading
153 people want to read

About the author

Mac Lake

16 books

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
93 (43%)
4 stars
84 (38%)
3 stars
32 (14%)
2 stars
6 (2%)
1 star
1 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
Profile Image for Kase Griswold.
20 reviews7 followers
February 1, 2023
Lake outlines how to set up a leadership development system the only way it can truly work: by being intentional through relationships as you walk alongside other to help them know Jesus more, thus encouraging them to help others know Jesus more.

If I could give this 6 stars, I would!
Profile Image for Natalie Crane.
69 reviews1 follower
May 25, 2022
Kinda long winded in the beginning. Has good content and direction for church leaders but could have been more concise and practical.
Profile Image for Brooke Johnson.
84 reviews
September 11, 2023
I’m rating this a 1 star solely based on how much I ENJOYED reading it. Unfortunately, this book is not written for enjoyment but rather for practical advice and improvement. It offered solid information, strategy, and implementation tactics for recruiting and developing leaders - but it was incredibly long winded. I think the whole book could be reduced to a 10 page pamphlet and remain just as effective and informative
Profile Image for Colin Michaelis.
179 reviews2 followers
May 21, 2023
I am working my way through some books on leadership development in a church or ministry context. Mac Lake has a well-thought out structure, culture, and people-oriented approach to leadership development. As he says, “It’s not a win when you produce a leader. It’s a win when the newly developed leader produces a leader.” And that’s the core belief in his systematic approach - multiplication rather than addition. Much as we do with effective disciple-making, it is disciples making disciples who make disciples.

I have a in-built aversion to blindly following any system. But as Lake says, “Please understand that programs don’t develop leaders, leaders develop leaders….The Magic bullet is you.” That goes a long way to addressing my concern about a formulaic methodology.

This is a very help and practical start to understanding how to grow leaders for ministry.
Profile Image for Ray.
62 reviews1 follower
February 14, 2023
This was a really good book to read. I appreciate the perspective on leadership that is shared in this book and the things they identify on training up new leaders with in the church. The section of chapters focused on the culture of leadership within the church were my favorite. The thoughts shared are very different than what you see most churches doing these days. If you are in church leadership, I think this book is worth the read.
Profile Image for Dan Mingo.
255 reviews5 followers
August 3, 2023
I enjoyed the book. I believe overall the practicality of what Mac introduces would help any ministry develop leaders. I would love to see how this applies to specific ministries as well. If you want to learn to equip others this book will show you how.
97 reviews
August 28, 2021
It’s a take on Leadership Development and how a church can best support their congregants. Leadership is not about filling a space but developing people into the people God has created.
Profile Image for Justin.
38 reviews4 followers
May 14, 2025
Lake details how to develop a Leadership Pipeline that produces leaders who reproduce leaders. While the concept is sound, it could have been presented in significantly fewer pages. As Lake himself notes, this isn't a formulaic approach, making some of the provided details seem frivolous and less helpful. This is even more apparent when considering leadership pipelines in diverse contexts such as other financial and cultural contexts. It's a decent read but would benefit from more conciseness. A section exploring case studies across different contexts could be interesting and add practical value.
43 reviews
January 22, 2025
Dude, everyone should go read this book right now! If you're leading a church, read it! If you're a principal of a school, read it! If you own a cafe or small business please read it!

This book gives an incredibly practical teaching on building a leadership pipeline which at the same time, which I just realised right now, it teaches you the content in the way that he teaches you to teach it!
Profile Image for Kate Allen.
27 reviews3 followers
August 9, 2025
Mac Lake does a great job of casting vision for how leadership development should look in a church. People are not just filling a space/role, but you are developing them into who God designed them to be through relationships. He emphasizes that multiplication should be the primary goal, not just addition.

“Programs don’t develop leaders, leaders develop leaders”
14 reviews1 follower
June 15, 2020
This book comprehensively taught me leadership in such a great way

Awesome reading, and application which is easy to comprehend and implement. I believe that all leaders should have this as a must read
Profile Image for Travis Agnew.
Author 14 books24 followers
April 1, 2021
Lake's book on leadership development is a practical gift to churches. We typically deal in the abstract, but this book lays out some specific things you can do to start discipleship in a leadership context.
Profile Image for Jim Clark.
10 reviews
April 15, 2022
This book was about 150 pages too long. Too much repetition without additional meat made this book tedious. The author could have written a 50 pages (that would have been generous) PDF download of the material and saved some ink. Great concepts... just too much fluff in the book.
Profile Image for Bethany.
166 reviews
June 5, 2025
Super practical and encouraging book that walks through HOW to develop leaders. Definitely will think about principles here (training should look like the leadership setting; teachers teach teachers; think about how to scale)!
Profile Image for Danny Theurer.
287 reviews5 followers
October 26, 2025
Practical and incredibly easy to read, Lake lays out a simple roadmap for producing a development-focused church. Although I would’ve loved an expanded section on level-specific competencies, this book remains a right place to begin their turn in the right direction. Excellent work!
270 reviews37 followers
June 3, 2022
Gave some insight for structuring an org chart/oversight chart. And how to implement for the long-term health of the church.
Profile Image for Andy Ardern.
100 reviews3 followers
June 7, 2022
Book on developing and multiplying church leaders. Really helpful in explaining the leadership pipeline model. I think it may be worth getting the print copy than just listening to the audio.
Profile Image for Miranda Baise.
228 reviews1 follower
March 17, 2024
Felt a lot like he was trying to convince you you need this but not telling you practical steps?? Idk
Profile Image for Daniel Williams.
21 reviews2 followers
August 13, 2024
Super practical. Definitely taking ideas from this and beginning to implement them this week!
Profile Image for Brandon Hair.
60 reviews
September 1, 2024
Great book on leadership development and raising people up to higher levels of leadership in your organization.
Profile Image for Nathan Deck.
54 reviews1 follower
February 9, 2025
Excellent! It’s the leadership pipeline translated for churches.
Profile Image for Christine Gustin.
372 reviews6 followers
March 20, 2025
Practical, biblical, convicting and inspiring. Highly recommend—not just for church staff, but also for lay leaders!
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.