Effect of Pastoral Ministry on Church Growth
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the role of Pastoral Ministry in the growth and survival of a church.
- To identify the functions and duties of Pastoral Ministry in a church.
- To identify the other factors militating against church growth and survival.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
This literature review will focus on three areas of leadership: leadership in general, leadership styles, and Pastoral Ministry with an emphasis on how it relates to the growth and survival of the church. A review of recent dissertations covering Pastoral Ministry and growth will conclude the literature review.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
A number of dissertations have looked at Pastoral Ministry. This section will review several that are the most similar. Bae (2001) looked at the relationship between transformational leadership and church growth in the Unity Church. The multifactor leadership questionnaire was used as the research instrument. Bae used both pastor and church members to assess the pastor’s transformational leadership style and the satisfaction of church members, church conflict, and the trustworthiness of the Pastoral Ministry. Bae had a sample size of seventy-five pastors and two hundred twenty five church members. Bae’s research did not show a correlation between transformational leadership and church growth, though it did show a relationship between transformational leadership and church member satisfaction, which raised more questions than were answered. In Stovall’s 2001 study of church growth, or the lack of it in Texas, hard data from the Southern Baptist annual church profile was used to identify churches that were growing, not growing, growing erratically, or declining. Stovall was looking for contextual or institutional variables that could be identified showing a correlation between the variable and the growth of the church. A survey designed by Dr. Thom Rainer in 1996 was sent to all of the churches identified for the study. The survey focused on how the church viewed evangelism and their worship style. Stovall concluded that church growth is a multivariate issue and she could not identify any one variable that could be singled out as a main contributor to church growth, though she did note that the worship style of the church might be a barrier to church growth. King (2007) had a sample size of ninety pastors in Virginia and North Carolina, all part of the Willow Creek Association, an association that exists to help churches maximize their effectiveness. King sought to discover if the leadership practices from Kouzes and Posner’s LPI had a positive bearing on church growth.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
RESEARCH DESIGN
The research design adopted for this work is cross –sectional survey and descriptive analysis on a randomly selected sample of the different categories of Pastoral Ministry (Bishops, Pastors and Priests).
STUDY AREA
The study area for this research is Imo state in eastern Nigeria. The choice of Imo state as the study area is because since the creation of the state in 1967 and in spite of the movement of Abia state in the state creation exercise of 1991, it naturally enjoys the benefits of being the fulcrum of the eastern part of the country. Imo state is built with many roads, estates , government establishments, all kinds of private developments, schools, hospitals, theaters, shopping malls, hotels to mention a few. All these infrastructures are the handiwork of construction. As such there cannot be a better place to obtain data for this study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of the result obtained from questionnaires. The data gathered were presented according to the order in which they were arranged in the research questions, sample percentage and pie charts were used to analyze the demographic information of the respondents while the chi square test was adopted to test the research hypothesis.
CHAPTER FIVE
FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Findings
The objective of the study was to know the role of the Pastoral Ministry in growth and survival of the church. Findings from the study reveals that majority of the respondents are of the opinion that Pastoral Ministry plays a vital role in ensuring growth and survival of the church. See table 7 above.
Another finding from the study reveals that a church will grow if Pastoral Ministry are actively involved in the affairs of the church (See table 10).
Recommendation
The following recommendation is made from this study
Churches leaders should focus more in preaching the message of peace and harmony rather than church growth that is the order of the day in most churches today. Churches should also discourage diabolic means of church growth.
REFERENCES
- Abogunrin, S.O (1986). “St Paul’s Conception of Disciplined Leadership in the Nigerian Context” in S Ade
- Oluwasegun B.A. (2011) (ed.) Religion and Discipline A Publication of the Nigerian Association for the Study of Religions (NASR).
- Bible Org: “Qualifications for Evaluation of Elders and Deacons”
- Bae, K. (2001). Transformational leadership and its application in church organization. Ph.D. dissertation, Walden University, United States — Minnesota. Retrieved November 7, 2010, from Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. (Publication No. AAT 3005838).
- Bass, B.M. (1960). Leadership, Psychology, and Organizational Behavior. New York: Harper and Brothers.
- Carter, J. (2009). Transformational Leadership and Pastoral Leader Effectiveness. Pastoral Psychology, 58(3), 261-271. doi:10.1007/s11089-008-0182-6.
