A critical analysis of the social implications of gospel merchandising among Nigerian Christians today

Diara, Benjamin C.D.; Mokwenye, Michael E.

doi:10.4102/hts.v75i1.5391

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Church spiritual growth is maturity in Christian faith demonstrated by church practices including: worship, fellowship, sharing the Word of God and sharing of material possessions (Acts chapters 2 & 4) and Christian qualitative growth in faith resulting in positive impact on society (Bariu, 2017). The main reasons attributed to church spiritual decline are poor church leadership in areas of stewardship, lack of commitment to growth of people and inadequate community building activities (Flatt et al, 2018;Diara & Mokwenye, 2019). Poor leadership results in unethical practices and conflicts within the church and this negatively affects growth.…”

Section: Church Spiritual Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Community Building on Church Spiritual Growth

Shaasha,

Msabah,

Kyule

2024

IJCRS

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Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between community building and spiritual growth within Pentecostal Churches in the Nairobi metropolitan counties of Kenya, focusing on the Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa (PEFA), Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG), and Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK) under the National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). Grounded in servant leadership, empowerment, and spiritual leadership theories, the research combines quantitative and qualitative methods to explore how servant leaders facilitate community building and its impact on church growth. Methodology: The study was guided by servant leadership, empowerment and spiritual leadership theories. The study was conducted across multiple Pentecostal denominations within the Nairobi Metropolitan counties, including Nairobi, Kajiado, Muranga, Kiambu, and Machakos in Kenya. Data collection involved 333 church leaders and members, with 173 from PEFA, 80 from KAG, and 80 from FGCK, resulting in a response rate of 91%. Additionally, two discussion groups comprising pastors and elders from PEFA and KAG churches in Kajiado County were interviewed using an interview guide, totaling 17 members. The total response rate of church leaders and members was 304 (91%). The descriptive cross-sectional survey research design and exploratory designs were adopted for data collection and analysis where respondents provided relevant data. The research was anchored on the pragmatism philosophy. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis, where Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29 was used. Thematic analysis was employed in analyzing qualitative type of data. Purposive and stratified random sampling techniques were employed to select the sample, ensuring representation of subgroups within the population. This approach facilitated efficient and cost-effective data collection while maintaining the integrity of the study's findings Findings: Data collected from 304 respondents, including pastors, elders, and members, reveals a significant positive association between community building and spiritual growth, with volunteer services rating relatively low. The results showed a positive significance of community building in affecting church spiritual growth. The study findings in all the three models: Model summary, ANOVA and Coefficient confirm the significance of community building in church spiritual growth. The correlation coefficient results yielded a positive relationship of 0.580. However, descriptive statistics on mean scores of how respondents views the practice of community building in their churches, the sub variable of voluntary community services was ranked the lowest (3.7) amongst the other constructs. Nevertheless, there is a need for enhancement of voluntary services by the Pentecostal churches in areas such as health, free cleaning and training services to give back to the community. When church leadership participate in welfare activities such as helping the vulnerable in society, this positively affects church growth both spiritually and numerically. The findings emphasize the importance of enhancing volunteer engagement to foster both spiritual and numerical church growth. This study contributes to theoretical understanding and practical implications for Pentecostal church settings, addressing research gaps and advocating for servant leadership practices that empower church members and promote community building for holistic church growth.Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study supported servant leadership, empowerment and spiritual leadership theories. Servant leaders play a crucial role in empowering of church members through community building causing effect on church growth. The study revealed and filled a number of conceptual, theoretical, contextual and empirical glaring research gaps in area of servant leadership attribute of community building and church spiritual growth. The most noticeable gap is the contextual gap where many studies on church growth only delved on numerical growth and leaving out spiritual growth of which this study addressed. The study also revealed a gap in volunteer services with a mean of 4.1. Pentecostal churches therefore need to put more efforts to improve volunteer services as well as promotion of spiritual formation so as to enhance church spiritual growth.

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Section: Church Spiritual Growthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of Community Building on Church Spiritual Growth

Shaasha,

Msabah,

Kyule

2024

IJCRS

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“…Study by (Diara & Mokwenye, 2019) revealed a crisis in the Nigerian Church due to mercantization of the Gospel thus retraining empowerment of believers resulting to spritual decline. On studies by Matisi (2020) in the Kenyan church context, it was established that empowerment can be attained through delegation of duties by the church leadership, for such practice positively affects church growth.…”

Section: Hypothesis Testingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moderating Effect of Empowerment on Servant Leadership and Church Spiritual Growth

Shaasha,

Msabah,

Kyule

2024

AJLG

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Purpose: This study entailed assessing moderating effect of empowerment on servant leadership and church spiritual growth. The general objective of the study was to establish how empowerment moderates the relationship between servant leadership and church spiritual growth in Pentecostal Churches in Kenya within the Nairobi metropolitan counties. The study delved on Pentecostal Evangelical Fellowship of Africa (PEFA); Kenya Assemblies of God (KAG), and Full Gospel Churches of Kenya (FGCK), all under the umbrella of National Council of Churches of Kenya (NCCK). The study was guided by servant leadership, empowerment and spiritual leadership theories which all indicate that servant leaders play a crucial role in empowerment of church members and consequently causing effect on church growth. Materials and Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used for the study and pragmatism was employed as a philosophical framework for the research. The study employed a mixed method approach with both quantitative and qualitative research methods in use and data collection undertaken through, questionnaires and interview guides. The target population constituted 2000 church pastors, elders as well as members from which a sample of 333 was obtained through purposive and stratified random sampling techniques in selected Pentecostal churches within Nairobi, Machakos, Muranga, Kiambu and Kajiado counties. The total response rate was 304 (91%). Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis, where Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 29 was used. On qualitative data, thematic analysis was carried out on two focus discussions groups to determine views of participants. Findings: Church members’ empowerment has no significant moderating effect in the relationship between servant leadership and church spiritual growth of Pentecostal Churches within Nairobi metropolitan counties of Kenya. The linearity test results for the relationship between spiritual growth and empowerment suggest a significant linear association, as indicated by the low p-values (all p-values are less than 0.05). The high F-value (197.904) and low p-value (0.000) suggest a highly significant linear relationship between Spiritual Growth and Empowerment. The Pearson's correlation coefficient (R) of 0.609 signifies a moderately strong positive relationship between spiritual growth and empowerment, indicating that as one variable increases, the other tends to increase as well. There is therefore a significant moderating effect of empowerment on servant leadership and church spiritual growth. On the research question that stated: “To what extent does Church members’ empowerment moderate the relationship between servant leadership and church spiritual growth of Pentecostal Churches within Nairobi metropolitan counties in Kenya?” Majority of participants agreed that church members’ empowerment moderated relationship between servant leadership and church spiritual growth pointing that training, involvement and sharing of responsibilities with church members by their leaders positively affected church growth both spiritually and numerically. Implications to theory, practice and Policy: The study supported servant leadership, empowerment and spiritual leadership theories. In addition, the study bridged a number of research gaps in area of servant leadership, empowerment and church spiritual growth indicated in the statement of the problem. The most noticeable gap is the contextual gap where many studies on church growth only delved on numerical growth and leaving out spiritual growth of which this study addressed. The study recommended that the church should put more emphasis on active participation of church members in decision making processes especially on provision of suggestion boxes within the church premises for this triggers church spiritual growth. The church was recommended to adopt servant leadership style and endeavor to empower the membership so as to realize church spiritual growth.

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Intercultural approaches in multicultural counseling and pastoral care: Exploring interaction and transformation

Kim

2024

Pastoral Psychol

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A critical analysis of the social implications of gospel merchandising among Nigerian Christians today

Cited by 6 publications

References 3 publications

Effect of Community Building on Church Spiritual Growth

Effect of Community Building on Church Spiritual Growth

Moderating Effect of Empowerment on Servant Leadership and Church Spiritual Growth

Intercultural approaches in multicultural counseling and pastoral care: Exploring interaction and transformation

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