This study reveals how spiritual leadership in DR Congo can transform the Christian Church Union by addressing critical leadership weaknesses. Discover the essential qualities that foster church growth and explore a model for effective local leadership through qualitative insights from clergy and laity.
This dissertation explores the qualities of spiritual leadership in the Christian Church Union in DR Congo, aiming to address weak leadership that negatively impacts church growth. It uses grounded theory and qualitative methods, including interviews with clergy and laity, to develop a model for effective leadership in local churches.
APOSTOLOS BIBLE ACADEMY INTERNATIONAL
THE BACHELLOR DEGREE IN LEADERSHIP AND ADMINISTRATION
DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
QUALITIES OF SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP CASE OF CHRISTIAN CHURCH UNION IN DRCONGO
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MUSIN KIRAGI
Supervised by: Dr. IYARE Julius
2021-2022
ABSTRACT
The aim of this dissertation is to show how the church can use qualities of spiritual leadership in building up the local church as a model of leadership and as a method to address the weak that has caused a negative effect on the growth of churches. The research methodology used is grounded theory within qualitative methods to collect and analyze data to develop a model of ministry for the present-day society. Some interviews were conducted including laity and clergy of Christian churches union in DR-Congo. Grounded theory analysis yielded patterns of leadership and ministry in of building up local churches.
The process was intended not only to evaluate the previous effectiveness of the leaders, but also to provide validated suggestions for future leadership improvement based on the research findings. Furthermore, it was anticipated that the research would provide findings that could be of significant value to other churches that intend to create and implement their own internship programs for leaders. The descriptive method of the empirical research was used with a questionnaire and an interview as the most important instrument utilized to gather the needed data.
The researcher found out that the leadership in the local churches is weak that has negative effects in growing churches. Many leaders would agree that leadership development is a very important area in the building up of the local church.
Recommendations were given to map the way forward with some areas were the researcher has found that they should be a further research on issues that were not covered but came out during the interviews
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation would not have been possible without the help of those who assisted me. I am heartily thankful to my supervisor Dr. IYARE Julius whose encouragement, guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop an understanding of the subject.To my wife Nakikumba Nangera and my six sons Mwajuma, Kiragi,Monewa,Metre,Namusaraza, and Kitano for their love, support, provisions, patience and understanding during the long years of my education, and I would like to thank God for his protection and blessings .
To change the direction of the organization, it takes leadership with vision to see before anyone else sees anything. Leaders influence the decisions of the organization; hence they have to be focused in making the right decisions. The true measure of a leader is to influence people. For the local churches to experience development and growth there should be a leader to influence people. The leader should be passionate about the local church for its growth. Building the local church is God’s idea not man’s idea and man should listen to God for advice on how to build His Church, hence this empirical research.
TABLE DE MATIERE
ABSTRACT I
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II
TABLE DE MATIERE III
CHAPTER I THE EMPIRICAL METHOD 1
I.1 Phenomena being studied 1
I.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT 1
I.3 PROPOSITION 2
I.4 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY 2
I.5 AIMS OF THE RESEARCH 2
I.6 RESEARCH GAP 2
I.7 METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH STUDY 3
I.8 SCOPE OF STUDY 3
I.9 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION 3
PARTIAL CONCLUSION 4
11. Identity and titles of leaders 34
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS 36
IV.1. Leadership in building up local churches 36
IV.2. Perspective of the Empirical research 36
IV.5 Sample 38
IV.6 Interviews 38
IV.6 Data Analysis and Research Findings 39
Research Question 1 39
Figure 1: Description of leadership in ministry 39
Research Question 2 40
Figure 2: Strengths of individual leadership 40
Research Question 3 41
Figure 3: Weaknesses of leadership 41
Research Question 4 44
Figure 4: Strengths of leadership in church 44
Research Question 5 45
Figure 5: Leadership role in church growing the local 45
Research Question 6 47
Figure 6: Strength of your organization 47
Figure 7: Perception of church leadership 48
Figure 8: Spiritual Leadership role in the growth of the church 49
CONCLUSIONS 50
Recommendations 52
REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIES 52
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 54
CHAPTER I THE EMPIRICAL METHOD
I.1 Phenomena being studied
The researcher intends to explore and investigate the matter and see why this problem exists and what is going on, why it is going on, what ought to be going on and how might we respond in these churches. This problem is seen in the process of congregational development in both new and old churches. There is a noticeable difference between those churches that are growing with a well-focused leadership and those without.
By looking at and investigating what is going on and what ought to be done, the researcher will try to present a few proposals for considerations and for change.
I.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
As new churches come up, and as old churches grow, qualities of spiritual leadership has become either an obstacle to the growth of the church of Christ. A church being led by visionary leaders tends to grow in its congregations and those led with leaders without vision, guidance, and formal training has some form of problems. The researcher is doing this empirical research to explore a methodology for Practical leadership reflections that gives congregations vital leadership in a highly divided the church by weak leadership. Building the local church helps to find ways of resolving the leadership crisis who catch the local church
The questions the researcher is submitting are to find out how qualities of spiritual leadership are understood by leaders of the local church? Can leaders of the local church describe and interpret the activities of the local church leaders? Can the congregations use leadership qualities practice to achieve the intended goals of building the local church? The researcher might be wondering and questioning whether there has been something wrong with the church leadership today. These questions will help the researcher dealing the question: The problem of leadership in Christian church in DRC is that, they are weak, hence the experience of negative effect on building local churches.
The premise behind leadership programs is that future Christian leaders need to be equipped not only with theological knowledge but also with the necessary professional skills to minister effectively in the modern world. These leadership qualities help leaders to move beyond by applying those teachings in every day in Christian life so that they contribute to Christians to become what God wants them to be.
I.3 PROPOSITION
The problem of qualities of spiritual leadership in Christian church in DRC is that, they are weak and wrong, hence the experience of negative effect on building local churches.
I.4 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY
I need to learn more about qualities, characteristics, and styles of spiritual leadership for building, growing and how the local church is administrated. When the church is growing but there is lack of leadership basic training, knowledge and understanding about conducting and of the local church.
This research can provide some form of solution to the building up the local church. The researcher wants to give a word of counsel that gives solutions to some: characteristics, qualities, lifestyles of spiritual leadership needs cannot be addressed all in this dissertation but the reader can learn some inevitable ideas on administrating, conducting, controlling and building the local church.
I.5 AIMS OF THE RESEARCH
- To help church leaders understand that qualities of spiritual leadership can be used by servants of God to build the church;
- To come up with a clear methodology of equipping leaders of the local church to come up with vital qualities of spiritual leadership within the congregation that is educated, competent and sanctioned by the local leaders;
- The research will go against the general assumption that all leaders have weaknesses and are all wrong and this has brought about a negative effect on the building of the local church. However, it is the aim of this research to come up with a methodology to equip leaders with spiritual qualities of leadership practices;
- To help leaders with skills, knowledge, wisdom, forms of ideas and divine guidance on how to continuously lead the church and seeking God for assistance and to bring awareness to future leaders to lead their churches with appreciative and integrity.
I.6 RESEARCH GAP
The research is looking into an area that has not been addressed yet by researchers on any scale in uvira and fizi. There is no study to the researcher’s knowledge which has focused on qualities of spiritual, weak leadership affecting the growth of churches.
I.7 METHODOLOGY OF THE RESEARCH STUDY
The premise behind practical theology programs is that future Christian leaders need to be equipped not only with theological knowledge but also with the necessary leadership skills to minister effectively in the church. Often these programs use preaching, teaching, caring, Christian education, counseling, and experiential and clinical programs to provide opportunities to equip and prepare future Christian leaders.
This research will be using the empirical method of research because the method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where and when. The empirical method produces information only on the particular cases studied, and any more general conclusions are only propositions. This method can be used to seek empirical support for such research hypotheses.
The empirical research method is very important to use because it will help with the data collection, participation and interview that are necessary for the research. This will help by focusing on certain samples, situations, contexts or people. According to Clifford Woody research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions; collecting, organizing and evaluating data; making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.1 The research methodology is the systematic, theoretical
analysis of the procedures applied to a field of study (Kothari, 2004). It involves procedures of describing, explaining and predicting phenomena so as to solve a problem; it is the ‘how’; the process or techniques of conducting research.2
I.8 SCOPE OF STUDY
This study covers all churches whose head offices are located in Harare, and a sample is drawn from these denominations. The researcher hopes to be able to apply the findings of this study to a national level, hence the need to have a sample big enough to justify the conclusions.
I.9 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION
Our dissertation is divided in four Chapters: Chapter one looks at the empirical research Chapter 2 looks about the definition of terms. Chapter 3 looks the principles for leading other people in the church. Chapter 4 is about the research finding and in the end the conclusion and recommendations.
PARTIAL CONCLUSION
The research uses qualitative research methods to investigate this area, and seeks to validate the proposition that the problem of leadership in growing churches is that, they are weak, hence the experience of negative effect on building local churches.
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1 Clifford Woody, Research Methods, p.160. ↑
2 Kothari, Research Methodology, 2004. ↑