This study reveals how spiritual leadership in DR Congo can transform the Christian Church Union by addressing critical weaknesses in church leadership. Discover the essential qualities that empower local churches to thrive and foster growth in a challenging environment.
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH FINDINGS
IV.1. Leadership in building up local churches
Church leaders are aware that the leadership in growing churches is weak or even wrong and how this has brought about negative effects on such growing churches. Churches in Uvira and Fizi territories South Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, both established and growing are suffering from a lack of leadership renewal, leadership development and leadership empowerment. There are various reasons contributing to this situation.
In this chapter the researcher intends to communicate the methods used for collecting and analyzing data in the empirical research.
The leaders who participated were 66 individuals from 26 churches in Uvira and Fizi. These were selected from the Apostolic, Quakers, Protestants and Pentecostals at random because the researcher wants to get raw material of information which is authentic to the study. The researcher visited the churches and requested the leaders’ consent to participate in the research interview.
The process involved giving the selected churches an introductory letter and a research questionnaire with the interview questions. In other instances the researcher had to approach church head offices to request consent of the church leaders to participate. In some isolated cases the Bishops were busy and they had to assign other senior church leaders to participate on their behalf.
Once consent was received, appointments were set with the church leaders both the laity and clergy. 26 churches agreed to fully participate in the interviews.
The gender was respected too and their ages vary from 20 to 75 years of age.
IV.2. Perspective of the Empirical research
The researcher trusted on derived facts from observations, interviews, questions, data or experiments: empirical results that are supported by the hypothesis of interpretation of episodes, situations and contexts that confront them in ministry. Empirical research can be verified by means of observation questions and data collection. The research is guided by practical experience and not theories.[18]
Qualitative research is a research methodology which deals with understanding human beliefs, behavior, values and perceptions of certain social or non-social issues within their own environmental contexts. Qualitative research methodology makes use of open-ended questions and motivates participants to express their thoughts and views openly with no limitations.
Qualitative research works towards understanding not only « what » people think, but also « why » do they think in a particular way. The participants themselves explain their thought process behind a particular choice or opinions in their answers and qualitative research methodology analyses the data gathered to result in conclusions that can be generalized for a larger population of similar kind. [19]
Questions were numbered and clearly grouped by subject; this was done and there was 1 up to 8 questions. The study is based on direct observation, use of statistical records, interviews, questioning methods, of actual practices.[20]
The strength of this research design is that it enables one to understand what church leaders expect when they lead and attend church. Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience.[21]
IV.3 Empirical evidence
The record of one’s direct observations or experiences can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively. Through quantifying the evidence or making sense of it in qualitative form, a researcher can answer empirical questions, which should be clearly defined and answerable with the evidence collected usually called data.
Research design varies by field and by the question being investigated. Many researchers combine qualitative and quantitative forms of analysis to better answer questions which cannot be studied in laboratory settings, particularly in the social sciences and in the education fields.
Empirical evidence is information that researchers generate to help uncover answers to questions that can have significant implications for our society.[22]
An interview is a qualitative research method that relies on asking questions in order to collect data. Interviews involve two or more people, one of whom is the interviewer asking the questions. There are several types of interviews, often differentiated by their level of structure. [23]
The interviews with the respondents gave the opportunity to probe further the responses that were not clear and in the process listened and observed the silent language and speech. The process also gave a sense of their caring and leadership responsibilities in ministry and in building up the local church. The method requires that researcher acknowledges their own subjectivity and values.
IV.5 Sample
A sample is a subset of the population that would be used for the study. Sampling saves time, costs and improves overall research accuracy.[24]
The study focused on Uvira and Fizi based church leaders who are in service of their churches and purposefully selected churches that are liberal and conservative in doctrine and practice in order to achieve a balanced view of church leadership of this group of churches (Apostolic, Quakers, Protestants and Pentecostals). The research was limited to Uvira and Fizi based churches using a random sampling biased towards the four groups mentioned above.
IV.6 Interviews
The semi structured questionnaire was used in face-to-face interviews with church leaders. All interviews were at each respective church’s offices and their homes. In each interview the process started off with the interviewer introducing himself with honesty to the candidates.
The interviewer then assured the interviewee of confidentiality and anonymity of the research participants and that the information provided would be strictly used for the research only. The researcher would ask questions one by one to the interviewee directly.
This process was carefully recorded ,writing , only the responses of the respondent without any interpretation.[25]
At the end of the interview appreciation was given to the interviewees for their time and information provided. Reassurance was given to the interviewees that their individual responses will be kept as confidential, their identities would not be revealed, and the researcher was the only person analyzing the responses and that these responses would be kept safely in a secure place. After every interview papers were filed in a safe and secure place.
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18 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 3rd Edition 1996 ↑
19 https://www.scribbr.com,qualitative reseach,Jun19th 2020 ↑
20 https://www.qualtrics.com,brand ↑
21 https://www.reseachgate.net.com, an empirical analysis of the Taylor rule and its application to monetary policy ↑
22 https://www.edchoice.org › engage, What is Empirical Evidence?, Jan 5, 2018 ↑
23 https://www.scribbr.co.uk , types of Interviews in Research | Guide & Examples, May 4, 2022 ↑
24 https://repository.up.ac.za, Saunders et al…, 2007, p 16 ↑
25 https://books.google,com, the sage handbook of qualitative research, by Denzin and Lincoln, 2005 ↑