THE INFLUENCE OF CHURCH LEADERSHIP IN THE MANAGEMENT OF CHANGE: CASE OF THE BAPTIST CHURCH IN CENTRAL AFRICA

Abstract

Change is a great challenge for many institutions, both business oriented and faithbased. Unless proper strategies are used to introduce change, it might lead to frustrations and even conflicts. It is in that perspective that this study establishes the influence of church leadership in the management of change in a faith based institution, taking the Baptist Church in Central Africa as case study. Churches operate in a diverse and changing environment where they have to face changes from both inside and outside, some of which are adopted and others rejected. In the current world characterised by globalisation and change, churches have to open up to changes in their environment without changing the gospel they preach. Taking into account that management is part of the attributions of the church leader, this study is an attempt to establish how far management functions, namely planning, organising, staffing, directing and control influence to the management of change in the CBCA. The study used descriptive non-experimental research method. A questionnaire was distributed to church leaders and the data were analysed using SPSS 17. The inferential statistics was based on chi-square to establish the influence of church leadership on the management of change. The study found out that the involvement of leaders and the application of management functions play a key role in the adoption of changes. Also, some extraneous factors such as culture, spirituality and the quality of training of church leaders needed special consideration lest they might interfere in the adoption of changes. Considering some concerns raised by the respondents, the study recommended to the CBCA to improve especially on the controlling function, whose influence in the current situation could not be proved. The study further recommended some action to improve on major issues such as the quality of training of church leaders to prepare them for change related challenges in their ministry and also cultural attitudes towards women and other situations such as politics, economy and health issues. Further studies are still needed to address the other aspects of this theme which were not examined in this research.