<p>Church leaders have historically used attendance and membership as indicators of church health and leader effectiveness, yet church attendance in America is declining. 131 senior ministers in mainline Churches of Christ in the state of Texas participated in an ex post facto study to explore the relationship between the leadership styles of senior ministers (IV) including, transformational, transactional, and passive avoidant leader styles, measured by Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) and church attendance (DV) patterns, including declining, static, or growing congregations between 2009 and 2012. The findings show that all three MLQ leader styles are present in declining, static, and growing churches. The data suggests there is no relationship between leader style and church growth trends. Churches declined, remained static, or grew with each leader style. The study indicates that senior ministers in Churches of Christ in the state of Texas demonstrate transformational leader behaviors. However, transformational leader styles may not be influencing church growth as measured by attendance more significantly than transactional or passive avoidant leader styles. Because the study did not find a statistically significant difference in church growth patterns for the three leadership styles, this suggests there may be other factors at work that are influencing church growth in Churches of Christ. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:3600756 |
| Date | 18 December 2013 |
| Creators | Carman, Stephen B. |
| Publisher | Capella University |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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