1.1 Introduction
Church is an organism of many adults, with a demographic structure that demands spiritual reformation, reformulation and transformation. In this postmodern era and the world of technological advancement, most youths in our churches are still struggling and panting for survival and relevance. They are still aspiring to be relevant in the world of education, politics, employment, family, business and leadership both at the local level and globally. It is typically demonstrated across all churches that the problematic situations and challenges the youths are rigorously facing are as a result of marginalization in all areas of their lives, both within the church and also undoubtedly by the leadership of the church.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Leadership expectation of pastors and elders are often unrealistic and not centered on what leadership is really about. Too often people confuse a strong, willed personality as an effective leader, leadership is not being strong- willed, rather having a strong sense of purpose that’s cantered upon God. The church of our Lord needs leaders not petty instigators there are too many churches that substitute a petty person for a godly person and see no distinction, because the people who put them in power do not know the difference. Our systems, processes, and communication methods seem to be moving at light speed. Old models and outdated modes of operation are no longer working the way they once did. And, because of all that, our would needs more successful leaders.
The opportunity and responsibility falls on each of us to become “21ist century leaders” that challenge the status quo and show a new way to move throughout the world. To be successful, life-giving, and conscientious leader in the 21ist century is going to require us to master 7 key attributes, A 21ist century leader will be servant leader, strong teller, collaborator, innovator, Daredevil, Adaptable, global citizen. The twenty-first century pastoral leadership that should present youth with rewarding opportunities turns such into a significant setbacks based on the different challenges they are facing in their leadership environment – a leadership which is depriving them of the required competencies and abilities to flexibly take advantage of emerging fields of career and explore positively the nature of advancement and paradigm change in the church (Abbott, 1995:10).Nevertheless, if prospects and rewards are to dominate the future landscape of Christian Community, pastoral leadership must come together in an unprecedented manner to ensure youths are hopeful of the future reality.
Without doubt, the world is changing, and it is changing the church. There is the clarion call that the pastoral leadership needs to rethink and reconsider the ways she interacts with her members and those around her, especially the youths - who are the future of the church. The Christian faith is losing its influence and its grip over the society and most importantly losing the future. What once worked, no longer works in Christianity. Pastoral leadership is losing coherence and Christian institutions declining in influence (Morgan, 2013:16). All possible challenges youths are facing in the society have logically crept into the church and there seems to be no longer any saving place for the youths. The hostility they experience in the church seems to be harder in some sense compared to the society, which in turn leads many youths to embrace the politics of this world where their needs can be met. The church will suffer a serious setback if the youth would continue to decline.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know The Challenges of Effective Christian Leadership in 21st Century Church.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The 21ist century church is confronted and played with myriad of problems and challengers, none of the characteristics will work unless a foundation maturity and Godliness is the foundation of the leaders, without a growing love relationship with Christ you will have conflict and strife and be running nursery for adults instead of the church for Christ if we choose not to grow and live for our Lord, then we are choosing to live for ourselves. So prepare yourself to be a babysitter in a nursery, who constantly puts out fires of hurt feeling and misdirected expectations causing all kinds of problems, all leading away from the call of Christ.
An individual will not be able to function as a leader, but will be functioning as a bitter, frustrated, unfulfilled, immature individual. Without the support of the spirit and of our Lord because an individual will be acting contrary in the his call and moving forward in the direction of your our will.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to scrutinize the Challenges of Effective Christian Leadership in 21st Century Church. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To integrate and apply the 11 principle of leadership characteristics for proper functioning of the 21st century church or the local church.
- To realize the central and critical role of effective Christian leadership and assign a proper place and function to the same in the church.
- To provide information that will facilitate church (the Body of Christ) experience growth, strength and development in the area of leadership.
- To examine the various issues involved in the study how christen leadership has effected administrative structure of church growth and development.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- Why do many leadership styles, but little leadership?
- Is anything wrong with the style of leadership used in church?
- Does the Bible have any leadership style for the church?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
- H0: There is no relationship between effective leadership in the church development.
- H1: There is a significant relationship between effective leadership and church development.
1.7 Significance of Study
The study will equip the church to produce a more mature, healthy and happy and sound Christian when critical challenges and issues are properly handy through the basic principles of the Christian effective leadership instrument, the church will experience unprecedented growth, members will be more for Christ, like, more heavenly minded and more useful to God. The effective Christian leadership training will make individuals, families and members of the church able and better equipped to make right decision and know their purpose.
1.8 Scope of Study
The study focuses on the Challenges of Effective Christian Leadership in 21st Century Church. The study covers three selected churches in Ado-Ekiti metropolis, which were used for the research work there are, St. Patrick Catholic Church, Assemblies’ of God Church and Grace of God Mission Churches.
1.9 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
