THE ROLE OF CHURCH LEADERS IN RETAINING YOUTH IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF KENYA: A CASE STUDY OF THE RUIRU ARCHDEACONRY
Abstract
Purpose: Young people look for a leader who has a positive influence on their lives. The church is a crucial organization for the shaping of society at large and especially the youth. This is because when they want to make a major transition in their lives they go to church if they lack guidance at home. This study aims on examining the role of leadership in youth retention in the Anglican Church of Kenya.
Research Methodology: The target population was 772 youth. A descriptive research design was used. A quantitative research method was employed. The systematic random sampling technique was used where a sample size of 110 youth was selected. Primary data was collected through the administration of questionnaires to the respondents. The questionnaires contained open and closed-ended questions. The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 and excel. The data was presented using tables and pie charts.
Findings: The study found that there was a statistically significant relationship between the respondents’ role in the church and their perceptions of whether church leaders inspire them, and the respondents’ perception of whether church leaders inspire them and whether the church leaders understand what needed to change in the youth ministry as they all had P-value of less than 0.05 and were all statistically significant, and there was no association between the gender of the respondents and their perception of whether their church leaders help in strengthening their skills (P=0.055) since it had a P-value of more than 0.05. The finding shows that there is a role played by the church leaders in retaining the youth in Ruiru Archdeaconry and this indicates that 71.68% agreed that the role played by church leaders in retaining the youth in Ruiru Archdeaconry is high.
Recommendations: The study recommends that the church leaders should give the youth an active role in the leadership, adopt good relationships with the youth, initiate awareness programs and encourage the youth to be involved in all aspects of church life to build the youth’s capacity in one way or the other.
Keywords: Church Leadership, Youth, Retention, Leadership competences, Mentorship program, Capacity building
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