| dc.description.abstract | Churches need transformational leaders, and the extent of the relationship between the characteristics of pastors and contemporary transformational leadership theory can be unclear. The purpose of this study was to describe the relationship between the characteristics of transformational church leaders in comparison to more transactional church leaders.
Pastors of churches affiliated with the State Convention of Baptists in Indiana were surveyed. Pastors were chosen for this study by simple random sampling, and surveys were mailed to pastors.
Two primary instruments were used in this study. The Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Form 5x) was used to assess transformational leadership. This study also examined characteristics of pastors based on self assessments of leadership preferences. A survey instrument from Thom Rainer's book Surprising Insights from the Unchurched (2001, 243), was used for this segment of the study. Data from both of the instruments was used to assess the degree to which pastors display transformational leadership and pastors' preferences for leadership characteristics.
A correlational analysis was conducted between transformational leadership scores and leadership characteristics scores to analyze the extent of the relationship between the two factors.
There were eight significant correlations between characteristics of leaders and transformational leadership in this study, and one significant correlation between characteristics of leaders and transactional leaders. Scripture memorization was the only characteristic that was significantly correlated with transactional leadership. All of the significant correlations in this study were positively correlated. The following is a list of the characteristics that were significantly correlated with leadership styles in this study in descending order: (1) ability to institute change, (2) personal organization, (3) ability to cast vision, (4) management skills, (5) scripture memorization (transactional), (6) courage, (7) kindness, (8) gratitude, and (9) good communication skills.
KEYWORDS: Christian, leadership, biblical, characteristics, Baptist, MLQ, transformational | en_US |
