Alternative Title

Emotional intelligence

Jared Roth

Abstract

Preparing, selecting, and training lead pastors for established churches in the United States is a growing challenge as 84% of churches are in attendance decline or are failing to keep up with population growth in their communities. Interest in how leadership qualities influence the turnaround from a declining church into a growing church served as the impetus to explore the conceptual topics of turnaround churches and Emotional Intelligence (EI) competencies of lead pastors. This quantitative study compared the EI of lead pastors of Foursquare churches in the United States using the 15 competencies of the Bar-On EQ-i assessment to determine whether certain competencies were significantly different based on the church attendance pattern. Two subgroups were compared--pastors whose congregations were considered to be in decline and those considered to have a congregation with a turnaround or growth pattern. Statistical analyses revealed that 5 EI competencies (emotional self-awareness, independence, flexibility, assertiveness, and optimism) were significantly higher among pastors of turnaround churches, suggesting that pastors with higher levels of these specific EI competencies have a stronger likelihood of improving church attendance and promoting continued growth.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Dissertations (EdD) -- Organizational leadership; Emotional intelligence; Clergy -- Administration

Date of Award

2011

School Affiliation

Graduate School of Education and Psychology

Department/Program

Education

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctorate

Faculty Advisor

Davis, Kay D.;

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