Church Growth and Membership Development in a Contemporary World: Relational Personal Teaching

The problem addressed in this book is leadership patterns needed for growing congregations of the body of Christ. The churches studied are located in the contemporary society of North America. In Part I, I study the biblical, historical and contemporary context of the body of Christ. Part II, presents the research findings. Part III gives the meaning of leadership and ministry patterns, present a model for ministry, and make recommendations. The research methodology used was qualitative methods to collect and analyze data to develop a model of ministry for the contemporary society. This included one-thousand surveys among the laity of the body of Christ, interviews among church leaders, and participation observation. Grounded theory analysis yielded patterns of leadership and ministry in growing bodies of Christ. A review of literature will provide information necessary for the theoretical foundations of the research. The goal of this study is to recommend a model for change in patterns of leadership and ministry to do the mission of the church, disciple and connect people to Christ, and serve the needs of people.

Roger E. Shepherd holds a doctor of missiology from Fuller Theological Seminary. He presently serves as dean of the College of General Studies at Amridge University. He teaches ministry, missions, evangelism, church growth, and the biblical text on the bachelor, masters and doctoral levels. He has 45 years of experience in church growth.