The Class Leader Ministry as the backbone of a Church growth strategy in the Wilberforce District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church

Abstract

This study intended to investigate the Class Leader Ministry as the backbone of a Church growth strategy in the Wilberforce District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. This study reveals that these Local AME Churches are confronted with an inability to sustain membership growth. The underlying issues attributed to this decline are, among others: these Churches’ Class Leaders’ inadequate training, lack of leadership, skills gap, and deficiency in knowledge to lead the Classes. Other challenges lie on the Class Leaders’ inability to oversee the Church finances and their unhealthy relationship with the presiding Pastors. This shows that the Class Leader Ministry as the backbone of a Church growth strategy in the Wilberforce District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is lacking. This underlying problem yet to be filled by this study stems from a decline in the membership growth of the AME Local Churches within the Wilberforce District. To close the above empirical gap, a qualitative research methodology was deemed fit to pursue the current research inquiry. In pursuance of this current study, an investigation of the Class Leader Ministry as the backbone of a Church growth strategy in the Wilberforce District of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church followed a qualitative approach. As this qualitative study remained unexplored and new, an exploratory research design was deemed appropriate. To achieve this, this study took an epistemological stance to investigate the Class Leader Ministry as the backbone of a Church growth strategy of the five (5) identified Local AME Churches such as DM Robinson, Trinity, St Peter, CD Nthoba and OL Sherman) located within the Wilberforce District. The unit of analysis of this study is out of 12 Churches that constitute the Wilberforce District. Of the 12 Churches, a purposeful sampling was used to select 5 Churches. The set criteria were that these local AME Churches were chosen because they have a history of more than forty years and are based within Emfuleni Local Municipality. The Class Leaders and Group Members were the population for this study. A convenience sampling was used to arrive at a sample of 240 individual members and 20 Group Members. The scope of this empirical investigation is limited to both participant observation and Group Administered Questionnaires within the five identified AME Churches. The unstructured interviews have been conducted to gain an in-depth and description of their life–world experiences of the individual and group members of the decline or growth of the AME Churches’ membership. The qualitative data has been analysed by producing graphs, Figures and Tables. Eventually, collected data was analysed and interpreted. This study recommends that Class Leader Ministry rely on adequate training, leadership skills and adequate knowledge to lead the Classes. The due diligence to the Church finances and healthy relationship with the resident Pastors as the backbone of a Church growth strategy should also be given due attention. Operationally, when fostered and valued, Class Leader Ministry can play a significant role in growing the AME Local Churches’ membership