Date
12-7-2023
Department
Rawlings School of Divinity
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Chair
Brian Pinzer
Keywords
American Church, discipleship, learning tactics, transformational learning, transformational leadership
Disciplines
Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion
Recommended Citation
Crozier, Nichelle L., "A Correlational Study of Transformational Learning Tactics and Transformational Leadership Practices in Evangelical Pastors" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 4983.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/4983
Abstract
This research sought a possible explanation for the decline in Christianity in the United States through the lens of Evangelicalism. Holding to the Protestant reformist tenet of sola Scriptura, evangelicals characterize the role of the pastoral leader as being responsible for teaching congregants the Scriptures so that the congregant may do the work of the ministry according to Ephesians 4:11-16. Therefore, it was reasonable to question whether a pastoral leader's discipleship experiences, described here as transformational learning, had any impact on their disciple-making efforts, which were described as transformational leadership. The purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to determine whether a relationship existed between the use of learning tactics that achieve transformational learning and the frequency of transformational leadership practiced by self-identifying evangelical lead pastors in Ohio. Guided by Mezirow’s (1978) transformative learning theory and Burns' (1978) and Bass’ (1985) transformational leadership theory, the findings of this study demonstrated the presence of a strong relationship between transformational learning activities and transformational leadership frequency in pastoral leaders.
