Date

11-13-2025

Department

Rawlings School of Divinity

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Christian Leadership (PhD)

Chair

Matthew Vander Wiele

Keywords

Multicultural, Discipleship, Leadership Development, Missions

Disciplines

Christianity

Abstract

As America’s social and cultural landscape continues to diversify, churches face the challenge of fostering contextually relevant, biblically grounded communities characterized by unity in Christ. Church leaders play a crucial role in this process by articulating a shared mission that transcends humanistic cultural differences and working towards a unifying biblical culture, based on a common understanding and vocabulary. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine how church leaders were selected, developed, and mobilized in Protestant multicultural churches in America to create a unifying biblical culture through biblical discipleship in a multicultural context. For this study, discipleship was defined as the process of transmitting biblical information that transforms the learner into a willing and obedient follower of Jesus Christ with a desire to do the same for others. Leadership development was defined as the implementation of formal and informal methods to select and train qualified leaders within the church, who, in turn, will be able to train other disciples and leaders. The theory guiding this study was Constructivism, as it provided the framework for examining how the research participants’ social interactions define and drive church growth, based on healthy discipleship and leadership development. An online research questionnaire, based on five research questions, and participant interviews were used to gather the research data. Thematic, content, and narrative data analysis methods were employed to examine the coded data. Findings from the 11 churches participating in this study indicated that small-group ministry serves as the centerpiece of a multifaceted discipleship pathway, that discipleship and leadership development are highly relational processes, and that these processes require intentional, measurable, and reproducible methods for the church to grow and fulfill the Great Commission.

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