The Effect of Church Members’ Empowerment on Church Growth among Pentecostal Churches in Kenya

: Despite the known effect of employees’ empowerment in education and health, little is known regarding empowerment on church growth. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of church members’ empowerment on church growth among Pentecostal Churches in Kenya. Empirical literature in this study provided the basis for the study gap. The study was guided by pragmatism research philosophy, which is typically related with mixed method approach and, with the focus being on the significance of research and research questions as opposed to focusing on methodologies (Zukauskas et al., 2018). Theories guiding the study were Shared Leadership Theory (Conger & Pearce, 2003) and Mead’s Theory of Church Growth (1993). The descriptive survey design targeted 1235 pastors and 1210 church elders in Pentecostal churches in Machakos, Murang’a, Kajiado, Nakuru and Nairobi Counties under the umbrella of Evangelical Alliance of Kenya (EAK). The study employed simple random, purposive and stratified sampling techniques. The study was made of 245 respondents. The study employed convergent mixed method design approach, which had open ended and closed ended questionnaires. Focus group discussion was also employed to gather qualitative data. Descriptive, correlation and multiple regression analysis used Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and STATA. The results revealed that Church members’ empowerment had significant relationship with church growth with a correlation co - efficient of 0.342, p < 0.05. Regression analysis results revealed that church members’ empowerment significantly affected church growth in Pentecostal churches in Kenya. The inference of the outcomes was discussed and proper pastoral leadership practice commendations made to apprise the work of Church leaders in Kenya. conducted a study that sought to assess whether in any way employee empowerment impacted on employees’ performance in Standard Office of Tehran, Iran. The major objective of this study was to assess whether there existed any significant relationship between employee empowerment and performance in the Standard Office of Tehran, Iran. This study utilized library research and questionnaires. Data analysis was carried out by descriptive survey design. Their study’s findings revealed that there was significant positive relationship between employee empowerment and performance. Their findings suggested that employees in Standards Office of Tehran were empowered. That was evidenced through motivation and performance. They further suggested that the leadership in the Standard Office of Tehran had the potential to further increase employees’ performance if they effectively implemented the process of empowerment. The study presented a research gap. While the main objective of the study was to analyze the impact of empowerment on employees’ performance, the current study considered church members’ empowerment. The Marjani and Alizadeh’s study context differed with the context of the current study in that while their study focused on employees of the Standard Office in Tehran, the current study focused on pastors and church elders of Pentecostal churches in Kenya. Data collection was done through questionnaires and focus groups. Agu and Okocha conducted a study on the effect of employee empowerment on the performance of selected manufacturing organizations in Enugu State, Nigeria. Their study’s findings indicated that training had significant effect on productivity in manufacturing organizations. Further, the findings revealed that employee involvement in decision - making significantly influences employee commitment. study between employee and case study.