| dc.description.abstract | A church is not only an assembly of believers where people meet for spiritual nourishment
from the Word of God but a place of spiritual empowerment in all aspects of life. It has
been observed that majority of the religious faithful in Kenya live below the poverty line
to an extent of inability to meet even basic needs. The study’s main purpose was to assess
the influence of spiritual-economic projects on the growth of the MCK. A case of Kaaga
synod, Kenya. The objectives were to examine the influence of communal training in
spiritual-economic projects on the growth of MCK; To assess the influence of
sustainability of spiritual-economic projects on the growth of MCK; To determine the
influence of financial literacy of spiritual-economic projects on the growth of MCK; and
to investigate the moderating influence of involvement of communities in projects and the
growth of MCK in Kenya. The two theories used were resource-based theory and
Stewardship theory. The philosophy of the study was positive paradigm whereas the
research design was descriptive which was applied in Kaag synod, Meru, County Kenya.
The target population was 25 circuits in Kaaga synod, Meru County. The respondents were
25 superintendent ministers, 53 managers of church projects and 652 community project
members that participate and are registered members in the projects. The study used
purposive sampling technique to select all the 25 superintendent ministers and 53 project
heads. The study selected 196 project members through simple random sampling method
across diverse circuits. Interview guides and questionnaires were used to collect data. The
study conducted a pre-test study in Methodist church in Nairobi synod. A pre-test study
was conducted on 3 superintendent ministers, 5 projects heads and 20 community project
members. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics such as median, frequencies
and percentage. SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data which was presented using
tables. The interview responses were analyzed using content analysis method after which
the explanations were issued. The findings on communal training were that, there was
resistance from some of the leaders whereby they felt that the timing of the implementation
of communal training operations was wrong since other things needed priority. Further on,
sustainability, the schools and financial institutions which were main sources of income
for the church, were negative impacted by Covid-19 hence low income. The findings on
financial literacy were that, there was general lack of interest by some members whereby
most of them were not ready to attend the training sessions. The study also established that
in the involvement of communities in spiritual-economic project variable, members were
still struggling to ensure that they followed biblical teachings to the letter. The
recommendation on communal training is that the clergy should organize frequent
meetings with project leaders so as to develop goals and their timelines to minimize
resistance. On sustainability, the church council should develop strategies that would
enable the church projects recover more quickly from the adverse effects of Covid-19
pandemic. On financial literacy, the clergy should use their influence on members to uptake
the initiative of sensitizing members on the importance of the trainings. On involvement of
community members variable, the clergy should advance their Biblical teaching and
explanation skills so as to convince their members more on following them. | en_US |
