The Impact of Pastoral Nurture On Member Retention

International Journal of Engineering and Management Research e-ISSN: 2250-0758 | p-ISSN: 2394-6962
Volume-12, Issue-6, (December 2022)

www.ijemr.net https://doi.org/10.31033/ijemr.12.6.38
The Impact of Pastoral Nurture on Member Retention in Selected Fields

within the Haitian Union of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Pierre Caporal1 DMin and Balvin B. Braham, Ph. D2
1
Professor and President, Haitian Union of Seventh-day Adventist, HAITI
2
Professor and Vice President, Inter American Division of Seventh-day Adventists Church, USA
1
Corresponding Author: [email protected] / [email protected]
ABSTRACT I. INTRODUCTION
This descriptive-correlational study sought to
investigate the relationship between pastoral nurture Moses nurtured God‟s people by personal
initiatives and member retention to confirm, refute or extend
association with them. Association is the act of identifying
pastoral nurture initiatives as effective constructs for
retaining members in the church within the Northwest and with others. Cambridge Dictionary says, “It is a feeling or
South Haitian Mission of Seventh-day Adventists. Three self- thought that relates to someone or something”. Moses
reported questionnaires were used to collect data from one associated with the Israelites in various ways that nurtured
hundred and thirty-two (132) participants comprising the them to remain committed to God and their spiritual and
sampled population from 45 congregations in the Northwest national identities. He received Egyptian education and
and the South Haitian Missions. The data were coded and cultural socialization. “So, Moses was instructed in all the
analysed using SPSS version 25.0 to compute mean, standard, wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words
Cronbach’s Alphas, factor analysis, Pearson Correlation, t- and deeds” (Acts 7:22, NRSV). He was in linage to
test and One-Way. It was found that there was no significant
become a successor or one of the Pharaohs. Blank (2017)
statistical association between membership retention and the
nurturing initiative employed by the church (χ2 (df=1) = said; “Moses spent approximately the first third of his life
0.015, P = 0.904). The reality is that the nurturing in the palace of the Egyptian king, observing first-hand
programmes are not enhancing membership retention, which how to govern a nation”. To become a pharaoh meant that
points to a disconnect between church offerings and people’s he would have to permanently renounce his identity as an
expectations. The findings revealed that 82.4% of the Pastors Israelite. Instead, Moses chose to maintain his association
indicated that the execution initiatives are resulting in low with his people, the Israelites and to suffer with them
membership retention compared to 78.3% who opined (Exodus 2:11-15; Hebrews 11:24-26). As he associated
otherwise. Furthermore, with the result showing that there is with the people, he had numerous occasions to castigate
no statistical association between the execution initiatives and
them, however during numerous times he forgave and
membership retention (χ2(df=1) = 0.102, P = 0.749), this
suggests that the aforementioned initiatives are not catering sought forgiveness for them.
to people’s deeper emotions of belonging and as such Jesus nurtured His people by personal acts, social
accounts for the ineffectiveness of the execution initiatives to mingling and verbal instructions. According to Pfeiffer
retain members in the church. It was found that there was a (1996), the Greek word paideia, means “child training”,
revealed significant statistical relationship between the two “instruction” and “nurture”. He suggested that in the New
variables (χ2 (df =4) = 28.103, P< 0.0001). It was Testament it refers to the cultivation of the mind and
recommended that Union and local fields should design and morals of human beings through the employment of
implement a Pastors’ training programme to address advices, admonitions, commands and reproofs to attain the
discipleship, friendly human relations, stewardship, leader
goal of balanced maturity and adjustment (Hebrews 12:55,
and member motivation, conflict resolution, programme
design and development and strategic planning to strengthen 7, 11; cf. Proverbs 3:11-12; 15: 5).
the structure of the church’s offerings and the faith of Heitzig (2012) suggested that as the Good
members for improved retention. Shepherd, Jesus Christ nourishes His sheep by the very
truths of the Word of God that speak of His infinite care.
Keywords-- Member Retention, Pastoral Nurture, Active Jesus nurtured by providing the ultimate sacrifice, giving
Membership, Accession, Apostasy, Baptized Member, His life for His sheep (John 10:11). Rummage (2005)
Membership Loss, Pastor said: “He appointed caregivers to attend to the needs of His
chosen people and commanded them to “feed my lambs”
John 21:15-17”.
Between 2005 and 2009 for example, the
accession of members in the Northwest Mission was
13,585 and the number dropped from the membership was
282 This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
1,599. Furthermore, during the seven-year period, from members to share the gospel independent of church staff,
2008 to 2015, while serving as Executive Secretary of the (b) maintain a presence during times of crisis or other
Haitian Union, the reality of the loss of members in all the major life event that affect members, (c) continue existing
fields within the Union, particularly in the Northwest and assimilation strategies that emphasize biblical preaching
the South missions captured the attention of the writer. and teaching accompanied by application, (d) create
According to observation made in the Northwest opportunities for helping new converts develop and share
and the South Missions of the Haitian Union mission of their personal testimonies, (e) make themselves available
Seventh-day Adventists, after they engage in various to new converts, especially by electronic means such as
evangelistic series, spending large sums of money to win texting and, (f) provide immediate opportunities for new
people to Christ, a considerable number of new members converts to serve the church.
and existing church members for many years leave the To solve the attrition problem of the Berean
Church through apostacy. It appears that pastors do not Baptist Church of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, Dock
nurture the new and existing members effectively. (2008) proposed, “The church leaders must be spiritually
The researcher has observed that over the last mature and be willing to help others assimilate into the
decade, between three and four times annually, the church congregation. There must be teaching strategies developed
in the Northwest and the South Missions of the Haitian to „assimilate‟ new members into the church”. He
Union engaged in various evangelistic series. They spend emphasized, “the ministry of teaching is an essential
large sums of money to win people to Christ and get them element of new member retention because it fosters
committed to His Church. However, not long after the learning and prepares disciples for living by Biblical
evangelistic series and large numbers of baptisms are principles within the faith community and in the world”.
gained, a considerable number of new members leave the He also underscored the importance of creating an inviting
church. Even some of those who were already in the climate of the retention of new members in the church.
church for many years apostatize. The study sought to Warren (2005) said: “Assimilation is the task of moving
answer the following research questions: people from an awareness of your church to attendance at
1. Does pastoral nurturing initiatives influence your church to active membership in your church”.
member retention in selected fields The Concepts of Nurture and Retention in the Methodist
within the Haitian Union Mission of the Denomination
Seventh-day Adventist Church? A group of 16 United Methodist Churches
2. What initiatives were used by pastors to nurture conducted a survey. A total of 109 new members
church members? responded. According to Dean et. al. (2007-2008), some
3. Who implemented the pastors‟ nurturing survey responders indicated they were looking to join
initiatives in the church? churches that: (a) offer opportunities for spiritual growth,
4. What were the results of Pastors‟ initiatives (b) allowed for them to join in warm fellowship, and (c)
implemented in the church to nurture the provided them opportunity to participate in missions with
members? specifically planned support to see visitors become active
5. What percentage of members remained in the members of the congregation. Among the resolutions
church because of these initiatives? presented to the Church based on the survey, the 77th,
entitled “Inclusiveness in All Dimensions” encouraged
II. LITERATURE REVIEW every Conference, District and Local Church to develop
comprehensive programs that place emphasis on
This section presents the concepts of the relevant inclusiveness throughout the life and ministry of the
of nurture on member retention, nurture on retention in the Church. “If we were providing an atmosphere of
Seventh-day Adventist, Baptist, Methodist and Pentecostal inclusion, where visitors feel that the statement also
denomination is accentuated. includes them, we should be growing. To overcome that
The Concepts of Nurture and Retention in the Baptist issue, we must immediately put a program of new member
Denomination retention and assimilation into action”. “Local churches
The Baptist Missionary Association of America provide the most significant arena through which disciple
affiliated churches conducted research that included 21 making occurs”.
new converts and a leading staff member from seven The Concepts of Nurture and Retention in the
churches as participants. Over 1,200 churches located Pentecostal Denomination
mostly throughout the southern United States participated. Various strategies are used to facilitate growth of
Attebery (2017) shared the findings and called church Pentecostal churches in African culture. Ehianu (2014)
leaders and educators‟ attention to the following mentioned the following as essential: “Testimonies that
recommendations: (a) They should consider how to equip reinforce faith … Pentecostal sermon, reception and
follow-up of new members … Social benefits”. spiritually meaningful relationships with other Christians.
Ezejideaku (2006) explained: “The effectiveness of the The more relationships members develop within the
Pentecostal sermon has become so outstanding that the church, the stronger their commitment to the faith and loss
mainstream denominations have had to adopt the same is prevented.
strategies to minimize their loss of members to these Nurturing the Church Members, a Pastoral
groups”. He suggested that in the African liturgy of Responsibility
Pentecostal churches, premium is placed on hospitality. The ultimate responsibility to care for, nurture
He observed: Time is set aside to welcome new comers. and protect the members is the pastor (Acts 20:28).
With on-going visits by the committee and at times the According to Foullah (2008), “Pastoral nurture is the
church pastor, and the display of love exemplified in the central focus of the pastor‟s ministry”. God expects pastors
commitment to ameliorate the new comers‟ problems, to be concerned with the well-being of the people they
what may have begun as a trial visit could translate into a lead. They should know the conditions and challenges
genuine desire for membership facing their flock. They are required to know the
The Pentecostal churches motivate their members emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges facing those
by rewards for membership enrolment. The members of they lead. Discord and infighting in the church should be
these churches practice fellowship showing great love one addressed. Teaching and giving well-balanced instruction
to another. According to Atanasov (2014), “the converts on various aspects of life, both spiritual and physical to the
praise the Pentecostals because they overcome the hurdle members are important in solving their problems. Pastoral
that literacy poses to discipleship by means of music, nurture is not only for members to stay in the church but to
simple preaching involving illustrations and storytelling, get ready to be with Jesus at the Second Advent and help
and close personal relationships among believers”. others do similarly.
Pentecostal churches offer a strong sense of solidarity. Nurturing the Church Members, a Shared Responsibility
They observe personal integrity, security, and welfare In larger congregations or multi church pastorate,
among the venerable people. Carter (2009) postulated: the pastor gives direction and enables other leaders to
“The efforts of Pentecostal pastors, evangelists, implement. One of his challenges is to train leaders and
missionaries and laypersons are major reasons for the members to care for each other through strong lay
growth of the Pentecostal movement around the world”. ministry. In this case, qualified elders and ministry leaders
A Pentecostal leader‟s calling is validated by evidence of a can provide hands-on, intimate, person-to-person ministry.
deep spiritual experience with God. People long to see The pastor cannot do all the pastoral activities of nurturing
evidence of the touch of God and the qualities of prayer, alone. He has to equip his leaders and the laity in general
devotion to the Word, the exercise of spiritual gifts and to facilitate the nurturing process and to share this
spiritual sensitivity in the lives of their leaders. These are responsibility. Paul emphasized; the pastor is responsible
a source of immense personal power to a Pentecostal for preparing assistants to help accomplish the task of
leader. caring for the entire church (Ephesians 4:12). Galloway
“The undeniable growth of Pentecostal churches (1986) affirms: “No church over 100 members can be
within the urban and rural areas of Malawi is largely effective in pastoral care without enlisting and enabling the
connected to the success ascribed to their healing lay people in the day-to-day pastoral care”.
ministries”. Social welfare of members in the form of As a servant of Christ, the pastor must preach,
pastoral care is another factor that generate growth of teach, train, equip, guide and direct, that members are
Pentecostal churches. Pentecostal pastors are indeed edified and are able to edify one another, and bear witness
exceptionally good in social and pastoral care. Some to the surrounding world. He must work to unite the
Churches have pastoral care as one of their main pillars. members in their Christian life and endeavor to “connect
Among pastoral care initiatives in Pentecostal churches is people to people in ways that enable them to minister to
the readiness of the pastors, also called Prophets, to spend one another that no one may live in isolation or fall away”.
a lot of time in prayer with the sick members of the While the general membership must be nurtured, special
community. attention is needed for the newly baptized members.
The Relevance of Nurture on Retention Nurturing Newly Baptized Members
According to Kale and McCullough (2003), According to Rummage (2005), when new
“Churches that nurture their members provide an members are cared for, they tend to leave goodness and
atmosphere that is highly conducive to spiritual growth, love behind them to benefit others. Church leaders must
addressing practical issues such as relationships, conflict ensure that new members grow in spirituality. A lack of
resolution, and temptation, and making the Bible relevant pastoral nurture can be disastrous for them. Kiage (2014)
to the daily lives of their congregants”. A significant stated that some church leaders do not perform their duties
effect of deliberate nurturing effort is members engaged in as expected such as caring for the weak in faith, visiting
the newly baptized members, or attending to the needy. comprised the sampled population from 45 congregations
Because of this, some new members are exposed to in the Northwest and the South Haitian Missions who
temptations, which drive them from church. Some church participated in assessing the impact of pastoral nurture on
leaders are involved in leadership struggles, for examples member retention in selected fields within the Haitian
seeking church positions instead of caring for members. Union of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A random
This kind of behavior causes others to leave the church. sampling technique was applied, that is to say that the
Nurture and Retention in the Seventh-day Adventist choice of the elements depended on the probability. It is
Church determined this way due to the difficulty to find former
According to Harelimana (2014), “A major task members who were willing to participate in the study. The
of missions in the Seventh-day Adventist Church is sample was comprised of 66 actual members of whom 34
nurturing and retaining newly baptized church members”. derive from the Northwest and 32 from the South, and 26
Since its inception, church leaders have kept this focus in former members of whom 15 are from the South and 11
view. Each ministry of the church is established to nurture from the Northwest. Included will be 40 pastors, 21 of
members. whom will be from the Northwest and 19 from the South.
In its history In total, 132 individuals.
The Action Unit Plan was introduced to the Three questionnaires were used to collect data for
Sabbath School Department in 1990. The total this study. the degree of nurture that influences the church
involvement of Sabbath school members in outreach members in their desires to stay or to leave the church was
programs of the church as well as increased fellowship and measured by adopting items from Dudley Ewart Mullings.
spiritual nurture is the goal of the plan. It combines a The researcher has prepared a set of three questionnaires
personal ministry emphasis with a regular Sabbath school modeled after the Mullings‟ to be administered to the
Bible study class. The publication of the Children‟s sample for this project. In May 2018, the first drafts of
Mission Quarterly by Neufeld begun in 1992 for these instruments were presented to the advisor for
kindergarten and primary divisions to spiritually nurture approval. After recommendations, adjustments and
the children. Neufeld (1995) further stated that as the approval, they were ready for data collection use. The
youth population of the church grew, church leaders questionnaire was pretested with five pastors, 15 active
established commissions to study needs and devise ways members, and ten former members. The test was
and means to provide adequately for the nurture and administered face-to-face with three pastors, 12 active
education of youth. members and seven former members. The others were
administered electronically. The face-to-face test was
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY conducted between ten and 20 minutes.
This study employed a quantitative research V. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

approach using a programme development, descriptive-
correlational design in which Pearsons r and multiple This section presents the results of the study and
regressions were used to confirm, refute, or extend pastoral gives the discussion of findings following the research
nurture initiatives as effective constructs for retaining questions that guided the study.
members in the church within the Haitian Union mission Based on Table 1, a 5-point Likert scale system
of Seventh-day Adventists. It is correlated because it was used to assess intended items. Table 1 presents
aimed to measure the degree of relationship that exists descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) for
between pastoral nurture initiatives that influence member each item that is intended to measure Nurturing Initiatives
retention in selected fields within the Haitian Union Results. The mean values for each factor range from 3.34
Mission of Seventh-day Adventist Churches. to 3.7, with none lying outside of two or three. This
speaks to the appropriateness of using more members
IV. POPULATION AND SAMPLING remain in the church, fellowship among the members
TECHNIQUE increased, more members are involved in mission
activities, the apostasy rate of members decreased, and I
The study was conducted in the Haitian Union remain in the church because of these initiatives to assess
Mission of Seventh-day Adventists. The study respondents the construct Nurturing Initiatives Results.
were one hundred and thirty-two (132) participants
Table 1: Descriptive Statistics-Nurturing Initiatives Results

Item Statistics
Mean Std. Deviation N
MMbersRem 3.6641 1.22544 131
FellowsI 3.6412 1.18366 131
MMSGA 3.2977 1.13473 131
MMMA 3.5038 1.11199 131
Apostasy dcr 3.4275 1.15712 131
M. RETENTION 3.6183 1.42752 131
Membership Retention Percentage below 70% (42.5%, n=17) followed by 27.5% (n=11) who
This study used a sample of Pastors for the two indicated 100% compared to 15.0% (n=6) who stated 80-
Missions in Haiti to examine the issue of the retention of 89% and 7.5% (n=3) who remarked 90-94% and 95-99%.
members in their churches. The question asked was “What From the findings, this seems to be suggesting that
percentage of members are retained in the church initiatives they implement are lowly aiding the retention of
following the employing of the various initiatives?” The members in the churches. Such a seemingly insinuation
sample of respondents was 40 Pastors and their responses will be examined statistically by way of cross tabulations
are depicted in Figure 1. In response to the previously (see Tables 3-6).
mentioned questions, most of the respondents indicated
Figure 1: Pastors‟ views on the retention rates in their churches
Bivariate Analyses: Pastors’ Views on Initiatives and the sampled Pastors (n=40), most of them (57.5%, n=23)
Membership Retention Percentage indicated that the nurturing initiative programme are
The bivariate correlations are solely based on the resulting in high membership retention compared to 17
sampled Pastors‟ responses to percentage of member (42.5%) who had the opposite perspective. The findings
retained in the church following the various implemented revealed that there is no significant statistical association
programme employed. Table 3 presents a cross tabulation between membership retention and the nurturing initiative
between the pastors‟ indication of membership retention employed by the church (χ2 (df=1) = 0.015, P = 0.904).
and nurturing initiative programmes by the institution. Of The reality is, the nurturing programmes are not enhancing
membership retention and this points to a disconnect between offerings of the church and people‟s expectations.
Table 2: Cross Tabulation between Membership Retention and Nurturing Initiative Programme
Membership Retention Total
Details Low (< 70%) High (80+%)
n (%) n (%) n (%)
Nurturing Initiative Programmes
Uncertain 2(11.8) 3 (13.0) 3 (12.5)
At least Agree 15(88.2) 20(87.0) 35(87.5)
17 23 40
Execution Initiative Programmes in low membership retention compared to 78.3% who

Four out of every 5 Pastors at least agreed that opined otherwise. Furthermore, with the result showing
they employed execution initiatives at their churches (see that there is no statistical association between the
Table 3). These programmes include weekly visitation, execution initiatives and membership retention (χ2(df=1) =
small group ministry, missionary pairs home visitation, 0.102, P = 0.749), this suggests that the aforementioned
week of prayer, departmental ministries, personal contact, initiatives are not catering to people‟s deeper emotions of
delegation of leadership and authority, and letters and belonging and as such accounts for the ineffectiveness of
phone calls. The findings revealed that 82.4% of the the execution initiatives to retain members in the church.
Pastors indicated that the execution initiatives are resulting
Table 3: Cross tabulation between Membership Retention and Execution Initiative Programme
n (%) n (%) n (%)
Execution Initiative Programmes
Uncertain 3(17.6) 5(21.7) 8(20.0)
At least Agree 14(82.4) 18(78.3) 32(80.0)
17 23 40
Cross-Tabulation: Implementing Agents and used for the cross tabulation between implementing agents
Membership Retention and membership retention. Seventy-five per cent of the
On the matter of „Implementing Agents‟, this respondents who indicated a high membership retention, at
study uses 7 items to assess this construct. Based on the least agree with the implementing agents employed by the
Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the items are church compared to 78.6% who reported a low
appropriate and adequate to evaluate the variable. These membership retention rate χ2 (df=2) = 0.722, P = 0.697).
items range from the Church Pastor, Elders, and deacons to With the probability being more than 5%, this follows that
leaders in various church ministries. Hence, Pastors were the various implementing agents are not resulting in high
asked to indicate their degree of agreeability with the 7 retention rates among members of the SDA churches in the
items, which are expressed in Table 4 (i.e., Implementing sample.
Agent). Of the sampled Pastors (n=40), 85% (n=34) were
Table 4: Cross tabulation between Membership Retention and Implementing Agent Programme
n (%) n (%) n (%)
Implementing Agents
Disagree to strongly disagree 0(0.0) 1(5.0) 1(2.9)
Uncertain 3(21.4) 4(20.0) 7(20.6)
At least Agree 11(78.6) 15(75.0) 26(76.5)
14 20 34
Nurturing Initiative Result Programmes Seventy-five percent of those who believed that the
Table 5 presents a cross tabulation between initiatives are having a high influence of membership
nurturing initiative results and membership retention rates. retention at least agreed to nurturing initiative results
The results of this table are solely based on the views of compared to 68.8% who believed otherwise. With there
Pastors from the sampled population of churches in being no statistical relationship existing between the two
Northern and South Haiti Mission. The findings revealed aforementioned variables, this means that results of the
that seven out of every ten sampled Pastors at least agree initiatives are not resulting in high membership retention
to the usage of the results of various nurturing initiative. (χ2 (df =1) = 1.290, P = 0.523).
Table 5: Cross tabulation between Membership Retention and Implementing Agent Programme
n (%) n (%) n (%)
Nurturing Initiative Result Programmes
Disagree to strongly disagree 0(0.0) 1(5.0) 1(2.8)
Uncertain 5(31.3) 4(20.0) 9(25.0)
At least Agree 11(68.8) 15(75.0) 26(72.2)
16 20 36
Bivariate Analyses: Sampled Respondents’ Views on Pastors at least disagreed that nurturing initiatives of the
Initiatives Pastors influenced membership retention in the church
This section presents findings of a cross- compared to 9.2% (n=6) of the Active Members and
tabulation between nurturing initiatives and the 30,8%(n=8) of the Former Members. Furthermore, almost
respondent‟s status. Table 6 shows details of the findings. 88% (n=35) of the Pastors at least agreed that the Pastors‟
Cross-Tabulation: Nurturing Initiatives nurturing initiatives influenced membership retention in
A cross tabulation was conducted between the church compared to 60% (n=39) of the current
nurturing initiative and the respondents‟ status (see Table members and 30.8% (n=8) of the Former Members. Much
6). The findings revealed a significant statistical can be gleaned from the findings as clearly the Pastors
relationship (χ2 (df=4) = 27.221, P< 0.0001) between the have a different perspective of the effectiveness of
two aforementioned variables. Of the sampled respondents programmes they designed and/or sanction to address
(n=132), the response rate for the cross tabulation was membership retention.
99.2% (n=131). The findings showed that none of the
Table 6: Cross Tabulation between Nurturing Initiatives and Respondents‟ Status

Status Total
Details Pastor Active Former
member Member
n (%) n (%) n (%)

Nurturing Initiative
Disagree to strongly disagree 0(0.0) 6(9.2) 8(30.8) 14(10.7)
Uncertain 5(12.5) 20(30.8) 10(38.4) 35 (26.7)
At least Agree 35(87.5) 39(60.0) 8(30.8) 82(62.6)
40 65 26 131
Execution Initiatives that they did not participate in the execution initiatives
A cross tabulation between execution initiatives through any of the particular media compared to 20.0% of
and respondents‟ status is presented in Table 8. The current Members. A deduction that can be made from the
findings revealed a significant statistical relationship finding is that members who are less actively involved in
between the two variables (χ2 (df =4) = 28.103, P< church activities are more likely to leave the organization.
0.0001). Forty-two per cent of Former Members indicated
Table 7: Cross Tabulation between Execution Initiative Programmes and Respondents‟ Status
Status Total
member Member
n (%) n (%) n (%)

Execution Initiatives
Uncertain 8(20.0) 22(33.8) 9(34.6) 39 (29.8)
At least Agree 32(80.0) 30(46.2) 6(23.1) 68(51.9)
40 65 26 131
Implementing Agents Pastor indicated that they are at least satisfied with the
Table 8 presents a cross tabulation between the executed agents compared to 37.5% (n=9) and 63.6%
implementing agents and respondents‟ status, with a (n=35) of the Former Members. Clearly, the Former
statistical association existing for the analysis (χ2 (df =4) = Members have encountered some degree of difficulty with
9.850, P= 0.043). Seventy-seven percent (n=26) of the the agents who are conveying the message to them.
Table 8: Cross Tabulation between Implementing Agents and Respondents‟ Status

Status Total
member Member
n (%) n (%) n (%)

Implementing Agents
Uncertain 7(20.6) 14(25.5) 11(45.8) 32 (28.4)
At least Agree 26(76.5) 35(63.6) 9(37.5) 70(61.9)
34 55 24 113
The researcher believes that the insights obtained In many of the cases, similar perceptions had been
from the data can yield significantly more information if expressed among the Pastors, Active Members, and the
the implementing agents are listed by the status of the Former Members (i.e., Elders, Deacon, Small group
respondents. The purpose of this analysis was primarily leaders, experienced member of visitation, and leaders of
wanting to establish whether or not the Pastors over- church ministries, P > 0.05). However, the Pastors are
inflated their contribution to the membership retention over-inflating their contribution as implementing agents in
discourse. So, the findings in Table 9 represent only members‟ retention.
degree of agreement with the various implementing agents.
Table 9: Cross Tabulation between Implementing Agents and Respondents‟ Status (only Agreed responses)
Status
Details Pastor Active Former χ2, Pvalue
member Member
(%)
(%) (%)
Implementing Agents
Pastor 92.0 76.9 38.4 28.939, < 0.0001
Elder 80.0 81.6 80.8 9.162, 0.329
Deacon/Deaconess 75.0 72.3 80.8 9.525, 0.300
Small group leaders 56.5 47.7 46.1 11.652, 0.167
Members teachers of SS 65.0 53.9 46.2 19.503, 0.012
Experienced member visitation 70.0 64.7 42.3 13.072, 0.109
Leaders of church ministry 71.8 78.2 46.1 13.951, 0.083
Nurturing Initiatives Results Pastors and 20.02% (n=12) of the Active Members. The
The views of the respondents on the matter of the evidence points to the gulf among the different
nurturing initiative results are presented in Table 10. The stakeholders on the effectiveness of the measures
cross tabulation between nurturing initiatives results and employed by Pastors to increase membership retention.
respondents‟ status revealed a statistical association (χ2 (df The disparity is huge and this speaks to some underlying
= 4) = 21.196, P< 0.0001). Half of the Former Members misunderstanding of the reality and the perception of
believe that the nurturing initiatives are not resulting in initiatives. Seemingly, the Pastors distorted perception or
more membership retention compared to 2.8% (n=1) of the there is a denial of the effectiveness of their initiatives.
Table 10: Cross Tabulation between Nurturing Initiatives Results and Respondents‟ Status
Status Total
member Member
n (%) n (%) n (%)

Nurturing Initiatives Results
Uncertain 9(25.0) 33(25.0) 6(27.3) 30 (25.4)
At least Agree 26(72.2) 60(55.0) 5(22.7) 64(54.3)
36 60 22 118
VI. CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES

RECOMMENDATIONS
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This part gives the conclusions and the http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ass
recommendations of the study, based on the findings. ociation (accessed June 22, 2017).
Conclusions [2] Atanasov, Mirovlav Atanasov. (2014). The Roma
The study confirms pastors‟ nurturing initiatives move from orthodoxy to Pentecostalism. Special
in the church as valuable to retain members and that the Theme Edition on the Current Ukrainian Crisis,
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The Impact of Pastoral Nurture On Member Retention

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International Journal of Engineering and Management Research e-ISSN: 2250-0758 | p-ISSN: 2394-6962

Volume-12, Issue-6, (December 2022)

The Impact of Pastoral Nurture on Member Retention in Selected Fields

This study employed a quantitative research V. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY

Table 1: Descriptive Statistics-Nurturing Initiatives Results

Figure 1: Pastors‟ views on the retention rates in their churches

Execution Initiative Programmes in low membership retention compared to 78.3% who

Table 6: Cross Tabulation between Nurturing Initiatives and Respondents‟ Status

n (%) n (%) n (%)

n (%) n (%) n (%)

Table 8: Cross Tabulation between Implementing Agents and Respondents‟ Status

n (%) n (%) n (%)

n (%) n (%) n (%)

VI. CONCLUSION AND REFERENCES

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