Impact of Church and Ministry Leadership on African Immigrants

[Name of the Institute]

Table of Contents

Executive Summary4

Introduction8

Background8

Problem Identification9

Purpose Statement11

Scope of the Applied Research project12

Personal Involvement12

Hypothesis12

Objectives13

Significance and Scope of the Study13

The Research Question14

Definitions of Unique Terms14

Summary15

Literature Review16

Status of African Immigrants16

Issues17

Cultural Understanding18

The Accent Issue18

Education19

Development of Church Leadership20

Background of African Church leadership and Discipleship21

Church Influence through Leadership22

Assimilation into the new Society23

Religious Association and Need for Support24

Church and Disciples Support25

Role of Pastors- Fulfillment of spiritual, social, and political needs for African Migrants27

The Challenges27

Increase Networking Among American Baptist Pastors, Community Leaders, and Other Denominations28

Summary29

Methodology31

Research Methodology: Qualitative Design31

Formal Training on Gathering and Using Internet facilitating the qualitative Research32

Data Collection Procedure33

Data Analysis34

Validity35

Ethical Concerns35

Generalizability36

Summary of the Problem in Organizational Context36

Discussion of the Rationale for the Organization and Content of the Literature Review37

Summary of Related Research and Findings37

Personal Reflection46

Learning relevant to the research project46

Personal Learning47

Conclusion47

References50

Appendix53

Questionnaire53

Executive Summary

The purpose of this project is to understand the church and ministry leadership extended to the African immigrants. The research examines the impact of churches and ministry leaders on the African immigrants. The qualitative research is used to collect and analyze data. The African immigrants fund social support most o assimilate into an alien culture and it is found that the African churches are providing extended support to the African immigrants through social and legal guidance. The aim is to determine if the African church is effectively meeting the social and emotional needs of the immigrants. The African immigrants make up a large proportion of the U.S society, as they enter the country they come across many issues ranging from social, cultural and assimilation into the U.S society. It is recognized that there are many obstacles and difficulties that African immigrants face as they enter the country, in terms of both church and society. A secondary influence is from immigrant associations in the ethnic communities that they settle into. These associations are such as ethnic clubs, organizations, and churches.

The research used the qualitative research in the form of research survey. The sample population included the church members and their perception of the church leadership and practices to support the immigrants. Beside, to facilitate the qualitative research, the secondary data was collected. The University of Phoenix online library was the primary resource used to collect literature for the research; articles were obtained from the major databases such as EBSCOhost, Pro Quest, and SAGE Full-text collections, Dissertations and Theses at the University of Phoenix Online, and Pro Quest Dissertation and Thesis database. Some of the articles selected were peer-reviewed publications. Key words in the search included African American leaders in churches, leadership in African American churches, clergy in African American churches, transformational and charismatic church leaders, African American transformational leaders, African American charismatic leaders, and leadership in African churches. Because the search for articles focused on the most recent five years, more information was available relating to the research from earlier periods. The churches and the ministry leaders provide emotional, political, and spiritual support. Leaders of these African American churches have over the years encouraged and inspired members ...