Implicit-leadership traits of millennial pastors : a case study in Negros Occidental Conference

Abstract

Millennial pastors’ leadership development schema can be understood in terms of family dynamics, social and cultural contexts, exposure to friends and leaders, and social media. The main objective of this study was to explore the implicit leadership theories of millennial pastors working in Negros Occidental Conference (NOC). The qualitative case study research design was employed in this study. The participants of this study were 7 millennial pastors with the age range of 28 to 38 years old; they were employed in NOC in Negros Occidental, Philippines and assigned to different field districts within the territory of NOC. Purposive sampling method was used in selecting the participants. All millennial pastors chose pastor as the leader’s role. Among the pastors whom they identified as leaders were their administrators/department directors, college professors, district pastors, and international pastors/evangelists. This study revealed that

most of the participants did not favor the ordination of women into the pastoral ministry. The least chosen leader’s role included politician, religious leader, parent, and church elder. There were 26 leader’s attributes that emerged from the findings of this study, and they were categorized into factors or themes: (a) socio-cognitive, (b), spiritual-moral, (c), socio-emotional, and (d) cultural. The top-ranked attributes of a leader were (a) influential, (b) determined, (c) visionary, (d) good at delegating responsibilities, (e) good at discipling, (f) humble, (g) passionate in evangelism (media evangelism),

(h) supportive, (i) fatherly, (j) compassionate, and (k) engaged in philanthropy. The low- ranked attributes of a leader included (a) exhibiting pakikisama, (b) not having utak

talangka, (c) having dangal, and (d) having hiya. The findings of the study revealed that family dynamics, exposure to leaders, friends, culture, and technology shape the leadership development of millennial pastors.