Michael L. Lee, II

ABSTRACT

Troubling statistics concerning the decline in church attendance by almost 12% between the years 2016 to 2019 paint a grim picture of church leaders' ability to connect with a changing audience. Church leaders, academics, and theologians have studied ministerial effectiveness and its impacts on the retention of existing congregants and attractiveness to newcomers. Case study research has found a mismatch between millennial church laity and leadership style by analyzing the needs of the millennial generation, which consequently closely align to the constructs of authentic leadership principles. Millennials who are more attracted to authenticity are increasingly turning their backs on traditional forms of church leadership. This capstone project explores a case study of the Liverpool Methodist Christian church, the relational effectiveness of leadership styles in ministry, an unsuccessful church startup and discusses how the application of authentic leadership could have been used to bring about church growth and sustainability rather than scandal, infighting, and a church split.