The Attributes of Leadership in Southern Baptist Churches in West Texas

This study deals with leadership attributes in Southern Baptist churches in West Texas. A review of literature indicated that leadership in the congregations would tend to reflect the perceived purposes of the group, would be elected by the church or arise to counter poor leadership by the elected leader(s), probably be relationship oriented, and that the selection of leaders would be affected by the size of the churches and the length of tenure of the pastors. The study attempted to determine if there were characteristics that set leaders apart from non leaders in the churches. Six variable clusters of characteristics of nominated leaders (Self Acceptance, Interpersonal Activities, Need Achievement, Social Status, Church related Activities and Spiritual Orientation), and the effect of the length of the pastor’s tenure and the size of the church on leadership were considered. Primary indicators of leadership were found to be the variable clusters of Church Related Activities, Spiritual Orientation and Self Acceptance. No apparent relationship was found between leadership selection and size of church or length of pastor\u27s tenure