Striving to accomplish the goal of assessing knowledge concerning the Bible’s principles for a plurality of pastors through use of the BCLS involved two critical steps.
First, I formulated the questions and Likert Scale statements to aid in properly assessing the participants’ understanding of church leadership. Second, once the BCLS was developed, I then administered the survey, collected it, and evaluated the results.
Formulating the survey. I wanted to explore at least five specific areas regarding the participants’ understanding of church leadership. I formulated the BCLS in a way to help me investigate those specific areas. First, if I were to be successful in assessing participants’ understanding of church leadership, it was critical to know whether the target audience was aware that the Bible does indeed address church leadership. The methods of many churches in the area that surround FBCHP indicate that they view church leadership structures as an area of liberty where the cleverness of man is free to design whatever structure he feels will best fit his context. To assess whether the project’s participants shared a similar view, I utilized the following Likert Scale statement: “The Bible gives instructions as to who should provide overall leadership to the church.” Those being surveyed were asked to choose from the following responses: “strongly disagree, disagree, disagree somewhat, agree somewhat, strongly agree.” I was confident that as participants completed this portion of the survey, I would have an understanding in regard to their view on whether the Bible addresses church leadership.
A second area of interest worthy of my investigation aimed at those who do believe the Bible gives instruction on church leadership. Specifically, what form of church government did they see taught in the Bible? For example, did they believe the Bible taught a single-pastor and deacon led model (perhaps the most prominent model in the geographical context of FBCHP), a single-pastor and deacon served model, a plural model where pastors share authority with deacons, or did they believe a plurality of leading pastors supported by serving deacons was the model best supported in Scripture? To
gauge this particular area of understanding, I included one multiple choice question and several Likert Scale statements in the BCLS. The multiple-choice question—and optional answers—was written as follows: “Which form of church leadership do you believe is the most biblical?” (a) shared leadership among one pastor and a deacon body, (b) leadership from a plurality of pastors, (c) neither, or (d) not sure.4
A third area of exploration involved in the assessment of the participants’ view on church leadership revolved around whether participants who believe in a plurality of pastors could support their view by identifying specific passages of Scripture that describe a plural model. To measure their ability (or lack thereof) to anchor their belief about church leadership to Scripture, I included the following multiple choice question (item 6 on the BCLS) and optional answers: “Without consulting a Bible, or seeking any other form of help, please mark which passages (if any) describe individual churches being led by a plurality of pastors” (a) Titus 1:5, (b) 1 Peter 5:1, (c) Hebrews 13:17, (d) Philippians 1:1, or (e) Acts 20:17. The potential answers I offered to this question are some of the most well-known passages that describe a single congregation being led by multiple pastors, and it was my assumption that those who have built their belief in plural leadership on Scripture would be able to identify one of these passages. Although there are many passages that argue for plural leadership, the assumption was that those who believe the Bible advocates for plural leadership would be able to identify one of the passages included in the optional answers as a place in Scripture that describes a plural leadership model.
A fourth area of interest that was important to understand as I aimed to assess participants’ understanding of church leadership lay in the area of Baptist history. Were the participants aware that plural leadership has a place in Baptist history? To properly estimate their knowledge of leadership in Baptist history I included the following Likert Statement on the BCLS: “Historically speaking, a plurality of pastors has never been used
4 The results and evaluation of this question are included in chap. 5.
or promoted as a leadership model in Southern Baptist Churches.” Participants were asked to respond to that statement by circling strongly disagree, disagree, disagree somewhat, agree somewhat, agree, strongly agree.5
A fifth area I viewed as important for the assessment of church leadership knowledge was in the area of participants’ ability to distinguish between the role of pastors and deacons. This had been a particular weakness in the recent history of the church and I was curious to know how much—if any—of that weakness remained. To evaluate this issue, I included the following Likert Statement on the BCLS: “A local church should be led by one pastor who shares authority with a body of deacons.”
Participants were asked to choose either a response of strongly disagree, disagree, disagree somewhat, agree somewhat, agree, or strongly agree.
Administering, collecting, and evaluating the survey. As previously mentioned, this project included the development and teaching of a six-session curriculum on a biblical understanding of a plurality of pastors. During the first class session I administered the BLCS. Because the pastoral leadership of FBCHP felt it was important for a growth in the understanding of church leadership to impact a broad range of members, the class consisted of people ranging in age from sixth grade through senior adults. However, only the participants who were eighteen years of age and older were surveyed. Furthermore, the class consisted of both church members and visitors, but my target audience did not include visitors. Therefore, to only analyze the surveys of members, I instructed church members to mark their survey with the letter “m” and visitors to mark their survey with the letter “v.” Once participants completed the survey, I instructed them to pass their surveys to the end of the aisle where I collected them and placed them in a file folder. The folder was then taken to my office and the surveys were evaluated.
5 The results and evaluation of the Likert Scale statement and participants’ responses are