Development of Chinese church leaders---a study of relational leadership in contemporary Chinese churches

Under the strong impact of Confucianism, the Chinese churches today have their specific ways in developing church leaders. The study on the impact of cultural situations in affecting leadership development is necessary but not well developed in the previous studies on Chinese leadership. Therefore, this dissertation is an attempt to study and analyze the ways of developing followers in contemporary Chinese churches.;The primary purpose of this dissertation is to develop an indigenous approach in developing church leaders in contemporary China. The impact of Confucianism as a cultural force in affecting the perceptions and practices of the Chinese pastors are discovered in this study. Based on the theories and case studies of the churches in mainland China, relational leadership is proved to be an effective indigenous pattern of leadership development in contemporary China.;This dissertation is presented in four parts. Part I is a study of the understandings of relational leadership of different cultural perspectives. Part II is a study of the Chinese theological roots of relational leadership. Part III is the analysis of the field data which reflects the practice of relational leadership in contemporary Chinese churches and part IV is the final conclusion and overall significance of this research.