Women’s Leadership and Church Growth in Enlightened Christian Gathering Churches in Kenya

The role of women in leadership positions within religious institutions has been a topic of ongoing global discourse, particularly in the African context where women’s leadership in Christian churches has been shaped by religious teachings, cultural traditions, and societal transformations. The Enlightened Christian Gathering churches in Kenya, founded by Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, present a unique opportunity to explore women’s leadership dynamics and their influence on church growth and development. Despite growing female presence in various church roles, limited empirical research exists exploring the specific influence of women’s leadership on church growth within the ECG context in Kenya. This study investigated women’s leadership influence on ECG church growth in Kenya through four objectives: to investigate doctrinal perspectives concerning women’s leadership delineated in the Bible; to analyze leadership structures within ECG churches; to assess the extent of women’s participation in leadership capacities; and to analyze women’s leadership influence on church growth. The study was grounded in Gender Role Theory, Social Role Theory, Feminist Leadership Theory, Intersectionality Theory, and Organizational Culture Theory, providing conceptual lenses for understanding gender and leadership dynamics within religious contexts. Employing a convergent parallel mixed methods design with a pragmatic research paradigm, the study collected data from church members through structured questionnaires and clergy members through semi-structured interviews across six ECG church branches in Kenya. The findings revealed that ECG church members have developed sophisticated theological foundations supporting women’s leadership, with strong agreement on biblical teachings affirming women’s roles while demonstrating nuanced approaches to challenging passages through contextual interpretation. The study found clear organizational structures but significant gender representation gaps, with women showing strong participation in nurturing roles like children’s ministry and women’s Bible studies but limited involvement in senior pastoral positions and elder boards. Churches with higher women’s leadership involvement consistently demonstrated superior performance across membership growth, spiritual development indicators, community impact measures, and financial performance metrics, with particularly strong correlations in pastoral care, community outreach, new member integration, and discipleship effectiveness. Participants expressed optimistic expectations for future advancement with realistic timeline projections, while identifying family-work balance pressures and traditional cultural attitudes as primary barriers alongside generational transition and changing societal attitudes as key opportunities. The study concludes that women’s leadership demonstrates significant positive influence on church growth across multiple dimensions, strong theological foundations exist for advancement, organizational structures require systematic development for full inclusion, implementation barriers are primarily cultural and practical rather than theological, and sustainable progress requires multi-faceted approaches over extended timelines.