Abstract:
The issue of giving in the church has been approached with a lot of skepticism. Most
churches experience difficulties in the way they have to teach their congregants on the
importance of giving. More often than not, it is wondered why some people give while
others do not, yet they go through the same kind of spiritual teachings. This study was
undertaken with a purpose of examining the influence of church governance on the level
of giving. The independent construct was church governance. The indicators of
governance were consistency, accountability, integrity and transparency. The level of
giving on the other hand was the dependent construct. The research was a descriptive
survey study with quantitative method of data collection that was conducted in Utawala
ward in Nairobi, Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select five churches from a
population of over thirty churches, and stratified sampling to select different clusters
within the same church. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and
oral interviews to selected leaders within the same churches. The study found that
transparency, integrity, accountability and consistency influenced the level of giving in
the church. Indeed, the study indicated that integrity played a key role in congregational
giving and determined how much was given especially on projects. In the churches that
practiced accountability and transparency, the level of giving was high while in those that
did not, the level of giving was low. Further, in the churches that were consistent and
especially in matters of exercising their constitution, the level of giving was high. The
study concluded that in the leadership of those churches that presented financial reports,
this was done consistently, there were structures in place to ensure accountability and
there was a constitution in place to ensure consistency. The study recommends that
leaders of churches should endeavor to be fair to all the faithful as fairness is a matter of
perception and that the church diversifies its sources of funding by engaging in income
generating activities for example church based schools which could improve their
financial situation.
