Abstract:
Leadership development and succession planning within the Church movements is critical to its survival in the long run. Not Christianity as a religion, but the institutions mandated to propagate it. Despite this importance, the pattern of leadership development and succession observed globally in most Evangelical churches has been characterized as dynastic succession. This study sought to evaluate the leadership development strategies, with an emphasis on Coaching and Mentoring, and their effect on succession in Evangelical churches. The study focused on a case of evangelical churches in Kenya. This research applied the mixed methods approach to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The study was descriptive in design with a target population of 40 registered mainstream Evangelical churches that have a combined total of over 300 branches distributed countrywide. Using a multistage sampling procedure, a total of 10 mainstream Evangelical Churches that had a combined total of over 150 branches all over Kenya were selected. The study confirmed that the leadership development strategy formulated by the Evangelical churches’ management
specifies the actions that must be taken to retain, develop or acquire the leaders for succession. To a moderate extent, the evangelical churches identify mentorship opportunities for its leaders and encourages mentees to succeed their mentors.
