Social media personnel and the effectiveness of the youth ministry at Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Nairobi Central Presbytery, Nairobi County, Kenya

David Ngigi Mburu; Kevin Muriithi Ndereba; Ndung'u Ikenye

doi:10.51867/ajernet.7.3.20

Autores

David Ngigi Mburu St Paul's University, Kenya https://orcid.org/0009-0000-8228-4817
Kevin Muriithi Ndereba St Paul's University, Kenya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6029-0826
Ndung'u Ikenye St Paul's University, Kenya https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8045-8998

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.7.3.20

Palavras-chave:

Effectiveness, Kenya, Ministry, PCEA, Personnel, Social Media, Youth

Resumo

Youth ministry continues to face significant challenges of declining participation, weak engagement, and high attrition of young people from church, despite the rapid expansion of social media use. In Kenya, while churches increasingly adopt social media platforms, there is limited empirical and theological understanding of how specific dimensions of social media use influence the effectiveness of youth ministry. This study examined the influence of social media personnel on the effectiveness of youth ministry at the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA), Nairobi Central Presbytery. The study was anchored on the socio-technical systems theory. A cross-sectional survey design was employed that targeted the population of 2,925 youths across seven parishes. A sample of 352 respondents was selected using stratified random sampling from which data was collected using questionnaires. Data was summarized using percentages and means while the relationship between social media personnel and effectiveness of youth ministry was tested using regression analysis. The findings revealed that social media personnel significantly influenced youth ministry effectiveness in terms of participation, membership, behaviour, and spiritual growth explaining 47.3% of the variance. The study concludes that the youth ministry effectiveness in a digital age depends not merely on social media adoption but on theologically informed and competent social media personnel. The study recommends that the presbytery should professionalize its digital presence by investing in specialized skills training and establishing a dedicated media team.

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