The study evaluates the relationship between evangelism marketing and church growth and the extent to which evangelism marketing has been adopted in twenty-first-century churches, particularly in the South Eastern States of Nigeria. The survey adopts stratified and linear simple random sampling techniques. The target population of the registered Pentecostal Churches in the zone is 5346, comprising 805, 1208, 960, 1116, and 1257 churches in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo States, respectively. The sample size of the churches is 382, distributed as follows; Abia(57), Anambra(86), Ebonyi(69), Enugu(80), and Imo(90). Two hypotheses and two research questions guided the study. The primary and secondary data sources are accessed. In-depth interviews, including focus group discussions, are conducted. The researcher adopted the Five-Point Likert Scale Format in structuring the questionnaire. Marketing experts contributed to the questionnaire validation. A reliability coefficient of the research instrument, 0.977, is derived from the pilot study scores. Using Pearson Correlation Analysis and the One-way ANOVA technique, the hypotheses are tested at 0.05 level of significance and the latter at 19 degrees of freedom. The survey reveals that in spite of the strong positive relationship between evangelism marketing and church growth, church leadership has not significantly adopted evangelism marketing for the growth of the twenty-first-century church.
KEYWORDS: Church growth, Consumer behavior, Evangelism marketing, Social marketing