Korean churches have introduced and utilized physical activity programs in taking pastoral duties so that various programs, in which christians and non-christians participate, have been carried out. The physical activity programs help to increase the organizational force of church followers and improve the church image through the natural promotion to non-christians, and have been used as a tool of missionary work. But, the way to follow the programs unconditionally without professional knowledge or concrete methodology is considered negative in a society, and leads to the decrease in church followers’ satisfaction with church. Therefore, this study was intended to define the structural relations with church satisfaction and loyalty, organizational devotion, and word-of-mouth intention according to the physical activity participation of christians, and consequently propose a method to help each Korean church properly apply the physical activity programs utilizing sports to pastoral duties and utilize them as an effective tool of missionary work.
Accordingly, to investigate the relation of cause and effect on church satisfaction, loyalty, organizational devotion, and word-of-mouth intention through christians’ participation into physical activities, this researcher selected as the population group mid-and large-sized churches with more than 1000 to less than 2000 registered followers and physical activity program facilities located in the Metropolitan area in 2011, and extracted samples by using systematic cluster sampling.
Through the preliminary survey, factor analysis was performed, and survey questions were modified and supplemented. A total of 600 people participated in the questionnaire survey, but 8 people who didn’t respond to the survey was excluded so that 592 copies were distributed. Also, 16 copies, which had some questions omitted or insincerely responded so that it was hard to conduct statistical analysis, were excluded. As a result, valid 576 copies of the questionnaire were finally used for empirical analysis.
As for the analytical materials, SPSS Windows V17.0 program and AMOS 16.0 program was used for analysis. This study used the following statistic schemes for data processing. First, to verify the validity and reliability of questionnaire copies collected in this study through the preliminary survey. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and reliability test were performed. Secondly, to analyze the relation of cause and effect on church satisfaction, organizational devotion, loyalty, and word-of-mouth intention through christians’ participation into physical activities, AMOS 16.0 was used to apply the measurement errors of main theoretical variables to a model so that Structural Equation Model (SEM) analysis, which helps to investigate the direct and indirect effects of variables, was performed. And, to prove that each one of theoretical hypotheses set in this study was discriminated empirically, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CAF) was conducted. Sixthly, to analyze christians’ perception of participation into physical activities, Frequency Analysis through Multiple Response Group analysis was conducted. After analyzing the materials on the basis of the study methods described earlier, this researcher drew the following conclusion.
The result of the analysis on the relation of cause and effect on church satisfaction, organizational devotion, loyalty, word-of-mouth intention through christians’ participation into physical activities presented that, regarding the relation between the satisfaction with external factors of church and word-of-mouth intention, the factors of organizational devotion and loyalty were found to have statistically significant indirect effects, and, regarding the relation between the satisfaction with internal factors of church and word-of-mouth intention, the factors of organization devotion and loyalty were found to have no statistically significant indirect effects.