During this project I have noticed a statistically small but interesting relationship between church attendance and sound Biblical doctrine. Many individuals believe the more you go to church the more you will know, but I noticed two things with this study. 1) Sometimes when individuals go to church, they still do not understand Bible doctrine. 2) When some go to church, they have a strong understanding of Biblical doctrine. They are similar to the predictions that I made earlier, but with one difference. Some of the individuals that did attend church had minimal understanding of Bible doctrine. In my prediction, the more the individual attended church the more he or she would know about Biblical doctrine. I do think my results were generalizable, especially with some of the individuals that went to church and had an understanding of Biblical doctrine. For example, some individuals did not attend church regularly and maintained an understanding of Biblical doctrine. Some results were mixed, meaning they did not meet any of the predictions or did not correlate with the questions being asked, this was hard to tell if they were making up answers or really reading and understanding what the questions were asking. My results represent something different than what was in the excerpt of Quarles (2011). In the end, the answers to some of the questions on my survey did show that some individuals were able to understand basic Biblical doctrine with little to no church attendance. Individuals in this category could have Biblical understanding from television or from conversations with other individuals that have high church attendance. One implication this project would have for pastors and those involved in ministry is the importance of spiritual growth and maintaining a ministry that is dedicated to understanding the youth. The Bible does not specifically speak to maintaining a youth ministry, but 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (New King James Version) tells us that a ministry should be full of purpose and engaged in growing and mentoring other men and women.
Taumeka McCord-Mosley
This project has put a lot of light on the necessity of sound doctrine and its importance. One would think that if people attended church more, they would be more in tune with God and sound doctrine. My initial prediction for the discussion board was that individual that attends church may have a better understanding of religion doctrine than those individuals that may have never attended church. There were some relationship to my initial prediction but nothing that is definitive because those individual who may not attend church as often still had some understanding of religion doctrine and some of them understood church doctrine than those who attended church on a regular basis. Church attendance can be importance but at the same time it is an individual's choice. I feel that some pastors and church leaders are more focus on the number of people in the church pews than focusing on individuals having a relationship with God. Surely God wants believers to be around other believers because it gives you an opportunity to fellowship with other believers as well as draw strength from one another. But I think it is also important for us go out and witness to those who aren't attending church. To equip them the knowledge to have a better understanding of having a relationship with God. At the same time attending church does automatically guarantee you the right that you have a better understanding of church doctrine as well. There are many individual's that are in church that are basically just that in church, and they do not have an understand ng of church doctrine. To me church isn't a physical building but we are the church. To get as much understanding of the Christian doctrine, we are to rely on God showing us the way. Despite my results, I do believe that churches need to be more intentional in educating people about core doctrinal beliefs because it is essential to building a solid relationship with Christ. We cannot just believe that because children or adults are showing up each Sunday that they know and fully understand core Christian doctrine.