Transparency

GospelGraph data sources

Public, inspectable sources turned into ministry-readable signals.

GospelGraph is built from public data sources that can be explained, inspected, and challenged. The system combines tract geography, demographic signals, workforce data, church points, and derived ministry scores into a field instrument for churches.

Primary sources

What data GospelGraph uses

Core inputs include U.S. Census tract geography, American Community Survey 5-year estimates, LEHD/LODES workforce data, OpenStreetMap church locations, IRS exempt organization records, and derived GospelGraph scoring layers.

Each source has limits. GospelGraph treats those limits as part of the methodology rather than hiding them behind a single score.

demographics
ACS
A quick orientation marker for this resource page.
workforce
LODES
A quick orientation marker for this resource page.
church points
OSM + IRS
A quick orientation marker for this resource page.
Field note 01
Census TIGER/Line tract geography.
Field note 02
ACS 5-year demographic and socioeconomic indicators.
Field note 03
LEHD LODES workplace and origin-destination signals.
Field note 04
OpenStreetMap church points from public map data.
Field note 05
IRS religious nonprofit records filtered for Protestant and church-related categories.
Derived layers

What GospelGraph derives from those sources

GospelGraph derives Need Pressure, Gospel Desert scoring, Gospel Shift, neighborhood personality summaries, church access signals, and field posture categories. The derived layers are meant to help pastors interpret the field, not hide the underlying indicators.

Audit posture

Why transparency matters

Ministry data should be falsifiable. If a pastor or partner sees something wrong, the system should be able to explain which source, threshold, or interpretation produced the result. That posture is part of the product.

Questions pastors ask

Short answers for search, staff, and session rooms.

Question
Does GospelGraph use private personal data?
No. GospelGraph is built around public aggregate data and geographic units, not private individual profiles.
Question
Are church locations perfect?
No church point dataset is perfect. GospelGraph combines sources and deduplicates them, then treats the result as a visible-access signal rather than an exhaustive ecclesial census.
Related GospelGraph resources

Keep reading from the same library

These pages share the same methodology frame: definitions, transparent data sources, and ministry-use cases for tract-level decision making.