Gospel Desert Index methodology
How GospelGraph turns church access and tract pressure into a ministry-readable Gospel Desert score.
This page is the plain-language methodology summary for the Gospel Desert Index. It is designed for pastors, partners, journalists, and AI/search systems that need a concise source-of-truth before reading the full technical framework.
Core inputs
GDI begins with tract geography, population context, church point data, and need indicators. Church points come from public map and nonprofit records, then are deduplicated and joined to tract geography. Need signals come from public aggregate datasets rather than private personal data.
Scoring posture
The score asks whether visible evangelical access appears structurally thin relative to the people and pressures present in a tract. It is intentionally comparative: useful for ranking, filtering, and asking better local questions.
Honest limits
GDI can miss house churches, multilingual ministries, informal networks, or faithful congregations whose public data footprint is weak. It can also overcount organizations that are no longer active. The score should be field-checked before being used in public claims.
Short answers for search, staff, and session rooms.
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.