Ministry intelligence
Ministry intelligence is local data put to work for a church, so it can see where the need is and where the gospel is hard to reach.
Maps and data should feel cold. Used well, they do the opposite. They show a church the people it drives past every Sunday, and they give its prayers somewhere specific to go.
Why a church needs it
The ideaHave you ever heard of a food desert? It's a neighborhood where fresh food is hard to get, even though people need it every day. Some neighborhoods are like that with the gospel. There may be a church half a mile away, but there's a six-lane highway in that half mile, and nobody on the other side has ever been invited.
Ministry intelligence helps a church find places like that. It uses public data from the U.S. Census and other sources to show where the need is highest, where gospel access is thinnest, and whether conditions are getting better or worse.
What GospelGraph measures
The measuresGospelGraph is The Hood Shepherd's mapping tool, and it reads every Census tract in the country with three numbers.
The Gospel Desert Index, a score from 0 to 100 for how hard it is to reach evangelical gospel witness there. Higher means harder. Places from 75 to 100 are called deserts.
Need pressure, which shows how much a place is struggling right now across work, safety, health, family life and community. It runs from 0 to 100, and higher means more need.
The Gospel Impact Metric, which shows whether those conditions rose or fell between 2020 and 2024. A change between -0.7 and +0.8 means the place is holding roughly where it was.
What the data can't tell you
The limitsData can tell you a tract is under heavy pressure. It can't tell you which family on the block is in trouble, or why. A rising score doesn't prove any ministry caused it, and a falling one doesn't mean a church failed.
That's why every map points back to a street. The field guides turn the same data into a picture of the people who tend to live there, and then it's up to you to go and meet them.
Questions
From pastors and ministry leadersWhat is ministry intelligence?
It's local data used to guide a church's ministry. It shows where need is highest, where gospel access is thinnest, and how a place is changing, so a church can pray and act more specifically.
What is a gospel desert?
It's a place where evangelical gospel witness is hard to reach, the way a food desert is a place where fresh food is hard to get. On GospelGraph's Gospel Desert Index, tracts scoring 75 to 100 are called deserts.
Where does the data come from?
Mostly from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, along with public data on churches and neighborhoods. The methodology page on GospelGraph explains each measure in detail.
Keep reading from the same library
Same frame, different door in.
These pages share the field guide frame: neighbor knowledge, incarnational ministry, evangelism training, and a practical outreach posture.
Ministry intelligence is local data put to work for a church, so it can see where the need is and where the gospel is hard to reach.