Results of the Spiritual Life Through Activists Model

As the number of active believers in the church grows, so does the church’s spiritual life. This, in turn, empowers the enthusiasts to be more effective, leading to increased church growth and more activists. However, in a static population, a church cannot grow indefinitely. How may a church sustain itself when there are losses, and what is the role of its spiritual life?

Switch Off Losses

To investigate sustainability, I switch off all the losses in the Spiritual Life Model. (That is α = 0 in the equations.) In the simplified model, this means there are no reversions, births, deaths or population growth. Thus, in this simplified scenario, the church can only grow or stabilise.

Revival growth results if the conversion potential is high enough, Figure 1. I have also ensured there is healthy discipleship. That is, some new converts become activists, and enthusiasts remain active, generating spiritual life, when they lose their ability to recruit. Church numbers follow the classic S-shaped growth, with enthusiasts behaving like the infected in the spread of disease.

Figure 1: Revival Growth in the Spiritual Life Model with no Losses. Church, Activists and Enthusiasts

Figure 1 shows the number of active believers (activists) growing for the first 40 years. These Christians are essential for generating Spiritual Life. Figure 2 shows the corresponding growth in that life. For the first 40 years, the church has a healthy Spiritual Life and reproduction potential. However, once church growth slows, the number of activists falls. The church stops growing because enthusiasts are unable to reproduce themselves in a shrinking pool of unbelievers, as in the Limited Enthusiasm Model.

Figure 2: Revival Growth in the Spiritual Life Model with no Losses. Church, Spiritual Life and Reproduction Potential

Sustainability

Eventually, the church stops growing with no enthusiasts, activists or spiritual life. The shrinking pool of unbelievers has consequences for activists and spiritual life as well. A healthy church with spiritual life, enthusiasts, and active believers cannot be sustained unless new unbelievers become available or a renewal process occurs within the church.. New unbelievers may come through recycling people who are lost (switched off here), or through church planting in new areas, or through births over time.

In the real world, where losses from deaths and reversion are inevitable, the sustainability of spiritual life is only possible if there are new converts or spiritual renewal. Spiritual life cannot survive just because church numbers remain stable. The church needs both active believers and enthusiasts if it is to remain spiritually alive.

Further Results of the Spiritual Life Model