System Dynamics
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Church Growth and the Perils of Second-Order Feedback
Feedback is the process where an action has an effect, which in turn changes the original action. Either it magnifies it – reinforcing feedback; or it corrects it – balancing feedback
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Feedback and Church Growth
Feedback in a system that changes over time is the mechanism where an action results in an effect, which then, in turn, influences the original action. The action literally “feeds back” on itself. Reinforcing Feedback For example, if a population […]
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Infectious Church Growth
An “Agent-Based” View The central hypothesis I use to model church growth is that religious belief spreads like an infectious disease. This principle is built into the limited enthusiasm model of church growth. The church contains enthusiasts, who pass their […]
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The Rise and Decline of British Methodism
Application of the Institutional Model of Church Growth Some while ago, I introduced a model of church membership that explain the rapid growth of a church, only to be followed by decline as institutionalism set in [1]. The primary effect […]
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Modelling Secularisation
Part 3 of Christianity versus the Diversity Ideology In two previous blogs [1,2] I have been constructing a dynamic model of the competition between Christianity and the new secular ideology. The idea is that as Christianity declines in the West, […]
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Conversion to the Diversity Ideology
Part 2 – Justification of Hypotheses In a previous blog [1], I outlined a system dynamics model of how Christianity is losing ground to a new movement in society, which I nicknamed the “Diversity Ideology”. I chose this name because […]
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The New Ideology
Part 1 – Model Construction In the last two blogs, I have referred to the “New Ideology”, an ideology which is gradually taking the place of Christianity in Western societies [1] and causing division in the Christian church [2]. So […]
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Where to Plant a Church?
Big City, Small Town, or Rural? Despite church decline, church planting continues at a fast pace. In the cities of the UK, the church landscape has a generous number of recently established, glossy, relatively wealthy, contemporary churches. It would appear […]
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Church Growth Limited by Inadequate Resource Production
Limits to Church Growth 3 In two previous blogs, I looked at congregational growth being limited by: Demand from society [1]; Supply by the church [1]; Lack of enthusiasts [2]. However, even if there is an unlimited potential […]
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The “Twitter Mob” and Free Speech – A Systems Perspective
Some Thoughts on the Christmas Message of David Robertson, Free Church of Scotland Recently David Robertson, Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, delivered a Christmas message where he said society was becoming a monochrome culture where genuine diversity was being […]
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Closing Rural Churches
Is This the Way to Church Growth? Recently in an article for the Guardian newspaper, Giles Fraser suggested the Church of England should do to its churches what Beeching did to the railways, close its underused rural parishes. He further […]
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Limits to Church Growth – Part 2
The Reproduction of Enthusiasts In a previous post, I investigated two barriers to church growth. Firstly, the lack of the supply of religion by the church. Secondly, the a lack of demand for religion in society [1]. For those barriers […]
In 1904-5, Moriah chapel was the centre of massive church growth in Wales through a God-sent revival.