Mathematics of Church Growth References
Sociology of Religion Bibliography Mathematics & Church Growth Mathematics & Social Diffusion   Details of Models Limited Enthusiasm  Births, Deaths & Reversion    Details of Results Summary of Results Short Term Revival  Long Term Growth Long Term Decline   References & Bibliography  Mathematics of Church Growth Church Growth  Revival  System Dynamics  Sociology of Religion Epidemics  Social Diffusion Publications Articles	Papers Using Mathematics and System Dynamics in Church Growth Acuua Moreno, N., Cuevas, R. C., Ospina, Y. C., & Valencia, J. P. (2001). Caleb: Microworld of the Christian Church's Membership Dynamics. Paper presented at the The 19th International Conference of the System Dynamics Society, Atlanta, Georgia. Uses system dynamics to model the growth of a specific denomination in Latin America. Organisational rather than diffusion. Anderson, Duane. Estimates of the future membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. An attempt to fit church data to the logistic model - thus using the concept of carrying capacity and limited growth. Gaynor A.K., Morrow J. & Georgiou S.N. (1991), Aging, contraction, and cohesion in a religious order: A policy analysis. System Dynamics Review, 7(1): 1-19. Systems dynamics model of a religious order. Organisational rather than diffusion. Logan P.F. & Dye T.W. (1984), Physics for Anthropologists, Search, 15(1-2), 30-32. Modelling the growth of a church in a developing country using diffusion ideas from gas dynamics. Uses the logistic model and the concept of positive feedback. Loomis R.D. Church Growth and the Latter Day Saints . Presented at The Association for the Sociology of Religion August 15-17, 2002 Chicago, IL . Uses statistical modelling to examine the future growth of the Mormon Church. Also see details. Papers Using Mathematics and System Dynamics in Other Social Diffusion Mathematics and systems dynamics are used to model various forms of social diffusion. The methods and ideas can be relevant to modelling church growth. Baggs I. & Freedman H.I. (1990), A mathematical model for the dynamics of interactions between a unilingual and a bilingual population: Persistence versus extinction., Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 16(1), 51-75. Uses a predator prey model to examine the spread of bilingualism. Burbeck S.L., Raine W.J. & Stark M.J. (1978) The Dynamics of Riot Growth: An Epidemiological Approach, Journal of Mathematical Sociology, 6, 1-22. Very similar modelling to the original church growth model Hayward (1999). Sandell R. (2001), Organisational growth and ecological constraints: The growth of social movements in Sweden, 1881 to 1940. American Sociological Review 66: 672-693. Refers to the growth in the number of Christian congregations. Return to Top