Welcome
The CREC HotSpot Project exists to serve CREC churches and church planters, and to help people who would like to see a new CREC church in their area.
The HotSpot map provides detailed data about the geographical distribution of people who consume CREC-related online content. Check it out for yourself below.
Add My Church to the HotSpot Map
If you’re an officer or staff member at a CREC church that is not yet featured on the HotSpot map, and you’d like to be added, please fill in the form below.
Existing churches
Integrate demographic data into your mission strategy by identifying locations where interest in a new church plant may be high.
Local networkers
Contact us to start building a community of people keen to join with you in starting a new CREC church.
Church planters
Evaluate potential church planting locations, and focus your community-building efforts in areas where interest is likely to be high.
Understanding the HotSpot map
The HotSpot map displays the geographical distribution of people who consume CREC-related online content. It’s highly intuitive – a deeper red color means more people, a lighter color means fewer people. Try exploring it for yourself, or click the “Details” tab for more explanation.
If you have further questions, please check out the technical details, below. Alternatively, please contact us for a free personal consultation.
HotSpot map
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Get the most out of the HotSpot Project by sharing it on your social networks.
Support the HotSpot Project
If you or your church would like to support the HotSpot project, please email Pastor Rob Hadding at Covenant Reformed Church (CREC). Donations may be sent to:
Covenant Reformed Church,
2019 S. Ruth Street,
Sulphur,
LA 70663
About
The CREC (Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches) has been blessed with significant numerical growth in recent years. Our existing congregations are growing in size – some extremely rapidly. Every year, an increasing number of new churches are being added to our ranks, and our church planting efforts are moving forward at an increasing pace.
However, church planting efforts are frequently hampered by uncertainty about the degree of interest among the wider population in prospective church planting locations. The CREC HotSpot Project is designed to address this need by allowing Pastors, church leaders, and church planters to see the level of interest in CREC-related online content in the areas of interest.
Moreover, there remain many areas of the country where no CREC church exists, but where many local people would love to join one. If that’s you, the CREC HotSpot Project allows you to build local networks by making contact with others who may want to join them in establishing a new CREC church.
Existing churches
Are you a Pastor or Officer in a CREC church, seeking to identify promising locations for potential future church plants? The HotSpot map allows you to identify areas that are home to significant numbers of people interested in CREC-related online content. Get started now, and contact us if you have any questions or require a more detailed consultation.
Local networkers
Would you like to join a CREC church, but the nearest congregation is too far away? Explore your local area using the HotSpot map, and share it on your social networks to raise awareness among your friends. Then contact us to share your details and get in touch with other like-minded people who live near you. We will help you to build relationships locally, and your local CREC presbytery will be able to guide you through the process of establishing a new CREC church plant.
Church planters
Cut the guesswork from your church planting efforts, and start relying on real-world data, using the HotSpot map to evaluate potential church planting locations. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, or want to make contact with potential church plant members near you.
Technical details
Over one million data points were sampled from more than eight thousand geographical locations, measuring user engagement with CREC-related online content. No names, addresses, or other personal data were collected during this process.Ā
These data were used to create a series of heatmaps, allowing church leaders, prospective church planters, and others to identify geographical locations where significant demand may exist for a new CREC church plant.Ā
Sampling:Ā Over 1,000,000 data points were sampled from more than 8000 different geographical locations across the contiguous US, measuring user engagement with Blog and Mablog (number of user interactions between July 2022 and July 2023), Canon Plus (number of subscribers as at April 2024), CrossPolitic (number of downloads via Dropwave), and Theopolis (number of user interactions between April 2024 and April 2024). Local population data were also gathered. No names, addresses, credit card details, or other personal data were collected during this process. Project lead: Brian Points.
Data centers: Data points originating from known data centers were identified, and their influence on the data assessed. In most cases, the effects were so negligible (<1% of local data arising from non-data center locations) that their effects could safely be ignored. In three cases (Ashburn, VA; Boardman, OR; Quincy, WA) it was determined that the data would significantly distort the local heatmap landscape, so these three geographical locations were omitted, resulting in a loss of approximately 2.5% of the total available data. However, all these three data centers draw from a wide geographical area, so the distortive effect of this small percentage loss on the final heatmap landscape will be negligible. Project lead: Steve Jeffery.
Mercator correction: The latitude values Īø for each geographical location were scaled to virtual latitude values Ļ (see below), in order to ensure precise mapping onto the Mercator Projection used by OpenStreetMap. Project lead: Steve Jeffery.
Matrix construction: A region from latitude (Īø)Ā 0Ā° to 50Ā°N and longitude 125Ā° to 65Ā°W was divided into a 376×376 matrix, and the values of local population and user engagement variables (Blog and Mablog interactions, Canon Plus subscriptions, CrossPolitic downloads, and Theopolis interactions) were summed for all the geographic locations within each cell , creating five 376×376 matrices representing the geographic distribution of each variable. Project lead: Ben Jeffery.
Data processing: The values of the four user engagement variables (Blog and Mablog interactions, Canon Plus subscriptions, CrossPolitic downloads, and Theopolis interactions) within their respective matrices were normalized to the same maximum value, to scale the data appropriately for visualization, and to account for the fact that an annual online subscription reflects much greater interest in the underlying content than a single online interaction. The resulting matrices were then combined to create five visualizationĀ matrices, one with equal weight assigned to all four user engagement variables (“All data”), and four others in which one of the user engagement variables was weighted at 85% and the other three at 5% each: “Blog and Mablog 85%”, “Theopolis 85%”, “Canon Plus 85%”, and “CrossPolitic 85%”. Each of these five matrices were then normalized with respect to the local population to create five more visualization matrices:Ā “All data, population normalized“, “Blog and Mablog 85%, population normalized“, “Theopolis 85%, population normalized“, “Canon Plus 85%, population normalized”, and “CrossPolitic 85%, population normalized”.Ā Project lead: Steve Jeffery.
Visualization:Ā The ten visualization matrices were plotted as heatmaps using a Python Script, applying a natural log transformation and the “Reds” color scale. The resulting pngs were overlaid at 50% opacity on a Mercator Projection using OpenStreetMap, along with the locations of all CREC churches, and appropriate toggle functions to allow switching between the different overlays.Ā Project lead: Steve Jeffery.