The Grace Clarity Index
How the Index Works
What it measures, how a sermon is scored, and how to read the Sunday Forecast.
Instrument v3.0 · in use since July 13, 2026 · unchanged through July 2027
One Question
Mentioned, or governing?
Most sermons from large pulpits say something true about Jesus. That is not what the Grace Clarity Index is listening for. It is listening for what carries the weight.
Does the finished work of Christ govern the message, or is it merely mentioned?
A sermon can quote the cross beautifully and still rest its whole argument on what the listener must do next. Another can say less about the cross and still let it hold every turn. The index was built to tell those two sermons apart, because the difference is the difference between a listener leaving with a burden and a listener leaving at rest.
It does not measure sincerity, salvation, or spiritual fruit. It reads one transcript, from one Sunday, and asks that one question.
What We Score
Three dimensions. Ten items.
Every sermon is read against the same ten items. Each is scored from 0 to 5, and every point value has its own written description, so a score means the same thing from one week to the next.
What the sermon says about the gospel.
What actually carries the sermon.
How the text and the room are handled.
Proclamation
Governance
Craft
Why the Weights
Governing counts as much as saying.
Governance carries 40 points because it is the whole question. A sermon that states the gospel clearly but lets the listener’s response carry every turn will score well in Proclamation and poorly in Governance, and the Forecast reports both numbers so you can see exactly where it landed.
The two are measured separately on purpose. Strong gospel statements keep their Proclamation points even in a sermon that later pivots to effort, so a sermon is never punished twice for one pattern. Craft is capped at 20, which means skillful preaching alone can never lift a sermon into the top readings. Only the finished work carrying the message can do that.
Reading the Forecast
Five readings of the sky.
The Sunday Forecast reports each week’s average as a weather reading. Each reading is a fixed range of the same 100-point score.
| Reading | Score | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Clear skies | 85–100 | The finished work carries the sermon: its problem, its turns, and its landing. |
| Mostly clear | 65–84 | Real gospel that mostly governs; a turn or the landing leans on response. |
| Partly cloudy | 45–64 | Grace is genuinely present, but response carries the structure. |
| Overcast | 25–44 | The gospel sits in the background; the sermon is about something else. |
| Storm | 0–24 | Little working gospel content, or the gospel displaced by a performance message. |
A cloudy reading is not a verdict on a church. A sermon can be warm, true, and helpful and still read cloudy here, because the index is looking for one specific thing.
How a Week Works
From Sunday’s pulpit to Monday’s Forecast.
Pull
Each Monday we take the most recent sermon from the most-watched English-language pulpits we track. The transcript runs from the start of the message through the closing appeal, because the landing is part of the sermon.
Score
Every sermon is scored in three independent runs, and each item takes the middle of the three. If any item swings widely between runs, two more runs are added. A score of 3 or higher on any item requires a word-for-word quote from the sermon as evidence. No quote, no high score.
Calibrate
Each week begins by re-scoring a locked reference sermon whose score is already known. If the result drifts outside tolerance, the whole week is held back until the cause is found. Nothing drifts quietly.
Publish
The Sunday Forecast reports the week’s aggregate readings, how many sermons were scored, and whether the calibration check passed. No church or pastor is ever named.
Ground Rules
What keeps the index fair.
- It scores a sermon, not a person. A pastor may believe the gospel deeply and still preach a Sunday where something else carried the message. The index reads what was preached.
- Evidence, not impression. High scores must be earned with the sermon’s own words, quoted.
- One pattern, one charge. Points are only ever earned, never deducted, and each pattern is measured in exactly one place.
- Anonymous by design. Public reports are aggregates. No church names, no pastor names, no individual scores.
- A fixed ruler. The instrument does not change for twelve months at a time. Any future change requires re-scoring the full record before its numbers appear.
What It Is Not
A rubric applied to a transcript.
The Grace Clarity Index is not a character evaluation, a salvation test, or a ranking of who loves God more. A low reading does not mean a pastor is wrong about everything or that a church is harmful. It means that particular sermon, on that particular Sunday, let something other than the finished work carry the weight.
AI-assisted, human-directed. A pinned AI model applies the rubric so every sermon is read the same way. The rubric, the theology behind it, the reference sermons, and the interpretation in each Forecast are human work. Any sermon whose runs still disagree goes to a person for review before it can count.
See It in Action
Read this week’s Forecast.
The rubric is public so you can test it. Read the latest reading from the pulpits, or check a line you heard on Sunday against the finished work yourself.