By the Rev. Ken Howard, founder and president of FaithX

In last week’s post, our executive director, Mary Frances, discussed the challenges of transitions, specifically those related to congregational leadership.

In this week’s post, I will be discussing leadership transitions in dioceses, presbyteries, synods, and other judicatories.

Different denominations have different titles for their top judicatory leader. In my denomination, the Episcopal Church, we call them bishops. While I’ve never been a bishop, and never really wanted to be, I have been on both sides of bishop search processes: three times as a candidate (long story) and once on the diocesan side, involved in the search for candidates.

Now, a bishop search is a wee bit more complicated than a pastor search, but it’s always worth remembering that a bishop search is a discernment process, and there are always two sides in discernment: the candidates and the search committee. It goes without saying that the judicatory leader must be a good “pastor to the pastors.” But beyond that, there are two other essential discernment questions that both sides need to ask and answer:

1. 1. What are the top challenges the new leader will have to deal with?
   2. What knowledge, skills, and attitudes must the new leader possess to deal with them?

And on the judicatory side of the search, when I started sharing with candidates some of the serious issues the diocese was facing, I got the distinct impression that others on the committee were getting nervous, that we might scare candidates away. But I knew that if I were in their shoes, I would want to know what I was getting into.

On the candidate side, in two of the three search processes in which I was involved, these above questions had not been adequately answered. The judicatory profiles I was sent read like Lake Wobegon: the diocese was strong, the pastors were good-looking, the congregations were all above average (okay, I’m exaggerating, but not by much). In both cases, I had to intuit what the issues were by digging up parochial reports and summaries, purchasing demographic studies, contacting pastors I knew, and reviewing newsletters. It was a lot of work, but it allowed me to ask the right questions and respond to their questions honestly.

To answer those questions thoroughly, you need good data, not to replace prayerful discernment but to put a factual foundation underneath it.

That’s where FaithX can help, by providing the tools you need to provide that data.

First, the Judicatory Vitality Assessment (JVA).

The JVA is a research-grounded, subscription-based online diagnostic tool, designed to help the leadership of dioceses, presbyteries, synods, and other judicatories:

• • Diagnose the judicatory’s vitality (capacity to thrive) and sustainability (capacity to survive).
  • Identify the judicatory’s internal/organizational strengths and weaknesses.
  • Identify strengths and weaknesses in how the judicatory relates to its congregations.
  • Develop and prioritize strategies to address the above issues.

The JVA is typically taken by a representative sample of 15 people: five from judicatory leadership, five from pastors of congregations, and five from judicatory-level governing bodies. Just as the CVA holds up a mirror for a congregation, the JVA holds up a mirror for a judicatory, assessing it in 16 areas of judicatory vitality, as well as evaluating its sustainability. By answering questions about vision and mission, congregational engagement and empowerment, collaborative ministry, judicatory-congregation trust, and ministry development and redevelopment, the judicatory gains an in-depth and comprehensive understanding of areas of strength and those requiring improvement. And given that the JVA comes with a one-year subscription, judicatories can retake the assessment in 12 months to see how far they have progressed.

Second, MissionMaps for Faith Communities

MissionMaps is an online, interactive demographic mapping and reporting tool designed to help judicatories and their congregations discern missional opportunities and challenges in the geographic communities their congregations serve. By exploring demographic map layers, such as unemployment rates, poverty levels, and access to healthcare, as well as analytics map layers, including those related to religiously unaffiliated populations and homelessness vulnerability, the judiciary can identify judicatory-wide trends and patterns. And if judicatory leadership provides FaithX with summary parochial report data, MissionMaps can give the diocese a “God’s eye view” of the vitality and sustainability of all of its congregations. Taken together, this can reveal key issues the new leader and the diocese will need to address.

The Judicatory Vitality Assessment is priced at $2,495 per year, and MissionMaps Basic is $3,995. A significant discount is available if purchased together.

If your judicatory is considering an impending retirement of its top leader and needs to initiate an effective search process, and would like to learn more about FaithX’s tools and consulting services for transition, please contact us at info@faithx.net.