By The Rev. Ken Howard

Christmastide is over. The twelve days of Christmas have come and gone. In many places, it may be snowing, with a dusting of winter snow on the ground. Or if you are in the Pacific Northwest, where I am, there is a sheen of water everywhere (it’s rainy season).

We’re all waiting for something. If you are a homeowner, it’s for the grass seed you put down in the fall to show itself. If you are a gardener, it’s for the bulbs in your garden to break the surface again. If you’re a farmer, you are waiting for the first tiny stalks of winter wheat or tiny corn stalks in the spring. So many things are germinating that have not yet borne fruit.

This time of year is often a time of inactivity for congregations and the judicatories that support them, as they wait to see the results of last year’s labor in the fields of God. But for good or for ill, there are always things happening below the surface, under your radar, that you cannot see, things that will show themselves over time.

Congregations that took our Congregational Vitality Assessment last year may be preparing to retake it this spring to see if and how their vitality and sustainability have changed as a result of the micro-strategies they employed in response to last year’s results.

Dioceses, synods, and other judicatories that use our CVA Judicatory Platform may be looking for patterns across their congregations: Which strategies worked? Which need tweaking? And what did they learn from strategies that didn’t work at all (small failures can yield great learning)?

Congregations that are using our Neighborhood Insights Report may have discovered emerging missional opportunities, such as growth in the number of young families, an increase in the percentage of religiously affiliated, or an influx of new ethnic groups. Or they might be seeing missional challenges (opportunities in disguise) in their community, such as an increase in homelessness vulnerability, and work with their local government and other congregations and organizations to prevent or prepare for them.

Finding out what’s germinating within judicatory boundaries and congregational neighborhoods, and helping those tending those fields to prepare for the harvest, is what FaithX is all about.

If you would like help tending your missional fields more effectively, drop us a note at info@faithx.net.