The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Volume 1, Issue 1 Is Now Published Online!

Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry

The FaithX Project, in partnership with Wipf and Stock Publishers, is proud to announce the release of our very first issue of the peer-reviewed academic journal, Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry (SHERM).

You can view and download the articles by clicking here.

Table of Contents:

ISBN: 978-1-5326-8495-1

SOCIAL-SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

1) “Grenz and Franke’s Post-Foundationalism and the Religion Singularity“

By Jeshua B. Branch

2) “First Century Christian Diversity: Historical Evidence of a Social Phenomenon“

By John F. Lingelbach

INVITED POSITION PAPERS

3) “A Cultural Cognition Perspective on Religion Singularity: How Political Identity Influences Religious Affiliation“

By Kevin S. Seybold

4) “Is the Disintegration of Christianity a Problem—or Even a Surprise?“

By Jack David Eller

MINISTRY RESEARCH

5) “Conditions for the Great Religion Singularity“

By Brian D. McLaren

6) “Responses to the Religion Singularity: A Rejoinder”

By Darren M. Slade and Kenneth W. Howard

BOOK REVIEWS

7) “Crossing Boundaries, Redefining Faith”

By Robert D. Francis

FaithX & Datastory at CEEP Conference | Feb 20-23

How can we love our neighbors if we don’t know who they are?

How do we answer the question, “Who is our neighbor?” when our neighborhoods are changing so fast that our traditional ways of learning about them can’t keep up?

How do we learn how to learn at the speed of change?

If answering these questions for your congregation is important to you and you will be at the CEEP Conference in Boston on February 20-23, drop by our booth and discover how FaithX and Datastory and are helping faith leaders engage in data-grounded discernment for the future of the Church.

Visit Us at Booth 29

We’ll give you a complimentary Missional Intelligence Report about your community. 

FaithX and Datastory help faith communities and the organizations that support them answer these questions and more with Datastory’s MapDash for Faith Communities missional intelligence program and missional strategy development consulting from FaithX.

Learn More


Just in Time for Christmas (A FaithX Free Book Deal)

In the spirit of Christmas, we are offering another FaithX book giveaway.

From December 17–21, Kindle versions of Paradoxy: Creating Christian Community Beyond Us and Them and Excommunicating the Faithful: Jewish Christianity in the Early Church will be available free by clicking on the images or links below:

Paradoxy

Excommunicating the Faithful

If you’d rather have a paperback version of Paradoxy, (shipping cost extra), click here.

We hope you enjoy them both and wish you a merry and blessed Christmas!

FaithX Research – Vital Congregations Report 2018 just released

FaithX follows research relevant to those experimenting with new ways of organizing and being faith communities. When we find relevant research, we curate it here on the FaithXperimental blog and provide a link to download the full publication. We also post it on the Research section of the FaithX website.

The latest research of interest is the Vital Congregations Report – 2018, authored by Linda Bobbitt and published by the Congregational Vitality Project of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Here is the research abstract:

What does a congregation mean when they describe themselves as spiritually vital? How does a congregation become vital? What is the relationship between vitality and sustainability? Does the answer depend on the faith tradition? This study asked leaders from 10 different faith traditions to answer these questions. We found remarkable similarities across all traditions while also discovering the unique perspectives of each. Their answers illustrate distinct understandings about the way people interact with God and different perspectives of God’s promise of hope for the world.

Click here to download the Congregational Vitality Report and explore these answers.

[Read more…]