The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

  • About
    • What We Do
    • Who We Are
    • What People Say
    • Our Partners
    • Annual Report 2021
  • Success Stories
  • Services
    • Congregational Programs
    • Judicatory Programs
  • Resources
    • Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA)
    • Congregational Vitality Assessment – Judicatory Platform
    • MapDash for Faith Communities
    • Assessment Tools
    • Research
      • General Research
      • The Religion Singularity”
      • SHERM Journal
    • Videos
  • Blog
  • Donate

Mar 31 2021

Mapping Systemic Racism in Rural America

A Reflection and a Webinar

by Ken Howard

Click here to register for the webinar

Why is FaithX offering webinars on systemic racism?
I thought y’all did data-grounded missional discernment and demographic mapping.

We at FaithX get this question often these days. 

And my own first, somewhat snarky response is usually, “Exactly!”

But I then offer a somewhat longer and more serious explanation: That we at FaithX felt we had to bring our expertise and experience to bear on Systemic Racism because it is the frequently-unnoticed ‘base map’ underlying all the work that we have done since we launched in late 2016.

Of course, the more obvious thing revealed in visual form by our mapping was the clear, continuing, and pernicious segregation of race and ethnicity. But as we dug down deeper into various issues affecting neighborhoods, we also saw the impacts of systemic racism visually revealed there as well. We saw historical evidence of how in places where “redlining” was imposed, actions taken in the aftermath of the Great Depression had reverberated down the decades with impacts that continue today. Not just an almost one-to-one relationship between official redlining in the 30’s to the unofficial patterns of segregation we see today, but a relationship between the patterns of racial and ethnic predominance today and a host of negative impacts from chronic-diseases, to access to health care and insurance, to local government educational spending, to educational attainment. And we believed that the visual evidence that was so emotionally convincing to us that it would not only be equally compelling to others but would define for them concrete issues in their own communities that they could take concrete actions to address. Rural America may not have experienced official “redlining,” but the presence and the impacts of Systemic Racism are as real there as anywhere else.

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: demographic mapping, Faith Lutheran Church, great depression, missional discernment, redlining, rural america, segregation, systemic racism, Webinar

Mar 25 2021

Spring Training 2021

by Steve Matthews

Are you familiar with the Cactus League or the Grapefruit League? Well, it’s the time of year when professional baseball teams (and usually their fans) flock to Arizona (Cactus) and Florida (Grapefruit) to train and play in these regional short-term leagues in preparation for the real games later in the spring.  I’ve never been to spring training, but I understand it is a fun and exciting time and a unique time to see your favorite players up close (and maybe get an autograph or two).

What is your congregation training for these days?  Are you having any fun?  Where is the excitement?  For over a year we have spent a lot of time in reaction mode trying to recalculate and adjust based on new realities.  I wonder what we have learned about agility, adaptability, new technology, communication, patience, and negotiation. In the months ahead we will continue to adapt to Covid’s new realities.  The skills we have learned will continue to be part of our training, and what proactive training do we need to be incorporating into our communal life?  Who knows what the season to come will be like for us, but the call to co-create a playing field where God’s justice and joyous communion is primary and “the dignity of every human being” (and all beings) is honored never ceases. 

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog · Tagged: adaptation, adjustment, Coronavirus, COVID, COVID19, excitement, Spring Training, Steve Matthews

Mar 08 2021

Book Review – Trump and Political Theology: Unmaking Truth and Democracy

Trump and Political Theology

Title: Trump and Political Theology
Author: Jack David Eller, PhD
Publisher: GCRR Press (2020)
Reviewer: Ken Howard


This post is part of our occasional series, FaithX Book Reviews.

If you know a book you’d like us to review on our blog (or if you’d like to review one for us), please let us know by contacting Ken Howard at ken@faithx.net


Trump and Political Theology is unique, in that it reflects on the presidency of Donald Trump not simply from the standpoint of politics, but rather through the lens of theology (political theology, to be exact). Political theology has been around since the beginnings of institutional Christianity, but in the last century has focused on determining the theological legitimacy of political powers and institutions. Dr. Eller uses this theopolitical lens to understand the relationship of this particular president to norms, traditions, and institutions. 

With a foreword from FaithX’s very own Research Directory, Dr. Slade, the book’s main author, Dr. Jack David Eller, is a professor emeritus of anthropology, as well as the author of a number of books, including Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives, Inventing American Tradition, and Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate.  He is also a film editor for the Anthropology Review Database. 

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: anthropology, Book Review, Darren Slade, democracy, Jack David Eller, political theology, politics, religion, Trump and Political Theology, truth

Mar 08 2021

Book Review – Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Title: Think Again
Author: Adam Grant, PhD
Publisher: Viking (2020)
Reviewer: Ken Howard


This post is part of our occasional series, FaithX Book Reviews.

If you know a book you’d like us to review on our blog (or if you’d like to review one for us), please let us know by contacting Ken Howard at ken@faithx.net


Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18

At FaithX, much of what we do is helping leaders of congregations, judicatories, and denominations break through their own biases in order to see things about the communities they serve that they otherwise could not see. So it was with great interest that we picked up Adam Grant’s newest book, Think Again.

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: Adam Grant, Book Review, confidence, Give and Take, Helping Others, humility, innovative thinkers, leadership personalities, organizational climate, Think Again

Mar 03 2021

Covid & Congregations: What lies ahead in 2021 (webinar)

3/17/21 (Weds) | 1:00pm-2:00pm (ET)
Click here to register


Our Third-Wednesday Webinar series continues on March 17, 2021 with
“Covid and Congregations: What Lies Ahead In 2021?”

click here for our complete 2021 event schedule


We know more about Covid-19 today than we did a year ago when we went into lockdown, yet some days it seems there are still more questions than answers. We now have vaccinations, but what about variants? We seem closer now to returning to in-person worship, but haven’t we been here before? When is the other shoe going to drop? Just as important, what should we be doing in the meantime? And what should we be planning for our congregations in the days, weeks, and months ahead?

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog · Tagged: Coronavirus, coronavirus impact planning report, COVID, COVID19, ken Howard, Mary Frances, social vulnerability, Steve Matthews, Take Home Resources, Webinar

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • …
  • 31
  • Next Page »
  • About
  • Success Stories
  • Services
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Donate

Copyright © 2022 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in