The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Unique Redevelopment Opportunity for Five Episcopal Dioceses

At the end of June, FaithX received a major grant from Trinity Wall Street Philanthropies to embark on a powerful partnership with five dioceses across the country. This initiative is called The Vitality Improvement Program for Small Congregations (or VIP). More information about the initiative and the application can be found here.

Key benefits for participating dioceses and congregations include:

  1. Access to Mapdash For Faith Communities, an interactive demographic and analytic dashboard. This tool can be used with all the churches in your diocese–not just the 7-10 churches in the VIP.
  2. Access to the Congregational Vitality Assessment – Judicatory Dashboard. Any of the churches in your diocese can take the CVA at any time. Dioceses can also customize up to 10 questions, and they will have access to all CVA results.
  3. Access to the Judicatory Vitality Assessment, which your diocese can use to diagnose and then make plans to improve its own vitality.
  4. Over 500 consulting hours with your diocese and participating congregations.
  5. Training of a diocesan-level Vitality Improvement Team to facilitate the vitality work of individual Parish Vitality Improvement Teams among participating congregations.
  6. Creation of a Learning Community for your diocese that also connects you to other dioceses participating in the VIP.
  7. An honest assessment of the vitality and sustainability of each participating congregation, as well as the development of a compelling plan for the future.  

We would love to partner with your diocese on this exciting venture into congregational vitality, so fill out the application today!

Please note that our application deadline has been extended to September 30, 2022.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@faithx.net or make an appointment for a Zoom call with Ken Howard at kenhoward.youcanbook.me.

Neighborhood Demographic Reports for Small Congregations

By Steve Matthews, Senior Associate Consultant, FaithX

Four years ago, I was asked to preside at the funeral of one of my favorite aunts.  She was born in East Tennessee and grew up in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina.  She was one of 9 children. She and her siblings and parents really cleaved to the notion of a small church as the epicenter of village life.  At her funeral we sang The Church in the Wildwood.  The words to the first stanza are:  

There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood, 
No lovelier spot in the dale; 
No place is so dear to my childhood 
As the little brown church in the vale.

It’s a nice and sentimental vision.  Maybe it harks back to a simpler time, or maybe it was just an idealized notion of what my family thought church “ought” to be.  In any case, a lot has changed in church-land in 100 years and in our culture regarding church.

As a consultant working with redeveloping faith communities, two questions come to mind when I think about accompanying small congregations:

  1. Just how big is “small?”
  2. How do small churches discover and engage missional opportunities?
[Read more…]

Vitality Improvement Program Accepting Applications… What is vitality anyway?

By now, we hope that you have heard the exciting news! The FaithX Project is now accepting applications for our Vitality Improvement Program for Small Congregations (VIP).  VIP is a 3-year program designed specifically to provide reduced-cost resources, coaching, and consultation to small Episcopal congregations through their dioceses that will allow congregations to assess their vitality and sustainability, then develop effective vitality and sustainability improvement strategies by better engaging the neighborhoods they serve.

What do we mean when we talk about vitality?  While the term has been bandied about a lot recently in terms of congregational health, we have some very specific ideas about it.  We will be helping congregations address 10 key areas of congregational life: 

Vision, Mission and Discernment
Lay Engagement and Empowerment 
Context Awareness and Inclusion
Change Readiness
Dealing with Differences
Spiritual Life and Worship
Formation, Education, and Training
Outreach
Leadership and Organization.
Stewardship

[Read more…]

Become the Indispensable Center of Your Community

Faith-Based Community Resource Hubs

Faith communities becoming catalysts,
leveraging their underused buildings and property
for the sake of their neighborhoods and their mission

Click here for interactive presentation

I’ll give it to you straight:

Faith Communities are rapidly become unsustainable in their current form. Even before Covid, it was becoming abundantly clear (to those who had eyes to see it) that by the end of this century, the typical house of worship, as we have come to know and love it, would only be found stuffed and mounted in ecclesiastical museums. And now, in the aftermath of Covid, the date of its untimely demise will be anybody’s guess. My own estimate is that we have a 20-year window (maybe 25, if your congregation has an endowment).

The proverbial writing is on the proverbial wall. Just look around you:

Shrinking Membership. Before our current trend bottoms out the number of Christians per congregation will drop to less that 60, half of which will be unaffiliated with any faith community or denomination, leaving the average congregation with a total active membership of around 30 (The Religion Singularity). The average worship space is now operating at less than half of its seating capacity. And that ratio is dropping. (Pew Research)

Congregations Closing at a Rapid Clip. The inevitable impact on finances has left most congregations facing some degree of financial difficulty, leading to an estimated 3,850–7,700 worship centers closing every year. And the number of closures per year is increasing. Where once were church buildings now stand bookstores, brew pubs and wineries, skate parks and laser tag arenas, luxury condos, and even frat houses. (Journal of Pastoral Psychology).

Community Challenges Growing. Many urban and rural communities are struggling with dozens of issues like the lack of access to living wage employment, affordable housing, medical insurance, health care, and social services, which leads to many living in substandard conditions or even becoming homeless because they can’t afford to live and work in their communities (Regional Indicators Dashboard Project).

Community Resources Shrinking. Ironically, many of the government and nonprofit organizations that could help these people with the challenges they face are increasingly unable afford to locate in the communities they serve.

Feels like things are growing more and more hopeless for congregations and the communities they serve, right?

Not necessarily…

What if congregations were to look for hidden opportunities in the challenges they face?

[Read more…]

VIP for Small Congregations Now Accepting Applications

By The Rev. Ken Howard
Executive Director, The FaithX Project

Are you interested in helping the small congregations in your diocese thrive like never before?

Do you want to discern how your small congregations can become sustainable for years to come?

Would your small congregations benefit from research-grounded, state-of-the-art vitality assessment tools and consulting worth tens of thousands of dollars for a small fraction of the typical cost?

The FaithX Project is pleased to announce that our Vitality Improvement Program for Small Congregations (VIP) is now accepting applications.* VIP is a 3-year program designed specifically to provide reduced-cost consultation and training to cohorts of small Episcopal congregations (approx. 30-70 ASA) and their dioceses that will allow congregations to assess and develop strategies to improve their vitality and sustainability with the assistance of their dioceses, who will apply for the program on behalf of themselves and 7-10 small congregations. Five dioceses will be accepted for admission to this year’s program.

Click here to access our Online Application Packet

This Application Packet includes all the materials necessary to apply for acceptance into the program, including: 

  • Overview
  • Timeline
  • Roles and Responsibilities
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
  • Definitions
  • Diocesan Application Form (please read the other documents before completing). 

This is a 3-step process: 

  1. Diocese submits a Diocesan Application Form to FaithX (by 8/30/22). 
  2. FaithX reviews applications, and selects and notifies the 5 dioceses selected to participate in the program (by 9/19/22).
  3. FaithX meets with diocesan leadership to begin the process of recruiting a project team and selecting 7-10 congregations with an ASA between 30-50 and are likely to benefit from the program (10/5/22 2:00-4:30pm ET on Zoom).

We would like to express our immense gratitude to Trinity Wall Street Philanthropies for awarding FaithX a leadership grant that made our VIP for Small Congregations project possible. Other financial and/or in-kind supporters include: Datastory, Episcopal Church Foundation, and the FaithX VIP Scholarship Fund.

If you have any questions, please contact us at info@faithx.net.

Click here to access our Online Application Packet