The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

A Priest and A Data Geek Walk Into A Bar: Sneak Preview of Ken’s Esri User Conference Presentation

On Tuesday, July 9 at 11:15am, Ken Howard, our executive director and principal consultant, will deliver a presentation on data-grounded strategic missional planning at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, CA.*

The presentation, “Grounding Discernment in Data: Strategic Missional Planning Using MapDash for Faith Communities” will describe how FaithX collaborated with Datastory to adapt interactive GIS technology to provide a platform and a process to help congregations and their judicatories learn the stories of their neighborhoods, identify missional opportunities and challenges emerging from those stories, and develop effective strategies for engaging them. Ken has been asked to deliver this 20-minute presentation as part of Esri’s Expo Spotlight Theater, which will also be spotlighting how other nonprofit organizations put GIS data to work in their respective areas of focus.

Since few of you will be attending the Esri User Conference and many of you have asked about the presentation, we thought it would be a good idea to give our faithful readers a sneak preview.  

Click here to view Grounding Discernment in Data

This presentation is in the form of a datastory:
an interactive presentation tool.
To view the presentation, simply scroll up through the “slides.”

*Esri is an international supplier of geographic information system software, web GIS, and geodatabase management applications.
The company is headquartered in Redlands, California.
The company was founded as Environmental Systems Research Institute
in 1969 as a land-use consulting firm.

Support FaithX

FaithX is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and Ken’s faith-based consulting practice at FaithX is done under an extension of ministry from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Want to learn more about missional opportunities
in your congregation’s neighborhood?
Click here for a free Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report

Want to learn how your judicatory can identify
emerging missional opportunities within its boundaries?
Click hereto schedule a free demo of MapDash for Faith Communities by Datastory
and Strategic Missional Planning by FaithX

MissionWebs and DriveTimes: Defining the boundaries of our neighborhood

by Ken Howard

If “Love your neighbor” remains a core command for followers of Jesus, both as individuals and as congregations, then “Who are the people of our neighborhood?” (cue Mr. Rogers’ theme song) remains our core question. 

But before we can ask “who?,” we first have to ask “where?”… Where are the practical boundaries of our neighborhood? 

After all, we don’t have the wherewithal to show infinite love to everyone everywhere. Unlike God, both as individuals and as congregations, our love has limits. Limited time, limited attention, limited space, limited resources. So we have to prioritize how and where and to what end we will spend those resources to reap the most good for the most people. In other words, we have to establish reasonable boundaries for “our” neighborhood to which we will open our hearts and our doors. 

Back in the old days, when denominational affiliation was more important to people than it is now, hierarchies established our boundaries for us. These were both our “fishing ponds” (the area from which our people would come) and our “cure of souls” (the area for which we were responsible to serve). 

For many reasons, those kinds of boundaries don’t work any more. So how do we define the area in which we will cast our nets and for which we will take responsibility?

MapDash for Faith Communities offers two ways to ask these questions: one is called “MissionWebs,” the other DriveTime Boundaries.

[Read more…]

Leaving Liberty University Behind

My Journey toward Renouncing America’s
Largest Christian College

Student graffiti in support of Donald Trump that covered the entirety of Liberty campus ahead of the 2016 Presidential election.

In this deeply personal blog post, our research director Darren Slade recounts the journey of discernment that led to his parting ways with Liberty University, the institution from which he received his PhD. in Theology.

By Darren M. Slade

In a nutshell, this post is simply my explicit and public disavowal of the ideology and outspoken teachings of Liberty University, particularly the Jerry Falwell dynasty that still controls it. Why do I feel the need to make such an explicit and public disavowal of my alma mater?

It’s not because I am disgruntled, opportunistic, or backslidden. On the contrary, like anything else, my experience with Liberty University was a mixture of wonderful growth through great joy and turbulent hardship. I made some amazing friends and (probably) some enemies, too. Most importantly, I learned a lot about myself and the Christian tribe I once ascribed to (this in spite of Liberty’s teachings, not because of them). I eventually learned what I always knew: I am a man of strong conviction and have a passion for truth and justice. As such, I learned that I needed to separate myself from the political ideology and prejudicial theology behind Liberty University. Thus, this disavowal comes from a genuine disappointment in having chosen to attend Liberty in the first place, as well as a grave concern for what the university symbolizes today—religiously, academically, and politically.

[Read more…]

Victimizing the Flock: What Sex Assault Victims Mean for Christianity

by Darren Slade, Ph.D.

Darren Slade is director of research at FaithX, general editor of our sponsored acedemic journal, Socio-Historical Exploration of Religion and Ministry, and a regular contributor to the FaithXperimental blog. Darren holds a PhD in theology from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. Today’s post is a critical analysis of sexual assault in the Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic denominations.

If there was ever a sign that something drastic needs to change within the Christian religion, it is the countless thousands upon thousands of sex assault cases that have been brought to light in the last few decades. How many more victims have there been? How many more churches are harboring sexual predators? How many more will suffer in the future?

If there was ever a sign that Christianity needs another reformation (or perhaps an outright revolution), it is the countless sex assault victims who have demanded change but have been ignored by their religious leaders.

In June of 2008, at a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) meeting in Indianapolis, a committee representing a number of sex assault victims pleaded with SBC leaders to put in place measures that would prevent SBC churches from hiring and concealing sexual predators. These sex assault victims accused numerous SBC churches of deliberately hiding sex assault allegations and litigation from the public.

Unfortunately, every one of their pleas fell on deaf ears.

[Read more…]

July in San Diego – FaithX features at Esri International User Conference

We welcome your presence and your support

FaithX executive director Ken Howard has been invited to present on July 9 at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, California. His 20-minute presentation is entitled “Grounding Discernment in Data: Strategic Missional Planning Using MapDash for Faith Communities.”

The presentation will describe how faith leaders from congregations and judictories from a variety of denominations and faith traditions across the U.S. are using location intelligence tools to ground strategic missional planning in data, including:

  • Identifying emerging missional opportunities and developing strategies to engage them.
  • Diagnosing the vitality and sustainability of congregations.
  • Identifying opportunities for starting new congregations, redeveloping existing congregations, and developing strategies for dealing with imperiled congregations.
  • And more…

The presentation also will describe how FaithX and Datastory engaged potential users in collaborative development of the location intelligence platform that would provide the missional toolbox for their assessment and planning efforts.

If you are attending the Esri User Conference the week of July 8, we invite you to drop in on Ken’s presentation. If you aren’t attending the conference but are in San Diego and want to grab a time to talk to Ken in person, you may contact him at ken@faithx.net.

A separate note to FaithX supporters

FaithX is picking up the cost of travel and lodging expenses necessary for Ken to attend the conference. If you feel drawn to help defray these costs with a tax-deductible contribution to FaithX, please use to “Donate Now” button below.

Support FaithX

FaithX is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and Ken’s faith-based consulting practice at FaithX is done under an extension of ministry from the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.

Want to learn more about missional opportunities
in your congregation’s neighborhood?
Click here for a free
Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report

Want to learn how your judicatory can identify
emerging missional opportunities within its boundaries?
Click here to schedule a free demo of
MapDash for Faith Communities by Datastory
and Strategic Missional Planning by FaithX

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