Strategic Missional Consulting
Occasionally, visitors to our website alert us to hidden gems on our own site.
Recently, a number of people were visiting our webstore and downloading free copies of our webinar, “I Can’t Breathe: Mapping Systemic Racism in Your Community.”
So we thought it would be a good idea to make more people aware of this resource by sending everyone on our mailing list a link where they could download it for free.
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by Mary Frances
I’ve been getting this question a lot lately from my coaching clients. What should we be focusing on this Fall? Will things be “back to normal or should we still be adapting our ministries due to Covid?” Well, no one can really say if we are in post-Covid times or not. If you ask my family, they’d probably say “not” since half of them are recovering from Covid right now. We may, in fact, be entering the Covid endemic.
Covid will most likely be with us all the time now, just like seasonal influenza. So, how do we think about ministry in light of this ongoing presence of Covid? Here are two key things to think about as you make plans for the coming months:
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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:
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.
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:
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