The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

“I can’t breathe” – Mapping Structural Racism

By the Rev. Ken Howard
Structural Racism

Click here to register
Mapping Systemic Racism webinar
Nov 18, 2020 | 12:30-1:30pm ET

When we started The FaithX Project a little over three years ago, we chose as our mission “helping faith communities survive and thrive in turbulent times.” Little did we know how prophetic those words would be or how turbulent the times we would be working in. In the last three months we have experienced: 

  • A once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that has closed down society, even houses of worship,
  • An economic collapse to rival the Great Depression, and…
  • Societal upheaval not seen since the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King, which erupted in response to the murder of a unarmed black man by a policeman and to the systemic structural racism it represented.

Systemic Structural Racism is the idea that our social system is structured in such a way that disadvantages a particular race – in this case, African-Americans. Some people would make the case that it does not exist, that it is a made-up concept. I don’t buy that. In the work we do at FaithX helping congregations to understand and better serve their neighborhoods, we frequently notice that multiple social vulnerabilities tend to coexist in a vast number African-American neighborhoods: unemployment, poverty, low access to medical care, inadequate housing, and a number of other issues. So many that it couldn’t be a coincidence. And when we dig into the history, we often find that it follows the boundaries of earlier racial red-lining and racially-restrictive covenants. 

Let me give you some examples and let you make up your own mind. I prepared side-by-side maps* showing the relationship of predominantly African-American neighborhoods to ten different vulnerability factors. You can find all 10  maps by clicking here, but I’m going to show you just three: pandemic vulnerability, unemployment, and poverty. 

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Advent During Covid: Thinking Ahead

By Mary Frances, FaithX Senior Consultant

Ever since the first Christmas in my first call, I have had the urge to downsize Christmas.  The hustle, the bustle, the ever earlier decorating and store sales always feel like too much distraction from the reason for the season.  And yet, the Church has, for centuries, had a built-in time of prayer and contemplation to counter the commercialization of Christmas.  Advent, started in the middle ages and associated with the second coming of Christ, was more like Lent for Christmas.  Fasting, prayer, and silence were hallmarks of this pre-Christmas season.  The emphasis of Advent has shifted to a time of preparation for Christmas, a time of holy waiting for the Christ child.  We wait to celebrate the birth of Christ; we also wait for all that is yet to come.  When we jump past Advent to rush into Christmas, we skip over the invitation to look deep into the darkness of our world, of our lives, before we embrace the light. 

It’s okay to admit it, there is a lot of darkness right now.  Nothing is alright and nothing is easy.  Sending our kids to school is fraught with danger, going to work can put you on the front lines as an essential worker, and to think of going over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house for the holidays is just about out of the question.  Fights over mask wearing, racial tensions, protests, violence and counter violence.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died.  We are not alright.  So maybe what we really need right now as we look to the holidays is less Christmas and more Advent. We need to take time out to acknowledge the darkness that surrounds us, we need to look deep into the darkness and own our part in it.  We need to grieve – the loss of loved ones, the changes in our world, the chaos and the confusion.  Not for the first time in our history but definitely for this time in our history, we need space, we need silence, we need time to mourn before we take time to celebrate.  What if we didn’t push it all aside for the sake of Christmas but instead we embraced it and reflected on it because of Christmas, because of the reason for the season, because God so loved the world…that he sent his son….for us.

What does it look like to truly practice Advent?  Certainly, Advent will look different for each community but here are a few ideas to get you started:

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Upcoming Webinars from FaithX

And an invitation to submit suggestions

It’s more than a little ironic that we are announcing our late 2020/early 2021 webinars right at the eighth month of the Coronavirus pandemic, the first month of the regular flu season, and three weeks away from a national election that is shows every sign of being a referendum on the government’s response to the Covid crisis. Sprinkle that with a pandemic-induced recession and social upheaval over systemic racism, and we’ve got ourselves a “perfect storm.”

Still, your response to our 3rd Wednesday webinars has been strong, and you’ve been asking for more, and even sending us suggestions for webinar topics you’d like us to offer, so here we are. And here is our webinar schedule through March 2020:

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Engaging in Life and Ministry “Beyond Covid”

by Steve Matthews

What now? How long? What’s next?  As a country we are in our 8th month of this pandemic. We continue to protest/ explore/ address/ ignore our racial inequities.  The west coast burns, and we round the alphabet on hurricane names in the gulf and Atlantic. Next month we will have a critical election for federal, state, and local leadership… and then there is the Supreme Court. There’s probably more, but suffice it to say, we have our hands more than full.

What does it mean to “be” church in the middle of all of this?  It’s no wonder people yearn to get back into their church buildings and to return to “normal.”  For many of us, these buildings represent a sense of belonging, beauty, safety, hope.  These are places where we have experienced community and God’s love fleshed out.  This is where many of us feel inspired and strengthened for the journey. 

But here we are, and how are we as people of faith called to show up in this “now?” How do we look at our world in ways that help us move beyond reaction?  

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Researching the Covid New Normal: Beyond Livestream Worship

A Follow-Up on Christianity’s Response to Pandemics

By Dr. Darren Slade,
FaithX Research Director

This discussion on Christianity’s response to pandemics is the first post in our new ongoing blog series, Adapting to the Covid New Normal, where our research director, Dr. Darren Slade, will provide a deeper research base for the posts we are publishing on congregations and Covid-19.

Dr. Slade will describe the research and Ken Howard will provide a pastoral perspective.

In a previous post, FaithX founder Rev. Ken Howard discussed the providential timing of COVID-19, explaining that this is not the first time that the Christian church had to face a global pandemic. Following up on his original writing, this post will explore in more detail the history of Christianity’s response to pandemics and how the church actually benefited the most once it took the appropriate steps necessary to curb the spread of disease, something the church desperately needs to learn to do today.

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