The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

FaithX Receives Grant Award from Trinity Wall Street for Small Church Vitality Improvement Program

By The Rev Ken Howard, Executive Director

We are excited to announce that The FaithX Project has been approved for a grant from Trinity Wall Street Philanthropies* to create a Vitality Improvement Program for Small Congregations.

Today’s congregations exist at a pivotal point in the history of the church, an existential crisis of accelerating change and deepening uncertainty driven by forces both inside and outside the church. We believe that congregational vitality is the defining issue for the church in this generation, if not this century, and that congregations – especially small congregations – and their judicatories are rapidly becoming unsustainable in their current forms. Only those with a clear vision, who ground their discernment in data about themselves and the communities they serve, and who are willing to take the risk of experimenting with new ways of being and doing church will survive and thrive in these challenging times. 

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FaithX Receives Esri High Impact Award

News Release
Germantown, MD

The FaithX Project received the Esri Partner Award for High Impact on current issues around the world, at the 2022 Esri Partner Conference (EPC) held in Palm Springs, California March 5–7, 2022. This award was presented to FaithX for compelling use of Esri technology to make an impact on current issues around the world.

The FaithX Project is a faith-based nonprofit consulting, research, and resource development practice. Its mission is to help congregations survive and thrive in challenging times through data-grounded missional discernment and planning, and more effectively engaging the neighborhoods and populations they serve. This award was in response to work FaithX has done in using interactive GIS technology to displace systemic racism in Long Island in collaboration with the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island and our affiliate, Datastory.

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Joint News Release/Comunicado de Prensa Conjunto FaithX–ECF

Germantown, MD | Nueva York, NY – The FaithX Project en colaboración con la Fundación de la Iglesia Episcopal (ECF) anuncia con alegría que la (Evaluación de la Vitalidad Congregacional) (CVA) y el sitio web CVATool.org ya están disponibles en español.

Los miembros de su congregación tendrán la oportunidad de alternar entre las versiones en inglés y español según sus preferencias lingüísticas, y todas las respuestas de la encuesta entrarán en los resultados finales recibidos por los líderes de su congregación. 

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Breaking News: FaithX selected for Esri Map Book 2022

FaithX is excited to announce that a map we created was selected by Esri for inclusion in Map Book – Volume 37, scheduled for publication in the spring of this year.

Every year, works of GIS mapmakers from around the world are selected for the Esri Map Book to demonstrate how the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology is creating positive outcomes in organizations and across society.

The FaithX map chosen by Esri was part of our presentation Redlining and Race: Mapping Systemic Racism, which we delivered at their Esri’s 2021 User Conference, and was also featured in a plenary session presentation by the president of Esri, Jack Dangermond [view the map | view Dangermond video ]

The map in question was originally from one of our Mapping Systemic Racism webinars, in which we explored the manifestations and impacts of systemic racism in a congregation in Brooklyn, New York. [click here to view the webinar]. As a result of this webinar, FaithX and our affiliate Datastory were invited to develop a more expansive systemic racism mapping program for the entirety of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island using the powerful demographic–analytic platform MapDash for Faith Communities. 

FaithX can help your congregation or judicatory explore the impact of structural racism in the neighborhoods and communities they serve with a Data-Grounded Systemic Racism Assessment. For more information, contact info@faithx.net.

When the paradigm shifts, everyone goes to Zero

church-sign-no-experts

by the Rev. Ken Howard

In my discussions with congregational and diocesan leaders around the Church of late, I have noticed a shift in the conversation.

Faith leaders were already beginning to face the facts about their congregations before Covid: acknowledging that, at best, they are on a plateau and that, at worst, they are on a slow but slippery downward slope, not just in membership numbers, but also congregational vitality and engagement. This trend has been made even clearer and its pace accelerated by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Another shift is that fewer leaders are clinging to the old canard that there are “other ways to grow than in actual number,” recognizing that readiness to grow is a powerful indicator that talk of willingness to change is more than lip service.

These are healthy signs. Getting over our resistance to facing the reality of our condition is half the battle for the future of the Church.  As Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (though it may really piss you off first).

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