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Mar 28 2019

Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report – A New MapDash Feature

By Mary Frances, Senior Associate Consultant

The Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report is a snapshot of data from a 15 minute DriveTime (or other DriveTime of your choice) around a given address.  It’s just one of the many features available to you via MapDash for Faith Communities.  Put in the address of a local congregation or town and quickly find out generational predominance, median age and income, unemployment rate, access to transportation, and much more.  At a glance, you can start to identify where you might need more information and what to do with the information you have. If you can get all this at a glance, wouldn’t you want to dig deeper?

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Uncategorized · Tagged: drivetime analysis, MapDash for Faith Communities, Mary Frances, Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report

Jan 31 2019

FaithX on the Road

Over the next several months, FaithX will be traveling to onsite strategic missional planning consultations and exhibiting (and speaking) at several large gatherings across the country, many of them with our collaborators Datastory.

Here is a taste of our schedule, both so far and into the months ahead:

January

Roman Catholic Diocese of Lansing Michigan. Ken is working with key leaders in the diocese to assist them in employing the missional intelligence capabilities of MapDash for Faith Communities as part of a several-month project that will culminate in a “State of the Diocese” report. The report will provide an assessment of the vitality of the diocese and its congregations, identify demographic trends and emerging missional opportunities, and describe strategies to address what they find.

February

2/20-2/23 – CEEP annual conference, Boston, Massachusetts. FaithX and Datastory will be exhibiting at the annual conference of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes (CEEP). Ken Howard and Steve Matthews of FaithX and Matt Felton of Datastory will be there demonstrating the power and the possibilities of MapDash for Faith Communities and strategic missional consulting.

March

3/29-3/31 – The New Story Festival, Austin, Texas. Ken and Matt will be delivering a presentation entitled “Datastories – How Missional Intelligence Can Help Us to Love Our Communities,” and will be exhibiting Datastory’s MapDash and FaithX’s strategic missional consulting. FaithX and Datastory are Festival Sponsors.

TBA – Episcopal Dioceses of Georgia and Central Gulf Coast at Valdosta, Georgia. This will be the third of four sessions of the dioceses’ Datastory Evangelism Project, in which both dioceses are using MapDash to identify emerging missional opportunities and challenges, and develop data-grounded strategies to engage with them.

Later in 2019

8/5-8/10 – ELCA Churchwide Assembly, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Planning is underway for FaithX and Datastory to exhibit at the biennial Church Wide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Matt Felton will again be representing Datastory, while Ken Howard and Mary Frances will be representing FaithX.


Join our mailing list and keep abreast of where we are going next.


For more information about MapDash for Faith Communities and strategic missional consulting, or to invite Ken Howard to speak at a conference, contact Ken Howard at ken@faithx.net.

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: Uncategorized · Tagged: datastory, ELCA, ELCA Churchwide Assembly, Episcopal Diocese of Central Gulf Coast, Episcopal Diocese of Georgia, faithx, ken Howard, Mary Frances, Matt Felton, Roman Catholic diocese of Lansing Michigan, Steve Matthews, strategic missional consulting, strategic missional planning, Texas

Jan 10 2019

Announcing a New Publication by Our Research Director

Have you ever wondered if there are certain psychological variables that could potentially influence or distort someone’s observation of a “miracle”?

With all the claims of people having witnessed a bona fide miracle today, from both Christians and non-Christians alike, it seems incumbent for critical thinkers and spiritual discerners to evaluate each miracle eyewitness and the potential for psychological misrepresentation.

The 3rdedition of the Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religionhas just announced the publication of an article by FaithX Co-Founder and Research Director, Darren M. Slade, entitled “Miracle Eyewitness Reports.” 

[Read more…]

Written by Darren M. Slade, PhD · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Darren Slade, Research, Uncategorized · Tagged: Darren Slade, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion, miracle eyewitness reports, miracle eyewitnesses, Miracles, psychology

Dec 20 2018

Search-in-Place: A More Effective Strategy for Clergy Leadership Transition

Search-in-Place:
A More Effective Strategy for Clergy Leadership Transition

by Ken Howard

If I told you that there was a shorter, less painful, and more effective way to handle clergy leadership transitions, would you want to hear about it?

I thought so…

Traditional Transition

It would not be an understatement to say that clergy leadership transitions are not one of those experiences that most congregations look forward to. In fact, a senior warden I know once described her parish’s rector search as an AFGO (another “frigging” growth oppotunity). Another compared it to hitting his thumb with a hammer, “because it feels to good when you’re done.”

Not a surprising reaction, I suppose. Even when transitions result in a positive outcome—a leader that everyone loves—the intervening process is not entirely pleasant. First the current leader leaves, which can be rather jarring, since it often happens without much warning—a month or two at best (because nobody wants to be a lame duck leader). It can sometimes feel to the parish like a family feels when a parent has died or abandoned them. Then a interim minister is called, and that comes with its own set of issues. It’s long (the old rule of thumb is month of interim for every year the departing pastor has been with the congregation). It’s meant to shake up entrenched ways of doing things, which is jarring even when necessary and done right, but if not done well, seems like change for change’s sake: pain for no gain. Meanwhile, there’s always a lull in attendance, since congregational life feels like it’s “on hold,” but if the interim is offending too many people, it can turn into an exodus. Finally, the new leader arrives and “everyone” is happy… except for the people who aren’t. Some depart in the first month. Others, like the search committee (yes, the search committee, according to research), will leave over the next two years.

The ironic thing is, most of the transition actions described above are intentionally disruptive. Because the traditional transition model assumes that most congregations, if left to their own devices, would be so averse to change and so desperate for certainty, that they would stay stuck in their entrenched ways, cut short the search process, and make the mistake of calling a new pastor that is exactly like the departed pastor (if beloved) or exactly the opposite (if despised).

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard, Uncategorized · Tagged: clergy leadership transition, Consulting, search committee, search-in-place, transition

Dec 13 2018

Just in Time for Christmas (A FaithX Free Book Deal)

In the spirit of Christmas, we are offering another FaithX book giveaway.

From December 17–21, Kindle versions of Paradoxy: Creating Christian Community Beyond Us and Them and Excommunicating the Faithful: Jewish Christianity in the Early Church will be available free by clicking on the images or links below:

Paradoxy

Excommunicating the Faithful

If you’d rather have a paperback version of Paradoxy, (shipping cost extra), click here.

We hope you enjoy them both and wish you a merry and blessed Christmas!

Written by Mary Beth Howard · Categorized: Books and Resources, FaithX Blog, Posts by Ken Howard, Uncategorized · Tagged: Christmas, Excommunicating the Faithful, faithx, Free Book, Kindle, paradoxy

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