The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

FaithX to host morning prayer on Zoom for Gaithersburg, MD Church this Sunday (3/15) in online worship eXperiment

By Ken Howard

The coronavirus can close houses of worship but it can’t stop the people from worshiping together online.

This Sunday (March 15) and next (March 22), FaithX will be hosting the people Church of the Ascension, in Gaithersburg, Maryland for two worship services on Zoom video:

  • 9:00am – Morning Prayer (in English)
  • 10:00am – La Oración de la Mañana (en Español)

Each service will be 40-45 min long.

The worship team will include:

  • Rev. Javier Ocampo, rector, will service as worship leader.
  • Rev. Eugene Wright, deacon, will preach a homily.
  • Rev. Ken Howard, FaithX executive Director, will host on Zoom and assist Padre Javier.
  • Jesse Velasquez will also assist.
  • We are still working on lining up lay readers and determining whether we can provide music.

Joining us for online morning prayer on Zoom will be fairly easy. All you need is a desktop, laptop, or tablet computer equipped with a built in camera and microphone, or a smartphone with the Zoom app installed.

Instructions for Computer Users:

  1. Make sure your computer’s video camera is working and microphone is turned on and muted.
  2. About 5 minutes before the service is scheduled to start, click on this URL: https://zoom.us/j/6234372948
  3. Zoom will then automatically load itself, give you the opportunity to test your video camera and mike, then place you in a waiting room (a virtual narthex) until just before the service begins.
  4. Padre Javier will then welcome you to virtual Church of the Ascension and begin the service (and may have further instructions).

Instructions for Smartphone Users:

  1. Make sure you downloaded and installed the Zoom app (available from the Apple App Store or GooglePlay).
  2. About 5 minutes before the service is scheduled, open the Zoom app and enter this meeting number: 6234372948.
  3. The Zoom app will then place you in a waiting room (a virtual narthex) until just before the service begins.
  4. Padre Javier will then welcome you to virtual Church of the Ascension and begin the service (and may have further instructions).

Because of the limitations of Zoom, participation in the interactive service will be limited to the first 100 attendees. However, we will post a recording of both services on the Ascension website.

Subscribe here to receive updates about this experiment

And remember, the “X” in “FaithX” stands for “eXperimentation.”

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

Introducing a New Publication from Our Research Director!

Religious Homophily and Biblicism:
A Theory of Conservative Church Fragmentation

by Darren M. Slade

In his book, The Bible Made Impossible, Christian Smith proposes the hypothesis that religious homophily, a well-known psychological phenomenon, and biblicism may be the cause of church splits.

Our Research, Darren Slade, has just published a new article in the International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society that explores whether this hypothesis is a viable explanation for why certain conservative churches fragment.

From the article’s abstract:
“According to the most recent demographic datasets, the number of new Christian congregations throughout the world is outpacing the total number of new Christians, suggesting that institutional Christianity has become more proficient at internal division than it has at outward multiplication. Using the psychological phenomenon known as “homophily,” the purpose of this article is to provide a brief elaboration on the socio-psychological reasoning for why conflicts over biblical interpretation may be one of the dominant causes, among other factors, for conservative church splits and for why ‘biblicism’ may cause fragmentation among evangelicals more than their liberal Protestant counterparts. The article will first define and characterize theological conservatism, homophily, and biblicism before discussing the possible correlation between conflicts over biblical interpretation and church fragmentation. The article proposes that theological disagreements over exclusivist scriptural interpretations is a viable explanation for the destabilization of conservative congregations. Church splits among evangelicals are explainable partly because of the conservative tendency toward religious homophily and the need to establish rival congregations built around competing biblical interpretations.”

Check out a preview of the article by clicking here.

[Read more…]

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…]

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.

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…]

The FaithX Project, Inc. is 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a religious and charitable purpose operated as a ministry by the Rev. Ken Howard under an extension of ministry from the Episcopal Bishop of Washington.