Beta Testing Archives | The FaithX Project

Jun 28 2018

A Great Big “Thank You!” to Our Beta Testers

The purpose of this blog post is to offer a Great Big “Thank You!” to the Dioceses, Diocesan Beta Coordinators, and Congregational Beta Users, whose assistance was invaluable in shaping MapDash for Faith Communities into the great missional tool it has become.

We gratefully acknowledge the five Episcopal Dioceses that agreed to be beta test sites for the Congregational Version of MapDash for Faith Communities, and the diocesan staffers who help coordinate the beta sites in their dioceses: Diocese of Maryland (Canon Scott Slater), Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast (Canon Kammy Young), Diocese of Georgia (“Loose” Canon Frank Logue), Diocese of Oklahoma (Susan Brown Snook), and Diocese of Pennsylvania (Canon Kirk Berlenbach and his team). Scroll down for a list of participating congregations by dioceses.

We offer special thanks to Diocese of Maryland, which with Bishop Eugene Sutton’s support took part not only in prototyping, alpha-testing, and beta-testing the Congregational Version, but also worked closely with us in developing the Executive (Diocesan Level) diagnostic map layers for Congregational Vitality, Congregational Sustainability, and Missional Opportunity. Canon Slater’s assistance in gaining us wide access to the congregations and leaders of Patapsco Valley Region was invaluable

Special thanks also go to Canon Young of Central Gulf Coast, who put many hours into reviewing and providing constructive feedback the Beta User Guide, worked with Bishop Russell Kendrick to bring me in to pilot test our training at their annual Discipleship Day, and worked with Canon Frank Logue of Georgia to develop a regional grant to train diocesan staff in Central Gulf Coast and Georgia to use MapDash for evangelism planning. And a special shout-out to Canon Kirk Berlenbach and his team for going the extra mile (literally) to help us identify and stamp out bugs.

Finally, our giving of thanks would not be complete without recognizing the role played by the Episcopal Church, specifically that of the Rev. Tom Brackett, member Presiding Bishop’s Staff and Manager for Church Planting and Mission Development, who support and encouragement helped us stay faithful, focused, and forward moving through the year and a half developmental journey. Tom, you are a saint!

Blessings and thanks to everyone!
Ken+
The Rev. Ken Howard
Executive director of FaithX
Co-creator of MapDash for Faith Communities

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Dec 07 2017

Congregational Vitality Assessment: A Free Tool for Determining the Health and Sustainability of Faith Communities

“He who has himself as a doctor has a fool as a patient.”

Or so the old saying goes. And like most proverbs, it contains a lot of wisdom. It never turns out well when people self-diagnose and self-treat, because they have neither the necessary knowledge nor essential objectivity, and at the same time have such prodigious expertise at hiding from themselves things they are afraid to face.

The same is true for congregations. It is hard for most congregations to dispassionately evaluate their own congregational health. The passion that fuels their engagement with their mission also robs them of emotional distance and objectivity. Their passionate desire for the future of their own beloved community may blind them to symptoms of unsustainability.

But perhaps most fundamentally, they have lacked a research-based, empirical foundation upon which to evaluate their health. Until now…

After more than a decade of weighing the research on congregational vitality, in late November FaithX Research is releasing in beta form our newly-developed self-assessment tool: the Congregational Vitality Assessment (or CVA).

The CVA provides a congregation with two scores:

Vitality: How healthy the congregation is.
Sustainability: Whether the congregation has the people and the financial and contextual resources necessary support itself.

The Vitality score examines 10 aspects of congregational life:

Vision, Mission, & Discernment
Lay Engagement & Empowerment
Context Awareness & Inclusion
Change Readiness
Dealing with Differences
Spiritual Life & Worship
Formation, Education, & Training
Outreach
Leadership & Organization
Stewardship

The Sustainability score examines 2 aspects of sustainability:

Congregational Sustainability: The ability of the congregation to support itself.
Community Sustainability: The ability of the community to support a congregation.

The Congregational Vitality Assessment is based on five primary research sources and more than 40 secondary sources.

The CVA takes about 30 minutes to finish. It can be completed by a single congregational leader, a congregational leadership group, or the entire congregation. It can be done as a standalone exercise or as part of an intentional congregational vitality consultation.

It is available for free download in PDF and XLS versions.

All we ask is that you provide us your feedback.

Send your feedback on your use of the Congregational Vitality Assessment to Ken Howard at ken@faithx.net.

If you’d like to explore with Ken’s availability for coaching, consultation, or presentations, contact him at ken@faithx.net or 301-704-3290.

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Nov 30 2017

Datastory for Faith Communities Update: Continued Development and Beta Testing

Development and Beta Testing of Datastory for Faith Communities continues apace, with public release still anticipated for early 2018.

Our beta test sites are gearing up. Two of the new sites – the Episcopal Dioceses of Georgia and Oklahoma – have already provided us with the names and locations of their congregations. We will soon have that data uploaded into the app, which will allow us to generate MissionWebs (the first step in Missional Context Analysis) for every church in both of those dioceses. (click here for more information on MissionWebs).

We have also made some significant enhancements to the app in just the last few weeks:

Improved User Interface. Users now select data overlays from five menu categories: Base Map Display, Locations & MissionWebs, Population Characteristics, Community Issues, and Community Resources.

New Data Overlays Added. 14 new overlays (now 26 total), including: Educational Predominance, Crime Rate, Poverty Rate, Educational Resources, Healthcare Resources, 10-Minute Drive Time, and more (click here for current overlays list).

And there are even more data overlays under consideration:

Dozens of additional data overlays are under consideration, including: projected diversity/minority/Spanish-speaker growth, school-age children by grade range, adults by age range, charitable/religious spending, and more (click here for future overlays list).

If you would like to find out more about Datastory for Faith Communities and how it might help you create a better missional understanding of your neighborhoods, contact Ken Howard at ken@faithx.net.