The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Church Attendance in Decline: Announcing NMIR 1.3

by Mary Frances, Senior Consultant

Recently, Gallup announced that church membership had declined below 50% for the first time in recorded history.  In 2000, 70% of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque.  And in the brief period of two decades, in 2020 that number has dropped to 47%.  This news was not lost on a client of mine who brought it up in a recent coaching session.  He shared the sentiments of many of his older churchgoers: we need to grow the church!  But what does evangelism mean in the nearly post-pandemic world of 2020?

The conversation that stemmed from that was one that I am deeply passionate about.  It’s time to stop thinking about growing the church.  Yes, I said it.  Stop worrying about growing the church.  Start thinking about the neighborhood in which the church resides.  Start thinking about the community, the people, the strengths, the weaknesses and risk factors, and the resources available to your community.  We need to think about our communities because the revitalization of the church starts with the revitalization of the community.  Usually, we think about it in reverse.  We think about revitalizing the church and then promise we will turn our attention outward once we are in better shape.  But how can a church be strong if the community itself is in decline, is struggling, and is challenging in any number of ways?  I believe that the church will be revitalized as it turns its attention outward, to be in relationship and to be a resource to the community where it lives.

[Read more…]

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…]

Introducing Mary Frances and Steve Matthews – Our Senior Associate Consultants

We are happy to announce that Mary Frances and Steve Matthews have joined with FaithX as senior associate consultants. Mary and Steve will be working alongside executive director and principal consultant Ken Howard in introducing MapDash for Faith Communities and Strategic Missional Consulting to dioceses and other judicatories around the United States. Mary and Steve are also co-developers of our Mentored Missional Journey program and will be occasional writers for our Faith eXperimental blog.

[Read more…]