The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

FaithX and ECF help Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma implement groundbreaking Congregational Vitality Tracking Platform

“I am delighted to begin using the CVA [and the CVA Judicatory Platform] in Oklahoma. While much of the Christian life (individually and in community) cannot be measured, there are many indicators of vitality that can be. More vitality in congregations means more lives that can be transformed by God’s grace.”     

– The Rt. Rev. Poulson Reed, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma

The Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma has been the site of many firsts for the FaithX Project and our partners. 

In late 2017, the Diocese was one of a group of five judicatories that agreed to assist FaithX in beta-testing MapDash for Faith Communities as part of our collaboration with our affiliate Datastory to develop a first-of-its-kind online, interactive, map-based demographic and analytic platform.

In late 2020, they became the first of several judicatories to ask FaithX and our partner the Episcopal Church Foundation if we would consider developing a congregational vitality tracking platform that would allow judicatories to administer our Congregational Vitality Assessment diagnostic survey directly to their congregations, add judicatory-specific informational questions, receive anonymized survey results, track vitality and sustainability year-to-year, target their parochial interventions, and supplement their parochial reporting data with forward-looking diagnostics and recommendations. We love a good challenge, so we took them up on it.

Over the first half of 2021, Diocesan Director of Faith Formation and Discipleship Kate Carney Bond, along with other Diocesan staff worked closely with FaithX and our CVA partner, the Episcopal Church Foundation develop the platform: first by providing input for our prototype, then by providing feedback over several design iterations, and finally by beta testing in the month prior to our August 4 launch. In doing so, they also became the first judicatory to subscribe to the platform and take advantage of our $1,000 early-adopter custom setup discount.

And now the Diocese of Oklahoma has become the first of what we hope will be many to fully implement the Congregational Vitality Assessment Judicatory Platform. And the above quote from the Bishop of Oklahoma gives you a sense of how valuable they are finding this groundbreaking tool.

We will keep our readers apprised as additional judicatories come on board.

Meanwhile, visit CVAtool.org or email cva@CVAtool.org for more info about the CVA 2.0 diagnostic tool or CVA Judicatory Platform.

Or click here to register for our free webinar

The CVA Judicatory Dashboard: Tracking the Vitality and Sustainability of Your Congregations

Click here to watch a video about how the Judicatory Dashboard works

How can we directly monitor the vitality and sustainability of our congregations?

How can we determine the kinds of assistance our congregations need?

How can we evaluate the effectiveness of the assistance we provide our congregations?

How can we supplement our backward-looking parochial reporting data with forward-looking diagnosting data that actually helps our congregations make positive changes to improve their missional effectiveness?

These are some of the questions and concerns judicatory leaders were bringing to us that led to the development of a Judicatory Dashboard to complement our Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA) tool.

[Read more…]

Groundbreaking Free Congregational Vitality Assessment Tool Launches Version 2.0

Germantown, MD | New York, NY – The FaithX Project in partnership with the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF) is pleased to announce the launch of version 2.0 of the Congregational Vitality Assessment Tool (CVA), available at no cost for immediate use.

After 10 years of research and implementation of a paper-based CVA tool, the digital version was built in early 2020. The Congregational Vitality Assessment tool is designed to provide a congregation with an assessment of its Vitality (how healthy it is) and its Sustainability (whether it has the people, financial, and contextual resources necessary to survive). The vitality section carries the bulk of the assessment, measuring ten areas of congregational functioning, such as Vision and Mission, Leadership, Lay Empowerment, Worship, Formation, Stewardship, and more. 

[Read more…]

Mission and Vision and Plans, Oh My!

How CVA 2.0 can put your congregation on the road to vitality

by the Rev. Hunter Ruffin, Rector – Epiphany Church, Tempe, AZ

Version 2.0 of the free Congregational Vitality Assessment will be officially released on August 5, 2021, along with our new, subscription-based CVA Judicatory Dashboard.

Click here for more information or to try a sample of the CVA

It’s a familiar narrative in just about every congregation these days: attendance numbers are shrinking, the children are fewer in number, and the people in the parish want to do something (anything!) to reverse the trend. The question that almost always looms large at the start of any such process is simple and, in its own way, profound: Where do we begin? 

 I entered a narrative similar to this when I accepted the call to serve as the next rector at Church of the Epiphany in Tempe, Arizona. In fifteen years’ time, the parish dwindled from an average Sunday attendance of 353 to an average Sunday attendance of 182 prior to the pandemic. It was clear that things were not going in the direction that any parish wants to see. It was abundantly clear that we needed to do something, but it was less clear what that something was.

After a lengthy discussion, lots of research, and even more prayer, the vestry discerned that they could do the visioning work without spending a lot of money on a consultant. Surely, we could find the resources we needed to launch a strategic visioning process that would fold in a good chunk of the parish. The thing that was less clear to us was whether we could do that whilst in the middle of a pandemic. After all, Zoom fatigue (can we shorthand this as Zoomtigue?) was already an affliction most of us suffered through on a daily basis.

[Read more…]

Coming Soon: CVA – Judicatory Version

Coming Late June/Early July
click here to request more information
about our early adopter discount

Hard to believe it’s only been nine months since we launched Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA 1.0) in collaboration with the Episcopal Church Foundation.

We’ve come a very long way in a very short time!
And soon we will release CVA 2.0
and launch the new CVA Judicatory Version

CVA 2.0 (the congregational version) will feature a totally redesigned user interface, based on user input, for a much enhanced user experience, including a new Spanish-language version.

What’s in the CVA Judicatory Version?
We created the CVA-JV in response to requests and design input from several judicatories (dioceses, synods, districts) across the U.S. that wanted to incorporate into the systemwide congregational development processes. It will provide them with a judicatory-specific dashboard that will allow them to:

  • Directly coordinate the administration of the CVA to their congregations.
  • Receive anonymized diagnostic summary assessments of their congregations’ vitality and sustainability.
  • Monitor congregational vitality and sustainability on a year-to-year basis.
  • Add locally-relevant questions about congregations’ ministries, programs, and other important information.
  • Supplement the backward-looking parochial reporting data with real-time, forward-looking diagnostic data and recommendations that their congregations can use to improve their own vitality and sustainability. 

How can we access the CVA Judicatory Version?
The CVA-Judicatory Version will be made available on a subscription basis. Included in the subscription will be free annual updates reflecting new congregational vitality research and incorporating user feedback and suggestions. 

How much will it cost to subscribe?
Once released, the annual cost of a subscription to the CVA-JV will be $2,495, with a first year set-up fee of $2,500 (to cover customized programming).

Is there a discount for early adopters?
We are offering a $1,000 setup early adopter discount to judicatories that sign up for subscriptions before our late-June/early-July launch date.

Have any judicatories signed up yet?
We are happy to announce that the Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma is our first early adopter. Currently, we are in discussions with several other Episcopal dioceses and ELCA synods. Watch our FaithX blog for updates.

click here to request more information
about our early adopter discount