The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

A Call for Guest Bloggers

Are you a clergy or lay leader in a congregation or judicatory (diocese, synod, etc.)?

Do you have…

An interesting story to tell about issues affecting your congregation’s vitality in the last year and the creative adaptations you have made or are making in response?

A compelling story to share about how you used data-grounded discernment to better understand your congregation and the community you serve?

A surprising story to reveal about finding hidden graces in the coronavirus pandemic that changed your congregation or your ministry for good?

[Read more…]

Tools for Data-Grounded Discernment During Leadership Transition

By Katie Romano Griffin,
Faith Board Member and Associate Minister at Cedar Lane Church

Over time, all religious communities evolve to be more homogeneous. Mine is no exception. Leadership transitions, while often a time of grief and uncomfortable change for a congregation, are one of the best times for a congregation to realign its mission and purpose with the needs of the larger community and transform from what my colleague Abh Janamanchi calls a Sacred Society (closed to larger community needs) to a Holy Community (a place of love and holy experience connected to the greater community). 

In the midst of the pandemic (which is its own kind of transition process), our congregation engaged FaithX to help us with exploring our own strengths and weaknesses, along with the missional opportunities and challenges in the community we serve. For the latter, they introduced us to a tool called a Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report (or NMIR for short). As someone who has worked with congregations in transition on church growth, I can see how this tool could be useful on both sides of the transition process. 

[Read more…]

Something Old? Something New? What Kind of Congregation Benefits Most from Neighborhood Missional Assessment

This post on congregational benefits is
by Ken Howard

Earlier this year at a conference, I gave a presentation on the Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Assessment. When the time came for Q&A, one of the participants posed this question:

“I can see how neighborhood missional assessment would be good for new start congregations and congregations looking to relocate, but what are the congregational benefits for existing churches that have been around long enough to form a deeper understanding of their neighborhood?”

I get this question (or variations thereof) more often than one might think. 

My smarty-pants Anglican answer goes something like this:

“If you’re asking me if neighborhood missional assessment is most useful for new congregations or existing congregations, the answer is ‘Yes!’ But it’s also essential for existing congregations.”

[Read more…]

Directional Indicators and Discernment Starters: Congregational Vitality and Sustainability Trend Indexes

This post on Congregational Vitality and Sustainability is written
By Ken Howard

(This is the fourth of eight articles on MapDash for Faith Communities Analytics)

Two of the most asked questions about analytics provided by MapDash for Faith Communities are about the Congregational Vitality Index (CVI) and the Congregational Sustainability Index (CSI). Both are powerful analytic tools if used wisely. The purpose of this article is to help MapDash users properly understand these tools, so they can interpret them appropriately and apply them effectively.

What They Are and What They Aren’t

CVI and CSI are not assessments. Assessments are direct, graded, criterion-referenced measurements that provide objective answers at a point in time. They make judgements based on facts that either inform or imply what the decision maker should do about it. Example (sailing): Is your boat currently leaking? If yes, fix the leak. If no, good to go.

CVI and CSI are indexes. Indexes are a collection of indicators that sample and describe the relative overall direction of factors that are correlated with a particular concern and may be predictive of it, but they do not measure the concern directly. They describe a trend (e.g., the sustainability or a congregation) and let the user discern what the trend means and what to do about it by filtering insights through the organizations vision, mission, commitments, resources, etc. Example (sailing): If you continue to sail in the direction you have been, are you heading shoreward or toward the open sea? If you mean to sail across the ocean blue, go on with your bad self. If not, better tack toward the shore.

[Read more…]

July in San Diego – FaithX features at Esri International User Conference

We welcome your presence and your support

FaithX executive director Ken Howard has been invited to present on July 9 at the Esri International User Conference in San Diego, California. His 20-minute presentation is entitled “Grounding Discernment in Data: Strategic Missional Planning Using MapDash for Faith Communities.”

The presentation will describe how faith leaders from congregations and judictories from a variety of denominations and faith traditions across the U.S. are using location intelligence tools to ground strategic missional planning in data, including:

  • Identifying emerging missional opportunities and developing strategies to engage them.
  • Diagnosing the vitality and sustainability of congregations.
  • Identifying opportunities for starting new congregations, redeveloping existing congregations, and developing strategies for dealing with imperiled congregations.
  • And more…

The presentation also will describe how FaithX and Datastory engaged potential users in collaborative development of the location intelligence platform that would provide the missional toolbox for their assessment and planning efforts.

If you are attending the Esri User Conference the week of July 8, we invite you to drop in on Ken’s presentation. If you aren’t attending the conference but are in San Diego and want to grab a time to talk to Ken in person, you may contact him at ken@faithx.net.

A separate note to FaithX supporters

FaithX is picking up the cost of travel and lodging expenses necessary for Ken to attend the conference. If you feel drawn to help defray these costs with a tax-deductible contribution to FaithX, please use to “Donate Now” button below.

Support FaithX

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

Want to learn more about missional opportunities
in your congregation’s neighborhood?
Click here for a free
Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report

Want to learn how your judicatory can identify
emerging missional opportunities within its boundaries?
Click here to schedule a free demo of
MapDash for Faith Communities by Datastory
and Strategic Missional Planning by FaithX