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

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

Looking Back on 2019

by Ken Howard

2019 was a good year for FaithX. It had its ups and downs – a rollercoaster ride, for sure, at times – but all-in-all, both despite and because of it all, we came through 2019 much stronger, with a clearer vision of who we are and where we are going, and with many successes to energize us. 

We’ve come a long way since we launched in December of 2016. Back then it was just me as FaithX’s executive director/principal (and only) consultant, a 4-person volunteer board of directors, and one client, the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland and its two newest congregations. 

Over the next two years, we would establish our affiliation with Datastory, collaborate with them to prototype, develop, beta test, and launch the next-generation demographic analysis and missional planning platform, which would become known as MapDash for Faith Communities, added about a dozen clients, two associate consultants, a blog coordinator, a volunteer research director, and publish a ground-breaking research paper entitled “The Religion Singularity.” 

In 2019 we broadened our reach even further. We expanded our work not only into more Episcopal dioceses, congregations, and organizations, but more importantly, branching out into more than five additional “denominations” (i.e., including the non-denominational movement), and have begun discussions with interfaith and non-Christian faith traditions. We launched a new peer-reviewed journal about religion and ministry. We worked with Datastory to develop and launch the new Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report, and we designed the consultative Neighborhood Missional Assessment program to help congregations identify emerging missional opportunities and challenges in the neighborhoods they serve. 

And so I’d like to offer my appreciation to all of those who have joined FaithX on our experimental missional journey through the end of religion as we know it into the future of faith in whatever form God is calling it into being…

[Read more…]