The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Using MapDash to Identify and Prioritize Vulnerable Neighborhoods and Populations

by The Rev. Ken Howard
Vulnerable Neighborhoods

This post is part of a blog series on
“Keeping Congregations Connected in the Face of COVID-19”
Click here for the previous post

Okay. You’re a pastor of a congregation in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, economic meltdown, and now a societal upheaval in the aftermath of the murder of yet another unarmed black man by police, all the while trying keep your congregation connected virtually, and planning for the reopening of your building and the recovery of your neighborhood.

Not much on your plate, right? WRONG!!! 

Seriously, it’s nearly impossible for you to give equal time and attention to every person in your congregation, let alone attend to the needs of the vulnerable neighborhoods you service.

So how do you prioritize your time and attention? One way is to identify and prioritize the most vulnerable people in your congregation and the most vulnerable neighborhoods around your congregation. And you can do that relatively quickly through data-grounded discernment using MapDash for COVID-19 or MapDash for Faith Communities.

Here’s how we did it with the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

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“How do you need help?” Locating and Reaching Populations most Vulnerable to COVID-19

By Steve Matthews
Vulnerable Populations

This post is part of a blog series on 
“Keeping Congregations Connected in the Face of COVID-19”
Click here for the previous post

More and more people are talking about “Caution Fatigue” or “COVID Fatigue.”  If it has a name it must be real, right?  If you are like me, you don’t need a name to know that it takes a lot of energy and conscientiousness to be safe and cautious these days.  As we see people abandoning recommended safe practices for the sake of relationships, connection, and “normalcy,” we are reminded that many in our communities are tired and weary and often frustrated. But we have to be vigilant and continue thinking of our most vulnerable populations.

“Caution Fatigue” shows up in church too.  Many are anxious to get back into their church buildings. Some are tired of Zoom gatherings.  Pastors and priests are weary too.  And then there is the question of outreach.  How do we continue to fulfill this part of our mission when our traditional methods may have been abandoned for safety’s sake?  Perhaps we don’t feel like we have the energy for outreach with all of the other demands on us these days.  OR perhaps we are being invited into new ways of considering outreach to our neighbors and those most vulnerable to COVID-19.   

Is it possible that a fresh approach might actually give us some of our energy back?  Could outreach be a source of connection that rejuvenates us?  Here are some suggestions:

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Nurturing community in your neighborhoods… even now!

by Steve Matthews
Nurturing community

This blog post is part of a series on strategies and tools for helping congregations survive and thrive in the face of the COVID crisis.

Click here for the previous post

True confession: in my pre-COVID days, I always had good intentions about being a good neighbor and nurturing community.  I thought about joining the neighborhood association, had casual conversations like “wouldn’t it be great to have a block party” but never made it happen, met people with whom I intended to get together but never did, but mostly, I would raise my hand and speak when passing, pick up trash when I saw it, and disappear into my backyard sanctuary for solitude, gardening, and fellowship with friends (most of whom are not neighbors).

This kind of describes a lot of pre-COVID churches I know, too.   They are friendly to their neighbors (the people and business owners), they care about the appearance of the neighborhood, they offer assistance to those in need… but often, friendly church members park in front of the church, enter the church doors, and find meaning and fellowship with people like them inside the walls, and work to grow and nurture what they find there.  

I can almost look back to those church days with some measure of nostalgia.  While it always felt uncomfortably comfortable, it was familiar, it was easy, and it was stable… or was it? It’s time to get real and let go of our attachment to what is comfortable, familiar, easy, and stable.  Those days are gone for a while… for a long while (or perhaps it was just a myth).  We are now pilgrims on a new journey.  We may not know where we are going or how we will get there, but we have left the building… and we have left the building together.   

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A Time for Outreach (Part 2)

By Steve Matthews
Outreach Time

Keeping Congregations Connected is a series on strategies and tools for helping congregations survive and thrive in the face of the COVID crisis.
Click here for the previous post.

Last week, Mary Frances, Senior Associate Consultant with FaithX, wrote a blog encouraging churches to continue to think about outreach time. It can feel scary and maybe even premature to think about reaching out to our neighbors and inviting them into our faith communities again; but as Mary pointed out, the limitations of COVID-19 are challenging us to find new avenues of faithfulness – even with regard to outreach in a time of quarantine and social distancing.

FaithX can help. As experienced church planters and church redevelopers, we have learned to think strategically and creatively. We also see great value in “trying things on” to see what practices and experiments might work. 

One tool of great value to faith communities right now is a free COVID-19 resource available through our affiliate, Datastory (click here for the link as well as other COVID19- resources). With this tool you can identify populations in your neighborhood at greatest risk. What connections and possibilities might emerge for outreach time if your church hosted an online session using this free resource and invited your church leaders as well as leaders from other neighborhood faith communities and nonprofits? This creates the possibility for collaborative ministry as well as building important relationships in the neighborhood.

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After the In-Reach, Time for Outreach…

By Mary Frances
Time for Outreach

Keeping Congregations Connected is a series on strategies and tools for helping congregations survive and thrive in the face of the COVID crisis.
Click here for the previous post.

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that just about everything you learned about how to do church has been turned upside down in the last several weeks. You have led your congregations through change that may have taken decades previously, you have turned on a dime to offer virtual worship, online bible study, and calling teams for pastoral care. 

And to all of that I say, well done!

And now that you have all of that (AND Easter) under your belt, is it now time for outreach?  How do we make sure that the people outside of our communities can access what we are doing online?  How do we continue to invite, connect, and serve? I realize that this may seem a bit extreme to some, yet I think about the disciples, in the upper room after the resurrection, scared for their lives.  And what did they do? With the blessing and breath of Jesus upon them, they went out into a very scary world and told about what they had seen and experienced. It’s our turn to tell about what we have seen and experienced.  Perhaps we can’t go out physically, but we can still connect and invite. The time for outreach is now.

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