The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

Redevelopment for the Rest of Us!

It wasn’t that long ago when the word “redevelopment” was associated with churches in need… maybe even in peril.  Some of these faith communities sought grants to repurpose buildings left vacuous by membership migration and/or declining interest in church overall.  Some just needed some revitalization and renewal regarding welcoming practices (guest parking, good signage, revamp the nursery for children, train friendly greeters, etc.).  Often there were mass mailings to local zip codes to inform the public about your church and your programming.  Occasionally, there might be some activity in which to invite the community. All of this is/was well-intentioned, but it was based on a false assumption: people are going to be drawn to us and come into our doors, if we do all the right things.

As you know, the culture has been shifting for a long time. In a 2020 Pew research study 65% of adults identified as Christian compared to 85% in 1990. This statistic points to the reality that, like it or not, all churches need to see themselves as perennially redeveloping churches.  Our buildings may be in great shape and our worship and programming sharp, but our spiritual infrastructure, our sense of values, mission, and vision may need a serious overhaul.  Very, very few people are going to come to us because we think they should (and certainly not enough to make up for the attrition of membership due to death and migration away from Christianity).

So what now?  What does redevelopment-for-the-rest-of-us look like in 2021? The answer is so simple… and so hard.  Take a deep breath. Here it comes. To be faithful to our mission, we must re-learn what it means to be a kind and attentive neighbor again.  We must relearn our neighborhoods.  We must know our neighbors and allow them to know us.  How can we know what it means to redevelop our churches for the sake of our neighbors if we don’t know who they are? What if the work of the Spirit and the opportunity we have been praying for, is happening outside the walls of the church, hidden in plain sight, and waiting for our “yes?”

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Creating Deeper Community Connections

Deeper Community

Dear Readers,

After many requests, we have decided to postpone our webinar – Creating Deeper Community Connections – from February 17 to February 24 at 1:00pm ET to allow prospective participants to devote their entire attention to the celebration of Ash Wednesday on the 17th.

To register for the webinar, click here.

If you already registered and are okay with the new date, don’t worry: your registration will be automatically transferred to the new date.

If you are already registered and the date doesn’t work for you, simply go to the Eventbrite webinar registration page, request a refund, and we will happily comply.

Meanwhile, we hope to see you on the 24th.

Have a great Ash Wednesday!

by Mary Frances

Click this link to register
for our webinar on this topic on February 17, 2021 at 1:00pm
sponsored by FaithX, ECF, and the Gathering of Leaders

When I was in my last parish call, I was fortunate to receive a detailed demographic report from one of the big companies offering such things.  I spent hours pouring over the pages and pages of information.  Median age, median income, race, education, and more.  The whole thing was at least 20 pages long and eventually I realized that it just wasn’t going to do me any good.  First, I didn’t really understand what to do with this information.  Second, I didn’t know where some of these population groups were.  I understood there was a growing Latino population in town, but I didn’t know where they were.  I knew that the number of people experiencing homelessness was growing, but aside from the few who came to the door of the church, was there a place these folks gathered?  Sought shelter?  I just didn’t know and, perhaps more importantly, I didn’t know how to find out.
Today we have clarity on two of the issues I raised above.  We now have demographic reports that are clear, concise, and point to community strengths, weaknesses, and risk factors.  The Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report from FaithX provides over 40 relevant data points – in just two pages! And when we dig deeper into those data points we can determine how and where a community is growing or not, where there is affordable housing or not, and predominant population groups based on age, race, and gender.  We can also determine at a glance if there are concerns about medical coverage, the growing cost of daycare or how many people in your neighborhood are falling into poverty.  These numbers are vital to going beyond anecdotal evidence to understand the joys and concerns of the community in which we are planted.

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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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