The FaithX Project

Strategic Missional Consulting

  • COVID Resources
    • Free & Discounted Resources
    • COVID-19 Blog Series
  • About
    • About FaithX
      • Annual Report (2019)
    • The FaithX Team
    • Our Clients
    • Partner Organizations
  • Services
    • Strategic Missional Planning Services
    • Missional Solutions for Congregations
    • Missional Solutions for Judicatories
    • Neighborhood Missional Intelligence Report
    • Covid Impact Planning Report
    • Neighborhood Missional Assessment
    • MapDash for Faith Communities
    • Testimonials
  • Resources
    • Congregational Vitality Assessment Tool (CVA)
      • CVA – FAQs
    • COVID Resources
    • Assessment Tools
    • Books
      • Paradoxy
      • Excommunicating the Faithful
    • Research
      • General Research
      • “Religion Singularity”
      • SHERM Journal
    • Sermons
    • Videos
  • Blog
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19 Blog Series
    • FaithXperimental Spotlight
  • Events
    • Coming Events
    • Event Recordings
  • Donate

May 08 2020

Repeated by Popular Demand! Before You Go Back to the Building: Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19 (a free webinar)

FREE WEBINAR
(Repeated by Popular Demand!)
Before You Go Back to the Building:
Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19
May 19, 2020 | 3:30-4:30pm | On Zoom
click here to register

It’s fair to say that our ideas of how to be and do Church have been turned on their heads over the last several weeks, and many of us are just starting to think about what it might be like to return to some semblance of “normal.”  Some churches may have found new opportunities through online gatherings, but most of the people we have spoken with are anticipating being with their community in the church building again. Some judicatories have advised their congregations they can go back in early May, others at the end of May, while still others want to wait and see. The wisdom of any of these ideas remains to be seen, as does the question of whether the new normal will be anything at all like the old normal. As the old saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans,” but sooner or later we will be able to come out of isolation and have the opportunity to gather our communities in person again. 

So wouldn’t it would be a good idea to go back with a plan in mind: a plan based on a vision – a plan imbued with flexibility, a plan that is sensitive to a greatly-altered context, and a plan that is based on discernment grounded in data?

We want to help you with this. 

In this webinar we will provide you with tips on how to use demographic and analytic data to maintain context awareness as you develop your plan to make it through the transition into whatever our new normal will be. We will provide you access and orientation to a free tool (MapDash for COVID-19) that will ground your discernment in that kind of data. Data that can help you help your people and your neighborhoods survive and thrive in new ways in the aftermath and recovery from COVID-19.

click here to register for the webinar

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog, FaithX News, Future of Faith, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, COVID19, Free, Keeping Congregations Connected, MapDash for COVID-19, Planning, Recovery, Webinar

Apr 15 2020

Before You Go Back to the Building: Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19 (a free webinar)

FREE WEBINAR
Before You Go Back to the Building:
Preparing for the Recovery from COVID-19
April 28, 2020 | 4:00-5:00pm | On Zoom
click here to register

It’s fair to say that our ideas of how to be and do Church have been turned on their heads over the last several weeks, and many of us are just starting to think about what it might be like to return to some semblance of “normal.”  Some churches may have found new opportunities through online gatherings, but most of the people we have spoken with are anticipating being with their community in the church building again. Some judicatories have advised their congregations they can go back in early May, others at the end of May, while still others want to wait and see. The wisdom of any of these ideas remains to be seen, as does the question of whether the new normal will be anything at all like the old normal. As the old saying goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell God your plans,” but sooner or later we will be able to come out of isolation and have the opportunity to gather our communities in person again. 

So wouldn’t it would be a good idea to go back with a plan in mind: a plan based on a vision – a plan imbued with flexibility, a plan that is sensitive to a greatly-altered context, and a plan that is based on discernment grounded in data?

We want to help you with this. 

In this webinar we will provide you with tips on how to use demographic and analytic data to maintain context awareness as you develop your plan to make it through the transition into whatever our new normal will be. We will provide you access and orientation to a free tool (MapDash for COVID-19) that will ground your discernment in that kind of data. Data that can help you help your people and your neighborhoods survive and thrive in new ways in the aftermath and recovery from COVID-19.

click here to register for the webinar

[Read more…]

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: COVID-19, FaithX Blog, FaithX News, Future of Faith, Posts by Ken Howard · Tagged: Coronavirus, COVID, COVID-19, COVID19, Free, Keeping Congregations Connected, MapDash for COVID-19, Planning, Recovery, Webinar

Sep 09 2016

Local Governments and Faith Communities: Allies or Adversaries? – Part 2

empowerment

Part 2: A Proactive Solution?

By Ken Howard

In our last blog post on this topic, we discussed the increasingly complex relationship between faith communities and local governments: allies in seeking the common welfare of the community, adversaries on property tax policy, and on land use policy, a little of both. Across the country, local governments, driven by their own financial needs, have begun to look for other sources of revenue. Seeing faith communities as low-hanging financial fruit, they are “creatively” using land use and property tax policy to put the squeeze on churches, mosques, synagogues, and other houses of worship.

Meanwhile, faith communities are feeling the proverbial turnip, whose blood is being squeezed out. Most of us are not rich megachurches but smaller congregations who operate on a very thin margin. On the one hand, we can’t afford the additional costs forced upon us in the name of land use policy. But on the other hand, few of us can afford the lawyers and court costs it would to force local government to respect our rights under federal law. Nor do we want to make local enemies or spoil the cooperative efforts with local governments that we have spent years to build. It was a no-win situation, and it left us feeling like we were caught between a rock and hard place.

It felt like a pretty desperate place. But about a year and a half ago we began to seek a way out of the bind without having to sue. Several members of the Religious Land use Working Group, which I co-chair, decided to go to take a visit to the Justice Department to see if we might find release under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA).

We did not understand every bit of legalese spoken in the meeting. But we came out much clearer understanding of the law than we went in with. But more importantly, we departed with an idea for a middle way between rolling over or playing dead, and suing local government: a forum that would bring the county’s faith leaders and officials all together in one place. At that forum, the Department of Justice’s special counsel for religious discrimination would explain to those present the rights of faith communities and the responsibilities of local governments under RLUIPA. Everybody would know the truth about RLUIPA, and knowing that truth would set everyone free. Hundreds of faith community leaders and their congregations would be empowered by knowing their rights and how to petition for the redress of those rights, if validated. The county officials present would have greater clarity about what they can and cannot impose on religious groups in the name of land use policy.

Conference 5The event was held on September 7, 2016, in a civic center which all considered neutral ground. The special counsel spoke for 45 minutes about rights, responsibilities, and best practices. This was followed by a 30-minute question and answer period, curated by the co-chairs of the Religious Land Use Working Group, in which faith leaders posed questions, the special counsel answered them, and the county officials observed. More than 80 people attended: a dozen county officials and more than 70 faith leaders.

Conference 2It produced an interesting dynamic among the faith leaders. Most of them came knowing little about RLUIPA and feeling like they were alone in their struggle with local government agencies. Now each faith leader knew their rights. And they knew that 70 other faith leaders knew their right and had experienced similar problems. And they knew that the local agency representative now knew the rights of faith communities. And they could see the looks of astonishment on the faces of several of the agency representatives that so many faith community people came to the forum. So the faith leaders felt much more empowered on the way out than they did before they arrived. And much less alone as well.

Will it work? Will it lift the excessive burden we have felt for so long? That remains to be seen. After all, it took decades to rise to the level it had. None of the organizers believe that a single 2½-hour forum would solve every problem. Our guess is that a lot more negotiating needs to happen before things get significantly better.

But the difference is: now there is hope!

Hope

 

 

 

Written by Ken Howard · Categorized: FaithX Blog, FaithX News, FaithX Services, Posts by Ken Howard, Religious Land Use Law · Tagged: Accountability, burden, Permitting, Planning, Property tax, RLUIPA, tax burden, United States Department of Justice

FaithX is Datastory Affiliate

Copyright © 2021 · Altitude Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in