Executive Director
Ken Howard launched FaithX in late 2016 with the mission of helping congregations survive and thrive in challenging times by better understanding and engaging missional opportunities in their communities through data-grounded missional discernment and experimentation.
Ordained in the Episcopal Church, Ken has launched two congregations and including the first successful startup congregation in his judicatory in over 40 years, and has been involved in several congregational redevelopment projects.
Faith Leader | Author | Researcher | Serial Entrepreneur & Innovator
Faith Leader: Ken has more than 25 years ordained experience.
Author: Ken has written two books, Paradoxy: Creating Christian Community Beyond Us and Them and Excommunicating the Faithful: Jewish Christianity in the Early Church, and is beginning a new book, The Choice: Faithful Congregational Leadership in Challenging Times.
Researcher: Ken’s research focuses on congregational vitality and the implications of church demographic trends on the future of congregations. Published papers include The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Disrupting and Transforming Institutional Christianity and Grounding Discernment in Data: Strategic Missional Planning Using GIS Technology and Market Segmentation Data.
Entrepreneur: Started two congregations and several nonprofit organizations, still going strong.
Innovator: Researching and developing experimental data-grounded resources. Creator of the Congregational Vitality Assessment. Collaborated with GIS firm Ken Howard collaborated with GIS firm Datastory to develop their MapDash for Faith Communities, an uniquely interactive demographic/analytic platform.
Church Futurist: Several speculative journal articles and presentations about the future of the church and faith communities.
Background
The great grandson of an Orthodox rabbi from Belarus, who thought he might become a rabbi himself, Ken made the “mistake” of betting a college roommate that he prove that Jesus was not the Messiah. He eventually joined the Episcopal Church because it was “the most Jewish church I could find.”
Ken Howard and his wife have two adult children, two cats, and a Scottie dog named “Duncan.” He and wife recently celebrated 45 years of marriage. Ken enjoys bike riding, trying new and different ethnic foods, reading science fiction and fantasy, and contemplating the spiritual implications of quantum physics, entangled states, and “spooky action at distance.
Contact Info:
- Email: ken@faithx.net
- Twitter: @faithxproject or @revkenhoward
- Facebook: @faithxproject or @revkenhoward
- Cell: 301-704-3290 Time Zone: ET, Maryland