The FaithX Project

10/15/2026

During the pandemic, FaithX saw congregations respond to change in three ways: resisting it, enduring it, or embracing it.

New results from the Faith Communities Today (FACT) survey suggest those choices shaped their futures.

This week on the blog, FaithX Founder and President Ken Howard looks at what the data shows and what it means for congregations today.

New FACT survey results show an uneven post-COVID recovery. Ken Howard explores how a willingness to change shapes congregational vitality.

10/08/2026

After Hurricane Helene, Western North Carolina pulled together across every divide. Two years later, they’ve slipped back into silos.

What if faith communities stayed in deepening relationship with one another, not just in times of crisis?

This week on the blog, FaithX Partner Relations Director Steve Matthews reflects on what the storm revealed about what's possible when faith communities stop working alone.

Two years after Hurricane Helene, Steve Matthews asks if churches are called to go it alone or to build lasting relationships with their community.

10/01/2026

The Metropolitan New York Synod piloted FaithX’s Judicatory Vitality Assessment and discovered that uncertainty can be a finding worth exploring.

This week, guest blogger Rev. J. Elise Brown of the ELCA's Metropolitan New York Synod shares their story.

Rev. J. Elise Brown shares how the Metropolitan New York Synod piloted FaithX’s Judicatory Vitality Assessment and found insight in “Not sure” answers.

09/24/2026

When 15 Episcopal congregations near Baltimore were competing for the same people, demographic data showed them there was room for everyone.

This week on the FaithX blog, learn how they moved from competition to collaboration and why data is not destiny.

When 15 Episcopal congregations near Baltimore were competing for the same people, demographic data showed them there was room for everyone. Here’s how they moved from competition to collaboration.

09/18/2026

Most church boards ask the safe questions: attendance, giving, how Christmas Eve compared to last year.

This week on the blog, FaithX Executive Director and Senior Consultant Mary C. Frances invites us to sit with an uncomfortable question and looks at what tends to happen when congregations finally ask it.

Your neighborhood changes whether or not you’re watching. Here’s the question most church boards forget to ask about who actually lives nearby.

09/11/2026

"Who would miss the ministries of this church if it closed?"

When a pastor asked his small congregation that question, the group sat in awkward silence before one of them answered honestly: "I don't think anyone would miss us." One by one, the rest agreed. So they made the decision to close.

Today that same community gathers close to 200 people every Sunday.

This week on the blog, a story about how letting go became the beginning rather than the end. Read it now 👇

A struggling church chose to close, then let go and discern its next step, birthing a vibrant new faith community. A story of letting go to grow.

09/04/2026

What happens when a congregation looks different than the neighborhood it serves?

FaithX Founder Ken Howard ran Neighborhood Insights Reports for a church, comparing who lives within a 5-minute drive and a 15-minute drive to who actually sits in the pews.

The gap was striking.

This week on the blog, a look at what those numbers reveal about the opportunities and challenges hiding in plain sight around a congregation.

🔗 faithx.net/2026/09/03/a-tale-of-two-segments

08/27/2026

In church, we like to focus on life and not think about death.

It's almost as if we don't trust resurrection when it comes to God's work in our churches. But what if decline isn't the end of the story?

This week on the blog, FaithX Partner Relations Director Steve Matthews looks at the Two Loops Model of Living Systems, where every stage of a community's life is honored, and where a fallen tree becomes the soil for what grows next.

What "time" is it for your church? Find out now 👇

The Two Loops Model honors every season of congregational life, including decline, and shows how one season’s ending can feed new growth.

08/20/2026

Do we actually know our neighbors anymore?

That's the question the leadership at Bethlehem in the Midway asked when they began asking tough questions about their future.

Like many urban congregations, they knew the neighborhood they remembered, but not necessarily the one that existed today. What they discovered through using FaithX tools reshaped their mission statement and everything that followed from it.

This week on the blog, read their story.

By Mary C. Frances, Executive Director and Senior Consultant When the leadership at Bethlehem in the Midway, a congregation in St. Paul, Minnesota, began asking tough questions about their future…

08/14/2026

If your congregation closed tomorrow, would your neighborhood notice?

It's an important question, but most faith communities are afraid to ask it.

Yet Proverbs 29:18 doesn't leave much wiggle room: "Without a vision, the people perish."

This week FaithX Founder and President Ken Howard kicks off a new monthly series, Questions Nobody's Asking (But Should Be), with the most existential one of all: Why should your congregation exist? (Or Are You Leading a Zombie Congregation?)

And if you're brave enough, take the quiz to find out.

Read it now 👇

If your congregation closed tomorrow, would your neighborhood notice? A hard question worth asking, plus a quiz to find out where you stand.