Ken Howard (priest)
Kenneth W. Howard (born September 19, 1952) is an American faith leader, author, religion demographer, consultant, and nonprofit executive – currently executive director of The FaithX Project. Early life and career Born in Lubbock, Texas, Howard is the son of a Jewish mother and a gentile father, the grandson of Russian immigrants, and the great-grandson of the town rabbi of Mogilev, Belarus. In his early 20s he became a follower of Jesus and helped start a Messianic Jewish synagogue. Eventually, he joined The Episcopal Church because it was "the most Jewish church [he] could find." Public Sector (1974–1989): Howard worked in the public behavior health and developmental services field in the Commonwealth of Virginia, from 1974–1981 for local community services boards, first as a volunteerism director, then as a community organizer, and from 1981–1989 as director of training and development for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Private Consulting Practice (1978–1993): In 1989, Howard started a consulting practice focusing on management development, rightsizing, team building, and board management for both private, public, and nonprofit sector organizations. He maintained this practice through his graduation from seminary in 1993. Ordained ministry Seminary (1990–1993): Studied at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia, focusing on church history and biblical languages, and including international study in Biblical archeology at St. George's College, Jerusalem in Israel. Assisted in redesigning in the Introduction to the New Testament curriculum. Graduated in 1993 with honors in Church history for his research into the Jewish origins of early Christianity, published in Jewish Christianity in the Early Church. Ordination (1993): Ordained as a deacon, then as a priest in the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Washington. Parish Ministry (1993–2016): Served as assistant rector at the Episcopal Church of the Ascension in Gaithersburg, Maryland from 1993–1995, focusing on leadership development, spiritual formation, and stewardship. Left in 1995 to start a new congregation, St. Nicholas Church in Germantown, Maryland, the first successful new church start in the Diocese of Washington in over 40 years. By the time he left in 2016, the congregation had experienced more than ten-fold growth, purchased property for its eventual campus, and constructed its first multipurpose worship and gathering center. Faith-Based Nonprofit Ministry (2016–present): Howard stepped down from parish ministry in 2016 to start The FaithX Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit consulting, research, and resource development practice, the mission of which is to help congregations survive and thrive in challenging times through data-grounded discernment, vision-guided experimentation, and strategic mission planning. FaithX serves faith leaders and faith communities in all denominations and faith traditions. FaithX was instrumental in developing tools to assess congregational vitality and sustainability, and applying GIS demographics, analytics, and market segmentation to congregational, judicatory, and denominational planning. These include: Congregational Vitality Assessment (CVA) – A 65-question, research-based congregational vitality inventory, developed by Howard and FaithX and brought online through a partnership with the Episcopal Church Foundation. CVA Judicatory Platform – A customized dashboard through which a judicatory can directly administer the CVA to each