The Narthex Project

At left: one of the first livestream services at Christ Church, Center: Parishioners enjoying our online service on Zoom, March 2020, At right: Early tech set-up 2020

EARLY BEGINNINGS

The Narthex is a project that began on March 15, 2020. We just didn’t know it.

On that Sunday, for the first time in its 70-year history, Christ Church closed its doors to gathered worship and suddenly pivoted to our first iteration of a livestreamed service––with a mobile phone. In the days that followed, Fr Terry acted swiftly and decisively to reorganize our entire pastoral staff under a new charge: to pivot all worship, formation, and community offerings to an online format. Overnight.

In God’s good providence, all the right pieces were in place. Adam Pierson had the technical expertise. Ian McRae had unmatched videography and production proficiencies. Within a matter of weeks, with castoff equipment from Channel 9 News, we were livestreaming Holy Week with remarkable quality. The rest is history.

WHAT IS THE NARTHEX PROJECT?

The Narthex is a 5-year project funded by Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative with 31 peer-networking parishes committed to expanding our pandemic pivot to online ministry without sacrificing our primary mission and purpose as traditional, sacramental, liturgical churches. As the hub of the wheel, Christ Church will continue developing our own capacity for online engagement as we adapt and innovate alongside other like-minded churches.

the narthex includes FOUR key components:

  1. Digital Ministry Assessment + Strategic Planning: Utilizing outside consultants from The Unstuck Group, Christ Church Denver and five other pilot parishes will undergo a thorough digital ministry assessment and strategic planning process to identify strengths, growth opportunities, and priorities;

  2. Capital Subgrants + Learning Cohorts: We will then allocate grant funds toward growth targets, sharing technological tactics within our pilot cohort, before broadening out to an additional 25 parishes for technological subgrants and the convening of a larger peer-mentoring network;

  3. Curating + Creating Online Content: We will develop new social-media optimized videos to reach the rising generation of “nones” and offer catechesis to existing believers;

  4. Training + Capacity Building: Finally, we will widely disseminate resources and best practices, freely available online through various forums, to multiply impact.

OUR END GOAL IS THREEFOLD:

 

1) Virtual Community-engaging Content
The content (aimed especially at the “nones” where they are––i.e., online), will provide resources to explore the life questions they are asking, such as,

What is the life/spiritual journey of a person and how does a parish’s digital strategy intentionally intersect?

 

2) Digital Whole-Life Discipleship Resources
These resources will reacquaint existing believers with ancient faith practices, accessible online and relevant to their Monday-through-Saturday lives and mission fields.

How do we more effectively equip all baptized believers to live out their “vocation and ministry” where they are, amid changing patterns of participation?

 

3) A Learning Cohort of Like-Minded Mainline Churches
These churches will be committed to peer-mentoring and resource sharing, appropriate to our theological/ecclesiological sensibilities, size, resources, and ends.

How do we do this *together*, as churches more theologically and generationally inclined toward analog approaches, in an increasingly internet-operative world?

PROJECT MANAGER

The project, led by Fr Joseph, is named after the in-between space in traditional parish architecture (what we call “The Commons” at Christ Church, the meeting space just outside our sanctuary): a place of encounter between worship and the world. Trading on this architectural image, we endeavor to increase congregational connection, community engagement, and discipleship to Jesus through technology to acclimate to societal shifts with prudent virtual engagement.

Fr Joseph will keep the congregation regularly apprised––both regarding our own digital development as a parish and on the project as a whole.