As mentioned in our October eNews, Baptized for Life (BFL), one of the Department of Lifelong Learning’s Lilly Endowment Inc. funded grant initiatives, is officially ending this month. As the grant work transitions from a focus on participating faith communities to resourcing the wider church, we would like to share news on one of BFL’s final projects, the Baptismal Vows Index (BVI), currently in development in partnership with sociologist and noted author, Josh Packard, Ph.D., and his research team from Fractal Insights.
The core of BFL’s work centered around activating baptism by affirming that confident Christian vocations are formed through practices that engage scripture, community, and the sacraments. In this final project, Packard notes, “Based on a mixture of empirical and anecdotal evidence there is reason to believe that congregations that ask more from their members are actually doing better, even in an era of general disaffiliation and institutional decline. With that in mind, Baptized for Life (BFL) is looking to create and validate a scale measuring how people live out their baptismal vows according to the covenant made in the Book of Common Prayer. The goal is to provide congregational leaders and individuals with a tool they can use to self-assess their religious commitments and abilities and learn where they might grow.”
Work is underway to build, test, and validate a scale that can be easily applied. The current timeline for this project’s launch is early Spring of 2024. The Department of Lifelong Learning looks forward to sharing more information with you as it becomes available.
– Kim Arakawa
Initiatives Coordinator and Project Manager