The Confirmation Project needed far more than just a website, they needed a technology partner capable of helping them identify possible tools to aid their research, build communities, and disseminate their findings. Working alongside the distinguished team representing several major Seminaries across the United States, we are proud of our multi-faceted contributions to the project that demonstrate our competencies far outside the realm of simple website design.
The Scope
The Confirmation Project is funded by the Christian Youth: Learning and Living the Faith grant provided by the Lilly Endowment, Inc. The project has surveyed over five thousand students and pastors in five major denominations in the United States in order to study the effectiveness of Confirmation and Confirmation Equivalent Practices in Christian formation. From the very beginning, the steering team knew that they wanted to do more than just implement an aggressive research program; they wanted to build a community of confirmation leaders and lead a multi-faceted conversation regarding the actual outcomes of the programs.
It Starts with the Website
As with most online projects, it all began with the Confirmation Project website. The website shares the visual design of the research reports, with blue accents and striking fonts that mimics high quality bound portfolios.
The website provides an opportunity for guests to subscribe to the the Confirmation Project’s regular news updates as well as access to a variety of resources that were developed throughout the course of the project. Website guests can browse an interactive timeline of the history of Confirmation practices within the Christian church and various denominational resources gathered from all five of the mainline denominations participating in the study.
Additional Resources
As the Confirmation Project team included dozens of participants from across the US, one of their significant difficulties was collaboration across distance and timezones. We helped them implement numerous technological tools that mitigated the difficulties of the distance, enabling regular video conferences and file sharing.
As the research progressed, so did the need to engage the Confirmation community. We partnered with faculty and research assistants conducting the research to facilitate live “webinar” conversations that addressed the needs of confirmation practitioners. We later distributed the webinars through iTunes as a podcast and posted them to Youtube where over 1,000 additional people have engaged in this exciting conversation.
In less than two years, the Confirmation Project amassed over 1,100 email followers. This kind of engagement makes it possible for the research team to have an impact far outside the bounds of the research itself, including direct contact with Confirmation practitioners.
Technology as the Tool for Relationships
As the Confirmation Project research progressed, we collaborated with the team to produce an online platform that hosts engaging “portraits” gathered from their onsite research. These portraits contain deeply moving encounters with students and Confirmation practitioners and clearly demonstrate the uniquely human aspect of the statistical research.
The Confirmation Project team knew that their research needed to do far more than collect accurate statistics. They knew that they wanted to build a community of Confirmation practitioners and engage that community with inspiration and support. We are grateful that we were able to help the team identify and implement technological tools to facilitate their mission and provide invaluable resources to practitioners across five mainline denominations.
If your organization needs more than a website, we are ready to support you. There is no dream either too big or too small. Let us help you use the vast range of modern technologies to facilitate your mission.