Measuring Discipleship – Khachkar Studios Invests Historically Unprecedented $10+ Million to Grow ‘The Faithful’ in Armenian Churches

On April 11, 2025, Khachkar Studios rolled out an ambitious new pilot program designed to grow spiritual engagement in the Armenian American church community. Backed by more than $10+ million in performance-based support, the initiative represents a new frontier in faith metrics — one that tracks not just attendance, but transformation.

The program’s core measure of success is what the studio calls KPI #1: the increase in Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful (“The Faithful”). These are individuals who participate in weekly liturgies, not just during Christmas or Easter, but throughout the year. Alarmingly, Khachkar’s 2024 data found just 13,000 such attendees nationwide — around 3% of the U.S. Armenian population.

Rather than accept this decline, Khachkar Studios is choosing to confront it with clear metrics and strategic support. Thirty-seven churches have been shortlisted for the pilot. Each is being evaluated for its potential to increase KPI #1 and achieve a high Social Return on Investment (SROI).

Annual support of $40,000 to $80,000 will fund eight activities that include training Christian role models, expanding Bible education hours, and conducting outreach visits. These activities are laid out in detail in the April 2025 Pilot Briefing Packet, which also features a consolidated financial statement for all 164 Armenian churches in the U.S. and anonymized church rankings.

The initiative isn’t about overburdening already stretched parishes. With just six hours a week of shared volunteer time, each church can fully implement the program thanks to mobile tools and a scalable framework.

Khachkar Studios also plans a major expansion in Good News media outreach. Its seven content workstreams — from podcasts and music to video and written content — aim to energize Christian imagination and restore a culture of discipleship. The studio’s media budget alone is more than 25 times larger than that of all other Armenian churches combined.

Affiliated with the Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation, JI-Analytics, and Japonica Partners, Khachkar Studios is integrating spiritual vision with organizational excellence.

At a time when many churches are wrestling with declining engagement and limited resources, this pilot offers a model of what can happen when discipleship is not just preached — but measured, encouraged, and funded with intent