Khachkar Studios Launches Historically Unprecedented $10+ Million Initiative to Reinvigorate Faith Through Service

In a powerful effort to blend spiritual stewardship with practical action, Khachkar Studios announced on April 11, 2025, the launch of a US$10+ million pilot program designed to restore vitality to Armenian churches across the United States. With faithfulness and measurable impact as its dual pillars, the initiative is rooted in the Christian call to multiply the gifts God entrusts to His people.

The project’s aim is to strengthen the fabric of spiritual life by increasing Non-Holiday Badarak Faithful (“The Faithful”) — those who attend weekly Sunday services outside the major feasts. Currently, just 13,000 Armenian Americans fall into this category, representing 3% of the population and placing the Armenian Church near the bottom among American Orthodox communities.

The pilot is centered on KPI #1, a clear and bold indicator of spiritual engagement. To support this transformation, Khachkar Studios is providing support between US$40,000 and US$80,000 annually to 37 churches that demonstrate readiness to grow through service, outreach, and education.

These churches will implement eight activities ranging from home visitations and role model training to Bible study hours and media outreach. The strategy emphasizes time stewardship too: all activities are designed to be completed with just six hours a week of shared volunteer time, made manageable through digital tools and structured workflows.

Guided by the parable of the talents, the initiative challenges churches to account for their spiritual investments by evaluating their Social Return on Investment (SROI). Every decision must answer a central question: What is the SROI, and how does it rank among benchmarks? The April 2025 Pilot Briefing Packet outlines all activities, includes a consolidated financial statement of 164 U.S. Armenian churches, and features a data-driven, anonymous ranking of all 37 shortlisted parishes.

Khachkar Studios is also investing in what many Armenian churches overlook — storytelling and outreach. Its media spend, channeled through seven content workstreams like podcasts, short films, and music, will exceed that of all other Armenian church bodies in the U.S. combined — by over 25 times.

As an affiliate of the Charles & Agnes Kazarian Foundation, JI-Analytics, and Japonica Partners, Khachkar Studios brings robust institutional backing to a deeply human goal: making church a space of healing, learning, and connection.

At its heart, the initiative calls Christians to a familiar but often neglected practice: using every resource to glorify God and draw people into His love.