Natural Church Development
Our Church Council met on Monday May 14 with Ann Pearson from the UMC Conference Center. Ann gave a presentation on Natural Church Development. Following the presentation, the Council voted to begin the process of NCD in our church.
Natural Church Development is all about releasing the potential that God has already implanted in our lives and in our church. Based on the research in more than 40,000 churches on all six continents, NCD describes universal principles that are applicable regardless of culture or spiritual style.
NCD focuses on increasing the quality of a church rather than on numerical goals. This emphasis in church health has proven to be the key to ongoing growth and multiplication.
The center of NCD is the all by itself principle that can be observed in healthy churches around the globe. All NCD principles are answers to the question: How can this God-given growth potential be released?
On all levels of church life, NCD encourages creativity, authenticity, and diversity. Rather than selling a specific church model, NCD helps Christians and churches to discover and develop their individuality.
NCD assists believers in rediscovering central Biblical concepts and relating them to their everyday lives. Only those success factors that pass the “Bible check” are incorporated into the NCD tools.
NCD Works. Churches that have done three or more NCD Surveys have increased their average growth rate by 51% between the first and the third survey. We plant, we water. God gives the growth.
Roy Jacobsen from Trinity United Methodist Church in Windsor, CT will coach us through the first phase of NCD. We will begin shortly by assessing our church’s health on the eight quality characteristics of growing churches. From there we will develop a 12 – 18 month plan to grow in the area of our minimum factor. The eight quality characteristics of growing churches are:
1. Empowering Leadership
2. Gift-Based Ministry
3. Passionate Spirituality
4. Effective Structures
5. Inspiring Worship
6. Holistic Small Groups
7. Need-Oriented Evangelism
8. Loving Relationships
Please pray for this endeavor as we create an environment for God to do what God does best. We plant, we water. God gives the growth.