Empowering  The  Church

...walking pastors and church leaders through the process of NCD

  

There is hope for the church in America!

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I first heard about Natural Church Development about 10 years ago. I don't even remember how I wound up with the book, but it wasn't long before I "shelved" it for another day. After serving as a pastor for 17 years, I went back to seminary and earned an education degree (MRE). I knew the church (membership in the churches I was involved with) was not healthy. We would see a little growth, then periods of no growth until I came up with a new fad that excited me because it had worked in other churches, so surely it would work for us. I had all the "church growth people" in during those years, went through the "consultation process" with some of America's leading consultant firms, but it never worked. I spent thousands of church dollars over the years seeking something, just anything, that would help us grow. For some reason those models never worked!

After a lot of prayer, personal soul-searching, research, and study, Empowering The Church was birthed. Our major emphasis is on Natural Church Development, a process that will help any church grow. It is not a model, but a process, that leads you to fit "church" into the DNA of your local congregation, just the way God designed in Scripture.

Natural Church Development means releasing the growth potential that God has already implanted in the local church.

Step 1 Prepare

  • Understand and share NCD principles and process with key leaders
  • Get leadership buy-in
  • Mobilize intercessors for focused prayer throughout the process
  • Recruit initial members of the Church Health Team
Principles
The NCD principles are useful only if they are put into practice. NCD is a process of development toward greater health and spiritual fulfillment. Natural Church Development is about improving the spiritual health of individuals and churches. There are eight quality characteristics of healthy, growing churches:
 
Empowering Leadership
Effective leadership begins with an intimate relationship with God, resulting in Christ-like character and a clear sense of God's calling for leader's lives. As this base of spiritual maturity increases, effective pastors and leaders multiply, guide, empower and equip disciples to realize their full potential in Christ and work together to accomplish God's vision.
 
Gift-Based Ministry
The Holy Spirit sovereignly gives to every Christian spiritual gift(s) for the building of God's kingdom. Church leaders have the responsibility to help believers discover, develop and exercise their gifts in appropriate ministries so that the Body of Christ "grows and builds itself up in love."
 
Passionate Spirituality
Effective ministry flows out of a passionate spirituality. Spiritual intimacy leads to a strong conviction that God will act in powerful ways. A godly vision can only be accomplished through an optimistic faith which views obstacles as opportunities and turns defeats into victories. 
 
Effective Structures
The Church is the living Body of Christ. Like all healthy organisms, it requires numerous systems which work together to fulfill its intended purpose. Each must be evaluated regularly to determine if it is still the best way to accomplish the intended purpose.
 
Inspiring Worship Services
Inspiring worship is a personal and corporate encounter with the living God. Both personal and corporate worship must be infused with the presence of God resulting in times of joyous exultation and times of quiet reverence. Inspiring worship is not driven by a particular style or ministry focus group, but rather the shared experience of God's awesome presence.
 
Holistic Small Groups
Holistic small groups are disciple-making communities which endeavor to reach the unchurched, meet individual needs, develop each person according to their God-given gifts and raise leaders to sustain the growth of the church. Like healthy body cells, holistic small groups are designed to grow and multiply.
 
Need-Oriented Evangelism
Need-oriented evangelism intentionally cultivates relationships with pre-Christian people so they can become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ who are actively participating within the life of the church and community. Using appropriate ministries and authentic relationships, believers can guide others into the family of God.
 
Loving Relationships
Loving relationships are the heart of a healthy, growing church. Jesus said people will know we are his disciples by our love. Practical demonstration of love builds authentic Christian community and brings others into God's kingdom.

NOTE:  No Quality Characteristic Can Be Missing

No one single factor leads to growth in churches; it is the interplay of the eight elements as they relate to the Growth Forces. 

The “All – by – Itself – Principle”
The secret of growing churches does not consist of pushing or pulling the church in human strength and efforts – but in releasing and developing the potential God Himself uses to build His church. Then growth occurs "all by itself."

“This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts, and grows; though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, and then full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. “ (Mark 4:26-29)

The church is designed by God to grow, so growth happens automatically if we remove the obstacles that prevent growth. Empowering The Church comes along side, and using the NCD Survey, helps a congregation determine what those growth obstacles are and how to deal with them.

The Minimum Factor
Imagine a barrel with eight staves, each representing the eight quality characteristics. The staves in the barrel only reach as high as the score of the characteristic. With this analogy, you can only fill the barrel to the level of the lowest stave. So to increase the capacity of the barrel, we must increase the height of the lowest stave.

Focusing on the minimum factor does not mean that we don’t pay attention to the other seven areas. All eight characteristics are vitally important to healthy growing churches. Focusing on the minimum factor helps us to set timely priorities. Since all eight areas can’t be worked on with the same amount of energy and concentration, we need to find areas that will yield the greatest long-range return on our investments. Minimum factors can change quickly – especially when there is a conscious attempt to improve on this one area.

Growth Force Principles
The principles behind all the quality characteristics are the six growth forces. The survey assesses each of the eight quality characteristics by measuring the degree to which each is lived out. Any plans to improve the minimum factor must take into account these six growth forces.
  • Interdependence – individual units are connected to each other in a larger system. Changes in one ministry will affect other ministries in the church and community. Synonym: Connecting
  • Multiplication – Healthy organisms do not grow endlessly, but reproduce themselves. Synonym: Reproducing
  • Energy transformation – Momentum or energy already flowing, whether positive or negative, can be redirected to accomplish God’s purposes. Synonym: Harnessing
  • Multi-usage – Resources used should increase the capacity for on-going growth and development, as well as serve multiple purposes. Synonym: Sustaining
  • Symbiosis – Different ministries can cultivate cooperative relationships so the mutual benefit is greater than operating separately. Synonym: Cooperating
  • Functionality – Each ministry needs to produce discernible results in line with its intended purpose. Synonym: Evaluating
Step 2 Diagnose
It’s time to go to the doctor. During step 2 we will be analyzing the church’s situation to determine the root causes of the minimum factor. This process begins with taking the NCD survey. Careful diagnosis will allow the church to develop a plan that will increase their health (and score) by addressing the root causes and not just the symptoms.
  • Complete NCD survey and receive survey results
  • Process initial reactions and responses
  • Expand Church Health Team in light of the minimum factor
  • Develop a general timeline for each step of the process: Diagnose, Plan, Implement, Evaluate
  • Conduct focus groups to discern key issues contributing to the minimum factor
  • Do additional reading, study, and discussion on the minimum factor
  • Communicate progress and prayer needs
Step 3 Plan
The first aim of this stage is to end up with written NCD qualitative goals and strategies that address the issues contributing to a minimum factor. The second aim is to help the Implementation Team understand and incorporate the growth forces into the implementation plan.
 
Step 4 Implement
This phase is where the rubber meets the road. After all the analysis and planning, it is now time to put the plan into action. The challenge will be to keep a holistic perspective throughout implementation.
 
Step 5 Evaluate
This step focuses on bringing closure to the NCD process and preparing to take another survey. This phase will include celebration, review of the previous year, and consolidation of learning that can inform the process for the next NCD cycle.

Empowering The Church can show you how Natural Church Development is a powerful process for assessing the health strengths and weaknesses of your church, then developing and implementing an action plan for improving church health by removing limiting factors.

To find out how your church can be involved in Natural Church Development, Contact Thomas Broadhead or call 770.918.5105, Conyers, GA.

 

 

What will ministry look like in your church this next year? Will it be "business as usual" or will you make an intentional decision to assess the health of your church and then take strategic steps to move forward? We want to help you improve the health of your church!