Natural Church Development Progress Report

  First of all, Natural Church Development (NCD) is a process. It is not a program. It is based on scientific studies that have found that there are eight characteristics that determine a church’s level of success for the Kingdom.

Those eight characteristics are:

• Empowering Leadership
• Gift Oriented Ministry
• Effective Structures
• Inspiring Worship
• Passionate Spirituality
• Holistic Small Groups
• Need-Oriented Evangelism
• Loving Relationships

All of these characteristics are present in churches to one degree or another. The NCD Process uses a survey to determine a score for each of these characteristics in the church. The characteristic with the lowest score becomes the church’s minimum factor and becomes the focus of the NCD Church Health Team. The Health Team will determine the root causes of the minimum factor and develop 3-5 action plans/goals to help the church strengthen the minimum factor over the next 12-18 months. At that point, we will take another survey and see if there has been progress.

In essence, NCD is an on-going process of evaluation designed to strengthen the ministry of the local church. NCD is also a Biblical process in that it uses six Scriptural growth factors to assist the local church in strengthening its ministries.

Those six growth factors are:

• Interdependence
• Multiplication
• Energy Transformation
• Sustainability
• Symbiosis
• Fruitfulness

While these may seem like sterile biological terms, they are in reality, principles of growth that God has built into his created order. Churches that use these principles will experience growth because that is the way that God created them!