Natural Church Development Now Working in 71 Language Groups

One of the largest church growth movements has been proceeding from Germany for the last ten years: Since 1998 Natural Church Development (NCD) has been employed by some 55,000 churches to enhance the spiritual quality of church life and experience numerical growth as a result.

More than 100 denominations worldwide (in 62 countries or 71 language groups) follow the organic approach developed by the theologian Christian A. Schwarz (Emmelsbuell, Germany) and the organizational psychologist Christoph Schalk (Wuerzburg, Germany). The senior leaders of "NCD International" (short hand for "Institute for Natural Church Development International") were able to demonstrate through their research that churches implementing NCD principles in a consistent way experienced – after only 31 months into the NCD process – a 51 percent increase in their average annual growth rates. In other words: A church community that used to grow, say, by 10 persons a year increased its average worship service attendance by 15 persons a year after some two and half years of sustained NCD implementation.

In January 2008 NCD International (officially) released a new and updated version of the NCD Survey after a three-year period of intense research. This survey assesses the quality of a local church in eight key areas. Leadership, ministry, spiritual life, structures, worship service, small groups, outreach, and relationships are being carefully assessed by means of a scientifically developed questionnaire. On the basis of its current health profile and in cooperation with an experienced coach, the church surveyed then will develop an action plan for the months ahead.

For more information:

www.ncd-international.org (NCD International)
www.ncdsurvey.com (NCD Survey Online)