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Adam Johnstone
You have embarked on the NCD journey. You are trying to make progress on your NCD results. But sometimes you wonder what this journey will bring about in the life of your church. Get a better idea of what you can reasonably expect from your passionate efforts towards more health.
Continue reading "NCD Growth Projections... where are you going?" »
Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff
Since its inception about two decades ago, Natural Church Development (NCD) has worked with and partnered with many Christian denominations across the world, working with many different pastors and lay leaders all across the theological spectrum - with one notable exception: The Orthodox Church. This is now beginning to change …
Continue reading "Natural Church Development and ... The Orthodox Church?" »
From the introduction of NCD by Colin Noyes, to the excellent work of Ian Campbell (now Director of NCD Canada) through to the work of the mostly volunteer team headed up by its current director Adam Johnstone, NCD Australia has continued to gather momentum and break new ground for Australian churches and churches around the NCD world.
Continue reading "Meet NCD's National Partner for Australia and the South Pacific Islands" »
Bud Bennet
Why a company group, specializing in architectural design and construction management of church buildings, strongly encourages their church clients to complete an NCD Survey before starting a building project.
Continue reading "Ministry Space and its Potential Impact on Church Health" »
Ian Campbell became the Director of NCD in June 2007, working for The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada, the NCD National Partner in Canada since 1998. Previously, he ran the Australian NCD Partnership between 1999 and 2005 before handing the reins to his colleague Adam Johnstone. Ian is living in Vancouver with his wife, Kathy.
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.
Continue reading "Natural Church Development Now Working in 71 Language Groups " »
Oliver Schippers' church consulting ministry started off as a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ in Germany. His ministry eventually turned into a national partnership with NCD International. Today NCD Germany is an independent ministry. And there is more: About a year ago Oliver accepted responsibility for the NCD-ministry in Austria as well.
Continue reading "Meet NCD's National Partner for Germany and Austria" »
Natural Church Development (NCD) has quietly become a worldwide movement that is helping churches improve their health and is drawing people closer to the triune God.
To date some 52.000 NCD Surveys have been taken worldwide to profile the quality of local churches. A track record that reflects 20 years of experience in quality assessment as basis for intentional church health development. It is this long-standing experience that makes the NCD Survey system unique among church profiling tools.
Get an overview of what the NCD story is all about and see what NCD has to offer:
Christoph Schalk
After a four-year period of intense work on the basis of Natural Church Development (NCD), participating local churches from the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Denomination in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany experienced an additional 365 percent growth. Even though the starting-point has been rather low, the growth result is nevertheless quite impressive.
Adam Johnstone
In Color Your World with Natural Church Development Christian Schwarz writes, "I would like to persuade you to join [the NCD] community... You join this community simply by sharing its principles. And you share its principles not by verbal affirmation, but by applying them to your personal life and the life of your church." If application is the key, we also need to ask, "How fruitful are our ways to apply those principles?"
Andreas Fürbringer's NCD journey goes back to the early days of Natural Church Development (NCD). Back in the 1990s he and his team from the Institute Koinonia (www.koinonia.ch), a branch of Campus Crusade for Christ in Switzerland, contributed survey data to NCD's original research among 1,000 churches. Since those early and exciting days Andreas has been heading up NCD's national ministry in Switzerland. Read more about his vison and key insights from his ministry experience ….
Continue reading "Meet NCD's National Partner for Switzerland" »
30 German EFC Pastors were trained by NCD International to become NCD Coaches. During the 4-year training process all trainees got involved in coaching churches through the NCD process. A key training element to make sure lessons learned are also implemented in real-life church situations. The results: 32 percent more growth in participating churches. A documentation by Christoph Schalk.
Continue reading "Evangelical Free Church in Germany: 32 Percent More Growth After 4 Years" »
NCD is transitioning to a new phase in its ministry. Christian A. Schwarz, Founder and President of NCD International, usually refers to this process as "opening the second chapter of NCD". And he quickly adds that the "second chapter" will be different. What does he mean by that? What will be different?
13 Vineyard church leaders in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland were trained by NCD International to become NCD Coaches. During the 18 month training process all trainees got involved in coaching churches through the NCD process. A key training element to make sure lessons learned are also implemented in real-life church situations. The results: 118 percent more growth in participating churches. A documentation by Christoph Schalk.
Continue reading "Vineyard Church Movement: 118 Percent More Growth After 18 Months" »
May we introduce you to Taufik Barlian and his team? Since January 2006, Taufik is directing the NCD ministry in Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country with the largest Muslim population. He and his team assist local churches as they engage with the NCD process. Taufik also serves as one of Abbalove's church leaders in Jakarta and is married to Yunitasari. Together they have two lovely kids: Noah Putra Chairos and Dafy Bintang Natanael.
Picture above (from left to right): Zakaria, Taufik, Ike, and Indrayani.
Continue reading "Meet NCD’s National Partner for Indonesia" »
How churches have experienced the power of the NCD Growth Forces. 80 real-life stories from all over the word showing Natural Church Development (NCD) in action. Get a sense of the underlying growth dynamic at work in God’s kingdom.
Ommund Rolfsen directs the NCD ministry in Norway since 1998. He and his family live in the countryside, in the very north of Norway, above the arctic circle. To get from there to Oslo, the capital of Norway, will take one almost two hours by plane. Get a glimpse into Ommund’s heart beating for the traditional church and its health.
Registrations for the May 2007 Campaign have commenced!
Color Your World is a five-week journey targeted at involving all church members in relating the essence of Natural Church Development (NCD) to their own heads, hands, and hearts. Through a series of daily readings, themed worship services and small group meetings, your people will come to discover a fuller picture of God and be encouraged to reflect the colors of His love to the world around them. The result? A healthier growing church.
View an invitation video by Christian A. Schwarz.
For more information and registration click here.
Robert E. Logan with Tara Miller
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Each time you do NCD, you should get better, keep growing, keep stretching. Yet you wonder how you can grow from your experience. How can you release greater potential in your church? Where can you turn to find resources to help you move down the path of implementation toward change and increased health?
Leonid Boichenko, a trained military surgeon and a former assistant pastor of a rapidly growing church, was introduced to NCD in 1997. He was intrigued by NCD’s key principles, the so called life forces, and by their potential value for church development. A year later he was asked by the Agape Center, a Christian ministry in Russia, to coordinate the NCD ministry throughout Russia. A search for the right delivery system began …
Adam Johnstone
Calling out the artists of life is the motto for the Color Your World Campaign. It is an opportunity for your whole church to learn about the universal principles of NCD and to begin applying them in their world. Your people are invited to become artists reflecting to those around them the fullness of life that Jesus promised to us all. Registrations for the May 2007 Campaign commence in mid-February (www.coloryourworld.org).
Dave Wetzler has been a pastor and denominational executive before he became NCD's National Partner in the late 1990's. God used a stewardship message given by Bill Hybels in 1996 to challenge Dave's heart for the ministry of NCD. He soon mortgaged his house and quit his job with the denomination …
Continue reading "Meet NCD's National Partner for the United States of America" »
Christoph Schalk
The minimum factor is a key in the NCD implementation process. It marks the most promising starting point for growing a healthy church. Quite often, however, churches misread the minimum factor and go astray as they analyze their situations at hand. Instead of looking for solutions, they tend to be focusing on problems. As they deal with their past, they lose sight of the future and what they could become.
Thomas Fode
Less than 4 years ago a national NCD ministry was started in Latvia, a relatively small East European country bordering the Baltic Sea. Henrik Andersen, a Dane ministering with The Salvation Army in Latvia, played a key role in establishing this ministry in a relative short time. eNCDine wanted to know "his" secret. What is key in building up an NCD ministry in a different culture?
Who really is the person behind the NCD Books? What's in his heart? What does his vision and passion for the church look like? In case you've never had a chance to meet Christian in person, here is your chance …
Adam Johnstone
In the Color Your World with Natural Church Development book is the question, "Who is your hero: David or Goliath?" In the church world today there are many "heroes" but for those seeking guidance in leadership and ministry the question must be, "Is this person the kind of hero I should be seeking to emulate or just a Goliath-like shadow I'm chasing." So what are some of the things that set a David apart from a Goliath and more importantly, who are they?
NCD's new National Partner in Slovakia is the Slovak Evangelical Alliance represented by Doug Stoner. Doug and his wife Tricia are from the US and have been missionaries to Slovakia with Greater Europe Mission since 1994. They have two children: Ryan (12) and Megan (9). Together they have been serving within the Slovak Church Planting Movement and see great value in using NCD to develop healthy churches.
Continue reading "Meet NCD's National Partner for Slovakia" »
2006 marks the ten year anniversary of the first edition of Natural Church Development. Moreover, it's the year of the first NCD Campaign to take place. Learn more about this five-week global event and how your church can benefit from a unique process designed to relate NCD to the personal lives of your church members in meaningful ways.
Ten years after the first publication of "Natural Church Development" by Christian A. Schwarz a new edition has been released. Being the 7th edition in the US by now, it is not just a reprint but an updated and revised edition. What started out as a research project and led to a set of abstract global principles for church development turned over the last years into the vibrant life of a global movement. Time for an updated version of the original.
Continue reading "New Release: "Natural Church Development" (NCD)" »
The new national partner for NCD in Poland is Luke Bajeński. Luke is co-founder of ProEcclesia: Center for Church Development based out of Puławska Christian Fellowship in Warsaw. ProEcclesia is a non-denominational ministry seeking to plant new churches, to help existing churches develop and multiply, and to resource church leadership. Luke also serves as the Polish partner for CoachNet International.
Some time ago, when Christoph Schalk, vice-president of NCD International, conducted an NCD Coach Training in Leipzig (East Germany), a denominational executive made him a gift: a handmade wooden minimum factor barrel. The barrel has just the right size to be used in seminars, worship services, or other occasions to demonstrate the minimum factor strategy. And it is now available to you!
Adam Johnstone
What if Natural Church Development were to become Natural Anything Development? What if the same principle-oriented approach that is at the heart of NCD were to permeate every aspect of your church, your work place, your family life, your world? The time and the means are coming for exactly that to happen.
Christoph Schalk
Churches are being transformed as they invest in quality and do their part while God does his part. Their stories often are unspectacular, even though the results are stunning. How can we become part of what we call silent transformation? What principles must we use in order to see our churches grow in healthy ways?
Continue reading "The Silent Transformation: Growth Forces at Work (Part 2)" »
Christoph Schalk
We have a little garden in front of our home, and I’m responsible for doing the work in it. As we all know, spring and fall are the seasons when most of the work needs to be done in a garden. But they are also the main seasons for seminars – and these involve me in a lot of traveling. That's why the garden has been a challenge for me: there's much to do at a time when I'm not home!
Continue reading "The Silent Transformation: Growth Forces at Work (Part 1)" »
Thomas Fode
Over the last months NCD International has been busy developing a new survey tool. Based on the latest research, a new and improved version of the NCD questionnaire has now been produced to meet the needs of the growing global NCD community. Its release is scheduled for July 1, 2006.
The First Latin American NCD Consultation was a great success, with NCD National Partners coming from 14 different countries.
Continue reading "14 Countries Represented At First Latin American NCD Consultation " »
From December 12-16, 2005 Christoph Schalk was invited to speak at NCD conferences in three major cities in Ghana, West Africa.
Continue reading "Ghana The First Country Using The New NCD Survey" »
The first conference for NCD National Partners from Latin America will be held on January 10-13, 2006 in El Salvador, Central America. Hosted by Juan Galdamez, NCD Coordinator for Latin America in cooperation with NCD International.
Continue reading "First NCD Consultation in Latin America" »
Dave Wetzler
Between October 3rd and October 18th Christian A. Schwarz and Dave Wetzler, NCD National Partner in the US, travelled to eight cities across the USA conducting half-day seminars on Color Your World with NCD.
By Christian A. Schwarz
By now some 40,000 churches have participated – with differing levels of intensity – in the NCD process. Since all of them have conducted at least one NCD Survey we have the data of most of these churches in our computers and are able to monitor their actual results, both in terms of quality and quantity.
Thomas Fode
Years ago the Institute for Natural Church Development developed a tool called Detailed Analysis. A diagnostic tool designed to help NCD churches understand the underlying factors contributing to their current church profile. Meanwhile a new generation of detailed analysis tools has been released. Take a closer look and discuss with us the pros and cons of each tool.
Continue reading "Detailed Analysis - The Next Generation" »
Petr Činčala
In his book Streams of Living Water, Richard J. Foster describes various streams of faith (i.e. paradigms of Christian life) which come as a result of our understanding of Jesus and then lead us to "constant application to our daily experience." This article explores the relationship between those streams and the overall health of churches.
Continue reading "The Impact of Religious Stream on Church Health" »
That's the title of a new book by Christian A. Schwarz (Founder and President of NCD International) to be released in October 2005. Another introduction to Natural Church Development (NCD), this time from the perspective of the individual Christian believer. A book full of fresh insights and helpful tools for everyone with the desire to experience all that God has designed him or her to be.
Continue reading "NEW: Color Your World with Natural Church Development" »
Christoph Schalk
"I don't believe in the minimum factor!" That is what I heard a Christian leader say to me recently. As we continued our conversation, it became evident that he misunderstood what Natural Church Development (NCD) refers to as minimum factor strategy. What do we really mean by the minimum factor strategy?
Ian Campbell
We have been looking at NCD as a long term process from the perspective of the 3 color cycle of information, application and transformation: Information that provides an increasingly effective knowledge, and ultimately Godly wisdom, about what stimulates the growth of your church. Application that responds to the dynamic change in church life by consistently using the NCD principles to release sustainable 'all by itself' growth. In this last article I turn to the last component: transformation. It is early days in our understanding of just how important this subject is, but already I have found it generates strong interest in seminars and personal discussions.
Evan Drake
With the vision of seeing churches multiply, Bob Logan of CoachNet International Ministries recently co-wrote Beyond Church Planting, a resource that he says could send a wave of shock not only to church planters, but to all Christians.
Ian Campbell
In considering NCD as a long term process we have been looking at the 3 color cycle of information to application to transformation and back to information. In the last article I argued that not all information is the same. The information we are looking for is that which, when applied consistently in our church, brings about healthy transformation. Over time continuing transformation gives us increasingly useful knowledge and ultimately Godly-wisdom about our church as a dynamic, living organism. In this third of four articles, I am considering the key issues of application.
NCD International is working on the next generation of the NCD Survey. Right now, we are launching a "pre-test" to ensure the statistical reliability and validity of the new tool. Learn more about how to participate in this pre-test.
Ian Campbell
In this series of four articles, I am contending that leaders who want to stimulate sustainable, healthy growth in their churches must take the long term view when applying the NCD principles. In the first article I raised the three color cyclical process as a helpful way to engage effectively with the NCD principles. In this second article I want to talk about Information and its function in this process.
Adam Johnstone
It's 7pm. Another busy day of ministry has nearly passed. After a bite to eat, you sit down to go through the mail. An envelope from the NCD National Partner catches your attention. You open it to find…
Ian Campbell
If you are a leader who wants to see lasting, sustainable, healthy growth in your church, you cannot approach NCD without taking a long term view. The process of applying NCD principles effectively takes time. Process may be the wrong word. It is a fulfilling, satisfying and enjoyable journey of partnering with God to grow your church (and yourself) to maturity. Leaders already on this journey would say only one thing: "Get on board and don't miss out."
