Like eNCDine?
Walter and Yolanda Sierra
Quality characteristics, growth forces, minimum factor, maximum factor, three color paradigm - these are just a few of many NCD ingredients. It is easy to lose sight of the overall health growth process in your church. A simple but effective tool developed and used by NCD's National Partner in Mexico can help you keep the "big picture" in mind.
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?" »
Dave Wetzler
What is the practical value of NCD Insights from a denominational point of view? An interview with Dale Cohen, Director of Congregational Development in the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Continue reading "How a Denomination Benefits from NCD Insights" »
You have received the NCD Survey results for your church. Together as a team you scrutinize the detailed analysis report and begin to discover underlying issues. Issues affecting the quality of your church life and need your attention. You look for a better understanding. You look for guidance as you try to come up with an action plan. Take a look at this list of selected resources ...
Continue reading "Helpful Resources for NCD Implementation" »
Christoph Schalk
There have been many positive changes since Christian A. Schwarz first published his gift test in 1988. A survey at the time showed that 80 per cent of church members were not aware of their spiritual gifts. Things have changed considerably in the meantime, with a wide variety of gift tests now available, although the topic is still of high relevance. In 1988 only about 20 different test procedures were known throughout the world, whereas nowadays many associations, organizations and even churches offer their own – often home-made - gift tests. What is often overlooked, however, is that tools developed by amateurs tend to produce false or highly inaccurate results. The effects this has on church ministry are far-reaching.
Tara Miller
The previous article on NCD Insights laid out the steps of how to use the NCD Insights tool. This follow-up article will walk you through a brief case study to see how that process worked out in one particular congregation. A case study that will help you appreciate the Insights Process and its benefits.
Continue reading "Walking through the NCD Insights Process" »
Tara Miller
Your church takes the NCD Survey and you get the report noting the scores for each of the 8 quality characteristics. What do you do next? How can you effectively improve your church's minimum factor to increase health and release greater growth potential?
Adam Johnstone
A creative way of looking at your Profile Plus results is through a Story Board. A Story Board combines your church profile results with the art of telling a story that resonates with the viewer — remembering that your people have told you fragments of a story through their survey responses. Story boarding can therefore be a great way of presenting a summary of your results.
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:
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?"
Dave White
The new NCD book, Color your World with NCD, focuses on the personal application of the NCD principles. This is clearly emphasized through the Trinitarian Compass. But how about the 8 quality characteristics? How can we help church members develop these qualities on a personal level?
Continue reading "Personal Development in NCD’s 8 Qualities" »
Dave White
It is essential that we help churches move beyond their first NCD Cycle. Churches must continue to progress through ongoing cycles to move continually toward greater fruitfulness. In the Philippines, we are finding that second cycle networks are essential to help churches progress beyond their first NCD Cycle.
Continue reading "Additional NCD Cycles through Ongoing Networks" »
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.
Christoph Schalk
All good things must come to an end. Yet when and how do I conclude a coaching relationship? Christoph Schalk provides you with a discussion guide that will help you bring closure to a coaching relationship in an effective way.
Philip L. Walker
Organisational structures and systems is just one aspect being measured by the NCD Survey to assess a church’s structural health. Dealing with this issue, one question quickly comes to the forefront: What are the kinds of structures that promote church health? Philip Walker,NCD’s national partner in the UK and Ireland, offers some guidelines.
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?
Christoph Schalk
Coachees sometimes get locked in a certain way of looking at an issue or a situation at hand and do not know how to proceed. Circular questioning can help expand a person’s perspective. Find out how …
Christoph Schalk
Organic Quality Management (OQM®) is a fast and reliable way of monitoring the quality development of Christian non-profit organizations and church ministry teams / leadership teams. Learn more about the practical value of OQM.
Continue reading "How Does My Organization Benefit From OQM?" »
Dave White
Key in any NCD implementation process is the six growth forces and their prudent application to the situation at hand. So what's a good way of training people in those principles? Dave White, NCD's National Partner in the Philippines, developed a training approach based on case studies that has proven to be quite effective in the Philippine context. An instructive approach for NCD practitioners in countries where storytelling plays a significant role as well as in the Western world.
Continue reading "A Storytelling Approach to Growth Force Training" »
Robert E. Logan with Tara Miller
NCD is not just a survey-- no church will become healthier or grow simply as a result of taking a survey. The real route to change lies in engaging in the journey of implementation. Envision the NCD implementation process as a journey.
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)" »
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
Organic quality management (oqm®) measures and develops the health and quality of an organization – and is the "biotic brother" of Natural Church Development (NCD), designed for Christian not-for-profit organizations. Read more on what makes oqm® so unique.
Continue reading "The ABC’s of Organic Quality Management (Part 2)" »
Christoph Schalk
Organic quality management (oqm®) measures and develops the health and quality of an organization – and is the "biotic brother" of Natural Church Development (NCD), designed for Christian not-for-profit organizations. What makes oqm® unique is its holistic assessment of an organization according to the following three dimensions: structural ("Organization"), human ("Organism") and spiritual ("Spirit").
Continue reading "The ABC’s of Organic Quality Management (Part 1)" »
Norm Grube
A great strength in presenting NCD, we have found, is by having multiple churches learn and train simultaneously. The impact in churches walking the road together is invaluable. Questions, challenges, solutions and joys can be shared. Denominations across Canada are now recognizing the value of this multi-church training approach.
Continue reading "A Multi-Church Approach to NCD Training" »
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" »
Christoph Schalk
The NCD Survey tells you what is the Minimum Factor of your church. However, it doesn't tell you the reasons for it. Why do you have this Minimum Factor? A Focus Group can help with this question by adding a qualitative research dimension to the quantitative survey approach.
Adam Johnstone
In the international NCD movement there is an appropriate aversion to models and technocratic approaches. After all, the NCD principle-oriented approach is proving itself to be far superior to other alternatives. So, does the Profile Plus detailed analysis substantially enhance the principle-oriented approach or return us to the "bad old days" of models and prescriptive answers?
