Research that Natural Church Development (NCD) has conducted into churches that experience long-term sustainable growth has revealed that there are eight factors that have to be in balance to be a transforming-healthy church. Our experience visiting churches across CBOQ has only further confirmed the validity of these factors:
- Leadership leads and empowers others for the growth of more leaders – it is neither autocratic nor passive
- Ministry is developed in response to the individually identified Spiritual gifts given to, and used by the congregation; and programming evolves out of the identified gifts, not just from tradition or from modeling after other churches;
- People connect with God in meaningful and recognizable ways that produce passion in their lives, and give them purpose
- The structures and governance fulfill the church’s purpose and fit the goals, size and history of the church
- Worship services inspire people, they don’t just entertain, and they give people forward motion out into the world
- Community forms from God – given energies used for the building up of the Body – people do not use their energies for their own gain. They study God’s life-principles and work out, and live out, their faith in practical ways
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People share the Gospel message authentically and naturally, and by reaching out to meet identified needs in response to God’s love
- People love one another, they care for one another, and share personal aspects of their spiritual and other parts of their life together. Healthy churches are frequently characterized by joy & laughter.
The first step in the NCD process is to a survey, determine the current condition and health of the church and plan your next steps. Learn more