E-mail the NCD team at ncd@ctknashua.org
One of the most exciting things about NCD is that it is both scientific and down-to-earth, involving both thinking logically and dreaming imaginatively, evaluating carefully and praying fervently.
Perhaps the best way of understanding how congregations grow in health and vitality is by using the image of a well-tended garden. Whether you are someone who loves to garden or just to eat the fruits of the garden soil, you probably can appreciate the idea of the master gardener, the one who thoroughly researches the best planting techniques, learns from the past, and plans for the future. Gardening is indeed a science, but it is also an art. All the knowledge in the world won't get you anywhere until you put your hands in the soil and become one with God's natural world!
What we're doing together as we enter this NCD process is evaluating ourselves as a congregation, based on well-researched principles for how healthy churches grow even healthier. Then we'll prayerfully use that "head" knowledge and get busy, sinking our hands into the soil of who we are as a growing body of Christ.
We'll be self-evaluating, looking to see how we can grow in the 8 quality characteristics of healthy churches. Here are some quotes from NCD materials to give you a "taste" of the "garden produce" to come:
Empowering Leadership: "Leaders of growing churches concentrate on empowering others… to attain the spiritual potential God has for them."
Gift-based Ministry: "When Christians serve in their area of giftedness, they generally function less in their own strength and more in the power of the Holy spirit."
Passionate Spirituality: "Are the Christians in this church 'on fire'? Do they live committed lives and practice their faith with joy and enthusiasm" (rather than as merely 'performing one's duty')?
Effective Structures: "Church structures are never an end in themselves but always a means to an end." What kind of self-renewal needs to happen so that our forms and ways really fulfill their purposes?
Inspiring Worship Service: Can we tell that the Holy Spirit is truly at work in our worship, inspiring us to live out our callings? "When the worship service is inspiring (and yes, even 'fun'), it draws people to the services 'all by itself'."
Holistic Small Groups: "Growing churches have developed a system of small groups where individual Christians can find intimate community, practical help, and intensive spiritual interaction."
Need-Oriented Evangelism: A quality that healthy churches have in common is that "they share the gospel in a way that meets the questions and needs of non-Christians." Do we know what are the needs and questions of the world in which we live?
Loving Relationships: "People do not want to hear us talk about love, they want to experience how Christian love really works." Do we compliment one another, laugh together, care deeply for one another?
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