Last week we looked at the first three reasons for embracing the Natural Church Development paradigm in your church. This week we will continue in our discussion by adding two more reasons and one bonus reason.
4. The survey provides a measurable process for improving the quality of your ministry.
There are two ways to measure the health of your church.
1) Quantitative Growth is built around key numbers and thier percentages.
- New Visitor Ratio: How many new visitors do you need in an average month to grow your church?
- Baptism Ratio: What is a healthy percentage between the average worship attendance and the number of baptisms annually?
- Giving Ratio: What is a healthy dollar amount given per person on an average Sunday?
- Serving Ratio: What is a healthy percentage of average attenders and those engaged in a ministry?
- Small Group Ratio: What is a healthy percentage of those attending on an average weekend and those engaged in a small group?
- Membership Ratio: What is a healthy percentage of those attending on an average weekend and those who are committed members?
- Leadership Ratio: How many new leaders are added to your leadership community annually?
2) Qualitative Growth is measured through the attitudes, feelings and perspectives towards people, programs and the progress of the church.
In doing the NCD Survey every year you can see the measurable results of your teams work in improving that weak area of your ministry and how that affects all the other ministry areas. Here is an example of one church's journey.
This church put significant energy in improving the structures or systems which resulted in a increase of 14 points. They improved the overall quality of the ministry by 20 points. Meaning, they significantly raised the morale of its leaders. Six out of the eight areas had a positive growth. Only two areas slipped in quality which could be interpreted as people feeling that there was too much focus on structures and systems that spiritual formation and relationships took a hit. In addressing their new area of focus, which is need-oriented evangelism, they will need to give attention to the "how to" by strengthening that area with a greater sensitivity to relationships and a deeper dependence on God in the process.
Doing repeated surveys will not only help you raise the quality of your ministry but it will also help you in tackling it in a more constructive and sensitive way.
5. The survey helps the pastor and leaders think of ministry in terms of process.
In his letter to the church in Ephesus Paul wrote, "So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Ephesians 4:12-14)
When Paul speaks of equipping he is talking about a training process. A process that the KJV refers to as perfecting the saints for ministry. NCD helps the church think though and answer the following questions:
- What is our process for multiplying leaders throughout the church?
- What is our process for equipping people in evangelism?
- What is our process for stimulating spiritual formation in our new believers and faithful followers?
- What is our process for promoting healthy relationships throughout the church?
- What is our process for launching small groups?
- What is our process for deploying people into ministry and service?
- What is our process for insuring that our worship services are inspirational?
Bonus Reason for Embracing NCD
Most churches have a weakness that they tend to ignore; they want to grow further in the area of their strengths.
To say "build on your strengths" as a universal rule is misleading. A church must build on its strengths and deal with its weaknesses. No church can do without any of those eight quality areas.
A church's weak area may be evangelism, for example. If they are good in prayer, they tend to go on with prayer. But they should direct more spiritual energy towards evangelism.
It's like a human body. If you have problems with your heart and need surgery, the doctor cannot say, "You have a nice voice. Focus on singing." You need heart surgery first. Then you can build on your strengths. Building up your weak points is the only healthy rule. HT
To learn how to get started with Natural Church Development and enjoy the May Discount choose one of the following options.
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