Natural Church Development at St. Thomas the Apostle

Natural Church Development at St. Thomas

Natural Church Development:• Based on research by Christian Schwartz, a

German theologian, in 1996• If a church is ‘healthy’ in its ministry, it will grow;

“if you work on quality, quantity will follow” • NCD seeks to identify and assess the key

characteristics of a healthy ministry

Natural Church Development: 8 Dimensions of Church Health

• Relationships• Structures• Leadership• Ministry• Worship Services• Small Groups• Evangelism• Spirituality

Natural Church Development: 8 Characteristics of a Healthy Church

• Loving Relationships• Effective Structures• Empowering Leadership• Gift-based Ministry• Inspiring Worship Services• Holistic Small Groups• Need-Oriented Evangelism• Passionate Spirituality

Natural Church Development: 8 Quality Characteristics that contribute to a healthy church

1. Loving Relationships Are the relationships among our members characterized by Love?

2. Effective Structures Do the structures of our church strengthen fellowship, ministry, and experience

of God?

3. Empowering Leadership Do our leaders motivate, equip and support others for ministry?

4. Gift-based Ministry Are our members able to discern their gifts and pursue ministries that match

these gifts?

Natural Church Development: 8 Quality characteristics that contribute to a healthy church

5. Inspiring Worship Services Are our worship services inspiring experiences for our members?

6. Holistic Small Groups Do our small groups nurture the heads, hearts and hands of their members?

7. Need Oriented Evangelism Are our evangelistic activities related to the needs and questions of those we

are trying to win?

8. Passionate Spirituality Do we actively and passionately incorporate our faith into our everyday life?

Assessing a church’s health using the 8 Quality Characteristics

• A group of 35 church members complete a survey (92 questions).

• Survey completers reflect the wider engaged membership of the church

• Survey questions are structured to focus on the 8 factors• Surveys are analysed and compiled by NCD Canada• Results are ‘standardized’ by comparison to the Canadian all-

church average. Average ‘scores’ set at 50. • Church receives standardized scores on each of the 8 Quality

Characteristics, and each of the individual survey questions.• Over 60,000 surveys in 32 countries have been completed.

St. Thomas Quality Characteristics

• Loving Relationships (66)• Effective Structures (66)• Empowering Leadership (63)• Gift-based Ministry (62)• Inspiring Worship Services (53)• Holistic Small Groups (52)• Need Oriented Evangelism (49)• Passionate Spirituality (41)

The NCD ‘Process’

• We started with Testing (October). Our ratings are based on the answers a group of 35 parish members gave to the NCD survey.

• We are now working on Understanding (November). Our parish leaders are coming to grip with what our results mean for us as a parish.

• We will soon begin to Plan (December). Our parish leadership will prepare a plan for the remainder of this year.

• Then we will Do (January – August 2011). We will all work together to carry out our plan to help us grow as a parish.

• As we do so we will Experience familiarity in the areas our plan addresses.

• Finally, we will Perceive how we have grown (August 2011).• In September 2011 we will test again to see how much we have

grown

St. Thomas NCD Support Team Members

• Leroy Fevang• Carol Kauk• Andrew Louis• Elizabeth Reicker• Derwyn Sangster (Chair)• Liz Scobie• Sandra Wright

St. Thomas Parish Members

Important to:• Be familiar with what NCD is trying to do• Support St. Thomas NCD activities• Participate in the ‘Doing’ phase• Offer suggestions on how we can do better