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How Will Natural Church
Development Be Used?
In the Unit for Evangelical Outreach and Congregational Mission there is
currently a joint project to train 12 people who will serve as trainers
for the ELCA. This group of trainers will be certified to train licensed
NCD coaches throughout the ELCA. This is one key tool that will be used
in the coaching of leaders for outreach ministries. The role of coaching
in ministry development is a clearly identified skill that has been
targeted in both the development of new ministries and the renewal of
existing ones.
The NCD tool is likely to be used in a variety of ways. These are:
With mid-sized and
some larger congregations in a variety of “normal” circumstances to
assist them in refining their ministry in order to improve
congregational health and capacity for evangelical outreach.
With new
congregations as they develop, NCD will be used to assess the health
of the new systems that they are creating in order to provide a
healthy base for sustained growth. This may be an especially helpful
tool as new congregations organize and as they consider building their
first buildings.
With plateaued or
declining congregations which need to “Turn Around.” The NCD tool can
provide the insight as to where to focus energy in order to help the
congregation’s capacity for ministry increase and encourage growth to
resume.
With congregations
which are in need of more significant transformation as a second phase
of renewal after systemic issues have been reworked and after purpose
and core values have been re-clarified. Here NCD can provide insight
that assists in the development of concrete plans for ministry.
Finally, it is important
to remember that NCD is a tool to assess the health of a ministry and
gauge its capacity for growth. It is not a magic bullet but a tool. Many
questions specific to polity and theological commitments of the ELCA are
not addressed and so congregational commitments to benevolence, peace
and justice need to be addressed in addition to the insights provided by
the NCD assessment.
Having said this, it is clear that the NCD tool, used within a system of
coaching, can provide for better information in the development of
healthy congregations throughout the church. NCD can be helpful in
increasing congregational capacity for ministry and evangelical
outreach. In combination with other insights and tools that are
available, NCD provides a promising base for healthy ministry
development and renewal for the ELCA
Back to Natural
Church Development
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