Here at SRPC we believe that God has given each of us spiritual gifts that are to be used to further His Kingdom. We offer the 3 colors of ministry program to help you discover the gift’s that our God has given you and to get plugged in to further God’s kingdom.
Discovering Our Spiritual Gifts
Natural Church Development (NCD) is a principle-oriented way of approaching the Christian life that strives to integrate biblical standards and empirical learnings. The growth principles identified by international research and communicated in the NCD books can be applied both by individuals (church members, active believers, nominal Christians, non-Christians) and at a corporate level (local churches, small groups, denominations, para-church organizations, etc.).
NCD has developed an extensive toolbox targeted at helping people relate the principles to their specific contexts and needs. All tools of Natural Church Development are focused on increasing the quality of the Christian life. NCD research indicates that this investment in quality, i.e. increasing health in individuals, is key to activating quantitative growth, i.e. increase of churches and Christianity as a whole (Schwarz 2006).
1.1 First model-oriented attempts (1978-1986)
1.2 Initial research and assessment tools (1987-1995)
1.3 Launch of Natural Church Development (1996)
1.4 NCD 1.0 (1997-2001)
1.5 NCD 2.0 (2002-2014)
1.6 NCD 3.0 (starting 2015)
2. Research
3. Philosophy
3.1 Principle-orientation
3.2 Interdenominational application
3.3 Intercultural learning
3.4 Scientific evaluation
3.5 Quality focus
3.6 Spiritual balance
3.7 Process-orientation
4. Strategy
4.1 Eight quality characteristics
4.2 Bi-polar paradigm
4.3 Six growth forces
4.4 Minimum factor
4.5 Trinitarian Compass
4.6 God’s energy
4.7 NCD Cycle
5. Theology
6. Resources
6.1 Video introduction
6.2 Introductory books
6.3 NCD Church Survey
6.4 NCD Discipleship Resources
6.5 Online eTests
6.6 Coaching
6.7 NOW! Process
7. Distribution
8. Leadership
9. Results
9.1 Qualitative increase
9.2 Quantitative increase
9.3 Growing mission-mindedness
9.4 Denominational reform processes
10. References
NCD Church Survey
A sample page from the basic NCD profile. It indicates the strengths and the weaknesses of the church.The advanced profiles give further insights into the backgrounds of the present profile.
The NCD Church Survey is the major assessment tool for local churches, that is available in different varieties (basic or detailed reports), based on the needs of the respective churches. In order to receive a profile, about 30 church members fill in a detailed questionnaire. In most countries, the NCD Church Survey is accessible online.
NCD Discipleship Resources
Presently, there are five books in the NCD Discipleship Resource series, each of them covering one of the eight quality characteristics of healthy churches. All of these books are based on the Trinitarian Compass and include a personal assessment tool, either in form of an eTest or in printed form. All of them are accompanied by a number of implementation helps (visuals, coaching suggestions, small group guides, etc.).
• The 3 Colors of Leadership: The book introduces the concept of Spiritual Change Talk as a means to empower other people. It includes the Empowerment Test. Presently available in eight language versions.
• The 3 Colors of Ministry: The book shows how a trinitarian approach to spiritual gifts can create a positive growth dynamic exactly in those areas where the topic may have caused controversies in the past. It includes the Three-Color Gift Test. Presently available in 20 language versions. In 2017, there will be a revised version of the book under the title, The 3 Colors of Your Gifts.
• The 3 Colors of Your Spirituality: The book helps each individual to discover his or or spiritual style (i.e. their individual "antenna for God") and teaches them how to interact most creatively with people who display different spiritual styles. It includes the Spiritual Style Test. Presently available in five language versions.
• The 3 Colors of Community: The book introduces the concept of God’s and shows how to discover and release of each participant’s energy can make every small group relevant both for the participants and for outsiders. It includes the Communal Test that helps each reader identify their respective energy resources. Presently available in seven language versions.
• The 3 Colors of Love: Rather than reducing love exclusively to its soft aspects, the book strives to integrate the three dimensions of justice, truth, and grace. It includes the Fruit of the Spirit Test that is based on Galatians 5:22. Presently available in eight language versions.
Online eTests
The eTests that are integrated in the books of the NCD Discipleship Resources, are also available as stand-alone versions. Each of them can be obtained in different versions, for the assessment of individuals or groups, as basic or detailed profile. Presently the following three eTests are available: Empowerment Test, Communal Test, Spiritual Gift Test.
Coaching
Most of the NCD Partners in various countries offer coaching and consulting through trained NCD Coaches. The role of these coaches is primarily to help relate the universal principles of Natural Church Development to the specific situation of a given church or individual.
NOW! Process
An eight week process focused on discovering God’s energy in each participant, and sharing one’s learnings with at least two more people. A five-minute video explains the philosophy and procedures of the process.
Distribution
By July 2016, the NCD Church Survey has been conducted in more than 70,000 churches, covering 84 countries and 112 denominations. NCD tools are available in 40 languages. In 65 countries, there are NCD Partners who offer support for churches and individuals who want to increase their health and see numerical growth.
Leadership
NCD International functions as a network that is connected to individual leaders and organizations that are committed to support Christians in their area of responsibility. The ministry is directed by Christian A. Schwarz, Christoph Schalk, and Adam Johnstone. This leadership team is supported by an informal advisory board with representatives of different cultures and denominations. The three major areas of operations of NCD International are research, resource development, and training/consulting. Some of the activities (such as publishing, web development, test construction, etc.) have been delegated to companies specifically focused on that topic (such as NCD Media, NCD International GmbH & Co KG, Journey to Life Ltd.).
Results
On the basis of their data base of some 70,000 churches worldwide and the possibility of monitoring the development in churches throughout the last 20 years, NCD International has repeatedly evaluated and published the results of the NCD ministry in empirical terms.
Qualitative increase
In order to assess the average results of long-term commitment, the research team selected all churches that have conducted three or more NCD Church Surveys, and compared the scores of them at the time of the first survey with the scores at the time of the third survey. The increase between these three profiles had been 6 points on average. At the same time, the work load of the participating members decreased significantly (Schwarz 2005, page 190).
Quantitative increase
Comparing the growth patterns of the same churches at the time of their first and their third surveys revealed that the growth rate within that time window increased by 51% on average. At the same time, the percentage of transfer growth (people joining from other churches) decreased while the percentage of conversion growth increased (Schwarz 2005, page 190).
Growing mission-mindedness
In his 2013 dissertation Mission-shaped Church Development, Henrik Andersen conducted both quantitative and qualitative research to evaluate the impact that an NCD process may or may not have on the mission-mindedness (in terms of actually changed behaviors) of churches. For that purpose, Andersen extracted from the missional literature five central indicators of mission-shaped churches and identified items in the NCD Survey that correspond to these features. He then selected churches that have conducted three NCD Church Surveys and researched how they developed between survey 1 and survey 3 in each of the five areas indicating the degree of their missionality. Since in all five categories the missionality of the churches increased considerably throughout the NCD process, Andersen summarized the net findings of his quantitative research in the statement: "When a church implements a Natural Church Development approach, then mission‐shaped development happens all by itself" (Andersen 2013, page 3).
As a second step he did qualitative research in the form of personal interviews with each of the pastors of the churches participating in the study, in order deepen the quantitative discoveries. For instance, he asked them what their reactions would be if an active church member decided to cut down their church involvement to become engaged in a non-Christian community program. The immediate answer was, "Good on them, because they would be out there, and hopefully they would be able to put some Christian influence there" (Andersen 2013, pages 56-57). Andersen concluded that this kind of response was typical for churches involved with Natural Church Development that had experienced an increase in quality.
Denominational reform processes
When NCD has been applied in a whole denomination (such as diocese, church district, network, etc.) and the denominational leaders have supported the attempts of the local churches both spiritually and strategically, the leaders frequently report—apart from numerical growth—about a change of the whole climate within the denomination. On the NCD web site, there is a video section in which denominational leaders from twelve different backgrounds talk about the changes that they have seen in their area of responsibility. One of the diocese that have been a pioneer in the church-wide application of Natural Church Development has been the Anglican Diocese of Coventry under the leadership of Bishop Christopher Cocksworth.
References
• Andersen H, 2013. Mission-shaped Church Development—Does it happen all by itself? Springdale College
• Bonhoeffer D, 2009. Act and Being: Transcendental Philosophy and Ontology in Systematic Theology (2nd edition). Fortress Press: Minneapolis. ISBN 978-0800696535
• Fischer EP, 1987. Sowohl als auch: Denkerfahrungen der Naturwissenschaften. Hamburg: Rasch und Röhring. ISBN 978-3891361184
• Schalk C, 1999. Organizational Diagnosis of Churches: The Statistical Development of the "Natural Church Development" Survey and its Relation to Organizational Psychology. Würzburg
• Schalk C, 2006. The Silent Transformation: How Churches have experienced the Power of the NCD Growth Forces. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638577
• Schwarz F, Schwarz CA, Sudbrack R, 1979-1981. Überschaubare Gemeinde, 3 volumes. Aussaat: Gladbeck. ISBN 978-3795808426, 978-3795808433, 978-3795808587
• Schwarz F, Schwarz CA, 1981. Programm des neuen Lebensstils: Für Leute, denen Jesus konkurrenzlos wichtig ist. Aussaat: Gladbeck. ISBN 978-3795808433
• Schwarz F, Schwarz CA, 1982. Die Friedenslüge: Plädoyer für Wahrhaftigkeit. Aussaat: Neukirchen-Vluyn. ISBN 978-3795808587
• Schwarz F, Schwarz CA, 1984. Theologie des Gemeindeaufbaus – Ein Versuch. Aussaat: Neukirchen-Vluyn. ISBN 978-3761546635
• Schwarz CA, 1987. Praxis des Gemeindeaufbaus. Aussaat: Neukirchen-Vluyn. ISBN 978-3795889333
• Schwarz CA, 1991. Der Gemeindetest: Kybernetisch Gemeinde bauen. Mainz-Kastel: C&P Verlag. ISBN 978-3928093071
• Schwarz CA, Schalk C, 1998. Implementation Guide to Natural Church Development. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638034
• Schwarz CA 1999a. Paradigm Shift in the Church: How Natural Church Development can transform theological thinking. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638058
• Schwarz CA, 1999b. The Threefold Art of Experiencing God: The Liberating Power of a Trinitarian Faith. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638140
• Schwarz CA, 2004. The 3 Colors of Love: The art of giving and receiving justice, truth, and grace. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638454
• Schwarz CA, 2005. Color Your World with Natural Church Development: Experiencing all that God has designed you to be. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638478
• Schwarz CA, 2006. Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches (7th updated and revised edition). ChurchSmart: St. Charles. ISBN 978-1889638003
• Schwarz CA, 2009. The 3 Colors of Your Spirituality: 9 Spiritual Styles—How do you most naturally connect with God? St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638850
• Schwarz CA, 2012a. The 3 Colors of Community: How the 7 Communal Qualities of Healthy Small Groups can help you overcome the 7 Deadly Sins. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638980
• Schwarz CA, 2012b. The 3 Colors of Leadership: How anyone can learn the art of empowering other people. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638973
• Schwarz CA, 2015. The All By Itself Pathway: An Introduction to Natural Church Development. St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1936812110
• Schwarz CA, 2020a. God’s Energy: Reclaiming a New Testament Reality. Emmelsbüll: NCD Media. ISBN 978-3-928093-47-7
• Schwarz CA, 2020b. God Is Indestructible: 12 Responses to the Relevance Crisis of Christianity. Emmelsbüll: NCD Media. ISBN 978-3-928093-34-7
• Schwarz CA, 2017. The 3 Colors of Your Gifts: How to discover and utilize your God-given potential (4th revised edition). St. Charles: ChurchSmart. ISBN 978-1889638164
• Vester F, 1980. Neuland des Denkens: Vom technokratischen zum kybernetischen Zeitalter. Stuttgart: dtv. ISBN 978-3423330015
Launch of Natural Church Development (1996)
In October of 1996, the first edition of the book Natural Church Development (Schwarz 2006) was published simultaneously in ten different language editions (British English, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, U.S. English). This was the first time that the term "Natural Church Development" was used. Meanwhile, the book has been published in many more languages, including Albanian, Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Estonian, Finnish, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, and Ukrainian.
At that time, the Institute for Natural Church Development started to look for NCD National Partners, who help support churches in their respective language areas by training, coaching, and practical tools.
NCD 1.0 (1997-2001)
The first generation of tools (NCD 1.0), targeted the church as a whole. The major resources in this phase were the books, Natural Church Development, Implementation Guide to Natural Church Development, and the NCD Church Survey. In this phase, NCD was a popular topic especially among pastors and denominational leaders.
NCD 2.0 (2002-2014)
In the second generation (NCD 2.0) the target group was enlarged by highlighting that church development is people development, and that healthy churches are made up of healthy Christians. This is the theme of the book, Color Your World with Natural Church Development and the books published in the “3 Color Series” (NCD Discipleship Resources). This approach became popular at the grass-root level through the introduction of the Trinitarian Compass, a theological paradigm that formed the foundation of all succeeding NCD tools, demonstrating how developing spiritual health relates to people’s heads, hands, and hearts (first introduced in The Threefold Art of Experiencing God, Schwarz 1999b).
Resources
Throughout the past two decades, NCD has developed an expanding toolbox focused on strategically increasing the quality in various areas of life.
Video introduction
A first overview of the philosophy and procedures of NCD when applied to the local church level is given in a series of six video clips ("Mini Seminars"), each about 4-5 five minutes in lengths. NCD founder Christian A. Schwarz has recorded these clips in twelve different languages (Danish, Dutch, English, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish).
Introductory books
Four books give introductions to NCD as a whole:
• Natural Church Development: The book was first released in 1996 and was published in a revised edition in 2006. Since the publication of this book indicates the beginning of the NCD ministry, it could not reflect any experiences with the NCD paradigm yet, but is restricted to presenting the strategy and the major research findings. Presently, the book is available in 37 different language versions.
• Color Your World with Natural Church Development: This book is the most encompassing introduction to NCD, reflecting 10 years of ministry and the application both at a corporate and individual level. The book is presently available in 22 language versions.
• Paradigm Shift in the Church: A theological reflection of the NCD paradigm with special reference to Systematic theology and church history. It is available in five language versions.
• The All By Itself Pathway: A short introduction to NCD (reading time 90 minutes) designed to be shared with other people. At the same time, the booklet communicates the latest generation of Natural Church Development (NCD 3.0). It is presently available in 11 language versions and in a number of denominational applications.