what is NCD?

NCD stands for “Natural Church Development and is a medium to long-term growth policy for reforming and upgrading the quality and fruitfulness of the local church. Based on biblical and empirical principles it seeks to promote an interactive growth partnership between workers and God, based on eight key areas of church life.” Quoted from Healthy Church website.

As a congregation it is an tool we have adopted to help us become a biblically healthy and growing church. We do not use NCD as our only approach to church growth, but as a tool which helps us towards a biblically healthy church.

The NCD approach has found that there are 8 factors which correlate to church health and growth,

Empowering leadership
Gift-orientated ministry
Passionate spirituality
Functional structures
Inspiring worship services
Holistic small groups
Need-orientated evangelism
Loving relationships

On the basis of their research with thousands of congregations around the world, they have found that congregations who are strong in these areas are also growing congregations.

They have also found that congregations are more likely to become growing congregations by focussing on their weakest area without neglecting their strongest areas.