NCD (Natural Church Development), so named by Christian Schwarz and his church development team in Germany in the mid 1990s, puts forth a Trinitarian (represented by the 3-colored logo on the right) point of view that healthy churches are not merely churches offering correct teaching and preaching (orthodoxy), nor churches that grow and expand their programming (B-I-G may mean Boring Irrelevant and Gloomy!), nor churches that have enthusiastic and emotional or spiritualistic revivals and worship services. Rather, healthy churches have a right balance among truth, power and wisdom. They evidence certain universal characteristics found in every true, biblically based church, no matter what the denominational creed, the langauge of the people, the style of worship or the method of evangelistic thrust and awareness.

Natural Church Development (NCD) has rigorously demonstrated that it has universal validity. The original research project was carried out in the mid 90s with over 1,000 churches in 32 countries, covering six continents, 18 languages and over 220 denominational groups. In all, over 4 million people participated in this original study. Nine years later, with over 40,000 churches doing three or more surveys, the quality of church health increased in all categories, growth rate increased by 51%, and transfer growth decreased while conversion growth increased. Over one million people have been added to churches as a result of applying natural church development principles. Today, over 50,000 churches have been blessed in this process. In addition to the statistical evidence compiled, NCD has biblical warrant and flows from understanding God's creative work in His body, the Church.

Qualities of every healthy church come from the biblical convictions that God alone causes the church to grow and that every true church of Jesus Christ has at its core an "all-by-itself [Himself]" growth principle (cf. Mark 4:26f/"automatic"). The question is, How can it be released in my local church? NCD has uncovered eight universal church health qualities: empowering leadership, gift-oriented ministry, passionate spirituality, functional structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism and loving relationships. Notice the adjectives say it all! Healthy churches have leaders that empower others to lead, strategically design ministry acording to the spiritual gifts of the body, cultivate people who are on fire for God, possess structures that actually facilitate church vision, partake in worship services where people sense the presence of God, gather in groups that are authentic and transparent, understand and practice outreach geared to their ministry area, and truly practice love to one another as they serve God. © Carl Shank Consulting, 2009. All rights reserved.

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