Implementation Guide to Natural Church Development

This book is the follow-up to the Natural Church Development book and test offered by Christian Schwarz and his national partners around the world. In some nations this book is distributed with the test results. There is controversy on whether or not this book is the best way to go for developing strategies to improve whatever your church minimum factor is (read Natural Church Development if you are unfamiliar with this terminology). My opinion is that it is very helpful when used by an experienced coach or in conjunction with other great tools like Robert Logan's resources. I have coached churches of all sizes (very large to very small), and I have found that this book is always helpful. There are two key areas of church health that this book deals with. First is with practical ideas on what to do for each of the 8 areas of health (Gift-Oriented Ministry, Inspiring Worship, etc....). The second is with principles that underlie these 8 areas. These principles are called biotics or 'life principles'. There are six of them and this book gives training exercises to help church leaders/pastors to think biotically...or to make decisions using life giving principles instead of copying other churches. So you can use it to train leaders on how to make decisions...or to train them on making decisions related to a specific area of church weakness (to strengthen your weak spot). I would recommend you purchase this book if you are not taking an NCD test. It will still help you if you work through it. If your nation gives this book free with test results, then you might want to wait until your test results are ready. But it's the kind of book that is worth giving away. I always direct pastors to this book when coaching them for NCD. I think if you are working on your church health or minimum factor, this book is worth reading or referencing.

Once you receive your NCD survey results, what do you do with them? This Implementation Guide includes checklists and action steps for your Implementation Team (we call this your Church Health Team) to consider. One copy of this book is included with your NCD survey. You may wish to buy additional copies for the members of your Church Health Team.