Amy Shanholtzer

Director,  Evangelism and Congregational Development

Natural Church Development proves it

Several years ago I was walking with my youngest daughter down the street from one place to another. At the time she was about three and in my own head, I was beginning to long for those baby days for just a bit longer.

Knowing that there were not likely to be any other children coming along, I tried to savor every moment of those toddler years. For some unknown reason, I looked at her and said, out loud, “Would you please stop growing up?” In her three-year-old wisdom she replied, “I can’t help it Mom. God makes me grow.”

She was right. Leave it to a three year old to remind us of the things that we ought to know ourselves. Try as we might to achieve growth, ultimately it is God who makes things grow. Any gardener would tell you the same thing. All the fertilizer and weeding in the world cannot assure a bountiful harvest. Ultimately, there are factors that are out of our control.

In Natural Church Development, one of the guiding principles is that God desires for God’s church to grow. A strong, healthy body of Christ is truly God’s desire. The health of the body might be in the numbers of people that make up the body. However, numbers alone do not tell the story. There is a strength and vitality of spirituality that matters within the body of Christ as well.

Natural Church Development is an outgrowth of an international research project that included more than 1,000 churches in 32 countries on six continents. To date 40,000 churches have participated in the Natural Church Development process – a process designed to release the growth potential God has designed into the body of Christ.

NCD process invites the church to focus on one area of the total life of the church, a maximum leverage point, which will help to remove obstacles to growth. Instead of being pulled to the latest program that worked for someone else, NCD is an invitation to use the creativity and originality with which God has gifted each congregation to become what God designed it to be, a strong, vital representation of God in the world.

       If you’d like to find out more about the Natural Church Development process, please feel free to contact me at any time. You can reach me at the Conference Office – 1.800.788.3746, extension 26. Really, God desires strength and wholeness and health for the entire body of Christ.