NCD - the Biblical perspective

Since 2005 I have been administering and coaching the balanced approach to church health through applying the eight quality characteristics as outlined by the Natural Church Development. However, my personal recent discovery of a new Biblical dimension added to my passion about this objective paradigm to church wellbeing.
In March of 2007 I was on the plane, flying to Russia at the request of the Zaokski Adventist Seminary to teach ministerial students at a bachelor’s level. I had all the theory and presentations ready, yet, I suspected that if I introduced it as a “German empirical research” it may not be well received. I knew I needed a better introduction than logic and research results based on more than forty thousand churches worldwide.
As I prayerfully browsed through my Bible I opened to the list of virtues in the second letter of Apostle Peter, where he explains what would guarantee a church’s effectiveness. Much persuasive research has been done during the last four decades to show the necessity of all eight elements to be present in healthy churches. Yet, these have been known ever since Apostle Peter listed them in his letter: “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” (2 Pet. 1:5-7) Peter ends with a categorical statement: “if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind, and cannot see afar off…” (2 Pet. 1:8-9) Furthermore, Peter’s holy boldness asserts that these qualities guarantee “an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 1:11) Wow! What better formula do you need for success and hope? The preceding verse says that if we do these things we will never fail and will prove our election and calling sure.
I was familiar with this list as a “ladder” of virtues, with successive steps to become a loving Christian. For the first time I saw this list not as a progression, but as a comprehensive list of qualities necessary for a balanced Christian life, and thus for a balanced Church. What really caught my attention was the number of spiritual disciplines – eight! It matched the eight quality characteristics outlined by Schwarz in measuring the health of a church. There, in Peter’s letter, I found what I see as the Biblical verification of the church measuring instrument. A detailed article on the Biblical support for NCD tool was published recently in the Ontario Conference Highlights.
To begin with, Peter calls for giving all diligence, making effort, being earnest in accomplishing, promoting, and striving after the purpose. That is a beautiful picture of Empowered Leadership. The Bible speaks of diligence as the main quality of successful leadership. (Proverbs 21:5; 12:24). The Apostle Paul spoke of diligence and enthusiasm as spiritual gifts of leadership (Romans 12:11).
Next Peter introduces the Purpose – evangelism, sharing the Faith, and in doing so, one must add virtue, goodness. Not simply “evangelism,” sterile and disconnected from life, not a prepositional statement of beliefs, but a genuine care for the needs of people, a Need-Oriented Evangelism of offering goodness, a Faith with Virtue. The method Jesus used when He “mingled with men as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, "Follow Me."(Ellen G. White "Ministry of Healing" p.143).
Doing the good works of evangelism flows from personal giftedness, therefore, knowing one’s giftedness is important. Peter says that we must have knowledge added to goodness of our faith-sharing. When ministry is informed by awareness of God-given gifts it becomes truly effective. Gift-oriented Ministry is an essential requirement for genuine ministry.
The Spiritually gifted life will manifest true Passionate Spirituality, self-control, and submission to the Spirit, where carnal desires and sensual passions are under disciplined control of the Spirit. Patience is the product of spiritual discipline. Patience is used as a defining label of sainthood spirituality when John the Revelator states “here is the patience of the saints (Rev.13:10; 14:12). It is patience that perseveres and collaborates with other believers, making the Body of Christ structurally fit and effective. Functional Structures are the norm for a living Body. It is impossible for a healthy church to be dysfunctional. That would be a contradiction of terms.
Next Peter speaks of godliness, which is just a synonym for a worshipful life. A life of devotion is not formality, but is inspired by the Presence of God. It presents such an Inspiring Worship, where even an unbeliever observing will end up worshiping, by falling on his face and saying “Truly God is among you!” (1st Corinthians 14:24-25)
In addition Peter speaks of brotherly kindness, describing the ideal of Christian fellowship as a community created through Holistic Small Groups, where total care and nurture is provided. The philadelphia “brotherly love” concept is not just random acts of kindness, but the “one-anotherness” principle, where koinonia fellowship supplies total mutual care for individual needs. All this is possible through Loving Relationships, the agape love, which crowns the Christian life (Colossians 3:12).
For apostle Peter this was a common theme. He lists these quality characteristics for a healthy church also in his first letter (1Peter 4: 7-11) naming disciplined spirituality, passionate love, hospitality, gift based ministry, stewardship as leadership, inspiring worship and evangelism.

Entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom

Did you know that in the Scripture there is a formula listed ending with this promise: “for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11)? Another translation puts it this way “in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you.” WOW! The preceding verse says that if we do these things – we will never fail!

Do you know the “things” apostle Peter was talking about? Do you know this formula of success?

I had a different blog idea for this week. But when elder Cameron Munro opened the Scripture to 2^nd Peter 1:3-11 to lead our time of prayer this past Wednesday, the passage he had chosen spoke volumes to me and I knew I had to revisit this again.

Apostle Peter in various ways is telling believers in his letter that there are certain qualities, certain elements that must be present in our lives which prove our election and calling sure (v.10) , which testify that our sins are forgiven (v.9), which make a believer fruitful and productive (v.8), which allow us to escape the corruption of this world (v.4). Do you know these “things”?

There are 8 (eight) of them listed in verses 5 through 7:

1. first there is diligence, initiative taking; 
2. then there is caring faith, 
3. spiritual knowledge, awareness of God’s gifts, 
4. disciplined living of surrendered self, 
5. enduring and reliable consistency, 
6. devotion of living in God’s presence, 
7. family-like relationships in the community, 
8. Love.

Peter’s emphasis is on ALL of these “things.” Not some, but having ALL. In the past I’ve paraphrased these in contemporary terms 

1. empowering leadership; 
2. need-solving evangelism; 
3. ministering with awareness of spiritual gifts; 
4. passionate spirituality; 
5. functional and consistent structures; 
6. life inspired in worship; 
7. community groups, 
8. loving relationships.

I see our church having ALL these THINGS. In words of the same apostle from an earlier letter “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.” (1 Peter 1:22)

Meditate on these things. Dream these things! Desire these things. Pray about these. Share with ours your dreams. And live these eight things, so that your entrance into the Kingdom of God would be supplied to you abundantly.

CHURCH HEALTH: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Last week I shared with you a broad overview of the recent NCD survey results.  We have grown, improved in many directions.

And three areas need radical improvement, I would say, ICU-type care. Passionate spirituality has always been our strength, and we lack no spiritual gifts.  Some of you were asking me what needs to be done, what steps need to be taken to improve relationships, leadership, and group dynamics.

First we need to have “Church Health Team,” a taskforce consisting of a strategic thinker, researcher, intercessor, communicator, team leader. We need spiritually mature servant-leaders-volunteers, who exercise personal spiritual disciplines and who have a heart for God and his kingdom; people who can see the big picture, who are not lost in the details; people who can make dreams become reality, who can bring the idea into practice, people who are committed to see the church grow. Enthusiasm for the church is contagious and motivates others.  If you sense God’s calling and want to participate in this process, please email me, or talk to myself or elder Mike Keim.

Even as we notice that we “dropped the ball” on evangelism this year, the “in-reach” is a priority now.  We need to build such relationships that we would retain everyone who comes in contact with our church family.  No point of inviting if we are not sure ourselves we want to mingle together. Meanwhile let’s ask ourselves:

-          Do our leaders enjoy their ministry in church?

-          Is pastor doing/working too much?

-          Do we let our leaders explain things, do we listen to them enough?

-          Do we, our elders-leaders believe that God wants us to grow?

-          Do we hold our leaders accountable for their responsibilities & promises?

-          What would it take for our leaders to start small groups, where trust and nurture will help everyone to grow, and each would feel “at home”?

-          What would it take to build reliable friendships within the church?

-          Have you left your bitterness and hurts in the past, and are you ready to move into bright future?

Let your leaders know about your personal problems, so they will be in the know and show concern for every individual.  Remember, leaders in church are not for Sabbath performance only, but for every day fellowship and nurture too.

Pray without ceasing for the revival of our church.

FOCUS ON CHURCH HEALTH AND BALANCE

Dear family, about two month ago 30 selected members of our church family participated in our annual opinion poll of church life.  27  did return the survey.  Below you see a bar-graph of results. For comparison our last year’s (2009) results are also plotted, together with our first survey (2005), and our highest average year (2007).

The overall results during the past five years are good, we had experienced growth.  Emphasis on “every believer a minister” and providing opportunities for people to get involved in ministry according to their spiritual giftedness shows results!  Our worship experience has been a blessing.  Improvement has been shown in relationships and community groups. Passionate spirituality is our strength.

It is obvious that we “dropped the ball” on evangelism this year.  However, the greatest concern is the trend in leadership, where empowerment is not taking place, mentoring and teamwork is lacking.  The results were not a surprise, as elders had expressed recently the need for relationship and teamwork building, moving to facilitate elders meetings in homes, rather than in a formal setting.  I had shared these results with the Board last week, and we will further discuss how we as a family will grow in these three areas: relationships, groups, leadership. 

Right now a taskforce is much needed to facilitate the improvement: strategic thinker, researcher, intercessor, communicator, team leader.

The “church health” team needs spiritually mature people, who exercise personal spiritual disciplines and who have a heart for God and his kingdom, people who can see the big picture, who are not lost in the details, people who can make dreams become reality, who can bring the idea into practice, people who are committed to see the church grow. Enthusiasm for the church is contagious and motivates others.  If you sense God’s calling and want to participate in this process, please email me, or talk to myself or elder Mike Keim.

Pray without ceasing for the revival of our church.