The Transforming Churches Process will commence on 1st October 2010 – follow this link for more information
Colour Your World
With Natural Church Development, Christian A. Schwarz introduced a fascinating approach to church growth that really works and has been accepted all over the world. Now he has written a book to show how the biblically-based principles of Natural Church Development can also be a blessing for the spiritual development of the individual believer. Colour Your World is a powerful, graphically-written book for people who seek to live out their faith with balance and passion.
Christian writes: "In 1996 we introduced Natural Church Development to the world through a book of that title. It has captured the hearts and minds of church leaders everywhere. It was based on solid scientific research and on sound biblical principles. It provided insights on the quality of health in churches based on a massive research project that included six continents, eighteen languages, thirty-two countries, 1000 churches, 31,000 participants and over 4 million responses. We discovered that there were eight essential quality characteristics in healthy churches; that healthy churches were growing churches; and that churches could improve their health dramatically by working to improve their minimum factor, but that was then…
"By December 2004, we have data in 30 languages, from 60 countries. We have surveyed over 35,000 churches with more than 1 million participants and over 95 million responses. The conclusions are the same – but now we have more than just research data, we have a wonderful collection of stories and testimonials of how God is changing lives and church all around the world.
"What is the church? The church is people. What determines the health of a church? The health is expressed through the heads, hands and hearts of those people. How can we increase the health of a church? By enhancing the health in our heads, our hands and our hearts."
Colour Your World with Natural Church Development has been written to motivate and mobilise people to apply the NCD in their own personal lives, in the small groups they are a part of and ultimately in the whole church of which they are a part. Christian Schwarz had a typical church member in mind when he wrote the book, and so everyone in your church will benefit from owning and using the work.
But the publishing of the book was just the start of the process. Now you can take part in the The Colour Your World Campaign.
Color Your World is a five-week journey targeted at involving all church members in relating the essence of Natural Church Development to their own heads, hands and hearts. Through a series of daily readings, themed worship services and small group meetings, your people will come to discover a fuller picture of God and be encouraged to reflect the colors of his love to the world around them. The result? A healthier growing church. Why don't you follow this link and register to take part with your church.