NCD Survey Information and Instructions

How do you begin the process?

A church leader will normally commence the process by purchasing a copy of the Natural Church Development Handbook (price £14.00 inc p&p). This book sets out the background to the whole process and enables an initial understanding of Natural Church Development. An enthusiasm for the concepts and process usually follows and the second step is to build spiritual momentum in the church through teaching about NCD which will then provide a means of improving the overall health of the church.

The next step is to carry out a survey of the active church members. This is important, for the analysis is not based on the thinking of those on the periphery of the church, but on the leaders, the active people and the small group members. It is important that those who answer the questions are active in the local church and should be a member of a small group, although this does not have to be a home group.

To obtain the questionnaires it is necessary for every church to purchase a copy of the Natural Church Development Implementation Manual (price £20.00 inc p&p). The norm is for a 1 leader’s survey to be completed and 30 church members, but the files are included on a CD enclosed with the book, so you can print as many as you want. This CD provides a wide range of information for carrying out the survey, including some PowerPoint presentations, and is included in the price of the Manual. The Manual is important before the Survey, but it is essential for the implementation of the process following the survey results.

We prefer to come and present the results of the survey to a church meeting or a meeting of the Implementation Team in person, so that there is full understanding of the process and the results, and the initial steps beyond there are in place. The cost of this is £400 and it includes the full report with a detailed analysis. If you feel you have the knowledge and expertise to do this within the church we will send you the survey profile at a cost of £125 (plus £50 for the detailed analysis). The profile provides a full report and instructions based on the Natural Development Implementation Manual. We usually complete the report within 10 working days, but if we can, we send initial results by email much more quickly than that, sometimes as soon as we receive your file. It is very important to us that you get your results as quickly as possible. Your payment of £125 also gives you 15 minutes of consultancy by telephone or email. For this please contact philip@healthychurch.co.uk. If you cannot enter the data yourself, we will do it for you, but there is a charge of £15.00 for each 30 questionnaires and the report may take a little longer.

Who Should Complete the Survey?

The Survey is designed to be completed by the Church Leader (who will actually complete two forms - one seeking factual information and the same form as everyone else) and 29 other people. Choosing the participants in the survey is important. The survey is not designed for every church member and although it is possible to survey everyone in this way, it is not necessary and may skew the results.

Those who complete the survey should be:

1. A member of a small group, but as it says above, do not think just about the traditional small group. Choirs are small groups, PCCs are small groups, church leadership teams are small groups, people focused on a special ministry in the church may be in a small group of like-minded people.... It is therefore important for those in these groups to understand what we mean by a small group and answer accordingly.
2. They should be active people within the church. The questionnaire is not written for the people in the periphery. It is not that they are unimportant, it is that the questionnaire will not be able to be answered by them. So choose the people who know about the church and who are active within the work.

If you find there are more than 30 people who meet these criteria, you will find that you can enter up to 99 survey forms into the software for the analysis. But there is no advantage for the survey to have more forms. The only advantage is that people feel included if their forms are included, so it may be of value to have more people completing the forms.

What if I have less than 30 people who are in these categories?

The Survey and Analysis are just as valid for the smaller congregation and if you have less than 30 people, this is not a problem. If you use everybody who meets the criteria, you cannot get more accurate than this. So simply get everyone together and enable them all the fill in the forms and your results will reflect your church.

Completing the Forms

Many churches have tried to hand out the forms and then collect them back a short time later. This has always resulted in too few forms coming back, so we recommend that you call the people together after a meeting, or at a different time that is convenient, and offer them refreshments and complete the forms all together. We have found this to be far more effective and much quicker. Encourage people to complete as many questions as possible as this will make the data entry easier and quicker.

This is a "feelings" survey and so the participants should be encouraged to complete the form in about 20 to 30 minutes. The intention is that the questions are completed with the answer that comes immediately to mind. It is not necessary to to pray about the answers! If someone has difficulty with reading, it is quite in order to offer assistance.

What to do next

The next stage is to enter the data into the spreadsheet, which has been provided on the CD that came with the NCD Implementation Manual. If you don't have it (or can't find it), it is possible to email you another, so please ask.

The spreadsheet has full instructions, so simply start on the first page and follow through the instructions working on each tabbed page in turn. When you get to the Calculations Page, it will take you to a Web Site to enter the data, but you will need a login code and password. At the moment Healthy Church UK will do this part of the work for you at no extra cost and will send you a full report and some initial comments to help you to begin the process.