I was introduced to NCD a few years ago, just before I was looking to head off to Bible College. Having grown up with my parents running a church plant and being involved in several thriving churches, I could
instantly see how NCD principles reflected well the different aspects of church life with respect to health and growth.
However for me it was the theology of the Trinitarian Compass which grabbed me. In my time at Bible College, and for many of the other students too, the most profound realisation has come from recognising the importance of the Trinity within our Christian faith. Seeking to move away from the question of how Trinity and moving more towards the why Trinity. It is for this reason the Trinitarian compass has provided a key starting point for seeking how I applied Trinity into aspects of the everyday Christian life.
Throughout the Bible when speaking about the things of God it is often referred to as a mystery. For me I have found the Trinitarian Compass a helpful way of describing the mystery, where two or more apparently opposing ideas can both be right and good and held in tension and can bring you closer into the heart and the mystery of God.
In the church the doctrine of the Trinity is something which is often affirmed as a central belief but seems to have no bearing on how the church lives and behaves. Yet it was the doctrine of the Trinity which shaped the whole spirituality of the early Church Fathers. I feel that NCD is helping provide and resource the church with a practical theology of applied Trinity that allows us as the church to more fully reflect what it is to be God's hands and feet in our communities.
Pete Everitt.
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
The NCD-UK TCP Journey in Outline
You may already know about the Transforming Churches Process from the website, www.ncd-transformation.com, or you may already be halfway through registering or doing the initial survey. However, here is an outline of the different stages for churches, as a refresher or as an ongoing guide.
Summer 2010. It is time for churches, coaches and other interested church leaders to register online, for the process as a whole and for the first seminar. Leaders will download the NCD Survey material and conduct the initial survey in their church. The Profile Plus received by the church will form the basis for reflection and implementation at the first seminar and as the process unfolds. Now is a good time to get familiar with NCD by reading Colour Your World with Natural Church Development, sent to participating churches, otherwise available to order from www.ncdresources.co.uk.
1st Seminar, 1 & 2 October 2010. This is being held at the Barceló Daventry Hotel, over two days. Christian Schwarz will focus on NCD principles and insights, whilst Christoph Schalk will be leading in NCD coaching skills. The NCD-UK team will also be on hand. Churches and coaches will be sufficiently resourced to enable them to begin developing solutions in implementing NCD in their own contexts.
October 2010 to May 2011. Churches will be working at understanding and implementing NCD, supported by a number of coaching appointments. This is also an opportunity to put the seminar learning into practice.
2nd Seminar, 13th & 14th May 2011. This is being held at the Leicester South Salvation Army Conference Centre. Continuing the input and training from Christian A Schwarz and Christoph Schalk, and opportunities to share experiences so far.
May to November 2011. Churches will be continuing working at understanding and implementing NCD, supported by a number of coaching appointments. Towards the end of this period churches will conduct a 2nd NCD Survey to measure and evaluate progress so far.
3rd Seminar, 11th & 12th No-vember 2011. This is also being held at the Leicester South Salvation Army Conference Centre. This is the final opportunity during TCP to hear from Christian and Christoph. This will be followed by a continued period of coaching and implementation.
The end of TCP is not the end of the NCD cycle, but rather the beginning of the next phase. The next steps will be different for each church as we experience what God has in store for His church and its mission in the UK.
Summer 2010. It is time for churches, coaches and other interested church leaders to register online, for the process as a whole and for the first seminar. Leaders will download the NCD Survey material and conduct the initial survey in their church. The Profile Plus received by the church will form the basis for reflection and implementation at the first seminar and as the process unfolds. Now is a good time to get familiar with NCD by reading Colour Your World with Natural Church Development, sent to participating churches, otherwise available to order from www.ncdresources.co.uk.
1st Seminar, 1 & 2 October 2010. This is being held at the Barceló Daventry Hotel, over two days. Christian Schwarz will focus on NCD principles and insights, whilst Christoph Schalk will be leading in NCD coaching skills. The NCD-UK team will also be on hand. Churches and coaches will be sufficiently resourced to enable them to begin developing solutions in implementing NCD in their own contexts.
October 2010 to May 2011. Churches will be working at understanding and implementing NCD, supported by a number of coaching appointments. This is also an opportunity to put the seminar learning into practice.
2nd Seminar, 13th & 14th May 2011. This is being held at the Leicester South Salvation Army Conference Centre. Continuing the input and training from Christian A Schwarz and Christoph Schalk, and opportunities to share experiences so far.
May to November 2011. Churches will be continuing working at understanding and implementing NCD, supported by a number of coaching appointments. Towards the end of this period churches will conduct a 2nd NCD Survey to measure and evaluate progress so far.
3rd Seminar, 11th & 12th No-vember 2011. This is also being held at the Leicester South Salvation Army Conference Centre. This is the final opportunity during TCP to hear from Christian and Christoph. This will be followed by a continued period of coaching and implementation.
The end of TCP is not the end of the NCD cycle, but rather the beginning of the next phase. The next steps will be different for each church as we experience what God has in store for His church and its mission in the UK.
Saturday, 25 December 2010
NCD Christmas Greetings
This last year has been a very eventful one for me and for NCD. I have been the national partner for NCD in the UK and Ireland since 1999, first through the British Church Growth Association and then from 2003 in my own right through Healthy Church UK. But during the last year, after the formation of Natural Church Development - UK Ltd, I handed over the partnership to this new charitable company. I reach retiring age in 2011 and I have been conscious for a while that it was important to hand over the work over a period of time so that it will continue and develop. I am grateful to Kerry, Colin and Henrik for being available to set up the new charitable company with me, for Lynn who has now joined us as a Trustee/Director, and David as Finance Manager.
But there has been even more than this, for Henrik and I have been working on the Transforming Churches Process for some years, although we didn’t use that name in the early stages – and it finally began last October. We had always been sure that this process would have a great effect on churches and denominations that took part and we are now working through that process. It is exciting looking forward to the results even though they will not be with us for a while yet.
So, as we reach the end of this year, I look back with great gratitude to God for his leading and look forward to great things in the coming year as we see God moving even more. Of course, we are looking for a replacement for me – and we would value your prayers for that, but I do not plan to quit NCD completely, although my wife Eileen and I are looking forward to travelling much more as we reach the end of 2011 and into 2012.
I send you my greetings for Christmas and the New Year and trust that God will move greatly in your family and in your work in the coming year. He is always faithful and so I expect the future to be great for us all as we depend on him.
Philip Walker.
But there has been even more than this, for Henrik and I have been working on the Transforming Churches Process for some years, although we didn’t use that name in the early stages – and it finally began last October. We had always been sure that this process would have a great effect on churches and denominations that took part and we are now working through that process. It is exciting looking forward to the results even though they will not be with us for a while yet.
So, as we reach the end of this year, I look back with great gratitude to God for his leading and look forward to great things in the coming year as we see God moving even more. Of course, we are looking for a replacement for me – and we would value your prayers for that, but I do not plan to quit NCD completely, although my wife Eileen and I are looking forward to travelling much more as we reach the end of 2011 and into 2012.
I send you my greetings for Christmas and the New Year and trust that God will move greatly in your family and in your work in the coming year. He is always faithful and so I expect the future to be great for us all as we depend on him.
Philip Walker.
Friday, 17 December 2010
Christmas Message from Christoph Schalk
Christoph Schalk of NCD International sends his Christmas greetings:
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Lynn Chetcuti joins the NCDUK Team
As Associate Pastor for Reading Vineyard Church, my primary passion in life is seeing people identify their gifting and calling and then growing in all that God has for them; a passion that has developed over the past ten years since addressing our minimum factor (gift-based ministry) when we conducted our first NCD survey in 2000.
Having seen many benefits across various aspects of church life from implementing NCD counsel, I have continuously felt that the surveys of greatest benefit have been those where we understood our results, we could see them reflected in our church culture and of course knew how to address the opportunities before us and so with a real desire to understand more I booked a place on the TCP Seminar 1 in October this year.
It was a phenomenal conference, inspiring in so many ways, and I was particularly delighted to see the investment that NCD was making in developing coaches to assist each client understand their results and capitalize on their strengths and having chosen to train as a coach myself, I was thrilled when the team invited me to join them.
I hope to serve NCD and indeed its client base most particularly through this implementation process. As leaders we are utterly committed to excellence; it is our desire to see each of the eight quality characteristics evident in our churches empowering the local church to see His Kingdom come, to see those who don’t know the Lord coming into living relationship with Him and to see those who do, flourishing as disciples of Jesus.
I look forward to investing time and energy increasingly in exploring how we as His church in the UK can fully capitalize on all that God has given to us and hope to assist my own congregation and many others to see the breakthrough that we have looked for, for some time.
Lynn Chetcuti.
Having seen many benefits across various aspects of church life from implementing NCD counsel, I have continuously felt that the surveys of greatest benefit have been those where we understood our results, we could see them reflected in our church culture and of course knew how to address the opportunities before us and so with a real desire to understand more I booked a place on the TCP Seminar 1 in October this year.
It was a phenomenal conference, inspiring in so many ways, and I was particularly delighted to see the investment that NCD was making in developing coaches to assist each client understand their results and capitalize on their strengths and having chosen to train as a coach myself, I was thrilled when the team invited me to join them.
I hope to serve NCD and indeed its client base most particularly through this implementation process. As leaders we are utterly committed to excellence; it is our desire to see each of the eight quality characteristics evident in our churches empowering the local church to see His Kingdom come, to see those who don’t know the Lord coming into living relationship with Him and to see those who do, flourishing as disciples of Jesus.
I look forward to investing time and energy increasingly in exploring how we as His church in the UK can fully capitalize on all that God has given to us and hope to assist my own congregation and many others to see the breakthrough that we have looked for, for some time.
Lynn Chetcuti.
Transforming Churches Process Makes Good Start
On the 1st October 2010, over 180 delegates gathered at the Barceló Daventry Hotel for the first NCD-UK Transforming Churches Process Seminar. During the eighteen months of the process churches are engaging with NCD principles in order to release their God-given potential for development and growth.
Over the two days of the seminar, Christian Schwarz led sessions on the Three Colours of Spirituality and the Three Colours of Leadership; and Christoph Schalk led sessions relating to Coaching Skills for Natural Church Development. There was time for worship and fellowship, and for church groups to begin working with their coaches. There was a lot to fit in, and from the feedback we have received, the overwhelming response was of encouragement and inspiration, and a sense that there was a lot of work to be done back at home! Please continue to pray for all the churches who are involved in the TCP, as they begin their implementation.
At the Question and Answer session on the Saturday, we promised that we would set up a blog so that we could continue to support each other between the seminars. So you can now log on to www.ncd-uk.blogspot.com to comment or share experiences. Comments will be subject to moderation before appearing. If you wish to make a main contribution, please e-mail it to info@ncd-uk.com and we will post it as soon as possible. Attach any photos you want to appear. NCD-UK will also use the blog to post news and articles from time to time. So keep a look out!
In the last couple of months we have added to the NCD-UK team. Lynn Chetcuti has joined the Board of Directors, and David Shemilt has come on board as our Finance Manager. We are delighted to welcome these new friends, and look forward to being better able to serve the NCD community, churches in the UK and Ireland, and ultimately see the renewal and growth of Christ’s kingdom in this world.
Over the two days of the seminar, Christian Schwarz led sessions on the Three Colours of Spirituality and the Three Colours of Leadership; and Christoph Schalk led sessions relating to Coaching Skills for Natural Church Development. There was time for worship and fellowship, and for church groups to begin working with their coaches. There was a lot to fit in, and from the feedback we have received, the overwhelming response was of encouragement and inspiration, and a sense that there was a lot of work to be done back at home! Please continue to pray for all the churches who are involved in the TCP, as they begin their implementation.
At the Question and Answer session on the Saturday, we promised that we would set up a blog so that we could continue to support each other between the seminars. So you can now log on to www.ncd-uk.blogspot.com to comment or share experiences. Comments will be subject to moderation before appearing. If you wish to make a main contribution, please e-mail it to info@ncd-uk.com and we will post it as soon as possible. Attach any photos you want to appear. NCD-UK will also use the blog to post news and articles from time to time. So keep a look out!
In the last couple of months we have added to the NCD-UK team. Lynn Chetcuti has joined the Board of Directors, and David Shemilt has come on board as our Finance Manager. We are delighted to welcome these new friends, and look forward to being better able to serve the NCD community, churches in the UK and Ireland, and ultimately see the renewal and growth of Christ’s kingdom in this world.
NCD-UK News: Winter Edition Now Available
The Winter Edition of NCD-UK News is now available. If you would like to receive a copy, which will be sent as a pdf file, please send your request along with your e-mail address to info@ncd-uk.com
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
TCP Seminar 1 Photos
To see a selection of photos from the TCP Seminar 1 at Daventry in October, click on the link to the NCD-UK Flickr site in the right hand column
NCD-UK New Logo Launched at TCP Seminar 1
October's NCD-UK Transforming Churches Process Seminar 1 was the first outing for our new NCD-UK logo. Thank you for all the positive comments we have received.
NCD-UK Blog Now Online
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new NCD-UK blog. This is a public blog - please use it to make comments and give any feedback that you feel will be helpful for others to see. Please note that comments may be moderated before they are displayed online. If you wish to submit a main blog entry, please email it to info@ncd-uk.com first.
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