The Holy Spirit

The third great "Effective Structure", that God set up to restore this earth, is the Holy Spirit. It is God's way of connecting the first structure, the Word made flesh (Jesus), to the second structure, His church. The spirit applies the vast and precious blessings of Christ to our individual and church life.

In our little metaphor, if the church is the lamp and the Word made flesh is the oil in the lamp, then the Holy Spirit is the lighted wick. (see the picture above)

Our God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29) and Jesus is the true light, which gives light to everyone (John 1:9), so when the Holy Spirit effectively links the church to Christ, we become the light of the world (Matt 5:14).

A healthy church glows brightly with the power and presence of Christ through His Holy Spirit. Natural Church Development simply measures the strength of the church's connection to Jesus though the Holy Spirit. The minimum factor is the area of church life where the Spirit is given the least access.

So, unlike the first Effective Structure where God acted unilaterally, without input from us, except our great need, the third structure involves not just God's promise and gift (Luke 24:49, Acts 1:4, 2:33) but our reception of it. It is possible to quench the Spirit (1 Thess 5:19).

The Father longs to give us the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:11-13) but the third great Structure is Effective only when we remove the obstructions, when we love Christ and allow the Spirit to work.

He who loves Christ the most will do the greatest amount of good. There is no limit to the usefulness of one who, by putting self aside, makes room for the working of the Holy Spirit upon his heart, and lives a life wholly consecrated to God. If men will endure the necessary discipline, without complaining or fainting by the way, God will teach them hour by hour, and day by day. He longs to reveal His grace. If His people will remove the obstructions, He will pour forth the waters of salvation in abundant streams through the human channels. If men in humble life were encouraged to do all the good they could do, if restraining hands were not laid upon them to repress their zeal, there would be a hundred workers for Christ where now there is one. - The Desire of Ages pp 250,251

"Without complaining"... The foolish young women (unhealthy churches) made the complaint "Give us some of your oil, our lamps are going out." But the wise answered, saying, "Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves."(Matt 25:8,9)

To be ready for God's kingdom, to be a healthy Christian, and a healthy church, we must, individually, have "enough" of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Next week's Blessings is entitled "Enough Already!".

The Church

You and me, together, at Toronto church. That's the second Effective Structure God established to restore this lost world. Pretty amazing isn't it!

When Jesus commissioned His church (remember that is you and me) He gave us all the authority we need to go all over the world (including Toronto) making disciples, baptising and teaching (Matthew 28:18-20). He expects us to do the job so well that it will glorify the Father... forever (Ephesians 3:20,21)!

To do such a big job and make Jesus really happy, each person at Toronto has to have "be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind." being helpful and humble.(Philippians 2:2,3). How is that achieved? By "having this mind among (us), which is yours in Christ Jesus." (Phil 2:5).

The first paragraph of Mrs White's "The Acts of the Apostles", from the chapter entitled "God's Purpose for His Church", is:

The church is God's appointed agency for the salvation of men. It was organized for service, and its mission is to carry the gospel to the world. From the beginning it has been God's plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to "the principalities and powers in heavenly places," the final and full display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10.

So there it is... our little church, is the second Effective Principle God has set up to carry the gospel to Toronto.

If we return to the analogy, from last time, of Jesus, the Word made flesh, being the oil in the lamp, then the church is the actual lamp itself, the "jars of clay", "earthen vessels" that the power of God, not ours, is displayed. (2 Corinthians 4:7).

Next time we look at the third structure.

The Word was Made Flesh

The opening 3 paragraphs from the "History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century" by J. H. Merle d'Aubigné (1794-1872)

The enfeebled world was tottering on its foundations when Christianity appeared. The national religions which had satisfied the parents, no longer proved sufficient for their children. The new generations could not repose contented within the ancient forms. The gods of every nation, when transported to Rome, there lost their oracles, as the nations themselves had there lost their liberty. Brought face to face in the Capitol, they had destroyed each other, and their divinity had vanished. A great void was occasioned in the religion of the world.

A kind of deism, destitute alike of spirit and of life, floated for a time above the abyss in which the vigorous superstitions of antiquity had been engulfed. But like all negative creeds, it had no power to reconstruct. National prepossessions disappeared with the fall of the national gods. The various kingdoms melted one into the other. In Europe, Asia, and Africa , there was but one vast empire, and the human race began to feel its universality and unity.

Then the Word was made flesh.

Please read that again... out loud.

Good news isn't it! (Well written too)

The coming of the Messiah, the Son of God, as our Saviour is wonderful news indeed. Worth thinking about. Worth singing about! Especially at Christmas.

The Word becoming flesh is the first of the three great Effective Structures that God set up to restore fallen humanity. But like the whole "Effective Structures" thing we often miss the point.

We have great "Structures" in the Adventist church. From the General Conference up to the North New South Wales Conference, up to Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church, and finally the peak, you and me, we have a powerful structure that can complete God's will for our part the big world.

Our tithing and offering system, along with with our effective financial committee and treasurers, allows us to put on programs and run ministries for our children, our oldies and the public.

I'm on the nominating committee at present and can only be amazed at all the positions that are filled by talented, dedicated volunteers year after year.

Let me make it clear: Toronto SDA church has great STRUCTURES! I wouldn't want to see any of them change. But what makes them EFFECTIVE?... only the presence of Jesus Christ!

Like the young women in Matthew 25, we have our lamps, shiny, fine structures, well made, well maintained year-after-year, but without oil they are useless and certainly not effective. Neither is the church without Christ.

Now "the Word was made flesh" for many reasons: to be our Substitute, our Surety, our Kinsman-Redeemer, our Justification, our High Priest, our King and more... and He also became flesh to demonstrate what a Godly human life looked like. He became an example of an effective human.

The first chapter of "The Ministry of Healing" is entitled "Our Example". Here are the first three paragraphs. Read them to see what His mission was and how effectively he achieved it.

Our Lord Jesus Christ came to this world as the unwearied servant of man's necessity. He "took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses," that He might minister to every need of humanity. Matthew 8:17. The burden of disease and wretchedness and sin He came to remove. It was His mission to bring to men complete restoration; He came to give them health and peace and perfection of character.

Varied were the circumstances and needs of those who besought His aid, and none who came to Him went away unhelped. From Him flowed a stream of healing power, and in body and mind and soul men were made whole.

The Saviour's work was not restricted to any time or place. His compassion knew no limit. On so large a scale did He conduct His work of healing and teaching that there was no building in Palestine large enough to receive the multitudes that thronged to Him. On the green hill slopes of Galilee, in the thoroughfares of travel, by the seashore, in the synagogues, and in every other place where the sick could be brought to Him, was to be found His hospital. In every city, every town, every village, through which He passed, He laid His hands upon the afflicted ones and healed them. Wherever there were hearts ready to receive His message, He comforted them with the assurance of their heavenly Father's love. All day He ministered to those who came to Him; in the evening He gave attention to such as through the day must toil to earn a pittance for the support of their families.

Jesus wants to become flesh here at Toronto. He wants to fill the void. He wants to lighten the darkness. He wants to minister to every need and bring us all to "complete restoration". He wants to live in Toronto church and make it look something like what we read here.

Next week we look at the second effective structure that God set up to bring about "complete restoration" of this world. What do you think it might be?

Effective Structures in Eden

What did God set up in Eden to effectively grow His relationship with humans, strengthen their fellowship and support their ministry?

I can think of three things:

1. Marriage
2. Sabbath
3. Walks together in the "cool of the day"

Marriage, and family as the children arrived, obviously strengthened fellowship.

God's intention in providing marriage and family was made plain when he talked about Abraham being chosen "in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him" (Gen 18:19)

And what had God spoken him? ... "(I)n you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Gen 12:3). One family, well conducted, blesses not just the family members but every other family in the world. That's effective!

A family conducted along Eden's lines is a powerful fellowship tool.

Family also improve its members relationship with God in family worship times and on Sabbath. And of course marriage was essential for the "be fruitful and multiply" part of human ministry.(Gen. 1:28)

The Sabbath seems, on the face of it, mainly to strengthen human relationships with God as they spend 24 hours with their Creator. A day when God is the main focus of our minds and speech is still a wonderful tonic to our relationship with him. 

Family was also a focus of the Sabbath hours, so fellowship grew as well.

The walks in the cool of the day must have been glorious as Adam and Eve showed off their day's efforts in the garden and in ruling the animal kingdom. Like the proud "parent", the Lord would have joined their excitement and encouraged their plans to "fill the earth and subdue it"... whatever great things that meant (Gen. 1:28).

So these walks were the way that God effectively supported Adam and Eve's work and ministry in the world.

God set up some incredibly effective structures to grow His "church" in Eden. Next week we will begin to look at the structures He set up to return His church to the Eden state.

Effective Structures - Revisited

How are we going at understanding "Effective Structures". I was asked to explain the concept just last week... and I'd forgotten one of the 3 main points!

Time for some brushing up.

Our church has structures, which is good... but are they effective?

Effective Structures assist the church to grow in 3 areas:

1. They help people experience God.
2. They strengthen fellowship
3. They support ministry to the church and Toronto.

To be effective, any department, program or position in our church must assist in one or more of these areas.

Think about your involvement at Toronto. Are you strengthening fellowship, supporting ministry and helping people experience God? I hope you are... but as Effective Structures is the weakest part of Toronto church, there are probably some areas where you could do better.

Keep this at the back of your mind over the next few weeks as I take you through some of God's Effective Structures.

40 Days

As a lead-up to our "Daniel, the man and his prophecies" seminar we are going through the 40 Days Devotional, designed to strengthen your relationship with Christ and enable you to lead others to Him. The book ($10.95 from the ABC), with the daily readings and instructions, was used by one of the Re-Claim groups because one of the aims of the 40 days is to pray for specific people who we would love to have return (or come) to Toronto church. Aims of the 40 Days are for participants to:

• experience personal spiritual revival
• strengthen their daily devotional habits
• personally reach out to 5 interests in community

It is designed to combine personal revival, corporate church revival with evangelistic outreach.40 Days ticks many of the boxes of an Effective Structure. It helps people experience Jesus and supports ministry to the church and community. But it also strengthens our fellowship because the 40 Days are best done with a prayer partner and combined with a mid-week prayer meeting.If you would like to participate here are the steps:

1. Contact me by replying to this email and state if you want to buy a book and we will get a copy for you.
2. Think of a prayer partner. Someone who you can easily contact each day for a time of prayer.
3. Contact your prayer partner to encourage them to order a book as well.
4. Join or, better still, host a mid-week prayer meeting where we will be debriefing what we have learned the previous week and pray for those on our lists and for the effectiveness of our church's outreach.
   We plan to have a Wednesday night meeting at church and, if we find appropriate places, in the Cooranbong, Maitland and Cessnock areas.
5. If you feel impressed to offer your home, or know of a place suitable, for a prayer meeting please reply to this email.
6. Ask God to show you who you should be praying for.

Principles of Quality Coaching

Quality coaching at least doubles your fruitfulness. - Bob Logan (author of Coaching 101)

Coaching answers these questions:

• Where am I?


• Where do I (and God) go next?


• How will I get there?

The 3 Rules of Coaching:

1. Don't give advice.


2. Don't tell people what they can discover on their own.


3. Don't fix their problems for them.

The 3 Rules Re-stated:

1. The person being coached does the work.


2. The person being coached does the work.


3. The person being coached does the work.

The Coaching Process
is the flexible application of these 5 principles:

• Relate - establish coaching relationship and agenda


• Reflect - Discover and explore key issues


• Refocus - Determine priorities and action steps


• Resource - Provide support and encouragement


• Review - Evaluate, celebrate and revise plans

We will look at only one part today

Relate
The 'relationship' gives coaching its power.

We relate by:

1. Listening


2. Asking good, open-ended questions
   

Rules of listening:

• RESPECT


• Focus - undivided attention


• Summarise - reflect without interpreting, evaluating, guiding or projecting feelings


• Invite - ask for more


• Unpack - their ideas are more valuable than mine.


• Clarify - "So far I'm hearing you say ... Is that correct?

Open-Ended Questions:

• Not "yes" or "no" answers


• It is an advantage not to have all the answers. Don't be the expert.


• Follow the Spirit's leading. Ask, when you feel impressed, even the 'strange' question.

Here are the 'Good Questions' we ask at the start of the relationship:
(You can answer these for Sabbath afternoon:)

• What is your deepest passion? What really satisfies and fulfills you?


• What energises you? What drains your energy?


• What legacy do you want to leave? What do you want to be remembered for?


• What are your strengths? What are your gifts?


• What's one thing you'd like to change about yourself?
  

Coaching

(another Effective Structure)

Coaching is not about telling others what to do, but helping people discover for themselves what God is calling them to do. It is the process of coming alongside a person or team to help them discover God's agenda for their life and ministry, and then cooperating with the Holy Spirit to see that agenda become a reality.
The North American Division (SDA) Evangelism Institute

A coach helps someone else succeed. Bob Logan (author of Coaching 101 - our textbook) says that success is "Find out what God wants you to do, and do it"

Coaching is one of the Effective Structures we are building to support you in ministry.

What Coaching Isn't

• Telling others what to do


• Mentoring


• Being the expert
  

What Coaching Is

• Listening


• Asking good questions to help people sort things out in their mind


• Let them come to their own conclusion


• Encouraging them to do what they come up with.
  

Why Coach?

• It keeps people focused on what is important


• It is fun. There is serious joy in working with God to achieve things in this world.


• It works. People actually get things done. As a coached leader said "I get more done as a result of one one hour coaching conversation than in a year of meetings."
  

My experience is pretty limited but this week I was sitting in the staff room eating my lunch and reading Coaching 101 (what else?) and not really hearing two staff complaining about how their jobs were getting so hard.

When one of them left to have a cigarette and the other turned to me and continued complaining. I tried to ignore her but realised (well duh...) here was a "coaching opportunity". So reluctantly closing my book, I turned to my ditzy blonde friend and asked one of the "good questions" (We'll work through the list of questions, the starting questions are all in Coaching 101). Here is a summary of the conversation:

"So what would you rather be doing at work?"
She stopped and thought and answered.
"Have you ever done that?"
Ditzy Blonde "Yes, last week I did ...."
"Why do you think you enjoyed it so much?"
DB "I guess because I had more control and I could use my enthusiasm for ..."
"So what would you need to do to get more of this?"
DB "Well... I could get my boss to ... and I could ..."
(I then made my first statement)
"I think you should... (slightly rephrased her last answer)."

Her workmate had finished her cigarette and came back in about then, at which my friend enthused "Hey you know what, Bruce and I have been having a great talk and I reckon if we ... Thanks Bruce, that was really good advice!"

I hurried back to work before I got another "client" and before DB realised that I had, in fact, not given her any "advice" at all. The agenda, goals and action plans were all hers.

That was coaching, and it was fun. Much more fun than I expected.

We will be starting training soon. How involved will it be? Bob Logan says that you can start as an effective coach after only three hours of training. So 3 hours training,, spread over 2 Sabbath afternoons, is coming up and with all the resources around Coaching 101, many of you will make great coaches.

(Un)Surprisingly Effective

(from now on, every blog post will have a picture of an Effective Structure)

I'm chuffed. This is deeply, satisfyingly wonderful.

One of the privileges of being involved in NCD, and particularly NCD at Toronto, is getting a first-hand, front-seat view of God at work. (Now don't tell anyone else... they will think we are big-noting ourselves, because Toronto seems to be one of God's favourite places, He turns up every time we get together, He seems to love Toronto folk)

On Monday night, at Cameron Johnston's Stress Seminar I saw Toronto church members in action. It wasn't until tonight that I realised what was happening.

Remember that our mission statement is...to represent Christ to all members of our community. And remember my questions from several weeks ago...

1. What does "represent Christ" mean?


2. What do we have to DO to "represent Christ"?


3. What do we have to BE to "represent Christ"?


4. And lastly, how successful are we at representing Christ right now?

One of the jobs I set for myself on Monday night was to talk to every attendee from "our community". It turned out that four women came from our community. During the break I tried to chat with them, but some member beat me to every single one. Then after the program the same thing happened. So I didn't even talk to one visitor!

So to answer those questions:

We represent Christ when we are friendly to people from our community.

I believe that you already "represent Christ". That's what I saw on Monday night and at all the other functions at Toronto... people being friendly. It seems almost natural, but there are lots of places where this isn't so. God has made His people at Toronto supernaturally friendly. It is part of our luncheons, in our Sabbath School, at Project G... all over the place.

So to answer that last question: I believe that you are already successful at representing Christ right now... Surprisingly effective actually. Well maybe I shouldn't be surprised, after all God has been at work here, with just as much power and grace as He is in overseas missions, big evangelistic campaigns, radical church plants and ADRA projects.

Jesus lives at Toronto because you are here... and I'm chuffed.

Structures To Reach "Our Community"

(from now on, every blog post will have a picture of an Effective Structure)

The Vision Statement of the Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church is
to represent Christ to all members of our community.

Last time I asked you what it means to "represent Christ", today I'm going to move on to the meaning of "our community".

Our first Core Value define our community as "every person living between Rathmines and Fennell Bay", which sounds about right to me.

For a few moments, think about the people you know in this area. Try to imagine each one and what exactly you "represent" to them. When they think of you, how do they feel? What do they think about your religion, your church, your Jesus?

Still on "our community"...Do the people you know here have needs? What are they? What are you doing to help meet those needs? A major part of Jesus' ministry was meeting people's needs, if we are to "represent" Him, as in our vision statement, we will act like He did.

Another aspect... Do you know many people in the area? If you don't know many, how are you going to meet some more? What can you do that will bring you in touch with them? Once again Jesus is our lead here when he mingled with people to get to know them.

Toronto church has thought of a simple way to help you meet local people and meet their needs. As you have noticed, there is a Stress Seminar coming up followed by a Depression Recovery Program. We have a Creative Vegetarian Cooking and a Daniel prophecy seminar in the pipeline as well. The youth are planning another Project G.

These are not just a jumble of programs put on by the church. They are opportunities for you to invite people, especially people from Rathmines to Fennell Bay, along to the program that best meets their need. They are the vanguard of the "Effective Structure" we are trying to build into Toronto church.

Your part in the process of "reaching every person" in our community is simple...
1. Invite the most stressed person you know, to come along with you to "Cooling Down the Stress Soup" on May 30. Or invite someone you know who has depression to an orientation night for the Depression Recovery Program on June 6 or 14.
2. If you don't know anyone who is depressed or stressed bring your Toronto friends and come anyway.
3. If you don't have any friends (depressed, stressed or otherwise) from the Toronto area, come along on these nights to meet some of the people in "our community" and get to know them better.

Give it a go. You might enjoy it, I am.

To Represent Christ?

The Vision Statement of the Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church is to represent Christ to all members of our community.

1. What does "represent Christ" mean?


2. What do we have to DO to "represent Christ"?


3. What do we have to BE to "represent Christ"?


4. And lastly, how successful are we at representing Christ right now? Are you happy with how the church represents Christ? Are you happy with how you represent Christ?

I'd really like you to think about these questions. If this vision statement is going to inspire and give direction to our church, we need to know what it means.

Sorry, I'm not going to give you my attempts at answering those questions until next week. Think about them in the meantime. That's hard work, I know. Pray about them. Talk to me about them. Talk to each other.

Representing Christ is the centre of what we say we are here for. Doing a good job at this determines whether we win or lose.

I'd love your thoughts.

Our Vision Statement

Effective Structures require that "we know what we're building" (to quote Scott Thompson at the NCD presentation on April 9). That's another way of saying that we need to have a vision.

I had forgotten we had a Vision Statement for our church. Maybe you had too. So here it is. The statement was made in May 2005. You will be hearing a lot more about this.

Vision Statement

The Vision Statement of the Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church is to represent Christ to all members of our community.

The Mission Statement of the Toronto Seventh-day Adventist Church is to be a community of committed members, who will foster spiritual growth in a vibrant Church, embracing all age groups.

Core Values

1. Reach every person living between Rathmines and Fennell Bay with the good news about Jesus.
2. Promote passionate spirituality through prayer and Bible study.
3. All members to be involved in small group ministry.
4. Preachers to be relevant to all age groups.
5. Demonstrate honesty in beliefs and opinions.
6. Encourage each person to recognise and develop his/her Spiritual Gifts.
7. Recognise and nurture our youth to take an active part in the mission of the Church.

Some questions:
Do you like this vision?
Can you see where you fit in the vision?
Does it help you set priorities?
Does it provide guidelines for making decisions?
Is it exciting and motivating?
Have we left anything out?
Should we delete anything?

First Steps

Now that we know our Minimum Factors (Effective Structures and Empowering Leadership) what are we going to do about them?

We have decided to start by:

1. Emphasising that we are all ministers
2. Helping you find your ministry
3. Supporting you in your ministry

We are all Ministers

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9

If you are a member of Toronto church then you are a Minister, a priest of God. You have been called out of darkness to proclaim the excellence of Christ.

Finding your Ministry

We plan to run several "Find your Spiritual Gifts" Sabbath afternoons, but this is only the beginning of your finding your ministry.

To truly find the SHAPE of your ministry you need to know your:

• Spiritual Gifts
• Heart
• Abilities
• Personality
• Experience

This will take longer than one Sabbath afternoon so we propose that once you find your Spiritual Gifts you will meet in small groups during the week for about four weeks to determine your SHAPE and have a clear idea of why God chose to give you to Toronto and what sort of ministry you should be doing.

If you want to continue to meet in small groups, that is wonderful. We would love to have more 'holistic' small groups.

Supporting you in your Ministry

We will do this by Coaching and Small Groups. Where will all the needed Coaches and Small Group Leaders come from?

From the results of the SHAPE-finding small groups we will invite people whose ministries and gifts indicate they would be good Coaches or Group Leaders to training for these tasks.

The youth have already done basic Group Leader training in just 4 hours. There is similar Coaching training available.

What is coaching? Put simply, "Helping people succeed".

Coaching is achieved by:

• Finding out what God wants you to do,
• Helping you do it

A coach will help you succeed in your ministry by:

• Helping you refine your goals. Set your focus
• Helping you set priorities and take action, Keep your focus
• Helping to anticipate and overcome problems. Refine the focus
• Providing support and encouragement
• Helping you evaluate and celebrate progress
• Helping you revise your plans when needed.

2011 Survey Results

Summary of Toronto SDA church's progress and life (January 2011)

	Our Maximum Factors	Our Minimum Factors
Overall Tendency	Faith	Service
Health Characteristics	Need-oriented Evangelism	Effective Structures, Empowering Leadership
Themes	reconciliation prayer welcoming	intimacy vision learning (discipling)

Explanation:

Our Overall Tendency (in terms of Fellowship, Service and Faith, the 3 main domains of church life) is towards Faith rather than Service, with Fellowship in between. This means that we enjoy our own experience with God in prayer, Bible and worship. We are introverted and keep our experience of the living God to ourselves. We don't share it much within fellowship and rarely share it evangelistically outside the church.
Our Maximum Health Characteristic, like most SDA churches, is Need-oriented Evangelism. Our evangelism meets people's needs. This is good.

Our Minimum Health Characteristics are Effective Structures and Empowering Leadership. This means that leaders at Toronto are not so good at:

• Explaining our goals
• Concern for member's experience and journey with Jesus
• Strengthening fellowship
• Training and equipping members for service and ministry
• Helping people find their ministry
• Encouraging people in their service and ministry
• Supporting and collaborating with members as they carry out their ministry to the Toronto community

To summarise our Health Characteristics:

• Our structures are less effective at supporting the members' ministries
• We are no better at empowering members for ministry

However, this is not all bad! It presents a tremendous challenge because these are just the area where:

• The SDA church in NNSW is weakest - so needs the most help
• The area where the Holy Spirit is working most strongly, TODAY
• We have the tools (through Ellen White's writings) to meet this challenge
• We have the power (through Jesus' presence) to meet this challenge
• We have the people (our members) to meet this challenge
• The Themes tell us what comes naturally to Toronto church, and what doesn't.
  

We are naturally:

Reconciling

we don't have many disagreements and when we do we resolve them quickly. We trust our Bible and each other.

Prayerful

usually by ourselves

Welcoming

to new people

We are NOT naturally good at:

Intimacy

sharing our experiences within church or finding support from the church to get through our personal problems

Vision

goals are unclear. As individuals, as leaders and as a church we seem to be drifting comfortably along.

Learning

we aren't being trained for our present church duties or led to find what God wants us to do. The church is not encouraging spiritual growth or discipleship.

Other good things compared to last survey (not in the table above):

• Our church growth in health and numbers is much more sustainable.
• We are as healthy as an average Australian church.
• We are much more healthy than we were 3 years ago
• Our church services are more inspiring
• Our relationships are more loving

Thus ends our Summary of Survey Results - 2011.

Some definitions:

Natural Church Development

a long-term strategic process to progressively improve the health of our church, with the most effective use of our limited time, energy and resources.

NCD Survey

of 30 involved church members that gives an accurate, up-to-date snapshot of our church's health by revealing trends, deep issues and a clear overview of the church. The survey measures the quality characteristics.

Quality Characteristics

the 8 critical characteristics found in every healthy, growing church:

Empowering Leadership - are the leaders focused on equipping believers for ministry?

Gift-based Ministry - are tasks distributed according to gifting?

Passionate Spirituality - Is the spiritual life of members characterised by passion?

Effective (Functional) Structures - Do the various structures support church growth?

Inspiring Worship Services - Is worship service helping us experience God?

Holistic Small Groups - Do small groups address the life issues of members?

Need-oriented Evangelism - Are evangelistic activities related to actual needs?

Loving Relationships - Are relationships in the church Christ-like?

The adjective is the vital ingredient, not the noun. The NCD survey measures the adjective, so, for example, it looks at how well leaders "empower" members, not at their leadership skills.
Measured by points standardised by country (our score is compared to all other Australian churches of all denominations).
It is possible to score less than 0 and greater than 100.

Empowering Leadership

1. Explains what needs to be done
   
2. Motivates people to find the role Jesus wants them to fulfill in His body.
3. Liberates people to fulfill that role

Effective Structures:

1. Help people Experience Jesus
2. Strengthen Fellowship of believers
3. Support members as they Minister to their church and community

NCD Average

the average of the point score of all the Quality Characteristics. The 'average church' has an NCD average of 50 points. (Ours is 48.6. It was 48.7 in 2010 and 31.9 in 2008)

Minimum Factor

the lowest (ie. the weakest, least developed) Quality Characteristics. (Ours are Empowering Leadership and Effective Structures. Last year was Inspiring Worship Service and Empowering Leadership in 2008).
It shows where the church:

• Cannot see Christ clearly
• Is blocking the Holy Spirit
• Needs help

NCD Strategy

Improve church health by focusing on improving the Minimum Factor. This:

• Maximises potential growth
• Uses energy and resources most effectively
• Liberates leaders by simplifying what they need to do for growth
• Gives solid input into developing values and vision.

Min-Max difference

the difference between the highest and lowest point score. Less than 15 is good, 15-30 is concerning. A lower differences mean that growth in health and numbers is more sustainable. (Ours is 11, down from 17 in 2010 and 18 in 2008)

Red Sea Worship

This Australia Day morning, I read the beginnings of another nation, Israel, at the Red Sea. It's found in Exodus 14-16
The part I liked was in chapter 15: (NLT)

1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord:

"I will sing to the Lord,

for he has triumphed gloriously;

he has hurled both horse and rider
into the sea.

2 The Lord is my strength and my song;

he has given me victory.

This is my God, and I will praise him -

my father's God, and I will exalt him!

3 The Lord is a warrior;

Yahweh is his name!..."

and later...

20 Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron's sister, took a tambourine and led all the women as they played their tambourines and danced. 21 And Miriam sang this song:

"Sing to the Lord,

for he has triumphed gloriously;

he has hurled both horse and rider

into the sea."

These people knew how to worship! And they had good reason to worship as well.

But what about you? What areas of your life have you seen God at work in? What have you got to sing and dance about?

In her excellent book, Silent Savior: Daring to Believe He's Still There, A.J. Gregory quotes Frederick Buechner's wisdom... Asked what he'd say to someone searching for God, he responds: 'Pay attention. Listen to your life, and what's going on around you.' And above all this: 'What brings tears to your eyes?'

What brings tears to your eyes? Are you paying attention? We have lots to worship God for.