NOW! process FAQ

None. You neither have to read the NOW! booklet, nor any other book on Natural Church Development. Everything you need to know in order to get involved in the training will be provided through the NOW! website. The only document on the web site you should read is the training curriculum, which is 2-3 pages in preparation for each of the four sessions. At the same time, for those who appreciate detailed background information (as provided in this or in other NCD books), this information is available to everyone, in a wide spectrum of languages.

If you know from the outset that you won‘t be willing or able to commit to four sessions of receiving and four sessions of sharing, you should not get involved with the process. If in the course of the training you find reasons to discontinue, you are, of course, free to do so at any given time. Please consider, however, that you have taken responsibility not just for yourself, but also for the people with whom you have begun to share the training. If you should decide to drop out, explore the option of having your partners with whom you have started to receive the training extend their own training group to include the people for whom you have been responsible.

Absolutely. At NCD International, we have the highest possible standards when it comes to the confidentiality of data. Your test results, etc. are only shared with others if you decide to do so. In the specific case of you accepting another person’s invitation to receive the NOW! training, your Communal Test results will be automatically shared with him or her to form part of your discussion together. The only information that, by default, will be visible by others on the Internet is your first name as part of the “NOW! Tree.” Because of that, you may be identifiable as a participant in the process by participants in your immediate context, but not by other participants.

Yes indeed. One of these possibilities is to offer the initial training to additional people you know, or (possibly through Skype) to people who want to join the process, but have not been invited by others to do so. In session 4 of the training you will consider ways of continuing the process that fit with your specific needs and possibilities. However, there is no obligation for you to do anything apart from the eight sessions you have committed to.

No, neither a formal membership nor an active commitment to a local church is required.

Since the principles communicated through the process are applicable to Christians and non-Christians alike, being a Christian is not a precondition for participating. However, non-Christians who commit to the training should be aware that this process has been initiated by Christians. They will sense this origin throughout the process. If they feel comfortable with this, they are welcome to join.

Actually, it isn‘t. This criterion mentioned has been formulated for Christians who might consider joining the process. When dealing with non-believers, I would ask them, “Do you want to improve in your life, even if that may imply changing core aspects of your value system? Are you interested in becoming part of a worldwide process that transforms yourself as well as others?”

Just as with Natural Church Development in general, the NOW! training is not bound to any specific spiritual tradition or denomination. Since the principles are universally applicable, they apply to all denominations. There may be some denominations where such a process is easier to launch than in others, since the culture of those denominations is more open to such initiatives. But generally, in every denomination the NOW! training can be conducted to benefit all parties involved.

In the context of NOW!, leadership is understood as any level of influence on the lives of other people. If you have influence on at least two people, you are welcome to participate. You don‘t have to be a church leader in the sense of a pastor, a superintendent, or a bishop. However, if you are in one of those leadership positions, you may find the training particularly helpful.

In order to conduct the NOW! training as described on this web site, you need to register. Only through registration will you get access to the support tools (such as the training curriculum, the “NOW! Tree,” the invitation system, etc.), and only then you can monitor the effect of your efforts.

No, you can‘t. The replication of the training is not an optional second step, but an essential part of the training itself. You receive in the act of sharing.

No, that doesn‘t work. Every training session of receiving, with the exception of the first one, is based on a previous session of sharing, and evaluates the experiences you have gained while sharing what you have received. Because of that, every training session should be replicated with at least two other people before the next training session begins. Having said that, the framework of the sessions and the curriculum will be available to you from the very beginning of your own training.

By default, you work with one group of people (be it three or more including yourself) while passing on the training. The emerging group dynamic adds a valuable benefit to the training and increases the accountability. However, if there is a reason why training each of these people individually works better for you, you may do that as well. We would see that as an acceptable “plan B.”

Sure you can. Two is a minimum, not a restriction. If you feel comfortable, for instance, working with a group of six or seven people simultaneously, feel free to do so. In that case you should simply allow for more than the default 60 minutes per session. Alternatively, you could invite more participants to receive the training after you have completed the training with your first group.

No. The NOW! training is not NCD Coach Training and should not be confused with it. However, it could be worthwhile for NCD Coaches to get involved in the NOW! training in order to add some essential features to his or her own tool box.

Absolutely. Coaching skills are not a requirement for the process. It is true that experienced coaches—or small group facilitators—who pass on the training have greater potential to make the training experience richer and deeper. However, since the whole idea of the NOW! process is unlimited reproducibility, it could even be of disadvantage to individualize the process with features that people without coaching skills would have difficulty replicating. Even people who have never conducted any training can pass on the NOW! training. The person conducting the training may simply read questions from the curriculum and let the others share their thoughts. The process has been deliberately designed so that it can work like that. For leading this sort of training, the following rule applies: If you can read you can lead.

First, remember that this is the only cost within the training, and it is deliberately kept to a minimum so that the maximum number of people can participate. Second, if it is not possible for you to pay for the tokens you are expected to give to the people you have committed to train, you can anonymously apply on the NOW! web site for tokens that will be gifted to you from someone else in your NOW! Tree. Of course, only use this possibility if there is no other way to participate in the training.

If you are a professional coach who is accustomed to charging for the training you provide, please continue to do so. We need more ministries that are organized in a self-sustainable way and don‘t depend on sponsorship from the outside. However, for the four NOW! sessions no honorarium should be charged. Whether you are a university professor, a milk truck driver, a bishop, a pastor, a house-wife, a denominational president, a consultant, or a small group leader, the rule within the NOW! training is: “Freely you have received; freely give” (Matthew 10:8). The whole dynamic of the process is built on that premise. Nobody pays for the training he or she receives by paying money to the person who has conducted the training; rather, the “cost” is incurred by passing on what has been learned.

The answer is a decisive “No.” Of course, people should be trained as well as possible. However, passing on what you have received is an essential ingredient of that training. We don‘t learn best by sitting for months in a classroom, and later switching to a mode in which we try to discover the practical applications of what we have learned. We learn best by immediately applying what we have learned, evaluating that application, and then moving on to the next stage of learning.

There are two poles that are in tension with each other. If you are an experienced coach or empowering leader, it will come relatively easy to you to formulate energy-transforming questions spontaneously, and to apply countless communication and coaching methods that have become part of your personal tool box. People will appreciate that, as it individualizes the training and relates it to their personal situations. On the flip side, it may discourage some people from passing on the training to others, since they may not be as well-trained as you are. In terms of multiplication, a highly standardized (which includes, simplified) procedure is often superior. When I conduct my “normal” coaching sessions, I of course make use of all of my experiences derived from research and interaction with thousands of leaders. When I conduct training sessions in the context of the NOW! process, however, I take great care to minimize any input that is related to my specific experiences, skills, or style. Everything that I share should be reproducible by anyone else. This is a considerable sacrifice in terms of the individuality and professionalism of the training. However, in terms of the potential for reproducibility, it is a gain.

If I were your boss and you had something significant to share with me, I would be more than happy to learn from you. Personally, I function in an extremely non-hierarchical way, learning from all kinds of sources and all kinds of people, regardless of who they are, what their status is, and whether I agree with them in every area of their lives. However, this is just my personal preference. Most cultures don‘t function like that. In many cases, it is almost unthinkable for the secretary of the bishop to train the bishop, or a lay person to train the pastor. The principle of energy transformation teaches us to make use of the existing energies (i.e. to go with the flow), rather than to re-educate people before they can receive the training. Because of that, when selecting people to whom you’d like to pass on the training, you should take hierarchy considerations into account. Maybe in your situation it functions best for the president of your denomination to train the regional superintendents, the superintendents to train the pastors, the pastors to train the small group leaders, and the small group leaders to train the people within their groups. Neither of these two approaches—hierarchical or non-hierarchical—is superior to the other. The important point is whether the approach actually works. And to see if it has worked, you have to evaluate the fruit.