Currently 99 UK corps (churches) within The Salvation Army are actively engaging with NCD. 54 of these are part of the ‘Transforming Churches Process’ and many of them are slowly discovering that God is working through this new approach to ministry. What follows is a selection of comments from 8 of these corps, and all are being both challenged and inspired by NCD.
The purpose of this series is to offer some basic “entry points” for beginning to explore your Minimum Factor graph.
This post is for those whose Minimum Factor is Effective Structures.
Two initial points need to be made.
Devise a way for your church to share the Gospel using social media.
Gather a group together in your church to map the needs of the surrounding community. Share your findings with others in the church, including the leadership.
If you have a gifted evangelist in your church, ask them how, based on your gifts, you could work with them to grow fully devoted followers of Christ.
Find a way to get a modern translation of the Bible into the pews of your church.
Analyze how much of what you sing in church actually focuses your attention on God, teaching or reminding you about His nature and purposes.
Consider what "messages" your church leaders send about their belief in your church's future and speak to them about your observations in an encouraging way.
Consider what can be done through a sermon in the context of a worship service that cannot be done equally well or better through another forum of church life.
Ask the senior leader of your church to explain why attending the worship service is important. Discuss the answer with your friends and family. Provide the leader with feedback.
Ask anyone you come across in your church, who seems to have some longer-term tension with another person, to tell you one or more positive things about that person, then encourage them to communicate those to the other person in some way.
Make eye contact and shake hands or greet someone from your church with whom you have had even the slightest relational tension and ask how they are going generally or with one of their specific areas of interest.
Speak out about the positives of a person or current situation (or how things could clearly be worse) when in any negative sounding discussions this week (but then of course work to make the situation better).
Share with someone why you believe they have a particular gift that is better developed in them than in yourself.
As a child I spent hundreds of hours playing with Lego. Out of my large suitcase of mixed blocks and colours came houses, tractors, people and various unidentifiable but lovingly crafted clumps of creativity.
It’s common these days for words to end up attracting a meaning that is the opposite of what was originally intended. “Wicked” for some now means “fantastic” and something can be both “cool” and “hot” depending on the crowd you’re with. It might come as a surprise that the Church has been at this sort of thing for years.
Proverbs 13:10 (NIV)
10 Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.
Proverbs 13:10 (NLT)
10 Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.
Interestingly enough, of all of the eight quality characteristics, effective structures has emerged as the most controversial. At first sight, this observation doesn't seem to make any sense. How could anyone be interested in ineffective structures? The sad truth is that, in many churches, the model of the cart with the square wheels has become so normal that the use of square wheels is even seen as superior to the use of round wheels.Empowering Leadership (EL) and Need-Oriented Evangelism (NOE) are the two Qaulity Characteristics (QCs) which I often lack to have enthusiasm for especially when it comes to me personally contributing something in these areas for the positive growth of my Church. I don't have leadership and evangelism in my "gift mix”, and together with a lack of NCD knowledge, it was little wonder that a while back I ended up concluding there was no point to even thinking about them. Thankfully, since then, God has shown me ways in which I can contribute to these QCs without "chea
After taking on the responsibility of Effective Structures Coach at my local church I have come to a fresh appreciation of how effective structures can transform a church. Some may think that structures are boring or lifeless. I guess some are. I can testify that effective structures in a church can bring life to ministry.
Imagine the potential of those in your church to go forward by the power of God without having to even think (definitely not worry) about the structure that supports them. Knowing with confidence that the structure that supports them is flexible enough for movement yet not too tight to restrict God to work.
Here are some 'Quality Characteristic Hand' photos I took that made up part of a thematic photo panel in the foyer of our church. At the bottom is a mock up of the photo panel itself.
You can click the photos to download the originals if you like.
Hope it is useful or prompts your own ideas.
