It is now almost a month since this site was created, and the same length of time since it was launched and announced at the NCD conference in Leicester, at which around 70 UK corps where present, all of whom have embarked upon the NCD process.
This is the second of a series of articles about NCD in The Salvation Army. Read the first article in the series.
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It has been suggested that we should start something with the end in mind. You may recall the previous article identifying and celebrating something that is characteristic of The Salvation Army: Need-oriented Evangelism - The ability to acutely identify the needs of suffering humanity and respond accordingly. What a blessing!
What if, rather than just sharing personal opinions, we could hear from more than 15 000 Salvationists in over 20 countries about the health of local corps ministry? What if we could then test those perspectives against a global Christianity database covering more than 70 countries and over 100 diverse denominations? Would that be valuable information?
Well, this is the first of a series of articles presenting some of the findings of exactly that kind of research. For more than a decade, the Natural Church Development process has been operating in corps around the world.
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.
Temporary Suspension of Gravity!
Such news would be plastered across headlines of newspapers world wide. Regular broadcasting would be interrupted to capture the effect of such amazing news. The very principle of gravity, thought to be always and continuously applying, suddenly and inexplicably suspended. A story just waiting to be understood, relayed and interpreted by all and sundry.
My son is doing an assignment about the appointment process and changes of officers. He was wondering if I could offer him thoughts on how NCD and Corps profiles could help TSA find new leaders for a corps when Officers are moved on?
I offered the following suggestions:
NCD could help in the appointment process in several ways (and probably more ways than I am aware of):
Australia specific where to from here
Salvation Army specific introduction to "Where to from here" goes here.
Do you truly believe as a Salvationist that the best days of ministry fruitfulness are yet to come for yourself and those in your care?
Share your thoughts about the future of The Salvation Army from an NCD perspective.
Anglican spiel about where to from here
Gaining a sober understanding of the current health, growth and multiplication status of The Salvation Army as a whole or perhaps just in your part of it could be daunting. Therefore, this page is dedicated to presenting practical ideas about the way forward. Please join the discussion by either posting your own thoughts and questions or by commenting on any of the posts found here.