In an attempt to make sure churches make progress with NCD, some NCD partners and coaches have developed a range of pre-conditions for churches before they can take an NCD Survey or even consider taking the survey. For example:

• A church must have a coach!
• The leaders must have read certain NCD books!
• There must be a certain attitude towards the Bible!
• They must have received an introductory presentation to NCD!
• There must not be a crisis going on in the church!
• The pastor must have been at the church for at least this amount of time!

While there is no question that each of these points (and many more) will have an impact in some way on the NCD process of a church (not necessarily a bad impact!), the reality is that many churches have made significant progress with the NCD process without satisfying any of these kind of preconditions.

At the core of NCD (and the Christian Gospel) is the concept of the 'starting point' and the idea that there is no starting point that is bad enough or too good to prevent progress being made. In reality, we have little option but to accept the starting point of any church we work with, meet them at that point, and shape the NCD process as uniquely as possible to maximise the chance of them making progress. So, for example, if no coach is available or the church cannot afford one, we find a different way to support them. If a church wants to get started without reading books, transform their energy and let them start, as they are probably used to learning by doing more than by reading. If a church would like to survey as soon as a new pastor begins (or even before they begin), the survey will be accurate at that point in time and will provide them with valuable information at that important moment in the life of their church.

Of course, if a church would like a coach, to read books, to wait until a new pastor has settled in, then we should try to serve them in those ways as well.

In short, NCD is about progress more than position. Whatever we can do to remove barriers and get churches started in making progress as soon as possible (while continuing to help them remove barriers as they arise) is where our focus of attention should be.

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