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There are hundreds of success stories about the NCD process. The following is a Dec. 11, 2006 letter from Gary Jarvis at New Hope Community Church about his experience with NCD:

The NCD Journey
In the first quarter of 2005, New Hope Community Church embarked on a journey called Natural Church Development. The purpose of the journey is to improve the health of the church. It required discipline, but it was also a formative process. So we celebrate the close of the first round of Natural Church Development, having learned much about ourselves and about our church.

Momentum was sometimes hard to maintain
This was the first time going through the NCD process, and momentum sometimes lagged and sometimes picked up. This journey was described by some as slow, painful, and tedious, yet some enjoyed the process. Areas which slowed us down were setting goals, staffing changes, trying to define and understand need-oriented evangelism by leadership, and getting stuck in theoretical issues. What seemed to pick up the momentum were times of action. Interviewing pre-Christians, studying the book “More Ready than you Realize,” and hiring Gary Reinecke as our Evangelism coach were all energy boosters.

Prayer is a necessity
Prayer can be an energy booster. We did incorporate prayer at every meeting, but there was a feeling that more prayer should have been integrated through the process. Suggestions like utilizing our prayer team member more. Some prayer efforts however, have begun from this process. We began praying for our spiritual friends, but did not sustain this effort. We began a prayer team, but only towards the end of the process. More prayer could be incorporated into the process.

What can we improve in the process?
Being our first time through the process, there were a number of process improvements noted. We could have utilized our strength of encouragement. Speeding up the process would help to keep the Health Team and the church engaged as momentum keeps moving. The NCD book was too theoretical, so focusing on the ABC’s and the new book might help. Furthermore, knowing how to impact a culture would also increase our effectiveness.

We utilized a variety of communication techniques
We appeared to use a variety of communication techniques. Go Fish cards, bulletin inserts, bulletin stories, NCD Table, Sermons, announcements, testimonies, newsletter announcements. There was a feeling that some in the congregation were sick of all the communication. Despite all of these different methods, two improvements were suggested for the next round. Utilize a spokesperson, and promote more outside our health team for the surveys and the More Ready than you realize class.

The Church Health Team was a wonderful group to work with
The Church Health Team was viewed as a relatively successful group made up of very talented individuals. The talent could have contributed both to the strengths and weaknesses of the group. Perhaps the weakness was in wanting to stray from the process and do our own thing. One suggestion was made for the focus of the next Health Team and that is to be more like a sales team, a team that would plan internally, but sell externally the vision.

Individually we grew
One thing that came out of the evaluation was that this process made an impact on the Church Health Team. Some noticed that they grew spiritually from talking to non-Christians, from having personal goals for reaching out. Sharing our faith was incredible, new and rejuvenating. Furthermore, the Aha was that sharing our faith can be done in a safe way.

Good Coaching is vital for momentum and success
One of the keys to increasing momentum and focus was bringing in a professional coach. There was no question that bringing in the coach was defining for the Health Team. It was suggested that the coach be utilized immediately in the NCD process.

How did we utilize the Growth Forces?
Our coach mentioned that as a group we understood the Growth Forces better than any other group he worked with. So how do we rate on utilizing the Growth forces? The growth forces that seem to have been utilized the most are Coordination, Cooperation, and Evaluation. Some do not see any reproductive work occurring yet, nor did it appear that we are necessarily sustaining the efforts of NCD.

We succeeded in half of our Goals
So far we have evaluated the first round of the NCD Process. What kind of impact did we make? It is noted that we did not reach our doing evangelism goal or our evangelism training goal. We did bring in a coach, and we did develop a ministry assessment tool. Why did we meet only half our goals? Some reasons suggested were that we were still too focused inwardly in our goals, and we have a history of not following through. Despite these concerns we did make some progress, and we the associate pastor and ministry leader for Outreach have been pin-pointed as keys for keeping the momentum going. Evangelism must stay as a priority for the church.

What our General Impact on the congregation?
Assessing the impact on the church can be difficult. There is a general feeling that there has been a different focus in the leadership, and a few members in the congregation. However, as a whole the cultural shift has not fully taken place. The culture is still resistant to need oriented evangelism.

There is a lot to celebrate for the last two years of NCD
What can be celebrated about these last two years? It turns out that a lot can be celebrated, but we did not do enough to celebrate it throughout the process. Our Coach helped to bring celebration into the process, and we did celebrate well at the end. Here is a list of benefits from going through the NCD process.

1. As a church we were prepared to witness to a troubled young gentlemen who came in off the street.
2. We are becoming more of a listening church
3. Some think that passionate spirituality was impacted some, and gift-based ministry is beginning to take shape.
4. We found a purpose and a plan
5. The purpose and plan helped us take action
6. There were some great Aha moments
7. Talking about Need-Oriented Evangelism opened some doors
8. We focused a lot on inspiring worship this past year
9. The church is thinking differently in planning outreach events: 40 days of purpose, Veggie Tales movie night, Spring Picnic, Website, Talent Show for Missions, GIG’s (Groups Investigating God)
10. We are inventing a growth focused ministry
11. We are identifying and mobilizing leaders
12. We are positioning people according to gifts
13. We experienced the principle of “Interdependence” with Need-Oriented Evangelism to Passionate Spirituality
14. Action-Reflection-Action Process is so important – This is coaching.
15. Two resources stood out – McClaren’s book and the Assessments
16. NCD gave focus to the church
17. A strategy for training in Evangelism
18. We are thinking in terms of Best Practice
19. NCD Fulfills the Strategic plan
20. Learned the value of a careful diagnosis

- Gary Jarvis, New Hope Community Church

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