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Growth Ministries

Healthy Churches

When we talk about healthy churches in the FMC we need to find ways of agreeing on and concretely discussing what a healthy church looks like.

The best tool that we have found to-date is Natural Church Development (NCD). Their assessment tools and development resources focus on 8 primary characteristics of healthy churches.

Eight Characteristics of a Healthy Church

Empowering Leadership | Functional Structures | Gift-Oriented Ministry | Holistic Small Groups
Inspiring Worship | Loving Relationships | Need-Oriented Evangelism | Passionate Spirituality

NCD Process:

Whenever someone wants to do an NCD they should contact Mélanie Wilkinson at the Ministry Centre.  She will send you all of the necessary questionnaires. One is for the pastor/pastors and the other is for the congregation. Be sure to try and use at least 30 people from your congregation. It is better to use a wide range of different personalities to ensure more accurate results. We suggest having those who are interested in filling in a form stay for a lunch after church so that you do not have a difficult time collecting the questionnaires afterward. Once all 30 (or more) are completed, send them on to the ministry centre so that Mélanie can process them. Please remember to take a copy of the survey for yourself if you like. Once Mélanie receives the surveys, it takes about 2 business days for us to receive the results. Mélanie will then forward them onto you by email. We always recommend getting the Profile Plus because it offers a detailed explanation of the results question by question. The Profile Plus is an extra $89 (the NCD itself is $249 for the first time and $199 for every one thereafter). The Ministry Centre will then receive an invoice from Willow Creek and we will then invoice you (the church). If you have any questions throughout the process email Mélanie at wilkinsonm AT fmc-canada.org or call her at 905-848-2600.

Pastor's Questionnaire

Congregational Questionnaire

These tools and resources can also be accessed at the NCD website    ::: www.ncdcanada.com

Outreach Canada is a major source of statistical information about ministry in the Canadian context. Census survey data about Canadian communities, especially designed for church usage, is available from Outreach Canada.

::: www.outreach.ca

The Free Methodist Church in Canada is partnered in ministry with Outreach Canada.