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2003 Results |
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2003 Results |
NCD Process / Archive / WHF |
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NOTE: A score of 50 represents the average score (mean) of all North American churches. 70% of North American Churches have scores within the range of 35-65. EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP: 59
The questionnaire results are a “snapshot” of the health our church as seen by key people in our community. This is how we see ourselves: our greatest strength is in the area of “Loving Relationships.” We have the most room for improvement in the area of “Deepening Spirituality.” We know some of you will have many questions about how these results were generated. For those of you who want to pursue it, technical information is available on request. However, at this point, we think the most value will result from a discussion that focuses on deepening spirituality. Remember the Barrel?
The barrel represents our meeting. Each stave is one facet of church life. Our strengths are represented by the taller staves; our weaknesses by the shorter staves. Our weakest facet will determine our overall “capacity.” As we work to live out our unique role in the larger Body of Christ, our overall effectiveness is limited by our weakest area. Deepening Spirituality Please take some time to think about deepening spirituality. Some people have found it helpful to use the tools of prayer, fasting, creative expression, singing, solitude, time in the wilderness or reading. There is no formula to this. No one is expecting it to look a certain way. Instead of the outward form, we hope to focus our discussion on the substance spiritual growth. We will begin our conversation at a Threshing Meeting after worship and Snack Time on Sunday, May 4. After this first large group discussion, please sign up for a small group discussion in someone’s home (a sign-up sheet will be available). In early June, we’ll gather once more as a larger group to collect insights from the small group discussions and set specific goals for the coming fall. Some Questions to Consider To help us prepare for the meeting on Sunday, please consider the following questions. Write down your insights, observations or other questions. - How do you deepen spiritually? What do you do outside meeting for worship in order to deepen spiritually? What practices work best for you? - What distracts you from deepening spiritually? What inhibits you from deepening spiritually? - Which ministries of the church strengthen the spirituality of people involved? - What do you consider the marks of a spiritually growing person? - When was the last time you were in a group from this church and talked about your spiritual life? What makes that easy or hard? Wherever you are right now is okay. Let's talk about this without feeling pressure to be something we are not. I’m excited to have this discussion! I think it will be great for us to spend some time together, focused on how we deepen spiritually. And I can see how the energy we invest in our spiritual lives could enhance worship, small groups and other facets of our life together. This might really work! | |
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email us : 503.246-7654 | ||
A central principle of NCD is illustrated by the metaphor of a rain barrel. As you can see from this illustration, the wooden staves around the perimeter of our imaginary barrel are all a different height. The picture reminds us that the barrel’s capacity is determined by the shortest stave. If we were to strengthen the weakest area, the entire barrel would be improved.
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