Recently I found and read the book “Natural Church Development” by Christian Schwarz. I was surprised at his insights gained from doing research, observing nature and studying Scripture. His research involved over 45,000 churches in 70 countries on all six continents. I thought, “Maybe I can learn something from this guy!”
Eight Quality Characteristics
Schwarz identifies eight quality characteristics of healthy churches. Here’s a summary…
* Empowering Leadership: means the pastor equips, supports, motivates and mentors others in ministry. Discipleship, delegation and multiplication are important to him.
* Gift-based Ministry: means believers serve in areas where they are gifted by God naturally and spiritually. This leads to effectiveness, fruitfulness and satisfaction.
* Passionate Spirituality: means believers are enthused in their spiritual lives. They are motivated by devotion, not duty. They find prayer and Bible-reading inspiring, not boring. They try to avoid legalism which deflates passion.
* Effective Structures: means placing good leaders over the various ministries of the church. Function (not tradition) should determine form. Each leader also strives to empower others in ministry. They are willing to try new ideas to become more effective and are not afraid to fail.
* Inspiring Worship Services: in which God’s presence and working is experienced by the worshippers. Worship is joyful and genuine, not boring or artificial.
* Holistic Small Groups: in which the participants apply the Scriptures to daily life. The goal is to develop new leaders and multiply the groups just like a healthy human cell multiplies.
* Need-oriented Evangelism: which focuses on the questions and needs of unbelievers.
* Loving relationships: in which genuine care and concern are shared among the participants. This is very attractive to spiritual seekers in today’s world.
Churches should develop all of these important characteristics in a balanced way for their long-term health and growth (and not just short-term gain). Some churches will obviously be stronger in some areas than others. After identifying its strengths and weaknesses, a church can try to use its strengths to improve its weaknesses.
A basic principle here is that spiritual quality (the root) will lead to numerical quantity (the fruit). Improve the root and the fruit will follow. The caveat is not to put the focus on the fruit before the root. Jesus said, “Every good tree bears good fruit.” (Matthew 7:17) The church is a living organism (like a tree) and not just a lifeless organization.
This natural approach to growing healthy churches recognizes that both believers and God have their part to play. As the apostle Paul wrote, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) The good news for most churches is that they can be healthy and growing without being a mega-church. And their pastor doesn’t need to be a superstar. God receives the glory when He uses ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.
Six Growth Forces
Schwarz also identifies six God-given growth forces…
* Interdependence: means that all of the spiritual qualities listed above are inter-related and affect each other (positively or negatively).
* Multiplication: means small groups and churches should naturally multiply instead of growing without limit (eg. a megachurch). Schwarz writes, “Reproduction through multiplication is simply a life principle of all God-created organisms, including the church.”
* Energy Transformation: means creatively turning something which could be potentially risky into something which is beneficial. An example is using new believers in ministry right away.
* Sustainability: means a leader should always be developing new leaders by modelling (but also involving them) in ministry. Eventually, they will replace him.
* Symbiosis: means different believers (with different gifts) can complement (instead of compete with) each other.
* Fruitfulness: simply means that healthy, living things naturally bear fruit. Something is wrong if they don’t.
The key idea is for a church to allow and encourage these God-given growth forces to work so that natural growth can occur. Each local church needs to apply and adapt these principles of health and growth to their own unique situation and context (and not just try to imitate some model church).
One final principle is this: correct information can lead to careful application which can then produce spiritual transformation. This applies to individual believers as well as local churches. Growth in quality and quantity is the result, God’s kingdom expands, and He is glorified.
Rob Weatherby is a retired pastor.
