Coaching & Consultation

Coaching

CB Northwest, in covenant community, stands ready to consult with all those who are interested in following hard after Jesus. We offer specific consultation related to:

• Youth & Family Ministries
• Pastoral Preparation
• Church Planting
• Church Revisioning

We have at our disposal many tools and specialists who are ready, willing and able to support our churches as they seek the mind of Christ in the 21st century.

Some of the tools available are listed below. Please contact our office 503-669-1515 or cbnw@cbnw.org for more information.

Diagnostic Tools

• NCD Survey
• Percept & Link2Lead

NCD Survey

The Natural Church Development Survey is an effective tool you can use with the leaders in your congregation. It will help you examine the eight essential quality characteristics of a healthy church. By determining the minimum factor (weakest characteristic), you and your leaders will discover the greatest obstacles to growth and health in your church body. Improving the quality in this minimum factor often results in quantitative church growth.

Through Natural Church Development (NCD) you will find a greater understanding of how God wants His church to grow. You will also learn how to release the growth potential He has sovereignly placed within your church.

NCD is not a model to copy but solid biblical principles you can implement in your own unique setting. It is a process to help you improve your church health. It is not a new program to copy, a quick fix for all ills, the latest fad, or a checklist to follow mechanically. It is designed to release the potential God has already put in place to accomplish the work He intends for your church to do to be healthy, to grow, and to multiply disciples of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said: “…I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prove stronger than it.” Matthew 16:18 NIV

• Is the ministry of the leaders focusing on equipping other Christians to serve?
• Are the tasks in the church distributed according to the spiritual gifts of the individual?
• Is the spiritual life of the members characterized by prayer, enthusiasm and boldness?
• Are the forms, and methods of the church designed according to the criterion of what is demonstrably the most useful for the development of the church here and now?
• Is attending the worship service an inspiring experience for church members?
• Are the small groups dedicated to answering the true questions and meeting the real needs of its members in a holistic way?
• Are the forms of the evangelistic activities related to the needs of those you are trying to win?
• Are the relationships of the members of this church characterized by a high degree of love and affection?

A person could hazard a guess to each of these questions in determining the health of the church. But is that the type of analysis you’d want from your physician — a gut-level guess? Most of us prefer our doctor to use a variety of instruments which have been proven to accurately diagnose our health.

Such an instrument exists for diagnosing church health.

Through careful research, Christian Schwarz developed a ninety one question survey which accurately measures the health of a church. Having worked among German churches for a number of years, he has broadened his studies to include churches from around the world.

The Natural Church Development study initially examined 1,000 churches in 32 countries from 6 continents. A total of 4.2 million pieces of data were collected and thoroughly analyzed, using approved methods from social science. Christoph Schalk’s thesis at the University of Wuerzburg demonstrated the reliability and validity of the questionnaire.

The research results confirm what many leaders have known intuitively — healthy churches are growing churches, making more and better disciples in loving obedience to Christ. Eight essential qualities were identified, which can be measured quantitatively:

• Empowering leadership
• Gift-oriented ministry
• Passionate spirituality
• Functional structures
• Inspiring worship
• Holistic small groups
• Need-oriented evangelism
• Loving relationships

Percept

As a part of our covenant community of churches, you have direct access to Percept. Since its inception in 1987, Percept has supplied thousands of churches and hundreds of regional and national denominational agencies with demographic and other resources for planning within their particular mission context. Regularly recognized as one of the best strategic information companies in the country, Percept develops unique resources to assist churches to engage in mission.

We want to emphasize that we consider this demographic and statistical data involving the world we live in to be a tool. It cannot be placed in the same category as the Gospel, for in and of itself it has no ability to change anything. However, for those churches willing to look honestly at the community in which they live, this becomes a dynamic way of presenting transcendent truth to an ever-changing culture.

We are convinced that God’s Word must always be preached and His Christ always exalted. When combined with knowledge of the people we live with in our surrounding communities, we will see His church function in dynamic mission to the world.

We invite you to visit the Link2Lead website (www.Link2Lead.com), register, and begin your search for specific demographic information. Along with Link2Lead, our churches have access to very thorough and specific studies at extremely reduced rates. These studies include Ministry Area Profile, providing a detailed and complete community demographic package designed especially for your church leaders, as well as a Context Study designed to help your church revision ministry in the 21st century.

The Context Study provided by Percept tabulates and analyzes the community a church finds itself in while simultaneously using the same analysis for the people in the congregation. When these two studies are compared and contrasted, the church is given the opportunity to see where major gaps are present. This information is helpful in determining where strategic ministry needs to be positioned, or perhaps in evaluating current ministry effectiveness.

Church Polity

Sample Constitution and Bylaws

CB Northwest has prepared a sample constitution and bylaws packet to assist your church with working through revising your own constitution and/or bylaws. This packet and some additional tools for study are avaialable on our Church Polity Page.