Natural Church Development

NATURAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT
Developed by Christian A. Schwarz

Three Main Points of Natural Church Development

1.      Natural Church Development rejects merely pragmatic and a-theological approaches (the end justifies the means) and replaces them with a principle-oriented point of departure.

2.      Natural Church Development has no quantitative approach (How do we get more people to attend our church?), but looks at the quality of church life as the key to church development.

3.      Natural Church Development does not attempt to make church growth, but to release the growth automatisms, with which God Himself builds the church.

Natural church development means bidding farewell to superficial pragmatism, to simplistic cause-and-effect logic, to a fixation with quantity, to manipulative marketing methods, and to questionable can-do attitudes. It means leaving behind human-made prescriptions for success and moving on to growth principles, which are given by God Himself to all of His creation.

Discovering the Biotic Potential
Natural Church Development is based on the concept known as biotic potential. Ecologists define it as the inherent capacity of an organism or species to reproduce and survive. This is a concept entirely unknown in the world of technology. No machine is inherently able to reproduce itself. A coffee maker can make coffee, but it will never be able to make another coffee maker. In nature, however, the order of things is entirely different: a coffee plant produces coffee beans, which in turn can produce new coffee plants. It was God's intent to build this perpetuity into His creation from the start. It is the secret of life, a divine principle of creation.

When we are dealing with natural processes, it is important for this inherent potential to have free reign. The difference between the biotic potential and the empirical growth (in the laboratory as well as in the field) is called environmental resistance. While it is clear that growth cannot be made or forced, it is important to keep the environmental resistance to a minimum in order to create the best possible conditions for growth.

The Biotic Potential in a Congregation
The same is true for church development. We should not attempt to manufacture church growth, but rather to release the biotic potential, which God has put into every church. It is our task to minimize the obstacles to growth (the environmental resistance)-both inside and outside the church.

Since we have very little control over outside factors, we should concentrate on the removal of obstacles to church growth and multiplication within churches. Then church growth can happen all by itself. God will do what he promised to do. He will grant growth (1 Corinthians 3:6)

For more information about Natural Church Development, contact Director of Connectional Ministries Lowery M. Brantley or your District Superintendent.