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Some say that the Transylvania region in Romania sits on one of the
earth's strongest magnetic fields and its people have extra-sensory
perceptions. Vampires are believed to hang around crossroads on St
George's Day, April 23rd, and the eve of St Andrew, November 29th. The
area is also home to Bram Stoker's Dracula, and it is easy to get caught
up in the tale while driving along winding roads through dense, dark,
ancient forests and mountain passes.
Count Dracula, a fictional character in the Dracula novel, was inspired by
one of the best-known figures of the Romanian history — Vlad Dracula,
nicknamed Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) — who was a ruler of Wallachia
(1456-1462).
 Even with this history and a lot of other tourist
attractions, it seems that Romania (one of the poorest countries in
Europe) will also be known for something else in future – Natural Church
Development.
Our National NCD Partner for Romania, Isac  Matei,
recently organized a start-off training event for 45 potential NCD coaches
from 5 denominations and movements. The coach candidates went through a
one week intensive training held by Christoph Schalk. The topics covered
were the NCD Cycle and how to use it in a coaching relationship with a
church, coaching skills, using coaching as a tool to help others reach
their goals, change management, the biotic principles in practice, and
more.
 The purpose of this training event was to initiate
an entire training process. All coach candidates now must lead their own
churches through the NCD Cycle, and in addition, they have to coach the
pastor and the implementation team of another church through the cycle. To
make sure that all candidates receive coaching as well, they form coaching
triads: Coach A coaches Coach B, B coaches C, and C coaches A. In
addition, the denominational leaders get coaching and support from the
National NCD Partner.
After a year, the whole process will be evaluated, by having personal
assessments, feedback from the churches, and by doing another church
profile.
 Then the successful coaches will get their
certificate.
By the way: The whole training week has been video taped by a Christian TV
station, and all videos will be published worldwide on tape as well as on
DVD by summer this year. We will keep you informed through eNCDine!
Christoph Schalk lives in Germany and directs the international
consultant network of the Institute for Natural Church Development |
