Jeff Berrie

Is there Synergy between NCD and the Willow Creek Movement?

This question translates into a common concern for churches incorporating Willow Creek strategies or other strategies for that matter. Will NCD mesh or clash with their strategy? When introducing NCD to a new audience I have often heard, "Oh, we are doing Saddleback or Willow Creek or Meta Church". A particular model may have become part of the church culture and is well understood by their ministry leaders. Leaders fear a clash of systems will lead to confusion and a loss of direction clarity.

I would like to address the question of tension or synergy from the perspective of our ministry, The Leadership Centre Willow Creek Canada. We are both the Willow Creek Association Canadian partner and the Natural Church Development (NCD) National Partner in Canada. This question of tension or synergy has long been part of our thinking and experience.

There are tensions. Willow Creek is falsely perceived as focused entirely on building mega churches which conduct seeker targeted weekend services. That is certainly part of the strategy of the Willow Creek Church in Chicago where they have structured the church in such a way to reach as many people as possible in their community. Willow does not encourage the exact imitation of their strategy and in fact, the strategy differs for the worldwide Willow Creek Association where ministry movement areas are encouraged.

Tensions are also caused by misperceptions of NCD such as, "NCD is against church models, opposed to building large churches, and is critical of seeker services". The research found that we need to discover and draw principles from such church strategies and not simply imitate them. This does not negate their value. This mirrors what Willow Creek is telling their association churches.

With these tensions identified, we have discovered a tremendous synergy between the Willow Creek movement and NCD. Willow Creek discovered (through experience and intuition), that they needed to be strong in a number of ministry areas. They developed programs, curriculum and conferences to train and envision leaders in these ministry areas.

NCD discovered (through worldwide research) that growing churches are healthy in eight critical areas of ministry. There is a very strong correlation between NCD’s eight quality characteristics and Willow Creek’s movement areas. Note the chart. In Canada we encourage our Willow Creek member churches to incorporate the principles of NCD into their strategies and our data is very supportive.

The data on Willow Creek member churches (that have completed an NCD evaluation) is fascinating. We have discovered that a Willow Creek member church is more likely to be healthy and growing. The average church in Canada (non-Willow Creek member) completing an NCD evaluation has a 42% likelihood of being a growing church. That likelihood grows to 52% for Willow Creek member churches. The average health index for a Willow Creek member church is an astounding 60. This compares to a mean of 50.2 for other growing churches (non-Willow members). These statistics are drawn from 1,327 Canadian churches that have reported their NCD results of which 349 are Willow Creek member churches.

These results should not be surprising. Willow Creek member churches have invested in conferences, resources and participated in church networks focused on the development of the Willow Creek movement areas which include leadership, small groups, spiritual formation, evangelism, worship and the arts, spiritual gifts and children’s ministries. As a result, Willow Creek member churches have been intentionally addressing health issues for years and are therefore more likely to be growing churches.

Of course, there are very strong benefits for Willow Creek member churches who are empowered to target their resources more effectively with Natural Church Development. In Canada, the synergies between Willow and NCD have helped many Canadian congregations become healthy, growing churches.

Jeff Berrie is Director of Natural Church Development in Canada