G'day

Has anyone accessed National Church Life Survey (NCLS) 2006 data and/ or done anything with it in your church?

I appreciated looking at the congregational summaries for two of the emerging church case studies I have been researching. It has provided helpful real data of how much and where the reality matches up to the rhetoric of emerging churches (or where it does not match up).

The indication of strengths and weaknesses, over nine core qualities, looks helpful for congregational leadership and planning.

There is also a brief outline in the NCLS congregational summary of a sample process for using it as a tool for congregational review and revisioning. I ordered and tonight have read through the NCLS book 'Enriching Church Life: A Practical Guide for Local Churches' which gives background on the survey data and offers some more complete frameworks for a congregation-wide reflection-action process. It looks great and I'd encourage using it. I bought the version that comes with a DVD of resources, powerpoints, videos, worksheets etc. ($40 with the DVD + $6 postage from NCLS info[at]ncls.org.au)

There are other tools and processes for this sort of thing, and maybe there are better ones around. But this is locally produced Australian material, and I reckon sometimes with this sort of thing the important thing is not what tool to use as much to use some tool or process to foster conversations and dreaming in a congregation around the important qualities suggested by NCLS's nine core qualities:

· alive and growing faith

· vital and nurturing worship

· strong and growing belonging

· clear and owned vision

· inspiring and empowering leadership

· open and flexible innovation

· practical and diverse service

· willing and effective faith-sharing

· intentional and welcome inclusion.

Has anyone found their church's NCLS data useful or anyone done anything more with it in terms of processing it as a congregation? I'd be keen to hear to hear, and open to organise some discussion or training or brainstorming about how to best use the material.

Grace & peace,

- Darren Cronshaw