Project 32 Update: What is happening with Natural Church Development (NCD)?

Over the last 18 months, the majority of the Moravian churches in the British Province have been going through the Natural Church Development Process. After three reports last month, here is a further update on what is happening in five more churches, and what difference it has made.

Gomersal Moravian Church

Our NCD questionnaire was completed in July 2024. 29 members completed the survey which is 88% of the 33 members. The results of the questionnaire showed that ‘Gift-Based Ministry’ was our highest scoring factor, and ‘Passionate Spirituality’ was our lowest scoring factor.

As a result of these findings the Minister, Church Committee and the members of the Gomersal Congregation are continuing to work hard and are trying our best to take action on these points. For example, we now have a well-established Bible Study who meet once a month. Interactive Services based on God’s Kingdom, Prayer, Forgiveness and Mission were enjoyed. Prayer group continues to meet monthly, using prayers that have been placed in the prayer basket. We have Care cards, Care bears and fresh flowers that continue to be given out to members of the community if and when are needed.

A new group is being started in September based on ‘The History of the Moravian Church’. We are looking forward to these sessions and are hoping that learning about our history will help us find strength and confidence to talk about our ‘Moravian Faith’ to others. In addition, we also scored very highly on ‘Loving Relationships’ and ‘Holistic Small Groups’. We continue to have a variety of small groups and various events that meet throughout the week and month such as Walking Group, Bowling Group, congregation meals, community events, coffee mornings, Ladies Fellowship, MWA and much, much more. The ‘Girl Guides’ also use our church hall for their weekly meetings. All this is providing a great opportunity to invite other people along.

May I say thank you to our Minister, Church Committee and every member of our congregation here at Gomersal for your continuous dedication and hard work. We will continue and try our best to have ‘Passion’ with ‘Action’, ‘Believe’ and ‘Share’, ‘Love one another’ and continue to move forward with a sense of ‘Hope’.

Sr Victoria Wright

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Ockbrook Moravian Church

Completed survey in February and presented results back to the congregation via PowerPoint on a Sunday as part of Sunday Service. Our total members number 40.

Our results showed an extremely well-balanced Church which although no surprise to us all but in itself presented a harder challenge. Our strongest three elements were loving relationships, Inspiring Worship Service and Gift-based Ministry. This shows a congregation happy and content with how things are at present so one can understand a reluctance to change anything.

Elements of Church life that scored lowest were: Need Oriented Evangelism and Holistic Small Groups.

Holistic Small Groups – it was suggested being a small congregation (around 20 to 25 attends on a regular basis) we are actually a holistic small group. We do however run regular biweekly Bible Study with Phill Battelle and regular Saturday forums with Margaret Barker both of which are thought provoking and leads to spirited discussion.

Our basic issue is that we are a well-kept secret. Since the school closed, we are tucked away in the settlement away from the mainstream villages for whom we serve.

Our priority therefore was to raise awareness of both our Moravian Church and who and where we are. Jackie and I have often been asked ‘What are Moravians?’ We developed professional Moravian merchandise including free branded pens, notebooks, bookmarks with details of church service times and small notecards detailing a very short précis of our ancestry and faith. We also asked our wonderful congregation members to write a very short message each about why our Moravian Christian faith is important to us at Ockbrook and these messages were displayed on a large Moravian poster at the Garden Party and is still being displayed at the back of the Church today. We were delighted with the response our stand achieved with many visiting our stall which allowed us to engage in meaningful conversation.

An article in the Messenger by Br Jared Stephens in Ballinderry saw us inviting him to speak to our congregation one Sunday where he very kindly took the Worship service along with Joachim, our Minister. Joachim instigated a question-and-answer session which allowed Jared to talk about his remarkable success by ‘Opening doors’ and bringing his community into his Church. This is what we ultimately wish to achieve at Ockbrook by creating awareness of our wonderful Church life. Each week we add a small reminder of what our NCD plans are for the coming weeks and months in our weekly newsletter. This is in addition to a prayer we wrote for NCD which is included now in each service and in our weekly newsletter to help remind us all of the importance of embracing change in Our Lord’s name.

‘Dear Lord, we thank you for this beautiful church and our loving congregation where we can come in peace and love to worship You. We thank you for the opportunity that has been given us to reach out into our community to provide help and support to those in need and to welcome them into the comfort and sanctity of your love. Dear Lord, help us to embrace change and to discover new ways of communication so that others may experience the joy which we have in our connection to You. Amen.’

During the whole process of our experience with Natural Church Development we have been mindful of God’s presence and His guiding and loving hand in what we are trying to achieve. This process has also been the motivating factor in both of us being welcomed into membership of the Moravian Church.

Srs Rose Turner and Jackie Flint

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Queen’s Park Free Church (Moravian)

Our NCD survey was completed April 2024. Our membership: six now seven plus three adherents.

Maximum factor: Gift-based Ministry.

Minimum factor: Passionate spirituality.

After analysis, discussion and prayer we felt a need to address the form of worship to make it less formal and more relevant to both the adults and children and therefore make it more accessible to any newcomers.

We are guided by Holy Habits with an emphasis on prayer and increasing faith. We sing more choruses in a group and learn new ones. We have purchased a projector and screen to help with new songs and to also help the children’s talk be more memorable. We distribute daily bread books which some find useful. We organise bring and share lunches when we have visiting speakers and always have a drink and biscuits after the service.

We have purchased two djembe drums, new badminton and table tennis equipment which some members enjoy playing therefore helping us to be more interactive socially and help to break down barriers.

Our open day attracted some children especially when they saw the bouncy assault course and the games. We hope in the future that new people will come into the Sunday service because of this. However, we have had one new member join us this year and have had several visitors attending our worship for a certain period of time.

The minister is hoping to start a prayer and bible study group to help with our spirituality. We all have needs and rely on our prayers for others as well as ourselves.

We have engaged with Project 32 and have seen some small improvements but look forward to more change in the future. We appreciate the continued work and support of all the members and friends of the church during the years to increase the growth of our members and our spirituality.

Br Charles Hatton and Sr Cathy Friend

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Hornsey Moravian Church

Above-average results were achieved, though several areas require improvement. The lowest score occurred in Small Groups, primarily because many groups ceased following COVID. During the December Committee meeting, strategies and an action plan were developed after extensive discussion.

It was decided to initiate a Prayer Group on WhatsApp, accessible via mobile phone, and a Bible study group on Zoom. Both groups have shown positive outcomes so far. The prayer group includes participants from the USA, Canada, Jamaica, and the UK.

Efforts are underway to reinstate the MWA and Men’s Fellowship groups. Leaders for the MWA have been elected, with the first meeting expected within the next four weeks.

Adjustments are being made to services to increase inclusivity for various age groups, such as reviewing hymn choices and involving multiple individuals in readings instead of relying on one reader. The Daily Watchword is distributed on WhatsApp by Br Livingston and Sr Carol Ackah, and subsequently shared with most church members, friends, and family home and abroad, providing value particularly to those with sight impairments. The Steel Band is now incorporated more frequently into services.

In the last 12 months we have sadly lost three members. But with God’s Grace and Mercy we have also gained three new members.

Sr Patricia White

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Kilwarlin NCD Journey

Kilwarlin Moravian congregation NCD journey formally begun in middle of 2024. We had hoped that someone, other than the minister would be the NCD champion but that didn’t materialise. It turned out to be fine, as it simply meant that NCD matters were easily inserted in weekly worship, by the minister.

With 22 in membership virtually everyone including regular visitors, completed the survey. It took some time to upload the results from the paper responses, as only about 50% of the questionnaires were completed online.

There was some anticipation and a little trepidation waiting to hear the results of the survey. As NCD Champion I wanted it to be treated with some weight, so there was a long lead-in time. The results were first discussed with the Church Committee and then presented to the whole congregation.

The results were surprising: the maximum factor for the congregation was empowering leadership. However, there was some confusion as to why loving relationships was the minimum factor. The confusion was deepened because unlike many other congregations, there was tea and coffee fellowship every Sunday after worship. We eventually accepted that there were relationship issues that needed to be addressed, and it had to do with more than just tea and coffee fellowship.

Finding a way to translate these results into actions was challenging. It was not easy each Sunday to speak in a way that implied that members didn’t love each other. We needed to find a way to address the issue.

We started having coffee and conversation sessions away from the congregation. Immediately after church each fourth Sunday, everyone would meet at a café nearby, to have a time when we sat and chatted. Our coffee and conversation sessions were to be an ongoing feature, as we sought to strengthen the bonds of fellowship.

In a congregation meeting, we then discussed those things we would do differently arising from the NCD survey. We agreed that the actions should be clear, doable and in everyone’s reach.

It was a simple to-do list: everyone could attend consistently, intentionally invite others to attend worship, welcome new attendees warmly and participate regularly in the fellowship gatherings, especially our fourth Sundays Coffee and Conversation.

We will have to wait to see how these actions and activities will affect the life of the congregation. However, the exercise has given us a new hope that congregation life can be renewed and that there could even be meaning renewal and numerical growth.

The journey continues!

Rev Livingstone Thompson