The research of Natural Church Development

Christian A. Schwarz

The research of Natural Church Development (NCD) encompasses data from 75,000 Christian congregations worldwide and is based on surveying 2.3 million people in 86 countries. In particular, the latest book, God Is Indestructible. Twelve Responses to the Relevance Crisis of Christianity (released 2020), presents a number of brand-new discoveries deriving from that data. For those readers who are interested in the scientific background of the research, this page supplies information about its specific character and the methodological procedures applied.

Overview

A. The hallmarks of NCD research

1. What can be expected from NCD research—and what not

2. Goals of the research

3. Scope of the research

4. The Church Survey as part of an overall theory

5. In search of universal principles

6. Synthesizing empirical and theological perspectives

7. Both diagnosis and therapy

8. Making the invisible visible

9. Individual and corporate applications

10. The hypothetical causality of quality and quantity

11. Language-based and national normations

12. Accessibility of data

B. NCD Church Survey

1. Practical procedures

2. The necessity of an external criterion

3. The quality index

4. Minimum factor theory

C. Different stages in the development of the surveys

1. Explorative studies in pre-test phase

2. First international study and repeat tests

3. Secondary studies

4. Detailed research through personal eTests

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