Cycle Starter Plans

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Having understood your church a little better with the help of the NCD Church Survey, its now time to start cycling together towards a healthier church. You’ve chosen to start experimenting and learning more about the topic to the left. Now, select one of the cycle starter plans below and write number 1 in its box. Put this sheet on your wall, then, go do it!

Next time you are meeting with others who are also working through a topic, ask each other the questions from the cycle, starting at “do” and finishing at “plan”. After a cycle you may decide the most important thing to do now is to keep going with the same plan, modify it, or choose another option from below. If choosing another from below, just write 2 in its box and so on.

If you’d like more cycle starter options, or to work on another topic highlighted by your NCD Church Survey results, just visit ncdchurchsurvey.org/cycle-starters

Pastoral care

  • Allow more time than usual in an upcoming meeting when you will visibly put aside the agenda, your diary, your phone and all other distractions to purely focus your interest and attention on the person or people with whom you are meeting.
  • Ask your small group leader(s) how you can pray for them or help them personally in other ways to fulfil their role to best effect.
  • Consider whether your church's approach to the power of faith prevents people from admitting that they have personal problems in the first place.
  • Develop a creative way of promoting your church's small groups, helping people to identify the unique details of each (e.g. meeting time and frequency, age group, gender, topics, format, etc.)
  • Host a small group in your own home and work hard to make it as welcoming as possible. Look around for who might lead it and who might like to be a part of it.
  • Invite a new person along to your small group.
  • Invite some people from your church that you don't know very well into your home or out somewhere for a meal.
  • When you meet with people from your church, offer to pray for them before you finish your time together. This may be to do with a specific challenge they are facing or simply that God might abundantly bless them even more.