Imaginative and flexible innovation is a key characteristic of healthy churches. This is one of the findings of the NCLS team, based on research on church vitality over the last fifteen years.
Because of the incredible co-operation of hundreds of thousands of church attenders in more than 20 denominations, the NCLS perspective has offered a credible, reliable source of information about the changing landscape of Australian church life.
In recent years, it has become evident that there are many expressions of church life that are not easily understood through the methodology of National Church Life Surveys. This is why we have commenced the NCLS Innovations Project.
In this new project we hope to create an exploratory map, share stories of experiments and new life, as well as, perhaps, provide a point of contact that encourages mutual support.
Often innovative ventures can resist definition and may be ‘below the radar’. In this initial stage, we have thrown the net as wide as possible. If people believe they are doing something new, then we have been willing to hear their story.
The exploratory phase of the project commenced in mid 2005. It has been a parallel project to the 2006 National Church Life Survey (NCLS), however we will also need to use a range of different methods to gather both data and stories for this project.
In the future, the project will aim to explore questions of health and vitality. What is required for a new initiative to be effective and sustainable? Over the next few years, each stage of the project will include two strands of data gathering and analysis as well as story telling.
The vision for this project is to inform the wider church about innovations in Australian church life and to explore what makes them effective and sustainable. Some of the goals include to:
> INSPIRE: inspire leaders & attenders with stories of hope, new life & possibility
> ENCOURAGE: provide legitimacy and encouragement to the pioneers
> DESCRIBE: provide some description of new models
> ANALYSE: provide analysis of models which appear to be effective and sustainable
> CONNECT: to create a possible point of contact that encourages cooperation, mutual support and accountability
We are seeking new ventures and hope that they make themselves known to us.
A ‘new venture’ is defined as any Christian initiative (such as worship service, gathering, mission activity, network etc) that commenced since 1991 ie currently less than 15 years old.
About NCLS Research
NCLS Research is an agency that seeks to assist churches to move forward in mission and ministry in Australia, and to encourage the wider community to reflect upon its spiritual journey and the churches' place within it. It is most well known for the National Church Life Survey, a survey of church attenders and leaders, conducted every five years. NCLS Research is currently sponsored by The Uniting Church Board of Mission (NSW), ANGLICARE (Diocese of Sydney) and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.
Go to the NCLS Research website