The Florida Conference has decided to employ Natural Church Development (NCD), the transformation process developed by Church Smart Resources, as our methodology. There are other good methodologies. This one has advantages: a strong objective statistical base, ease of use, concise measuring tools, a simple strategic planning process and support materials that are plentiful and easily accessed. Critical to the system is the employment of coaches from outside a congregation.

Two issues immediately surface: competence, in general, and getting a coach that fits a church and pastor. Those are critical issues. The coaches must be competent, and the fit must be right. NCD has a comprehensive system of training and supporting coaches they have been developing over the past seven years. We conducted phase one of a two-phase training process July 10-12 with 37 clergy and 15 laity from our conference participating. The excitement and expectation were great. We were surprised by the depth and scope of the training. I think most came away awed by the appropriateness and timeliness of the material. It just fits our situation.

One could legitimately ask how skilled an otherwise inexperienced person could be at coaching after only five days of training and little on-the-job experience (phase one is three days; phase two is two days). The response to that concern is that the training is on-going, there are support persons available from NCD for consultation, coaches will be assigned in pairs at least in the beginning, and they will participate in support groups of coaches who will meet regularly. They will be accountable to the Office of Congregational Transformation for assignment to and supervision of their work.