NCD: Loving Relationships
Healthy and vital churches are places filled with love. Many churches will name their care and love for each other as their best quality, but some of these same churches will be filled with behaviors that are not very loving. Loving relationships are displayed by how we treat one another, even when we disagree. Some questions about the relationships in your church are:
- How are joy and trust experienced, expressed and encouraged in your church life?
- How do people support one another and develop new friendships in your church?
- How does your congregation intentionally celebrate and build relationships?
- How well do people know and understand their leadership styles and use that knowledge to keep disagreement from becoming conflict?
- How do people behave during times of conflict?
Some helpful resources might be:
- The 3 Colors of Love by Christian Schwarz
- Never Call Them Jerks: Healthy Responses to Difficult Behavior by Arthur Paul Boers
- Behavior Covenants in Congregations by Gil Rendle
- www.peace.mennolink.org/resources/conflictstyle - free conflict style inventory
8 Quality Characteristics of Natural Church Development
- Empowering Leadership
- Gift-Based Ministries
- Passionate Spirituality
- Effective Structures
- Inspiring Worship
- Holistic Small Groups
- Need-Oriented Evangelism
- Loving Relationships
- back to Natural Church Development
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More information and resources
- New Churches
- Natural Church Development
- Church Assessment
- Training Events
- Online Resources
- Congregational Development News
- Curtis' Blog
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congregational development office 978-682-8055 ext 210 curtis@neumc.org
congregational development office 978-682-8055 ext 210 curtis@neumc.org