Natural Church Development is a research-based assessment tool which measures the “health” of a congregation based on “eight essential qualities of healthy churches.” The eight characteristics include empowering leadership; gift-oriented ministry; passionate spirituality; functional structures; inspiring worship service; holistic small groups; need-oriented evangelism; and loving relationships. The characteristics are measured through a survey instrument that is taken by 30 key leaders and sent in to be scored. The congregation receives back a report showing their strengths and weaknesses on each of these eight characteristics. Natural Church Development offers a variety of resources for congregations to use as they work to strengthen the area(s) in which they are weakest. (From SSGI Resource Booklet, Spring 2005.)