The Six Growth Forces: Learning How Living Things Develop - Week 8
Week 8 of the Small Church Guys series: Healthy Things Grow—A Biblical and Global Approach to Natural Church Development
A church is not a machine.
That may sound obvious, but much of modern ministry can unintentionally treat the church as though it were one.
Machines are built.
Machines are assembled.
Machines are controlled.
If a machine stops producing the desired result, we replace a part, adjust a setting, add power, or redesign the system.
Living things are different.
Living things grow.
They develop.
They reproduce.
They adapt.
They depend upon relationships with other living things.
They use available resources.
They experience seasons.
They produce fruit.
And perhaps most importantly, life cannot simply be manufactured from the outside.
This distinction sits near the heart of Natural Church Development.
During the first seven weeks of this series, we have repeatedly returned to one central conviction:
Healthy things grow.
We have explored the eight quality characteristics of healthy churches, the importance of identifying a church’s minimum factor, using strengths to address weaknesses, focusing on principles rather than copying models, and understanding the difference between what pastors can cultivate and the growth only God can provide.
Now we need to go one level deeper.
What actually happens beneath healthy church life?
What principles help living systems develop?
Natural Church Development describes six growth forces operating beneath the eight quality characteristics:
- Interdependence
- Multiplication
- Energy Transformation
- Sustainability
- Symbiosis
- Fruitfulness
The NCD training describes these as life principles working beneath the surface of the eight quality characteristics. Growth is understood as organic rather than merely linear, and the six forces function together as underlying processes that contribute to vitality.
Another section of the training describes these six forces as part of the “bloodstream” of the NCD paradigm and emphasizes that they help churches move from pushing growth to nurturing growth.
That may be one of the most important mindset shifts in this entire series.
Healthy church development is not primarily about pushing harder.
It is about understanding how life develops and learning to cooperate with those processes.
Nature Can Teach Us Something About Ministry
Jesus frequently pointed people toward creation.
Seeds.
Soil.
Vines.
Branches.
Trees.
Fruit.
Birds.
Lilies.
Harvests.
Jesus was not teaching botany.
He was using the natural world to help people understand spiritual realities.
In Mark 4, Jesus described a farmer scattering seed and then watching a process unfold that the farmer could not fully control:
“The seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.”
—Mark 4:27
The farmer participates.
But life operates according to principles the farmer did not create.
Natural Church Development applies a similar observation to church health.
Rather than asking only:
“What program should we start?”
we begin asking:
“What are the life-giving processes that allow health to develop?”
That distinction matters because a church can possess programs without possessing healthy processes.
A church can have a leadership program without multiplying leaders.
It can have small groups without genuine interdependence.
It can have outreach events without fruitfulness.
It can have volunteer positions without sustainability.
It can have several ministries without symbiosis.
Programs describe what we have organized.
Growth forces help us ask whether life is actually flowing through what we have organized.
1. Interdependence: Everything Is Connected
The first growth force is interdependence.
The NCD training describes interdependence as mutual reliance or connectedness and connects the principle with 1 Corinthians 12:12–27. It encourages leaders to consider the larger context, think beyond immediate results, and recognize the long-term effects of their actions.
Paul gives us one of Scripture’s clearest pictures:
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.”
—1 Corinthians 12:12
A church is not a collection of independent ministries.
It is a body.
What happens in one area affects others.
Leadership affects volunteers.
Volunteers affect ministries.
Ministries affect relationships.
Relationships affect worship.
Worship affects spirituality.
Spiritual vitality affects evangelism.
Evangelism affects discipleship.
Everything is connected.
This sounds simple, but churches frequently make decisions as though ministries exist independently.
A pastor may add another program without considering what it will do to already overextended volunteers.
A worship ministry may schedule rehearsals without considering family rhythms.
A leadership team may change service times without considering transportation challenges.
A church may launch outreach without creating a process for caring for the people who respond.
Interdependence asks:
“If we do this, what else will be affected?”
A Small-Church Example
Imagine a congregation of 75 people deciding to launch three new ministries.
Each ministry sounds valuable.
But all three depend upon the same twelve reliable volunteers.
On paper, the church has gained three ministries.
In reality, it may have increased exhaustion, weakened family relationships, reduced volunteer effectiveness, and created future leadership problems.
Interdependence helps leaders see the whole system.
The question is not simply:
“Is this a good idea?”
It is:
“How will this decision affect the health of the whole church?”
A Global Perspective
Interdependence may be expressed differently across cultures.
In highly communal cultures, leaders may already think naturally in terms of family and community relationships.
In highly individualistic cultures, churches may need to work harder to help believers understand that Christian life cannot be separated from the body.
In rural settings, the church may be deeply connected to village life.
In urban settings, members may travel long distances and participate in several disconnected social worlds.
The form changes.
The principle remains.
Healthy churches understand that ministry decisions have consequences beyond the ministry making the decision.
2. Multiplication: Healthy Life Reproduces
The second growth force is multiplication.
The NCD training defines multiplication in terms of reproduction. It stresses that multiplication begins small, seeks long-term results, and is dynamic rather than merely additive.
This is deeply biblical.
Jesus did not simply gather disciples.
He developed disciples who could make other disciples.
Paul told Timothy:
“What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”
—2 Timothy 2:2
Notice the generations:
Paul.
Timothy.
Faithful people.
Others.
That is multiplication.
Churches often think in terms of addition:
How do we add another volunteer?
How do we add another group?
How do we add another leader?
Addition is valuable.
But multiplication asks something deeper:
“Can what we are developing reproduce without remaining dependent upon the original leader?”
A healthy leader develops other leaders.
A healthy disciple helps make other disciples.
A healthy small group can eventually produce another healthy group.
A healthy ministry develops people capable of carrying the mission forward.
The NCD training applies multiplication to empowering leadership by emphasizing not merely adding one or two leaders but intentionally developing leadership that multiplies.
Addition Can Exhaust a Church
Imagine a pastor who personally disciples ten people.
That is good ministry.
But if every future disciple must be discipled personally by that same pastor, the ministry eventually reaches the pastor’s capacity.
Multiplication asks:
“What if those ten people were equipped to disciple others?”
The pastor’s influence is no longer limited to what the pastor can personally accomplish.
This principle is especially important for small churches.
A small congregation may not have enough people to continuously add workers.
But it can develop people who develop people.
Multiplication Is More Than Numerical Growth
Multiplication does not simply mean increasing attendance.
It may mean multiplying:
- Disciples
- Leaders
- Prayer groups
- Ministry teams
- Mentors
- Generosity
- Service
- Evangelistic relationships
- Churches
The deeper principle is reproduction.
Healthy life reproduces life.
3. Energy Transformation: Redirect What God Has Already Provided
The third growth force is listed in the NCD framework as Energy Transformation. In the training material explaining the principle, it is also discussed through the language of energy transfer or harnessing—recognizing available energy or resources and redirecting them toward healthier purposes.
This principle can be extremely practical.
Churches frequently ask:
“What resources do we need?”
Energy transformation encourages another question:
“What resources, passions, experiences, relationships, or challenges are already present that could be redirected?”
A ministry may end.
Do the people who served there disappear?
Not necessarily.
Their gifts can be redirected.
A person experiences a painful season.
Can that experience eventually become compassionate ministry to others?
Potentially.
A new believer has extraordinary enthusiasm.
Can that enthusiasm be nurtured toward service and evangelism?
Yes.
A conflict exposes a communication problem.
Can that painful moment become an opportunity to develop healthier communication?
Yes.
A church has strong relationships but weak evangelism.
Can those relationships be redirected outward toward neighbors and coworkers?
Yes.
This is energy transformation.
Do Not Waste What You Have Learned
Paul’s letter to the Philippians provides a powerful example of circumstances being redirected rather than wasted.
His imprisonment appeared to be an obstacle.
Yet Paul wrote that what had happened to him had actually served to advance the gospel.
The problem did not automatically disappear.
The energy of the situation was redirected.
Healthy leaders learn to ask:
- What is happening here?
- What can we learn from it?
- What resources are hidden within this situation?
- What passion already exists?
- What can be redirected rather than discarded?
The NCD training encourages leaders, in considering energy transfer, to express appreciation, discover needs, recognize what a situation is communicating, and view available resources within their context.
A Small Church May Have More Energy Than It Thinks
A congregation may say:
“We do not have enough people.”
But perhaps it has retired members with time and wisdom.
“We cannot afford another staff person.”
Perhaps emerging leaders can be apprenticed.
“Young adults are leaving.”
Perhaps those who remain could be invited into meaningful decision-making and responsibility.
“This ministry no longer works.”
Perhaps the people and resources supporting it can be redirected toward the current minimum factor.
The principle is not:
Keep everything.
It is:
Do not waste life-giving energy simply because its previous form has ended.
4. Sustainability: Healthy Ministry Can Endure
The fourth growth force is sustainability.
The NCD training describes sustainability as the capacity to endure and uses ecological language about systems remaining productive over time. It also connects sustainability with learning, mentoring, curiosity, and ongoing development.
This principle deserves far more attention in church leadership.
Some ministry practices produce impressive short-term results while quietly destroying long-term health.
A pastor works seventy-hour weeks.
A small core of volunteers serves every event.
One family finances most church projects.
A gifted leader becomes indispensable.
The church launches programs faster than it develops people.
For a while, everything may appear successful.
But the real question is:
Can this continue in a healthy way?
Sustainability asks us to think beyond this Sunday, this event, this quarter, or even this year.
Jesus spoke about counting the cost before beginning a building project in Luke 14.
Wisdom asks whether we have the resources and capacity to continue.
Burnout Is Not a Growth Strategy
Churches sometimes spiritualize exhaustion.
People are praised for never saying no.
Pastors feel guilty taking days off.
Volunteers continue serving long after joy has disappeared.
Eventually, people collapse, quit, withdraw, or become resentful.
That is not sustainable ministry.
Healthy ministry seeks rhythms that can endure.
That may include:
- Shared leadership
- Volunteer rotation
- Rest
- Training others
- Simplifying ministries
- Developing successors
- Evaluating workload
- Ending activities that consume more life than they produce
The NCD training connects sustainability with long-term health, adaptability, wise resource use, and preventing burnout.
Sustainability Will Look Different Globally
A sustainable ministry model in one context may be impossible somewhere else.
A church with paid staff may build systems around professional leadership.
A congregation where the pastor works another full-time job must organize differently.
A rural church may plan around agricultural seasons.
A congregation in an area of economic instability may require simpler financial commitments.
A persecuted church may need structures capable of continuing without centralized leadership.
Sustainability means developing ministry that can endure within the reality God has given that church.
5. Symbiosis: Cooperation Is Better Than Competition
The fifth growth force is symbiosis.
The NCD training defines symbiosis as a close, long-term interaction between different organisms and summarizes the church application as cooperating. It emphasizes teamwork without requiring uniformity, avoiding competition, developing a shared big picture, and clarifying who will work with whom and toward what purpose.
Paul again gives us the biblical picture:
“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”
—1 Corinthians 12:27
The body does not require every part to become identical.
Eyes remain eyes.
Hands remain hands.
Feet remain feet.
Difference is not the problem.
Isolation and competition are.
Healthy churches learn how different gifts, ministries, generations, personalities, and leaders can strengthen one another.
Symbiosis asks:
“How can these ministries become more fruitful together than they would be separately?”
Church Silos Violate Symbiosis
Many churches operate as collections of competing ministries.
The children’s ministry needs volunteers.
The worship ministry needs volunteers.
The outreach ministry needs volunteers.
The small-group ministry needs volunteers.
Each ministry recruits independently.
Each protects its calendar.
Each promotes its own events.
Soon leaders are competing for the same people, money, weekends, and attention.
Symbiosis asks leaders to see the larger mission.
Instead of:
“How can my ministry succeed?”
the question becomes:
“How can our ministries cooperate so the whole church becomes healthier?”
The NCD training applies this principle to empowering leadership by emphasizing collaboration between ministry leaders for greater effectiveness.
Cooperation Does Not Require Uniformity
This is significant globally.
Healthy cooperation does not mean every congregation, ministry, or denomination must become identical.
A church can work with another church while maintaining theological and cultural distinctions where appropriate.
Older and younger generations can cooperate without worshiping identically.
People with different gifts can work toward a shared mission without approaching every problem the same way.
Unity is not sameness.
Symbiosis values differences that contribute to a healthier whole.
6. Fruitfulness: What Is Actually Being Produced?
The sixth growth force may be the most uncomfortable.
Fruitfulness.
The NCD training describes fruitfulness as producing a good or productive result and connects the principle directly with evaluation. It encourages leaders to determine what they hope to accomplish, plan toward the goal, evaluate results, and continually seek greater fruit.
Jesus made fruit a serious matter.
In John 15, He described Himself as the vine and His followers as branches.
“Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.”
—John 15:5
Fruit matters.
This does not mean every ministry outcome can be reduced to statistics.
Love cannot always be placed on a spreadsheet.
Spiritual maturity cannot be fully summarized by attendance.
But churches should still ask:
“What is this actually producing?”
A ministry may be busy without being fruitful.
A program may be popular without making disciples.
A Bible study may transfer information without producing obedience.
A worship service may be excellent without cultivating everyday spirituality.
An outreach event may attract hundreds of people without creating a single lasting relationship.
Fruitfulness refuses to confuse activity with results.
Evaluation Is Not Unspiritual
Some churches become uncomfortable with evaluation.
They may fear that measuring anything sounds corporate or secular.
But Scripture repeatedly examines fruit.
Jesus said:
“You will recognize them by their fruits.”
—Matthew 7:16
Paul evaluated churches.
The apostles addressed ministries that were not functioning properly.
The letters to the churches in Revelation contain repeated evaluation: what was healthy, what was unhealthy, what needed repentance, and what should continue.
Evaluation does not replace dependence upon God.
It is an act of stewardship.
Healthy leaders ask:
- Are people becoming more like Christ?
- Are disciples making disciples?
- Are leaders developing?
- Are members using their gifts?
- Are relationships becoming healthier?
- Are people outside the church encountering the gospel?
- Are ministries sustainable?
- Is our minimum factor improving?
Fruitfulness gives permission to stop assuming that activity equals health.
The Six Forces Work Together
The greatest mistake would be treating these six principles as six independent techniques.
They are interconnected.
NCD explicitly teaches that these growth forces work beneath the eight quality characteristics and interact with one another as part of organic church life.
Consider leadership development.
A healthy leadership-development process requires:
Interdependence:
Leaders understand how their decisions affect the entire church.
Multiplication:
Leaders develop other leaders.
Energy Transformation:
Existing gifts and passions are redirected toward meaningful responsibility.
Sustainability:
Emerging leaders receive training and development so leadership does not remain dependent upon one person.
Symbiosis:
Leaders cooperate rather than protect ministry territories.
Fruitfulness:
The church honestly evaluates whether leadership development is actually working.
The NCD materials apply precisely this kind of six-force framework to empowering leadership.
The same six questions can be asked about all eight quality characteristics.
That is what makes these forces so useful.
They are not another program.
They are ways of thinking about life.
Apply the Six Forces to Any Ministry
Imagine your church has a small-group ministry.
Ask:
Interdependence
How do the groups connect with worship, pastoral care, leadership development, and evangelism?
Multiplication
Are group members becoming capable of leading or discipling others?
Energy Transformation
Are the gifts, experiences, and needs within the group being turned toward ministry?
Sustainability
Can leaders continue serving without exhaustion? Are future leaders being developed?
Symbiosis
Do groups cooperate with the larger church or function as isolated communities?
Fruitfulness
Are people actually experiencing discipleship, care, obedience, and spiritual transformation?
Now apply the same questions to:
- Worship
- Children’s ministry
- Evangelism
- Leadership development
- Community outreach
- Missions
- Volunteer systems
Suddenly, ministry evaluation becomes much deeper than:
“Did people attend?”
Loving Relationships Through the Six Forces
The training gives an especially practical example by applying all six forces to loving relationships.
It describes:
- Interdependence: creating ways for people to connect
- Multiplication: welcoming new people into expanding relational networks
- Energy Transformation: allowing belonging to lead toward greater ministry involvement
- Sustainability: identifying and training people with caring gifts
- Symbiosis: experiencing joyful cooperation
- Fruitfulness: including those who may otherwise be marginalized
Notice what has happened.
“Loving relationships” has moved beyond:
“We are a friendly church.”
Love becomes a living process.
People connect.
The relational network expands.
Belonging releases ministry.
Caregivers are developed.
People cooperate.
Those who might be excluded are welcomed.
That is the difference between describing a value and understanding the life processes beneath it.
Life Principles Travel Better Than Programs
This is another reason the six growth forces are valuable for the global Church.
A program may depend upon a particular culture.
These questions do not.
Every church can ask:
Are we connected?
Are we reproducing?
Are we redirecting available resources wisely?
Can this endure?
Are we cooperating?
Are we producing fruit?
A congregation in Singapore can ask those questions.
A rural church in Guyana can ask them.
A house church in India can ask them.
A village church in Kenya can ask them.
A historic congregation in Europe can ask them.
A church in Brazil, Australia, the Caribbean, Canada, Nigeria, South Korea, or the United States can ask them.
The answers will look different.
They should.
But the underlying life principles remain useful because they do not require one ministry model.
This is consistent with the larger NCD conviction we explored earlier in this series:
The principles are transferable; the expressions must remain contextual.
Small Churches May Have an Advantage Here
Small churches sometimes assume that health requires more resources.
But the six growth forces reveal that healthy processes are not necessarily expensive.
Interdependence does not require a budget.
Multiplication does not require a building.
Energy transformation does not require additional staff.
Symbiosis does not require advanced technology.
Fruitfulness does not require a large congregation.
Sustainability may actually require doing less.
A small church can become extraordinarily healthy by learning how to use what God has already provided more wisely.
Consider a congregation with 40 people.
It may never operate ten specialized departments.
But what if:
Five leaders intentionally developed five more leaders?
Older believers mentored younger believers?
Existing relationships became evangelistic networks?
Ministries shared volunteers instead of competing for them?
Programs that exhausted people were simplified?
Every ministry regularly asked whether people were becoming more like Christ?
The congregation might remain relatively small and yet become significantly healthier.
And healthy life possesses the capacity to reproduce.
Healthy Growth Often Feels Less Forced
One of the most compelling ideas in the NCD training is that healthy growth becomes increasingly natural as churches align with life-giving processes. The materials describe minor adjustments as sometimes producing significant results and say that the growth forces help leaders make everyday ministry decisions that follow natural processes rather than constantly fighting against them.
This does not mean ministry becomes easy.
Living things still require cultivation.
There are droughts.
Storms.
Disease.
Pruning.
Waiting.
But there is a difference between difficult cultivation and unnecessary friction.
A farmer works hard.
But a wise farmer works with the processes of life rather than against them.
Church leaders should do the same.
Stop Asking Only, “What Should We Do?”
The growth forces help us ask better questions.
Instead of only asking:
“What program should we start?”
Ask:
“Where are we disconnected?”
Instead of:
“How do we get more people?”
Ask:
“What should be multiplying?”
Instead of:
“What new resource do we need?”
Ask:
“What God-given energy can be redirected?”
Instead of:
“How do we keep everything going?”
Ask:
“What can actually be sustained?”
Instead of:
“How can my ministry become stronger?”
Ask:
“How can our ministries cooperate?”
Instead of:
“How busy were we?”
Ask:
“What fruit did we produce?”
Those questions shift church development from activity toward health.
Questions for Pastors and Leadership Teams
Take one current ministry and discuss these six questions:
- Interdependence: How does this ministry affect the rest of our church?
- Multiplication: What is reproducing because this ministry exists?
- Energy Transformation: What existing gifts, relationships, experiences, or resources are being harnessed and redirected?
- Sustainability: Can this continue in a healthy way for the people involved?
- Symbiosis: Where does this ministry cooperate with others, and where might competition or isolation exist?
- Fruitfulness: What meaningful spiritual, relational, or missional fruit is actually being produced?
Then ask one final question:
Which growth force would most strengthen this ministry if we became more intentional about it?
Do not try to fix all six immediately.
Identify one.
Start there.
One Healthy Step This Week
Select one important ministry in your church.
Write the six growth forces across the top of a page:
Interdependence | Multiplication | Energy Transformation | Sustainability | Symbiosis | Fruitfulness
Under each one, write one observation.
Then circle the force where the church seems to be experiencing the greatest difficulty.
Finally, identify one practical change that could strengthen that process within the next 30 days.
For example:
Sustainability: The same four people are carrying nearly every responsibility.
Healthy step:
Recruit and apprentice two additional people while simplifying one unnecessary responsibility.
Or:
Multiplication: Our small group creates strong relationships but has never developed another leader.
Healthy step:
Ask the current leader to begin apprenticing one member over the next three months.
Or:
Symbiosis: Our ministries operate independently and compete for volunteers.
Healthy step:
Bring ministry leaders together to coordinate calendars, people, and shared goals.
Simple adjustments can begin shifting the church from forcing activity toward nurturing life.
Learn to See the Church as Something Alive
Pastor, you do not lead a machine.
You shepherd a living body.
You cultivate a field.
You care for branches connected to a vine.
You participate in something God Himself has given life.
That changes how we lead.
We pay attention to relationships because everything is interdependent.
We develop others because healthy life multiplies.
We steward what already exists because energy can be transformed and redirected.
We reject unnecessary exhaustion because healthy ministry must be sustainable.
We cooperate because different parts of the body flourish through symbiosis.
And we evaluate because healthy life should eventually produce fruit.
None of these forces creates spiritual life.
God does that.
But they help us understand how living systems develop and how pastors can cooperate more wisely with the life God has already placed within His Church.
At Small Church Guys, we believe healthy things grow.
And sometimes becoming healthier begins by stopping long enough to ask not only what our church is doing—but how life is actually flowing through what we are doing.
Is Your Church Busy—or Is It Developing Healthy Life?
Small Church Guys helps pastors and leadership teams look beneath programs and activity to understand the deeper processes shaping congregational health.
Through Natural Church Development assessment, coaching, interpretation, and contextual implementation, we help churches identify their minimum factor, understand the eight quality characteristics, and apply the six growth forces in ways appropriate to their own culture, people, resources, and calling.
Your church does not need to manufacture growth.
It can learn to cultivate healthier conditions for the life God has already placed within it.
Contact Small Church Guys for NCD coaching, church-health assessment, implementation support, or help applying the six growth forces within your local church.
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