Christian A. Schwarz

Christian A. Schwarz (advertised: Christian Andreas Schwarz ; * 1960 in Herne in the Ruhr area in North Rhine-Westphalia ) is a German Protestant theologian, speaker and publicist who researched the origins and development of Christian parishes and developed models of natural community development. He has published 22 books on these subjects, which have been translated into 42 languages ​​and have a total circulation of over 1.7 million copies.

Life

Schwarz is the son of the Protestant pastor and superintendent Fritz Schwarz and grew up in Herne in the Ruhr area. He studied Protestant theology in Bochum, Bielefeld-Bethel, Wuppertal, Mainz and Pasadena (USA). For many years he was the editor of the magazine Community Growth , which was called Praxis from 1995 onwards. He founded the Ecumenical Congregation Institute , which in 1996 was named Institute for Natural Church Development. As the founder and director of the Institute for Natural Church Development (NCD International) , he has examined 70,000 parishes from various Christian denominations around the world. He teaches natural community development seminars and coaches many church leaders worldwide, including many Anglican bishops.

Private

Christian A. Schwarz is married to Brigitte Berief-Schwarz, they have 3 children and live in Emmelsbüll in North Frisia .

Natural community development

The church building methodology, which he significantly developed and which has been referred to as natural church development since 1996 , is used worldwide in over 70 countries in more than 70,000 Christian churches of various denominations. It is based on four basic elements:

• the Trinitarian Compass

Municipalities have different focuses. They focus on evangelism and discipleship ("evangelical"), on spiritual authority ("charismatic") or on tolerance and social responsibility ("liberal"). You should learn not to neglect any of these aspects and to bring them into a balanced relationship.

• the eight quality principles

Empowering Leadership, Gift-Oriented Staff, Passionate Spirituality, Appropriate Structures, Inspirational Worship Service, Holistic Small Groups, Need-Oriented Evangelism, Loving Relationships. All quality features are essential, none of which can be neglected.

• the minimum factor

In order to improve the community quality, it is considered the most effective procedure to first focus on the weakest quality feature, the minimum factor.

• the six working principles ("growth forces")

Networking, multiplication, energy conversion, sustainability, symbiosis, fertility. All measures and activities should be designed according to these principles.

criticism

In relation to Schwarz and his theses and research methods of the natural development of the community, evangelical-conservative Christians are (among others) critical to negative. You accuse him of relativizing biblical truths in favor of empirical research such as statistics.

Works (selection)

• Theology of Church Building , 1987 (with Fritz Schwarz)
• The Love-Learning Process , 1990
• The community test , 1991
• The gift test . C&P Verlag, Mainz – Kastel 1991 (5th, expanded edition)
• The third reformation. Paradigm Shift in the Church. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1993. ISBN 978-3-928093-26-2
• Basic Evangelism Course , 1993
• Instructions for Christian bon vivants. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1995. ISBN 978-3-928093-37-8
• The art of giving love and experiencing it for yourself. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1995. ISBN 978-3-928093-44-6
• The natural community development. According to the principles that God himself laid in his creation. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1996. ISBN 978-3-928093-48-4
• The practice of natural church development. With Christoph Schalk. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1997. ISBN 978-3-928093-62-0
• The threefold art of experiencing God , 1999
• 1 × 1 of community development. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 1999. ISBN 978-3-928093-64-4
• The 3 colors of your gifts. How every Christian can discover and develop his or her spiritual gifts. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 2001. ISBN 978-3-928093-56-9 (11th edition 2013)
• Natural community development in the Catholic Church. Preface by Paul M. Zulehner. D&D Medien, 2003. ISBN 978-3-932842-40-5
• The 3 colors of love. The art of sharing God's justice, truth, and grace with other people. 2004. ISBN 978-3-86770-003-0
• Show your colors with natural church development. How can I live and develop my Christianity vigorously? NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 2005. ISBN 978-3-928093-70-5
• The 3 colors of your spirituality , 2009
• The 3 colors of the community. How the 7 Community Traits Help You Overcome the 7 Deadly Sins. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, 2013. ISBN 978-3-928093-01-9
• The 3 colors of leadership. How anyone can learn to empower other people. NCD Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll, ISBN 978-3-928093-00-2
• God is indestructible. 12 answers to the relevance crisis of Christianity , Gerth Medien, Aßlar 2020, ISBN 978-3-95734-641-4 .
• God's energy (multi-volume work)
  • Volume 1 - The rediscovery of a New Testament reality , NCD-Media, Emmelsbüll-Horsbüll 2020, ISBN 978-3-928093-27-9 .

Audio

• I have a dream - After Martin Luther King. Music album. Contributions by Siegfried Fietz , illustration by Oliver Fietz and Christina Burfeind, adaptation by Johannes Nitsch . ABAKUS, 1982. ISBN 978-3-88124-247-9
• Hope beyond death. Music album. Contributions by Siegfried Fietz, illustration by Margret Knoop-Schellbach, adaptation by Siegfried Fietz and Mladen Franko. ABAKUS, 1999. ISBN 978-3-88124-267-7
• You are the seed of the future. Music album. Illustrations by Oliver Fietz, music adaptation by Siegfried Fietz, ABAKUS, 2002. ISBN 978-3-88124-319-3
• Three years of learning. 2012

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian A. Schwarz in the catalog of the German National Library
• NCD International website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ulrich Eggers : What is Christian Schwarz and the NGE actually doing? AufAtmen 4, 2015, pages 82-84
2. ↑ Christian A. Schwarz: Confess your color with natural community development , Emmelsbüll 2005, ISBN 3-928093-70-3
3. ↑ Wilfried Plock and Bernd Kälber, Conference for Congregation Planting KFG ( Memento of the original from September 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9cc056m5-8