The Trinitarian Approach of NCD
Christian faith is founded upon the Trinitarian experience of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
There have been many ways of trying to symbolise the Trinity, and Christian Schwarz (the founder of NCD) uses that of colour. Pure white light is made when the colours of Red, Green and Blue are all in unison. So the central white symbolises God, and the three colours symbolise the experiences we have of the persons of the Trinity - Father/Creator (Green), Son/Jesus (Red), and Holy Spirit (Blue).
Human nature finds the concept of the Trinity difficult to grasp, with the result that people can tend to gravitate towards particular persons of the Trinity, and subconsciously emphasize one more than the others. As Schwarz says, 'God's threefold communication with us should correspond with a threefold experiential response on our part. So whenever just one of the three dimensions is neglected, we have an incomplete experience of God.'
This can apply not just to individuals but also to congregations as a whole.
Thus congregations who focus more on the Father/Creator aspects of God, will often be committed to social action and engagement, emphasizing God's love for all.
Those congregations who focus more on Jesus and his personal salvation will often be committed to Biblical truth and the need for evangelism.
Those congregations who focus more on the Holy Spirit will often be committed to the powerful experiential presence of God, and can include the manifestation of spiritual gifts.
However, the truth is that all congregations desperately need to experience God working amongst them in all three ways, for that is how God has chosen to reveal Himself.
This broader Trinitarian understanding and emphasis underlies NCD. The NCD surveys, which form the basis for identifying a church's health in relation to the 8 Essential Qualities, will at the same time helpfully identify whether a church is tending to lean towards and over-emphasize one aspect of the Trinity over others. The three colours act as a very helpful visual aid in this.