I, We, They, All of Us

Jack Stephenson

As NCD churches get healthy what are they doing with that health and what is that doing to the churches around them? Dr. Jack Stephenson, senior pastor of Anona United Methodist Church, is exploring this issue with other churches from the Tampa Bay area of Florida.

As we work with more and more churches these are becoming important questions. How can we transform that energy? Ten churches in the Tampa Bay area of Florida are forming a laboratory to explore this by developing an I-We-They-All of us process.

The heart of the NCD process is about creating a culture where we are comfortable hearing the truth about our church's strengths and weaknesses and coming to agreement on why "We" are that way. This process will expand that in both directions to the "I" and the "They".

Healthy Christians care about personal growth. A relationship with Jesus Christ opens us to the truth about ourselves. This is a constant journey for health to be sustainable. Awareness of our gifts and weaknesses is the beginning of wisdom. We will be using the three colors, the spirit gifts inventory, and other tools to do this work together in an environment of trust and mutual respect.

The Spirit draws us into corporate experience. When we feel safe enough and connected (loved), we can trust the community (our relationships) with the truth about ourselves and be more open to hear the truth about our life together. We all long for and hopefully work toward our churches being this kind of environment where we can grow together in truth and love. The health here will be measured by the NCD Survey for each church and by the OQM Survey (Organic Quality Management) for groups within each church.

More on Organic Quality Management (OQM)

Sadly, our church experience can feel pretty good and stop us from leaving. When all we care about is that people don't leave we hoard the manna. We were meant to send out and care for others. God co-creates the world with us. We can't change it without God, and God won't change it without us. The "They" is holy too. When we care about others as much as we care about us, the Kingdom mind is working on all three burners (The three colors! Of course!). Churches in survival focus only on the "I" and "We". The direction of flow is toward the Church not out from it. We will use demographic tools for this area of study.

When all three of these, that is "I", "We", and "They", are growing together and feeding each other the unity of the trinity emerges. The three colors of our relationship with God strengthen each other. We are better individual Christians. Our church becomes more the Body. The world around us feels the nearness of the Kingdom. Other churches, the schools, the hospitals, the communities around us become "all of us". We are all in this together. People naturally invite their friends in both directions (into church and out from the church).

We 10 churches are going to live out this journey together for the next year. You will be hearing from us from time to time as we put a laboratory around our "life together". Pastors, key leaders and teams will work on the health of each of these areas with the help of the NCD family as we explore the new (old) territory of living in the Kingdom. Not so much a multi-site as a collaborative search for what God can do with our willingness to be "All of us".

Dr. Jack Stephenson is the senior pastor of Anona United Methodist Church in Largo, Florida and NCD trainer for the United Methodist Church. Contact: jack@anona.com.