Discovery Response — Silver Highway

Greater Things Discovery Response Questions

Growth, Clarification, and Opportunity

Name

First Name

Last Name

A. Maslow’s Hierarchy: Needs for Healthy Organizations

Maslow’s Hierarchy is a tool used by psychologists and marketing professionals in many situations to understand human behavior in their personal lives and in how organizations grow and develop from a foundational place . All humans generally have a basic series of needs which must be met before they can turn their attention reliably toward other needs and create successful and lasting change. Look at these different tiers and discuss briefly where your organization spends the most time in.

Basic / Physiological Needs:
Ministry has a strong message, a small but loyal following, a sense of where they want to go. Needs: They are still struggling to keep the lights on, get the bills paid, have a consistent place to meet, a steady flow of donors, and a way to handle conflict or any issue that could threaten the ministry.

Safety / Security Needs:
Have money coming in, a consistent place to meet, have some resources to mobilize the ministry. Needs: get out of survival. Long term plan for health and security of ministry: healthy organizational structure, financial goals and projections for long term ministry needs / assets, plan for communication and donor retention, necessary employees, etc.

Love / Belonging Needs:
Ministry is out of survival mode and has a healthy sustaining structure and financial goals. Ministry needs a healthy support system both within and externally – support and advisors for leaders, growing network in their wider community with other ministry leaders that can help them develop goals and share resources. Ministry within is organized with support systems, healthy communication, and a strong sense of unity.

Esteem Needs:
Ministry is organized and building strong relationships in the community. Needs: ministry needs a strong, unified sense of purpose with goals that require collaboration, faith, partnerships outside the ministry and a strong sense of applied vision. Ministry has a sense that in the next 2-5 years, the vision God has given them will have manifested in concrete ways that they can articulate in communication pieces, to encourage others, to get financial support, etc.

Self Actualization Needs:
Ministry has a strong sense of structure, leadership, goals, and support and is able to operate at a place of spontaneity, generosity, and creativity. They are able to help guide and encourage other ministries and have a sense of abundance and leadership in the community. Ministry leaders are able to step away when needed and replenish their own needs and passions without worrying about the survival of the organization.

B. Which of these (choose the top two) are the voices you are both energized and nurtured by the most at this place in your life? What is inline with and resonates with other (life-giving) voices that you are hearing from God, culture, your community?

1) Boldness. A sense of urgency. Encouragement and Empowerment of your gifts and future and God's plan for you for your life. Burst out of the old bubble. Seize the Day. "Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” – Harriet Tubman "You only have one life. Live it."

3) Affirmation, encouragement, celebration for the work you have done - permission to let go of the things that steal your life and be lifted higher to your sweet spot in ministry. Simplicity. Kindness. "Well done good and faithful servant."

4) Refine / Filter to your true identity- Push against old beliefs, old relationships, small thinking, hard conversations that yield great truth about what you want your future to look like so you can make better decisions about WHO and WHAT you want in your life. THIS is who I am. THIS is what I want. “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” —Dolly Parton

5) Repentance - Search me, God, and know my heart; See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Let community and friends show you what you have settled for, what you can do better. How can you accept God's deeper love and let go of the things you have clung to. Empowered by inventory of character flaws and things that are not working for you and your community, so you can choose things that are. “God, I offer myself to Thee—to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt. Relieve me of the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love, and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always!” - Alcoholics Anonymous

5) Fierce, warrior spirit for your value, your voice, and protection for all that has come against you - a radical permission to only be who you are right now, burst out of old, abusive mentalities, feel the righteous indignation of injustice against you and similar vulnerable people you care about. Break the silence. Rise up. "I know what I bring to the table, so trust me when I say Im not afraid to eat alone." "Sometimes you have to forget what you feel and remember what you deserve."

6) Grace. Move forward with what you have, permission to not make a lot of decisions right now. Space and margin to care for your parents, spend time with people who are life-giving, change plans as life unfolds in the next couple of years.

7) Deep love. Surrender it all. Only choose what is the most essential and life-giving.

8) Liberty - leave everything else behind. Go the narrow path. Choose Jesus, whatever it brings. Choose the resurrection. Forgive everything. Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last. - MLK

C. All of these are possible, but What is MOST important to you in the next couple of years - choose two or three and tell me why.

1) Working with a financial professional to create a plan to get Chuck and Jana both on salary

2) Creating a ministry that is more authentic - distilling down your ministry message into something that is more potent and expressive, addressing the pain and deliverance of God at the deepest place

3) Expand your ministry as it is to a wider, more diverse audience. Move into the inner city, Refugees, etc.

4) Create time to write and pursue creative channels, books, worship

5) Working with publishers, marketing professionals to write and promote books that will sell in your market

6) Expand teaching / podcasting audience. Develop content that expands your voice and move it to a larger market.

7) Restructure your ministry in a way that is sustainable - delegate, let go, create some boundaries and new ministry positions that protect you and others.

D. What are some ways you want to empower women: (both resistance and formative) - what do you want to lead with - what is your voice? Choose a first and second choice and discuss why.

1) Be a voice of empowerment: Hope and Believe in their dreams - come along side them and help provide resources and prayer - be a voice of hope but also a fire within them

2) Be a voice of resistance: a passionate language for the ways that women are brutalized and victimized by men - Domestic Violence, Abuse, Patriarchy, a bold voice for where God wants to meet them

3) Be a voice of encouragement and care: to provide support for women struggling in marriages and families - come alongside them - provide emotional, pastoral support

4) Be a voice for repentance: Boldly encourage women to let go of racism, victim beliefs, addiction, idolatry

5) Be a voice of worship and surrender

6) Other

E. Here are some of the top social issues facing women in Knoxville right now. What are the top four that are most important to you in addressing in your ministry through your message?

- COVID fears and health concerns, trauma from death, fear and panic
- Abortion
- Toxic Feminism
- Domestic violence, abuse
- Racism
- Breakdown in family
- Disability / Health problems / Issues with special needs children
- Poverty / Money problems
- Political strife / confusion and lack of unity around our country's leaders
- Sex Trafficking and abuse
- Issues facing Refugees - Housing, Jobs, Trauma, Assimilation, Language barriers
- Income inequality
- Lack of a voice for women
- Navigating career and motherhood
- Addiction
- Raising a family, stress, marriage

F. What are some of the ways of addressing these issues that you are most attracted to (facilitate, not necessarily teach or lead) - discuss why and provide examples. Choose two:

1) Informative classes - Financial Peace, Self-defense classes, English Classes for Refugees

2) Creative outlets - Restorative Art classes, Spoken Word, Open Mic / Music, Worship

3) Counseling Services

4) Book study and discussion

5) Providing resources that support women in their dreams: Starting a business, Writing a book, etc

6) Teaching / podcasting on specific issues

7) Developing long term materials that will help you distill your thoughts and help guide through processing and - blogs / articles books

8) Creating Support groups around certain issues

G. Name three or four of the major spiritual issues affecting women today that you would like to see addressed through your ministry (Salvation, Idolatry of men, Not knowing the love of God, etc.)

H. Upgrades and Higher Ground always require growth and surrender. Here are some options for growth based on your stated goals and responses, and from what has proven successful with other leaders. What are some of the ways that you are willing to grow as a leader to reach out wider / deeper as a ministry in the next two years. Choose TWO or THREE that you would commit to (or write in your own) and discuss why.

1) Go deeper in your own healing of trauma and abuse. Work with someone who can help you find a new depth and confidence around these issues. Find a potent, raw voice for God's response to abuse and pain that will speak to African Americans, Refugees, Domestic Violence victims, etc.

2) Educate yourself about the issues facing Knoxville - research, meet with city leaders, read books, spend time working with other ministries. Understand at both an intellectual and heart level what this city is dealing with to make informed and strategic decisions, ministry programs, relationships. Create goals to this end that will help you develop a spiritual presence and impact with ministry leaders, educators, donors, professionals.

3) Work on your creative passions and voice - dedicate time away - make sacrifices to write a book, develop worship music. Take poetry / art classes outside of your comfort zone at UT or Writer's Guild, and engage with other artistic expression that will inspire you. Commit to your creative voice and be willing to set strong boundaries and say no to things. Find collaboration, accountability and support for your creative process and goals.

4) Commit to Nurturing yourself and your own healing and self-care. Time at the beach. Exercise, sunshine, health care, nutrition, financial health, counseling, etc. Let go of things. Find a kinder, more loving place for yourself. Be willing to align with other people who will help you love and care for yourself. Teach, lead, love out of this place.

5) Commit to the financial foundation of Greater Things. Work with an accountant or someone with CFO skills to create forecasts and a strategy to get you and Chuck on the payroll in the next five years or so. Make some decisions about where you would like to be with a building, employees, sustainable income. Meet with potential donors and put a plan in place. Be willing to postpone some of your creative dreams so you can build a financial future that will give you more freedom and flexibility in the years to come.

6) Work with a business coach and someone outside the ministry who can help you create and clarify a ministry structure that will allow you to hand off administrative tasks, someone to help with ministry finances and create a separation between you and donors, hand off ministry needs to people with pastoral gifts and leadership, and allow you to operate more in your sweet spot. Create a structure will also be scalable as your ministry grows. Work with this and a financial person to create a structure that is healthier for you and creates jobs / empowerment for other people. Be willing to stay the course for a couple of years, so you'll have more freedom in the future.

7) Commit to the development of an inclusive artist/worship community in the Knoxville area hosted within the Greater Things ministry - giving it a pulse and a rhythm that helps illustrate in word, song, and art the voice of women and God's love for them.

8) Work with a Christian Book Publisher like Thomas Nelson in Nashville and with promotional folks or others who can help increase the distribution of your books. Work with publishing professionals who can help you develop a series of books or apply your revelation to current issues the world is facing.

9) Spiritually, commit to higher ground as a leader living closer to God, and from a position of more power, intimacy and clarity. Work with other spiritual leaders and commit to new practices to awaken something higher and deeper within yourself. Be willing to separate from negative influences and people / situations that keep you from the depth and potency of new ground in your spiritual life.

10) Other places / needs:

I. What are some of the ways you’re going to have to sacrifice to go after new goals and dreams? What are some of the practical steps you can make early on to "count the cost" to create vision that will be healthy and sustainable over time?

J. Your rawness and inherent DNA are deeply important to maintain in the center of all transition. In the middle of shifting, new opportunities, growth, rising up and also being refined – what will you need to do to hold onto your unique voice, passion, and vision?