A Community of Need — Plucking and Planting

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.

-Abraham Maslow

In 1943, Abraham Maslow wrote "A Theory of Human Motivation" in Psychological Review. I think for those of us who have taken even an Introduction to Psychology course, we are familiar with the concept of Maslow's argument. Human motivation is driven by a hierarchy of needs. These needs are represented by a pyramid with our most basic needs at the bottom and the more complex needs at the top. In the following quick explanation I will start with the most basic needs.

Physiological Needs are things like air, food, basic shelter, water and clothing.

Safety Needs would include your personal and financial security, and a general sense of well-being.

Love and Belonging is made up of our need for family, intimacy and friendship.

Esteem is the need to be valued by others.

Self-Actualization is summarized by Maslow himself as "What a man can be, he must be".

I realize that there are challenges to this model and in many ways and in some circumstances it is incomplete. For the most part though, most of our social issues come from a deficiency at one of these levels of need. A person who is lacking at the most basic level of a need for food, shelter, water, and fresh air, will do things that surprise even themselves to see those needs met. If a person has those basic needs but does not have a sense of security, they may attempt a posture that gives themselves the upper hand. It may require putting another person's need for safety at risk but they are fighting for their own need being met. A person who doesn't feel loved or that they belong will find themselves in a deep depression or attempting to create that feeling of love and belonging in dangerous ways. Our need to be valued may cause us to work too long of hours or to feel that we are constantly performing to claim another person's value or approval and we will find ourselves exhausted and frustrated. And finally, if we never feel that we have met our full potential we are left feeling underused and unfulfilled.

So, what is the solution. Why does all of mankind constantly find itself fighting on one level or another to ensure its needs are met? Why do people work long hours and feel as though they aren't really making a difference? Why do people choose false and even dangerous paths towards "love and affection" with devastating outcomes? Part of the reason that we still spin in this cycle of unfulfilled need is because the solution is not a simple one.

"It was not good for man to be alone"

When we were created, God saw that it was not good for us to be alone, so he created another. I can say with some level of certainty that the majority of times have felt like a basic need was not being met was coupled with a feeling of loneliness. Meeting each of these needs described by Maslow is more difficult alone. We struggle more to meet basic needs, we are less safe, we feel unloved, we can not experience the joy of being valued and often the thing that we are meant to be, is tied up in another person. An artist needs an audience, a builder needs a client, and a teacher needs a student. The first solution to the problem of need is the realization that we can't do it alone.

"There was not a needy person among them"

Acts 4:34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. 35 They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

I don't know that we can envision what this kind of community looked like. Maybe this was a prettier picture than the reality of the early church but it's still beautiful. The community that existed in the early church did away with need. They had food, shelter, value, self actualization, they were loved and had a true sense of belonging. Even though their lives were at risk they had a different sense of safety, one that didn't depend on staying alive. This was the way that the church was meant to be, it was the thing that Jesus said he would build and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Where did we go wrong?

Self-Transcendence

Later in Maslow's life he realized that his theory of self-actualization was incomplete. Being the fullness of what you were meant to be is still limiting to the full sense of what it means "to be". I propose that this is where the church gets it wrong. If you look at the most "successful" churches, they have all of the social programs, security guards at the front, they tell you they love you and that you belong to their tribe, you can find your value in a variety of ways to volunteer, and there are limitless ways that your gifts can be used and displayed. So why does it still feel incomplete? It is often because that thing that has been built could function in the exact same way with or without Jesus. I'm not saying that any church is or is not functioning in this way. My point is that it could. The danger in that truth is that it is hard to see it coming. a church full of people who are self-actualizing runs like a top. The production is flawless, the floors are clean and there is some genuine good that is being done in the community. Maslow's warning against ending at self-actualization was his understanding that there is no true self-actualization without transcendence. That transcendence is the service to that thing which is greater than ourselves. So we stop doing what we are doing for the sake of ourselves, our self preservation or even the self preservation of the particularity of our church home. Transcendence allows the church to be in service to the church globally and ultimately in service to God.

Be MORE than you can be

The ways that you can be, in this world, are your self-actualized potential. You were made as an artist, a poet, a preacher, a builder, an accountant, a missionary, etc. The church is a great place to realize the potential of your gifts, as long as the leadership will allow such a space. The need to transcend begs that you don't stop at that self-actualization. Transcendence demands that your skill, your talent, your drive, propels you to use those gifts in a way that does more than serve your ego It demands that your skills be used for more than just serving your local church. The end game of self-actualization is not the creation of the "thing" or the performance of your gift. That is only the beginning.

The brilliant artist Ai Weiwei spoke about art and creation when he said,

"Art is not and end but a beginning"

The thing you have created in service to yourself, the church, the world or whatever you used your gift for, is only a starting point. That church you planted does not reach completion when you reach a certain number of members. The creation of this thing is only a beginning to something else, something greater. Our churches must transcend their own self-actualization. If they don't, they are nothing but self serving esteem builders that serve no function other than feeding egos.

The thing that art and ministry have in common, I would say, is that you have such little control over the reception. Just as Ai Weiwei spoke about art, the thing that you create, the sermon that you preach, the way that you serve, is not the end; it is only the beginning. Some people won't get it. Some people will be critical. It will make other people furiously angry, while still others will find healing for the first time. But know this, If you create in service to and participation with, something greater than yourself, you will have truly taken part in the eternal.