The Story of the Pastoral Response Logo

Abraham Harold Maslow was a psychologist born in April 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, New York known for establishing the theory of a hierarchy of needs, writing that human beings are motivated by unsatisfied needs, and that certain lower needs need to be satisfied before higher needs can be satisfied.

Maslow (1954) attempted to synthesize a large body of research related to human motivation.  Prior to Maslow, researchers generally focused separately on such factors as biology, achievement, or power to explain what energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior.  Maslow posited this hierarchy of human needs based on two groupings: deficiency needs and growth needs.  Within the deficiency needs, each lower need must be met before moving to the next higher level.  Once each of these needs has been satisfied, if at some future time a deficiency is detected, the individual will act to remove the deficiency.

In viewing the crisis in the church we too have adopted Maslow's theory in think about and then addressing the problems facing us.

Simply put, until there is safety and trust no healing can take place, faith will not grow and love will not abound.