Your Most Powerful Question Small Group Discussion Guide
This book describes a self-directed discernment program. Its goal is to help you discover your purpose and place in God’s plan. Your guide in this process is the most powerful question embedded in your own life story. While there are steps that help you find that most powerful question, there is no timeframe. You have to trust the process and the movement of the Holy Spirit as you proceed. Trust the process instead of trying to control it. This study guide is broken into five sessions. Begin each session with a prayer. Suggestion: recite together three times: “Come Holy Spirit, Come.” Follow this with a Hail Mary or an Our Father and spend a minute or two in silence, consciously letting go of distractions and giving this time to finding God’s purpose.
Session 1 Reflection on Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2 Remind participants of what a most powerful question is: a pathway to God’s purpose for our life, and what God wants next. Key factors include: -
It is embedded in one’s life story It is a personally compelling question that a person really cannot answer When it emerges it will arrive with a physical and/or emotional reaction
Remind participants that it may arrive quickly or it may arrive in God’s time. Assure participants that they will not be asked to share any personal information they do not want to share. And, any information shared of a personal nature needs to be held in strictest confidence. Ask participants for their agreement. Suggestion 1: Ask participants to share their thoughts about chapter 1, focusing on the difference between spiritual gifts and talents. Short answer: Gifts are given by God; we do nothing to deserve them. Talents can have a genetic factor and can be developed with conscious effort. Ask them to share what gifts they are aware of having received. Possible gifts include Teaching, Healing, Miracles, Inspiration, Mercy, Giving, Faith, Love, Strength, and Prophecy. Suggestion 2: In chapter 1, Dr. John explains that our most powerful question is contained in both our life story and narrative. Ask participants what distinction they draw between “life
story” and “life narrative.” Both will contribute to finding their powerful question. Reflect on the following: narrative is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves. Suggestion 3: In chapter 1, Dr. John suggests that people have various starting points and motivations as they begin this quest. Ask them to share where they feel they are starting from and whether they have a sufficient amount of free emotional space to take on this journey at this time. Note: Someone suffering severe grief or having suffered severe trauma recently is not likely in a good space to pursue this journey. Be supportive and understanding. Suggest that they might still enjoy learning the steps for a future time when they will be more emotionally free. Suggestion 4: In chapter 2, Dr. John tells us how he discovered the transformational impact of powerful questions. Ask the group for their reactions and to share if they have ever been challenged in a way that left them feeling as if they had a “lightbulb” moment.
Session 2 Chapters 3 and 4
Suggestion 1: Ask participants what thing in particular struck home for them as they read chapters 3, 4, and 5. Suggestion 2: In chapter 3, Dr. John writes about purpose and calling. Ask participants if they are clear about the difference between purpose and calling. Does one fulfill purpose by following what they feel called to do? Is as person capable of knowing they are living their purpose? How do they know this? And, does God really expect everyone to live a purposeful life? Suggestion 3: In chapter 4, Dr. John talks about signs. Ask them to share what signs made a difference in their life story with regards to career, spouse, community, church involvement, etc. Suggestion 4: In chapter 4, Dr. John writes about the concept of being “authentic.” Ask participants what that word means to them. Then ask them if we can we really be authentic without God being a central part of our life? Suggestion 5: In chapter 5, Dr. John expands on the idea of “question anxiety.” Ask the participants if they agree with his thoughts and whether they feel affected by anxiety when asked to identify a most powerful question. How do they respond to this anxiety?
Session 3 Chapters 6 and 7
Suggestion 1: In chapter 6, Dr. John writes that a most powerful question acts as a lens and provides focus. How does that happen? And, does this narrow our focus too much? Answer: Actually it helps us avoid distractions and puts us in a more contemplative frame of mind. That is the kind of mind that pays attention to the movement of the Holy Spirit in daily life. Suggestion 2: Laura and Patty were both highlighted. Ask participants to share which story touched them the most and why. Suggestion 3: In chapter 7, Dr. John compares the messages contained in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. Ask participants if they understand the truth contained in each and whether they see other connecting principles. Suggestion 4: Dr. John suggests that our most powerful question will lead us to be more selfactualized, but that that can come with a price. Ask participants if they can see that and how anyone living a purpose-filled life, especially a God-centered life, is going to be treated differently.
Note: Prior to the fourth session, ask participants to read and complete the first and second steps as explained on pages 86-92. Ask them to bring their timelines to session 4 and be ready to share at a level they are comfortable.
Session 4 Chapter 8
Begin by asking participants to give some feedback on steps 1 and 2. Was it easy, hard, or painful? What kind of themes surfaced? Were there any surprises? Next, ask participants to form small groups (three people per group is best, four is maximum ) to share themes they discovered and give each other feedback. Encourage kind and helpful feedback. Give the groups at least one-half hour to complete this discussion. When completed, ask the whole group how the experiences was. If it was satisfactory, please suggest that they could immediately begin doing step 3 (identify, ways you act, react and cope) on pages 93-101, and step 4 (identify a prominent theme on
pages 102-104). Remind participants that this may be difficult as there may be multiple themes. Ask the small groups to re-form and give them further time to process. Closing Suggestion: In conclusion ask all the participants how they are feeling about the process at this time. Remind them there is our time, God’s time, and movement of the Holy Spirit involved in this process. Encourage them to pray and meditate, letting the right question emerge when it is ready. Recommend that they complete any unfinished steps in chapter 8 prior to the next session. Remind them that the key is discovering what they do not know about important themes in their life. Suggest they just let these ideas simmer as they go about their life.
Session 5 Chapter 8 Review and Chapters 9 and 10
Begin with a review of the work they have accomplished on the steps in chapter 8. Ask them rejoin their small groups and share their progress. For any who have arrived at their Most Powerful Question, ask them to share the physical/emotional reactions that occurred. Suggestion: ask participants to share their reaction to Shanedra’s story. What message or inspiration do they take away? Suggestion: on page 115, Dr. John writes, “As we pursue our question, we unpack our tightly held narrative and reconfigure ourselves.” What does he mean by that? Is that what happens in any transformation? Is that what happens in a conversion? Discuss. Suggestion: ask the group to consider whether this is a spiritual as well as a psychological process of transformation. What scriptural reference do we have? Refer back to page 17 and John’s Gospel about Jesus calling Peter and Andrew. “What do you want?” (John 1:38). Isn’t a Most Powerful Question something we want very deeply on some level, like the Ignation desire to know “What I desire most”?
Session 6 Chapters 11 and Wrap-up In chapter 11, Dr. John suggests that a Most Powerful Question approach to discernment would benefit the parish and Church as a whole. Do participants agree? Why? If yes, how? Ask participants to share what they have experienced in the journey through this book and process. Is this something they want to pursue further? Do they know how?
If any participant has arrived at their Most Powerful Question, ask if they would be willing to share that experience. If the answer is yes, ask them to include the following: -
What does the question mean specifically to them? How does it connect to their life story and narrative? What do they really not know? What physical/emotional reaction arrived with their question that validated it for them? Any plans for the future to pursue an answer?
Give the group time to present their reactions and helpful suggestions to the presenter. Congratulate participants for having had the courage to pursue this journey and remind them they can contact John directly at johnolesnavage@gmail.com or through the Powerful Question Institute at askyourpowerfulquestion.com.