EP351 - Jeff & Dr Tim Talk Motivation, Calling, and the Power of TruCenter

Jeff Reed: All right, hey, episode 351 of the Church Digital Podcast. Jeff here. I love how the music fades out just like that naturally. It'll kick back in here in a second, of course. I love me some background music. Crank it down a little bit. Just kind of have it playing in the background. Love. Hey, I love this conversation we're about to have. We've got Dr. Tim Yee. Dr. Tim! from True Center coming on. I have really enjoyed True Center. It is maybe the one assessment I've taken in recent years that when I got my report, I was like, finally, somebody gets me. And that's True Center. We're going to get more into True Center here in a little bit. But before we get there, hey, listen, we have this small thing coming up. Maybe you've heard of it. It's the Digital Missionary Conference. So we have the Digital Missionary coming up conference coming up starting September 17th. Now, you may have heard we're doing four different conferences over the span of September and October. Four Wednesdays, four conferences, four weeks in a row, four niche audience, four target topics. And we're going deep with them on these summits, not just conveying information to you, but giving you a clear path, a clear action step. to get deeper into those topics, starting with things like, first off, September 17th, we're doing a conference on digital neighborhoods. Hey, let's talk about these digital communities and the platforms that they're on and the cultures that exist within those platforms. And as we talk about digital discipleship and digital evangelism, and of course, You know, every community deserves a church, even digital ones. So what does digital planting, church planting, look like? That's what we're going to get into on September 17th, Digital Neighborhoods Conference. September 24th, Christ-Centered Recovery, we're doing an All Space Recover Conference. October 1st, European Digital Missionary Conference. And October 8th, we're going to wrap it up with a gaming summit. There is a ton of information over at the website. www.missionary.digital, www.missionary.digital. Check that out and get more information over on that site. Registration's open. You can go ahead and sign up. All the conferences are free. We'll have speaker information coming soon. We'll have, it's all finalized. Just need to get the pages launched. We'll have breakouts coming soon. That's not quite finalized. ton of sponsors. Like I have, it's been so exciting to me to see, by the way, a true center is one of them, but it's been, it's so exciting to me to see the sponsors and organizations, missions, organizations, global corporations, lean into this idea and supporting the vision behind a digital missionary. So be part of that. Check out more information on the website, www.missionary.org. dot digital okay hey so that's it for the ad stuff let's get into it i want to bring on uh my friend here dr tim so i'm going to press the magic button dr tim how you doing sir i'm doing well thanks for having me on awesome man it's it's a pleasure to have you on we have been talking about doing this i don't know for maybe six months or so i feel like i i met you late last year maybe december january and i've just been so impressed with with true center um from the beginning that i just was like man we've got to find ways to integrate this we've got to find ways to uh to partner to work together and to get more uh exposure to this uh but before before we get into all that uh dr tim why don't you just take a moment maybe introduce yourself here a little bit what's your story yeah uh well i've been a pastor for 27 years pastored four different churches

Dr Tim Yee: and did everything from college pastor to worship leader, senior pastor, missions pastor, teaching pastor, et cetera. And then the last two and a half years been working with and for True Center with the Christian nonprofit that guides us and enjoy bringing our tools to the world and the digital space. So that's what I do and happy to tell you more, whatever you want to know.

Jeff Reed: Yeah, this is really exciting. It's interesting. We've got some chat in the room, Pete. Mr. Pete, by the way, I didn't tell you this, Dr. Tim. You're being broadcast right now in addition to YouTube. Mr. Pete most likely is streaming this into virtual reality, into big screen. And so congratulations, you are in a headset somewhere. And Steve Reed is saying, I did not remember taking this assessment. Apparently I did though. Very interesting. Yeah. Steve, you know, somebody your age, you forget things. Just kidding. Don't want to call you out publicly like that. No, maybe I did, but maybe I think we did take it. I think we did take it. Steve, you were in my, my, my group or one of them. And so I'm willing to put money that, that we did. I'll have to dig through. If not, I'll send you the link. You can do it on the house. with the true center assessment we do offer this uh free for for the church digital uh uh dr tim true center uh was nice enough to help us acquire a grant and so we're able to offer this over the course of the year to anybody who takes uh our uh assessment our um uh equipping digital missionaries cohort it's actually I think it's the first thing that we do is we offer this assessment. And one of the things that I love about this assessment is the method of pulling information, painfully pulling information, torturing people to get the information out. But before we get into that, we'll get in there in a little bit. tell tell me dr tim why an assessment what's different kind of like like walk me through why um why do something like when when there's assessments all over the place and i'm not even talking about like buzzfeed and the stuff that's online why even go through the effort of of doing an assessment like true center offering it

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, well, I came across it back in 2018 after being a pastor who's taken a lot of different assessments and have found them generally beneficial, some more than others. But when I experienced as an early version of True Center back in 2018, I was really impressed by its uniqueness. And it's unique, as you know, Jeff, and anyone else who's experienced it, because we actually asked for your stories. So it's the only assessment, the first and only that uses your own stories to describe the kind of story that God is writing in you, writing through you. And, you know, stories are essential to us as human beings. You know, we're part of a greater story. As followers of Christ, we're stepping into God's story. And so we have little stories, basically, that God has placed in us. So we're kind of leaning into the storytelling process and getting this very unique report.

Jeff Reed: based on your stories now jeff you described it as torture so i'm not sure you're really setting me up well this no no that was that was very tongue-in-cheek i'll own that like i will if it i mean people that know me i love to talk about myself uh and so yeah maybe there's a little like pride and ego in that but the process to get me to do this assessment to actually like contribute the information You literally asked like three stories. And then what, like five, the same five questions after each story?

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, it's more than that, I think. But you found the hardest about it was you had so many stories to choose from. Yes. It was hard for you to decide which three. And I didn't do a lot of coaching you through it. We kind of gave you the link. And then once we chatted, I said, you know, you could choose any three stories as long as they were personally satisfying to you. And then secondly, you don't have to write these super long stories like a report. And that relieved you a lot of burden. I think that was one of the things that was pulling you back. You were thinking, I have to write a full page, single spaced, you know, a hundred lines. Like, no, you just need to give us a few sentences. Tell us about your story. What made you come alive? What'd you do? And what was so satisfying about it? And we were able to get a very... accurate report which i know you confirmed and you weren't i'd say you're a little surprised in it because you found some things that you hadn't quite zoned in before and you found it very accurate so we gave language to something that felt very true to you and it's fun for us to do this we have you know 10 000 students college students going through true center this december at the urbana conference And we've had many, many, many others use the assessment over the years. I'm glad you're one of the great people who's used it and now talking about it. I would love to get this out to all the other great digital missionaries that you are reaching, not only in the US, but of course, around the world, everywhere. We think it's a great tool to help people understand their leadership, their gifts, how God wants to use them, you know, while we're still here until he returns, right?

Jeff Reed: No, yes, yeah, I love all this. The Truth Center, I was, so it's based on motivations and it was interesting. I think this is the first assessment I've taken that rated me on motivations. Like, you know, there's some that are skillset or wiring and we do a lot with APEST as well, which is another assessment, but it's more on like the five-fold ministry. For this, it's more on like, what i'm i'm motivated on or like what i'm um my what i'm biased to do i i guess like what what is it that makes the the motivations the thing to really uh look into to to to explore to assess on ourselves

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, well, let me share this one slide that I know you have prepped up for me. This is the one here today. And it's simply, you know, why another assessment? You know, the unique piece is we just think stories are so powerful to how God has made us. And stories is really the best indication. of what god's doing in us and what he wants to do through us and so we say you know some other great tools out there are really great personality assessments really talking about kind of how i'm made and we think that's great some other great assessments might talk about your strengths whether those are learned or more innate you know what am i good at and we get at the intersection of the why Why do I do what I do? And so that's what makes True Center different is it's the intersection of how I'm made and what am I got. And we really think that's your why and how God has made you. So we see that from Genesis 1, Genesis 2, God's beautiful creation. We are very good, but also made in his image, the Imago Dei. And we see that particularly for Christians, for followers of Christ, Ephesians 2.10. um that god has crafted us as his workmanship as his in the greek his poemas and we think motivations is a part a key part of that craftsmanship so it's not just how i made not just what i'm good at but that intersection which is the why the motivational side that god puts within us desires good desires um that's part of his outworking of his plan you know through us and so Ephesians 2.10 is something we look at as well as God as the craftsman, and he crafted you, Jeff, in a very unique way, right? And so I think that's where our assessment not only accurately, but I think really gave you the language of some unique things about you. And that can be hard to explain sometimes. I think for you, it's powerful for you to be able to say, this is how God has made me. And I think this is a gift I'm supposed to use. And I know you can misunderstand it, but help me lean into this. And I think I have a gift to share that's going to continue to be a blessing in the kingdom work that we're about.

Jeff Reed: totally yeah one of the things so you know i got the report back i i did the assessment um early late maybe december of last year december 24th and um i had uh so i told my stories i answered the questions it was super painless like very quick very easy for for me to get into i even remember the three stories i told completely abstract it was similar stories but like just spread out over a couple decades um of it and uh and so that it generated i'm looking at the report i pulled it up but i've i've got my uh my my uh my three motivations and so my third motivation actually no they're five motivations right uh and so number five was um oh let me do let me push that i'm sorry i take it off uh number five was uh meet the challenge and so like meet the challenge uh and that's you know if if you know me like i often tell the stories of you know i don't like to hear no usually when somebody tells me no i'm just like fine i'll do it myself and just go that you know it's again i'm pulling a china shop you know i get it that's my way i'm cool i understand Make an impact is number four, motivation. And that too, I feel that I'm very driven towards impact and I've lived a life that fits that. Number three, motivation, identify potential. This is starting to be, okay, this is something that is true about me, but it was maybe some of the first time that I've seen that in an assessment. It's like, hey, I want to build the church digital bigger than myself. You've heard me say that a lot. You've seen me in my live platform, lots of other people in this space, and try to mentor and develop more digital pastors, more digital missionaries in this. And so working, identifying that potential and helping to mature and to grow that on. A lot of the work that I did with Stadia, Leadership Network, Exponential New Thing, like there's so many in that space. And so this was a truth spoken into my life that I didn't realize was one of my motivations. I was like, yes, yes, actually I am motivated to do that, but I didn't realize it until the report told me. Overcome. Overcome is a common theme in my own life. But the number one thing, the number one motivation for me, and this is the one that was like, it's about time I see it on paper. And to validate this existence in my life is the idea of exploring, the motivation to explore. And that... you know dr tim that opened up something in me because that is a hundred percent who i am but once again it has never been like identified categorized validated in my life until i see it on on this report late 24. I typically walk into jobs where there is no job description. They're like, could you write your own job description and just go to town? And to see it, like you saying exploring is my number one motivation, brought just such a peace to my life. I just want to validate that.

Dr Tim Yee: It actually is very predictive of the kinds of roles that you're drawn to. you're drawn to roles where you get to explore. So it's very unconscious for you, likely. And sometimes probably explore is one of the more misunderstood gifts of the motivations. We have 32 motivations. We give you details for your top five. We think certainly their top 10 all matter. Certainly know your bottom five is helpful to things that motivate you less. Even if you're good at them, they're still less motivating. exploring was your clear number one. And that's really important for you to be able to look at, to see if you agree with. You certainly did. And that drives a lot of what you do. And it's not just in your work life or your ministry life. It's in your relationships. When Jeff is at his best, when you're listening to the Lord and using the gifts and how he's crafted you, exploration is a big part of it. It says you're gifted at being curious. You're not only good at it, you like doing it. You want to do it. And so what we're saying, you're not only good at it, but that's actually a God-given curiosity. More than me. Explore isn't as high as yours, so it's just not something that... I'm as naturally wired for. It doesn't excuse me from not exploring, but it certainly leads me to celebrate. Man, I get to partner with Jeff who loves to explore. And I, you know, one of my top five, I'm a meet needs guy. So I love looking at gaps and seeing where there are needs. And I would love to partner with Jeff to explore. And we can meet this need in a creative way, right? Because my meat needs motivation. I just want to serve, get it done, but I may not tend to explore more options, right? So partnering with you, you're going to say, well, Tim, have you thought of it this way? You know, so real often you're curious and your curiosity will lead you to... some interesting places, pushing boundaries. You're fueling imaginations. You don't generally do the status quo. You're expanding horizons. Like I could imagine some conservative Christian circles may not have celebrated your explorer gift in the past.

Jeff Reed: I'm not sure why I find that so funny, but yeah, that's one way to say it. To me, that's the thing that when hearing it and seeing it, it was like there's... I'm using the word validation. I really don't know of a better word, but there's validity in that. And you seeing that validity, it really touched a nerve in me where it was like... hey the way you're wired the way you're gifted um there is purpose behind it it can be spiritually glorifying now exploring can be you know destructive at the same time and so like i'm not i don't want to go down that rabbit hole but the the idea of that God created me this way and that motivation can be used and is being used and is validated in that being used.

Dr Tim Yee: That was it was just it really hit me at the right place in the right time, which may be just well with this assessment that hits a lot of people at the at the right place at the right time because it's so accurate, because it's so unique that we use stories to drive that accuracy. then it's it's very actionable you know i think for you really affirm the work that you're doing with the church digital right and what i meant that in the past you may have experienced some friction or some restrictions you know from the i say the conservative evangelical church I really meant more in the traditional side. I'm not talking theologically. I'm talking more the tradition of like, well, this is how we do things. And you're curious. Well, why? Well, why do we do it that way? Why couldn't we do it a different way? You know, why do we not leverage this technology? Couldn't we possibly, you know, do it? And so the possibility thinking. really is a gift but in certain environments that scene is more of a hassle right and so i think you're going to be drawn to places that celebrate that curiosity of doing things that aren't the status quo right so look what you're doing right you're reaching millions of people in the digital space and many ways leading the way to have that conversation of isn't this mission work too In fact, isn't this the essential mission work we should be about now? I mean, look at how many people are constantly in this digital space. Now, I know you're not someone who is over romanticizes technology to the point of saying, oh, we don't need in person. It's like, well, of course we need in person. But how can we even improve in person? by leveraging the different technologies. And so I think your explore, that's, I'll call it a superpower, a God-given superpower, has been in there for a long time as our theory, that our stories bear that out from any age. We actually, our theory too, because we've seen this bear out, that these gifts are part of the Imago Dei, which means... Every human being is made in the image of God. There is goodness. I'm not saying they're all saved, but there's goodness in each human being. And so because it's part of the Imago Dei, we think these motivational gifts are actually in every human being. Even though True Center was made for the ministry space and made for Christians, it works for any human being because we're all made in the image of God. And so, therefore, it really shows how God is gracious to every human being. He gifts, not saying spiritual gifts, which I think are reserved for the redeemed. But these motivational gifts really point to the way that God has graced each human being by making them in his image. Everyone's gifted in some way, and we give the language for it, right? And so there's actually a lot of potential for this as a ministry evangelism tool if someone wants to use it that way. We largely use it to encourage missionaries, encourage leaders and pastors to help use their giftings of God has crafted them. But it also opens a conversation of, could this help anyone understand how they help themselves understand themselves at their best? And then we ask the question for a nonbeliever of, well, who's the one who made you this way? Who do you think is behind crafting you so amazingly, building in this goodness in you? Would you like to get to know him? You know, his name is Jesus. You know, that's how I hope it would happen in these virtual spaces that people could even take true center. and experience something that literally is just a benefit to any human being, regardless if they're Christian or not. And then be that bridge of conversation for those who are listening, who are in that evangelism space, you know, as well. This is an opportunity. But what a great tool just to provide soul care for the missionary, soul care for the leader like you, Jeff. You know, this ministry is not easy, right? And so this is a way to say, you know, God made you special, made you good. We have some beautiful things for you to look upon.

Jeff Reed: It's heartwarming, right? And the idea of using it as an evangelism tool, as a way to start a conversation, build a relationship with somebody, or maybe even someone you know, invite them to do it together. Trade stories, trade, you know, go through the assessment together and then use that as a bridge to start a conversation, get into gospel conversations. That is amazing. So rich.

Dr Tim Yee: I do it all the time. And True Center is pretty easy for me to talk about in terms of, you know, it's a leadership tool or it's a self-discovery tool. And, you know, I know it's a discipleship tool, but if I'm just sitting in an Uber ride, I'm talking about it. I'll say, oh, I have this tool. I'll give it away for free. And, you know, use that as the Lord prompting me to open up a spiritual conversation with someone who... who may not know Jesus yet, right? And so I help people with career decisions or choosing colleges or they're stuck in a relationship thing. And True Center really helps people understand themselves and helps them understand other people better. I know it's been powerful for you. And so that's why. Love for any of the listeners watching this live or after the fact, use that. I'm sure you'll post a link later. They can take it. And then you're trained in being a certified facilitator.

Jeff Reed: Yeah.

Dr Tim Yee: And so that allows you, Jeff, and anyone else, obviously, we'll talk others who might want to get trained, too, to have these conversations. the digital space, right? Totally. You can have a whole true center VR experience if you'd like, right? It could be fun to do that as well. We could post your top five in some visual way. There you go. Maybe we can make some moving icons or something when your top five get animated somehow. I don't know.

Jeff Reed: We've got some world builders that could probably pull that off. Hey, listen, yeah, I do want to give, if you're watching this stream, if you're interested in Tree Center, I will connect with you. I will give you the link directly. Here's what you can do. Email me, jeff at the church digital, or the better option, jeff at the church dot digital, or the better option, jump into our WhatsApp. in Discord communities, whatsapp.thechurch.digital or discord.thechurch.digital and ask in there. I'll see it. We'll share the link and post it. We have a number of assessments, but I also don't want this thing to leak out and to end up. burning out the entire grant and so ask me directly i'll get you that information and and we'll be we'll be good uh to go towards it and so mr pete mr pete is already asking how do i get that mr pete i'll get it to you no problem at all and uh and anybody else in the mix by the way if there's questions in chat feel free to ask away on that as well love that you guys and gals are hanging out with us

Dr Tim Yee: And we're on our end, too, where we were happy to give you the grant as well, because you're doing such a unique thing in being so dedicated to the digital space, which everyone's in the digital space, but you have this focus to be excellent at it. You're always exploring new ways to how do we overcome barriers, technological barriers, philosophical barriers. I mean, that's a huge one, the philosophical barrier, which is a theological barrier as well. And so we're happy to give this grant. And so there's not a problem with many, many people using it. But thank you for the sensitivity. You're not just posting it publicly somewhere. But if you have hundreds of people who end up using it, we built that into the grant. We can handle that. You'll have a lot of coaching to do to give feedback to everyone who's going to want to go deeper into the report.

Jeff Reed: Dr. Tim's giving the house away here on the stream. I love it. If you're interested in getting the grant for your organization, I'll happily introduce you and connect you over there. The onboarding process was super easy. uh and uh he went through i took the assessment he coached uh actually stacy i think went through it as well he coached stacy and i i threw it and uh and helped us understand now no let me ask because we talked about how every human anybody can do this christian non-christian there's 30 25 35 uh 32 motivation 32 motivations What are, like I ratted off mine, like what are some other motivations that people might have?

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, absolutely. Let me, how about I'll read some and you can just pause me if it's getting boring, whatever it is.

Jeff Reed: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, so I'll just let me just we'll go through them all. So of the 32, I'll do an alphabetical. So advance is the first one. And that means you're someone who creates momentum as you make progress and advance towards your goals and milestones. And then there's architect. You develop detailed plans and then oversee the execution of those plans. Be key. I'm a be key person. I'm motivated to be a key person who holds things together and it gives them meaning and or direction. You don't have to be an upfront person like me. I do love that as well. You can be behind the scenes, but being key is just knowing you're a key person who holds things together. A be unique is another one that's often misunderstood. God has made you to be gifted at distinguishing yourself by displaying some kind of talent or quality or aspect, something that's distinctive and special. And so the be unique gift is powerful, but often misunderstood. A collaborate is one. I'm not the highest in collaborate, but you're drawn to a group or team where you all have the same goal and a common purpose. Are comprehend and express people. You're motivated to go deep in your understanding of knowledge, concepts, or complexities, and then explain, write, or teach them to others. i'm gonna keep going demonstrate learning is similar but a little different um you're motivated to learn how to do something new and then show that you can do it okay yeah demonstrate is there one that's like the high that's like everybody like what's what's the oh what's the one there is or is it really okay nope there isn't really one now of course um you know we're probably i'd say only in the kind of a hundred thousand people have taken it got you know stage so relatively small sample yeah yeah i mean we don't have a million people yet who've taken it yeah we have analyzed over a million stories though i will say that but we don't have you know a million reports generated for us to to do the analysis but i would say um there there isn't definitely one that always comes up um everyone's unique and then we think it's the cluster of that top five. Even Jeff, as you look back at your report, we give you all 32. You look at that cluster of your top 10, you're going to find that you live in that top 10, top 12 pretty regularly. Even though your top five are maybe the strongest, or maybe even your number one is really the strongest, you'll still see that cluster of top 10 kind of working together. And that's what your stories point to, that you're a... very unique person right and um uh that your top five even just taking your top five in their ranked order it makes you very unique jeff because the same person having the same top five in the same ranking is at least like one in 28 million you know just that oh wow you're safe in the same ranked order and that doesn't even come into consideration of the kinds of rankings or the level of rankings or some are tied. So it's even a greater variation. So what's beautiful about our True Center results is that you really get to see how unique you are. because of your top five, because of the cluster of the top ten. At the same time, it's a very simple and understandable report. And so but working with the coach we think is ideal. It's not necessary, but we have seen some really powerful things when you reflect on your report with someone else, particularly someone who's certified just because we're just training people to be good listeners, look for some patterns, but really It's just your stories. These are just your stories. And then we just give you language to describe patterns you see in your stories. And we ask you for your best stories. And so we're looking for patterns of joy. patterns of godly satisfaction that God has built into you for us being part of the Imago Dei, right? So it's fun for us to see people experience True Center. We're excited about Urbana. We're excited about you. We're excited about, I have a group of 400 Catholic coaches, actually, some of our Catholic friends are using it, getting into that and fun to train all of them. And those 400 Catholic coaches are going out to the world, right? And helping people understand their true center results, you know, also. So it's a ton of fun for me. I know it's been impactful for you and I have a lot of other leaders like you who have been. really really uh i'd even say touched um by receiving the result and then and then talk again just talking through it with someone hopefully it'll be you you know and uh and be able to reflect on how god has made them you know beautiful is there i don't i don't want to get too far into under the hood here and so like if it's if i'm asking about the secret sauce drop the question yeah but like the the story is so unique

Jeff Reed: Are you you know, like, are you actually analyzing the text? Is it run through AI? Like I.

Dr Tim Yee: Great question. Yeah. Yeah. All fair. So let me say this. I could say this at this point. We have every ability to analyze the the words that you use, the stories. But we choose right now to actually just use our own kind of proprietary algorithm without using AI to analyze the words that you're using in the stories. And so what we are doing is you remember or you share your one story, your first story, then we ask you 32 questions. We ask you to score yourself, rank yourself on the level of satisfaction of that statement, that motivational statement related to your story. And then you do the second story and you answer 32 different set of questions or statements. They're all related to the 32 motivations, but we don't tell you which one they're related to. Then you do your third story and you answer the 32 questions. Again, self-scoring 32 times. And then what we do, we ask you to rank the three stories. Okay, now, if you had to rank the three stories, which one is your number one most deeply satisfying? Which is your number two, number three? And that could be a challenge. That might be the painful part you remember. Like, oh, how do I rank my three stories? My three stories are all meaningful. And then also you rack your brain of like, oh, did I choose the right three stories, right? You just try to pull it. No, it doesn't matter. And that's the reason why it doesn't matter. And that's part of the reason why I personally use AI in my coaching after the report is done. So that's why you don't have to put a lot of information in your stories because we're not analyzing the words on the front end, but I am analyzing the words on the back end. So I take your report, Jeff, and before we have a coaching session, I run it through my different, in some ways, proprietary AI. And I am able to give you a very, I'd say, thoughtful feedback on Explore and how that tied into your stories. So that's what we choose to do. And again, that's not giving away all the secret sauce. Now, do we have the ability to turn it on and change your report? We do. We don't offer that right now, but we know how to do it. We experiment with it as well. But there's something nice about it right now. We're just using your three stories, not analyzing words, but we are looking at your scores and the way you rank them and using our algorithm just within that. And then after the fact, where I'm using AI to make the coaching feedback. So that's enough, but I could share that.

Jeff Reed: Yeah. If you asked 32 questions after each story, they were the painless, easiest questions. You said 32, and I'm like, no, it's like five or six. Like it was very light. Most people will...

Dr Tim Yee: write a story, answer the questions, they do it three times in under 30 minutes. So it's about 10 minutes. Maybe it's five minutes to write the story. Because when you're writing a story, you're saying, like my example was, I think I even shared my report with you. My example was helping the Chosen TV look at using AI for language translation, right? I have a friend who works for Chosen. And then, well, what did I do? Well, I helped my friend connect with another friend is what I said. What was so meaningful about it? Well, just knowing that I played a key role in helping meet a need that made an impact, right? So that's what I said. Then I answered 32 questions. That's all I wrote. I wrote four sentences, five sentences. Now I can write a hundred sentences if I want. Now we do the formatting. It's kind of messed up if you write too much. And we've had that happen a couple of times, but you have all, you can write a whole page worth if you want, but you don't have to. What matters is that I'm thinking of the story. When the questions asked rank yourself from one to 10, Tim, was it, was it, making an impact, how satisfying was that for you? I'd say 10, right? Then it'll ask you, rank one to 10, doing it exactly the right way. Two, right? So 32 times. And that's what happened was meet needs, make an impact, establish, persuade, which means influence. Those were all super high, you know, in there because of the way I answered those questions, ranked them one to ten. And the main thing is to remember, since we'll have several people, I'm sure, after seeing this who will take it, is just don't use 9 and 10 all the time. Use it just a few times. When you're asking your story, you write your story, and then we'll ask you a question. Don't mark everything 10. Don't mark everything 9. Do a few 10s, maybe a few 9s. And that's what helps your scores differentiate. We know what is the most motivating score. versus what is kind of little motivating versus what's kind of on the lower end motivating. That's what's most helpful to people. So I hope you'll get tons of people using the link with the grant and also taking advantage of your coaching that the grant also covered, coaching you for sure. So I want everyone to take advantage of the church digital grant, but do reach out to me. We have a ministry that could benefit from some... some free assessments because they're friends of you jeff i'd want to um be able to make that happen you know for the for the right ministry that i don't want the money to be a limitation and if they're referenced from you then they kind of have a an open open invite to be sported my way um and we'll help whoever we can for sure with uh whatever resources we can i love it

Jeff Reed: so we're good we'll make some changes i appreciate that if you're watching this video on demand you'll see a link in the uh in the description field to take the true center assessment so go ahead and click on that and uh we'll we'll get you connected into that and dr tim i appreciate el michel i'm gonna take the assessment uh this is neat and so uh she is uh is uh one of our our team here actually she's one of these that could pull off the metaverse version she does a lot of trauma therapy trauma healing and um in uh in virtual reality in that space so i'll tell you this yeah this isn't virtual but just to touch on the trauma therapy um

Dr Tim Yee: that I just sold a license for True Center. We offer like an unlimited license for ministries as well, which is a great thing for certain ministries that want to do hundreds of these every year. It makes sense that you're not buying them $20 at a time, right? So we say, look, you know, once you've bought 250 assessments, like in the life of your ministry, that's $5,000. And so that's where I went to my team and said, look, we have a ministry that just wants unlimited assessments. Can I just sell them a one-time license for $5,000? And they said, sure, go ahead. So that basically what we did, we gifted the Church Digital a $5,000 license, basically. That was our gift from the, not me, from someone more generous than me. I got the okay to give it to them. And so that's the grant you're using. But for most ministries, they're going to spend $5,000. Now, for most ministries I'm talking with who use assessments, they're like, wait, this is a one-time fee. I'm like, yes, my team approved it as a one-time fee because we haven't hit a million assessments yet, right? So on the path to get to a million, we see partnering with grants and also by keeping the price low for some ministries where 5,000 is something doable. And so I just did this for a prison ministry, actually. So I wanted to cement a prison ministry and why this is beautiful, because in the midst of their wonderful trauma therapy that they're doing and helping people see their wounds and healing for the wounds and the spiritual darkness that's related to that. The executive director saw this is a powerful tool that he experienced for himself. But can you imagine people who only can think about bad stories in their life, Jeff? You know what that does to the brain to only focus on bad stories? It's just constant re-traumatizing, constantly stuck in the story of brokenness, which is a valid story needs to be addressed. So True Center is trying to, in some ways, balance it out to say, look, So many people, not just prisoners, not only criminals, but the average person, we focus a lot on the bad stories that cause us to actually repeat bad actions. We stay in the rut. You get stuck in a rut. And so True Center does help you see the good stories. It doesn't just put a blanket over the bad stuff. We need the blood of Jesus Christ. We need the Holy Spirit. We need sanctification. all of that but another part of the sanctification process i believe is also saying how has god gifted me well good right just start seeing that so we have These people in prison who are wanting to grow in Christ and they have access now and they're going to use like hundreds a year. So they're like, this is a deal. We'll take it. And I'm so excited to work with them because now we're going to see, I believe it's a men's prison, even though I think there's a women's side too they want to bring it to. These men can see that God's not done with them. You can give your life to Christ. God has a purpose for you wherever you are, right? Wherever you are. So use those gifts wherever you are. And we hear stories of very powerful things happening in those environments as well. I was on the board of a homeless shelter ministry for nearly a decade when I was a pastor of a small inner city church in downtown Los Angeles. and that's actually where i came across true center first and it struck me i said you know what stories is what connects us all as human beings so because i remember my little church there when i was in downtown la i had homeless people in my church i had former drug addicts in my church i had former gang bangers in my church and i had elderly blue collar i had white collar Um, I had gentrified, gentrified people, right? I mean, we had it all in that one church. And I remember looking up one time and we had, um, people would come forward for communion. That's how we did the Lord's supper. And, uh, Paul came forward and Brian came forward. Well, Paul is a former gangbanger who spent 20 years in prison, but came to know Christ. And Brian is one of the top neurosurgeons in Los Angeles. And they're both taking communion and they're, and we they're dipping their bread. in the same cup and just thinking like isn't it amazing how god's stories are being made known his good stories are being poured through a paul and a brian And it's made me just think about everyone has a story to share. You know, God has placed good stories within people, even the worst with the worst backgrounds, you know, with with Christ. There are things that are redeemable in it and people with the best backgrounds, too. They get stuck in bad stories, you know, bad stories of vanity, bad stories of their value through effort. Let's look at the good stories and how God has naturally wired you. And yes, let's deal with the bad stories too, right? The trauma, the wounds. And True Center, I would say because we frame it positively, I think it sets up a great context to talk about the bad stories too. I just did that on a coaching call with a senior leader from another ministry. And we were talking about his stories, his top 10. It was really great. We had this exercises and next steps PDF, which is free, by the way. I'll remind you if you can't. But we were talking through that. But as we were talking about it, it led to a bad story in his life. I said, oh, share more. And we shared. And that became an important part of our conversation to say, how is that one bad story undermining your other good stories that God wants for you? We had a great conversation. life-giving conversation i'd even say soul care it was soul care happening for this leader who i'm getting to know and he's a leader of leaders i'm just thinking the impact of i'm feeling some some holy spirit prompt in releasing that wound and inviting the spirit into that wound that was i think gonna have a ripple effect for the other men he's coaching I get excited about the cool. It's this open doorway for the Holy Spirit to do whatever he wants to do.

Jeff Reed: You keep mentioning soul care, but it's like when you better understand yourself and how God wired you. Like that understanding, that clarity provides a care opportunity. You know, it's like I'm actually thinking of, you know, many times in my own life when I was not in a healthy environment, it's because I was not in a place that... God wired me to be in. And there was a lot of like friction and animosity because I kept pushing beyond because the role was more than what I was, how I was wired and the friction among that. And so a better understanding yourself, I could see being, I mean, I'm not saying this is a soul care product. I don't think you're saying it's a soul care product, but there is a lot of soul care in yourself when you understand yourself and taking this assessment. Definitely is a step in that direction.

Dr Tim Yee: Sure. Well, it's such an effective tool that it can be. I'll call it a soul care product. It's such an effective tool. It is a discipleship product. It's an evangelism product, whatever you want to call it. It's a counseling product. It's a marriage. you know, support product. So it's a, it's a vocational career assessment tool as well. So that's what we're using it at Urbana for the 10,000 students. It'll be about discerning God's calling, which definitely has a career kind of touch to it, but it's a, even more of a general ministry. How's God wanting to use my gifts? What are my gifts? How was God crafted me? How do I, how do my stories help me understand my why? really is what it's about. And of course, you know, I use it in coaching and you use it in coaching as well. Coaching always relates to every aspect of life, whether it's your career, it's your finances, your relationships. It touches on soul care, you know, for sure. How you attending to what the spirit is prompting in you. And I think when you know how you're wired better, you see your blind spots better when you know how you're naturally gifted. It does help you be aware of blind spots, but it also helps you shine a light on this is me at my best. How come I'm not living into my best? you'll realize there's some misalignment probably in your life right if you don't see your top 10 being used in your current ministry that's a misalignment that's why it's so important i think for people to take true center um as a powerful tool at least to be alongside other great tools that you or other listeners you know might use um but if you're not using your top 10 in some regular way in the ministries you're a part of there's going to be a misalignment you'll generally be kind of sad. You might be depressed. You might be angry. And you're really like, why can't I get along with that team? It's like, well, do you get to use any of your top 10? And often they're not. And in fact, often they're actually using their bottom five all the time in that ministry opportunity. And it's not an excuse to never work outside of our top 10. It just explains why I'm so mad all the time. Explains like, why am I angry? Or am I frustrated? It's like, well, it looks like you're leaning into your bottom five, which actually... you might be doing really well, you know, but it maybe is not filling up your cup as you're working in that ministry, whether you're paid or unpaid. So the top 10 tends to be things that you love doing, you tend to be naturally good at, that you wouldn't even have to be paid for to want to do. Now, you might be paid for it, but you still love doing it even if you weren't paid for it, you know, type of a thing. And that's where they explore stuff. Yeah, you explore... all the time probably because you're just naturally drawn to you're curious how does this work how do i make this work and and you look at the combination of your top five jeff and this is what you do as you coach right you take a look at it and you start seeing like you're you're not just an explorer but you're gifted at overcoming and identifying potential and you want to impact and meeting challenges and so for you you love to explore ways to overcome obstacles and you're like generally very gifted at that and the thing that we resonated on our coaching time was more likely hey is there any time that you might be um slightly less christ-centered in your exploring and slightly less christ-centered in your overcoming and you're just looking for problems yeah right and that's the thing remember we discussed like yeah there can be some times where we get stuck in a rut of kind of not using that giftedness in that spirit led way and kind of in the flesh, then it's like, well, I'm just looking for a problem where I can impact. It's like, well, were you invited into that? Like, did someone help with this? You're like, well, no, I just, you love to explore. You love to impact. You love problems. And some, I say, Jeff, timeout, timeout. We don't need your advice in our marriage, Jeff. We don't. time out, right? I mean, and that's, you go, okay, was the Lord leading me to do that? Is that more my flesh or more the spirit? You're still gifted in those areas, but it's learning to listen. Um, okay, God, you wired me for this, but sometimes even if you're wired for that gift and you have the opportunity to use it, sometimes you're supposed to just listen, you know, just be quiet. Right. And, uh, wait to be invited in off, you know, is often something we need to do too. So that's the fun thing about coaching with the tool has a lot of, uh, flexibility we provide all the tools of like how to give a basic feedback um you know it's it's all step one two three at the same time as you do it more jeff you see like the spirit just stirs up fun conversations though as we're talking because we're talking about stories so i i rarely found that my coaching calls follow all the steps exactly like i train dozens of people to do and i say look in the end You're a believer. You know Jesus. The Spirit's in you. Follow the Spirit. If the Spirit's guiding you to ask a fourth story, go for it. The Lord might be in that. look at those top 10 for anyone who takes it and asks for the ministries you're involved in where do i get to use these gifts in this current ministry and that might explain why i'm so happy and joyful and energized or might explain why i'm like kind of bummed out and de-energized or stressed out because i'm not getting to lean into those top motivations that's a drain you know for me right now so hopefully that will add to people's discernment about what's next for me god were you calling me you're calling me to rest are you calling me to grow go deeper into this call whatever it be but that self-awareness big part of the power of true center for sure

Jeff Reed: Yeah, thank you for that. Self-awareness, yeah, El-Michel's brain's blown. Mine's pretty exhausted at the idea, but even self-awareness is so vital for this. Dr. Tim, thank you for jumping on. Here's what we're going to do, and I'll have this set up in a matter of minutes. The link will be at truecenter.thechurch.digital. If you're watching in the moment, it's not going to work, but in 30 minutes from now, 10 minutes from now, it'll be everywhere. Truecenter.thechurch.digital. Elmichelle, anybody else that's watching, Steve, I think you already took it. Mr. Pete, you can take it. Anybody that's watching live or demand, I invite you to. We'll give it away for free in the community, just even to stir the pot a little bit here with the stream. Truecenter.thechurch.digital. Take the assessment. Now, to follow up, reach out to me. I'm happy to have a conversation to dig into some coaching with you. I know Stacey will as well and some of the Outpost leaders. We were training. I'm not sure actually how far we got along that, but happy to get some coaching with you. I know just real briefly, Dr. Tim, I want to let you go. There are opportunities even to get trained for missionary fundraising. Do you maybe even want to speak to that a little bit?

Dr Tim Yee: absolutely so um for right now at least through if you're watching this at least the plan through the end of 2025 um we're keeping our certification price very low which is 2.99 of course you know we're doing that for you uh for you and a couple other um team members as part of the grant that was part of the grant we gifted you this 299 for anyone else um of course referrals from you are always helpful because there is a bit of a vetting process right now we're only training those who are believers and those who have a you know some kind of ministry um that they'll be using it in um we'll broaden that eventually but right now as we're taking in our first several dozen coaches they're all you know leaders like you jeff and so we'd love to connect with other leaders for that and then we could work out assessments and we do have some bulk pricing as well we have that license of course for those where that makes sense but it's also we can get assessments to people pretty inexpensively as well for their own ministry outside of the church digital. And the training is painless. You have to watch videos of me, so that might be kind of painful. But you can complete it with the videos and the reading in just a day. So it's a very doable process. And then we just require for those who have ministry experience, we're just asking for 10 coaching hours to complete their certification. So you'll get a one-hour call with me at the front end, a one-hour call with me in the back end. Right now it's me. You'll watch videos in between. You'll coach yourself in between. And some people, they do it in 30 days. Some people do it in six months. But you get those 10 coaching hours, watch the videos, use the tool. And we just have a great time with all these wonderful certified facilitators. Really? Yeah, doing a lot of soul care, to be honest, is a lot of the usage of it, along with a lot of discipleship classes are using it as well.

Jeff Reed: Interesting. And so, I mean, this may even be an opportunity for some of you. I know bivocational is the trend we see here through the Church Digital with Digital Missionaries. Digital church planters and to run a service like this, to be certified, to charge for that is on the table and something the organization is open to. And we at the Church Digital would love to help, whatever that looks like. And so, Dr. Tim, if somebody is interested in that, should I get them connected to you? Like, what's a good step for somebody?

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, just feel free to give out my info. I can... Say in my email right now if you want me to. I don't know if you want me to do that or not. You know what?

Jeff Reed: Reach out to me. Reach out to me through the community. Spam bots are everywhere. I don't want to get your stuff blown up. But feel free to reach out through WhatsApp and Discord, and we will happily get you connected. Well, hey, Dr. Tim, this has been beautiful. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for supporting the Digital Missionary Conference. Thank you for what True Center is and the impact and affirming it had in my life and the lives of others that have gone through it. Even Steve's saying it nailed him. And Steve's, you know, older than me. I'll just say it that way. But, hey, as we're wrapping up here, any closing thoughts?

Dr Tim Yee: Yeah, please pray for us. Urbana is only one of the different partnerships we have going with True Center, but it is a big one to have 10,000 students all taking it. So you know the technology aspect of this. So imagine within a four-hour span, our servers will get 10,000 people all within four hours taking the assessment. So praying for our testing over the next months leading up to the December conference. And then also the impact. I'm 10,000 students taking it. I'm training about 500 leaders in True Center as well. Every single attendee will take it. And so we're incorporating that into every aspect of the conference. People's top five results will be on the name badge and asking questions. What does that mean that I love to explore? What does it mean that God has wired me to make an impact? all the 60 plus organizations being trained in true center so this that one event is a pretty big one uh it's an in-person event that will be i think somewhat some kind of online portion as well but the effect of that going globally as well we're excited about and we're hoping the church digital will be a part of that follow-up in 2026 as well

Jeff Reed: Awesome. Yeah, looking forward to what the future would hold. I know the True Center, I don't see us going anywhere. I just have loved. Maybe we're not even taking full advantage of everything that we should. That's more of my conversation. How do we lean deeper into this? And so looking forward to that. And so check out truecenter.thechurch.digital, T-R-U. center.thechurch.digital. The assessment will be there any minute now, and we'll be good to go. And so, Dr. Tim, once again, thank you for the time here at The Stream. Thank you for the support and everything that you've given to The Church Digital and the missionaries that we're serving. And so we're going to see at the conference coming up here. He's doing breakout again at the Digital Neighborhoods Conference on September 17th. So hang out with him, meet him, dig in at the breakout there coming soon. But for now, this is for Dr. Tim. This is Jeff with The Church Digital. Thanks for hanging out with us here on the stream. And we'll see you next time on the show. Y'all have a good one.