What happened in Dallas (plus new audiobook!)

God had a dream and wrapped your body around it (Lou Engle). Janine and I just completed the recording of the Dream Culture book in audio format. It walks you through how to unlock the dreams and desires of your heart, how to turn these into practical action steps and how to overcome limiting beliefs, blocks and barriers along the way. It's basically the story of our life! Here's an invitation to grab your copy and heads up... we will invite you into a live online six-week course starting in January ($100 off if you register before Christmas).

Talking about living your dreams, last week we got to be with some wonderful friends in Dallas. We had some phenomenal conversations, met some really cool people and even got to hear Max Lucado "You, Me and the Christmas Tree" at Gateway Church on Sunday!

Here's a quick summary of what we did, what the results were and what we are learning...

What we did 

Friday we did our first Heaven in Business workshop in Dallas. It was a test to see if there was enough hunger and humility in the area for what we bring. This looked like partnering with friends from three different churches (Mercy Culture, Upper Room, Gateway), finding a venue and throwing out a bunch of invitations.

This aligns with our vision and strategy of calling the crowd, then connecting, training and activating people to partner with God at work and engage in the wellbeing of the city they serve. Even more importantly it is about identifying and activating catalysts who can do this themselves. We don't just look for more activity to do but more people to partner with to do it ( = multiply!)

What were the results

We had 52 people sign up from multiple church flavors and even one couple from upper New York who flew into town celebrating a birthday and doing what they had dreamt of doing for years - a Heaven in Business workshop!

Feedback was shockingly good. Seriously. The room wasn't all that well lighted and there wasn't a lot of verbal feedback during the sessions so we didn't fully know if this was going ok or amazing. Turned out it was way better than amazing...

One business owner brought her employees, which included her unsaved brother. For the last four years 'brother' had been very resistant to any conversation about Jesus. During the workshop activations, he had an encounter with the voice of God that shook him to his core. On driving home 'brother' says to his boss sister, "I realized I have been rebellious and acting like a six year old. It's time for me to surrender my life to Jesus."

The majority of people, new to what we do, left saying "How come we are only hearing about this now? I would have brought more people..." Well, we will have to come back then!

And here's another cool testimony:

During one activation a fractional CFO was asking God about how to find more clients.  Earlier in the year he had gained a few clients and built momentum, but it really stalled out after that. He had calls, but no one moved forward. The past 45 days he had been praying and sensing God wanted him to expand his services. So he had been busy building out the processes to offer additional services and had rebuilt his website.

During the activation fractional CFO heard God say that He will bring the clients. He was also reminded how the new clients earlier in the year were brought by God. God said "Get your process ready to serve those that are coming."

"Since the event on Friday I’ve had 2 current clients reach out that they want to expand what I am doing for them and another potential client that I had been talking to confirmed that they want to move forward and hire me.  All in less than 2 days, just amazing!"

What we learned

1. It works, it really works! Following the voice of God is the best (and smartest) thing in the universe! When we listen and follow, even if it doesn't look like it in the moment, there is more going on that you realize. Taking the time to hear God on the session format, which activations, in what order played out perfectly. So MAKE THE TIME TO LISTEN.

ACTION: What do you have on your schedule today? Have you asked the Holy Spirit HIS thoughts and ideas and strategies for your day? Try it...

2. Make sure you have the time. On arrival we found out the event venue had another event immediately after ours. This meant we had to pack up and exit pronto. This stole the opportunity to linger and connect with people. Mental note - double check that next time! 

ACTION: Are you rushing from transaction to transaction or have you allowed margin in your schedule to facilitate connection and relationship? What would it take to make room for surprises? What may God have in store for you and the people you interact with today?

3. Take action! We talked, did our due diligence, listened to the voice of God, made preparations... then took a risk. That looked like writing out a check for a venue, booking flights and taking the time to setup schedules, landing pages, website back-ends. And it paid off. The fruitfulness of the time invested was wonderful. More went on behind-the-scenes than even what happened at the event. The key is we had to take action. Take a risk. Invest. Stop talking and do something! 

ACTION: What have you been talking about doing that now simply needs you to commit and go for it? Where do you need to get out of your comfort zone and invest some time and money for you to grow?

4. Dallas is awesome! We loved the people we met, the food we ate, the move of God among business people.... We will be back!

ACTION: Meet us in-person at an event near you. See HeaveninBusiness.com/events