Building For Your Future.

It's important to maintain a balanced tension between dreaming and planning when in discovery of your future.  I think dreaming is a lost art form and those who are willing to dream along side of God will find that there really isn't much we can't do.  (Proverbs says as a man thinks in his heart, so he is!) When we align ourselves with His thoughts and principles, we are a sure fire hit.  I love what Think-Differently says about discovery.  

"Appreciate Your Successes: review what went well in the previous season and celebrate your successes. "  We need to really begin to be people who celebrate success more.  In a culture that more times than not celebrates and exposes failure, we're in drastic need to think on things that are good!  Creating a culture of reward that acknowledges publicly really builds momentum and favor.  This also creates a foundation for personal development through trust and advocacy that people can succeed as we challenge them in their weaknesses too.  (Listen to my radio show Gravity Network next week for a great series on this exact topic!)

"Unleash Your Imagination: step aside from what you think is possible, and create you life as if there were no boundaries!"  If you can see it, you can believe it.  If it fits God's nature and greatest desires toward you, it can truly be possible.  There are no limitations to what is possible in our lives.  We really can do all things through His strength.  Don't get stuck dreaming out of need or temporary satisfaction but dream out of your greatest desires and delight in who HE is. 

"Create Your Vision: move from your ideal fantasy vision of what you’d love to create to a concrete description of exactly what you plan to accomplish in the next season."  Without vision, we end up self-destructing.  We need a plan and this is where partnership is usually really good to have.  Having other people who you can trust to stand opposite you and build a plan that will help you succeed at the highest level possible is very wise.  You were designed to have a "sweet spot" if you will.  A place that you hum on all cylinders.  Do you have people in your life who willing to partner with you in finding that place?  Don't settle until your plan has this as it's greatest goal.  For YOU to succeed and be happy.   Our greatest happiness will found when we are doing what HE designed us to succeed at.  He made you the right way the first time!  

"Validate and Commit: celebrate your vision for this year and the years ahead. Validate that this vision is what you actually want to achieve – and are prepared to commit to."  This is where all the work is, in our commitment.  The only difference between people who are doing something and those who are not, is the people who are doing something are decided to do something.  This is the action that fortifies our faith.  If you have a plan and it aligns with His greatest thoughts toward you... then DO IT.  God designed you to succeed, but it requires us using wisdom in knowing who we and where we'll succeed in bearing the most fruit.  Hard work always pays off, but it pays more when we love what we do.  Do what you love and all of a sudden, it start to feel less like work and more like living.  

Celebrate, Dream, Make A Plan & DO IT.  It's that simple.  What were you created for?  Where's the place you "hum on all cylinders?".  What would you do if there were no limitations?  What are God's greatest thoughts and desires toward your life?   Answer these questions and you'll begin to build a foundation of discovering the greatest season of your life.  

Becoming a Servant Leader.

I've been spending a lot of time the last couple of years forming a better understanding of God's perspective of who I am.  Many Christians today live a limited version of what I believe He was dreaming into when He made them and I believe it's due to not knowing who we really are.  There have been many movements and messages that have come raging to the forefront over the last couple of decades and there's always been a message of "increase", "prosperity", "sonship" and "favor".  I've really found the core of the scripture used to support those messages to really inspire me to want to live my life out in the extravagant love of God that makes all those things possible.  My identity upgrading out of one who is a slave and into a son or a companion of God has truly transformed my life.  

I think the greatest benefit has been in my experience of serving out of love and not serving out of obligation or penalty.  Leaving my identity in place as a son but embracing a lifestyle of serving has brought the managed tension of living a life after Christ in my constant crosshairs.  I've seen greater things in the last few years than I ever have and it's been in response to walking these two values out.  In Galations, we understand that the prerequisite for surrender of a companion is to love them into that place of surrender.  That love is laying down your life.  It's preferring others over yourself while maintaining a desire to do only what the Father is doing.  

A popular term these days is Servant Leadership.  I've been putting into practice some characteristics that I believe embody the values necessary to live out serving as a leader.  Larry C. Spears, who has served as President and CEO of the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership since 1990, has extracted a set of 10 characteristics that he believes are central to the development of a servant leader:

• Listening: Traditionally, and also in servant leadership, managers are required to have communication skills as well as the competence to make decisions. A servant leader has the motivation to listen actively to subordinates and support them in decision identification. The servant leader particularly needs to pay attention to what remains unspoken in the management setting. This means relying on his inner voice in order to find out what the body, mind and spirit are communicating.

• Empathy: A servant leader attempts to understand and empathize with others. Workers may be considered not only as employees, but also as people who need respect and appreciation for their personal development. As a result, leadership is seen as a special type of human work, which ultimately generates a competitive advantage.

• Healing: A great strength of a Servant Leader is the ability for healing one’s self and others. A servant leader tries to help people solve their problems and conflicts in relationships, because he wants to encourage and support the personal development of each individual. This leads to the formation of a business culture, in which the working environment is dynamic, fun and free of the fear of failure.

• Awareness: A servant leader needs to gain general awareness and especially self-awareness. He has the ability to view situations from a more integrated, holistic position. As a result, he gets a better understanding about ethics and values.

• Persuasion: A Servant Leader does not take advantage of their power and status by coercing compliance; they rather try to convince those they manage. This element distinguishes servant leadership most clearly from traditional, authoritarian models and can be traced back to the religious views of Robert Greenleaf.

• Conceptualization: A servant leader thinks beyond day-to-day realities. That means he has the ability to see beyond the limits of the operating business and also focuses on long term operating goals.  A Leader constructs a personal vision that only he can develop by reflecting on the meaning of life. As a result, he derives specific goals and implementation strategies.

• Foresight: Foresight is the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation. It enables the servant leader to learn about the past and to achieve a better understanding about the current reality. It also enables the servant leader to identify consequences about the future. This characteristic is closely related to conceptualization.

• Stewardship: CEOs, staffs and trustees have the task to hold their institution in trust for the greater good of society. In conclusion, servant leadership is seen as an obligation to help and serve others. Openness and persuasion are more important than control.

• Commitment to the growth of people: A servant leader is convinced that people have an intrinsic value beyond their contributions as workers. Therefore, she should nurture the personal, professional and spiritual growth of employees. For example, she spends money for the personal and professional development of the people who make up her organization. The servant leader will also encourage the ideas of everyone and involve workers in decision making.

• Building community: A servant leader identifies means to build a strong community within his organization and wants to develop a true community among businesses and institutions

I hope these inspire you to be a better leader, understanding we have natural tools in place that will always bring increase into everything we do.  Our commitment to characteristics like these shape the counter culture that we as believers are responsible to foster.  

New Radio SHOW! Gravity Network: LIVE

I'm excited about the new radio show Gravity Network: LIVE.  This show is all about one thing:  transformation.  It's goal is to give you tools on how see transformation in your life, your church and your city.  We're passionate about discovering the gravity of the kingdom of heaven that will bring this transformation.  There's a lot attached to the goals of what we're wanting to accomplish, but for now... it's a radio show.

Tune into Gravity Network: LIVE  M-F at 3:30pm on WRDT 560am currently.  Internet radio and podcasting will be live asap.

Thanks for the support and make sure give us some feedback!  You can connect with the show by taking a sneak peak listen on facebook here:  http://www.facebook.com/gravitynetworkonline

Blessings...

Drew

#winning

I walked into the store the other day and I noticed I was within close proximity of five different people who were wearing the colors green and white. For all of you non-Michiganders, they were representing the Spartans of Michigan State University.  This was the most public display of that team’s spirit I’ve ever witnessed in a 30-foot radius that I can think of and not be in Lansing itself.  If you don’t know, the University Of Michigan Wolverines dominate the general fair weather college sports fan here in the mitten, but MSU is rising in their visible fan base.  Why?

They are putting together a culture of winning.

Have you ever met anyone who seriously wants to lose for the enjoyment of not winning?   There’s something innately powerful about being apart of the winning team that every single person on earth connects with.  The more MSU is winning, the more people are proud to show their support and show they believe in the team.

Winning builds momentum.

I think we could easily cite pop-culture phenomenon Charlie Sheen, and see how even with #winning defined as milking the system catapults movement.  Many churches in America have big plans in “forwarding” their initiatives with the end result filling up their buildings and having some level of notoriety. Is this true success in God?  Is this the cause we’re looking to champion? Don’t get me wrong, I believe in products, marketing, having a following and the funds necessary to do it things at a high level.  It’s all a part of life, but do these things define success in forwarding the gospel? It’s success if your whole goal is only exposure.  There are lots of gimmicks we can all do to build awareness that Jesus exists, but if we’ve not given them a taste of who He is beyond words, what success do really have to mention of?  Just because I told you about MSU doesn’t make you want to be a fan.  You need to encounter them winning to be a FANantic.

How do we measure the success of forwarding the Gospel?

I believe it’s really easy to put the cart before the horse when wanting to build a movement that transcends walls or a specific gathering.  The first step the church has routinely taken was to upgrade their infrastructure, communication, budget and marketing.  “Maybe if we convince them we’re cool, they’ll want to hang out with us.”  I am immensely grateful that we no longer need to speak in King James Version to be spiritual and that those who wore pretentious suits and ties are fading. However, does this mean we are winning a generation over because we’re more agreeable culturally?  I believe winning is simple and keeping the focus on Jesus in the midst of all our creative tools-essential.  I’m not here to convince anyone of Jesus.  I’m here to give them Jesus.  When I’ve given a person an encounter with Jesus (His truth, love and power) it gives them an experience that turns them into a fan.  They encounter the Win of the Gospel, which is bigger than a one time prayer; it’s the beginning of transformation.

I’m not here to “win souls”.  I’m here to see lives completely transformed - body, soul and spirit.

I don’t want people to agree with me in a moment.  I want them to be lost for words for what they just experienced, for there to be such a heavy hunger immediately birthed in their life to want to KNOW who and where this came from.  A true experience with Jesus will mark a person to want to follow Him all the days of their life.  Our #winning is not in our gatherings alone, but should mostly be defined by the story of lives lived out in the workplace, school and home.  If we don’t take Jesus with us everywhere we go, what’s the point of sacrificing your life to follow Him?  There’s no shame in representing what you would be willing to die for. The motive is not judgment, conversational strong arm or behavior focused fire hosing.  If we lead people to the lap of Jesus, He’ll take care of the rest. 

That’s a win.

Can you imagine a whole tribe of people who have encountered transformation being a true visible demonstration of God’s truth, love and power?  Fans don’t need to “sell” or try to convince people of their team, they just point to the score board.  As believers we’re not fighting for victory, we’re fighting FROM victory.  It's not striving, it's rest.  Jesus paid it all for me to win in this life. Are you merely regurgitating faith based propaganda or are you a FANatic?  Let’s build a tribe of believers who actually believe and live out FULL Jesus.  The world is watching to see if the church can actually win.  They'll notice our culture of winning not when we tell them, but when they are completely surrounded by more fans in a 30 foot radius than they can remember and it not be at church itself.  

Written by: Drew Neal

Edited by: Brett Whitefield

Short Excerpt From Forthcoming Book Project...

"We the church, are called to live a life that is victorious and never short of inspiring, but maybe we have lost our understanding of exactly how powerful the gospel is in a global context.   Our thoughts typically have radiated towards the church organization and it's success.  There's fruit of this within our big buildings, large gatherings and good coffee, but i think it's time to expand our thought.  First, to have an enlarged perspective of who we are, we need an enlarged perspective of who God is.  If we're not seeing success in a realm, we have to know it's only the absence of believing that God already has in His character everything we would ever need to be successful in that realm.  Secondly, many people talk about having a “world view” and as that expands, you are able to see things more clearly.   I would pose that as a body of believers, we've settled on having a “church view” alone rather than having a “kingdom view” (which includes all understanding of the church).  The church is not a destination of upmost arrival but a launch pad into the kingdom.   Jesus came preaching the coming of the kingdom of heaven here on earth, which should lead us to define what it looks like to live a life with no limits in the kingdom and how that impacts every sphere of influence."

Stories Of The Naturally Supernatural

Well, my wife should be typing this... but she still hasn't put her blog together.  YELL at her for me.  :)  So here I go, not talking about a TV show, but penning out a few remarkable stories that have hit our life lately...

First of all, I'd like to say that there are usually two camps that exist when it comes to the supernatural.  There are the obvious skeptics and then there's the heretics that everyone thinks is crazy.  Well, I believe that when it comes to the supernatural, that we have to embrace that fact that we have a human spirit and ignoring it only allows us to live in half the realm that we were created to live in.  If we're going to actually see greater things than the ministry of Jesus Christ (like He said we would do) it's going to take people who are willing to take risks of acknowledging God's love and goodness in all situations and connecting our spirit with His spirit.

When it comes to signs and wonders, one of the many pitfalls can be that the experience becomes a distraction from who created the experience.  We can't seek signs that make you wonder, we seek what the signs point to... and it's Jesus.  It's all about demonstrating and encountering Jesus.  Jesus is perfect theology. One of the other pitfalls is that a lot of people foolishly declare things that have happened without actually making sure it wasn't just a feel good moment with some coffee.  If signs and wonders are going to have credibility, people need to handle them with the upmost integrity.

Enough disclaimers... how about some amazing stories?

Three weeks ago, after hearing a remarkable story of God healing a lady's back that was supported with a titanium rod, a call was made from the stage (we were at a conference) that maybe God would want to heal others with metal in their bodies.  Well, being the instigator I am, I of course nudged my wife because of the metal screws she has in her knee from ACL replacement surgery 13 years ago.  (Melissa has had limited mobility in her knee since her surgery.  She can't kneel/sit on the floor.  She has instability on stairs and needed slight support especially if carrying something.  She couldn't do dips or lunges either.  These were all mild symptoms, but there nonetheless and she had just accepted them as a way of life.)  Melissa stood up.  We released the goodness of God's love thru prayer into her knee.  She was met with an overwhelming warm sensation right on the knee and instantly had a fully restored knee.  The following monday she did lunges at the gym for the first time in 13 years.  Absolutely no pain in her knee anymore.


Thursday night, while our team was ministering in Lansing with Jeremy Riddle, we had a man come for prayer for his hand.  He pulled out his Iphone and showed us Xrays from the fracture he had suffered just less than two weeks prior.  We prayed. His swelling went down instantly.  He removed his brace/wrap.  We asked if he had any more pain.  He said no.  Andrew Mancina gently grabbed his hand in a "shaking hands" grip.  With levels of questions and tighter grips after each response of no pain, Andrew finalized with the best death grip he could muster!  NO PAIN. NO SWELLING.  Bone healed.

The pastor of the church in Lansing we were with had not been able to get a good nights rest in over 3 years.  His sleep pattern would only allow for segments of sleep no longer than 90 minutes and then he'd have to get up and find ways to distract himself back to sleep.  He'd sleep for another 90 mins and repeat.  We had a massive release of hope in this service.  He felt dynamicly imparted into in this moment of release.  That night he slept 9 hours straight for the first time in 3 years!  God cares about rest!!!!

Friday night, I received a word of knowledge that there was  women with a right hip issue and I asked who it was.  A middle aged women raised her hand.  We found out she had fallen and hurt her hip about a year ago.  She had sustained a mild limp and could not put much weight on it.  When she stood, she was instantly healed!  Who needs hands laid on them when you're in the presence?  She was jumping up and down full of the joy of the Lord.  She had no pain and no limp.


Tonight, I was with someone in Caribou that had sustained a pinched nerve of sorts in their back from a longboarding injury.  For the last month they couldn't sit up straight without massive pain.  Without knowing of the injury I begin to share of God's goodness and love to be healer followed by some of these wonderful stories... wouldn't you know it, he was overcome by the presence of God feeling massive warmth in the exact area of his back his pain was at.  Healed... from listening to testimonies.  God is that good.  :)


God is doing GREAT things.  We don't have to beg, we simply discover His goodness in that moment that is already in place.  God is healer and I'm forever grateful He's willing to use anyone who's willing to take risks and see His kingdom come to earth.

ONE.WORSHIP Event Series

I'm really excited about this week.  I have guest Jeremy Riddle coming to partner with me on building awareness for an upcoming conference training entitled ONE.WORSHIP happening in the spring of 2012.   


Jeremy Riddle is a worship leader/pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, CA.  He is one of the main inspirations and influences to all the music coming out of Bethel Church through Jesus Culture Music and Bethel Music.  He has released his new album "Furious" and it's getting a great response.  


www.jeremyriddle.net


Don't miss this FREE series.   We'll be in Lansing and Metro Detroit this week and we'd love to connect with you.  

Sheepwalking 101

I was driving to the office this morning and found myself caught in a small road construction project.  I was turning left onto South Blvd (a 4 lane road) from the service drive of the M-59 exit ramp.  The inside lane of South Blvd was closed and had the notorious orange barrels blocking it.  The closed lane wasn't inhabited by any construction vehicles as the work was only being done in the median by a backhoe.

The interesting thing about the open lane was that it had three sections of the road removed and prepped for resurfacing.  The prep work was about 80% complete, but there was still a 2-3 inch dip that was noticeable.  They had heaped asphalt on the transitions to make for a pretty bumpy ride, but that's what they needed us to do... travel a road that was under construction.   The closed lane had no vehicles working on it... and the open lane had uncomfortable travel conditions.  Hmmm....

It was visually confusing unless you read the signs.

The leading vehicle at the stop light was a truck and it was four cars ahead of me.  It was obviously dusty, the color orange and had a big white decal.  When the light turned green, the truck turned left onto the open lane and then immediately veered between two barrels into the closed lane and continued down a ways.  The three cars behind the truck followed suit.

When is it ever a good idea to follow a construction truck thru barrels into a closed lane?

When the open lane is uncomfortable to drive on and the person leading you breaks the boundary.

The lane wasn't closed because it was being worked on, it was closed because the backhoe was swinging his bucket into the space and needed the liberty of knowing vehicles weren't needing to be accounted for.
I didn't follow suit.  I drove the road in front of me.  The open road.  The road that we were being asked to drive on and guess what... all the people behind me followed suit.

Outside of the awkward lineup at the next stop light 500 feet down the road, there wasn't any damage to vehicles... just a few damaged egos pulling out of the closed lane and trying to merge into a single lane, but how often do we find our selves acting like sheep being herded and just following the butt in front of us? Seth Godin in his book "Tribes" calls it sheep walking.  It's the art of not thinking and thus not leading.  It's the theory that if the person in front of you did it and didn't die, it must be the right way when all signs point otherwise.  Sometimes we just need to lift our head up and read the signs.

People are longing to be lead.  They will follow you on a road that is closed and they'll follow a leader that takes them down the road that has a few obstacles but ultimately brings you the destination that yields the most productive result.

What will you be?  A sheep walker? or someone who's willing to count the cost of being right or wrong, read, and make a good decision?  Everyone around you is looking for permission to do the right thing.  Be the first and watch the culture shift in your sphere of influence.
    

The New Breed Of Church Leaders

These are not always comfortable, but these are the attributes of our leaders necessary for this next season of the kingdom of God being released in the earth.

1. Being a revolutionary – questioning the old ways of doing things
2. Being an innovator – creating new and powerful ways to do things
3. Being a creative – giving birth and expression to new and powerful ideas
4. Being a performer – pushing the boundaries and thinking in new ways that lead to improved results
5. Being a seeker – gaining a deeper and better understanding of the world
6. Being a visionary – having an expanded vision of what is possible and what is worthwhile
7. Being an independent – thinking independently for yourself
8. Being wise – gaining a different and informed perspective
9. Being a leader – having the courage to discover and and express your individual uniqueness
10. Being a change agent – leading people or groups through change
11. Being committed – committing to making a difference
12. Being authentic – discovering who you are, and having the courage to bring your true self to the world you live in