As I pause on this Friday afternoon to glean the learnings from all these Intersections (I asked God) several themes came to mind.

1. Most of us are aware that our lives and businesses are not going near as well as we would like
2. We have no idea what to change in our lives to improve this situation
3. I consistently see confusion with folks about the role of Steward of our lives versus Owner
4. This confusion causes us to spend much time doing Owner activities that are far more effectively left to God
5. The wasted time is keeping us from “doing our part” so God can do His part.

To elaborate just a tad, saying “that we are NOT the Owner of our life” is much easier than doing “we are not the Owner of our life”.  Learning to let God do the Owner role in our life involves several things:

1. Awareness that we can and need to do this
2. Courage to begin to let go of controlling the outcome
3. Understanding that this is a journey that will take some time
4. Folks in our lives to encourage and support us on the journey.

Interestingly these are some of the Steps of Transformation God has unpacked for us the last couple of years.

The big loss here is in the time we spend acting like an Owner instead of using that time to become the best Steward possible of our lives.  Examples:

1. We spend time worrying about where the money will come from this month instead of simply DOING what we can to create value ultimately producing money
2. We spend time beating ourselves up for being a loser in our chosen profession because we are not seeing the results we want rather than simply doing the Vital Activities and letting God handle the results
3. We spend time pounding the folks that work and live with us to do what we want rather than loving and encouraging them to do the best they can.

Doing all of these Owner activities robs us of several precious things:

1. Time to be more effective Stewards resulting in increased harvest
2. Joy by not simply enjoying the moment instead having to freak out about the potential outcome
3. Peace of knowing God has the outcome and we can simply rest in “doing our part” every day.

So let me encourage you to join me on this journey toward being the best Steward we can be while letting God handle the “Owner responsibilities”.  If I can encourage and support you on this journey just let me know.

The million dollar question is “How does transformation happen”?  What is our role in the process?  What is God’s role in the process?

And so we begin (again?).  We search for new knowledge that will jump start the process.  We read books, go to seminars, listen to sermons, pray, read God’s word, serve when we can etc.  We do all this for the purpose, perhaps unspoken, of becoming a better version of ourselves and Jesus Christ.  And after we do all this we find we are incrementally different which we don’t mind but it seemed like a lot of work for such little change.

Over the past 18 month’s God has unpacked a process for me and a group of folks I hang out with that is proving to be a VERY effective way to be transformed.  The process is not about more knowledge, different feelings or changing beliefs.  It is about actually doing something.

The entire process is predicated on participating in small groups of people that are 100% encouraging (to a specific action) and 100% affirming (of a strength seen in you).  With this foundation the process itself is pretty straight forward.

1. Determine a Vision for your life, business or area of focus
2. Pick out one significant Goal that will get you a step closer to that Vision
3. Identify a couple of Activities that will move you to the Goal
4. Complete the Activity(s) over a specific period of time
5. Get together in your small, encouraging, affirming group and tell the story of the Activity(s) you completed (whether successful or not).

When you complete these 5 steps in your small group you will be surprised how you AND the members of the group have moved the transformational process forward (it takes time).  I can’t explain why it happens and I’m certainly not suggesting it is the only way to be transformed but it does work.

A couple of suggestions:

1. Keep the small group less than 12 members
2. Meet at least monthly
3. Determine the Core Values of the group at your first meeting (the ground rules)
4. Write down your Vision, Goal and Activities (individually)
5. When sharing the stories share the specifics of the story not just what was learned
6. When done sharing ask for encouraging and affirming feedback
7. Be patient.  Our Current Best Thinking is that this is a 3+ year process.

So give it a wing.  Start a group or try it  in an existing group and let me know how it goes.  It is working great in my life.

1. Truth does not need to be defended – God can handle it. My job is to simply love people where they are
2. God is the Owner, I am the steward of my life and business. Leave the results up to Him and simply do my part
3. God, as the Owner, will guide my life if I will simply follow the God Intersections
4. Move our businesses into God’s Economy
5. Build a Community, it is the new foundation for significance.

The synthesis of these ideas is the concept of moving our lives and businesses to a place where they best represent God and His values. In other words, becoming a “Light on the Hill” for those around us (Matt. 5:14).

I now see that consistently representing Core Values aligned with God is the single most important thing I can do to become “A Light on the Hill”. That used to sound crazy. I used to think that results were the most important thing or hard work or reading God’s Word or multiplying myself. Now I see that when I consistently represent God via my Core Values I AM being “A Light on the Hill”.

So what are Core Values anyway? They are the most important characteristics we demonstrate as seen by other folks in our lives. The core of who we are. They are NOT what we want to be or think we are. Only what other people actually see matters. For Mark Miller (me) they are:

1. Serve Others
2. Trust God for the results
3. Listen without an agenda
4. Encourage others
5. Authentic always
6. Share Our Stories

What are yours? Do you know? Have your written them down? Can you tell someone easily?

So let me encourage you to an assignment.

1. Take 10 minutes and WRITE DOWN your Core Values
2. Take your list and ask 3 family, friends or customers to make a list of what THEY SEE as your Core Values (don’t show them your list)
3. Have a discussion around the differences between the lists

Let me know how it goes!

1. Sunday we started battling the flu as a family
2. Tuesday I threw out my back (the pain was worse than any I have ever experienced)
3. Friday (Christmas) was coming without enough money
4. I wasn’t feeling much “Joy for the Jesus Season”.

As I lay awake around 4:00 AM Wednesday morning I realized that body, soul and spirit were not in good shape.  My desperate prayers lay largely unanswered, my worries about money and my health grew by the minute (we have no health insurance) and 2009 had not turned out as I had envisioned.   Isn’t it funny how the dark of the night magnifies all of our fears (now there’s an immutable law).

And so a choice had to be made.

1. Did this Trust God thing work or NOT?
2. Was I really willing to let God determine the outcome of my life?
3. What about what I wanted??
4. Why wouldn’t the pain in my back go away (God heals right?)?

I have grown to embrace those moments as opposed to fear them (that’s new in the last 2 years). I realized this was either a moment to grow or a moment to shrink back. Glenda and I experienced a whole new “turn of the wheel” about Trusting God in this last two month but this was hard!

And so I swallowed hard, gritted my teeth and told God I was pressing on, no matter the pain, sickness or lack AND He needed to do something (preferably NOW). And then………….nothing. Nothing changed, no healing, no cool visions, no supernatural words, just my pain and my wife’s regular breathing. Great, this was going well. Interestingly I did fall asleep for about 90 minutes for the first time that night.

The next morning I had to figure out what “my part” would be for that day (if I want God to do His part I have to do my part). Did I call a doctor, chiropractor, PT, 911 or what? What about the money part? What about the anxiety part? Etc. I decided to reach out to this God Intersection community for help. I called Steve Carling a Physical Therapist member of mine (carlingphysicaltherapy.com). Steve assured me he “could save my Christmas” if I could drag myself into his office. He (and God) did. My back is a thousand times better. We called a nurse friend of ours about meds and the flu stuff. We are recovering nicely. Thursday Glenda received a call for a third interview at a local CPA firm and was offered the job (full time with benefits). And Thursday night I found myself at City of Grace (www.cityofgrace.com ) for a Christmas Eve service followed by an evening shared with dear friends. [Notice how the Community we have formed supported us through all of this and I’m not listing all of the offers of support from the rest of you]. Christmas (Friday) was spent quietly with my immediate family, foster son (Frankie), a couple of movies and a great meal.

That brings us to today. As I reflect on perhaps the most difficult week of my life I am struck by how quickly it can all change for the better. I’ve learned a couple of things:

1. Don’t fear the most difficult moments.  Embrace them and Trust God.
2. Lean on your Community for support.  Reach out and ASK THEM to help.
3. Relax (to the best of your ability) and enjoy the moment(s).

I hope your Christmas was as peace filled and learning filled as mine!

Well guess what, that something hit the Miller household this last couple of weeks. My wife was laid off. This severed half of our income and all of our health benefits (drat!). And in an instant I was given the opportunity to practice all this stuff I talk about (or should I say preach).

Well after the initial shock wore off (it took about 72 hours) we mustered the courage to talk about my wife finding another job. Over the next week (#1) I found myself subtly encouraging (she would say pressuring) my wife to “get on with this job search thing”. You can only imagine what happened to the stress level in my house! Not being a complete idiot, I asked God about what was occurring. And at the end of week #2 God showed up one morning with a very simple question (I’ve found His questions are always simple). He asked me “Whose responsibility is it to provide for your family?”. I instantly understood that it was my and not my wife’s responsibility to provide for this family. I told God as much and His final comment (our conversations are ALWAYS short and sweet) was “So why don’t you and I handle this provision thing and release your wife to what I have for her?”. Well obedience is better than sacrifice so I simply said “yes Lord”. I then apologized to my wife for my selfishness (she was quite relieved) and we simply continued our journey albeit in a much more supportive environment.

As only God could arrange, the following week (#3) was my Forum week. I conducted three Leadership Productivity Forum’s during which I imparted my Current Best Thinking on God’s Economy and the Values and Processes involved in living in His economy (Thriving in the New Economy). God, as usual, showed up and suggested I simply follow His Intersections and His Process (Relationship, Community, Value and Serve) and see what happens. In other words do my part and let the Owner (God) handle the provision part.

In practical terms this means both of us are focused on developing and investing in the Community’s God has put us in. For me that Community is centered around Trusting God. My wife is spending time defining her passion and what her Community is about. In the mean time she is following all logical God Intersections.

And the saga continues. We still don’t have any benefits or enough income or a job for my wife. I’m not even sure she is supposed to find a job. What I do know is that I’m getting a real time opportunity to live this Trusting God stuff at a whole new level, AGAIN! The other things I know is there is a much greater feeling of peace and harmony around the Miller house and that’s always a good thing, particularly around the holidays.

So change your thinking and find God and his purposes and provision. Stay tuned for how this phase of our journey turns out and thanks for participating in this Community.

The World’s Economy and God’s Economy work on completely different concepts and processes.  From a conceptual standpoint the values that drive the World’s Economy are Make Money, Me First and Trust No One.  The values that drive God’s Economy reflect God, of course.  Those values are Lordship which I call Servant Leadership, Stewardship and Generosity.  To operate in God’s Economy we must be true to His values.  When we choose to operate our lives/businesses in God’s Economy we are making Him the Owner of our lives and businesses.  As the Owner He is obligated to provide for His Stewards (that would be us).  In this economy having God provide for us is a great thing.

But what about the process around how we operate in the two economies.  Well they are also different (imagine that).  The World’s Economy operates on a 3 step process:

1. Value – identify and develop the Value you wish to provide to the Marketplace.
2. Relationship – identify Relationships that need/want your Value.
3. Money – match your Value to the Relationship producing money

God’s Economy works on a 4 step process:

1. Relationship – develop and expand your Relationships by serving them.
2. Community – build a Community around something you are passionate about and invite your Relationships to join.
3. Value –identify the Value you can provide to your Community
4. Serve – that Value to the Community.

Notice we don’t talk about money.  In God’s Economy I call it Provision.  God’s Provision will be created by using this process while operating in God’s Economy.
So in these challenging times let me encourage you to do four things:

1. Choose God’s Economy.
2. Operate according to His Values (Lordship, Stewardship and Generosity)
3. Build your lives around His 4 step process (Relationship, Community, Value and Service)
4. Watch God’s provision and purpose be accomplished.

Think differently and find God’s purpose and provision.

Let’s start with my definition of Community.  Community is a group of relationships that choose to gather around a particular passion, God-calling, idea or offering for the purpose of sharing life and values.  Community is completely voluntary with each member contributing as much or as little as they desire.

In the previous blog I encouraged Business Owners to “Form Communities with your relationships”.  A common question here  is “why would anyone want to participate in a Community around what my company does?”.  If we are operating in the World’s Economy then our primary concern is making money.  If that is our reason for Forming a Community, IT WILL FAIL!   Community is about shared values and Communities that prosper focus on SERVING each other.

While we shouldn’t form Communities only around our businesses and money we DO form them around our passion or calling.  So what are you doing that matters? What are you doing that you are passionate about?  For me it is all about helping people Trust God.

So pick a passion and Form a Community (more on HOW later).  Note that our relationships can choose to be part of our Community without doing business with us and vice versa. Your business is only one way you participate in your Community.  Other ways include listening, spending time, being transparent etc.  Also our relationships can stop doing business with us and remain in our Community OR leave our Community and remain as a customer or stay in both. It is their choice.

Once we have created a Community around our passion we simply invite our relationships to join us and serve them.  The rules of the Community should mirror the Values of our businesses/lives.  As leader of the Community our job is to steward those Values in the Community.  If we do this our Community grows.

We can now offer our business value to the Community separate from trying to “sell” them anything.  We  have many options using this approach as opposed to “just selling” them something.  We can talk to our Intersections about:

1. Our Community and how we might serve them (for me Godintersections.com)
2. Our Business and how it might serve them for money (for me Leadership Productivity Forum)
3. A combination of both.

This approach gets way cool when the economy shifts (which I believe is going to be a way of life for the foreseeable future).  Let’s say you are in the construction business and the economy just rendered your type of construction as unneeded.  If our Community is only about construction then we have no choice but to wait for “business to improve”.  If our Community is about something we are passionate about we can use our business skills and experience to offer something else to the Community.  Better yet we can receive a God Idea to provide a whole different type of value to the Community using our skills and knowledge.   This new offering then sustains us.  Using this approach we begin modeling “God Led Businesses” leading us to operating in God’s Economy.

I suspect this all sounds a little crazy to you.  I look forward to your comments.

1. Will it ever go back to the old days?  If so when?
2. How do I manage my way through this new world?
3. How do I manage the pain of all this uncertainty?

As I prepared for my October Leadership Productivity Forum’s my thinking centered around this economic “reset” that has occurred (the Great Recession).  I realized that we were not going back to the old economy (thank you for that insight Lord).  The last 20 years have been the greatest two decades of prosperity in history and we aren’t going back to them.  So the obvious question is “now what God?”.    How do we prosper in this “New Economy”.

The answer came during my Entrepreneur’s Forum in October.  This monthly Forum is for Sole Proprietors who are seeking to improve their businesses while further Trusting God.  Toward the end of the three hours a Forum Member, Mike Lucero (www.ipainthomes.com), asked the the group “so how do we prosper in these times?”.  For the next ten minutes or so the Forum discussed ideas around this question.  As I listened and facilitated the conversation the answer simply materialized in my head (thank you Lord).  Interestingly,  the answer was an amalgamation of everyone’s input set to words by my thoughts.  Isn’t that just like God to use a little bit from all of us!

So God’s answer to the question “How do we thrive in this New Economy?” contains four parts.

1. Relationships – develop and nurture them.
2. Community – form Communities with your Relationships.
3. Value – ascertain the Value you can provide to the Community.
4. Serve – the Community without regard to what the Community can do for you.

Relationships - this is a pretty straightforward concept.  We all know the importance of relationships to our businesses.   BUT do we make the development  and nurturing of these relationships (existing and new) a priority in our daily work-life.  Realtionships are no longer  just about finding the next customer.   They are about something much bigger in this New Economy – Community.

Community – is the aggregation of our relationships around a common cause, interest, product or passion.  In our work-life the Communities we form will revolve around passion for product or service or a cause they serve.  These Communities will consist of customers, vendors, employees, shareholders, community activitists etc.  Anyone wanting to share life around a passion or interest.  Our job as Business Owners in the New Economy is to expand our Relationships and connect them together into Communities.  And then use the Community to further all of our common interests.  As a footnote web-based social networking tools are an ideal way to connect our Relationships into Community.  More on that later.

Value - our third priority, after building Relationships and Community, is to identify the Value we want to provide the Community.  This Value can change over time depending on the economy, our interests and direction from God.  In the past this Value was the majority of what we focused on as Business Owners.  In the New Economy it will be a lower priority than building Relationships and Community.

Serve - the Community without concern for what you can take from the Community.  Relationships are all about shared experience.  If that experience is centered around what the Relationships and Community can do FOR US, then the Community will collapse under the weight of being self serving.  If we will simply Serve the Community the Law of Sowing and Reaping will take over and provide for our needs.

So God Intersection readers, ponder these points and begin to rearrange our work days to focus much more on Relationships and Community than money and ROI.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Mark Miller

I was in church this morning listening to my Pastor (Terry Crist) speak on “Life is a Circus and I’m hanging out with Trapeze Artists” (http://mesa.cityofgrace.com). He was speaking on the dynamics of relationships and relating them to the principles of successful Trapeze Artists. One of his points was the need to “Discern the Timing” in building strong relationships. He recommended we stop trying to fix others and simply love them while letting God’s timing and His love change them.

And then “ding” the Spirit of God showed up and tied it all together. Here is my Current Best Thinking. Anytime we try to change another person we are, in reality, simply trying to control them. Sure we usually couch it in some kind of “this is for your own good” language but the truth is we desire different behavior from them and attempt to change them to obtain those behaviors. Well in this last year God has made it clear to me that I’m to “Give Control” of my life to Him. And that means that my feeble attempts to change people fall into this “Give Control” bucket. The epiphany of the moment was that when I release my “change and control” behaviors to God I get to stop concerning myself with the result and this opens my life to the rhythms of God’s timing. And God’s timing is where life, love, joy, peace etc. flow unabated.

So let me encourage you to:

1. Stop trying to change those around you
2. Turn over control of the outcomes of your life and business to God
3. Look for God’s Rhythms in your life
4. Respond to those Rhythms by loving the Intersections they create
5. Relax and enjoy life in God and being loved by Him.

I’d be interested to know if you’ve experience His Rhythm’s in your life.

Until God’s next idea shows up, relax and enjoy.

In the early days of LPF God made it clear (yes God talks to me, mostly through my thoughts) that my primary goal is to SERVE the business owners He Intersects me with. He set out several additional guidelines. They included:

1. Serve First
2. Relationships are more important than profit
3. No Sales Calls with the intent of “closing the sale”
4. God would tell me when I could charge for my services
5. Look for His Intersections daily

It wasn’t until almost a year into this Grand Adventure that the God Intersection idea crystallized and started to gain a voice. I currently have three active LPF groups. One of them is a Nano Business Forum for Sole Proprietors. I serve these members monthly and they pay me whatever they can afford each month. I have the privilege of sowing into their lives.

About a month ago two of my Intersections, upon learning of my fee policy for the Nano Business Forum, commented on how “un-business like” this was and “how could I ever expect to make a living if I gave my services away”. For some reason these statements stuck in my head. They bothered me more than they should have and I found myself thinking about it a lot.

A couple of weeks after this comment “stuck” in my head, God showed up on a morning bicycle ride and created an interesting thought. The thought said “I can only multiply seed that you sow” (no kidding God). I’ve learned to be wary of obvious God statements so I simply said “I know that God”. His next thought was “I will bless all that you put your hands to but I will only multiply seed that you sow”. And then I saw it. I was sowing into my Nano Business Forum and that was seed. God promises to multiply that seed. In my other Forum’s (the ones for which I charge a regular fees) I could expect His blessing but NOT His multiplication!

So my question is “Why is it so hard for us to just sow from our businesses?” To sow with the knowledge that this is God’s heart. To sow for Him and not because of the return it produces. I know, I know, business is about “making money”, providing services/products and receiving payments (the old Quid Pro Quo” line). But what if we purposefully set aside a piece of our business to simply sow into the Intersections God creates for us? What would be produced as God multiplied that seed? What could we do with that overflow? Interesting……

Think well, expand your view of God and find your purpose!