8/30/23 - 2005: The Power of Connection

Jim: You've tuned in to iWork4Him, the voice of collaboration for the faith and work movement.

Martha: We are your hosts, Jim and Martha Brangenberg, and our mission is to transform the workplace of every Christian into a mission field. What does that look like in your workplace? Let's find out right now.

Jim: Yeah, one phrase has more successfully defeated and sidelined more Christians in the history of Christianity than any other. One statement that believers make that couldn't be more false, but is believed almost 100 percent of the time. One false belief that acts, in effect, as an epidemic in Christianity. This one phrase needs to be eliminated in the hearts, minds, and souls of every believer in Jesus, and it needs to start in your heart.

The phrase that sidelines and defeats more believers is this: I'm just a blank. I'm just a an accountant. I'm just a car salesman. I'm just a teacher. I'm just a lawyer. I'm just a lineman. I'm just a nurse. I'm just a construction worker. What kind of difference can I make? I'm thinking of quitting my job and working in a ministry to make a real difference.

Today we end that diabolical thinking! That thinking is from the enemy of your soul. Your work is significant and God has you right where you are on purpose. As we talk about the significance of your job today, we bring in Chad Hawley from the Nexus Mountain Network, online at nexusmountainnetwork. com. We want you to get involved there and we want you to hear Chad's story. Chad Hawley. Welcome to iWork4Him.

Chad Hawley: Hi, everyone. Hi, Jim and Martha, I should say. I'm so excited to be here and looking forward to the few minutes we're going to spend time together today,

Jim: Chad, did you ever wonder if you should quit your job so you could go into full time Christian ministry?

Chad Hawley: I thought it all the time. It's something that I think about on a regular basis. There's a concept that's out there that's called the seven mountains. And if you are familiar with it, it's the seven categories that shape culture. And so two of those categories, one is business and one is religion. And I've always had one foot in religion and I've always had one foot in business my entire life. So the idea of thinking about quitting my job or moving away from my job or shifting into something else, it was always on the forefront of my mind because I always had one foot in ministry my entire life.

Martha: We struggled with that as well. You know as teenagers we committed our lives to full time christian ministry and we thought you know at a youth conference when you are pouring your heart out to the Lord that means then, okay, I'm going to be a missionary or a pastor. And for years as entrepreneurs, Chad, we had that same tension of, what am I supposed to be doing? Am I fulfilling the calling that I felt like God gave me or am I neglecting that to make money?

Essentially and, iWork4Him was birthed out of God really opening our eyes about what that really meant in our workplace. But I think it's attention that a lot of our listeners also, even if they don't know it or how to articulate it, are struggling with.

Jim: Boy, we've heard it so many times and honestly, it was being guilt driven, Chad. I don't know if you felt guilty. You were naturally gifted in industry. Did you ever feel guilty for continuing to work there instead of using your job, your skills for God in ministry?

Chad Hawley: I had a moment in my life that really changed for me that God really wants people in business. And the short version is I had this dream one night and I was really struggling financially. I was really sick. I didn't know how I was going to pay for my family. And the bills and expenses and everything we have. And I had this particular dream and I won't go through the whole dream, we don't have time for that today, but the gist of the dream was, is that this dream took place in April of a few years ago, but in the dream the Lord clearly showed me that a Christmas in July was coming in my life, and he made it so clear that it was a gift from the Father, and so I actually went, it was so powerful that I went on my back deck, with my family, my wife and my four children, and I reenacted the dream.

And I said, and here I am sick, running out of money. And I said, I think God is going to show up financially in July. And sure enough, when July 1st came of that year, I got a random phone call and it was someone saying, Hey, are you doing, they described the business? And I said yes, I am. Even though it had already dried up.

And from that moment for probably for the last, I want to say years of my life, still today I got business that has produced residual income in my life. And the takeaway from that moment was that God does want you in business and he will position you. He will actually do it because I had a lot of experience.

I was in the pharmaceutical industry for over 20 years. I was in sales marketing management. At one point I was the national sales trainer for the second largest pharmaceutical company in the world. So in my own abilities and skills I had developed them and experiences. As I developed those. But God did all of that work in that moment. And it always told me, okay, God's in business.

Martha: So I was going to ask you what your natural giftings are. How do you define that, Chad?

Chad Hawley: I would say communication has always been strong, even in college. My undergraduate degree was communication. I think some people when they first go to college, they don't know what to do. And they're like I like to talk. So the easy road is I'll do a communication degree. But I did go on to get a master's degree in business administration. I first started out at a company, a Ford motor company, and I was in roles that I did well in. I flew, like I got promoted, but I was like, this is just, isn't it.

And I was like I even looked at positions one, two and three ahead of me and say, okay, that's my future. I'm like, I don't even want that. So I went looking for a career that I could use my skills, that you asked, Martha, of sales and persuasion and making an impact and influence. And so I looked into the pharmaceutical industry and that's how I got into that industry.

And then I just, I was good at it. I was able to communicate with people. I understood people. I could analyze a relationship and then make modifications so that those relationships would be successful. And so those are the things that I developed. And then I went into training and those types of things, and your whole point of the show is "I'm just a ___", and we'll talk about that in a minute. But there's no "I'm just a ___" because I found out that all of that was just for His purposes.

Jim: So if you look at the gifts, talents, and abilities that God has given you, would they be in full use within the structure of a four walls church or on the foreign mission field?

Chad Hawley: So, partially, and it could be, and it may be some point, but not right now. And that's not what God's called me to do. Our whole purpose, even now I got my whole purpose, by a wild experience where I almost died of cancer, and it got really bad. And in that moment where I thought I was going to die I asked the Lord one question and that one question was why did you create me?

And I waited for an answer. I even waited for an answer in a moment of despair and depression because it had gotten so bad. And I got this answer that I thought, I think this is from God. And it was that I was going to create a Christian based social network that was going to organize Christians to connect, learn, and achieve His purposes outside of the four walls of the church.

And we were going to organize by this concept called the seven mountains. I was so persuaded by this idea that I went on my computer and I made a movie trailer, like you see it coming soon. I needed to like have hope that I was going to live. So I made this movie trailer on my computer.

It was 90 seconds. And I wrote a script, a voiceover, editing, swishes and sounds. And I took this 90 second video and I submitted it to my inner circle of people and I said, Agree with me, I'm gonna live and not die and fulfill this purpose. And everything changed after I did that. Dramatically. I was supposed to get chemo, radiation, a third surgery to cut out part of my tongue just to keep me alive. And I got none of it. That was four years ago.

Martha: Wow. It's so powerful to hear that. And, there's so many things that God showed you in the midst of that, but knowing all along where your gifting was and using that for His glory, and man, that is absolutely amazing. One thing though that I was thinking when you were asking the question, Jim, is we need to be careful not to discount that those skills can be used in the church and the mission field.

And, of course, now our definition of mission field is all work. But the foreign mission field, what you're talking about, Jim, we know people that have used their HR skills within a mission organization to help that organization run the mission more effectively and more efficiently. So not to discount using those skills across the globe where God has called you, but we want to focus on the fact that we don't want people to feel discounted because they're using it in a for profit situation. So it's a gentle balance, but God created each one of us with amazing purpose.

Jim: But it's a small percentage of us that get called to work inside the Four walls of a church or go on the foreign mission field. The 96 plus percentage of us are called to go out into the workforce because that's how people are going to learn about Jesus is by us living out our faith at our work.

Chad , how important is it for believers to understand the significance of their work?

Chad Hawley: So, I have this concept that I teach and it's very helpful when people don't know how to answer that question. And so if you take your life and you draw a horizontal line on a piece of paper across the sheet of paper, and you use that as a timeline for your life. And then you begin to map out the great moments of your life.

And then what I call the peaks. And then you also document the valleys of your life, like the really difficult times. And you go through and you write descriptions of these peaks and these valleys, and you look back, you're going to find trends. And for example, this is biblical, Joseph does this. We use Joseph as an example of a, he was a government marketplace guy.

If you look at his life, when you look at his peaks and his valleys, you will see that even in both moments, he was called to leadership. You'll find leadership in the peaks and valleys. You'll find dreams in the peaks and the valleys, and you will find this accusations, betrayal on his life.

And these are all things that are set up for the future. And when you examine your own life like this, you will find trends that will show you your future, and so you can actually leverage what's been in the past to be a predictor of the future.

Jim: That's interesting. I got to map that out because it's just like Joseph. Joseph had some serious ups and some serious downs.

Martha: But learning all along and, understanding that our work is significant because God created us. God does not make mistakes. Jim and I will talk about that. We'll joke. Oh, we'll be like, oh, I used to, as a kid, think I was too short, and did God make a mistake?

Jim: No, He didn't make a mistake. He created you specifically on purpose for that purpose. I like short chicks. It worked out perfect for me.

Martha: But speaking of that significance, Jim, we recently took our books that we've written and put them in a PDF format that's easily downloadable on our website. And there you can see more about the significance of work. And so you can go to iWorkForHim. com forward slash the bookstore, and there you can see all the different formats that you can get it in and download one for yourself.

So Chad, God has been working on you, God has you working on a huge project that's already been launched, and that is called the Nexus Mountain Network.

So what is the mountain part of that? You hit on it a little bit, and then how do I know if I'm on one of those mountains? Like, how do I determine that?

Chad Hawley: Yeah, great. The Nexus Mountain Network is, like I said earlier, it's really set up for people to succeed outside of the four walls for God's purposes.

And so when we launched this on August 18th, which is about one year ago, we're about to celebrate our one year anniversary, it was so powerful the way the Lord clearly told us this is what He wanted to do. And I know we have a guest coming on later, but one of the teachers at the school with Sandy who is going to come on, she had a huge part in this because she prophesied to me during a parent teacher conference. And I mean she actually prophesied this and nobody knew I had this idea in my heart.

The Nexus Mountain Network. And so it was like this release that I knew it wasn't just my idea, but it was his idea. And if it was his idea, I had full confidence to proceed because in business, one of you talked about one of my skills, abilities, one of them was creativity. And so I was always recognized for creativity and developing things and new things, new ways of looking at things, new ways of solving problems. And so this was like an explosion of here we go. And so basically what it is, we are a network of people.

So Nexus actually means a series of connections. Mountain is referring to the seven mountains and network is referring to the network of people. We also happen to have a great app that is a tool to help us succeed. So this app, you can find it on Apple and you find it on Google. Again, it's called Nexus Mountain Network and inside this app has capabilities like Facebook, LinkedIn, Podcasting, Learning Networks.

We just launched yesterday a job board like LinkedIn, so Christian employers and job seekers can find one another and so that we can connect with each other. So the three pillars connect together, learn together, and achieve together his purposes. And things that we have done already, so quickly, just shows the favor of God is on it.

We've gone into schools, public school systems, where they're promoting rape, pedophilia, and all kinds of disgusting stuff to children. And because we were so connected, we were able to move so quickly and efficiently, we were able to reach out to people in media, in religion and get something done in 48 hours.

We had the initiative stop. We were standing in front of the auditorium in downtown Charlotte and a team of us were collectively giving fiery speeches to cause change. And to answer your question How do you know? Because of my background in sales and marketing and professional development.

I developed an assessment that you can do right inside the app. All this is free, by the way. And you can go on your phone and complete the assessment, and it takes about eight minutes, and it will, it's all automated, and it will send you your report of, hey what are my primary and secondary mountains for this season of my life?

Because it also can change. And so depending on what God's called you to do.

Martha: So just with that, with all that explanation, if people go and get the app Nexus Mountain right on the app then, when they open it, I know I'm looking at mine right now on my phone, it says Seven Mountain Assessment, and that's a great place to start to really understand because then you can connect with people within that realm of that mountain so that you're communicating not just to everybody, but very specifically to other teachers or government or wherever that might land. What a great way to get people started.

Jim: So let's just do a little more plugin because I love the Nexus Mountain Network. I love what you're trying to do, and you've got thousands of people already involved and you've been, it's a very interactive platform. You did the whole field of dreams thing. If I build it, they'll come. I saw it, and we've talked, we met almost a year ago when you were really launching this thing. Now you're a year later. What have you seen God do? How do you see God in the day-to-day of Nexus Mountain Network?

Chad Hawley: I'm excited 'cause we have a guest coming on that's gonna talk about how,

Jim: Don't tell her story. I want you to tell your story. What are you seeing God do? Let Sandy tell her story.

Chad Hawley: It's not about me though. That's the point, is it doesn't say Chad Hawley ministries. It says Nexus Mountain Network. So if I talk about the Nexus Mountain Network when I see God doing, I can't describe it without describing others. That's the point. And so you're going to have a hard time even finding my wife and I even anywhere in it. You have to dig deep to find out who's behind this. That's fine. But the whole point is to collaborate because the Bible says where there is unity, he commands a blessing. And we have seen that.

One thing that I've noticed very different, and this will help answer your question, is I had a lot of success in business and not only was I successful in corporate, but I was almost bored where I had capacity to take on more. So I would even start my own businesses just to appease my creativity. But one of the things that I've learned has dramatically changed to when I said yes to the call, and yes to the timing of the call, was the word favor. This changed dramatically, because I went from doing well from skills and creativity and experiences and hard work, to I'm clearly doing what God's called me to do, therefore, I have favor. And what I have found is that the Lord can trust an individual so if someone's listening, if they say yes to God, there is a trust that develops in a relationship with God, and following trust comes favor.

And I've seen this like never before. I've never experienced favor like this, where people are reaching out and say, I want this. I want to do this. I want to help you. I want to put you on my show. I want to pay you to do this or I want you to come speak. And I never had that before in my life until I was fully committed to the call of God. And then favor follows.

Jim: One more just discussion about Nexus Mountain Network and then we'll bring on your guest. Yeah, there's a lot of apps out there. There's, I don't know, just a billion of them. Why Nexus Mountain Network? Many of us in industry are already on linkedin. Nexus has got a kingdom centric a message. Just tell our listeners, explain to our listeners why this is a tool they need to have on their front page of their phone.

Chad Hawley: So people are connected, right now more than ever there's a move, especially in the United States and probably around the world where people are, the belief system of being a Christian itself is being shut down. Christians are being censored. They're to a point where they're not going to be able to say what they really want to say. And so we need to stick together. And so not only can we stick together. So if you go and use an app, you create a profile, you can actually go in. This is amazing. You can go in and you can search the world by the people that are in the network and you can do it by criteria.

So if you wanted to know, Hey, I want someone from Singapore. I want to meet someone from Texas. I want to meet someone from California in media, and you can use this filter. And it'll give you a list of whoever's in that area, according to that criteria. And you can have instant connection and communication with one another to find the people you're supposed to run with.

And sometimes they're local, sometimes they're distant. And our ultimate goal is that we create these city based communities. Like we have, we've developed a prototype in Charlotte, where we have meetings together we have local meetings. We have a, we actually have events. We had an award show that we started already, it was a lot of fun. We're gonna have another one at the end of the year, and we recognize people who are making a difference following God's purposes. And you want it there because this is my connection to why I'm living. That's why I wrote the book Purpose Will Save Your Life, and I took all of those experiences I had professionally and I even leveraged technology in the book.

We have QR codes at the end of each chapter that pushes you to certain things that's going to help you achieve it. And so when you find this purpose and you find the people you're supposed to run with, what one of my mentors says, there's a convergence that happens in your life. And so this tool will help you with that convergence where your skills come together with your purpose. And now you're walking in favor and you feel like, okay, now I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. And this app will help you do that.

Martha: It's such a beautiful thing because what you're doing, walking in line with what God has created you to be so good at, and you're bringing other people together so that they can do what God's created them to do. And so it's this beautiful ripple effect that happens as a result of that.

Today we're talking, we're really focusing on this whole idea that no matter what the job is, it is significant to God and it is, and He's created each one of us uniquely for that purpose. So when we talk about jobs that matter, it's important that if we manage other people, that we're helping them to be the very best that they can be in their job.

And over the years, Jim has created a little process that he likes to use for performance reviews. And we have that available on our website for free. And it's something that actually a lot of people that are just searching for that end up finding iWork4Him and digging deeper as a result of that. So I'll put the link in the show notes for everybody. But feel free to use that, modify it, take advantage of it. I just, as we want to be better ourselves, we need to help our people.

Jim: And it's no longer annual reviews either because the next generations, they want daily reviews.

Martha: Monthly, daily, whatever. One of the things, Jim, that has always stuck with me when I started managing people is you said to me, Martha, it should never be a surprise to somebody what's on their review. You should already be having those discussions. It should never be a surprise. It's just a summary. And it's a discussion that goes on. And I hope more people take advantage of that for the purpose of feeding into their people that they are managing so that their job, they know their job is significant and matters.

Jim: And that's right on our resource page on iWork4Him.

Okay, Chad, you invited somebody today to share the impact story of them being involved in the Nexus Mountain Network. Who do you have for us today?

Chad Hawley: Speaking of jobs that matter, especially more than ever, education is under attack, our education system. And today we have with us the principal of the Comenius School for Creative Leadership, Sandy Woods.

Martha: Sandy, welcome. We're so glad to have you here.

Sandy Woods: Thank you. It's so good to be here.

Martha: So we want to dig in right away and hear how you found out about the Nexus Mountain Network.

Sandy Woods: Sure. Chad just happens to have his children at our school and we're just thrilled to have them. One of our teachers was the one who prophesied to Chad, that was amazing. And then last year, he called me and said, hey, would you give this app a try? I think it could really help you. And we have an organization called the new era association, which is the education reform association, and we really needed to be able to connect with people who wanted to reform education. And then we needed them to be able to find us, and this was the best way for this to happen.

Just a handful of us were together and now there are hundreds of teachers, reformers, homeschooling moms and dads, people who care about what's going on in education, using the nexus platform to connect with us. It's amazing.

Martha: Because without saying the obvious, the fact is that you can converse about things that you're concerned about that maybe would be censored on another platform and you wouldn't have that ability to connect, so what an amazing thing. I hadn't even thought about it. I have some ideas for off air.

Jim: All right, Sandy, it's one thing Chad said hey, you probably should check this out. You know, Chad helped develop the app, but it's another thing to actually start using The Nexus Mountain Network app found online at nexusmountainnetwork. com or in the app store under Nexus Mountain Network. Why did you start using it?

Sandy Woods: Honestly, I immediately saw that this was what was missing. You know so many people when they find, they said we think we're the only ones or we're so isolated out here in Nebraska, but now we've got a whole community of people that we can rely on and ask questions. And they float ideas which are amazing and we get them out. So this was something that we just jumped on and within a year it has grown. I am, just Chad, just thank you. It's amazing.

Martha: So other than the connection and seeing that the community is so much bigger and that you can communicate, how else has it impacted your work life?

Sandy Woods: Oh, wow. So it has given us that again, that ability to instantly connect with people. We also do a yearly conference and this has been one of the ways to promote and get the word out that this is worth people's time to come and get equipped because quite frankly, as Chad has mentioned, education is in a shambles. And people need to know their options and they just might be the answer in their area to reform and transformation.

Jim: Do you think using the Nexus Mountain Network app has helped you live out your calling more effectively?

Sandy Woods: Oh, absolutely! It's one thing to, to lead a school, but it's another thing to be able to be part of the leadership team of a movement. And as a little girl, my heart was to always be a teacher, but it was to make a difference. And now I get to do both.

Jim: Wow. That's powerful. Honestly, almost every teacher out there listening today has made a huge difference in the lives of their students. They don't get told that near enough. I've been trying to find my eighth grade english teacher Connie Johnson to tell her what a difference she made in my life, but Connie Johnson in Minnesota is like a needle in a haystack.

So just know, you teachers out there listening, you make a huge difference. Sandy, anything else you want to say about the Nexus Mountain Network? About working alongside Chad in this - anything else you want to say before we go?

Sandy Woods: Sure, Chad and Wendy are great supporters And I've been on the app and just seeing some random comments from him. I think he spends every waking hour commenting on things that people are doing. Just the support is amazing. And you don't get that from Facebook or LinkedIn. It's gonna come from Chad. And there's always Godly truth advice. So that would be my big plug is it is you can't go wrong with this. It is going to change your life.

Jim: And it's going to help you realize how significant your work really is, that you're not just a an accountant, a teacher, a bulldozer driver. You are called by God with a unique set of gifts, talents, and abilities. God has you right where you're at. I used to say on the show all the time: the job that you hold, the work that you do, and the people that you work with - none of that is by chance. The people that you work with, they need to meet Jesus and you may be their only chance!

Chad Hawley: I'll add something because there's more to what she's saying about what she's doing and how we've collaborated. So during this conference, we had, because of her leadership and her team, they had everyone download this app.

We created a special group just for them called new era and what they're doing. It was like early on and now it's just blowing up. And I'm so excited for what they're doing because it's so needed. And inside this group, we were able to leverage the app to do live panel questions. They had, she had a panel at her conference.

We did a lot of pictures and photos and videos and comments. We did push notifications where someone was doing a book signing, and so she had her schedule organized where we could push something and everyone that was at the event, they got a notification Hey, don't forget about the book signing. And inside of her people, I give her credit, because they pushed this. They had hundreds of people sign up and then they could filter in that moment real time Hey, is there anyone else here from Minnesota?

And they could sort within the group and go, Hey, someone's here from Minnesota. They can connect. Hey, I'm here. Let's connect. And to her credit and her leadership, we were able to develop a model and prototype by serving them, that now we're doing other conferences, similar to how they do theirs, and it's now going to blow up in other mountains besides education. And if you're in education, you should definitely get involved with new era.

Jim: So Sandy, he just did a great plug for that. Is there a website for new era? OR I was gonna say are you guys just connecting on the Nexus Mountain Network app?

Sandy Woods: Mainly the Nexus Mountain network. But they can go to kingdom ed alliance.com.

Jim: Kingdom ed alliance.com. We got friends and a daughter in education and they need to know about this. Chad, tell people one more time how they can get connected with the Nexus Mountain Network app.

Chad Hawley: Yeah, the easiest way, just go on your app store, Nexus Mountain Network, download it.

Jim: Perfect. Chad Hawley, Sandy Woods. Thanks so much for being on iWork4Him today. Thanks for sharing your story. What a great example of collaboration in the kingdom. It's just so awesome.

And another example of collaboration we want to encourage you, many of you are probably looking for podcasts besides iWork4Him that you can be encouraged directly in your career path in your mountain. Go to the awaken podcast network. com online, awaken podcast network. com, where anyone can find a curated collection of podcasts that speak about faith and work from stay at home moms or running businesses to executives and ceo podcasts. All of them designed to speak directly into your heart. There's categories for artists and women and so much more.

We'd love sharing this resource for you. Awakendpodcastnetwork. com. You've been listening to iWork4Him with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. We're Christ followers. Our workplace, it's our mission field, but ultimately iWork4Him.

Outro: Did you know that God has a calling on your life? It's true. He's called you to bring Jesus to the world. For some, that may look like a pulpit or a foreign mission field, but for most of us, it looks like a construction site, a cubicle, a hospital, or a classroom. Wherever it is that you work, live, volunteer, and invest, that is your mission field. To learn more about integrating your faith into your work and retirement, check out our books, iWork4Him, sheWorks4Him, and iRetire4Him, by going to Iworkforhim. com.

Thanks for listening to the iWork4Him podcast with your host, Jim and Martha Brangenberg. Please visit IWorkForHim. com to learn more about connecting your faith and work, to join the iWork4Him Nation, or subscribe to our weekly blog. You can also follow us on social media at iWork4Him to stay up to date and meet our guests.

If today's message spoke to you, please subscribe, rate, and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your review will launch more workplace missionaries across America. That's at iWork4Him and online at iWork4Him. com. I work the number 4 him. com.