Not Every Christian Is a Person of Peace
It would seem fair to believe that all Christians are interested in making disciples of Jesus–not converts–disciples. But statistically, the majority of Christians are not focused on being and making disciples of Jesus.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we challenge the assumption that all Christians are automatically People of Peace. We discuss the importance of being discerning about who we actually disciple, and we talk about the need to be willing to walk away from relationships with people who are not open to discipleship.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Surprising statistics about the faith practice Christians have outside Sunday services.
- Everyone you meet or who likes you is not going to be a Person of Peace in your life.
- Not every Christian is a Person of Peace and wants to live a lifestyle of discipleship.
- Why it is important to discern who your actual People of Peace are.
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Discipleship and Missional Resources
Transcript
Often within what is termed the missional movement, what has been attempted in the creation of missional communities or families on mission is people from a church will throw a lasso around a group of other people at their church, and they'll call that a missional community in their mind, who knows what they're thinking they're signing up for, but they sign up for it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then they send those people off to go live in a bunch of ways that they've never seen modeled.
Caesar Kalinowski:And now they're supposed to talk their families and a bunch of not yet believing neighbors.
Caesar Kalinowski:into living in ways that are new and seem to require a new level of commitment.
Caesar Kalinowski:They have never seen it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They don't know what they're doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're just called missional.
Caesar Kalinowski:And now their family doesn't live these rhythms, but we're going to go talk a bunch of other people into it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so often that fails miserably.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the most common things we hear from folks who've been run through that mill.
Caesar Kalinowski:is either, hey, we tried that missional thing and it didn't work here, not for our people, or we'll hear, well, hardly anyone from our church, including the pastors and elders, wanted to live this way and engage with us beyond a weekly meeting when it fit their schedule.
Caesar Kalinowski:If that describes you or your past experience, You probably labored under the false assumption that those fellow churchgoers were people of peace in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:We made that mistake early on too, and that has huge implications for discipleship and living as a family together on missions.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple Podcast, where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Announcer:This is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now, here's your host, Caesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks for the handoff there, Heath.
Caesar Kalinowski:Glad to
Caesar Kalinowski:be back with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks for joining us
Caesar Kalinowski:again for another episode of the podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm excited to be here with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:We are just getting into
Caesar Kalinowski:a little staycation here with Team K.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've been having a lot of fun this summer, but we're kind of doing a little staycation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Enjoying the local area, I guess, a bunch, because where we live, it is that beautiful and doing all the kind of crazy stuff that, uh, you get to do with the grandkids.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're looking forward to setting up that tent and do a little backyard camp and haven't done that in a long time.
Caesar Kalinowski:We did it with our own kids, but we haven't done it with them yet.
Caesar Kalinowski:Anyway, we're having a great time.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope you are also out there and living the dream.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, I want to read a couple more reviews that
Caesar Kalinowski:came in the last few weeks.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you so much for those of you who have left a review and given a rating.
Caesar Kalinowski:These reviews come in through Apple Podcasts, and that's generally where we see them.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, uh, thank you wherever you're listening, and if the podcast world that you do listen in allows you to leave reviews, it helps other people find the show as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's one from Taping578, it looks like, and they say, good news, five stars, thank you, this is gold.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've heard a lot of people talk about Christianity and what it means or looks like to follow Jesus, and not all of it sounds good.
Caesar Kalinowski:The message Caesar brings is actual good news for everyone in all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's so freeing to hear him speak and has challenged and deepened my walk with Jesus and my discipleship of others.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you, brother.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a great review.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's humbling and I'm glad that what we're doing is hitting the mark and encouraging you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's another one from Bully and then a whole bunch of numbers.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not sure who it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says, Headline is Practical Helpful Podcast for Everyday Disciples of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep, there it is, five stars.
Caesar Kalinowski:Again, thank you so much.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says, I heard CK, I guess that's me, Caesar Kalinowski, speak years ago in Lexington, Kentucky, and that was a catalyst for helping me and my congregation get on a missional journey where we now teach every disciple of Jesus is on a mission every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:wherever we live, learn, work, or play.
Caesar Kalinowski:This podcast is great to catch others up on that mission and always gives me new things to consider and new ways to bless.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I remember being in Lexington and I love it when we get to come to your cities and bring some of the same training in live with your people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Something to consider.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you want to do that, let me know.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm happy to do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:We do a lot of it every year.
Caesar Kalinowski:Also, I want to invite
Caesar Kalinowski:you to join us over on Facebook.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you
Caesar Kalinowski:are the Facebook type and are perusing that once in a while, if you.
Caesar Kalinowski:We'll look up the Everyday Disciple Podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:We have a group there of people.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can join that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'd love it if you would.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is where you can contact us real easy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Ask any questions, throw out ideas for new episodes, share your own missional journey.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll be able to find that, or you can just go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash Facebook.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if your Facebook's already logged in, it'll take you right to the group and you just join it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you so much for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's get started with today's discussion.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we're going to talk about People of Peace, but from a little bit of a different perspective.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me set a little groundwork first, though, as we get started.
Caesar Kalinowski:Often within what is termed the missional movement, so, uh, the movement of churches trying to be much more on mission out in the neighborhoods, out in real life, making disciples as a lifestyle, everything we talk about here, often what has been attempted in the, uh, creation of missional communities or communities on mission, families on mission is people from a church will throw a lasso around a group of other people at their church and they'll call that a missional community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, just throw a lasso around them, I guess so, and they, in their mind, who knows what they're thinking they're signing up for, but they sign up for it and then they send those people off to go live in a bunch of ways that they've never seen modeled.
Caesar Kalinowski:And now they're supposed to talk their families and a bunch of not yet believing neighbors into living in ways that are new and seem to require a new level of commitment.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So they don't, they've never seen it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They don't know what they're doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're just called missional.
Caesar Kalinowski:And now their family doesn't live these rhythms, but we're going to go talk a bunch of other people into it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So including my family.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so often that fails miserably.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the most common things we hear from folks who've been run through that mill is either, uh, hey, we tried that missional thing and it didn't work here, not for our people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or we'll hear, well, our family, our family was really starting to embrace this lifestyle, but hardly anyone from our church.
Caesar Kalinowski:Including the pastors and elders wanted to live this way and engage with us beyond a weekly meeting when it fit their schedule.
Caesar Kalinowski:Mm hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:But here's the thing if that describes you or your past experience You probably labored under the false assumption that those fellow churchgoers were people of peace in your life We made that mistake early on too, and that has huge implications for discipleship and living as a family together on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a false assumption to believe that the church, your church, my church, is filled with disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Christians, so therefore they must be people of peace and want to live on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, I wish that were so.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not always the case.
Caesar Kalinowski:Certainly not for every Christian.
Caesar Kalinowski:Real quick, I want to just describe what a person of peace is, and I do full episodes on this.
Caesar Kalinowski:You could just google it, everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com.
Caesar Kalinowski:People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll find it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've talked deep into this, but real quick as a reminder, how do you identify people of peace in your life is, and everyone has them by the way, but you're, you're looking for people who you sort of have an easy, natural bond in chemistry with.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're people who are leaning into a relationship with you, not leaning away, but they're leaning towards you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're always up for hanging out.
Caesar Kalinowski:Often those same people look to serve you.
Caesar Kalinowski:They just want to bless you.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've had people in our life that are clearly people of peace and that felt like they just blessed us so much more than we ever blessed them.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they, they initiated being together with us and they, and people of peace are interested, or at least not turned off by your faith and your lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're kind of interested in who you are.
Caesar Kalinowski:They like you.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's the thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, uh,
Caesar Kalinowski:that's what you, when you see that, those
Caesar Kalinowski:are easy people to hang out with.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:And you're looking for people who receive and Return a Blessing.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what a Person of Peace does.
Caesar Kalinowski:You take that right back to Jesus teaching in Luke.
Caesar Kalinowski:So when you find them, stick with them, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Those are easy people to do life with and hang out with.
Caesar Kalinowski:They want to, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:And proximity is big, so it makes it a lot easier to find those people and be with those people if there's some proximity in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And let me throw out a few foundational thoughts about People of Peace and finding them and the importance of all that real quick.
Caesar Kalinowski:I got like five little ideas here.
Caesar Kalinowski:First, you must live as a person of peace in order to attract and find your people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if you're not looking to build friendships, you're not out and around, you're not in the neighborhood, you're not having people around, you don't accept invitations to other people's things.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're not living as a person of peace, you're probably not going to attract or find your own people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now second, you can only truly disciple people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, maybe it sounds obvious, but you can only disciple those that trust you and want to be in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't talk those neighbors who don't want to hang out at all and aren't interested in Christianity or Jesus or anything to do with you into being disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not going to happen.
Caesar Kalinowski:Never did.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus didn't do it that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Paul didn't do it that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Third, not everyone you meet or who likes you is going to be a person of peace in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've got lots of friends that aren't people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're just friends.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we talk about the weather or go to a ballgame or have some fun together, but they don't lean in to a lifestyle with us of blessing others and walking in the ways of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Fourth, people of peace, as I just described, the kind of people you're looking for are both found outside your church circles, And inside your church, I think when we first started understanding this people of peace concept, that's who we're looking for and that's who we get to disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:We always assumed those were, you know, our neighbors, they're outside, they're not yet believers, they're lost people, they're out there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, uh, that's not the case.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're inside your church too.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, number five here, not every Christian is a person of peace and wants to live a lifestyle of discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's really the meat of what we're going to talk about today.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, if you need to stop, pause, rewind, and listen to that whole who's a person of peace?
Caesar Kalinowski:What am I looking for?
Caesar Kalinowski:And sort of these foundational thoughts, go for it.
Caesar Kalinowski:But now I'm going to dive deeper into this idea that you want to have the Christians and find those people of peace as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:But not all Christians will be people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:I want to look at a few statistics to back up my claims that not all Christians are and maybe even some of the reasons why Okay, I want to show you the levels of engagement that Christians have with their faith and community outside of a weekly church service And then we'll go from there to how many are actually disciple makers now according to a A 2020 survey by the Pew Research Group, they found that 52% of U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Christians say they are very engaged in their faith practice outside of church services and programs.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, now this is a U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:study.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know exactly what the statistics are in every other country, but they're probably not all that different or south of that number.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's the most recent one from Pew Research.
Caesar Kalinowski:52% of U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Christians would say that they're very engaged in their faith practice.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's break that down.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's some additional statistics they've given on how many Christians are really super engaged.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says that 64% of Christians report that they pray every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, 64%.
Caesar Kalinowski:A little better than half.
Caesar Kalinowski:At least they say they pray.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, 52% of Christians say they read the word.
Caesar Kalinowski:They read the Bible at least once a week.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, numbers coming down.
Caesar Kalinowski:42% of Christians say they volunteer for a religious organization.
Caesar Kalinowski:So they're serving in some way, once in a while at least.
Caesar Kalinowski:And 38% of Christians say they attend a religious retreat or conference at least once a year.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, so, maybe that sounds good, maybe that sounds bad to you, I
Caesar Kalinowski:don't know, slice and dice it how you want, sounds pretty realistic.
Caesar Kalinowski:But notice how much of these very engaged Christians, by their own sort of, you know, estimation, are actually connected to their faith in ways that include others outside of their church.
Caesar Kalinowski:or Particular Faith Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's all about how they pray every day, or not even all of them do 64% and read the word at least once a week and things like that, or a religious retreat.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here's another statistic.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm building the case here for kind of why we're at where we're at with how many Christians are really People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:According to a 2020 survey by the Barna Group, only 14% of U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Christians are actively involved in disciple making outside of church services and programs.
Caesar Kalinowski:Only 14% outside of okay out of church services in their programs This means that the vast majority of Christians are not actively involved in helping others Find Christ and grow in their faith now sort of side note here The survey also found there's a pretty big difference in disciple making involvement among different denominations of Christians.
Caesar Kalinowski:For example, 22% of white evangelical Protestants say they're actively involved in disciple making compared to 10% of mainline Protestants, the survey found, and 6% of Catholics.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now there are probably lots of reasons, but there are definitely some reasons why so few Christians are actively involved in disciple making.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, one reason is that they may not know how to do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Disciple making is a skill that takes time to practice and to develop.
Caesar Kalinowski:You got to give your life basically away.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now another reason is that Christians may not feel like they have the time or the resources to invest in disciple making.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a big one.
Caesar Kalinowski:We hear it all the time.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then finally, many Christians are simply not that interested in making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, crazy, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, there's a huge percentage.
Caesar Kalinowski:They, they're just not even that interested in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not even a thing for them.
Caesar Kalinowski:They got their afterlife upgrade and that's where they're at.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, this though reminds me that, that kind of like thinking, that reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew, 7, 21 to 23.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, this is from the message, but I love it.
Caesar Kalinowski:He goes, um, He says, knowing the correct password, saying master, master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is Jesus talking.
Caesar Kalinowski:What is required is serious obedience, doing what my father wills.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he goes on, he says, I can see it now at the final judgment, thousands strutting up to me and saying, master, we preached the message.
Caesar Kalinowski:We bashed the demons.
Caesar Kalinowski:Our super spiritual projects had everyone talking.
Caesar Kalinowski:And do you know what I'm going to say?
Caesar Kalinowski:You missed the boat.
Caesar Kalinowski:All you did was use me to make yourselves important.
Caesar Kalinowski:You didn't impress me one bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're out of here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:Another translation says, but I never knew you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So pretty stark statistics on how many Christians are actually trying to engage in discipleship and the rest are maybe just either doing nothing or they're just busy with sort of Christian activity stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, there are some barriers to discipleship and making new disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here are just kind of to set the plate here a little fuller.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here are a few of the most common.
Caesar Kalinowski:People report, and I hear all these all the time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Lack of time, like I already mentioned.
Caesar Kalinowski:Many Christians don't feel like they have enough time to invest in discipleship, disciple making.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're busy with work, family, other commitments.
Caesar Kalinowski:Mm hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:So me, me, mine.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, a fear of rejection.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's huge.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some Christians are afraid of the rejection they might Receive if they try to engage people in disciple making who am I?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, maybe they won't receive it I couldn't bear them not liking me.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I won't try They're afraid of being judged or whatever Lack of skills.
Caesar Kalinowski:So some Christians just know they don't know how to disciple others May they may not be comfortable talking about their faith or they may not know how to help others grow in their faith or they Lack the confidence to do that and many lack feel like they have a lack of support They don't have the support they need from their own church or community to be successful in disciple making.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's real common.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's real common.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's probably why we have so many folks we coach and that we mentor.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because they're like, I'm not getting that type of support and skills.
Caesar Kalinowski:at home.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, I'm just about done with statistics, but you see where this is going.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is why I'm saying not all Christians are People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't just throw a lasso around them and think you're gonna have this vibrant missional community making loads and loads of disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, according to a 2019 survey by Lifeway Research, only 20% of evangelical Christians say that they were adequately and comprehensively discipled in their faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:20% would say they are.
Caesar Kalinowski:They were.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, you gotta take these numbers against the other numbers of just how many of the whole pie are even engaged.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now only 20% of Christians would say they were adamantly discipled.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, there are a number of reasons.
Caesar Kalinowski:For this too, why so few Christians feel like they were really adequately discipled.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, one reason is that discipleship's not been a priority in many churches.
Caesar Kalinowski:Churches often focus on evangelism and worship, but they neglect discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not telling you anything you don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm preaching the choir here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Another reason why so few Christians feel like they were really discipled is that discipleship's often done poorly.
Caesar Kalinowski:Many churches use ineffective old school methods of discipleship like lecture style teaching or they think the preaching alone will get that done?
Caesar Kalinowski:Preaching is not discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:adds to it, it complements it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a different gift.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a different thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or their church used a one size fits all program.
Caesar Kalinowski:There was lots of passing on of head knowledge without life on life working it out.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then finally, another reason why Christians don't feel like they've been discipled is, as I mentioned, is many Christians simply don't want to be discipled.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're content with their current level of faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're happy with having secured that afterlife upgrade
Caesar Kalinowski:ticket to heaven, and
Caesar Kalinowski:they don't see a need for further growth or commitment.
Caesar Kalinowski:Boy, all of that has huge implications.
Caesar Kalinowski:Ask yourself, how many Christians do you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or let me ask you, how many do you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or how many of the folks who go to your same church do you think are People of Peace?
Caesar Kalinowski:People who are actively leaning into discipleship relationships, either with you or others, and with not yet believers.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or, how many of those people at your church would be open to being in a Missional Community?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like a real Missional Community, like a family on mission with you, and both be discipled, and learn to make more disciples of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Given all of these statistics and where everybody's at, how many people in your church do you think really want to live that way?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're truly people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:20% of them?
Caesar Kalinowski:No way.
Caesar Kalinowski:10?
Caesar Kalinowski:5%?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, it's crazy.
Caesar Kalinowski:If only 20% of Christians say that they were actually adequately discipled, comprehensively discipled in the gospel, in the faith, and most of the Christians don't even understand what true discipleship is, so that number's probably less, well then, how are Christians and pastors who've never been fully discipled in light of the gospel, in every area life going to be effective disciple makers?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, that's why when looking for People of Peace, I always say, you don't want to discount the discipling of the saints.
Caesar Kalinowski:Most Christians have never been discipled.
Caesar Kalinowski:But again, remember, you can only disciple people of peace in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:If someone doesn't desire to spend the time to walk with you in the ways of Jesus and learn his words and his walk and all, you cannot disciple them.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, all of this really comes down to a gospel problem or a gospel issue.
Caesar Kalinowski:If our gospel is so small and it's primarily about getting out of hell and then sort of sin management and behavioral modification until we get to heaven, if it's that small and Jesus doesn't talk about it that way ever, then this is what it kind of leads to.
Caesar Kalinowski:But when we grasp both the power of the gospel that sets us free to be who God created us to be and the purpose of the gospel where he's filling the whole world with his glory through these image bearing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Family members now, us, powered by his spirit, and I talk deep about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I did a two part, uh, little mini series just several episodes back on both how and why God saves us, the power and the purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we don't fully understand that, go back and listen to that.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we don't fully understand that, this is what leaves us with like, well, I'm just kind of waiting for heaven and trying to sin less, and I don't really have time for this.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's what leads to the frustration of when you go, wow, I was trying to get all these people in our church on board and I can't, I can't even get the leadership on board, the elders.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm having a hard time finding one other family that lives anywhere near us from this church, our church, that wants to live like a family and give their lives to people and walk in the ways of Jesus and invite others to do that with us.
Caesar Kalinowski:I also want to say.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you don't, because remember, you can only disciple people of peace, and if you don't do that, you're going to get frustrated.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to get upset about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to give up on it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like I said, right at the beginning, people say, well, we tried that.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, the problem was you didn't have people of peace in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And maybe based on the statistics, maybe not also the skills and the support to do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So fair enough.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't just make it up.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you've never done something, seen it, experienced it, very hard to pass it on.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I also want to set you free in some things here.
Caesar Kalinowski:You will probably have to release certain relationships with people, people that you love, people that are great, people that are awesome Christians from your church, who are not open to being discipled and living on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because if not, you'll spend all your time in that holy huddle and you know, whenever it fits our schedule, we kind of get together.
Caesar Kalinowski:But we take the summers off and we We're studying, when we get together midweek in our small group, we're studying the sermon notes and just sort of regurgitating what we heard on Sunday.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it's like, you've got to release yourself.
Caesar Kalinowski:I want to release you now to give your best time to your people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:We still love everyone and, and we want them to get on board and we want them to live the calling God's given them on their life to be disciples who make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:But if they're not ready for that, or they're not your person of peace, you know, leaning into relationship with you and liking you and wanting to do life, then you've got to release them.
Caesar Kalinowski:Otherwise, you're just going to be stuck in a quagmire of people pleasing and lackluster movement forward and, and things like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not being evil.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not being weird there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oftentimes people say, yeah, but then who's going to love them or who's going to pull them for.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you'll make disciples of the people of peace, both believers and not yet believers in your life, you'll actually be creating mature believers who will serve as more and more yeast.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeast in that dough, just that'll help those other people.
Caesar Kalinowski:So those sort of content to go to church 1.
Caesar Kalinowski:3 times a month and do sin management and behavioral modification until heaven comes or Jesus gets back or you, you need more yeast in the dough.
Caesar Kalinowski:But right now you get to, you need to focus on the People of Peace in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:and know that most of the Christians in your church are not going to be People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's no way to put numbers on this, but from my experience, from Tina and I's experience in community, and with the hundreds of people, thousands probably, that we've coached in this lifestyle, most functioning, healthy missional communities are going to probably have about a seventy...
Caesar Kalinowski:75% not yet believers, sort of walking and starting to walk in the ways of Jesus and maybe 20, 25% or something like that, believers from their church involved in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that might be on the high end of the believer side of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It just seems that so many Christians were sort of brought into this whole thing through such a small, minimalized gospel about them and their happiness and, and their forgiveness and their peace and their happy afterlife that when you start to talk to them about giving their life away.
Caesar Kalinowski:To be a part of the purpose of the gospel that Jesus has come to send us to fill the world with his glory and what his father's like.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're just like, no, that's not what I signed up for.
Caesar Kalinowski:But some do.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're listening to this podcast, you're more than likely, that's you.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're living this way or you're growing in this or you're wanting to.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, but I just want to release you.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not forsaking anybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you don't just.
Caesar Kalinowski:Keep placating people who don't want to live this way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:You really can only disciple people who want it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay I think I said that clear enough now I've talked about People of Peace in the past, but I've never specifically talked to this degree about Christians and which ones are People of Peace and why is this such this way even from their own assessment in these surveys?
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, so Let me flesh this out even a little bit more in the big three today.
Caesar Kalinowski:I really thought through this I want to these are gonna be rich So here's the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can always get these as a printable PDF.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you just go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash big three forward slash big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's the big three for this week.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number one, God has absolutely placed people of peace in your life for you to disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:A hundred percent.
Caesar Kalinowski:Look for people who are leaning into a relationship with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:They want to hang out.
Caesar Kalinowski:And do more and more life together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Look for people that you have a natural chemistry with, people of peace who are looking to serve you and reach out to be with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not having to initiate everything.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they're interested in your faith and your lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're not put off by it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number two, this is really what we talked about the whole time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not everyone who claims to be a Christian is a person of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:7.
Caesar Kalinowski:21 to 23, Lord, Lord, you know, we did all this church stuff and ministry activity in your name.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then Jesus tells them, yeah, but I never knew you.
Caesar Kalinowski:That busyness was all about you doing things to look good to other Christians or feel like you earned my love and favor.
Caesar Kalinowski:Making disciples of Jesus is the only mission of the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:Christians who are not leaning into discipleship as a lifestyle and primary focus of their lives and churches are missing their calling.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they're certainly not living as people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:And number three, you can only disciple people who ultimately want to be discipled and in turn help disciple others.
Caesar Kalinowski:Otherwise, you're just trying to convince people something they don't, they haven't embraced you.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can only truly disciple people that trust you and want to be in your life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is imperative if you're serious about making disciples that you focus your best effort and time being with your people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you try and make everyone happy and move at the pace of those that don't truly want to live Jesus life today, you'll find yourself frustrated with your progress and frustrated with people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Small is big, slow is fast, and multiplication always wins.
Caesar Kalinowski:So give yourself a break, focus on your people of peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, that's enough for today.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope that that encourages you and challenges you and ultimately releases you in some ways that maybe you needed to hear today and experience today.
Caesar Kalinowski:Please join me next week.
Caesar Kalinowski:I have some really cool guests on the podcast with me, Dr.
Caesar Kalinowski:Kent Engel and Steve Saccone.
Caesar Kalinowski:They've written a really cool discipleship guide, almost like a playbook.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm really excited about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I can't say that about a lot of resources, but it's called Made for More.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to.
Caesar Kalinowski:they're gonna have them both on, and they're going to unpack a little bit about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:but they're also gonna take,
Caesar Kalinowski:It's kind of
Caesar Kalinowski:interesting how this worked out.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're going to take what we talked about today, a little bit further.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, really!
Caesar Kalinowski:Not necessarily from the People of Peace standpoint, but about who and why they True Christians actually do engage discipleship and they're brilliant.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're brilliant.
Caesar Kalinowski:I think you're going to love it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope you'll join me for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll talk to you soon.
Announcer:Thanks for joining us today.
Announcer:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit EverydayDisciple.
Announcer:com.
Announcer:And remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.