Missional Community: Have You Really Tried It?
Many churches think they’ve tried starting “missional communities” before, but they failed. Or they’ve given ‘micro-church’ a try, and that didn’t take off either. But actually… maybe they just exported religious activities!
This week on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we look at the difference between talking a good missional game and truly living in a community that is radically focused on discipleship as a lifestyle.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- One of the most common reasons that missional communities fail.
- Why our best intentions at living on mission often turn into new “law”.
- The difference between religion and the gospel of grace.
- How to get the help to make authentic missional living a reality.
From this episode:
“Often folks that say they’ve tried to start missional communities actually only tried decentralized religious activities. They lay out a list of what folks are supposed to DO when they get together (all of this quickly becomes and feels like LAW), and they wonder why no one is that into it… and especially their not-yet believing friends who really want very little to do with these supposed new religious activities.”
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:
Everyday Disciple MAKERS Coaching
Missio Publishing – Resources for Missional Living
In light of today’s topic, you might also find this helpful:
The First Time I Tried Starting a Missional Community I Failed
Transcript
Many Christian leaders think that they've tried this missional living before, but you know what, I want to say actually you haven't.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe you've only tried religion, like new religion and new due to be activities, but hung hipper language on it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, you know, often folks that say they have tried to start missional communities, actually what they did was they tried decentralized religious activities.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oftentimes mini church services.
Caesar Kalinowski:Once a week with strict time constraints applied, you know, like folks gotta get their kids home, you know, so anyway, they lay out a list of what folks are supposed to do when they get together, now make a missional, and then all this quickly becomes and feels like law.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then they wonder why no one's into it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And especially they're not yet believing friends who really want very little to do with these supposed new religious activities.
Heath Hollensbe: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.
Heath Hollensbe:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle.
Heath Hollensbe:This is the stuff your parents, pastors and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Heath Hollensbe:And now here's your host, Cesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey buddy.
Caesar Kalinowski:What's going on?
Caesar Kalinowski:How you doing?
Heath Hollensbe:I'm exhausted, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, what's up?
Caesar Kalinowski:What'd you do this weekend?
Heath Hollensbe:So I, uh, me, you know, we, we do family vacations, but we never do big ones.
Heath Hollensbe:Like we never do ones where we actually go out and spend a ton of money and we've just never really done that.
Heath Hollensbe:But we just got back from two days at Disney and two days at Universal Studios.
Heath Hollensbe:Oh, restful.
Heath Hollensbe:Super restful.
Heath Hollensbe:Five hours of sleep crammed in a hotel room.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh my goodness.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've done it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Tina, I've done it.
Caesar Kalinowski:We did that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then is it Universal?
Caesar Kalinowski:I think we did all that stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I think, I think we've done it multiple times.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'll be honest with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, and, uh, you know, listeners, you can weigh in on this, go, go to the Facebook group, but I'm not a huge, uh, theme park guy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Me neither.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I, and I think the thing behind the thing there is I'm, I'm selfish and lazy.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like I don't like standing in lines in disproportionate amount to the joy received from standing in that line.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know what I'm saying?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So stand in line for 20, 40, hour 40, whatever, and then going wee for like.
Caesar Kalinowski:Forty seconds or a minute and twelve or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:People sneezing coronavirus all over the rides and it's like, it's not worth it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I can't make fun of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um,
Caesar Kalinowski:but yeah, no, I, but, well, but you had fun, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, and I'm also looking for a third job.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, unless people want to Venmo me, I've got, I got some debt now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, no.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not a cheap
Caesar Kalinowski:trip.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, they're not.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, even if you get the super dealios.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, did you say Disney World or Disneyland?
Heath Hollensbe:Disneyland.
Heath Hollensbe:So we did the flights.
Heath Hollensbe:Anaheim.
Heath Hollensbe:Yep.
Heath Hollensbe:So two days there and then two days at Universal Studios.
Heath Hollensbe:I've been to both.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, they're both really cool.
Heath Hollensbe:Harry Potter world and all that.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, that's amazing.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, that's new, right?
Heath Hollensbe:Speaking of being missional, right?
Heath Hollensbe:Trying to be missional.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Um, we talk a lot about discipleship and missional living on this show a lot It's it's kind of our main jam.
Caesar Kalinowski:We talk about the gospel in all of life, which what then sends us out on mission
Heath Hollensbe:Yep, it's the natural flow and we often hear from leaders that say oh i've tried that missional thing or oh we tried it And they've actually maybe tried even starting missional communities before only to see a fail and they'll have excuses like well It just didn't work in our church.
Heath Hollensbe:Our people weren't really that into it or yeah I mean, what do you think is going on here?
Heath Hollensbe:Well,
Caesar Kalinowski:you're right.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've heard it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hear that probably every single day You know, right plenty articles and all that stuff, too Well, there might be a lot of different reasons for why a missional community doesn't work or grow or like whoo It's full of life Or why a particular church doesn't embrace that way of living and see it work for them.
Caesar Kalinowski:But one thing I've seen a lot is, and it's sort of a self fulfilling prophecy of inevitability, okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is, it's kind of like this situation.
Caesar Kalinowski:The leaders in the church are not seeing their people engaged in their Sunday service like they used to be.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're seeing their people show up, you know, one to two times per month for the service.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's kind of the national average now and they're seeing that too.
Caesar Kalinowski:They keep talking about the fact that discipleship's not really happening around here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Other people are not out making new disciples of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:So they get to this place where they throw up their hands in the air and they agree to give this missional community or micro church thing a try, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:They've read about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Someone on the staff or someone, anybody in the church has kind of been bugging them.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a sexy phrase for a while.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Trying to get them to read my book or whatever, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:But.
Caesar Kalinowski:But they don't really, the leaders don't really end up knowing much about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They don't get any training or help and their people know usually even less about how to actually do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They've not seen it modeled or whatever, how to be and make discipleship, you know, disciples and community, but they challenge their folks and task their best people.
Caesar Kalinowski:to start a missional community, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's get out there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the leaders themselves often don't engage this lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so not much happens naturally.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and then as it gets, you know, a few months into it and maybe the weather starting to go cold or whatever, too hot or whatever, or school season changes, it all starts to fizzle out.
Caesar Kalinowski:And no big surprise there really either.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you see the leaders and pastors now say.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, yeah, we tried that missional thing, you know, we tried that missional community way of making disciples, but it didn't work here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, you know, have you ever seen that yourself?
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, I, even the last church that I served on, um, it was that push of like, Hey, we, we think it's kind of a cool idea and, and it might work for people.
Heath Hollensbe:Uh, but one of the kickbacks I heard was from the, from the pastor of discipleship going, how am I supposed to control what everyone's missional communities are doing?
Heath Hollensbe:I'm just one person.
Heath Hollensbe:And you go, well, that's a C word.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:You're like, well, of course you're not going to do it because you're one person.
Heath Hollensbe:Well, plus the spirit of God is supposed to lead the church.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, exactly.
Heath Hollensbe:Right.
Heath Hollensbe:Not methods.
Heath Hollensbe:And yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:Oh yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:So, and I know some people might say like, it's an unfair sweeping, you know, like a sweeping brush, but I have seen a lot of churches that even you suggest ideas and they're like, oh yeah, we've done the missional thing.
Heath Hollensbe:It didn't work or.
Heath Hollensbe:You know, things along that line, which really are so frustrating.
Caesar Kalinowski:Mission doesn't work around here.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's kind of like saying.
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship doesn't work at our church.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, it really is wrong because either you don't understand the term, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah You know, which means missional just means like focused on disciple making like primarily boom, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:You know or you don't really believe that that the way god's gonna, you know Fill the world with his glory is through filling it with jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Exactly, you know, so then i'm like well That's not a church anymore.
Caesar Kalinowski:Then that's a religious institution of some form Yeah, so anyway, and I know all this paints a pretty Sort of broad picture of things, a little bit caricature ish, I don't, and I don't intend to make anyone who has tried this look dumb or ill intentioned.
Caesar Kalinowski:I really haven't.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:But what I'm trying to say is Like, maybe you haven't actually tried missional yet, you know what I mean?
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe, and you know, and because I've also seen a lot of pastors and leaders really give it a hard try.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, solid, and themselves too, and you know, their families, and they're in it for months.
Caesar Kalinowski:But they still come up short, you know, so don't, don't, don't take offense if this is you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm just saying maybe you actually haven't tried missional,
Heath Hollensbe:you know?
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, so like your opinion, like these people that have said that sort of stuff, like we've tried hard and whatever.
Heath Hollensbe:Where do you think they're missing the mark?
Heath Hollensbe:Like, what are they doing wrong?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, maybe, maybe what these awesome and well intentioned leaders have actually tried is just more religion and, and new do to be, and if you listen to the show, you know what I mean by that, like what you do equals who you are kind of activities, but, but with hipper language.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:You know?
Heath Hollensbe:Okay, so for those who might be newer to the show, we do talk about do to be quite a bit, uh, but maybe we can unpack that again, like what do you, what do you mean when you're saying, oh, they've just tried more religion and do to be activities?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, okay, so religion is man's attempts or our attempts to try and get closer to God.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what religion is, is us trying to get to God, make him happy, or earn a successful life from him, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like appease him or like, you know, you owe me, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's ritual and obligation.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's working hard to be.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:God's already says is true of you loved or, you know, like blessed, you know, sharing his authority, all that, or having something that God has already provided for us.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we're working hard, even though God says it's yours.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's finished.
Caesar Kalinowski:So the gospel is about God's completed work to draw near to us and draw us near to himself.
Caesar Kalinowski:And because of Christ's completed works, there's no doing needed for this to be true.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is true.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's finished.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus did it already.
Caesar Kalinowski:So attempts to do things because we're supposed to, or because that's what good or hipper Christians do, or as a last attempt to grow Jesus church for him.
Caesar Kalinowski:All of that is actually law and it's not grace.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, so often folks that say they've tried to start missional community actually tried decentralized religious activities.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oftentimes mini church services that meet once a week, but now in a home, but they have real strict time constraints applied.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, folks got to get their kids home and they lay out a list of what folks are supposed to do now to look more missional when they get together.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then all of this quickly becomes and feels like new law.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they wonder like, why is no one into this?
Caesar Kalinowski:I guess it just doesn't work here, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:And especially, they're not yet believing friends who they're somewhat trying to do this for, uh, who really don't want anything to do with these new religious activities.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, Steve, you can feel this Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:As I describe it?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:A group of friends and strangers from your church start getting together once a week, or maybe they already had a very self-focused small group, and now they start calling it a missional community.
Caesar Kalinowski:That sounds hipper.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they pretty much do what they had been doing before.
Caesar Kalinowski:or at Bible studies, but now because they're supposed to be missional, they add in a service project once in a while, maybe once or twice a year.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Which I've often heard people call, that's our mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, missions, making disciples, that's anyway.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then based on how well that all goes and how everybody's into it, how consistent attendance is at these weekly events.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if they're lost neighbors, quote unquote, join them for this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, then they feel successful or they feel like a failure.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're disappointed.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, they're tired of everyone's excuses, including the feeling that way themselves, and they know that you as their pastor or leaders are disappointed and they're pretty sure that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Therefore, since they're not liking it and they're disappointed, you're not liking it and disappointed, God must be disappointed with them too in their performance.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yikes.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so that's what I mean by due to be.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, they're trying to do something instead of be the, a people on mission and, and have their identity sort of speak into that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And
Heath Hollensbe:I would sort of here even encourage people to really stop and kind of Check what's going on in their heart because I've had many conversations like this with friends or even people that you know You're trying to train in disciple making and you'll bring up the do to be topic and they're like, yeah Maybe there's a little bit of that but not much and I go most of American at least Christianity is a lot of do to be it's still right harder work harder and so you might be thinking that doesn't really apply to me and I would say Pump the brakes a little bit.
Heath Hollensbe:I bet it actually is more ingrained in your identity than you would actually ever give it thought.
Heath Hollensbe:I think so.
Caesar Kalinowski:I think so.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because, because here's the thing, religion, with religion, my identity, like you're saying, and self worth are based mainly on how hard I work and how moral I am.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I must, you know, I end up looking down on those that I think aren't as moral or they seem lazier or whatever, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But see, the gospel truth is that our identity, my identity and self worth are centered on the one Jesus who died for me.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm saved by sheer grace and only by grace am I what I am and I can live out of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So a new list of activities to do in order to be missional and appear successful or to be a good Christian or a good leader or pastor or to be a good church, it's actually anti the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, do to be is the total perverting of the gospel back into law and it'll never work.
Caesar Kalinowski:or produce lasting joy and fruit in people's lives.
Caesar Kalinowski:So in this type of scenario, we as leaders, we may have unintentionally heap loads of new anti gospel missional activities on our leaders, ask them to do the same with their folks then, like go do what I'm doing to you with others, you know, and actually push them away from the truth and grace that's already theirs in Christ.
Caesar Kalinowski:But then we, but then we say we've tried being missional and it didn't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:Exactly.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's because, right back to what you're saying, Heath, because if we see life and, uh, I guess our religion as religion, and it's like what you do makes you a Christian, not what Christ did, you know, and, and all that, then of course, you're going to see it that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to say, well, we tried.
Caesar Kalinowski:being missional by what we did instead of no, no, it's an outflow of the gospel into all of our life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And one, and one, one more thing to add here, the term missional, while it gets thrown around a lot with different meanings applied is really about the one true mission that Jesus gave us, his family, okay, the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's, we've said it so many times on the show, that's making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Being missional is about a lifestyle of discipleship, not a set of programs and things we do and new religious activities to talk people into doing together weekly.
Caesar Kalinowski:So another aspect I see connected to this idea that many leaders say they've tried this missional thing Which would in fact be a huge discipleship focus sure But in reality what they were trying to do is close the back door on Sundays and grow their Sunday service back Like it was in the good old days, right?
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah,
Caesar Kalinowski:so like they kind of gave it the nod there again If we do this, maybe we can get people here.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's all doing doing doing to be right like they didn't and I've I've coached Many, many leaders and churches and consulted like crazy and church planning networks and all were like, yeah, we want to do this missional thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the thing behind the thing, the longer we got into it was so that we can fill back up Sunday.
Caesar Kalinowski:It wasn't so we can make disciples so we can experience the gospel in everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:See, that's not being missional.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's really what I mean by they've just tried more religion and do to be activities That's like the very epitome of it But they've not helped people see and apply and enjoy the good news gospel to more and more of their lives together in a community Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, that's
Heath Hollensbe:not what's going on.
Heath Hollensbe:So.
Heath Hollensbe:You know, what's crazy is I, I'm thinking about this and it hits close to home right now for me.
Heath Hollensbe:I literally, this morning, was having a conversation with a church that I'm working with who, same thing, church, uh, was huge a couple years ago.
Heath Hollensbe:I have seen Christendom hit them pretty hard and people are leaving.
Heath Hollensbe:They just spent six figures with a consultant to figure out how to redefine their mission statement.
Heath Hollensbe:Because they think that they've lost a little bit of a sense of Six figures.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, over a hundred thousand for them to develop a one paragraph mission statement.
Heath Hollensbe:To try to, like, put the band aid on.
Heath Hollensbe:Wow, I gotta get in
Caesar Kalinowski:that business.
Caesar Kalinowski:Me too, but I go, like, Just give everybody the same one.
Caesar Kalinowski:Go and make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:Everyone.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's so simple.
Heath Hollensbe:And you think that's gonna bring people back, but you gotta, you gotta come to the sense that, like, Christendom's happening.
Heath Hollensbe:We gotta, we gotta put our people and give them a missional impulse that says, like, no, this is meant to be outside the walls.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, take this out.
Caesar Kalinowski:What else do you think's going on here, besides this sort of do to be distortion we've talked about?
Caesar Kalinowski:What else do you think is keeping people Like not really getting not fully getting engaged before they kind of throw cold water on the thing.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, that's a great question I think it's a I think it's an over dependence on systems and not enough following the spirit is a huge thing You know, we talked about following the spirit quite a bit in word But when you're like no this let's actually try to live this out and day to day It's a lot It's a lot harder because the metrics don't know you can't forecast the metrics on that as well because that spirits wild right and
Caesar Kalinowski:we've we've Talked before to about leaders, you know, not engaging The mission themselves, but trying to send everybody else out to, and that's a big part of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Is a prime example last week about the elders, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:You had to listen
Heath Hollensbe:to 257, go back and listen to that one.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:You get, if you're still here listening, yeah, that was a strong episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:No kidding.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I, and I think, but I, and I feel that because they already feel like, man, I'm so crazy busy and all I hear from my people is how crazy busy I am.
Caesar Kalinowski:Am I willing to not, you know, am I willing to not do a whole bunch of stuff so that I can just be and be with people and.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, like I've said it a lot, like the kingdom of God expands at the speed of relationship and then the gospel moves along the lines of trust.
Caesar Kalinowski:That takes time.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so there again, and people say like, Oh, we tried that whole missional thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like a weekly meeting renamed a missional community where people aren't like even helped or trained to understand what does it look like to live out the gospel and apply it relationally.
Caesar Kalinowski:And guess what, if that don't start at your table and at your family level, then how are you going to do something with a whole bunch of people you barely know from church or a bunch of neighbors or, or not yet believing friends that are, but they're leaning into relationship.
Caesar Kalinowski:How are you going to, how are you going to do that and live that life of the gospel soaking into everything?
Caesar Kalinowski:How are you going to do that with people if you've never even done it yourself?
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I think it's not abusive, like to send people out to do it and then feel bad about it that it didn't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like what, you know?
Heath Hollensbe:Well, especially if you're not setting them up for success in the long, like if you're trying, if you're running a church.
Heath Hollensbe:And you've already got your people serving Sundays and Wednesdays and they're on worship team Thursday night practices And they're in a Bible study on Tuesdays, and then you try to add a whole missional thing on top of that like You're gonna, you're, you're setting them up for failure.
Heath Hollensbe:Like just exhaustion.
Heath Hollensbe:Here's the
Caesar Kalinowski:thing too.
Caesar Kalinowski:When you make discipleship feel like it's one more choice on a list of Christian activities that people can do.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well then you've basically said, well, you choose if you want to make disciples or not.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like you choose if you want to live out of the reality of your identity and Jesus call and command to go and make disciples because you can either do that or you can sing in the choir.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like they're on the same exact level at a kingdom level.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not, that's not a shot against choirs.
Caesar Kalinowski:I love choirs.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, um, You see what I'm saying?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Totally.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we often do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then by what we talk about in our sermons or teaching or preaching, uh, or whatever, we very clearly communicate what the priority around here is and the illustrations in our life fill up, like, what are we really all about?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if they're all just sports and some wacky thing our kids did, but they're not about life on life and life in community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And how we're learning to speak the good news to all the bad news that's happening.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's good, bad, funny, indifferent, all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Learning how to fight and forgive and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, then we're broadcasting something very loudly, aren't we?
Caesar Kalinowski:And people pick up on it.
Caesar Kalinowski:They go, well, this missional thing, this lifestyle of discipleship, I guess it's an optional thing because, you know, I said the prayer, I'm in.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I guess I can just wait around until Jesus gets back.
Heath Hollensbe:Well, you know, and I think too with the missional movement, anything missional, you have to be You have to be fairly intentional about it too.
Heath Hollensbe:I mean, it's, it's a constant awareness of
Caesar Kalinowski:highly intentional.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, like in your neighborhood.
Heath Hollensbe:When are my neighbors coming home?
Heath Hollensbe:What are they into?
Heath Hollensbe:What, what are they not into?
Heath Hollensbe:What's their rhythm?
Heath Hollensbe:And, and one of the things that I love that you're actually doing is you're actually coaching people that want to be intentional, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Mostly what I do is we help people live this life.
Caesar Kalinowski:We consult and coach and we don't get to do it with a whole ton of people because we give so much of our day and time, minutes, you know, and hours to this every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, yeah, we have this Everyday Disciplemakers coaching.
Caesar Kalinowski:We'll get to do, you know, private coaching and accountability.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like one on one consultations, pull a roadmap for folks together, and they're getting a whole lot of access to, uh, Tina and I.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, as a small group of people, and, and we're gonna be like, we train and teach, but we're really helping people transform their belief of their identity and their gospel fluency, and then learn how to fit that all into their everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And what I love about this,
Heath Hollensbe:it's not, this is not a, uh, a one size fits all shoot.
Heath Hollensbe:For everybody, like you're actually really intentional, which is part of your meeting with them, kind of getting a game plan, and I think next week we're actually going to have, uh, somebody on the show that you've worked with that develops disciples in, in a really unique, specific way, but what you've done is you've said What's your life consist of?
Heath Hollensbe:What about these activities?
Heath Hollensbe:Let's marry them.
Heath Hollensbe:Your
Caesar Kalinowski:passion is gonna drive that, and God's giving you those.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah, you're not just taking everyone through another resource manual that fits for everybody, like you're, this is very custom.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're here, if you're a leader, and you're listening to this of any sort, and by the way, you're all leaders.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some of you are being paid to be leaders.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some of you are at churches.
Caesar Kalinowski:doing the Bivo thing, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, and some of you are leading just quote unquote your families, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I want you to hear like, please don't pile a bunch of do to be stuff on others, but, but, but do the, do take the time and investment to actually learn a much bigger gospel, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Growing your gospel fluency.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'd love to help you do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then let the rings of that lifestyle change.
Caesar Kalinowski:Start to move out to like other folks in your church.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then now you're teaching from authentic, you know experience, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not just talking about what others need to go out and do and I want to help you do that I really do I if you want to learn more about how that works like or hop on a call with us Yeah, then you get to okay like if you go to everyday disciple comm forward slash coaching Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:And your browser, it'll take you to a page where it kind of explains the whole thing, asks you a few questions and you can sign up just to hop on a call with us and like, I'm not asking you to pull out a credit card or any of that kind of stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm just not, you know, I just want to see, Hey, can we help you?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can we help you help your people start to really live this instead of just saying, well, we tried it and it failed.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you know, there's, I feel like there's like three kinds of people.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's people that just go well.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, uh, yeah, we tried all that stuff, it's just not what our folks are into, and that's where they stop.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's, there's those that say, well, uh, we, we'd like to, but we're just too busy for it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, um, I, I think we're just gonna kinda try to guess our way through it, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, and, and, or it's too expensive, you know, I can't do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then there's those who will just choose to do nothing, which is actually a choice in itself.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're, you're absolutely right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Choosing to do nothing is really choosing
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, you know, I just want to say, unless your folks are ripping it up and you've got reproducible systems, please don't just stay there.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is too big.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is too important to why we exist and, and to God's glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I'd love to be able to help you with that.
Heath Hollensbe:Cool.
Heath Hollensbe:Yeah.
Heath Hollensbe:That's everydaydisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com forward slash coaching.
Heath Hollensbe:At least check it
Caesar Kalinowski:out and hop on a phone call with me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Heath Hollensbe:And let's just talk about it and I'll help you either way.
Heath Hollensbe:All right.
Heath Hollensbe:Sweet, man.
Heath Hollensbe:Hey, let's get to the big three.
Heath Hollensbe:As always, we want to leave you with the big three takeaways from today's show.
Heath Hollensbe:If nothing else, things we do not want you to miss.
Heath Hollensbe:Maybe, maybe you're driving and couldn't write this down.
Heath Hollensbe:So we're going to give it to you as a printable PDF for free.
Heath Hollensbe:I can't write.
Heath Hollensbe:If I go to everydaydisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com forward slash big three, Caesar, what'd you,
Caesar Kalinowski:what'd you come up with as a big three for this week?
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Real fast.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here we go.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, first experiencing the good news of the gospel in all of life is what discipleship's really about.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Regardless of what you want to call it, missional is not a dirty word or dead or something to fear.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:But new law and religion is, so don't, yeah, don't just do to be people and say, well, that didn't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:It won't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's that's religion's dead law, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Killed.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:So anyway, second thing don't miss religion teaches that my identity and self worth are based mainly on how hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:I work, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or how hard you work.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:But gospel truth is that your identity and self worth are centered on Jesus who already did everything that's required for you to live as a dearly loved redeemed son or daughter of God Okay, and helping others see and believe and experience that too.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a high privilege It's a high calling, and it's one that's never going to go away.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's never going to go out of vogue.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not, you know, it doesn't matter what we call it, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:No, you're right.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the third thing I'd say is, you know, get started growing in a deeper knowledge and experience of the gospel in everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like really, like as a leader, as a pastor, as, as a Christian, move the gospel out of the, Out of the church building.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yep.
Caesar Kalinowski:And be careful of how much missional activity quote unquote you try to do or prescribe to others until you've helped your people grow in their gospel identity.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've seen too many people like they'll hear us teach on like the daily rhythms of discipleship and then they like oh we're we're we totally ganked those we changed a few words but then we got everybody doing them and And then they burned out.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, don't do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:They have to grow in their gospel identity.
Caesar Kalinowski:First.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is where new motivations and rhythms start to naturally flow out of the gospel, out of our identity.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if your current version of missional community life is not feeling like a gift from God.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's something, you know, it's not feeling vibrant and growing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Get the help you need to change that today.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is too important to just nod our heads in agreement and keep doing the same religious activities.
Caesar Kalinowski:A life of great adventure and freedom that glorifies God awaits you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's amazing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Really.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like it's too big to just, well, yeah, you're right, but get the help you need.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so again, if nothing else, go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash coaching, check it all out.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm here to help you and I know I can, and God deserves that.
Caesar Kalinowski:God deserves the glory of us living this out in everyday life, not just, yeah, we tried it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It doesn't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, it will.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus
Caesar Kalinowski:promised.
Heath Hollensbe:Yep.
Heath Hollensbe:That's great, man.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath Hollensbe:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit EverydayDisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com.
Heath Hollensbe:And remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.