A Community of Welcome In a City of Loneliness
There’s an epidemic of loneliness and isolation in our cities today, whether they’re big or small. More people are living alone and wondering where they’ll find community and hope.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, Caesar is joined by disciple-maker and church planter, Gino Curcuruto. They discuss how the Church is in a perfect position to extend hospitality to people around us who are seeking guidance and care.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How even the government is alarmed at the amount of loneliness there is.
- Why the Church has been perfectly suited to combat this issue.
- How we are an extension of the welcome of God we have received.
- Ways we can “set the table” for others to find a family to belong to.
From this episode:
“We are those who have received the hospitality of God, the welcome of God. And we are the extension of the hospitality of God, the welcome of God to people. We’re perfectly positioned in so many ways to simply be the church and meet a need that the culture around us is crying out, saying, “Hey, we don’t know what to do about this epidemic of loneliness and isolation we feel.“
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Connect with Gino Curcuruto at The Table Philly
Help Set the Table for the new Brunch Church in Germantown
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living
Discipleship As a Lifestyle Workshop on-demand training
Transcript
But you don't know if someone's lonely because if they're in isolation, you might not even have proximity to them.
Gino Curcuruto:They might not put themselves in those situations, but it's just as devastating to their life and health, their wellness.
Gino Curcuruto:And I think that's tragic in so many ways because it can go unseen and it does.
Gino Curcuruto:It does.
Gino Curcuruto:So now in all
Caesar Kalinowski:their wisdom, the U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Surgeon General, they go, okay, so here's 40 pages on what we could do about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's pillar six.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cultivate a culture of connection.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says a culture of connection is vital to creating the changes needed in our society.
Caesar Kalinowski:While formal programs and policies can be in fact impactful, the informal practices of, here it is, I didn't make it up, everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Significantly influences social connection and it goes on and on and on and then it gets into a big list of what community based organizations can do.
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, Caesar Kalinowski.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, Hey, I hope you guys are good today.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm excited about this episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:I got a returning guest.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll tell you about him in just a minute.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to love today's conversation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Very, very cool.
Caesar Kalinowski:First, let me read a review that came in.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, this review came in from Tim C in Tennessee.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know who this is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he says, thank you, Caesar.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thank you for your heart and hard work producing the podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know it takes a lot more work than we listeners realize.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your teaching is always insightful, practical, and immediately useful.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:Awesome.
Caesar Kalinowski:You and Tina are dear family, and it's a privilege to be on mission with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know thousands of listeners feel the same way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow, really appreciate that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I really do.
Caesar Kalinowski:That was a review that came in from iTunes or Apple Podcasts or whatever they call it these days.
Caesar Kalinowski:And when you leave those kind of things and you leave some stars, you left five stars.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks again, Tim C.
Caesar Kalinowski:It really helps other people find podcasts that they're interested in.
Caesar Kalinowski:So thanks for doing that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Would you do that?
Caesar Kalinowski:If you've been a long time listener and have never left a review, would you do that?
Caesar Kalinowski:Wherever you listen to your podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:I also want to invite you to join us over on Facebook group.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash Facebook, or when you're tooling around Facebook, you can just search up Everyday Disciple Podcast and it'll come on in.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hope you'll do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we can talk about shows, episodes, the podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:We can talk about mission, of course, anything to do with disciple making, gospel fluency, all that stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:So hope you'll join us there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Alrighty, let me get right into it because my buddy Gino Curcuruto is back on today.
Caesar Kalinowski:You've heard him on the show a few times.
Caesar Kalinowski:Gino and his family are I guess church planners, I'm going to say really they're missionaries.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're a family of missionary servants, as we would say, living in Philadelphia, and they've started many communities on mission, making disciples in their neighborhoods and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they have something really cool that we've talked about that we'll talk a little bit about again today called Brunch Church.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a very, very cool thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so let me just welcome Gino to the show.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's one of my best pals over many, many years.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, Gino,
Gino Curcuruto:how you doing brother?
Gino Curcuruto:I'm doing great.
Gino Curcuruto:It is wonderful to be back on.
Gino Curcuruto:It's good to have a conversation with you again.
Gino Curcuruto:See, I'm looking forward to this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Always love it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just as before we sort of started recording, we were catching up a little bit and we talked about the fact that it's been almost a year since you and the whole fam damnly we're here visiting Team K and uh, We had primo weather and it was awesome.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:We are not having primo weather this year in Philadelphia or the Northeast.
Gino Curcuruto:It's way hotter.
Gino Curcuruto:So yeah, I miss that weather and miss you guys.
Gino Curcuruto:Global warming.
Gino Curcuruto:Global warming hasn't
Caesar Kalinowski:hit us, brother.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not yet.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, you guys are safe then.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not on the left coast here.
Caesar Kalinowski:So anyway.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, so, uh, the other day we were having a conversation and you mentioned a really cool, uh, thing that had.
Caesar Kalinowski:started to kind of pique your interest in a conversation that you were having in one of the neighborhoods there in Philadelphia, where you guys live and work and make disciples and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, um, it, it kind of started to lean into this topic of Uh, loneliness in our country and that there's kind of like an epidemic of loneliness and isolation and amidst all the violence, political divisions and polarization, people are at a really unhealthy level of loneliness.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, um, tell me a little bit about that and how you kind of got into that conversation yourself there locally.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah, I was with a bunch of, um, artists, non profit leaders, business leaders in a local meeting at a co working space that just opened up in my neighborhood, which was kind of a big thing that some kind of business like that would open up in our neighborhood.
Gino Curcuruto:And they, they started the conversation just talking about this idea, uh, I think it was, uh, Robert Putnam had come up with this, this term social capital.
Gino Curcuruto:And we watched this little video that talked about the re, that people don't have a lot of social capital.
Gino Curcuruto:So in impoverished neighborhoods like ours, How do we have more connections, relationships?
Gino Curcuruto:But then the conversation also turned to the reality that we're in a, we're in a loneliness epidemic.
Gino Curcuruto:And this report from the Surgeon General was shared and I started reading it afterwards.
Gino Curcuruto:But the meeting itself You sent me a link to that.
Gino Curcuruto:It's crazy.
Gino Curcuruto:It is crazy.
Gino Curcuruto:And we'll, we'll talk about it.
Gino Curcuruto:I'm sure in a second, but what, what happened there was I saw people from, uh, just a diverse group of people, socioeconomically, um, culturally, ethnically, racially, and we're all in this room and we're all affirming that, yeah, everyone's lonely.
Gino Curcuruto:It's like, we're all alone.
Gino Curcuruto:together in the same room or in the same city or on the same bus or same train.
Gino Curcuruto:And, and there was this desire to do something about it.
Gino Curcuruto:And it was thrown out to anyone to talk.
Gino Curcuruto:What, what do you guys, how do you guys, uh, address this or what do you think?
Gino Curcuruto:And there were some ideas and I just shared that what we've been doing for years with the table is set up.
Gino Curcuruto:tables of belonging for people to experience stories of Jesus, but also have interactions with other humans and sit knee to knee, shoulder to shoulder, share a meal.
Gino Curcuruto:And people were like, you do that?
Gino Curcuruto:That's amazing.
Gino Curcuruto:And I said, yep, we do.
Gino Curcuruto:And they said, would you do one here in this space?
Gino Curcuruto:And I said, I think we could try to do that.
Gino Curcuruto:That sounds great.
Gino Curcuruto:So we were invited in because of an actual need that everyone was addressing.
Gino Curcuruto:And, and for once in my life,
Caesar Kalinowski:sorry to cut you off by the way, that's not a room full of like pastors trying to figure out how to pump up their Sunday.
Caesar Kalinowski:These are all community leaders from all kinds of folds and crevices and cracks in the neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they're coming together because they love their people.
Caesar Kalinowski:They love their families.
Caesar Kalinowski:They love the neighborhood and they want to see people healthy and happy and
Gino Curcuruto:fulfilled.
Gino Curcuruto:Yes.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:And I thought it was, it's really interesting to be in a space where the church has answers to the problems.
Gino Curcuruto:Now, I think we know that in some ways, but to experience it in real time recently was just so encouraging and that people are thinking like we, we need to get around tables.
Gino Curcuruto:We need to have conversations.
Gino Curcuruto:We need to know our neighbors.
Gino Curcuruto:We need to bump up our social capital, but more than anything, we need to address loneliness.
Gino Curcuruto:And we just said, you A loneliness isn't our primary target here.
Gino Curcuruto:We're looking to make disciples.
Gino Curcuruto:I didn't necessarily tell them all of this, but I think, I think that loneliness overlaps with a need that the gospel has the answers for.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:It does.
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:It does.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's, that's a human heart condition.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's always existed, of course, but there again, let's just go back for a moment, a scary moment to that, that report, which was like years of work for the Surgeon General of the United States comes out with about this, what they call it, they call it an epidemic of loneliness and isolation.
Caesar Kalinowski:What's crazy.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you told me this was the last time the Surgeon General put out a ginormous report like this, like red alert, red alert was about what?
Caesar Kalinowski:Cigarette smoking.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, yeah, like, like, like there, you know, and we're, we're older guys.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so we can remember when everybody in the world smoked and they used to say, Oh, it's good for your health.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, and then say, sir, going, no, I don't think so.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then the surgeon general came out with, I don't know what a sixties or seventies going, no, it's killing everybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we can't afford this as a nation.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is killing everybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so they come out with this crazy report and it's got, oh my goodness.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, you know, it's.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's the Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just, just let that sink in.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me say that again.
Caesar Kalinowski:The Surgeon, U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Surgeon General's Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, that call, of course, for us, just rings the bell because we've been as, Church planters and pastors and missionaries.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've been singing that song from way back when, and not just Sunday morning for an hour or two, we're saying, no, no, no, this is how life works, how God's created us to be.
Caesar Kalinowski:What the church really looked like in, you know, first century.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so we're going, that's, that's gotta be center of the whole thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:That, that old, old statement of a community living together on God's mission is the primary organizing structure of the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not, it's not, Oh, by the way, join a small group.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you know, that way maybe every once in a while on a Wednesday or Thursday, you'll feel like you've got some friends that are connected to your church life.
Caesar Kalinowski:But here's, check this out.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's a couple of things it said.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, and it's long, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:But, and I'm not Mr.
Caesar Kalinowski:Statistics guy, but some of this kind of rocked me.
Caesar Kalinowski:The here's one says the percentage of Americans living alone has also increased decade to decade.
Caesar Kalinowski:In 1960, the single person households accounted for only 13 percent of all us households.
Caesar Kalinowski:In 1922, that number had more than doubled to 29 percent of all households.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's like, let's just say it's continuing North.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's two years later, 30 over 30 percent of households are single.
Caesar Kalinowski:person.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, that alone, I just like, it breaks my heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm that guy when I see somebody at a restaurant eating alone, and we do this.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're like, Hey, come on over.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it's like, maybe they're fine.
Caesar Kalinowski:They don't want to, but I'm like, Oh man, alone like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's everything.
Caesar Kalinowski:Every dinner is family dinner to us.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it's like, come on,
Gino Curcuruto:man.
Gino Curcuruto:Right.
Gino Curcuruto:Is that crazy?
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah, yeah, when you think about, there's obviously a lot of different contributing factors to that for sure, but when you just think about the simplicity of, there could be days, there are people that I've interacted with that say, I could go days without ever hearing someone say my name.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, even
Gino Curcuruto:being recognized as being existent.
Gino Curcuruto:So, so, like, singleness isn't necessarily the problem here, right?
Gino Curcuruto:But being alone is, and not having social connections, um, and the many different reasons why.
Gino Curcuruto:It is, it's so alarming that the Surgeon General said, We gotta get this out there and we gotta do something about it.
Gino Curcuruto:Here's another
Caesar Kalinowski:stat.
Caesar Kalinowski:Only 16 percent of Americans reported they felt very attached to their local community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oof.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a really low number for, we're jumping back X amount of years ago, and everybody was part of their neighborhood, part of the community, they were part of civic organizations, they were pulling the rope together, helping kids, helping the elderly, helping each other, you know, barn raising, I know that's a long time ago, but, but you know what I'm saying?
Caesar Kalinowski:It still happens.
Caesar Kalinowski:To say only 16 percent feel like very attached to their community and then, and I'm not going to go much deeper, but check this one out.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is, and this, this was Stark and they made a huge graph of this, folks can't see it, but you can Google this real easy.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll find this report.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says, um, lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day.
Caesar Kalinowski:That is shocking.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, alarming, but shocking too.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then they went, they added to the list, or, Lacking social connection is as dangerous as drinking six alcoholic beverages daily.
Caesar Kalinowski:So imagine people who are drinking six drinks every day.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the people who live in isolation, it, yeah, it's the same as far as on their, just how it tears them apart.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's the, it's just as bad as obesity and air pollution and all the other things that people get freaked out about.
Caesar Kalinowski:Can you believe that?
Caesar Kalinowski:And this is a heavy duty study.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know?
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:I mean, if we saw someone that was drinking 15 cigarettes a day and was, uh, I'm sorry.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:Drinking.
Gino Curcuruto:That's, that's not, I I'm conflating both cigarettes.
Gino Curcuruto:There's a problem.
Gino Curcuruto:That's really bad.
Gino Curcuruto:I think that's worse than loneliness.
Gino Curcuruto:If they're drinking six drinks a day or having 15 cigarettes, you might out of concern, say something or befriend them.
Gino Curcuruto:Maybe put an arm around them a little bit.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah, but the, but, but you don't know if someone's lonely because if they're, they're in isolation, you might not even have proximity to them.
Gino Curcuruto:They might not put themselves in those situations or, or, but it's just as, as devastating to their life and health, their wellness.
Gino Curcuruto:And I think that's, I just think that's, that's tragic in so many ways because it can go unseen and it does.
Gino Curcuruto:It does.
Gino Curcuruto:And so, so
Caesar Kalinowski:now in all their wisdom, the U.
Caesar Kalinowski:S.
Caesar Kalinowski:Surgeon General, they go, okay, so that here's like 40 hundred, you know, here's 40 pages on what we could do about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's pillar six.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cultivate a culture of connection.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says a culture of connection is vital to creating the changes needed in our society.
Caesar Kalinowski:While formal programs and policies can be in fact, impactful.
Caesar Kalinowski:The informal practices of, here it is, I didn't make it up, everyday life, significantly influence social connection, and it goes on and on and on.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then it gets into a big list of what community based organizations can do.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you go, okay, this will speak directly to the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it says community based organizations include, but aren't limited to, membership based organizations, so like a club, you know, you'd join.
Caesar Kalinowski:Civic groups, arts and education groups.
Caesar Kalinowski:Faith based organizations, service providers, youth led organizations.
Caesar Kalinowski:It goes on and on and on.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they're saying, create opportunities and spaces for inclusive social connection.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what you guys can start doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, it's not just handing out food.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not just having basketball, you know, nights.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not just, uh, working on this, uh, you know, this art thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to have an art walk.
Caesar Kalinowski:All those things are great.
Caesar Kalinowski:But it's like, create opportunities and spaces.
Caesar Kalinowski:Predictable patterns for inclusive social connection, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:And foster positive, safe relationships among individuals, and this is key, of different ages, backgrounds, viewpoints, and life experiences.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, it's not just gather up a bunch of people who are exactly the same as each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:They need this.
Caesar Kalinowski:They need this social interaction.
Caesar Kalinowski:How we get along.
Caesar Kalinowski:Think about the division right now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just politically.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's just one little divide.
Caesar Kalinowski:Boo!
Caesar Kalinowski:Crazy!
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh my gosh!
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and anybody who's got a slightly different viewpoint on something and, you know, like real sugar, not cane sugar, not in the sweet and low, don't use it, whatever, you know, they're freaking out at each other, you know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Meat, no meat, vegan, don't, you know, it's like, they say, no, we need connection, but we need the diversity of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you need to be able to feel safe to be yourself, to be that way, you know, it's okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:But we really, really need it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so obviously we're all high fiving that, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Gino Curcuruto:I think that, um, this just like where is where the rubber meets the road.
Gino Curcuruto:If you have any kind of theological leanings to think about the hospitality of God, The hospitality of God in demonstrating love and welcome to people who are on the outside, who are lonely, maybe even didn't know it, didn't, once weren't a people and now you are a people.
Gino Curcuruto:And it's demonstrated in the person of Jesus who literally takes on flesh, moves into the neighborhood to demonstrate what God is like, because we can't just take his word for it.
Gino Curcuruto:We've got to see it, you know, and that's, that's okay in a sense, but God does that.
Gino Curcuruto:eats with people.
Gino Curcuruto:He welcomes them.
Gino Curcuruto:And he gets, just like you said, see, he gets the, he gets the, the polarized factions together, not only in his own group of people, but at every table, it seems like he goes to throughout the gospel of Luke.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:And, and then, and then, you know, I'll skip forward a little bit.
Gino Curcuruto:I think many of your listeners are going to know the story, but we are those who have received the hospitality of God, the welcome of God.
Gino Curcuruto:And we are the extension of the hospitality of God, the welcome of God.
Gino Curcuruto:to people.
Gino Curcuruto:, we're perfectly positioned in so many ways to simply be the church and meet a need that the cultures around us are crying out, Hey, we don't know what to do with this.
Gino Curcuruto:Exactly.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and there again, like coming straight out of that report, they're not saying, hey, here's what people need, and it's all this programmatic stuff.
Gino Curcuruto:Yes.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's, it's, it's, it's places of people.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I, you know, we like, we'll say, well, the church is a place.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yes, it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:How diverse is it?
Caesar Kalinowski:And how much, how much talking, how much inclusion, how much discussing, you know what I mean?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it, is it, is it?
Caesar Kalinowski:embedded in the rhythms of your local where I walked and hang out and go and I don't have to drive somewhere because I don't even have a car or, you know what I mean?
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's like, well, who doesn't have a car?
Caesar Kalinowski:Listen, my own sister, you know what I mean?
Caesar Kalinowski:Where she lives back where we're from and like, and half the time she doesn't have one, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I was just working out a ride to the airport for her yesterday and she lives in Chicago area, but I live in Seattle.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's like, Oh my God, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, yeah, I mean, this, I love this and, and, you know, what's ringing in the back of my noggin is sometimes, you've heard this, I know you have, Christians will say, well, we really care and we give to everything.
Caesar Kalinowski:We just don't know what we could do locally.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, I don't know if there's not that much need around us.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, well, like, you don't like where I live, you know, you've like, we were just talking about, you've visited.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's not, there's no homeless people hanging around my neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's just not now in the city that I live in.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sure.
Caesar Kalinowski:Tacoma next door where we lived in for years and years and years.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's a lot more.
Caesar Kalinowski:However, Even if you don't, that, those stats, that loneliness, that isolation, that's everywhere.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'll, I'll tell you a quick little story.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's a guy that lives kitty corner from us, across the street, who's very, very elderly.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he started dropping us messages on Facebook, and then he got Tina's phone number somehow, cause she's on the HOA board, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:And started texting her random stuff, and he's very, very old.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we could tell.
Caesar Kalinowski:The very, the very definition of the term leaning in, this guy's looking for an invite over.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so we, we, you know, we invite him over for dinner and I don't know how many weeks ago is finally, finally had him over and, uh, Oh, he brought over all this stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he told us all his stories and he does have a, another old buck living in his house.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's like, 4, 000 square foot or whatever, you know, and, but he's very, very, very alone.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's right here in this neighborhood, full of people, full of kids.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I could go, I could just, I can look out my window right now in my office at my neighborhood, and I can think, Oh, those people aren't married.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a single guy.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he's got a room, you know, there is.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is something that everybody listening to this could say, I could help.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, is everybody going to like go out and rent a space and do some of the things that you guys do?
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Probably, probably not, but they could, they get to.
Caesar Kalinowski:They sure
Gino Curcuruto:could.
Caesar Kalinowski:Real quick, tell us just a little bit about, so you're in this neighborhood now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it's going to jump back to the beginning of the story.
Caesar Kalinowski:And all these, these leaders are talking about this and you tell them a little bit about what's going on with Brunch Church and they go, Hey.
Caesar Kalinowski:Could we get one of those here in this, this co, uh, working space?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, and you're looking around going, I bet we could tell us a little bit more about the rest of the story and even what that specifically looks like for folks.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, what do you guys do?
Caesar Kalinowski:So, and did that get started yet?
Gino Curcuruto:It'll get started in about three weeks.
Gino Curcuruto:We took a couple of, we took a month just to kind of pray and discern as a community to say like, Hey, this is, this is an opportunity for us.
Gino Curcuruto:And we did a COVID coming out of COVID, we have had harder time getting space in places that is, that is the right space for this.
Gino Curcuruto:Um, so this was an opportunity and we didn't want to just jump at it because it's an opportunity.
Gino Curcuruto:Also there's financial costs and we're a small, smaller church.
Gino Curcuruto:So to do that, we have to discern these things, but, um, it looked like finding, you know, do they have a space that would work and they do.
Gino Curcuruto:And so what do you need a space
Caesar Kalinowski:to look like for instance?
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah, that's a great question.
Gino Curcuruto:So we, we like the idea of having room for about third up to 30 to 40 people.
Gino Curcuruto:I find that more than that.
Gino Curcuruto:And it becomes harder to have conversations, any kind of joint conversation, or even individual conversations that go deep.
Gino Curcuruto:So we usually want like one big meeting.
Gino Curcuruto:set of like long eight foot tables, you know, together, do it that way.
Gino Curcuruto:Or we'll do circular tables with eight people and a couple of those, you know, a few of those.
Gino Curcuruto:And then we, we usually just, we'll, we'll do some of the practices of the church.
Gino Curcuruto:We might share some, some songs.
Gino Curcuruto:We'll, we'll, you know, pray over the meal.
Gino Curcuruto:We bring, we provide the food.
Gino Curcuruto:And then if people, as people come, they all want to participate.
Gino Curcuruto:That's just what we found every time, regardless of where they are, people living in transitioning, transitional housing situations, coming out of addiction or, or people that are like here for, for university or, you know, their career or whatever, like a whole diverse group of people, everyone wants to bring something once they feel like they're a part of it.
Gino Curcuruto:And they get to, we, we make that available.
Gino Curcuruto:We just kind of.
Gino Curcuruto:Um, you know, seed the, the offering a little bit by making sure there's going to be something there.
Gino Curcuruto:And then, uh.
Gino Curcuruto:And that's a key point though.
Gino Curcuruto:Sorry to
Caesar Kalinowski:jump in on you there, Gino.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a key point because as people are hearing this, they're like, okay, so what's that cost to feed 40 people?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, listen, you're seeding it at the beginning, but eventually a community, a family starts to want to, and they will help out.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've seen that over and over and over in Missional Community Life, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:I know you have too.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, there's a little bit of, you got to get that ball sort of started, uh, and, and some people, the way they were raised or just the way they are, you know, like anytime anybody says, Hey, yeah, we'll come over, I guess.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, what can we bring?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, don't bring anything.
Caesar Kalinowski:You just come.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it's like, we always say, Don't do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not good.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let people, they want to contribute.
Caesar Kalinowski:They want to be a part of things.
Gino Curcuruto:Yes.
Gino Curcuruto:I mean, we, we, um, we're known for the, our family, we make quiche.
Gino Curcuruto:We make about four or five quiche every time all, all six of team C here knows how to do that.
Gino Curcuruto:We have an assembly line.
Gino Curcuruto:It doesn't cost us a lot of money.
Gino Curcuruto:But we know that in a kish, you're going to have most of the things to have a decent breakfast and you're going to be okay.
Gino Curcuruto:And we'll, and we'll provide coffee.
Gino Curcuruto:And then, um, the rest of the people, we encourage them to participate in some way.
Gino Curcuruto:And then those who are initially our guests, they catch on.
Gino Curcuruto:It's part of our, all of our discipleship.
Gino Curcuruto:It's an opportunity.
Gino Curcuruto:to disciple the Christians, the not yet believers into how to be a solid community that cares for one another.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, so you're, let's just say we're like, we're a few months into this, folks are starting to bring stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're starting, you know, the guard's coming down a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is another thing I bet starts happening.
Caesar Kalinowski:People who dig it are starting to bring a friend, you know, because they're sharing the good news.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this is like a bright spot in their world.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this isn't the only thing you guys do.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is a right, a part of the rhythms of your church's life.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know that's like, Hey, check the box.
Caesar Kalinowski:They came, you know?
Caesar Kalinowski:So what like, just cause I know people are probably wondering what, what's the spiritual componentries.
Caesar Kalinowski:feel like, sound like, taste like in something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause that's pretty, you know, that's pretty different than I came to a church building with a staple and a cross on top and someone handed me, you know, a program and I sat in rows and the organ was going, you know, what's the spiritual componentry?
Caesar Kalinowski:And I think it's all spiritual.
Caesar Kalinowski:So don't, you know, my heart.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah, no, I, I hear what you're saying.
Gino Curcuruto:I think that's good.
Gino Curcuruto:We've, we've done different things in different contexts and, um, because we never want it to feel like it was just Oh, we got the Jesus statement into the meeting.
Gino Curcuruto:You know, um, we said a couple of words about Jesus and therefore we're good.
Gino Curcuruto:You know, everyone, everyone can go home and be blessed, which, you know, that, that might, that might be effective.
Gino Curcuruto:I just think our aim for this is relationship.
Gino Curcuruto:So we're going to have conversations about Jesus, about the scriptures or about what it looks like to follow Jesus and community, in community relationally.
Gino Curcuruto:So there might be someone who will start a conversation, read a portion of a gospel, and then we'll have questions that are not yes or no questions.
Gino Curcuruto:And we have like, we call them table hosts that kind of sit at the tables and, and ask, try to get people to interact.
Gino Curcuruto:And, and, and we've never had a problem with people interacting because the questions are about, how are you responding and reflecting to the words of Jesus?
Gino Curcuruto:And something that, that I think in my, I was, I was a little surprised by this.
Gino Curcuruto:I shouldn't be surprised, but I just admit that I am, that people are fine to talk about Jesus.
Gino Curcuruto:They want to talk about Jesus.
Gino Curcuruto:They don't want to talk about church because church is a loaded word and I'm not against the church.
Gino Curcuruto:The church is the hope of the world as far as I'm concerned, but it, we're church planners.
Gino Curcuruto:Come on, man.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:But culturally that word is loaded.
Gino Curcuruto:Jesus is intriguing.
Gino Curcuruto:He's controversial in the best kinds of ways.
Gino Curcuruto:And when you read a story in the gospels, people respond.
Gino Curcuruto:They don't just sit there and go, yeah, I have no comment.
Gino Curcuruto:That's just never happens.
Caesar Kalinowski:My experience is exactly the same.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and why would they even want to, it's as simple as something like this in our experience.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, Hey, you know, uh, we think Jesus like lived the best human life ever.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like he really did.
Caesar Kalinowski:And part of why we follow Jesus in his life.
Caesar Kalinowski:is that we, we want to live that life and God, that's God's desire.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's why Jesus came.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, uh, as we have these meals together, we're going to be looking at Jesus life and seeing how does it speak into our life?
Caesar Kalinowski:And what was God's design for that?
Caesar Kalinowski:And is that good for us too?
Caesar Kalinowski:What do you think?
Caesar Kalinowski:And everybody's like, yeah, I'd love an upgrade.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I think Jesus did have probably the best life.
Caesar Kalinowski:He's the guy, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Most people would not argue with that unless, you know, they're an atheist or something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:They probably don't.
Caesar Kalinowski:But yeah, wow.
Gino Curcuruto:I'm not, I don't have the time right now.
Gino Curcuruto:I've got a friend.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:I've got a friend that has said like, just from watching the way that our, our lives live, he's like, Hey, I'm not really interested in Jesus, but I sure would like the benefits of knowing him and being known by him.
Gino Curcuruto:And I mean, even that is a response, right?
Gino Curcuruto:It's like saying, I'm not sure that I believe this whole thing, but I can't deny That something happens among your community that has caused me to stop and take interest and notice.
Gino Curcuruto:And I'm, I'm interested in talking about that.
Gino Curcuruto:That's yeah, that's a relational beginner.
Gino Curcuruto:That's a relational start there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And unfortunately that's where so much of the church in the last hundred years has actually stopped.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, Hey, it's all about me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, that's where everybody starts.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, Oh, why am I buying a new car?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, cause it's going to serve your neighbors.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, no, I just want to know if it'll get me to work.
Caesar Kalinowski:And my kids, like I can buckle them all in safely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:So no, to me, that's great.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a very honest starting place.
Gino Curcuruto:Yes.
Gino Curcuruto:It's not about God's glory yet,
Caesar Kalinowski:but that's most of the church
Gino Curcuruto:yet, unfortunately.
Gino Curcuruto:True.
Gino Curcuruto:And so we will, so like for, for just a view of what this looks like, it'll, that meal and that conversation will then be wrapped up with, we usually do a toast.
Gino Curcuruto:Which is kind of like a, a nod to the Eucharist, to communion, of kind of like just making a toast that all of us are here for whatever reason, but we celebrate that there's one that's brought us together.
Gino Curcuruto:We think that was Jesus, you know, and people are like, yeah, to Jesus, you know, from wherever they are.
Gino Curcuruto:And the, the effect that we've seen repeatedly from doing these once a month, twice a month, whatever, you know, we, we find to be the good rhythm for that, that context is that there are people that as, as I've learned to say from you, they lean in a little bit more, they're like, this is good, I want, I want to go deeper and they ask questions, like I've literally been asked, what does it look like to follow Jesus?
Gino Curcuruto:Like what, how do you guys do that?
Gino Curcuruto:And we talk about, well, there's other spaces that we, we, we mark out to gather and to scatter, to develop these rhythms of life together as disciples.
Gino Curcuruto:And people want to jump into that.
Gino Curcuruto:So Brunch Church for us is.
Gino Curcuruto:is a space in the whole grand scheme of being the church.
Gino Curcuruto:It's not the only expression.
Gino Curcuruto:It's one of many.
Gino Curcuruto:Um, we, we identify three, but there's many different ways that that could look.
Gino Curcuruto:We think that there's a space for those who have committed to following Jesus.
Gino Curcuruto:There's spaces for all, for us to be among our neighbors and friends that are kind of leaning in.
Gino Curcuruto:And then there's just more public spaces where we're just doing whatever it is that we do in our lives, going to work and all of those things.
Gino Curcuruto:And just.
Gino Curcuruto:building relationships there.
Gino Curcuruto:And so when we inhabit those spaces with gospel intentionality, we find that people want to participate and follow in learning those same spaces with the same intentionality.
Gino Curcuruto:It's beautiful.
Gino Curcuruto:It's
Caesar Kalinowski:simple.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and, and maybe that sounds scary to folks like, Oh, put on something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know who would come.
Caesar Kalinowski:No one will talk.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, really?
Caesar Kalinowski:I just can, can we loan you some faith?
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Really hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's an epidemic of loneliness and isolation right now.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I love too that there's a freedom in your heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I know you guys, you and Jill very, very well.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's a freedom in your heart to say, Oh, it's, it's gotta be every week.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's gotta be like, you're not clown car ing this thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then people listening to the podcast know what I mean by the clown car is.
Caesar Kalinowski:you know, you've ever been to a circus, a little car shows up in the center ring, it's really dinky, uh, uh, a horn comes and it's like this, this clown folds out of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're like, how did he fit in there?
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, just wait.
Caesar Kalinowski:Another guy folds out.
Caesar Kalinowski:By the end of it, there was 12 clowns in there, you know, how did they get that all jammed in there?
Caesar Kalinowski:And the church has spent, you know, decades jamming all of our spiritual life into an hour and a half.
Caesar Kalinowski:I call it the clown car experience, you know, and you're saying, no, there's, this is, this is, this is, A rhythm of our family, of our community, and, and people then who lean in and get interested, well, they're coming over for dinners or we go like, Hey, we're going to be doing a book study on this.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're getting into the Bible over here.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, there's a serving opportunity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, I care about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, come serve with us.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's all those things add up to a life in Christ.
Caesar Kalinowski:When they say, Hey, I want, what does it look like to follow Jesus?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not just sit in a circle and look at his, you know, at the Bible that Jesus never saw once in his life.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's not just that once a week, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:So I love that you guys have that freedom and maybe we do it monthly.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe we do it every other week.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just, what's the community vibe right now?
Caesar Kalinowski:What's it need?
Caesar Kalinowski:What serves?
Caesar Kalinowski:Man, that's so good, brother.
Gino Curcuruto:That's so good.
Gino Curcuruto:It's really helpful because also, you know, just relationally, if we're, if we're talking about how this interacts with people's experience of loneliness and we're, we're seeing discipleship as relationship, then people are going to, um, take different time.
Gino Curcuruto:in what they want to lean into.
Gino Curcuruto:I think discipleship happens at the speed of relationship.
Gino Curcuruto:I've heard you say that, um, and I've said it a lot of times, not always citing you.
Gino Curcuruto:So I want to properly cite you as the source of that quote.
Gino Curcuruto:Um, but I think that what, what happens is that people can come to a once a month brunch church for relationally what they're comfortable with.
Gino Curcuruto:It doesn't mean that they.
Gino Curcuruto:they're not interested.
Gino Curcuruto:It might be a very big step out of their isolation and loneliness to do that.
Gino Curcuruto:And, and I don't, we don't know that.
Gino Curcuruto:So we don't, we don't try to fast track everyone into the kingdom.
Gino Curcuruto:It doesn't work that way.
Gino Curcuruto:It has to go through the speed of relationships.
Gino Curcuruto:So we have multiple opportunities for people to, to dig into relationship with us and with Jesus.
Gino Curcuruto:And in, in some ways they have to figure out the pace for that on ramp that they're going to go on that on ramp.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, I want to do something we've never done before here on the Everyday Disciple Podcast is I want to invite people to help us help you guys really there in Philly set more tables, set more spaces at the table.
Caesar Kalinowski:So this, this new brunch church in this coworking space that you guys are going to be starting in a few weeks, um, that's, is that in Germantown?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, it's in the Germantown neighborhood of Northwest Philly.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, that's that if you live anywhere near there, you'll know what that is.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:I haven't specifically been to that thing, but I want to invite our listeners to participate in this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause you told me, you said, you know, see, it's, it's only like 500.
Caesar Kalinowski:a month to cover all of the startup and kind of ongoing seeding of that and cover sort of some of the expenses for the space and table and chairs and all that stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm like, yeah, wow.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and really it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I know, see, I know what that's going to lead to.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know all the other things that's going to jump into and like basically a new church plant is going to spring out of this.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, I want to invite our listeners to help us do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I want to, I want to invite them to help us hit that 500 number.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe there's people listening and say, I would give towards that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And maybe they're thinking, I want to start one.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, listen, then contact Gino at the table.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll find them.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll put his information in the show notes on our site.
Caesar Kalinowski:But, but in the meantime.
Caesar Kalinowski:Would you help us hit that 500 mark?
Caesar Kalinowski:Tina and I are giving to the Table Network and we want to see more and more and more of these do this as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I want to invite you to do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you've got 5 or 10 bucks, great.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some of you might say, I think we could give more than that.
Caesar Kalinowski:There might be someone listening that says, I could cover that 500 a month.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, for like the first year, uh, as long as I can do it monthly, I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're not, you know, we don't do this, so I'm not pushing hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not, but wait, you know, there's more, you know, I'm not doing that, but I do want to invite you to do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Tell, tell us a little bit of, of what, what
Gino Curcuruto:that
Caesar Kalinowski:might
Gino Curcuruto:look
Caesar Kalinowski:like,
Gino Curcuruto:Gino.
Gino Curcuruto:Yeah.
Gino Curcuruto:I mean, that's just really gracious of you brother to, to just that.
Gino Curcuruto:I put that ask out there and for your audience to consider that, like we, we're really serious about wanting to address this.
Gino Curcuruto:this issue of loneliness, but, but more with a, with the intention of seeing new relationships with Jesus occur.
Gino Curcuruto:And so if this is an opportunity, we'll, we'll take advantage of it.
Gino Curcuruto:This, this idea came, not because we said, Oh, there's a loneliness epidemic.
Gino Curcuruto:I want to be clear, right?
Gino Curcuruto:And we need to fix loneliness.
Gino Curcuruto:It came from us listening to neighbors and saying, How do they build relationships with people so that they might come to know Jesus?
Gino Curcuruto:And Brunch Church was what developed missiologically, if you will, rather than just like, Hey, here's another pain point that we can try to come up with a program for.
Gino Curcuruto:And so, We, we would love to see brunch church as something we kind of stumbled into and seeing as effective for church to build relationships.
Gino Curcuruto:We'd love to see that all over the country, all over the world.
Gino Curcuruto:People, I'm happy to help people if that would be of help to say like, here's what we do.
Gino Curcuruto:It's really simple.
Gino Curcuruto:Um, but there are real costs to it and we get those, those seem to be for us.
Gino Curcuruto:Oftentimes the stumbling block is that we, we can't get into the right space cause we don't have the money.
Gino Curcuruto:So.
Gino Curcuruto:Any, any help will help us make this a sustainable time for people to come in, check out Jesus, and learn about what he's doing in the world.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm just breaking this down a little bit in my head.
Caesar Kalinowski:If 20 of us could give 25 a month.
Caesar Kalinowski:for the next 12 months, let's say, uh, that would cover that.
Caesar Kalinowski:That there it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's 500 bucks.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's 6, 000 for the year, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:20 folks.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now we got thousands of people listening to this podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:If 20 all at least could say, I'll do 25 bucks for a year, like a month, you know, I, I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not pushing, but I I'm inviting.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, yeah, we, we put a little special link to make this easy, uh, to be able to do this.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash tables, Everyday Disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash tables, plural.
Caesar Kalinowski:That'll take you right to the giving page for the Table Network Philly, but it'll specifically to be able to give to the starting of this new brunch church in Germantown.
Caesar Kalinowski:Wouldn't it be cool?
Caesar Kalinowski:And I will have Gino back on.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we hit this, I'll have him back on and we're going to celebrate.
Caesar Kalinowski:It'll be like a special episode and we're going to celebrate.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, it's covered.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, so there's no stress for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, just go and love people, invite them to a place at dad's table.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, I, we say that on the show, like when we're, when we're his kids, when we're his family and we open up more spaces, the table, it's like God himself is setting the table.
Caesar Kalinowski:So help us set the table here in Germantown.
Caesar Kalinowski:I would love to hear this.
Caesar Kalinowski:This would, oh, I would love this.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, the podcast is free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some of you have been listening for the whole seven years.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not asking you to send me cash, uh, you know, but let, let's help set the table for more and more people to be able to know Jesus and walk with him and get set free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, I'd love it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah,
Gino Curcuruto:I'd love, I'd love to be able to tell people the stories.
Gino Curcuruto:I mean, and I'll come back regardless, cause we're doing this, we're committed to it.
Gino Curcuruto:We're trusting God in this and we'd love.
Gino Curcuruto:for people's partnership and, and support where we want to come back and tell you more stories because we got lots of them from the past, but we want some new ones.
Gino Curcuruto:Here's the new
Caesar Kalinowski:ones.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're coming.
Caesar Kalinowski:You get to be a part of that listeners.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, real quick, Gino, because we've run a little bit long.
Caesar Kalinowski:I get excited and I start going.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's, let's wrap up with the big three, which is our big three takeaways from every episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:We always do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then we print those up, put them on a PDF.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can get a printable PDF of the big three for this week or really any week, uh, any episode of the show by going to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash big three, B I G three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Gino, real quick, let's just talk through them.
Caesar Kalinowski:I kind of like to outline these in my own mind, like head, heart, hands.
Caesar Kalinowski:What do we want people to like know and take away?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like the big summary of this, what do they, what do they need to know and remember?
Gino Curcuruto:I think they need to know that there is this intersection for the church in our time right now with society.
Gino Curcuruto:And that is around this epidemic of loneliness.
Gino Curcuruto:Like, understand that.
Gino Curcuruto:Let that, let that seep into our heads.
Gino Curcuruto:That this is a significant issue, something that, that, that is akin to the smoking epidemic that we've put out reports and said, this is not good for you.
Gino Curcuruto:Society is saying that being alone is not good for you.
Gino Curcuruto:And I I'd
Caesar Kalinowski:say, and that, that issue, significant issue is providing for us as the church, as God's family here, uh, a significant opportunity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's not miss it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's not miss it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number two.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, what do we want people to believe in their hearts about this issue?
Gino Curcuruto:Man, I want everyone, regardless of if it's the isolation and loneliness issue or anything, I want us to know how dearly loved we are by God and that the welcome of God actually is our invitation to welcome others as well.
Gino Curcuruto:Not because we have to or it's some duty, but we actually get to because we have everything that we need in Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Amen to that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I have nothing to add.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh, let me, I'll take number three myself.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's the hands one.
Caesar Kalinowski:Uh, and there again, the hands, like, how do I get started?
Caesar Kalinowski:If you want to start something like this brunch church, this has been encouraging to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you go like, I know this is true.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is an opportunity.
Caesar Kalinowski:God's moving my heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:Go ahead, go to the show notes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Gina will help you.
Caesar Kalinowski:But in the meantime too, because most of you probably aren't just going to start that up like next week or next month and all, I want to invite you to help set the table there in Germantown.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's get this knocked out.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's get this 500 a month covered for them.
Caesar Kalinowski:Again, all you have to do is go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash tables.
Caesar Kalinowski:and you can either make a one time donation or you can make a monthly donation and it's not for the rest of your life but as long as you want to and then you're going to be connected to that and Geno will send you updates too so you'll see how that's going and you can even go visit or whatever you want.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, so that's that's sort of the takeaway I want you to leave with is you can be a part of this and start to not only chip away at the epidemic of loneliness and isolation, but you could be directly involved in setting the table there in Germantown with, uh, Gino and a whole bunch of other missionaries living like the, you know, the family of God, uh, out serving people.
Caesar Kalinowski:So again, just go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash tables for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, uh, boy, I can't wait for the episode where we get to tell how that went and update everybody on what's going on there, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, me too, brother.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, thanks again for being on.
Caesar Kalinowski:I love talking to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:The hardest thing is getting these episodes to not be like just hours and hours because you and I can talk and talk.
Caesar Kalinowski:I feel that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you're a heck of a reader.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you're always full, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your tank is full of thoughts and ideas and all this.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so am I.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're both talkers.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I love you, brother.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks so much for being on.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, I hope you all join us next week on the Everyday Disciple Podcast.
Caesar Kalinowski:We do it every Monday.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just check your feed.
Caesar Kalinowski:Go ahead and subscribe to that so you don't lose it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it'll just come right in and remind you and it'll fill you right up.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope you'll join us.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to continue to talk about a lifestyle of discipleship and mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:It just kind of fits into everyday life.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Talk to you soon.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit everydaydisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com and remember you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.