Creating an Effective Discipleship Environment Pt.1
Discipleship is an all-of-life apprenticeship led by Jesus himself. To make disciples of Jesus, who in turn, know how to make more disciples, we must pay close attention to the experience and environment that Jesus provided his disciples.
This week on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’ll give you Part 1 of a two-part talk on the 10 necessary aspects you’ll want to focus on in creating an effective discipleship environment.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Why your “discipleship” may not be producing the desired results in your people.
- Where, when, and how often Jesus interacted with his disciples.
- 4 of the 10 necessary aspects of a healthy discipleship environment (like Jesus had).
- Why your discipleship must be Spirit-led and Gospel-saturated!
From this episode:
“Jesus discipleship wasn’t merely a Sunday School class to attend… like once you got through the 9 weeks of discipleship training, boom–you’re a disciple! That’s how it was for me growing up in the church. I’m thankful for that time a certain man put into my life, it was something like nine 1-hour sessions. And for a very long time that was the extent of my discipleship. That’s not what Jesus did.”
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Free Discipleship and Missional Resources
Transcript
Over and over in Acts, we see how those disciples actually go about accomplishing that mission that they were sent on.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they basically did, I mean think about it, what else would they do?
Caesar Kalinowski:They basically did what they had done hanging out with Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:They just kind of went and reproduced that.
Caesar Kalinowski:They proclaimed the good news about Him and His Kingdom, and they established communities of believers.
Caesar Kalinowski:who believed this to be true and put their faith in that to live this new life together as family.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's really in the simplest form what they went out and did.
Caesar Kalinowski:And discipleship wasn't merely a Sunday school class to attend, or it wasn't a curriculum.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like once you got through the nine weeks of discipleship training, I guess you're a disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's how it was for me.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm thankful for that time a man put in my life.
Caesar Kalinowski:We had like nine one hour sessions, and for a very long time, that was sort of the extent of my discipleship, you know, but that's not what Jesus did.
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, how's it going?
Caesar Kalinowski:Glad to be back with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hope you're doing well.
Caesar Kalinowski:Tina and I just got back from our first ride on our new electric bicycles.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, I know it's a bit of an old guy kind of thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:I still have two Harleys sitting out in the garage and those are a whole different thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:But as we've been wanting to do more bike riding together, there are some crazy hills and things like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so I had a trusted, very, very experienced biker in the family say, try the e bikes, you're gonna love them, they're so fun.
Caesar Kalinowski:And guess what?
Caesar Kalinowski:They are super fun.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's a little bit of what's going on in my day.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hey, before we get rolling with the things I want to talk to you about today, I just want to remind you about our upcoming Cigars and Theology Live.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:And now I'm not going to tell you the date because depending on when you're hearing this, you're going to go, Oh, I missed it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or, Oh, it's too soon.
Caesar Kalinowski:But if you're hearing this right away, like you're like a regular listener and you know, you're hearing it right away, it's coming up in about four weeks.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now you go, Oh, what if I go to it just to see, and I missed it.
Caesar Kalinowski:you won't because once this one is either sold out or we've had it, I'm going to put the date for the next Cigars and Theology Live on that same page and then you can, you could register for that one.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I just want to let you know, uh, I'm going to give you the address here.
Caesar Kalinowski:You go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com forward slash theology.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, uh, I think you're going to really enjoy this.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you've heard me talking about it, you can go back a couple episodes back and hear me maybe four or five episodes back talking about how we do cigars and theology.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I just want to tell you, I think our theology should affect how we live.
Caesar Kalinowski:as discipleships happening in the normal rhythms of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It shouldn't just be head knowledge.
Caesar Kalinowski:I would bet you agree with me or you wouldn't be listening today.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so if you come out to this and join us for how we're learning how to teach the gospel and gospel fluency in real normal ways.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll leave knowing how and why we did what we did, and you'll have the confidence and the resources to reproduce all of this with you, with your friends and, you know, people, your discipline or guys or gals in your life or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, the resource I'm going to send you home with is my new book, Slow Burn, Relaxing into Theology.
Caesar Kalinowski:That book lays out everything, everything and how we do this whole process.
Caesar Kalinowski:And while I apply the process that you'll learn in Slow Burn.
Caesar Kalinowski:For how we teach gospel fluency and allow this process to guide our conversations around any topic at all.
Caesar Kalinowski:You don't have to smoke cigars to do this.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is completely neutral that I know that's not everybody's thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:I've even had people write me saying, Oh, that's sinful, isn't it?
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's like, Well, not the way we do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't think so.
Caesar Kalinowski:However, you vote your conscience, but I just want to let you know that that book Slow Burn Relaxing in Theology, you can go and order that right now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I hope you'll come on out and join us for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to spend the evening and then the next morning at my house, hanging out, and we're going to go through all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to have meal and happy hour and probably some breakfast together and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then I'm going to completely unpack what you experienced in the evening.
Caesar Kalinowski:that we went through when we do the Cigars in Theology.
Caesar Kalinowski:That whole process, I'm going to unpack it and then I'm going to send you home with a copy of Slow Burn Relaxing the Theology and that's 12 guided conversations in there.
Caesar Kalinowski:So again, I hope you'll join me.
Caesar Kalinowski:Grab one of the few remaining seats that are left.
Caesar Kalinowski:Come on out, hang out with me in my house here in the Pacific Northwest for a couple days.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can go to everydaydisciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:com.
Caesar Kalinowski:forward slash theology to get more information and to get registered.
Caesar Kalinowski:You want to do that right away.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right, cool.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, today we're going to be talking about the discipleship environment that Jesus created that he discipled in.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just the way he rolled, like, I don't know that he intentionally thought through, like, Hey, I have to create something here, but as we've studied this throughout the years, we've noticed that there are about 10 things, and that's what I'm going to give you today, the beginning of this, this is part one of a two part podcast here, and it actually comes from a live teaching I did, you're going to hear me throw in pretty hard, I'm going after it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, and, um, but what we did was we unpacked what was the environment that Jesus discipled in?
Caesar Kalinowski:Why was it so effective?
Caesar Kalinowski:And can we break this down and reproduce this in our own context?
Caesar Kalinowski:And absolutely you can.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I think as you listen to this today and then part two next week, I think you're going to hear, Oh wow, we're doing some of these things already.
Caesar Kalinowski:Way to go.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you're going to hear a whole bunch of stuff you go, Oh, that's never entered into our.
Caesar Kalinowski:Making of Disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a big hole and I can see the importance of that and why Jesus had that in the way he discipled and why we'll need it as well.
Caesar Kalinowski:I think when we compare and contrast how he made disciples, and in sort of the context that he did it, we go like, oh, well maybe that's why his disciples made disciples that made disciples, and here we are thousands of years later, his disciples, and maybe it points to some of why we're not seeing explosive discipleship multiplication.
Caesar Kalinowski:Also in this talk, I actually give an expanded definition of what discipleship is.
Caesar Kalinowski:It incorporates kind of my shorthand version.
Caesar Kalinowski:We always talk about discipleships, the process of moving from unbelief to belief in absolutely every area of life, but it takes it even further and a little bigger, a little deeper.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I think you're going to enjoy that.
Caesar Kalinowski:, and then I start going through 10 of the most necessary and identifiable aspects of the environment that Jesus discipled in and that we get to model, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, absolutely.
Caesar Kalinowski:So let's, get to the recording and I think people are going to love it.
Heath Hollensbe:All right, let's listen.
Caesar Kalinowski:In scripture, We watch as Jesus makes disciples and we see he turns like fishermen and regular people and tax collectors and, you know, regular people into fishers of men.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then before he takes off, before he ascends to heaven, he gives them this mission that we've been talking about all morning.
Caesar Kalinowski:This mission of go and make disciples who obey his commands.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've already touched on that a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's key.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then over and over in Acts, we see how.
Caesar Kalinowski:How those, those disciples actually go about accomplishing that mission that they were sent on.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they basically did, I mean think about it, what else would they do?
Caesar Kalinowski:They basically did what they had done hanging out with Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:They, they just kind of went and reproduced that.
Caesar Kalinowski:They proclaimed the good news about Him and His kingdom, and they established communities of believers.
Caesar Kalinowski:Disciples who believed this to be true and put their faith in that to live this new life together as family.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's really in the simplest form what they went out and did and discipleship wasn't merely a Sunday school class to attend or it was in a curriculum like once you got through the nine weeks of discipleship training, I guess you're a disciple, That's how it was for me.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm thankful for that time a man put in my life.
Caesar Kalinowski:We had like nine one hour sessions.
Caesar Kalinowski:And for a very long time, that was sort of the extent of my discipleship, you know, but that's not what Jesus did.
Caesar Kalinowski:It wasn't just a curriculum to be discussed or a smorgasbord of programs offered by, you know, a burgeoning church in Jerusalem.
Caesar Kalinowski:Those structures may teach what Jesus taught, okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:So all of our classwork or discipleship or, You know, services might teach what Jesus commanded, but alone they don't increase, they don't create the environment for people to actually learn how to obey what Jesus commanded.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because there again, sitting in a class, well, there's no test of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:There's really no need or rub to not be prayerful or spirit led or, yeah, I believe that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then you go home and you, you know, hollering at the kids or, you know, beating your wife or something.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:In a class, you don't learn to obey.
Caesar Kalinowski:You just learn about the command.
Caesar Kalinowski:So a gospel centered community on Jesus mission of making discipleship must be that context.
Caesar Kalinowski:We talked about in that last session why that's so imperative.
Caesar Kalinowski:That if it's not gospel centered and it's not about Jesus and His mission, if it's not in community, we don't have all the body parts rubbing on each other, so we're conformed to Him instead of an individual.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if it's not on in His mission, we're not accomplishing the purpose.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:For what we've been saved, the purpose of the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:So the mission of our churches, the mission of our missional communities is to make disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:But as leaders, we can no more force people to grow up in their discipleship, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:More than like a farmer can force a plant to grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't stick a seed, you know, like on, like on a plate and just, oh, I'm a farmer, so.
Caesar Kalinowski:Will it to grow, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:First Corinthians says as much.
Caesar Kalinowski:It says so neither he who plants and neither he who waters is anything, but only God who makes things grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:So much like a farmer, see, we can create the environment and sort of the rhythms of a life that's a discipleship environment.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's still, it's ultimately
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship is the holistic care of a small group of people who are consistently experiencing Jesus life and teaching together in a healthy discipling environment where they're learning to submit every area of their life to the lordship of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:So what I'm going to give you, I guess, and we're not big on lists, man, really, in some of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's 10 necessary qualities of a healthy discipleship environment.
Caesar Kalinowski:First one, and I can move up pretty quickly past it, it's that it's going to have to be, this discipleship process is going to have to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Caesar Kalinowski:It really is.
Caesar Kalinowski:Only the Holy Spirit changes hearts.
Caesar Kalinowski:Only God causes us to believe things we didn't believe.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's God's the giver of faith in this new area.
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it says that God gives faith and we can pray for faith.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, some of us have been given the faith to believe that our justification is taken care of so we will no longer have to pay the penalty for our sins.
Caesar Kalinowski:But we've not yet been given the faith to believe in a lot of different areas.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:So the Spirit has to give that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Amen.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like we already said, it's the Spirit that teaches, and reminds, and convicts, and does all those things.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it's the Spirit's job to make us like Jesus, and accomplish that work.
Caesar Kalinowski:So here, after each of these ten, I'm just going to give you a question.
Caesar Kalinowski:If nothing else, write this question down, and discuss this as a team.
Caesar Kalinowski:Pray through these questions, and let it lead you, maybe, to a more, sort of, well orbed discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:So in this one with the Spirit is, what would it look like, Okay, to disciple in submission to and in partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a big question.
Caesar Kalinowski:I would, I wish we had the time to discuss that.
Caesar Kalinowski:It'd be great if you guys did, though.
Caesar Kalinowski:What would it look like to disciple in submission to and in partnership with the Holy Spirit?
Caesar Kalinowski:That might be, like, all that anybody can handle today already, just to go there.
Caesar Kalinowski:The second thing is that this environment's gonna have to be saturated in the gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:Again, we really believe the gospel is the answer to every question.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, that's a little, I've had somebody, some legalist take, take me to task on that.
Caesar Kalinowski:They go, I don't believe that's not a true statement.
Caesar Kalinowski:The gospel is the answer to every question.
Caesar Kalinowski:I had one person tell me no, because they had, they had worldly counseling, uh, and psychology classes.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then there was other answers besides God to help people fix things.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then, then I really could disagree.
Caesar Kalinowski:The other person said, no, the gospel is not the answer to every question because it doesn't answer the question.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like how many miles is it between St.
Caesar Kalinowski:Louis and like Manhattan?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's like, all right, sucker.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:When it comes to life's problems, issues, all of it, the gospel truly is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we're gonna, we have to have a discipleship environment that's gospel saturated, Jesus saturated.
Caesar Kalinowski:That people are seeing how the gospel applies to everything, not just their atonement issue.
Caesar Kalinowski:But their marriages, their sexuality, their parenting, all of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:We had an intern, um, with us a couple summers back, and she was just kind of in community and doing this, that, and the other life with the missional communities.
Caesar Kalinowski:And when she left, we were having lunch with her.
Caesar Kalinowski:Some of the, some of the leaders were taking her out to lunch, say goodbye to her.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, uh, I asked her a question.
Caesar Kalinowski:I said, um, What was different about this experience living life, you know, in missional community with us this summer than you expected?
Caesar Kalinowski:Just curious, you know, and, uh, what she said was really, was really kind of cool and kind of encouraging to us.
Caesar Kalinowski:She said, what was really unexpected to me is you guys, like, talk about Jesus in the gospel all the time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, it's all you talk about is Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, it doesn't matter what the topic, somehow, and she wasn't saying it creepy, you know, like, chapter and verse and everybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:She's like, you guys just bring it all back somehow.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we're like, well, I think that's cool, I think.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, discipleship, that environment's going to have to be saturated in that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not self help and not like self speak, like you're okay, you're good, you're going to make it, you're all right, work harder, you know.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's going to have to be saturated in gospel.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is ultimately, like I said, the answer to every question.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it becomes the motivation also to change and to grow and to learn and to lead others in it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we're going to have to there again, motivate people So with this gospel saturation, just be awed with who God is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so as the gospel then seeps into every crack and crevice of their life, that's discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's discipleship.
Caesar Kalinowski:We walk more and more in submission to Jesus in this area, in that area, in this area.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we often see that Jesus helps his disciples reflect and apply truth based on experience in the course of everyday events.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm going to unpack that a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's the question I want to put to you on this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Could the people in your churches or missional communities apply the gospel to their own life situation?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do they know how to?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do they know how to gospel as we've kind of turned it into a verb?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do they know how to gospel their own lives?
Caesar Kalinowski:So like when they're having a completely
Caesar Kalinowski:freaked
Caesar Kalinowski:out, stressed out day, can they, can they, can they remind themselves, No, God is great.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't have to be in control.
Caesar Kalinowski:God is great, and, and, phew, He showed His greatness in a million things, but He really showed His greatness on the cross.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if God is that great, I really don't have to stress if I'm getting laid off next month.
Caesar Kalinowski:I It's okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:It will be okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Can they gospel their own heart?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can they bring the truth of the gospel to bear in their own lives?
Caesar Kalinowski:And then, second part of the question, can they do that in each other's lives as a community?
Caesar Kalinowski:Are you building a gospel fluency?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do normal conversations, just as they come and go in community life, do they often run to the gospel, or some aspect of truth of the gospel?
Caesar Kalinowski:A few years back, when this was starting to dawn on us, and me in particular, we had some friends from the Crowded House Church, Tim Chester, Steve Timmons, are some of the leaders there in Sheffield, and a couple of the, a couple of the gals, Uh, in their 20s, maybe 30, I don't know, where they were staying with us for a couple weeks.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I started noticing, this is kind of on our journey to gospel fluency, I started noticing that the gospel and this little tidbits of truth often just seeped into like the cracks of their conversations like in and out real fast, and they would kind of gospel each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like one day we were finished with dinner, and as they called it, we were washing up, we were washing up, and so we're washing up the dishes, And, um, the two of those women are talking, and one of them is saying something about, I don't even remember what they were talking about.
Caesar Kalinowski:And one of them says to the other, Well, that seems to be a bit of pride there, isn't it?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do you, are you believing you're God right now, that you can actually control that person's thoughts and actions and outcomes, and you're upset that you can't?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're like, yeah, that's exactly what I'm doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Thanks for pointing that out.
Caesar Kalinowski:Anyway, and they go back to it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm like, holy cow.
Caesar Kalinowski:I thought she was gonna hit her with the pad, you know, like How do you get away with this?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're like, what?
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:What did you, what was you just doing?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're like, oh, we're just bringing the gospel to bear on that situation.
Caesar Kalinowski:She was having a bit of a prideful heart.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm like, I know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Honey, what were you telling me last night?
Caesar Kalinowski:Talk to her now, you know, so.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, like, is, is, are we becoming gospel fluent?
Caesar Kalinowski:This, this discipleship environment, if nothing's going to have to just be saturated in the gospel, so that as the stuff of life comes up and as these other aspects of our life sort of now are in tow as discipleship, the gospel's being applied.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do your people speak the gospel to themselves?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do they know how?
Caesar Kalinowski:Can they speak the gospel to each other?
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not talking about quoting verses and chapters from the Bible, but bringing the good news to bear.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll tell you a great book on, on, on, on doing this is You Can Change by Tim Chester.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a book on like, just like, why do we sin and how do you like lead people, starting with yourself, out of sinful patterns?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like especially those besetting sins that just won't go away.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the book's called You Can Change.
Caesar Kalinowski:And in there, there's a chapter on, we, we, we kind of coined the term, even though it's his stuff, the four G's.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're four truths about God that when we don't believe them, they lead to every human sin.
Caesar Kalinowski:Amazing!
Caesar Kalinowski:It'll change your whole understanding of sin and how you, how you lead people in and out of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, next one, community influenced.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your discipleship environment's gonna have to be communal.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's gonna have to be community influenced.
Caesar Kalinowski:The disciples learned, obviously, a ton from Jesus, but they learned an awful lot as well, I think we can assume, from their interactions with each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just think about the motley crew that Jesus selected, hand selected to be his twelve.
Caesar Kalinowski:I can't even imagine when you've got a collaborating tax collector of the Romans have to hang out and eat dinner with a rebel against the government.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sitting next to a guy who you know, you don't know why Jesus keeps letting be the guy who keeps the purse, but he's ripping you off and you all know it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you're hanging out and you, I mean, and just, and you got fishermen.
Caesar Kalinowski:And even today, like we live on a, in a dock town, fishermen are stanky and weird.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they'll brush their teeth a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just, think about who Jesus was hanging out with.
Caesar Kalinowski:Why didn't he just pick 12 fishermen?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or why didn't he just pick 12 tax collectors?
Caesar Kalinowski:Why this weird potpourri of nastiness hanging out for three years together?
Caesar Kalinowski:You know, it's this community life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's this rub.
Caesar Kalinowski:Against each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:So though you as leaders and maybe as missional community leaders take on sort of a Elderly, you know, like a leadership role of, of discipleship in people's lives, meaning making sure that the environment's happening, they're engaging, it's tailored, it's customized.
Caesar Kalinowski:Still, most of that true discipleship's gonna happen from interactions that are going on with all kinds of people.
Caesar Kalinowski:Think about this, too.
Caesar Kalinowski:A missional communities or gospel communities, or community groups, rather.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're formed around affinity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well You're just not going to get rubbed on and your gospel needs sort of surfaced if you're hanging out with six or ten people who are just like you.
Caesar Kalinowski:They like the same music, they eat the same food, they go to the same pub, they like the same TV shows, they get the, kids are the same age, they parent similarly.
Caesar Kalinowski:You, you know, you know how it is, you get a big group and eventually, eventually it sort of just shrinks down to the people most like each other and they're right at the same age and stage of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:They kind of generally are pretty close in income with each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:But see, here's the thing, that's not our city.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know, I look around my neighborhood and I see young people, old people, white people, black people, homeless people, wealthy people, teenagers, retired people, super old people, like, like skaters.
Caesar Kalinowski:I, I see the whole mess.
Caesar Kalinowski:And in, in my neighborhood, I'm called to make disciples to them.
Caesar Kalinowski:How am I going to teach people how to be and make a disciple of a wide breadth of people if they don't hang out with those kind of people ever?
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, like, even in college ministry, our college missional communities, the ones that are focused on reaching the kids on the campus, Here's what they do.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're building missional communities of regular families and people all around the campus who then want to love students.
Caesar Kalinowski:And those students then are, are sort of incorporated, soaked into fully orbed families living on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because that student doesn't know, just need to know how to make college students into disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:He needs to know how to go home and make his mom and dad into a disciple.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or his sister.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or his own kids someday.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if he doesn't see kids being raised in a godly home because he didn't come from, how will he know?
Caesar Kalinowski:How will she know how to be a good mom?
Caesar Kalinowski:So you it's got to be in community.
Caesar Kalinowski:We need the rub and it's how we learn to make disciples of a full family, a full culture, a full community.
Caesar Kalinowski:So here's the question then.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do the people in your church or your missional community see themselves as disciples?
Caesar Kalinowski:Even if they're not considered leaders, like, do they realize they're a part of the discipleship program?
Caesar Kalinowski:And do they realize that as they make disciples, it's part of their discipleship?
Caesar Kalinowski:Here, here's a, here's a, here's a harrowing thought.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's freeing and it's scary as all get out.
Caesar Kalinowski:When, I'll start with a question.
Caesar Kalinowski:When does a person's discipleship begin?
Caesar Kalinowski:When do you begin discipleship with a person?
Caesar Kalinowski:At the point of contact, as soon as you meet them, is when discipleship really begins.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, we've always said, we've always said it this way, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Think about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we had a continuum here, I had a whiteboard, I could draw a cross in the middle.
Caesar Kalinowski:We usually say, evangelism, Jesus in my heart prayer conversion experience, let's get into some discipleship, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Being honest.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus said it the opposite though.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus says, if you'll be my disciple and walk in my ways, Notice the order here.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you'll be my disciple and walk in my ways, you'll come to know truth, and that truth will set you free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Be a disciple, come to know truth, get set free.
Caesar Kalinowski:We do it the opposite, usually.
Caesar Kalinowski:We go, believe what we say is true.
Caesar Kalinowski:Say a magic prayer, get set free.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me start discipling you.
Caesar Kalinowski:The truth is, you're always in discipleship mode.
Caesar Kalinowski:From the time you meet somebody, they're watching you, This is why it's liberating because you're always discipling so you really don't have to start a discipleship program.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is why it's scary.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're always discipling.
Caesar Kalinowski:So when they're watching you at a restaurant, that waitress is watching you tomorrow or tonight, and you tip like crap, you just discipled them.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, they're either seeing a person that believes the truth of the gospel, that we have a generous God that has given us way beyond what we've earned, thank God, or they're seeing a person that doesn't believe that.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're always seeing what it looks like to live a life submitted to God, And he's the one who makes the decision over good and evil, right and wrong in our life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or they're seeing a person that makes those decisions for themselves and works real hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know if there's a third option.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, you're always in discipleship mode.
Caesar Kalinowski:Freeing is all get out because we're already doing it.
Caesar Kalinowski:But it's scary because you're already doing it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, intentionality now.
Caesar Kalinowski:Do you realize you are?
Caesar Kalinowski:Wow, I'm gonna, it would take a supernatural force living inside of me to help me accomplish something like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Amazing that we got that, you know, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:So do people see themselves as disciples or do they think they need some more classes from y'all?
Caesar Kalinowski:They already are.
Caesar Kalinowski:And their discipleship is, part of their discipleship is making disciples of others.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and just, just so I can tip my hand here, leadership development in churches usually sucks because they don't have discipleship going on.
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship is leadership development.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just further up the slope.
Caesar Kalinowski:And one of our benchmarks for success is when we see a guy who came into the community lost as a goose, began to walk in the ways of Christ, got set free, and is now leading others, and leading missional communities or expressions or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship is leadership development.
Caesar Kalinowski:With your kids, aren't you teaching them how to be a good dad and a good mom from like little, little, little on?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, so when did parent training start?
Caesar Kalinowski:It just does.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is.
Caesar Kalinowski:Same.
Caesar Kalinowski:So do your people see themselves as disciples?
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, next thing, the environment's going to need to be missional, and you're going to need to be out serving people.
Caesar Kalinowski:So those two words are not necessarily meaning the same thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missional means out serving.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missional means out making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:But mission means sent.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missionaries are sent ones.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so you're going to need to be out in the thick, out in the rub, out in the pub, out in where people live.
Caesar Kalinowski:Whatever they do, you incarnate it.
Caesar Kalinowski:In our missional communities, each missional community actually creates their own covenant of how and who they're
Caesar Kalinowski:going
Caesar Kalinowski:to reach, how they're going to live out their identity as family of missionary servants making disciples.
Caesar Kalinowski:They work it all out through these cultural rhythms.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can get all that stuff on our website if you're interested.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they work that out very specifically.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's going to include lots of time just out amongst those people serving them.
Caesar Kalinowski:Putting on the bathrobe and growing out the beard and wearing the sandals, you know, incarnating.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus didn't just hang out in heaven and go like, Hey, I got good news for y'all down there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, it's finished.
Caesar Kalinowski:I did it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Didn't cost you anything, you know.
Caesar Kalinowski:He came.
Caesar Kalinowski:He hung out.
Caesar Kalinowski:He served.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay?
Caesar Kalinowski:So, character qualities like love and compassion and servanthood and sacrifice and generosity are much more likely.
Caesar Kalinowski:Much more likely to be integrated into a person's lives as they enter into the lives of others and serve them and give their stuff away and meet needs in ways that God's going to have to show up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, it's going to have to be out and it's going to have to be frequent.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's going to have to be in rhythm.
Caesar Kalinowski:We use the word rhythm a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:You don't want to have, we're like, remember last year when our missional community served someone?
Caesar Kalinowski:That was cool.
Caesar Kalinowski:We should do that again.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now you should live in a rhythm of serving out on mission, out displaying and proclaiming both visually and physically the gospel that's gonna be part of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So here's the question that goes with that one, can compassion, generosity, sacrifice, et cetera, can it be taught into the life of a person?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or how does that happen?
Caesar Kalinowski:Do, do, do, and how will you know if they are in fact growing in those areas?
Heath Hollensbe:As somebody who's actively involved in trying to live out this missional lifestyle in my own life, and you know that about me, it was really encouraging to just hear, you were right when you said you went deep and a little bit hard there, but there's aspects to that that is like, in one sense, this is such a simple teach I mean this, if you look at the life of Jesus, it makes sense.
Heath Hollensbe:On the other, it's
Caesar Kalinowski:pretty common sense y.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, I think.
Heath Hollensbe:But then it's disheartening on the other hand because you're like, Very few people that I know actually live like this and are, are actually able to do their life like this because schedules are busy or whatever it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is the thing is I, I, anytime I teach this because I've taught this many times.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, I'm always struck in my own life in the church, Capital C Church.
Caesar Kalinowski:How do we get so far from this and how do we reduce discipleship to primarily knowledge acquisition or passing off lots of knowledge?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Because we kind of know, you know, what knowledge puffs up.
Caesar Kalinowski:It doesn't necessarily humble us and create the action.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:So anyway, so those, we just covered four of the 10 empowered by the Holy Spirit, super powerful, gospel saturated.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's That might be the most important segment of all, community influenced.
Caesar Kalinowski:So people say, what about one on one discipleship?
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, parts of it, just like sometimes you spend time with your kids, but anyway, and then outward focused, we can't just be doing the holy huddle, but anyway, you just heard it, but those, that's what we covered.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we got a whole bunch more coming next week in part two.
Caesar Kalinowski:Um, and I can't wait for you to hear that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah,
Heath Hollensbe:well let's get to the big three for this week.
Heath Hollensbe:And if you're, uh, if you're busy doing some stuff, the big three is, it's a free download of the three things that, if nothing else, we want you to take away from this week's episode.
Heath Hollensbe:And you don't want to miss these key points.
Heath Hollensbe:And if you want this free download of what Caesar gives us today, you can go to everydaydisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com forward slash big three to get those notes as a download.
Heath Hollensbe:Caesar, what are the big three for this week?
Caesar Kalinowski:If nothing else, don't miss these.
Caesar Kalinowski:First one, only the Holy Spirit can change hearts and transform lives.
Caesar Kalinowski:Therefore, he, the Holy Spirit, is the primary discipler and equipper of people.
Caesar Kalinowski:He teaches, reminds, convicts, helps, leads, reveals, counsels.
Caesar Kalinowski:So making disciples must be done in partnership and submission to the Holy Spirit.
Caesar Kalinowski:We can do nothing apart from him.
Caesar Kalinowski:Look it up in John 15, 5, it's, it's true.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so, so often we're just going about life and there's no, like, how, how much did you check in with the Holy Spirit?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it's part three of my discipleship manual.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Maybe the spirit has a, okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Second of the big three, the gospel must permeate the discipling environment.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's, it's ultimately the answer to every problem and the motivation to submit every area of life to the lordship of Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Or in other words, it's the motivation to apply the gospel to every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Otherwise, We can just be piling law on everybody.
Caesar Kalinowski:As the gospel seeps into every crack and crevice of our lives, we walk more and more in submission to Jesus for our good and His glory, meaning looking more and more like Him, who is the glory of the Father.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, that's a lot.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then third, don't miss this, discipleship happens in community on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:It doesn't just happen sitting around on a couch.
Caesar Kalinowski:It doesn't happen sitting, you know, under fluorescent lights in the church basement for an extra hour a week, you know.
Caesar Kalinowski:Character qualities like Love, compassion, servanthood, sacrifice, generosity.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're more likely to be integrated into a person's life, your own and other disciples that you're on this journey with, as they enter into the lives of others and frequently demonstrate those qualities that I just mentioned in context of relationship.
Caesar Kalinowski:right?
Caesar Kalinowski:They're not just ideas, but they're, they're real.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sacrifice, servanthood, generosity, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Spiritual growth is often more significant when people serve in community outside the church, though they're not just, you know, setting up chairs and doing the good work that sometimes are required at our family gatherings, but out serving people who are desperately needy.
Caesar Kalinowski:it changes us.
Caesar Kalinowski:It, it causes our hearts to be exposed.
Caesar Kalinowski:So get out there, get out there, go and make disciples, right?
Caesar Kalinowski:Absolutely, man.
Heath Hollensbe:Those are your big three for this week.
Heath Hollensbe:You get that download by going to everydaydisciple.
Heath Hollensbe:com forward slash big three, and we'll get those to you right away.
Heath Hollensbe:Hey, next week we want you to join us for part two of this talk.
Heath Hollensbe:As Caesar said, we got through four of them today, but we've got some more points to get to next week.
Heath Hollensbe:So we'll round it out
Caesar Kalinowski:next week.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm not even going to tell you what they are.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know you can hardly wait.
Heath Hollensbe:And again, you go pretty deep.
Heath Hollensbe:This message, man, you had a little bit of fire in you.
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
Caesar Kalinowski:day.