Dealing With Limiting Beliefs About Discipleship And Mission
As Christians, we most often use the word “belief” in connection to our faith and the Bible, but we also have beliefs that shape our lives connected to pretty much every action or inaction in life. Sometimes these beliefs can limit our potential.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’ll talk about how you can identify and replace your limiting beliefs about discipleship and mission. It’s time to start moving forward!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How to recognize and name any limiting beliefs you have.
- How to identify excuses or perceived barriers that keep you stuck.
- Ways to explore your unmet spiritual desires.
- Who you need to spend more time with to promote the changes you want.
From this episode:
“God’s desire is that you would live with spiritual freedom and relational peace. This is what Jesus came to model for us and then commanded his disciples (that’s us today) to go and live the same way, making more disciples. He has placed his own Holy Spirit within in you and not given you a spirit of fear or limitations. Don’t let your limiting beliefs or fears or dead traditions stop you from embracing the life that Jesus died to give you.“
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
Thanks for Listening!
Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Join us on Facebook and take part in the discussion!
If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of this page or right below.
Also, please subscribe and leave an honest review for The Everyday Disciple Podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Free Download of the Big 3 For Episode #388
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Get Caesar’s latest book: Bigger Gospel for FREE… Click Here
Transcript
If you feel unsure or ill-equipped, or maybe unskilled at disciple-making, you really can change your limiting beliefs and become someone who confidently skillfully leads others to spiritual freedom and relational peace in Christ.
Caesar:You really can make disciples of Jesus and you can create a culture of discipleship that others will embrace and thrive in.
Caesar:Now I gotta be honest, changing our beliefs and how you see things is not always easy.
Caesar:All progress though starts with the truth.
Caesar:So start by looking at what your current beliefs about discipleship and mission are.
Caesar:Maybe we'll uncover some lies in the process.
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now here's your host Caesar.
Announcer:Kalinowski
Caesar:how's it going?
Caesar:I hope you're having a good week.
Caesar:I am.
Caesar:I'm just getting ready to head off to.
Caesar:Couples retreat in Tennessee, just a handful of couples that we have with us in coaching and we're going to kind of live like a Missional Community for a week and have some fun and some food and some fishing.
Caesar:I like that assonance fun food fishing.
Caesar:And, uh, I hope to catch some fish this year.
Caesar:So Tim, if you're listening brother, I hope that works out.
Caesar:Uh, we had a blast last year doing the same thing, but they didn't catch any fish.
Caesar:Uh, we'll have some, uh, time for hiking.
Caesar:I'm guessing.
Caesar:And we'll be doing the story of God.
Caesar:What a blast that is.
Caesar:We did this last May.
Caesar:And it really marked the year for all of us.
Caesar:It was a very special time.
Caesar:Maybe you'll join us next year.
Caesar:Hey, speaking of joining us, have you joined us over on Facebook in the Everyday Disciple Facebook group?
Caesar:I hope you will just head on over to Facebook, put in Everyday Disciple and podcast or wherever you'll find us, or you can go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash Facebook, and it'll just take you there.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:So, and by the way, I hope you're sharing the show with others.
Caesar:Are you doing.
Caesar:That's how people find new podcasts.
Caesar:Number one way, all the data and research shows it.
Caesar:Number one way, people find new podcast is someone they know says, oh, I was just listening to this.
Caesar:You would dig it.
Caesar:And they share it with them.
Caesar:Would you do that?
Caesar:Would you, someone you love people in your Missional Community.
Caesar:How about all the folks in your church?
Caesar:Throw it in the church newsletter or on your Facebook page or whatever?
Caesar:Just let them know about the Everyday Disciple podcast.
Caesar:You can send them right over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash podcast.
Caesar:Or you can send them to Everyday Disciple dot com period, and they'll find it it's right there.
Caesar:Before we get started.
Caesar:I want to thank our supporters at Missio publishing.
Caesar:They are the best, and I believe that they are still producing the very best disciple-making and Missional resources that are available out there.
Caesar:I've talked about several of them in the past, the gospel primer, tangible kingdom primer, the stuff by Alan Hersch.
Caesar:Hugh halter are all.
Caesar:There's so many good things there.
Caesar:Check it out, go to Missio, publishing.com, scroll through, see what different books are available, different types of resources.
Caesar:I think you'll be glad you did.
Caesar:Now.
Caesar:I was originally going to talk about dealing with limiting beliefs about discipleship, a few episodes back, but a couple other topics seemed a little more timely to me.
Caesar:So I just made the call and I postponed it till today.
Caesar:And I'm excited to talk about this with you as Christians, we most often use the word belief in connection to our faith and the Bible, but we also have beliefs that shape our lives connected to pretty much every action or inaction in our lives.
Caesar:A belief is an assumption that we have about ourselves or something in our life, in how it operates.
Caesar:And those beliefs have usually been created and distorted and made up essentially from the experiences that we've had in our life.
Caesar:And they're usually formed at an early age or along the way.
Caesar:And they've been a part of our life, maybe our whole life.
Caesar:They don't even feel like options.
Caesar:They just feel like the way it is now.
Caesar:Some of those beliefs may have even contributed to some of the success that we've experienced in the past, but at a certain point, they no longer serve us as well.
Caesar:It's not the same things have changed, but we're still clinging to those
Caesar:maybe older, false limiting beliefs.
Caesar:We can form beliefs that limit us or keep us plateaued or stuck in some area of our lives.
Caesar:Often what we believe and seem certain of it's actually wrong, or we're not as right as we think we are when this is the case, these beliefs limit our experiences and our potential.
Caesar:That's what I want to talk.
Caesar:Think about this.
Caesar:I sit down in a chair if I believe that it'll hold me, but I won't sit in the chair.
Caesar:If I believe it will not hold me.
Caesar:That's how our beliefs are.
Caesar:We proceed forward and do the things we do in life based on what we believe.
Caesar:And when people are stuck, it's rarely due to a lack of knowledge.
Caesar:All those, sometimes that's true.
Caesar:Usually they've reached the furthest horizon of what they can envision or embrace for them.
Caesar:Essentially they've arrived at the limits of how they see themselves being and what that would lead them to do what we believe about ourselves.
Caesar:Always leads to what we ultimately do.
Caesar:So let's talk about dealing with our limiting beliefs about discipleship and mission when it comes to discipleship as a lifestyle and leading others to truly embrace the mission of God.
Caesar:I've often believed more in a new vision and future than the folks I'm coaching actually believe for themselves.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:They want it, but often they doubt it could ever be a reality for them or their church when things are new or seem tough, it can be easy to lose faith.
Caesar:And that's why I've often had to have faith for them.
Caesar:I have to loan them the faith I have from the experience and success in making disciples that God's given me.
Caesar:God's given us.
Caesar:So let me start out this journey today with you by loaning you some faith.
Caesar:If you feel unsure or ill equipped, or maybe unskilled at disciple-making, you really can change your limiting beliefs and become someone who confidently skillfully leads others to spiritual freedom and relational peace.
Caesar:And.
Caesar:You really can make disciples of Jesus and you can create a culture of discipleship that others will embrace and thrive into I'm loneing you.
Caesar:The faith.
Caesar:Now I gotta be honest, changing our beliefs and how you see things is not always easy.
Caesar:All progress though starts with the truth.
Caesar:So start by looking at what your current beliefs about discipleship and mission are.
Caesar:Maybe we'll uncover some lies in the process.
Caesar:I'm going to give you some help here.
Caesar:And I have to thank Christian Montain for his great thoughts that have massively helped me understand how to begin, to identify and change my own limiting beliefs.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So first we've got to recognize the limiting belief and that's not always easy to see our own limiting beliefs.
Caesar:It's a little like looking at the back of your own head, but here are a few things that have helped me start by looking at the results.
Caesar:That you're getting in your life right now in the area of discipleship.
Caesar:Are you happy with how things are going and how your people are engaging?
Caesar:Are there consistent recurring themes, excuses, or perceived barriers that you keep hearing or using?
Caesar:There's a really good chance that you've embraced some of these things now as a limiting belief, some of the things I hear all the time that are absolutely not.
Caesar:But are common limiting beliefs are things like discipleship's done in a series of classes, you know, like 1 0 1 2 0 1, whatever.
Caesar:And that's the way it's always been done.
Caesar:Or I hear our people just don't care that much about making disciples.
Caesar:They all check the Jesus in my heart box years ago, and now they're just waiting to go to heaven.
Caesar:They don't want to live this way or I'll hear things like my house is not big enough to have people over all the time.
Caesar:My neighbors aren't even really interested in coming over.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:I hear things like this.
Caesar:I'm too introverted.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:I'm too introverted to be making disciples in community or I'll hear my people do not have the time in their schedules for discipleship and outreach and mission or flip that around.
Caesar:I've heard this a lot of times.
Caesar:I don't have time to truly make disciples in community.
Caesar:I'm too busy with my ministry duties.
Caesar:Is that true Pastor?
Caesar:Or I'll hear, I don't have the knowledge or the tools to do this, to that.
Caesar:I say, well, you could have, but here's the thing.
Caesar:None of those things that I just listed off are actually true.
Caesar:If things like that are keeping you or others from making disciples as a primary focus of your lives, these are false and limiting beliefs.
Caesar:Are you willing to explore your limiting beliefs and then name them?
Caesar:That's important.
Caesar:That's the beginning of change next, explore your unmet desires.
Caesar:But what is a strong, unmet desire in your life when it comes to making disciples of Jesus and truly living out your faith with others in community in everyday life, you know, with your family, your kids, close friends, neighbors.
Caesar:Do you have any unmet desires there?
Caesar:If you feel like you're not gaining traction towards that desire?
Caesar:Reflect on what the major doubts or fears are that surrounded for you?
Caesar:Those doubts or fears are reflections of your limiting beliefs.
Caesar:Don't miss that those doubts or fears are reflections of your limiting beliefs.
Caesar:Now, sometimes it's helpful to ask others for two reasons.
Caesar:Others often see something that we don't see.
Caesar:I think you might ask people like, Hey, do you see how we're not really making disciples here or not live in this as a lifestyle?
Caesar:What do you see in my life?
Caesar:That's keeping us from that?
Caesar:Or do you think I'm keeping us from that?
Caesar:Or do you hear me make an excuse with ask others for help?
Caesar:And secondly, others can provide an external validation that it's actually all right, for this belief to change.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:They could help us identify some of our limiting beliefs, but they can also validate it's okay to change that.
Caesar:ya know, we don't have to stay stuck there.
Caesar:Now.
Caesar:Second, describe the new, better belief that you want because you can't just discard an old belief, usually without replacing it with a new one.
Caesar:And this is often a gradual and developing process.
Caesar:The vision doesn't always just spring out, fully formed and often needs to grow.
Caesar:And you experienced a little success and then you grow some more, what would be a new better belief about discipleship and leaning others as a lifestyle into this?
Caesar:What do you think?
Caesar:What would be a new better belief about discipleship?
Caesar:Give yourself a specific direction to start growing towards.
Caesar:And here's a tip take courageous action, but do it in short sprints towards these new beliefs
Caesar:. Don't go for the full immediate overhaul, replace one limiting belief at a time and put great effort into the new, better belief and helping others do the same.
Caesar:I think that'll help.
Caesar:Number three, be honest.
Caesar:Are you willing to do what you've never done to experience what you've never experienced?
Caesar:Change is hard and it often involves facing our fears.
Caesar:But the path to a better future is rarely as difficult as our imagination makes it out to be.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:There's boogeyman hiding all over the place, but they're not real.
Caesar:Just turn on the light.
Caesar:What will this change be worth to you?
Caesar:What would make it worth it for you?
Caesar:Are you truly willing to try that.
Caesar:I had a good friend who was a senior pastor at a church.
Caesar:And it was pretty old fundamental church and his elders and old time stakeholders, according to him were against everything.
Caesar:He was trying to move towards Missional and everything we were suggesting and training and coaching towards this is, oh, all these old timers they're just against everything until he started to change his beliefs about some things and try some new things.
Caesar:He started inviting the elders as couples over for dinner.
Caesar:And sit no shop talk.
Caesar:We're just going to hang out and get to be a, be a family.
Caesar:And they started building deeper relationships.
Caesar:And out of that, he invited them all as couples to go through the gospel primer together over eight weeks.
Caesar:And they spent eight weeks, a little bit each day getting together once a week, going deeper into the implications of the gospel and what it looks like to live it out and community.
Caesar:And they all loved it.
Caesar:See, originally he had a limiting belief that they're the ones that are against everything.
Caesar:Actually, it was just a small voice here or there wasn't true.
Caesar:But it was limiting number four.
Caesar:What environments or events trigger your limiting beliefs, identify your triggers, those things that seem to provoke your limiting beliefs to pop up and take over and stall you from moving forward.
Caesar:If you can remove or limit your exposure to negative triggers, and sometimes that's certain people.
Caesar:Then do so, but mostly just be aware of the things that trigger you and cause you to shrink back and not move forward in creating a culture of discipleship and a lifestyle for yourself and your family.
Caesar:Number five, get some help is difficult, but not impossible, but it's hard to change on your own.
Caesar:For most people it's much faster and easier to do this with help from others.
Caesar:Here's some examples that I got from Christian Montain . That might help.
Caesar:He uses this word.
Caesar:He says, soak yourself in some relational marinade like that, immerse yourself in relationships with people who think and act like you want to think an act, be friends, some successful disciple makers, people that are living this out as a lifestyle, spend time with people in missional communities, maybe join a peer network with others who are making or who have made the shifts that you want to make.
Caesar:And then he goes on and says, also, there's a way to help soak yourself in some mental marinade, immerse yourself in podcasts and books and workshops or whatever else best reflects what you're trying to be and do exposing yourself to these types of patterns of thinking and attitudes, kind of start to shape our own hearts.
Caesar:And this is maybe the best kind of help is get a mentor or hire a coach, bring people into your life for the express purpose of asking them to help you grow in this area of life and ministry.
Caesar:Don't just Frankenstein, bolt things together and go it alone and keep letting your limiting beliefs keep you from it.
Caesar:Personally, I nearly always working with at least one coach in my life in some area that I'm trying to improve in.
Caesar:And I've invested a lot in coaching and training to be and do the things that we believe we're called to say, I only have one life and I need accountability sometimes to change and get to action, because I want to spend more time living a lifestyle of discipleship and mission and less time trying to figure out how to do.
Caesar:Those you lead and the community around you.
Caesar:We'll all benefit from your pursuit of growth in this.
Caesar:And I want to encourage you don't leave your future or your potential to chance.
Caesar:Take this seriously and take action.
Caesar:Remember, I'm loaning you the faith to get started, and I'm here for you if you want help, but that's me and I can help.
Caesar:Great.
Caesar:If you want to start moving past your limiting beliefs about discipleship and mission as a life.
Caesar:If you want to get a full framework for discipleship and mission and some help implementing that?
Caesar:Well, can I invite you to check out the coaching that we offer head on over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching.
Caesar:There's a lot of information there and there's a way to sign up and we can hop on a zoom call if you'd like.
Caesar:And I'm happy to answer any questions you have.
Caesar:Maybe you're not ready for that.
Caesar:And you just want to talk, you've got some questions you dislike to ask me.
Caesar:I'm happy.
Caesar:Now let's get to the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar:If nothing else, I want you to have these don't want you to miss them.
Caesar:Maybe you're out walking or riding in the car or something else.
Caesar:Can't write them down.
Caesar:I've done that for you.
Caesar:I'll send you a printable PDF of this.
Caesar:Week's big three is a free download by going to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash big three.
Caesar:Here's the big three for this week.
Caesar:Number one, start by looking at the results that you're getting in your life right now in the area of disciple.
Caesar:Are you happy with how things are going and how your people are engaging?
Caesar:Are there any consistent recurring themes, excuses, or perceived barriers that you keep hearing or using yourself?
Caesar:There's a really good chance that you've embraced some of these things as a limiting belief named them and start to replace them with better beliefs.
Caesar:Number two God's desire is that you would live with spiritual freedom and relational peace.
Caesar:This is what Jesus came to model for us, and then commanded his disciples.
Caesar:That's us today to go and live the same way, making more disciples.
Caesar:He's placed his own holy spirit within you and not giving you a spirit of fear or limitation.
Caesar:Don't let your limiting beliefs or fears or dead traditions stop you from embracing the life that Jesus died to give you number three.
Caesar:Immerse yourself in relationships with people who think and act like you want to think and act, get into a peer network with some others who are making or who have made the shifts that you want to make immerse yourself in podcasts and books and workshops and whatever else that best reflects what you're trying to be and do because exposing yourself to this new thinking and attitudes that starts to shape your own.
Caesar:And I encourage you to be proactive and get a mentor or coach and ask them to help you grow in making disciples in, in this area of your life and ministry.
Caesar:And if that's us, if we can help with that.
Caesar:great.
Caesar:Again, just at least check out the coaching that we offer over Everyday.
Caesar:Disciple dot com forward slash coaching.
Caesar:I'd love to at least talk with you.
Caesar:Maybe we can help.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Well, time's up today?
Caesar:I hope you'll join me next week.
Caesar:I'll be asking the question.
Caesar:Are you believing what God says about you?
Caesar:And I'll be joined by author and amazing speaker and disciple maker, Joe Saxton.
Caesar:You won't want to miss it.
Caesar:I'll talk to you soon.
Announcer:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.