Neighborhood vs. Network Missional Communities
When making disciples in community, a common strategy question arises: should we have a Missional Community that is only neighborhood-based, or should we start a Missional Community that’s relationally network-based?
In this episode, Caesar lays out the advantages and disadvantages of both neighborhood and networked-based approaches to community building. And the importance of creating organized and organic rhythms whichever way you end up going.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Why proximity is gold when living on mission together.
- The importance of understanding your proactive and reactive mission.
- The benefits and challenges that both approaches present.
- Loads of real-world examples on how all of this works.
From this episode:
“If your Missional Community is made up of people that are coming from different parts of town, and for whatever reason have formed a community on mission, you can still succeed. You’re going to have to be a LOT more intentional about how you plan your times and activities together and know that it could start to feel event-based if you’re not careful.”
Each week the Big 3 will give you immediate action steps to get you started.
Download today’s BIG 3 right now. Read and think over them again later. You might even want to share them with others…
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Coaching with Caesar and Tina in discipleship and missional living.
Free Discipleship and Missional Resources
Transcript
People can feel like they're just a group of lone ranger, vagabond, missionaries, the Christians, they feel that way.
Caesar:Like we're just kind of lone ranger missionaries.
Caesar:We meet together once a week maybe to talk about our individual missions, but we're really not living like an oikos, like a family on mission.
Caesar:We're not on the same mission.
Caesar:We kind of have our lone ranger missions out there.
Caesar:We just kind of come together to talk about, pray about it.
Caesar:That's not a Missional Community and you can't make a mature Disciple alone.
Caesar:You can't Disciple someone just one-to-one to be like Jesus.
Caesar:Cause it takes the body of Christ.
Caesar:No one of us is like Jesus alone.
Caesar:We're part of the body.
Caesar:It takes a Community same way.
Caesar:Jesus did it.
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, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors.
Heath Hollensbe:Probably forgot to tell you.
Heath Hollensbe:And now here's your host Caesar.
Heath Hollensbe:Kalinowski
Caesar Kalinowski:welcome.
Caesar Kalinowski:Welcome to the neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm getting a little giddy getting to get in and out and out more and get my vitamin D and also, um, I'm stoked because I actually have some.
Caesar Kalinowski:Vacation coming.
Caesar Kalinowski:In fact, depending on when you're hearing this, I'm on vacation, I'm recording this way ahead of time, but it's supposed to release on my vacation and we're going to be up in the mountains in Tennessee, way up in the middle of nowhere.
Caesar Kalinowski:No wifi, uh, no phone signal.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's going to kill me.
Caesar Kalinowski:I know it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Shouldn't.
Caesar Kalinowski:I am one of those people though, I live on the wifi and my laptop and phone are always with me pretty much 24 seven, but I'm going to be up in this cabin, six other couples.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to do some hiking, fishing, great food, going to be doing the story of God together a little bit each night.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's going to be amazing.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm stoked.
Caesar Kalinowski:Can't even wait.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, anyway, a review, an awesome review came in from my drew at early bird farm.
Caesar Kalinowski:He gave us five stars.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's what drew said.
Caesar Kalinowski:He said Caesar and Heath execute a fantastic, authentic, funny and relevant podcast about discipleship today.
Caesar Kalinowski:Whoa.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's awesome.
Caesar Kalinowski:. He goes on saying challenging old Christian paradigms, which build barriers to the power of the gospel and embracing the fundamental characteristics of Jesus life on mission, which is to grow a family of missionary servants.
Caesar Kalinowski:Who Disciple one another to love God and love our neighbor one friendship at a time.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, thanks for that drew.
Caesar Kalinowski:I appreciate that amazing review and all the stars.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I can definitely tell you're a long-term listener.
Caesar Kalinowski:A lot of language there sounds really, really familiar.
Caesar Kalinowski:Love that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Love it.
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Caesar Kalinowski:All right, real quick.
Caesar Kalinowski:Before we dive into that topic today, I just want to give you a little update on something that's going on.
Caesar Kalinowski:Many of you've heard us talking about our Everyday Disciple makers, coaching and mentorship over and over.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're a regular listener to the.
Caesar Kalinowski:To the podcast, you know, all about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I want to tell you if you've been considering joining us in that coaching.
Caesar Kalinowski:And start implementing our full Everyday Disciple framework now is the perfect time.
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Caesar Kalinowski:We're getting ready to close our applications coming up on Monday, November 25th.
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Caesar Kalinowski:Our whole team does.
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Caesar Kalinowski:If you enroll in Everyday Disciple makers here in the next week or so, you gotta apply.
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Caesar Kalinowski:For you, if it's not a good fit or it's not the right timing, then you have to enroll by December 1st.
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Caesar Kalinowski:So more than a year.
Caesar Kalinowski:You'll get all of December and you'll get all the way through January 31st, 2026.
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Caesar Kalinowski:let me tell you a little about the coaching itself, just in case you're new to this.
Caesar Kalinowski:In Everyday Disciple makers, you're going to get access to the full Everyday Disciple framework, . that's access to our proven and proprietary systems.
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Caesar Kalinowski:in a smartphone app and we use that so that we can daily stay in touch with each other.
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Caesar Kalinowski:on top of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I hope you'll do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just go over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching, and you get a whole bunch of information and fill out the application.
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Caesar Kalinowski:And I bet if you're listening to the podcast, you probably are a great fit.
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Caesar Kalinowski:And then that's where you can enroll and get started right away and pick up those bonuses.
Caesar Kalinowski:So go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching to get started right now, don't miss out.
Caesar Kalinowski:This will be the last time this year that you can get in and really cue yourself up.
Caesar Kalinowski:For 2025.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, this is a pretty cool topic today.
Caesar Kalinowski:When starting a Missional Community or leading one, or maybe if you're a church or a set of leaders within a church or small group leaders, wherever you're setting out to maybe do new forms of Community, more outward focused communities, we'll call them Missional communities.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can call them whatever you want, but that's what we call them.
Caesar Kalinowski:But when setting out to do that, are you going to be, uh, Doing a network based Missional Community, or are you going to be doing a neighborhood based, you know, neighborhoods everybody's around you network is out there more.
Caesar Kalinowski:So I want to talk a little about that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And if you are either you've been doing this or you're heading out into some new waters, cause a lot of stuff has changed in the last year here.
Caesar Kalinowski:You've already figured out that getting into new Missional rhythms as an extended family is not without its challenges.
Caesar Kalinowski:It takes great humility and ongoing intentionality to move our own lives and our own families toward this type of a lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:Discipleship is a lifestyle and it's exponentially harder when more and more people come into the circle with us, but don't be discouraged.
Caesar Kalinowski:We all have to begin where we're at, but with some intentionality and some understanding of how these communities come together.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to make some better choices and you're going to have a little smoother road.
Caesar Kalinowski:Remember that all of this is a supernatural work of God.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's not like we can just work hard enough and this'll happen.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is all God's work.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he always fills what he commands his people to do.
Caesar Kalinowski:And Jesus said, go and make disciples everywhere, every crack and cranny and crook and cranny or whatever, you know what I'm saying?
Caesar Kalinowski:He's already commanded that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So he will.
Caesar Kalinowski:Provide for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:He will lead you through tough spots, fears, confusion, whatever comes up.
Caesar Kalinowski:And he is always full of grace and he never condemns our shortcomings or something.
Caesar Kalinowski:We try and say, well, that didn't work.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm gonna try something else.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we don't need to either we don't need to condemn ourselves or anybody else.
Caesar Kalinowski:One of the challenges you will almost certainly begin to run into as you're intentional relational.
Caesar Kalinowski:Network of friends begins to grow is going to be proximity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Should we start a Missional Community?
Caesar Kalinowski:That's only neighborhood-based.
Caesar Kalinowski:With everyone right around us within certain sort of walking, striking distance or whatever, or a few minutes driver, or should we start a Missional Community?
Caesar Kalinowski:That's, network-based made up of lots of different relationships maybe that we have, or us in a couple other couples have relationships spread out throughout town and work and elsewhere.
Caesar Kalinowski:Should we do it that way?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, I guess that would depend on the situation.
Caesar Kalinowski:Both are completely valid ways of building out Missional Community life.
Caesar Kalinowski:But you need to know which one you're doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you don't accidentally stumble or wonder why is this happening or whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you need to know which one you're doing, but also why.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, like I said, proximity is crucial to truly live in like a family.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's the goal we really want to a Missional Community is like a family and extended family on mission that were oikos is the word he used for church and these types of extended family and scripture.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's what we see that Jesus did.
Caesar Kalinowski:He didn't just spend an hour and a half once a week or maybe twice a week with his disciples and then check you later.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's our goal.
Caesar Kalinowski:So proximity is going to be pretty crucial to live in like a family.
Caesar Kalinowski:Would you agree?
Caesar Kalinowski:Could you imagine if let's say you've got three or four or five kids, some people have none, some have way more than that, but let's just say you do for the sake of this illustration, you've got four or five kids and.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your kids are all living 30 minutes in each direction apart.
Caesar Kalinowski:Not none of them are 15 or 20, whatever.
Caesar Kalinowski:So to get together, you got to drive all over the place or they got to catch rides or wherever just to have a meal.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then, Oh man, forget about lining up all the schedules because between, you know, the teenagers starting to have jobs and there's tons of sports going on a little band camp and all these different things, really, really tough.
Caesar Kalinowski:How the heck could you parent, how could you have a close knit family?
Caesar Kalinowski:How would, you know each other's hearts and be able to have enough sort of invitation banked in each other's life, enough trust built and, you know, warmth and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that you can actually parent and Disciple one another and things like that.
Caesar Kalinowski:You couldn't do that.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, it sounds ridiculous just in the hearing, you're going to start bumping up all kinds of scheduling issues, all that distance from one another will seem like, Oh, we could never do what we want.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it's the same in a Missional Community distance from one another will seem to prohibit the more organic elements of life together on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:And I'm often asked if you can start a Missional Community with people who don't live anywhere near each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Can you have groups that are made up of people who live all over town or even further away?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, the answer's yes, Nan kind of know the real issue behind these questions is can you live like a close family?
Caesar Kalinowski:If you rarely see each other?
Caesar Kalinowski:Well within a scheduling and determination, you probably can make it work.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're networked, you're more spread out.
Caesar Kalinowski:It is possible to live out the more organized aspects of family life that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:But are you going to have a hard time bringing in the organic aspect of discipleship and mission in life together?
Caesar Kalinowski:And remember healthy family takes both your family.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let's I'm hoping it's healthy is not just a series of organized activities and you don't see each other have any interaction between those, those things or, or little, it's not just organic either where it's like, well, whatever's going on?
Caesar Kalinowski:We eat whenever.
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know.
Caesar Kalinowski:People eat.
Caesar Kalinowski:Sometimes the kids go to school.
Caesar Kalinowski:We pay the bills.
Caesar Kalinowski:If we think about no, your family has both organized and organic aspects to it.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's where the richness comes.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's where the forward momentum comes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missional Community is going to have to have both.
Caesar Kalinowski:So as you're trying to decide, are we going to do a network or neighborhood you're gonna have to decide, does our network allow for both organized and organic aspects of life together?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's the same if you're neighborhood based, but you can sort of get the pitch already where that's going to be a whole lot easier.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're living pretty close to each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:In my experience, a Missional Community, that's made up of people who do not live relatively close to one another.
Caesar Kalinowski:We'll have a very hard time making disciples and developing others to do the same, their best intentions from what I've seen, usually dissolve into a weekly meeting that they call their Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And it's nothing more than an old school, small group at best with new language and maybe some higher hopes.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause it's just too hard to get together or we are we're super intentional.
Caesar Kalinowski:But everything's gotta be scheduled and you know, if I can't make it, I'm not gonna make it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So when it comes to building a family on mission or Missional Community from a network or neighborhood, I would suggest that if possible, you want to shoot for those people closest to you and trust God for growth and multiplication as your relational network expands.
Caesar Kalinowski:From there, sort of the, from the rings of where you live and maybe a handful of other people that are on mission with you and you're living close together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, just let those rings move outward.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like I said, the goal is to live like a family on mission together, helping people move from unbelief to belief in every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:You've heard me say that a lot on the podcast will, in order to do that, you'll need to be able to do all areas of life together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Common sense if you're gonna make disciples and see the Gospel applied and bring transformation to every area of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, eventually, and often you're going to have to do every area of life together, not just a weekly meeting or a book study or the occasional service project, or what have you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here's the thing, a little side note.
Caesar Kalinowski:As you go along in life, it'll be normal for you to develop relationships with those outside your neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's going to happen.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to find people that you really like or who like you, or build relationships, then they don't necessarily all live right in your neighborhood or within five or 10 minutes or whatever, but collectively as a Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:So as your Missional Community is forming, you'll need to identify your proactive mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:In other words, those you can and are discipling while doing your lives together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Who are you making disciples of specifically?
Caesar Kalinowski:Exactly.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, we're going to have to have a proactive mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Meaning together as the Christians on mission, we're going to have to decide who are we making disciples of?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it a scattered network of people or is it People of Peace that live in proximity?
Caesar Kalinowski:Was, is it a specific subset, like the single moms and their kids within our neighborhood?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it the business owners and their staff and all the businesses that are right up and down this, you know, Avenue here where we live close to.
Caesar Kalinowski:And this is where we hang out and party.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's your proactive mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're choosing who's God leading us to make disciples up.
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it youth?
Caesar Kalinowski:Is it the college kids at the campus that you live two blocks from?
Caesar Kalinowski:I don't know, but you're going to need that.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's your proactive mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Are you a neighborhood group, but all of your People of Peace come from a wide network.
Caesar Kalinowski:Are you networked and working on identifying People of Peace in all of the separate neighborhoods that you come from.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then you're going to try to combine them in one community.
Caesar Kalinowski:You have to be proactive and decide who specifically we're making disciples of, because if you don't, if you don't know, and you're not intentional you, how do you pray towards that?
Caesar Kalinowski:It's just going to be maybe organic at best.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're probably not going to make disciples now on top of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:On top of having a proactive mission, you'll need to learn to trust God with the reactive mission opportunities that come up in the flow of life at work, or with those outside your close, closer relational circle.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I want to stress that since the goal of discipleship is to see every part of our lives come in line with the truth of the gospel being and living more and more like Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:We have to be sure that we're actually in the normal stuff of everyday life with the people we're discipling.
Caesar Kalinowski:See, it's one thing to be a witness to someone.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's a reactive mission opportunity say, Hey, there's this person in my life.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're at work.
Caesar Kalinowski:They live real far away, but I want to be a witness to him, but it's another thing to disciple them in all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And ultimately if you're not able to do more and more life with a person, you'll not be able to disciple them.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can still live as a witness and live to glorify God, show them what he's like through your words, your actions, your generosity, but discipleship is life on life, life, and Community like a family and life on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:You got to keep that in mind.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we're going to have to pick a proactive mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Who specifically are we making disciples of?
Caesar Kalinowski:And then we also are going to have reactive Missional opportunities and some people try to say, well, all those, that's my mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't Disciple that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:You gotta be able to do life together, life on life, life, and community life on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, let me give you three advantages to starting a neighborhood-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:First it's easier live both the organized and organic rhythms of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like I was saying more and more like an extended family.
Caesar Kalinowski:When you live in proximity, that's either within walking distance or pretty darn close, it's easy to kind of run into each other and Hey, pop on over.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're doing this.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to have grab some ice cream and you want to do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's going to be a whole lot easier.
Caesar Kalinowski:Second advantage to starting a neighborhood based Missional Community, the People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:In your life are much more likely to lean in to relationship.
Caesar Kalinowski:When they see you in the neighborhood, they run into you dropping kids off at the school, maybe at the same cafe or grocery store, it's easier to serve one another when someone's sick or they need a meal or, Hey, let me, let me pick the kids up for you or drop them off or Hey, drop them off over here.
Caesar Kalinowski:After school, we, when someone's in a pitch, your kids are playing together.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's so much easier for your People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:Those people were God's bringing into your life are leaning into relationship to actually lean in compared to when they're real far away.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you might see him if you schedule it out far enough, here's the third advantage to starting a neighborhood-based Missional Community, word of mouth in your neighborhood about the fun and the joy and life you're experiencing travels fast in a neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:When you're starting to have open table and you're serving each other, and there's a lot of blessing going out through the normal discipleship rhythms of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:People start to talk about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:People are going to hear about it and growth happens pretty naturally through more and more folks who live near you, kind of hearing about it and wanting a place at the table, that's way less likely to happen when we're all spread out.
Caesar Kalinowski:No one knows each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hmm.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here's a couple challenges to starting a neighborhood-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause it's not all perfect.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:There's advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's a couple of challenges to starting a neighborhood based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:It can be slow at first, since you may be starting off just as one couple alone, or maybe a couple couples, two couples and developing relationships out of a smaller pool of people, because it's just your neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:And you have to calibrate invitation and challenge in their lives.
Caesar Kalinowski:That can be a little slower at first.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to go deeper, but now as wide as quick.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's a challenge.
Caesar Kalinowski:You have to be prepared to take time and bank a lot of invitation trust time with those people so that you can begin to calibrate the relational challenge up the slope.
Caesar Kalinowski:As you move closer and closer to discipling them, to walk with Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's another challenge to starting a neighborhood based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you are sort of the life of the party family in your neighborhood events, like an open table that you start having can grow very quickly without having enough mature Christians on mission with you to actually get a lot of Gospel work.
Caesar Kalinowski:And discipleship happening.
Caesar Kalinowski:We always felt like we had to stay on developing of new leaders that could Disciple and start new Missional communities because a lot of times, at least in our life and in our neighborhoods, Those types of open table events and serving and all, they just grew and grew and the healthy things always grow, but it can be hard to kind of keep up with that growth and not just becomes sort of the fun people in the neighborhood who are also Christians, but there's not a lot of discipleship happening that can be a challenge.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's kind of a good problem to have, or a good challenge to have, but it's something to think about now, a quick note about proximity.
Caesar Kalinowski:Proximity is relative, depending on your context, what seems like living in close proximity might be different.
Caesar Kalinowski:When we lived in Tacoma, proximity was, there was so many people we could just walk to and I could walk to two of the top 50 pubs in America.
Caesar Kalinowski:And the restaurant we own was a 10 minute walk away.
Caesar Kalinowski:And literally there was four or five.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missional Community is worth of People, 2030 plus people with within just a five, 10 minute walk of each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:It was, it grew and multiplied and grew and multiplied.
Caesar Kalinowski:That was our proximity.
Caesar Kalinowski:There was no need to whatever driveway across town and say, I'm going to pull that person into Community with me.
Caesar Kalinowski:But like when we lived in New York, in New York city, when Tina and I were living there for a couple of years, not too long ago.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it was different people in our neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:It was so dense in New York was so big.
Caesar Kalinowski:They would say, Hey, what's your subway stop?
Caesar Kalinowski:And we'd say, Oh, well it's 72nd.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause we live on 75th and they'd be like 72nd.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oh man, I get off at one Oh eight.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm like.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm only two stops down we're neighbors.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, that was actually a million people later, but it's only two stops on the subway to them to train.
Caesar Kalinowski:So they felt like that's not, it's a few minutes.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm already on the train.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm just gonna hop off at your neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:One minute.
Caesar Kalinowski:Walk to your front door, man.
Caesar Kalinowski:Hello neighbor.
Caesar Kalinowski:Different right.
Caesar Kalinowski:We coached some people in North Dakota.
Caesar Kalinowski:They said, because it's so spread out up there and giant farms.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, it's not that uncommon to know people pretty deeply and see them pretty regularly.
Caesar Kalinowski:Even though you have to hop in your car and drive 40, 45 minutes to see each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm like what?
Caesar Kalinowski:Like, yeah, there's just not that many people it's really spread out.
Caesar Kalinowski:We've worked with other people who live in a somewhat rural.
Caesar Kalinowski:Setting, but there are some neighbors, but there's also kind of farm nets and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so for them, it's probably people within a five or 10 minute drive or, well, we all have to go to the downtown, to, to bank and go to the one cafe.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's where the feed store is.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that's where the theater is and the one grocery store.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so as long as everybody's kind of striking distance to that, that's our proximity.
Caesar Kalinowski:So just remember proximity is a bit relative.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if you're incarnating together, you're with a few believers, you're really trying to be Jesus and put the flesh on to the Gospel in a specific part of your city or neighborhood reaching people that are in very tight proximity.
Caesar Kalinowski:I gotta be honest with you.
Caesar Kalinowski:I think that's going to be a great advantage to you.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay, I'm playing my hand here.
Caesar Kalinowski:I think trying to live incarnationally and on-mission when there's closer proximity and more people is going to be easier.
Caesar Kalinowski:We felt like in New York, even though people said, Oh, it's so hard in the city.
Caesar Kalinowski:No, one's gonna want to live this way.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're not going to be really hard to make disciples and Community all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:We found it to be the opposite.
Caesar Kalinowski:It was so many people.
Caesar Kalinowski:It was so dense.
Caesar Kalinowski:All you had to do is go out the front door, eyes closed, Chuck, a rock.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to hit 10 people.
Caesar Kalinowski:It just, it was just so many people to love on and build relationship with.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now, that's sort of the best case scenario because you're going to be running into each other life on life's going to happen much more normatively the display of the Gospel and sort of all the, I think, a best case scenario for a network.
Caesar Kalinowski:Missional Community would ultimately beat stuff of life is happening in the Gospel, soaking into everything.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's what you want if possible.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now lets kind of go to the other model cause there's also advantages and disadvantages there.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're Missional Community is made up of people that are coming from different parts of town and for whatever reason have formed a community on mission, you can still do it.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to have to be a lot more intentional about how you plan your events and activities together and know that it could start to feel event based pretty quickly if you're not careful.
Caesar Kalinowski:So if you've got a network of people, you're going to have to plan things that they can be a part of, but you're also have to let them know that that's not our whole life like this weekly family dinner night thing that we do together.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's on our whole life or when we got together and we studied that, or we went over here and we served.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's just part of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:I mean, we're not a family one night a week, so you gotta kind of let them understand that like really proactively communicate this.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is a blast, but we do all kinds of steps together and you're going to have to be super intentional about also your one-to-one connections, coupled a couple one-to-one all that in between the group times.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause that organizational stuff's going to be much, much harder.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it takes a lot more intentionality.
Caesar Kalinowski:A lot more consistency that the people who were kind of spread out to believers would ultimately learn how to grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:And be sent back into their own neighborhoods where they could then have more neighborhood proximity and be with people and start their own oikos their own family on mission, their own Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:We found.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oftentimes probably because we were leaders of the church and he, and People see preaching and hear you talking about stuff and they know you're writing books and all that, whatever I want to be in your Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:But you live across town.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, we really want to be a part of something that's happening and yeah.
Caesar Kalinowski:Can't, we just be a part of your Missional Community where we'd say, well, you can, but only for maybe six months, you're going to have to make everything we're doing.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause pretty much everybody else lives right here.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you can be a part of it.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're gonna let people know that you're part of the family and you're learning how to live this way and be a blessing in the neighborhoods.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it's not weird to our, not yet believing neighbors and all that.
Caesar Kalinowski:But within six months, we're going to challenge you to either go back into your neighborhood and start the same things that we've been teaching you and showing you, or move into our neighborhood and join this mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:Full-time we're not just going to, we're not going to take our current one that's neighborhood base.
Caesar Kalinowski:And just let it sort of become a peep show and you know, and no one knows anybody because they don't live around here, but except for a few of us.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:So even, even if you have one that its sort of networking that way, make the goal to ultimately be sending people back to their own neighborhoods.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now the differences between a neighborhood and network-based Missional Community are not insurmountable and neither is like I said, perfect.
Caesar Kalinowski:They come with.
Caesar Kalinowski:Advantages and challenges.
Caesar Kalinowski:And, and I got to tell you, I I've actually seen that depending on where you start, you might actually spawn or sort of plant out of one type, the other type.
Caesar Kalinowski:Let me tell you what I mean by that, uh, Missional Community that's initially based completely in a neighborhood will eventually, as people are coming to know Christ and becoming disciples, it's gonna eventually grow.
Caesar Kalinowski:They've got friends and relationships and family members that just don't happen to live in your neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:But now, as they're walking with Jesus and being set free, they're on fire a little bit.
Caesar Kalinowski:They want to see their friends and family come to know Christ and begin walking in his ways.
Caesar Kalinowski:With them in this family community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so they begin to have sort of a networked set of relationships that come to bear.
Caesar Kalinowski:They can start to hang out.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, we're not going to squash that.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you see how, even though you might've started with great proximity, healthy things grow and they might network out a little bit there again, not a bad opportunity for growth again.
Caesar Kalinowski:Guess what vice-a-versa also happens.
Caesar Kalinowski:You might start out with a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And as people are coming to Christ, People of Peace are popping up around them, where they live and we've had that happen.
Caesar Kalinowski:And people come to us and say, Hey, I've got a whole lot of people in my neighborhood that I'm starting to get to know.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're really starting to lean in.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm going to start my own open table, dinner night, sort of thing, just to get to know and reach out to a handful of people in my own cul de sac here or in this part of my city.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm hoping it's going to grow into a full blown Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Pretty cool.
Caesar Kalinowski:Right?
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's why I say know either can work, but you got to know which one you're doing and where it's heading and you gotta be really intentional about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So how you start doesn't really matter as much as that you do get started and depending on where the spirit takes it, who knows this is going to be an amazing thing, but you do have to be intentional.
Caesar Kalinowski:And know that there's differences between these two approaches.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here, let me give you three advantages to starting a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:One where you're starting out and you're not all living in the same neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's the first one.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your church, small group structure may already be set up this way.
Caesar Kalinowski:And serve as a starting point now is everybody's not living all that close together in my small group, but we love each other.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we've been learning about Missional Community life and making disciples as a lifestyle.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we've been listening to the podcast and we're excited about this.
Caesar Kalinowski:So we are going to start that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause that's who we know.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we're going to start identifying people at Peace and go from there.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now this could present a set of its own problems too, because sometimes our small groups, our traditional church, he stuff has some inertia.
Caesar Kalinowski:heading in the wrong direction.
Caesar Kalinowski:Be careful for that.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's the second advantage to starting a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:It can be much easier to begin with a networked group of Christians who have identified one or two of their own People of Peace already.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so you start out having a much larger initial group of people to start with.
Caesar Kalinowski:Compared to say, Tina and I are in a new neighborhood.
Caesar Kalinowski:We are get there's no other Christians we know yet.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we're getting to know a few other people at Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's slow work, but God's moving.
Caesar Kalinowski:We can see it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Well, if there's two or three, four families that are Christians, even if they're spread out, but they all have identified their own People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:And there's a lot of trust there.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so they're going to say, Hey, we want you to meet some other friends.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're going to start hanging out together, doing life.
Caesar Kalinowski:And they have that type of relationship.
Caesar Kalinowski:It can be a lot quicker to get started.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here's an here's the third advantage to this approach being networked across a wider geographical area, sort of plants, oikos, or family on mission seeds all over the city.
Caesar Kalinowski:Ready for city-wide multiplication.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's one of my favorite aspects of a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're really intentional about it, you say, okay, we're network from all over town.
Caesar Kalinowski:But we're kind of in equipping mode.
Caesar Kalinowski:This is like a pilot group.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then we're all going to, at some point when it makes sense, we're going to all, boop, we're going to become three or four groups when Soma Community started in Tacoma.
Caesar Kalinowski:We had one sort of training, very, very networked Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And.
Caesar Kalinowski:After several months, boop.
Caesar Kalinowski:It went out to four.
Caesar Kalinowski:We just sort of grew a big X in the city of Tacoma.
Caesar Kalinowski:And there was four Missional communities and they were sent out, sent out into their corners.
Caesar Kalinowski:And so whoever lived closest to those families, they were part of that.
Caesar Kalinowski:And as it just kept multiplying, we got closer and closer to proximity, but boy, it did facilitate some pretty quicker geographical growth.
Caesar Kalinowski:I loved it.
Caesar Kalinowski:Now here's some challenges.
Caesar Kalinowski:Kind of already run over him, but here's some challenges to starting a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's very hard to get together for the organic rhythms of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:Everything's gotta be planned and scheduled and to cause, and can start to feel like a program meeting to meeting event, to event.
Caesar Kalinowski:And we've already had plenty of that for way too long in the church.
Caesar Kalinowski:We want this to be like a family.
Caesar Kalinowski:So that's a challenge.
Caesar Kalinowski:Second challenge to starting a network-based Missional Community, since discipleship's about all of life.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's going to take much greater level of intentionality and commitment to actually do all of life together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Otherwise we're just fooling ourselves and that's especially true with your People of Peace who are out there networked connected to the believers who they're not really on mission with you yet.
Caesar Kalinowski:They're still checking out these relationships and stuff.
Caesar Kalinowski:So it's hard.
Caesar Kalinowski:For them to experience normal, organic family rhythms of life with you, you might have some better luck getting the Christians to hang out a whole lot more often than once a week, but it's going to be exponentially harder with your People of Peace for awhile.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's a challenge.
Caesar Kalinowski:And here's the third challenge to starting a network-based Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Oftentimes when we're not living in proximity with shared relationships with our People of Peace.
Caesar Kalinowski:So, you know, my People of Peace, I know yours, theirs, maybe they're yours too.
Caesar Kalinowski:People can feel like they're just a group of lone ranger, vagabond, missionaries, the Christians, they feel that way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like we're just kind of lone ranger missionaries.
Caesar Kalinowski:We meet together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Once a week maybe to talk about our individual missions, but we're really not living like an oikos, like a family on mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're not on the same mission.
Caesar Kalinowski:We kind of have our lone ranger missions out there.
Caesar Kalinowski:We just kind of come together to talk about and pray about it.
Caesar Kalinowski:That's not a Missional Community and you can't make a mature Disciple alone.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can't Disciple someone just one-to-one to be like Jesus.
Caesar Kalinowski:Cause it takes the body of Christ.
Caesar Kalinowski:No one of us is like Jesus alone.
Caesar Kalinowski:We're part of the body.
Caesar Kalinowski:It takes a Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:Same way.
Caesar Kalinowski:Jesus did it.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you can see there are advantages and disadvantages to both ways of starting and organizing a Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:And even how they multiply both are going to take a lot of intentionality.
Caesar Kalinowski:And one type of Community may even morph into the other over time.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I hope that helps and maybe brings down some of the tension or confusion connected to all of this.
Caesar Kalinowski:But I hope you'll get started.
Caesar Kalinowski:I hope you keep going.
Caesar Kalinowski:And by the way, if you're loving what you're learning here, if this is helpful and you'd like a little more personal I would love to talk with you and get you some information about the coaching and the mentorship that we offer.
Caesar Kalinowski:Just go over to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching, and you get a whole bunch of information and fill out the application.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then if you're approved, what we'll do is we'll send you back a whole outline of the Everyday Disciple framework, where we really unpack the whole thing.
Caesar Kalinowski:And then that's where you can enroll and get started right away and pick up those bonuses.
Caesar Kalinowski:So go to Everyday Disciple dot com forward slash coaching to get started right now, don't miss out.
Caesar Kalinowski:This will be the last time this year that you can get in and really cue yourself up.
Caesar Kalinowski:For 2025
Caesar Kalinowski:All right.
Caesar Kalinowski:It's time for the big three takeaways from today's topic.
Caesar Kalinowski:You don't want to miss these and as always, you can get a printable PDF of this.
Caesar Kalinowski:Week's big three that I'm about to read here.
Caesar Kalinowski:You can get that as a free download by going to Everyday Disciple dot com.
Caesar Kalinowski:Big three, big three.
Caesar Kalinowski:Here are the big three for this week.
Caesar Kalinowski:First.
Caesar Kalinowski:Don't miss this starting Missional Community takes a lot of intentionality either way and it takes great trust in the Holy Spirit's leading.
Caesar Kalinowski:So whether building a Missional Community with a group of other Christians or starting off alone with mostly not yet believers you'll need to be super intentional on developing both organized and organic rhythms.
Caesar Kalinowski:Like write that down, organized and organic.
Caesar Kalinowski:Your goal is to increasingly live like a family and be able to experience the Gospel, transforming every area of life together.
Caesar Kalinowski:Number two, God is committed to his eternal purpose to fill the world with his glory.
Caesar Kalinowski:And that includes your neighborhood in mind and neighborhoods all across your city.
Caesar Kalinowski:Will you take the next step in joining him on this mission?
Caesar Kalinowski:Or will you continue to be a church attender with a little mission thrown into the margins of your life you were created for just such a time as this and God has you exactly where he wants you trust him and get started.
Caesar Kalinowski:Okay.
Caesar Kalinowski:Yeah, we get two.
Caesar Kalinowski:You get two and number three, which of these approaches are you taking?
Caesar Kalinowski:What are you doing?
Caesar Kalinowski:If you're starting a Missional Community, or maybe you have one identify, whether you're structured based on a network of relationships or making disciples in closer proximity within your neighborhood, healthy things always grow in whichever way you start may change and morph, but determine where you're starting.
Caesar Kalinowski:So you can plot a course.
Caesar Kalinowski:You're going to be glad you did.
Caesar Kalinowski:It will be a lot less stressful.
Caesar Kalinowski:All right, well, there it is.
Caesar Kalinowski:Again, another episode in the can, as we say, , please join me next week.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'm going to be talking about micro church house church.
Caesar Kalinowski:Dinner church, Missional church or Missional Community.
Caesar Kalinowski:How are they alike?
Caesar Kalinowski:How are they different?
Caesar Kalinowski:Which should we be doing?
Caesar Kalinowski:So if your church has latched onto a new strategy that uses one of these terms, or you're thinking about it, you don't want to miss this episode.
Caesar Kalinowski:I'll talk to you soon.
Heath Hollensbe:Thanks for joining us today.
Heath Hollensbe:For more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.
Heath Hollensbe:And remember, you really can live with the spiritual freedom and relational peace that Jesus promised every day.