Caesar Kalinowski

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Discipleship and Mission Made Simple

The First Time I Tried Starting a Missional Community I Failed

Have you ever tried starting a missional community from scratch?

“Missional” is a label we give to the qualitative and descriptive aspect of how a church or group of people actually lives. My buddy Hugh Halter says it simply,

“It’s about how much like Jesus people become… how much they influence, woo, and transform the culture in which they are placed.”

A family, group of friends or church that lives like this… Sounds good!

Well, a few years ago my friends all thought so too. We were excited to be rebels who were starting a missional community.

Excited, that is, until things progressed to where we moved beyond our weekly meal and discussion about being missional. It was time to start heading out and building new relationships, serving those in need in our city… actually making disciples.

Starting a Missional Community

That’s when everyone recoiled a bit.

Let’s Try This Missional Community Thing Again

Now I’ve learned how to make discipleship and mission a reality–something simple that everyone can live out in everyday life.

What I didn’t know back in those earlier days of starting a missional community was that while most Christians want to make disciples and live on mission with God, they also feel way to busy!

Often, when moving toward a lifestyle of discipleship and mission, people become overwhelmed with what they perceive as the risk of their family time, “margins” and sanity!

The secret is moving from “additional” to “intentional” in our thinking.

Discipleship is not a set of activities we need to jam into our lives, or a series classes that we need to take. And a missional community is more than just a weekly meeting of our small group with a name change.

It’s a series of simple, rhythms or “moves” we can easily, and intentionally, engage in our everyday life. Step by step.

Starting a Missional Community Step by step

Imagine…

  • Making new friendships that naturally lead to “doing life” together.
    (I can show you how.)
  • Or knowing how to talk with others about spiritual things without feeling awkward or pushy.

Discipleship becomes a way of life that includes your kids, close friends and neighbors.

That’s what my family and friends now experience.

If you want it… I’m here to get you started without all the headaches, stop/starts and frustration.

The best part? It’s 7 simple steps.

This process takes a little effort and intentionality. But it’s not complicated. And it’s one of the fastest ways I’ve discovered to get started with others making disciples and building community.
(You can do Steps 1 and 2 today!)

I want to give you access to this free Start-Up Guide (including ‘How To Start a Missional Community From Scratch’). Just click the button below and I’ll send it over.

Starting a Missional Community From Scratch

 

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!

Get started here…

Creating An Effective Discipleship Environment  Pt.1

(more…)

Are You Wasting Time Developing the Wrong People?

I’ve spent decades discipling and developing leaders. While there has certainly been fruit and multiplication, for years it seemed that the amount of effort I was putting into training up leaders wasn’t yielding a proportionate harvest. I wonder how often I’ve spent time developing the wrong people?

In my earliest experiences with starting missional communities and planting churches, I learned that I had to keep my eye on the prize of ongoing leadership development. It had to remain a high priority. We equipped everyone in community in the same way as we tried to raise a new crop of leaders. (more…)

7 Community Relationship Killers

Life in a community on God’s mission is messy. It just is. Lots of relational dynamics come into play… hopes, fears, preferences, etc. Things will get complicated when you have humans working together!

In this episode, Caesar gives you 7 community relationship killers that you’ll want to watch for and avoid. You’re going to need this!

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • Why confidentiality is critical for a healthy community.
  • How unspoken expectations undermine unity.
  • How to deal with the “fixer” in your group.
  • Ways that leaders set the tone and ethos for the community.

Get started here…

7 Community Relationship Killers

(more…)

Becoming a Family on Mission Pt.2

You’ll never lead anyone further, faster, or deeper into the gospel and discipleship than you’re leading your own family. Never. But people are waiting for a place at your table and a taste of life in the Kingdom of God! Let’s go deeper…

In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, Caesar and his wife, Tina, continue the story of how their family rhythms grew to include many others as they make disciples in community. They’ll share some of the things that God had to change in their hearts and home for this Kingdom lifestyle to become a reality.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • The rest of the Team K story and a heartwarming testimony you gotta hear!
  • The ways God may want to speak into your busyness, fear, shyness, lack of love, etc.
  • How individualism in our Western culture has severely damaged our families.
  • Why the way you lead your family on mission can be the model for your church.

Get started here…

Becoming a Family on Mission Pt.2

(more…)

3 Simple Words That Will Change Your Life

If you feel like you have to have the “master plan” before ever making a decision, making disciples or getting started in something new, I want to share three simple words that will change your life forever.

Let me share this simple process that I’ve come to call “What next, Lord?”

This works the same in every area of life, really, but let me tell you a story to illustrate how we’ve come to use this in making disciples and living on mission.

[Download this as a printable transcript and also get my free personal ‘What next, Lord?’ Prayer Journal Template]

(more…)

ABOUT ME

I am the author of the top selling book, The Gospel Primer. My latest books, Transformed and Small is Big, Slow is Fast came out recently on Zondervan.

I help those with a high commitment to intentional living in the areas of their discipleship, family and mission acquire the leadership skills and tools necessary to succeed and leave a lasting legacy.

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