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.
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.
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.
It’s Time For The Church To Tell a New Story (w/Brad Brisco)
If we are serious about changing the culture within the church, then we must begin to change the narrative that leaders tell. If the only stories we are telling through social media are who is preaching, what you’re preaching, and how amazing everything was on Sunday, then we will continue to get and BE what we continue to highlight.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, Caesar is joined by author and missional strategist, Brad Brisco. They discuss how the types of stories we’re commonly telling about our churches are having damaging consequences. It’s time to change all that!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How silly our stories about our church sound and look online.
- How many of our stories betray a deep sense of consumerism.
- Why changing the narratives we tell will reshape the Church itself.
- Ways to discover and discern what God is already doing, and then tell those stories.
Death Makes No Sense
Today I want to talk with you for a bit about a really cheery topic. Death.
Wait! Don’t go away just yet, stay with me.
Recently I was at a funeral. The mother of a friend of mine passed away and there were hundreds of people who came to say their goodbyes and be with the family. The ceremony went on for hours.
What Causes Sin and How to Stop It
“Just stop it!” doesn’t really work when it comes to changing sinful actions, habits, or thoughts in our lives (or in others). And perhaps what you’ve been taught about sin and repentance is all wrong…
Today on the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we talk about where sin really comes from and how we can move away from our particular brand of sin and find freedom. What if all sin is actually a symptom of something else?
Not many Christians think of themselves as unbelievers. We normally use the term to describe people who are not yet followers of Jesus. But there are many things about God that we all still do not believe. Often there’s a large gap between what we say we believe in our head, and what we truly believe in our heart. This is where sin comes from.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- A radical heart-level perspective on sin and repentance.
- How and why God looks at the heart–not at your actions.
- Four eternal truths about God, when not fully believed, lead to every human sin.
- A way to stop sinning by changing what you believe to be true (powerful!)
A Garden in My Heart
I have a love–hate relationship with my garden and flowerbeds. On one hand, I love when they are clean, planted, and blooming at all the right times each season.
On the other, because of the rains that are present throughout every season in Tacoma, where Tina and I have our family home, I have a non-stop battle to fight with weeds that remain the fastest growing and most robust plants I have. They even grow full speed ahead during the winter, when everything else is either dead or taking a break.
I was working on my garden out in front of my house one sunny afternoon, (yes, we do get sun in the Pacific Northwest too!), and as I pulled weeds and replaced them with bright, colorful flowers, something started to shift in me. My heart softened as my nails became caked with rich, black soil. I started feeling as if I was involved in a much grander project or purpose. It was as if I was connecting to the overarching restoration of all things that God has promised to do in our world.
Is my front garden a part of that?
In that moment, it sure seemed like it. The Spirit reminded me that this is how he works within me too, pulling one weed at a time and replacing it with something beautiful. I started to think of all the people I know with weeds and thorny, spiky parts of their personality and life. Maybe I was to be patient and willing to get my hands a little dirty helping to “beautify the garden” of their lives too?
One by one, people from the neighborhood started to notice what I was up to. “Wow! That is looking really beautiful. I just love petunias!” “I was wondering if you were ever going to get around to this project.”
Not the feedback I hoped for, but I’ll take it.
One of the workers from the Salvation Army next door who loves to give me gardening advice, ambled over and said, “This is looking really good. I think I’ll start taking my breaks over here in front of your house from now on.” My flowerbeds were becoming his own little Garden of Eden in the neighborhood. A simple hour or two of gardening had refreshed and re-created my attitude in some pretty profound ways.
Maybe everything we work at is like this if we have that perspective and take the time to notice. There is possibility for redemption all around us.
So, if you’ve been putting off some actual weeding you need to do outside in your garden, or in the garden of your heart or others, the next best time to get started is now.
Stop Confusing Justice With Payback & Revenge
Most of us carry a definition of justice we picked up somewhere along the way — and it usually looks like payback. Someone wrongs you, someone wrongs others, and justice means they get what’s coming to them. But what if that version of justice has almost nothing to do with what God actually means by the word?
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, we’re going to dig into what the Bible actually means by mercy and justice — and why they’re not opposites. You’ll discover how God’s justice is really about restoration, and what it looks like to participate in that restorative work in the lives of people around you.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The biblical definitions of mercy and justice that will change how you see both
- What actually produces a love of mercy in your own heart
- How God’s restorative justice is bigger than any weekend service project
- Where to start engaging real injustice — locally and globally
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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.