How my parents ROCKED this lifestyle of discipleship and mission!

It really is a good day. I’m not saying everything is going perfectly in life. But the Good News has already touched down here for Team K (what we call our family) and we’re grateful for this life we live together on mission with God...in the normal rhythms of life.

 

What a week of discipleship as a lifestyle it’s been already!

 

(If you missed my last couple of emails, you missed a lot of our story. Read them now.)

 

I promised you a pretty exciting and cool
way to be a part of a ‘lifestyle apprenticeship’
with us…Stick with me, I’m getting to it.

We used to call our first missional community “La Familia”. And that’s what it was: the Family. Our family. God’s family here on Earth. (Tacoma to be more exact.)

 

Like I already shared, this lifestyle is pretty different than the typical Christian church experience. And it’s not for the comfortable, consumer or couldn’t-care-less.

Let me share with you a little bit of what this life together, experiencing our Christian faith and the good news of the gospel looks and tastes like in everyday life.

 

And I won’t do it by bragging or trying to look good...I’ll share a story of when my parents came to visit us and how quickly our language, lifestyle and rhythms grabbed their hearts and moved them into the center of this eternity now lifestyle.

Johnny Red and a Dizzle

My mom and dad were great people and pretty much your average Christians who “attended church” a couple times each week for more than thirty years. They gave at least 10% of their income to the church and more to missionaries around the world.

 

When we first started to live this “everyday faith”, my parents had a hard time grasping just what it was we were trying to do or be as these missionaries. Previously, when I was a pastor at a very large suburban church near Chicago, they understood my life of meetings at the church building every day.

 

They loved to come watch me preach in front of thousands of people on Sunday with my face twelve-feet tall on the jumbo video screens. But what exactly do you do now?

So they decided to come for a visit to see and experience this lifestyle for themselves.

They arrived the day before we threw a very large Labor Day party for a real eclectic mix. There were a bunch of “regular” folks, who were my neighbors. Some kids with their parents. Several guys and gals from our missional community, which at the time was mostly twenty-something hipsters. They brought some of their friends and girlfriends along.

 

And there were my parents.

Kind of a freak show really.

But my Dad eased in and started making the rounds at the party, talking with folks. He ended up in a conversation with a good friend of mine we called Dizzle. (“What is a ‘dizzle’?” he later asked me.)

 

My Dad encouraged him in his new teaching job that was going poorly, and told him he would pray for him. Weeks later Diz told me that everything had turned around for him at work, and to be sure to thank my dad for praying for him!

Dad also spent a lot of time that day talking to a young, long black-haired, super-tattooed rocker who went by the name of “Johnny Red.” Johnny was a drug addict and using several drugs at the time.

My father recounted his own struggle with alcoholism and how Jesus had taken that addiction and destructive lifestyle from him, saving his life and marriage.

 

He encouraged Johnny not to try harder, but to trust Jesus more. I could hardly believe what I was seeing and hearing.

 

My Dad was tearing up this missionary thing!

Later that week, I took my folks, along with La Familia on a walk around our neighborhood. I asked my community to notice, as we walked around, anything or anyone that was broken, messed up, or not the way that God desired it to be.

There were run-down houses, broken fences in need of repair, and a park full of trash. We overheard a young couple having a very heated discussion. The husband was not very happy about something and seemed to be drunk.

 

We prayed and asked God to show us which of these people or things he would have us be a part of restoring and healing in the weeks ahead. Then we walked home. There were no crazy epiphanies, but we were listening.

Afterward, my dad said to me,

 

"I have never done anything like that before. But I think I’m getting it.

 

Most people in your neighborhood would never go to church to hear about Jesus, so you are taking the church and Jesus and his family to them. Is that right?”

Yes, Dad. I couldn’t have put it better myself.

There it is. A taste of the ease and “normalcy” of our life lived together on mission, as a very diverse family. Young, old, hip–and in my Dad’s case–definitely square…

Everyone engaged right where they’re at on the journey, and everyone involved. An ongoing, integrated lifestyle apprenticeship.

Yesterday, I promised the visionary practitioners and pioneers among you (who are ready to rise above the status quo) a very special opportunity:

 

What if you could come to my house,

along with my family and community

and experience this lifestyle for yourself?

 

And then take it home and share it with others?

 

Awesome right?!

 

I want to do just that and invite you to join us for what we are calling ‘LAUNCH’.

 

It really is time to move your faith from Sunday-to-Sunday, to a daily vibrant experience in the normal rhythms of your life. An authentic faith lived with your family and close friends.

 

Start to live one integrated life versus living “your real life” and then fitting in your “Christian life”, responsibilities and duties, by experiencing an integrated lifestyle apprenticeship.

 

Discover a unique combination of innovative ideas, teaching, heart transformation and immersive experiences (life on life). Combined with daily, weekly LIVE encouragement.

 

But there is only room for 30 people, and it starts pretty soon.

 

Check it out and register now.

 

I’m excited to start doing this for you!

 

~Caesar

 

P.S. Be sure not to miss the opportunity to get a free 15 minute missional lifestyle consultation with me on the phone to be sure you’re a good fit for this apprenticeship.

 

P.P.S. If you have any questions or “wonderings” at all, hit REPLY and let me know. I’ll get right back to you. 30 spots will fill up FAST!