Small Is Big, Slow Is Fast: Living and Leading Your Family and Community on God's Mission

Chapter 1 – Looking Back to Move Forward Big Idea: A different way of thinking about the church. Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom mess with our modern day conventions and what we think it means to “be the church”, making disciples and developing leaders. Jesus lived with his disciples in a certain way, over a three-year period as he recalibrated their lives, giving them a new, upside down, perspective. The early churches that the disciples started were rooted in everyday life and naturally looked like the people and culture from which they emerged. Chapter 2 – Me, Myself and Mine Big Idea: Personal preparation for a life lived on mission. What are the idols of comfort, control, or fear that I need to die to in order to be prepared to live as a full time missionary in my context? We cannot affectively make disciples and start missional communities unless we can lead our own hearts and the hearts of our families to understand and embrace this lifestyle. With so many Christians coming from a “weekly attendance” mindset for church, with the rest of the week being “mine”, real change has to occur, and it starts in the heart. We’ll explore common sticking points and what to look out for...starting with the person in the mirror. Chapter 3 – Gospel Motivation Big Idea: Learn how to motivate others in ways that, over time, lead to life-long change. We’ll look at how the Gospel motivates us to consistently live life on mission by looking at the things we hold dear in life–where our affections and hopes truly rest. Do we understand and really believe a full and robust gospel message centered on our identity in Christ and the power and purpose of the gospel? This is a life changing understanding of how the gospel saves us and why the gospel saves us. Has the gospel changed our internal motivations to perform or be “successful for Jesus”? We’ll examine the truth about how God now sees us. And we’ll address the head/heart distortion: are we actually living out what we say we believe? Chapter 4 – Saints and Sinners Big Idea: Making friends with not-yet believers and engaging the culture. Often we can get stuck in a Christian ghetto of sorts where we seem to primarily hang out with our friends from church or just other Christians. And if we have any sort of relationship with people from work or school, they do not include a clear and intentional, yet natural, spiritual component and deepening trust. God has placed all of us in multiple environments where there are “men or women of peace” that are leaning into relationship–with us and with Him. I will share many ways to begin to build relationships that are filled with gospel opportunity that fit who we are. We will also explore how to truly love people where they are at in their spiritual journey regardless of how they respond to our faith and proclamations / displays of the good news. Chapter 5 – Into the Fray Big Idea: Moving from a circle of friends (believing and not-yet-believing) to starting a gospel community that lives on mission to a group of people in a specific context. I’ll give practical ways to identify who specifically this community might be on mission to–making disciples who make disciples . I will draw out the differences between missional communities formed around either networks or neighborhoods, looking at the rhythms of a new community that is increasingly living like a family of missionary servants: how often to be together, doing what, when and the ‘why’ behind all of it. I will point to several good and tested resources I have used to expedite certain aspects and learnings within community. Chapter 6 – The Seed Principle Big Idea: Seeding multiplication into everything you do right from the beginning. Healthy things grow. That is how God has designed all of life. Everything he created has the seed of multiplication built into it...plants, animals, humans, families, communities and the Church. But when it comes to discipleship and the