Caesar Kalinowski - Small Is Big, Slow Is Fast: Living and Leading Your Family and Community on Gods Mission

In your hands is an excellent book on new and emerging forms of missional church and discipleship by an outstanding practitioner of the ideas proposed in it. These are hard won insights from the frontline of the church in North America. All hail, Caesar!

ALAN HIRSCH, Founder of Forge Mission Training network, Future Travelers, and award-winning author on missional Christianity in Western contexts. www.alanhirsch.org

The world sets a high measure for big thinking and speedy growth. In Small is Big, Slow is Fast, Caeser Kalinowski challenges us to redefine success and live under a different paradigmone where kings are born in mangers and the smallest deeds can multiply results beyond our imagination. It will challenge you and motive you toward mission.

ED STETZER, www.edstetzer.com

Small is Big, Slow is Fast is an interesting read and more! Caesar Kalinowski has authored a book about how to live, walk, and lead like Jesus in todays culture. This book will encourage you to live the life we were meant to live as followers of Jesus by loving people, creating community, and along the way changing the world.

DAVE FERGUSON, Lead Pastor, Community Christian Church, Illinois

ZONDERVAN

Small Is Big, Slow Is Fast

Copyright 2014 by Caesar Kalinowski

Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Drive SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition September 2014: ISBN 978-0-310-51702-3

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois. All rights reserved.

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Interior design: Greg Johnson/Textbook Perfect

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This book and the work that went into it comes from my heart and is for all of those longing to be disciples who live in the ways of Jesus here, now, today and lead others to do the same.
To God be the glory!

CONTENTS

by Hugh Halter and Mike Breen

by Hugh Halter

After twenty-five years of pastoral ministry, I now realize that most of my methods, metrics, and personal vision for life and influence with people didnt work out the way I thought they would. If youve committed your life to serving Jesus, my guess is that youve come to similar conclusions. Your vision and mission statements didnt move people, your programs didnt change the world, and your preaching didnt bring in the masses. The reality of life and leadership in Christs church can leave you a tad jaded and despondent, wondering if anything works.

Well, the way of Jesus does work! And the idea that small is big, slow is fast is a welcome reminder of critical nuances that most people miss.

I met Caesar during my ministry journey, and I have found him to be a brash reality, a fresh voice, an encouraging coach, and a faithful friend. Ive also spent many hours in Caesar and Tinas home in both Tacoma and now New York City, and the consistency of their life into the lost world is a beacon of hope. Caesars life is valid proof that he has tapped into some secrets Jesus hoped to reveal to us all.

As you read, I believe you will find yourself saying, Why didnt I see that? Why do I keep doing this? He makes it sound so doable. This is what I will now give my life to. But Caesar is too wise to tell you exactly what you should do and how to do it. Instead, you will see in his stories and concepts a biblical plumb line to keep your journey true, your heart clean, and your influence sure.

Thank you, Caesar, for not taking the easy route or relying on your reputation to pave a smooth road. Youve lived in the trenches of humanity as a light to both onlookers and leaders, and I pray that your lifes work to date will be a source of wisdom for the next wave of leaders God is moving into the missional field.

HUGH HALTER, Author of The Tangible Kingdom and Flesh: Bringing the Incarnation Down to Earth

by Mike Breen

In todays world, including within the church, the leaders we listen to are those who have built big things quickly. We admire big and we admire fast. We attend conferences where leaders of mega things teach us principles that promise that we, too, can achieve mega results if we could just get the right people on board and the right systems in place.

As well-meaning as these kinds of conferences intend to be, the quietly tragic result is that it leaves the vast majority of Christian leaders feeling like failures. When they dont see the mega results they were hoping for, when their group doesnt grow as quickly as they wanted, when half the people quit the small group after the first week, they struggle with the sneaking suspicion that maybe they dont really have what it takes to do this leadership thing with Jesus in his kingdom.

Thats why Caesars book is so vital right now. In these pages you will discover the secret to starting out small and going (seemingly) slowerand not feeling guilty about it.

And heres the cool thing: the reason you dont need to feel guilty about being small or slow is not because Jesus wants to give you a consolation prize or a participation ribbon. Its because Jesus himself led by starting small and going (seemingly) slow.

The reason this book is so needed right now is that the paradoxical pathway of Jesus that actually produces the most fruit in the long run is almost the exact opposite of the advice most of us hear every day. Small is big. Slow is fast. The title of this book is more than just a clever play on words. Its literally and vitally true. The processes that produce lots of quick results are not the same processes that produce the long-term fruitfulness that Jesus is wanting, the fruitfulness that he himself models for us and empowers us to imitate.