 Alright, welcome back. Let's just look at Kennedy's question. Kennedy, I didn't understand your first question. As a pastor, how do you handle this yes-yes leaders in the board membership or leadership team? I don't understand what is this yes-yes leaders. Can you elaborate please? Sure, if Kennedy is there. Kennedy, you're there? Alright, what makes... The second part of your question is what makes an average or above-average leader? Let me answer the second part of the question. Hopefully, Kennedy will explain open clarity in the first part. What makes an average or an above-average leader? Now, I'm just going to give you some practical insights. It's not like we are above-average of an average. But we're all growing. We're all a work in progress. We all go through these challenges. We all go through ups and downs as leaders. When we talk about average leaders, it all deals with a couple of things. One is our intimacy with God. Our levels of intimacy with God. Two is our attitude, our approach towards the things of God or the things of the Spirit. And of course, there may be many others. One is our intimacy with God. Now, we know that true ministry is birthed out of the intimacy or anointing of the Holy Spirit. The more we spend time there's more intimacy with God. There's more sacrifice. There's more time that we spend with God. It will almost immediately reflect the ministry. As leaders, of course, once we get into the ministry or this new ministry, we can't expect somebody to be a great leader initially itself. If it does happen, it's wonderful. That's wonderful that God does that. But one is to continually grow in our intimacy with God. The best example would be Apostle Paul. He's come towards the end of his life and he's saying, hey, I forget what is behind and I press on for that, for which God has taken hold of me. He's not saying I'm satisfied with the intimacy that I have with God. Now, the Apostle Paul had enough and more intimacy with the Lord Jesus. Just was there, he had such a close relationship with God. But he says, no, pressing on for what God has taken hold of me. He's not relying on the previous revelations, the previous work that God did in his life, but he's saying pressing on for the things of God. I would say the first one is our time spent in God's presence really matters. That will reflect in our ministry. If you are able to spend time, more time in God's word, more time in his presence, praying, seeking God, that is where God is the source of all wisdom also. Out of that time with the Lord when the ministry is birthed out, God gives us wisdom as a leader to take the right step, to do the right thing. And we will see this over time. I would say number one, as much as possible if we want to be above average leaders, if we want to be great leaders, yes the practical is there but true ministry is birthed out of intimacy with God. So never compensate that time with the Lord for the work of the ministry because it should be an overflow of that. What was the reason for the apostle Paul's success? You see consistency in his ministry for 30 years consistent, same desires, same passion. The passion has gone more and more. Why? Because of his time with the Lord. In the book of, I think it's Efficiency says I bow my knee to the Father and I pray for each one of you. The Corinthians says, I thank God I pray with this spirit more than any of you. I speak in tongues more than any of you. So it shows that his intimacy with God, the time with God knowing God, drawing from his presence really reflect in ministry. I want to share this example and something that I personally have experienced. There will be times we have to lead worship. church, prayers, fasting prayers and I have noticed this. The more I spend time in God's presence, I God bless the songs and all the songs. The more we spend time in His presence the outcome is very simple. We see it. So we see the outcome. Not only me, but something that I have experienced. More I spend time in God's presence. Many times in the time of worship, you just feel liberated. Just feel the power, the presence of God. Going through that one hour of worship is a breeze. But there are times I may not have spent time with the Lord. Maybe because working tired, weary, just finished work may not have spent it. Find it difficult to finish that hour of worship or what to do. Just feel this feeling of dissatisfaction. I didn't go as I planned. So yes, I believe that we spend time in God's presence if we reflect in every area. People will recognize it. People will recognize it. That's the thing. We may feel that how do they know that we spend time or not spend time? They will know. They will know. It will show in the way we are in our leadership, in the way we are. It just reflects. Remember Moses, in the time of God's presence he came down. They said cover your face. There's too much of glory in God's body. Cover your face. We can't see it. Because he was in God's presence. The more we are in God's presence, the greater is our ministry. The greater is the wisdom that God gives us. Greater is our leadership. That's one. Two ways. Our attitude towards situations and things that we see, our attitude matters. Imagine we spend hours in God's presence with good leaders but our attitude is not right. They are not good. Or maybe it's just pride. Maybe it is jealousy. That ministry has thousands of people. I'm still in hundreds. Now jealousy can creep. All these things are hard attitudes which we must guard ourselves against. Of course there are many other but these are two things that I personally spend time in God's presence and guard your hard attitude. Kennedy, I'm not sure if you're there. Can you explain? Does anyone know what is this? Yes, yes. Or I don't know if it's a type title. Can you type it out? I think what he just means is someone who just agrees to anything someone who is a man pleaser, a man pleaser. I think if I'm getting Charles' question right, that just goes with anything that everybody says without a without taking informed decision and going with his conviction. Just because he wants to please everyone. He doesn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone yet. Okay, thank you so much for your Kennedy. If that is your question, correct as say yes. Okay, so very important we are not here to please God. Now if there are people in ministry who only say yes, yes, yes, but they don't do anything about it. It's important that we ask them to, you know, you take time with them. Don't give them leadership immediately. Because again, as we talked about as leaders, our heart attitude matters. Whether we are glorifying God, whether we are honoring God, whether God, we have a heart for God, that should be there. If they want to become members of the church, they are free to do that. But when it comes to leadership and we have people like this, we take some time. We work with them. But we never write them off. I say, okay, this person will only talk, but he doesn't do anything. No. You never know what they can become. There are some of them who are willing to take correction and they work on it. But there are some who take correction. They say, okay, and they don't do anything about it. And then there's the other group of people who take correction and they say, no, I will not change. So we need to be aware of these three things. And even as we work with them if they are already in leadership, then you need to be kind of stunned with them. Let them know that hey, what you're doing is going to be impacting other people's lives. You give them opportunities and if you feel that over time there's no feedback given has not been worked on, you can ask them to take a break. But do this all lovingly, corrected love. But be there for them. When you ask them to take a break, don't just say, okay, just attend church. But be there. Help them to get back. Help them to get back that place of leadership that they are in. But if they are pleasing men and you feel that that's something that is going to cause a problem for the sake of the ministry, for the sake of the team, you ask them initially to step down. But you work with them and then help them to be restored back to their position. Christopher says, you please share how you build intimacy with God on a daily basis and how it has to work for the years. I'll just share for just a couple of minutes. So Christopher, when I first joined I just became a believer just like everybody else. It was just that I tried to pray. I really wanted to fast and pray and all of it. But I prayed and I thought it was one hour but I opened my eyes. It was just 10 minutes. I thought, oh man, how am I going to pray for an hour? It was just too difficult. And so I liked worship. So I tried to build on that. Over time I began to understand how the Holy Spirit works. How we have the Holy Spirit, how the Holy Spirit gives to the Holy Spirit, and how we can flow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit over time. I was speaking in tongues. Initially for me it was very... I felt it very... I'm being honest because I felt it very weird initially so I was like, what is this? And I knew that that was not me who was speaking. It was God that is there inside speaking. I began to pray in tongues. I remember it became half an hour. I was so happy. Half an hour. I was able to spend time in God's presence and I also experienced the presence of God. I was able to just receive from him. Of course, reading the Word is spending a lot of time studying the Word. When I was in Bible college, two year course that I took way back I spent a lot of time reading and preparing myself in times of... I knew the Word is something. If I have to preach the Word I have to learn. So basically I dived into the Word. Of course, it was two years where there was no other government. I had to only... I just concentrated on Bible college. But I understand that all of us maybe working, we have things to look after. What I did was I set times, morning and evening and I tried to stick to those timings and when it came to reading the Word, I tried to do a lot of research and hear from God and listen to a lot of stuff. So basically all of us are doing this. Nothing new. It s not like I started off and then I started off with one opera at all. It all started very small. But then when we have a heart for God, when we have this desire to grow nothing can stop us. So over the years I realized that after I graduated Bible college I began to just spend a little more time. Because that is when I realized it s no more Bible college. Now I m ministering to people. So this weight of this feeling of it was a wonderful feeling because I ve teaching and preaching but the responsibility it just added on and I was able to spend more time reading other books. So again, I made a lot of mistakes Christopher. I made a lot of mistakes, many places where I make big mistakes, small mistakes but it is a grace of God that over the years that I had learning and was able to develop myself. And of course being with wonderful leaders who have given me these opportunities is always such a blessing. What everyone is doing, I think me. Start small start with what you have, start with what you know and build on that. Just making sure your foundation is strong. Alright, let s go to our course. We will just do a little more and then maybe we can close. The leader as a coach, so maybe we will do this chapter. Leader as a coach. Now, I m sure all of us have heard this word coach, coaching sectors. Nowadays we have these coaching centers, especially when you get only for school children. But now things have changed here, coaching centers for public speaking for all kinds of things. But why coach people? Here are three points here. You build a stronger team. You enable people to rise to new levels and new challenges and you begin to attract people who desire to be coached. You build a stronger team. And when we have a team, it is powerful the importance of a team is very, very powerful. You can enable people to rise to new levels, new challenges and then you begin to attract people who want to be coached. And so I do know that many churches, many ministries already have, say maybe mentors or coaching leaders. They already have it and that s something that we also at ABC we are we are talking about it starting like mentors just to help each other. That s something that is on the cards but the thing is we have a lot of life groups so we get people connected there but we do realize that we have to take it one step further in having this close coaching. Coaching is a process of equipping people with tools, knowledge and opportunities. They need to develop themselves and become more effective. So coaches develop people, they equip people to develop themselves. What a wonderful thing that is. Coaches don t develop people. They help people or they equip people to develop themselves. Here s what you have to do. You do ABCD, these four points try and follow them, try and do this and we ll come back and we ll see how you were able to be able to do this. So I remember when I began to preach I would always tell people please give me feedback because if I don t get feedback everyone say good good then I won t be able to grow. So I would tell our team and I will just give me feedback whatever it is. It may be something very small. Why? Because it helps us and when we have coaches they tell us what to do they equip us to fulfill the role that we either want to do or we are already doing. So if you are a coach now as a leader, a cell group leader, you can take it that you are a leader and a coach you have both the attributes mixed and you ll have to do both of them and some things to consider when you are coaching. Work one on one take advantage of coachable or teachable methods and guide people to learn for themselves. Teach them how to extract the right lessons from their experiences how to find others who can assist them, how to update feedback information. So for example, you are coaching another person and you know that this person is going to start their own life group. So you tell them hey, why don t you start doing a word study on this book on this chapter or do a character study on these three people. This is the commentary that you can use. This is the other books that you can refer to. This is how I did a word study. So maybe you can use that as a backup as a reference point and you know you can just get them to learn that, get them to do it and see whether they have been able to do it and how they have been able to do it but you don t have to do it for them but what you are doing is you are assisting them and then you are giving them the material that they need, the encouragement that they need and finally you give them some feedback. Good, positive and feedbacks on where they can improve. Orchestrate resources and opportunities. Not only equip people to learn but intervene with others on their behalf. So there will be times, especially this happens in church where church members they come, it s common, they come to the pastor for prayer. What we started doing was we started getting our life group leaders. So we would announce, as pastors we would announce, our life group leaders are here and they will be available to pray for you and pray for your needs. So now what s happening we are giving them an opportunity to step out. We are giving them an opportunity, maybe on a Sunday service or maybe on any of the weekends, anywhere giving them an opportunity to step out. And you are standing on their behalf. You are saying, hey, they are there, they are available. Now for them it may be a new experience, it may be a new door, they don t know how to do it but you are putting them at this point. Go ahead, do it as leaders you are encouraging them. You are not teaching them to pray for others but they are stepping out and doing it. So you are just there backing them up. Here are some of the coaching strategies. Again, some of it may be repeated or replicated in terms of making a cell member to a cell leader. First one, forge a partnership, build trust, build understanding to inspire commitment. Motivate the person coaching or leading. Motivate them, build insight. Let them know that hey, this is what you are going to be one day and it s not only that you will raise up other leaders. You will grow in your walk with God, you will grow as a leader. So you inspire them for commitment. Tell them to grow skills, build new competencies and know that to ensure that they are growing. This is very important. Never must stay stagnant. Build new competencies. It could be in practical ways, it could be in terms of learning new skills, taking up maybe short term courses. Grow skills. Always encourage them to do that. Then promote persistence, that is build stamina and discipline. Persistence is something very important. Especially as leaders, we need to tell people that leadership, it s not always, when we look at it, sometimes people desire leadership because they are in a place where they can tell people what to do. And that s a wrong understanding. Leadership involves responsibilities. There are lives that are being ministered to under your care. There will be times when you may just get tired, you may feel weak, you may fall, you may be tired. But here we need to promote persistence. Build stamina, build discipline. For them. Finally, shape the environment. Build support. Remove barriers, open doors. Don t force control of manipulate people. Nobody can force anybody to be someone they don t want to be. For example, during those days parents would always say, I want my son to be a doctor, I want my son to be an engineer and this son will be interested in learning music completely in the opposite direction. Sometimes parents would force and say, how can you be playing these instruments, they s not going to get you anywhere. I m talking about 10, 15 years before. But nowadays parents are more open, parents are more do what you want to do because in every field there s growth. Even in terms of coaching people don t force anybody because you can t shake somebody and say, hey, you should become a leader or you should become a self-group leader. If they are not for it, they are hard as not and don t push them into it. They should be ready. Then you push them. Then you gently release them and help them to do what they want what they want to do. Don t manipulate or control don t force them. The last thing that we must do as leaders finally, if you want to coach, be coachable. There will be times when we are coaching people, we are training people and sometimes they may come and say, hey, what you said last week, I didn t like the way you said it because it was very food. Sometimes we may feel I m the one who is feeding this. Thank God we don t feel that way but we may feel that way at times. How can this person tell us what to do? If I was rude, I apologize, ask forgiveness and move on but you don t have to forfeit your leadership just because of that one thing. Remember we all make mistakes. Be coachable, be teachable. Agree for the mistakes you have made, ask for forgiveness and move on. There are no questions. We will just close in press. Maybe one of us can please close. Maybe Prabhakar or Rupa, anybody can close a thread? Yes, anyone. Say go ahead. Hello Spray. How are you Father in Heaven? We bless you for another class Lord and thank you Lord for your son. Thank you for how you have used him to instruct us and how you have used him to impact upon us. What it means to be a leader and the expectations as a leader and what the things we should do and things we shouldn t be doing. We say thank you for this knowledge and we pray that Lord in every capacity you raise us Lord to become leaders. That Lord we will not fall short of all these things we have learned and we pray that Lord you would also put in us Lord the ability and the grace to raise others in the way of Christ and that Lord will also be worthy examples as you Lord in Heaven and as how you led on the disciples and every order once you went on earth. We pray Father Lord for your son who you used to impact upon us this knowledge that Lord his leadership Lord will continue to be an example of Christ and we pray that in everything Lord you have raised him to do and in the future that Lord you will in grace him Lord to do more and more in the kingdom and for the progress of your church. We give you praise Lord as we go into the other class we pray that Lord strengthen us and give us wisdom to understand all that we have put and we pray that all will be done to your glory in the name of Jesus Christ we are praying amen. Amen. Thank you everyone for joining. Have a wonderful week. We'll see you next week. God bless.