 everybody welcome back to our class here on urban touch planning I'm thank you for joining and welcome everybody okay let's take a moment to pray together and we will get started somebody could pray for us pray for the class and they will start place anybody we just come before you turn once again father God father God give you wisdom knowledge and everything father God that we can move father God to your kingdom work father God father God bless region everyone father God every student father God that we will receive to your you your work father God and apply to our life and your kingdom work father God father father God fulfill fulfill father God your your reason father God what you given us father God help us to understand all subject father God father God bless to serve every student father God and those who stood in willing to join father God help them to join father God the class thank you father God to listening up prayer father God thanking you upcoming time just a meeting to your hand take care of everything father God thanking you almighty Jesus name we pray amen thank you cure okay welcome back everyone so yesterday in our class on urban church planting we spoke or we started speaking about the seven mountain assignment and just to quickly review we discussed what this is about how it started back in 1975 and God put this into the heart of hearts of some Christian leaders and then they put it forward to the church as a challenge and for those of us who are working in the urban context in against in a city that becomes very relevant because we are there and we can then influence people who are in places of authority who are influencers in these seven spheres so I just quickly review some of the things we mentioned yesterday and then we'll go forward from there and also if you have any questions please feel free to bring them up so we talked about these seven areas of family religion education media arts and entertainment and business economy and government you know seven areas where you know if we as God's people can be salt and light in these seven spheres make a difference there by first of all influencing the culture we can then it's a preparation process it's we can prepare people through that to receive the gospel so what we said is that as we are planning a church or a ministry in the city we should think along these lines and you know we should you know work towards equipping our people preparing our people for that for influencing all of these seven spheres right so we said that you know we need to help prepare people believers give them hard you know preparing their heart so they can be strong prepare them spiritually so they understand you know how to spiritually tap into what God has given to them and of course they need to prepare themselves naturally for their work right so we covered it till that point so we're going to go to this last part here is what we're calling as positioning that means God's people believers should position themselves in these seven spheres traditionally you know what we've always heard preached is come out come out come out come out and be separate now that is scripture you know look in second Corinthians 6 G God says come out and be separate but the context is to come out you know this is I'm looking at second Corinthians chapter 6 verse 17 says come out and be separate the context is not come out in the sense you know don't engage with the world but it's come out coming out from partnerships that are sinful from doing things that are ungodly unholy because he says come out be separate you know you stand apart from the sin from all the evil that's in the world but the message Jesus has left us with is stay till I come the word occupy and I can just put a simple word there in Luke 1913 he says stay till I come he didn't say come out till I come so you know traditionally what believers do is they come out and they are waiting outside till Jesus comes but he said you stay in there till I come look 19 verse 13 and this has to do this had to do with Luke's record of the parable of the talents you know we have the parable of talents recorded Matthew 25 but Luke also recorded this in Luke 19 and there yeah he tells them and he gives to each one certain amount of money and he says occupy till I come or the word occupy means do business till I come or engage with the system till I come so it's like be there and occupy and engage with this this you know the system here till I come right so we need to encourage people to go in to these spheres of influence and see what they can do right now of course we do need people who will be dedicated for the work of the church in the ministry you know like what we are doing right now you know in other words you can't run a Bible college you can't do so many things from a church site so you do need people dedicated to this but you also need believers who are in the seventh sphere then you know we are also on one of those seven spheres we are in the mountain of religion where we are making a difference spiritually to advance the kingdom of God but we need believers in all the other six spheres as well right now what we need to understand is that and that God can position people in so many different ways you know and people can influence these spheres of these seven seven spheres in many different ways and I've just you know listed some some ways you know some people can be leaders you know like like a Joseph like a Daniel but not everybody's gonna become a Joseph or not everybody's gonna become a Daniel some of them will become like that some of them can be influencers you know regardless of what the position is whether it's an Esther or whether it's a Naaman's maid your name is made her name is not even mentioned she was working as a household help so to speak in the house of Naaman but she was an influencer she spoke to Naaman's family and said hey if if only Naaman when all if only he would go to the Prophet who is in Israel so she was an influencer though her position was very small or very simple she still influenced somebody very big you know or of course Esther was a queen and from her place of as queen she could have influence or we could be like Nehemiah Nehemiah was serving the the king as a cup bearer but from that place being a cup bearer he was able to bring in a lot of resources for rebuilding the walls of the city of Jerusalem you know so he had God gave him so much favor with the king that the king granted you know all the material that was needed all the security that was needed and whatever was needed for Nehemiah to go and build the walls so he became like an accessor he accessed provision he accessed resources to accomplish something God wanted him to accomplish so people can you know function in so many different ways they could be you know cross pollinators people are in different you know both on the mountain of legend and you know influencing government let Moses or Paul Paul was a preacher but he preached even to people in authority so you know so they can have different kinds of people positioned in these mountains and are in these spheres and influencing at different levels you know so not everybody needs to be right at the top you need people that in the mid-level you need people at the lowest level you are down with everybody else at the grass root levels you need people working there you need you know people at all levels beginning to influence each of these seven spheres so when we are planting a church in a city or when you're starting a ministry think like this okay so this chapter is just to give us you know okay here's a way to think about how you can influence the city or maybe even the community in which you're doing your walk you're planting a church or setting up a Christian ministry in the city here's a way you can think that these seven areas that are around me you know education media arts and entertainment business government family religion how can I mobilize the people who are here that is meaning in your church or in the ministry that you're doing to start tapping into this now of course you may not necessarily affect all seven if you can do all seven that's wonderful at least start with a few you know it's okay how can I help them make a difference in their sphere of influence whatever their level maybe you know they may be at the grass roots level they may be in a mid-level they may be in senior positions but if you if if the church can equip the believer then the believer can go be salt and light and affect culture prepare the hearts of people so when the time comes for them to hear the gospel they will be ready okay so before I jump into the next chapter I just want to pause see if there any questions any comments at this point any questions any comments get and you were saying something on the chat I didn't know it's like somebody's crying or yes sir sir I just said today is a day is like nahi Maya and I say like that it can happen sir today is day and generation yes yes that today God will give us access to people with influence and then from there you know things can happen for the kingdom of God you know just just like how it happened with me am I even today okay it can happen yeah God gives us access and yeah okay so let's let's go forward so we understood you know this aspect of so about urban church planting right we talked about strategies you know looking at different ways and how you can develop methods ministries to reach people in the city we talked about the seven mountains which is you know how you can mobilize people from within the church to impact the city right so we talked about both so both these are important in an urban church planting context to start thinking like this and this is this is a process that means we have to work on these things they they take time you keep doing things that can equate people so for instance you know we in our teaching in a Bible teaching so we did a series on timeless principles for the workplace and we did sermon series on you know tending the garden or different things topics that are relevant for people or in the workplace just to show them how the Bible applies to their you know to their life in the marketplace so we've done that and then we've we've had in earlier days we used to have monthly meetings for Christian professionals where we used to equip them and then we moved it to right now we do you know Christian professionals conference and seminars periodically that's geared towards young professionals you know not only do want to equip them from biblical values but also you know how do you apply principles in the workplace so you know regularly conduct these seminars and these are geared towards you know if you equip the believer the other ones who are out there in the seven spheres so they will be able to have impacts influence for the kingdom right so you intentionally plan you intensely do these things to equip them and to serve them okay so let's move on forward to the next chapter in this whole section on practical details practical things to do when you are planting local church or a ministry right so we've talked about how to reach out and so on but now when you come come back to just to the work that you're doing and some of this you know you would have learned also in the course on the local church is that the work that you have started the church plant will grow will go through stages of growth and it is important that both you as a leader and also the congregation understand the growth stages and that you transition from each stage you know at the right time and properly right so so I'll just kind of go through the stages of growth so that you know that you know this is how the work is going to grow the church plant or the ministry that you have started right so there is the pioneering stage let me just there is the pioneering stage this is the time of then what you've you've already talked about is you've gone to an area you have your routine yeah you know you're you're establishing commitment that this is the work God has called you to do and you're going to do it you're doing all the groundwork there is a prayer intercession and you know in the foundation stage take the time to lay a good foundation you know when you think about how a foundation is laid for any big any building that you would see that is about to be constructed you know they're going down they're actually digging into the ground it's they're going the exact opposite direction of the building that's going to come up right and the higher you want to build the deeper you have to go for a stronger foundation so when you're digging into the ground for the foundation there is nothing impressive about that it's very dirty it's a lot of mud everything is being pulled out and you know there's nothing to show because all you have is a big hole in the ground but you're you know you are doing work for the foundation and then you know you slowly get things in you start putting the rocks and the things there and the stones in there and you know so this foundation stage may not pioneering stage or the foundation stage may not look very impressive but it is very important because the higher you want to go the deeper your foundation has to be deeper you have to go the longer sometimes it's going to take to dig deep and lay a strong foundation right take the time to do that when you are starting out the ministry right so this would mean that you are established taking the time to establish your core team people in the word of God taking the time to work even if the number is small and you're taking the time and effort to work with them to build them up or to strengthen them you're investing in their lives why because one day they are going to be your leaders they are going to help you you know raise the building up but to get to that stage you first have to invest in them you have to put into their lives and be patient let things you know take their time and you'll have a good strong foundation then once you've you know you go through that foundation of pioneering stage you transition into now is the organizational stage or the structural stage where now you're beginning to build above the ground and people can see you know okay now I can see things are coming up you know you can see the first floor the second floor you know people are being beginning to see the building come above the ground so there is organization there is structure leaders are in different places there are systems and processes being put together so organization is growing right so you'll have more than yourself you'll have you know several other people also working carrying responsibility heading up some of the ministries that you have started so that's another stage into which the church plant will come into right or the ministry you're starting will come into right you've gone past the pioneering stage you've gone past the organizations the foundation stage you're now in the organizational stage some things to keep in mind is to when you're in the stage to put things in place so that it can scale up that means whether you have 50 people 500 people or 5,000 people this these things should keep working right so think always think along those lines whatever you start doing in the organization stage some new ministries may be birthed you know God may give opportunities doors may open like I've shared that things were ministries will begin to be birthed then so you're going past just focusing on the core now the core team is now helping you start out and carry out new ministries okay and another thing I would recommend is that even though you're you know you you may have gone to plant one church one congregation think about a reproducible model that means it do things in such a way that if the need arises or the opportunity arises you can reproduce a church plant once again somewhere else maybe in the same city right so that's how we did it you know like today we have five locations in Bangalore but our goal was always to have this reproducible model that we could reproduce ourselves in Bangalore and outside outside Bangalore so you know we could go start churches anywhere you know so we can reproduce what we are doing people understand how to you know make this happen again somewhere else so always think in those terms in that the way you set up the ministry the way you set up the church it can be reproduced easily the people are working one place can go into the same somewhere else then you come into what you would be referred to as a team ministry stage where now you know you have a leadership team in the core team that you invested in the earlier days or what time people who have grown up in the church today they become part of your ministry team so you have a past total team so it's no longer just you but you've got a team you will be playing maybe the role of a senior pastor you're always seeing your own pastoral team so you've got more people helping you in the work of the ministry and so a lot more can happen because they will oversee different areas of ministry and you are just spending time nurturing more leaders you know you're thinking about you know next generations so not only do you have people already there but you're thinking okay how can I develop the generation you know two generations down how can we spend time with them nurture them so you're kind of moving into more of a nurturing new leaders stage and so the ministry has now matured to this level now what'll happen is as the church continues to grow there are two other stages you can think of is you move into an equipping stage where more and more people in the congregation or people are part of the ministry are now beginning to do ministry so it's not just you or some of the leaders you raised but it's people from the congregation who are now also engaging in ministry right so this is a wonderful thing because people start doing work it's not you know they will go on mission trips they will go out and serve in different places and they will begin to you know pray for the sick and they will begin to do other things right and this is a wonderful stage to be when it's not just the pastor or the pastoral team but it's the whole church now that are doing the work of the ministry so you reached an equipping stage or you're basically training people to do the work of the ministry so even your congregation is gone from being little children who come to church to from you know to young people and now they are becoming what you can say fathers and mothers you know they are becoming people who are doing the ministry with you with your team and that they can pray for people they can go out and minister and all of those things you know so you have a lot more people that you can give opportunity to in in in what is happening so that's the equipping stage and then you can transition into and the next stage is an apostolic stage that means now the church is looking outward they're looking at you know the city as a whole they're looking at the nation as a whole they're excited about serving the nation they're excited about serving you know the the wider body of Christ and serving how looking at how they can reach others you know beyond that the community where you started so you become an apostolic church and you're thinking about you know starting churches in new places but there are no churches so the church is able to reproduce itself in other other areas you know and believers are having this mindset they are willing to go they are willing to start they are willing to move out and so you're really in an apostolic function stage and that's a great place to be when the church is reproducing itself in many other places so what we've done is now just quickly gone through you know this is how your work should grow and it can grow right so even though we are pioneering a church in in an urban center we're going there to start to work remember this work has to grow and these are the bays in which that local church can grow or the ministry that you're starting can grow so always look forward for that and you know from as the Lord leads you as Lord enables you move the congregation into these various stages over time you know so it may take 15 years 20 years but you keep you know you make the journey through all these stages you grow the church you're not just planting there you know to be there for two years and then disappear no you are thinking long-term that whatever I establish here is going to grow and we're going to you know be an apostolic church we're going to go into a church that you know that reaches the stage and multiplies ourselves in the city maybe any with other parts of the country okay and what I would always encourage is become you know self-sustaining become financially stable so that you think about developing your own leaders developing believers and being financially stable right so think in those terms as you are doing the work of the ministry let me pause and see that any question before we go to the next next chapter you're all with me so far is it clear any questions okay alright so okay alright let's see your responses in the chat fine so and that's how you know you should give it you know although you're pioneering a work there's a journey to make you got to keep thinking about it and keep moving at the right at the right time okay you see the maturity level you see the development that has taken place in the new transition and you begin to work differently alright so I'm gonna move into we'll discover one more section and then we will close I want to talk now about multiplication right so this is something to think about you know so once you reach a certain stage you know once you are able to set up you know the organizational you're putting in leaders in place you know once you reach this stage especially here you have a team of leaders you can begin to think about multiplication right and branching that means you can have multiple church plants in the same city right and you know the city most cities are very big and just traveling from one part of the city to another takes a lot of time right so with all the traffic and all the other things that are there so it makes sense to have multiple branches in the city so that people can go to the location that is closest to them so think about starting new churches in the same city even though you may have gone to plant one church if you can grow it develop leaders think about plant planting more churches in the same city right so multiplication think about that a very important thing is to equip the people right because it's the people from within your church we're going to go and help you start other congregations and that's how it's happened for us as well you know so you've got to equip people as you put into their lives then you envision them that means you give them a vision that hey this church needs I mean the city needs more churches and there are so many people we can you know we can serve people another part of our city so you envision them you know who's willing to just help start another location another church so envision them and then you send out a team from your current church you put a few people together you're just replicating everything you've learned yes okay you go you know start a church in that other part of the city so you send out the church planting team now when you want to plant more congregations there are many different ways you can do it many options you can plant new churches that function independently that means you release them let them go and they will function on their own or you can function you know all as one that means you have one it's one church but has many congregations so many churches but you're functioning collectively together that's how APC is doing it right so we are one church but we have many churches or congregations around the city or you could have satellite campuses that means you could do live stream you can have campus passes a lot of different options that you can think about and how to start in a new church plants but I would encourage you to think about that equipping people sending them out starting your churches yes it's a lot more work because you're managing multiple you know locations multiple congregations but it's going to bless more people because people are far away in another part of the city they may not be able to travel you know they may not be willing to travel but they may be willing to go to some location it's close to them so if you start something there it will it'll be a blessing now in the early days when when we would you know when we started I was always involved in the new church plant so for instance when we had one location and we started one in south so I would do two services you know we started south purposefully we put it at eight o'clock in the morning so I would do eight o'clock in the morning south come back to central and then do central at 1030 and then we started one in north Yalanka the north part of our city and then when we initially started we started at that one at I think it was four or five p.m. so I would do three services like eight o'clock in south 1030 in central and then the five o'clock one in Yalanka so that's how we started but then once these other locations you know had people then you know we moved Yalanka to eight o'clock in the morning and you know handed off to somebody there part of our team to take care of the church and lead the church there so so then we started out you know we started west again you know initially sorry not west we started east so I would go to east and come to central south and north had their own associate pastors to lead so I would just do two I would do east and central and then sometimes I would visit north and south and later on in the east had its own associate pastor we started west and so like that so so as as you know as you have more people you can deploy them into various parts of your city and start out new congregation so that people in those areas will be helped and it has it has been a very good experience because you know people who otherwise would not have come to central one location have been helped by coming to the one that was closest to them and they were ministered to so think about that planting additional congregations in the same city and in the same way you can think about churches in other cities and towns the similar in a similar thing applies you need to equip people so most of our churches in other cities have been through our Bible College students now some have been people who have you know who worked with us but others almost all of them have been student people who studied with us in Bangalore and then they worked served here and then we sent them out and they started churches in other cities so you equip them you envision them then you send them out as a church plant planting teams and again you have the same options of them you know how they should work and you continue to provide spiritual oversight and nurture so you could actually multiply what you're doing not only within your own city but you can also multiply it across to other cities and towns and I want to encourage you I want to keep that in front of you that you can grow into that even though you're planting you're doing an urban church plant in one place eventually these are things for you to consider and it definitely is worth the effort if God enables you to do that it's it's worth it to you know reach out to other parts of the country as well okay so I'm going to stop here we will go into urban church growth models next next week we'll talk about that okay so any questions or any thoughts any things that you want to ask about what we talked about today mainly the stages of growth that the church is going to go through think about it about multiplication and branching that you know you could grow beyond just one urban church plant or one ministry you can multiply yourself so that whatever you've learned in one place you can you know reproduce it pass it on to other parts any questions okay I don't see any questions coming up is it all okay Thomas Dave Conan Prince so okay I mean are these things you can use in your ministries I hope so okay all right I am seeing with your responses in the chat okay fine all right so let's wrap up with prayer on this and I don't want to encourage you but then the days to come you know your churches your ministries will multiply beyond just you know where you start initially that's good but you should multiply reproduce yourself in other places okay and may the Lord enable you to do that okay let's pray and then we will dismiss somebody could close in prayer for today please Thomas thank you for this wonderful day Lord thank you dad thank you Jesus we love you father we praise you thank you dad for the teachings father thank you dad thank you Jesus especially the seven mountains very important father we should not we should not be neglect about this father for each and every area help us to encourage the church members to be there influence the people wherever they are daddy thank you Jesus at the same time father in the various stages of church grow help us to be grow in Jesus name father thank you father here each and everybody let them grow and multiply and let me impact the kingdom of God father we thank you father let we have the part in the revival of India and we'll do the greater things for the glory of God we thank you we praise your father in Jesus name we amen amen thank you everyone have a good rest of the day I'll see you tomorrow morning thank you bye thank you thank you God bless bye