 Okay. Good morning and welcome to BC 309, our course on Urban Church Planting. Thank you so much for connecting to the class today. I hope all of you had a good weekend and a refreshing weekend. Let's pray together and then we will get started. Could somebody please pray with us in the class today and we will start? I will pray. Let's go ahead, Kedady. Thank you, Heavenly Father. Thank you for the gift of life. Give it up to us as a family name. Commit our pastor into your hands. You're going to use him for your own glory. So he's going to teach you. It is your mother-in-law's special what you've given to him. Commit all the other students. Even the network, it won't disappoint the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Once again, good morning to everyone. Welcome to the class and try to solve if you had a good restful refreshing weekend. So as we continue in this course on urban church planting, we are in the last or the third section where we are talking about the personal life of a church planter or for anyone who is going to start pioneering either a local church or a Christian ministry. There are some things to keep in mind and how to personally prepare to start out a Christian ministry. Those are the kind of things you want to address in this section. I will quickly review what we did last week and then we will move forward. So we talked about recognizing of a call to pioneer. How do we know how can we make sure that one of us as individuals has been called to start a ministry, start a church or start a ministry and then how do we know we should do that as opposed to just working with an existing church or existing ministry and so on. Now we need people in both. We do need people who will go out and start new churches and new ministries and we do need people who will work with existing churches and existing ministries. So we need people in both areas. I'm not saying one is more important than the other, but we need people in both places. But specifically if your people are called to pioneer to go start something, how do we recognize a call to do that? So we were talking about the indicators of grace, about having a pioneering spirit, the ability to work independently, the ability to build bridges with people, being a visionary. That is you're able to see something when there's nothing there. If you've had a history where God has been using you in that manner, that's a good indicator. A sterling in your heart, number seven, a clear, confirmed word of direction. And sometimes God just orchestrates things along the journey and you find yourself in a place where you're going to start a work, pioneer work and so on. We also said what are some wrong reasons to engage in a church plant? We should not do this motivated by strife or competition. Sadly, this seems to be the main reason. Well, I shouldn't say main reason, but I should say maybe it's a very common reason that we see when a new church has started. Usually it's because of some sort of a strife that has happened. People were belonging to a certain church, something happened, they decided to leave, they go and start their own church. It's not the healthiest thing to do. While we are grateful for every new work that has started and new thing that is done, this is not the healthiest way to go and start a church plant. We should try to avoid this, but the fact is this does happen and we see it around us happening. Sometimes people started because of strife and competition and so on. Sometimes we also see that people started a church because other options in ministry didn't work out. They said, okay, let me try this and they tried to plant a church. Sometimes people do this as a job. I just do this as somebody wants it done, I go do it for them and they do it as a job. Sometimes people do it even for wrong reasons like they want to migrate to some country or for money, for comforts. These are just the wrong, we're just itemizing some of the wrong reasons. So try to avoid this, we need to be true to ourselves and make sure that God has called us. God has envisioned us to go and start a church or to start a particular kind of Christian ministry. Now as you prepare along these lines and some of you on this class may be called to do this a big question that comes up is should I do this independently? Should I do this on my own? Or should I work with an existing Christian ministry? How do I go about planting a church or starting a new ministry? Do I do it just purely on my own independently or do I do it working with a Christian ministry? And there is no set answer for every person. The right answer is do what God has called you to do and God will call us to do things. God will call each of us to work in different ways so there is no single answer for every person. No, the single answer would be of course do what God has called you to do. But as you pray about this, as you seek God for this here are obvious pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages with working with a Christian ministry as opposed to doing this independently on your own. Generally, and these are just my thoughts, generally working with an existing Christian ministry has a lot of advantages, as we will mention here. But then there may be certain situations where you may have to venture out completely on your own. You're going out and starting something completely on your own and that's fine. God's called you to do that. And just make sure that you have good relationships with people outside of your own circle because you will need encouragement and support and partnerships on. So what are some advantages in working with an existing Christian ministry? One is you can learn from the existing Christian ministry you can learn, establish proven strategies and methods. A church or an organization, they've already tried a lot of things. They've already done a lot of things, especially in a certain area or in a certain region. They say, look, we have done these things. We know what works here. We know what is relevant here. We have proved these strategies and methods and we know these things don't work. So that's a good advantage. Of course, God may give us new ideas and that's something we need to remain open to and we can always learn from other people's experience. Another good thing is they usually will have a good support system. So when you're part of an organization, they're there to support you. They're there to help you, guide you, encourage you, mentor you, counsel you, so on and so forth. You may also be able to thirdly, you may also find like-minded people because they're already part of that church or ministry. You can find more people who will come and engage with you and they will be like-minded, which is in many ways good because you want people who hold to the same beliefs and standards and culture so that you can work together in establishing the new church plant or the new ministry. Another advantage is they can provide ongoing resources, spiritual oversight and support both emotionally, spiritually and financially. They can be there for you. If you have a name that is recognized and respected, that would add to what you're doing. In many cases, if that church already has a big name and you go in and plant that, you do a church plant of that big name, organization or church, it's usually well respected, well welcomed and that gives you an added advantage when you go to a new church plant. Also, when you're working with an existing Christian ministry, they could help you with transition and continuity if you have to move on. If you want to hand over, they can appoint somebody to continue the work. So these are several advantages in working with an existing Christian ministry. If there is very important, there has to be theological alignment, spiritual theological alignment, then it's really good. But if that's not there, then definitely avoid it. But if there's theological alignment, then it's good to work with them. But what are some things as a word of caution? What would you do? Don't join a Christian ministry to do a church bond just because there's an opportunity. What are some of the things you would need to consider? One is, like I mentioned just now, there has to be spiritual theological alignment. That's very important. I've observed that sometimes people compromise on this. Let's say somebody from a charismatic, Pentecostal background, there's an evangelical church, maybe like a Baptist church or a Methodist church, and they say, hey, we have an opportunity. We want to do a church plant in that city. Will you be willing to go and do that? And then they say, look, we will make all these provisions. And then somebody from this, like we're saying, a Pentecostal charismatic, if they step into that purely evangelical setting about this sort of Methodist, and they go do this, initially in the initial conversations, they may say, okay, okay, okay, you practice your own Pentecostal personal persuasions on your own, you pray in tongues on your own, all that, but don't enforce it in the church setting. But the fact is sooner or later that will spill over. And that's when there's going to be conflict and there is going to be problems. So yes, we are both Christian, but because of these differences in certain persuasions, there will be a clash, especially when it comes to the ministry and the way things are done, and it will upset the work. So it is very important to have alignment in spiritual theological matters. Also, there has to be cultural alignment. Culturing, you got to fit well in the ministry. And I remember one long, long time ago, and this was in our early years. So I'm saying way back in 2002, I think. We had done a church fund in a certain place, and then somebody there said they wanted to join, but just come. And that time we didn't have a clear understanding of these things. So we learned through such experiences. But the person, he was actually a worship leader, musician type person. He knew the area that particular region well. And he said, we want to join. He wants to join. He wants to work with us. And I said, okay, fine. Because at that time, he didn't have anybody helping him spiritually. And it's okay. And since we were also looking for a pastor for that new church blood, we said, okay, you come and pastor the church here. We had already started some amount of work, so the service was already going on. And so this happened early on as soon as he joined us. One Sunday morning, I get a call from that place. They say, hey, pastor is not here. And I was very surprised. I said, the service starts at 10 o'clock. Pastor is supposed to be there well in advance, get everything ready and start this service at 10. He was not there yet. What happened? So of course, it was in a different place. He didn't want to do this on the phone. So I called him and I said, hey, what happened? You know, you're the pastor. You're supposed to be there and start the service at 10. And for him, it was, you know, it didn't matter that you started 10, 15 or 10, 30 or whatever. Then he said, oh, no, I had to go out for some other engagement. So he was late and so on. So this happened once. And I think it happened a second time. And I called him again. I said, hey, this is not the way we work. When we say 10 o'clock, he started 10 o'clock, you as a pastor, you need to be there by 9.30 or earlier, get everything ready and be ready for the people when they come in, you know, and he could not accept that correction. So he immediately resigned. So that's when I learned something about culture. You know, he's a good person, meaning he's a good believer. He was already an established worship leader and all of that. But in his mind, the culture of the way he was doing things was very different for us when we say 10 o'clock, we mean 10 o'clock. When you say Sunday service starts at 10, it means it starts at 10. That means everything you need to do to prepare is done before and people come in and the service starts at 10. That's how we work. Or if you're the pastor, you're responsible for it. In his mind, he didn't see it like that. You know, and maybe it's because of the background he came. It means 10 o'clock means 10 o'clock they'll come, they'll start doing the setup and, you know, it might take half an hour to get things set up and then they will start the service. That was in his mind. And secondly, he didn't like the fact that he was corrected. You know, he was already an established worship person, so he knows everything about worship, which is true. But for us, worship starts at 10. You don't come and set up for worship at 10. You set up before and you started. So there was a clash. And when I had to correct him the second time, he couldn't handle it. So I learned a lesson way then that, you know, this culture thing is so important. And that's when we decided not to adopt churches. Not to adopt churches because of this kind of a culture clash that would happen. And we have constantly people writing to us saying, you know, we want to be part of the ministry. We want to, you know, we have this ministry. We like to come under you, et cetera, et cetera. And our constant responses, you know, no, you know, you do what you have called to do. We will support you, you know, spiritually. You can use our resources freely, everything. But you continue with your own the way you're doing because we don't want to, you know, we understand the importance of culture. We don't want to, because when we work together, we would of course want them to follow our culture. And they may not be able to transition. And then there would be a clash of cultures and then it will disrupt the work they are already doing. So we just say, you know, you continue with what you're doing. Just take whatever resource you need, use it freely. But we will not interfere. We will not, you know, adopt that church or ministry. Instead, what we really like is for people to be trained by us. Right? So that's when people study with us in the Bible college, for two, three years, they understand our culture. And from there, that can be a starting point, you know, for working together. So we learned that lesson way back in the very beginning that culture is important. And if there is no alignment in culture, it's very difficult to work together. It's, you know, because on one hand from our side, there are certain things we value in our culture. Whereas for them, that may not be equally important in their context, in their culture. And we don't want to go and enforce our culture on somebody else and disrupt their work. So think about this. When you're going to work with an organization, do you fit into that culture? Do you understand the culture? What are their values? What are the things they consider important? Is there a match? If there is a match, that's wonderful. You can work together. But if there's a difference, then somebody has to change. Will you be able to accommodate that change in culture? Even in the Christian ministry, the way you do work, what you hold, you know, what you value, what you hold is important. Better think about it. Okay. Let's finish this and we'll take up questions. Number three, is there freedom for God's grace and gifts to be released through you? So when you're going to work under or part of another Christian ministry, do they give you the freedom to exercise your grace and gifts? You don't want to be in a place where you're going to be stifled. They say, yeah, you can do whatever you want, but don't pray in tongues. Don't expect the Holy Spirit. Don't pray for the sick. Don't cast out demons, et cetera, et cetera. Then that's not going to be okay because for you, you believe in these things and you want God to operate this way. So there's got to be the freedom to express your grace and gifts God has given you. There's a Christian ministry also have a heart for the city of the region where you are called to plant a church or a ministry. I mean, are they committed to the same place, region? Do they have a heart for it? Because if they don't, they could at some point just decide to pull out and then that will leave you in a very difficult position. And there's a Christian ministry have a well-defined system to provide the support you need, the assistance you need. So these are things that you need to think about before you decide to work with any church, existing church or Christian ministry and with them plant a church or start something new. So these are things to think about. These are very important. Each of these five points are very important because if it's not there, then my response would always be, don't join that Christian ministry. Don't work with them because it's not going to work out. You're better off working with somebody else or starting entirely on your own. So let me pause here and we'll take up questions on, should I apply with an existing Christian ministry or should I do this independently? We will just take up questions on that. Let's go to the chat. All right. Okay. Christopher, your hand is raised. Please ask your question. I just wanted to relate to that example you gave just now and given the fact that our class also has just spent time on the worship ministry also in a different class. I just wanted to find out in that example, this particular person was focused on worship and he was a worship leader and does that necessarily make him well equipped to be a pastor of a church where there are other facets to the way the ministry works? And also in this current time, there are at least been there for some time where there are churches that are very worship focused and they have their own music label and they may not have a very comprehensive way to reach out to the community from a holistic pastoral context. So just wanted to, my question is really about worship ministry versus a more comprehensive ministry that, for example, ABC provides, for example, yes. Yeah. So the first part of the question, there are some people who are good worship leaders gifted in that area and also pastoral. Yeah. So they do have example. I mean, I wouldn't even point to our pastor Jay Kumar, pastor Roshan and so both of them are, their primary gift is in worship. That means they, you know, when they lead worship, it's just so beautiful. But they're also able to pastor people. Pastor Jay Kumar, pastor of the congregation, Roshan was taken care of the youth as a youth pastor. So there are people who can do both well and they called by God, anointed by God to do both well. And then there are, of course, people who are purely worship or purely pastoral, you know, the thing. So the answer to your question is, you know, just depends on the person and yes, some people are called by God and anointed by God to do both and they're able to do both very well. So going back to the example, the person I was mentioning, he seemed to have both. At least when, you know, in those days that I knew him, just that it, the real thing was like I mentioned, the clash of gods was so different. They're from different parts of the country. We hear and, you know, we're from a urban, more urban context and didn't understand these things and so on. So that's another problem. The second part of your question, it is true. See, every local church has its own expression of how it lives out community, how it lives out kingdom life. And in that context, certain churches will emphasize certain things more. And then, for example, there would be churches that really emphasize worship and a lot of worship comes out, you know, songs like you're saying, songs and worship songs come out and that is their emphasis. There's nothing wrong with that in the sense that that's what they're called to do. That's what they're blessed by God to do and they do it. But what is important, especially in a local church context, is to try to be as holistic, like you said, or as complete in all areas as possible. Because when you, especially when you read first and second Timothy, these were the final letters of the Apostle Paul. There's often representatives of pastoral episodes. He's telling, he's teaching Timothy how to pass to the local church and he repeats many times in his episodes to teach sound doctrine, to be wholesome in your teaching. In other words, he's saying, look, teach them everything, teach them everything. Not emphasize just one aspect, teach them everything. Now, the fact is there are some churches who would do that, whereas you will have other churches, communities that focus in on a certain aspect, like worship, or sometimes missions, or sometimes social work, or sometimes prophetic ministry, or sometimes deliverance ministry, or sometimes it'll be more of an evangelistic in nature. A lot depends on the person whom God used, who was in leadership at that time. If the person was in leadership or the team that's in leadership is more geared towards evangelism or so on. So then they tend to emphasize that. And that's why that becomes the highlight of that local church. What would be the best? The best is to have a very good balance so that we nurture people in all areas and develop them. But then God does grace and gift people differently. So we respect that and we recognize that, we respect that. That's fine. Thank you. Any other questions on this part? That is, what we're trying to answer is, should you go and start something on your own, completely independently, or should you go and pioneer along with an existing church or ministry? What would be the pros and cons of working and how would you select the organization or ministry that you should work with? That's kind of what we're touching on here. Any questions on that, you're welcome to ask. Otherwise, we can move to the next lesson. Abraham, go ahead. I received a call yesterday. I think one of the churches in Ghana in Nigeria, I just called you. They want to start a church here. And I mean, they have been several attempts. But the last one that was yesterday was really emphasizing the fact that he wants to do something here in Vietnam. And he looked at it. He wants me to help. But I had to let him understand that my God's grace to just kind of stop being what we are doing. And the people have grown to accept the decision. The people are loving God. The people are stepping up. And the people are trying to win souls for God. But as it starts now, there is no way we can change the name, change the vision. But he looked at it. They are trying to be fit in a way. And if I talk to the senior pastors, they are okay. I mean, they are saying, okay, God wants to do this. Let's go ahead and do it. And then we can work together. I think it seems to have no idea about her mission and where her agenda was. It's okay for me to just try to catch them by the church like that. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? That there's an opportunity for me to do this now. So in fact, I seriously, this has gotten my attention since this morning. So I've been trying to talk to people to find out the mission and find them. But first of all, in my case, this is what is happening now. They are not by any means forcing me to be part of whatever they are doing. But indirectly, something like that is going on. So what should I do? Okay, Brown, I think I understood your question. I mean, your audio is coming in and out. So I may have lost some of the things you said. But I think overall, I understood your question. My response would be, let this be a decision that comes from you as opposed to it being imposed on you. Right? It is good that this particular whoever Christian ministry wants to start to work in Vietnam. That's wonderful. You know, that's good. But you don't have to be the person who's going to do it. God can provide them the right person. Now, from your side, you need to be at peace to know and understand if God wants you to work with them or not. So that has to come from you. And sorry, so you can use some of these questions that we went through today to try to understand if, first of all, at a very basic level, is it compatible or not? Right? So you would ask these questions. What is the spiritual alignment? Is there alignment? It's theologically. Second, is there cultural alignment? What is there culture? How do you know? What is the culture of the work you're already doing? Thirdly, is there complete freedom for the grace and gifts to be expressed? Fourthly, are they looking at doing this for the long term or are they just, you know, they want to add one more country to their list of countries? What is the commitment? What's the level of commitment? Are they willing to invest money? So for example, you can ask them, hey, how much money are you willing to invest? Because it's easy to say verbally, I want to do something, but the real, you know, where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, are you willing to put money into it? Because that's the real test, you know? Otherwise, it's easy to say a lot of things. So you ask them, are you committed to doing something and be it now for the long term and so on? And then, you know, find out, have they already done work in the past? What kind of experience do they have in Vietnam? And the fifth one is, you know, how would they support the work? You know, what kind of backing would they provide in practical ways if a work was to be started? So these are just things that, you know, you can go to the same checklist that we covered, ask these questions, think through on it. Then I think more important than these, these are just practical questions like a checklist, but more important, the question that you need to ask is does God want you to work with them? Right? It's God leading you to do it. How would, whatever you've started in that place and what are the works that's already going on, how would that be affected if you were to work with them? So that's also something, but that has to come between you and God, right? You pray and you see. So there are these practical questions which you need to check off. They have to be positive. They have to be good, cleared. That's very important. If you can't clear those practical questions, don't even take a step. Clear the practical. And then in addition to that, what is God saying to you personally? Is God leading you in this? Do you feel the peace of God? Do you feel like spiritual connect with, you know, the pastors and the leaders who are in that organization? Do you feel connected to them spiritually? And if not, then don't. Don't step into it. If you do feel a spiritual connect that, you know, that the Holy Spirit is leading you in this, then, yeah, then go for it, you know. Otherwise, just stay away, right? I was just looking for that scripture in the first chronicles. When it talks about how God, by his spirit, brought people to David, you know, after David became king, there were a lot of people who came and they joined together with David. And so David asked them, you know, do you, this is first chronicles chapter 12 verse 18, you know, first chronicles 12, 18. So when these people came, David asked them, you know, are you, are you coming to help me? Or, and will my heart be united with you? First chronicle, let me write this down. First chronicles chapter 12 verse 17 to 18. So he's saying, will you come, peace will help me, my heart will be united with you. You know, that means there's a connection between David's heart and these people who are coming to work with him. And the response is beautiful in verse 18. You know, it says, a spirit of God came upon Amasai and he said, David, we are yours. See, the Holy Spirit made this connection. Even this was, you know, this was a practical scenario where David became king and here were these warriors who came to join David. But before David could accept them as part of his team, he said, you know, is there going, will my heart be united? Is there going to be a heart connect? And then you see it was the Holy Spirit who made that heart connect. And so that's what you should be looking for. Is the Holy Spirit connecting your heart with theirs? Then go for it. If it's not, then don't. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. There's a question here from Kennedy. What is your take where in Europe or other places, churches are converted to more shopping malls basically due to poor church attendance or lack of interest? Is it Godly Kennedy? Yes, that's happening. Well, it's sad that it's happening. But, you know, I guess it all boils down to real estate. The church is not being able to, let's say, let's put it like this. The first most important thing, the church is not able to do what it's supposed to have done. It just raised up Godly leaders who can then lead the, you know, lead in evangelize and reach the community. So the church failed. So now it is, it's boils down to, okay, there's property that's vacant. What do you do with it? And then they end up doing this selling it. Is it a good thing? No. Is it a Godly thing? No. Who's responsible for this? The church, the church failed. And so this is the consequence of it. How do we resolve it? Well, we need to change. The church needs to change. The church needs to be revived and raise up Godly people and leaders, ministers who will then reach the communities and, you know, serve the people and make use of these buildings. Yeah, that's just a few thoughts on that. Okay. Anything else? Let's move forward now. I'll just get the next lesson started and then we will continue this tomorrow. So the next lesson is personal preparation. So as you prepare to go and start to work, start to ministry, it's so important to personally prepare yourself before you go and start. Just if you're going to plant a church, a local church, you know, prepare yourself, the better prepared you are, the more likely you're going to be able to stay there and get the job done. Right. So how do we prepare ourselves? What are some things to think about? Now, keep in mind that church-planting or starting off a Christian ministry, it's not for the faint-hearted. You must be absolutely committed to this. Right. It's not, you know, it's not an easy thing. It's a very challenging thing. So it requires a certain level of commitment. How can we prepare well? First of all, is be strong spiritually and maintain a strong personal spiritual life. If that's something very important that you yourself have to be strong spiritually and you yourself, you should know how to maintain your personal spiritual life. It shouldn't be like up and down, up and down. Okay, one week I'm really strong. The next two weeks I'm down. I don't pray or seek God. You know, you have to have a consistent spiritual life. So bring yourself to that place to be strong spiritually. It's a challenging work, a challenging task. Get equipped with a word of God. You know, 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, it says that the man of God, the word of God is given. All scripture is given. Verse 17, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped and prepared for every good work. So through the scriptures, through the word of God, you prepare yourself. Get equipped and keep on learning. You know, if you never stop learning. So get equipped in the word of God. It's very important. You know, sometimes people come. I just want to do one quick course and then I go start a church. You know, it feels very sad because to do such an important work. They're not willing to get equipped and receive the kind of training they need and be established in the word to do such an important work of planting a church or starting a Christian ministry. Number three, become clear of your calling and vision. You know, you as a person who is going to be the leader, you must be very clear. What is your calling? What is your vision? Because you're the vision bearer. People alongside you or under you will come and go, but you can't do that. You are the one who's going to hold on to the vision and say, this is the vision. We're going to stay focused on this. You know, so that's very, very important. Number four, be willing to work twice as hard as others. Paul said this, you know, in 1 Corinthians 1510, he said, I am what I am by the grace of God, but he said I labored more abundantly than all the others. So can you imagine Paul is saying, you know, I labored much more than Peter and John and James and all the I've worked much more than them. Paul is telling and then he says, yes, it was by the grace of God. I was able to do it. So Paul was a great apostle. God used him powerfully, but he had to work twice. I mean, much, much harder than the other apostles empowered by the grace of God, of course. So be willing to work hard as others, you know, especially when you're doing a planting a church and you're doing, you know, those who come alongside those who work working under your leadership, they may not have that same level of commitment. They're good people, but they will only go so far. But you as a vision bearer, you have to be willing to work twice as hard and don't expect great rewards here on earth, right? The rewards are in heaven. But here you work, you serve God, empowered by the grace of God. I'll just cover two more points. We'll continue this tomorrow. Pray plan, prepare, but don't be hasty. In other words, things may not always happen at the speed at which you want it to happen. You know, we all like things to happen very fast. But must keep in mind the higher you want to go, the longer it's going to take. Meaning, you know, you first have to put a deeper foundation to go up higher. So that putting the deeper foundation takes time. So don't be hasty, right? You pray, you plan, you prepare, but just keep journeying with God. And depending on, you know, what God's call you to do, it'll take time, but you got to stay the course. And you have to be emotionally strong. Because a lot of things can happen when you are planning the church. You know, there'll be people who say good things about you. There will be people who make all kinds of comments about you. There'll be people's expectations, you know, all kinds of expectations, lots of things. Emotionally, you have to be strong. You know, it's not going to be fair weather all through the sailing. There are going to be some storms and winds and waves and you have to stay strong through that. So emotionally, you got to be strong. You got to prepare yourself. So think about all of these things, right? As you are preparing to plant a church or start a ministry. We'll pause here, we'll continue this tomorrow. Let me see if there are any questions on this. Any questions on just how do you prepare yourself on these six points I shared with you just now? Any thoughts on it? Any questions? Is there one following along? Sorry, you're staying in line with what we're doing. Yes, sir. Okay, great. So we'll continue this tomorrow. Asha has a question. How will we know the clear calling of God? Just curious. Yeah, so, you know, we, of course, we need to pray and seek God. And I'll point you back to two simple EPC books. One is fulfilling God's purpose for your life. In that book, we mentioned nine signposts that God uses to communicate and clarify his call on our lives. And I will also point you to the book on receiving God's guidance. In that book, we explained, we expand on these nine signposts explaining that this is how God guides us. So as we seek God through one or more of these ways, God is going to clarify, keep clarifying. And as we journey, it's going to get brighter and brighter. So Proverbs 18, it says that our path is like the shining sign that gets brighter and brighter unto the noon days. So we've got to start the journey, keep listening to God, start the journey. And as you keep journey, things are going to get brighter. Okay, you're welcome. Let's close and pray for today. We'll continue this tomorrow. And any questions, we will take it up tomorrow. Could somebody please pray with us and dismiss us today? Anyone? Go ahead. Thank you. Father, we are thankful, Lord, for the knowledge and wisdom that we were being imparted, Lord. We pray just that you will teach us more, Lord, so that we may be able to carry this wisdom, Lord, into ministries that will start, into organizations that we're working into, into our everyday life, Lord, into our community, Jesus, so that wherever we go, Lord, we may show your goodness, you may show your kindness, we may show your wisdom, Lord. We pray for that you will be with us. And all the glory may be yours, Lord. In the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray for. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. See you tomorrow. We'll continue this. God bless. And so, the rest of your day. And, Louis, does your reading went well? Everything went well? Thank you very much. Sorry, I couldn't hear you, Louis. I lost something instead. Anyway. Yep. God bless you. Yeah. Yes, Louis. Okay. I said the event went well. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Nice. Nice. God bless you. Thank you. Bye now. Bye now.