 Okay, yeah, so let's get started, right? Okay, we'll just pray and we'll start. Father, we thank you for this time together. We thank you for this. Get another semester, Lord. And we thank you, Lord, for this subject that we're all together, that we're going to be pursuing. And Lord, we ask for an outpouring of your grace and wisdom, Lord, even as we do so. And so we come at the days ahead. We come at this time into your mighty hands. We give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Wonderful. Yeah, wishes all around. Happy New Year once again. Happy 2023. God bless you guys. Good to see you all. Good to see all the familiar names once again. And of course, we're in touch with a few. So nice to see you all. Okay, so this subject that we're going to be looking at this semester is independent research. And it's, as the name suggests, it's, it's, it's research, research, which each one of you will be doing individually, independently. It's, so it's not a team effort. It's an independent effort. And so the, so the work would involve researching a topic. And so I'll just talk about that. Okay, what it involves, what you would need to do. And so we're going to be meeting just once a week. And also, it may not be a full session, right? Some, some weeks we made, we don't need to meet. But we will, and I will just announce it, you know, maybe we can meet once in two weeks also, sometimes. But we're going to be looking at certain, maybe progress as we go along, about each person's research. And also, maybe some questions to be addressed, maybe some course corrections, etc. Right. So, so yeah, before we start, I just wanted to read one verse, which is in the Gospel of Luke, right? Luke chapter one, and the first few verses. It's quite an eye opener. We see Luke chapter one verse one, if you'd like to follow in your Bibles, says inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set an order and narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning, where I witnesses and ministers of the Word, deliver them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. Verse three, the second part, it seemed good to me. And he says, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, an account of, of course, the everything that he understood. And he was inspired by the Spirit of God to write these, but he says, you know, an orderly account. And verse four, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed. So Dr. Luke, as we know, who wrote Gospel and the Book of Acts, that he goes about writing down a narrative chronological series of things that happened during his time and above the life of Jesus. And he says, having had this understanding, I want to put together an orderly account, and that you may know the certainty of those things in which you are instructed. So this putting together an orphan of this account, an orderly account, is going to bless Theophilus, that he may know the certainty of those things in which he was already instructed. So something that he could refer to, something that he could go back to and, you know, and he was obviously, it's going to be something that he can go back to over and over again, something that will help him. So when we look at this research, independent research, in a way it's like that, you know, it's an orderly account. It's going to be a topic that you're going to, you know, look into, get into the details of within the scope of this time frame, this time frame of like right from today till maybe end of April, but it actually will be less than that. So to look into certain topics, to look into certain, you know, information, put it together, present it, give your suggestions, give your thoughts, give your, you know, your conclusions about certain things, but it might help others, it might help the reader. So I'd like us to, you know, look at it beyond the scope of the course, right, as something that is required for the course. You know, all of you are in the final semester. And these are the final, you know, I'm talking to online students, of course. And this is the final semester and final, you know, subjects, few subjects that you're doing as part of the BTH or as part of, you know, whatever courses you've picked and, you know, selected. But the thing is, is to look at this paper, something, the scope of it as something beyond that, right? The time frame for this course is, is less. When we say it's time to April, we've already in the first week, and we ended in April. By mid-April, we should actually be technically done with the report, with the findings, with the conclusions, so that we can start with the presentations, right? So the report presentations in class for the online students, it'll be videos that they will make and upload, which will be, again, assessed. So, so let's just get into what this course is about. Okay, what IRPs are all about in the independent research paper is all about. So the objective is this, you know, we may have read it in the course, you know, introduction, and also in the guideline that was uploaded, we'll get into the details of that in a bit. So it is to explore, to identify something, the thought, a title, topic, to explore that, to research on that, and to present the findings with some conclusions, right, in the form of a paper, which means in the form of a written report, and also a presentation, where you present, okay, this is what the research is about, this is what the topic is about, etc. Okay, so in that, simply put, it is that. So how will this help us as students? Now, it will help each of us as students, each of you as students to explore a particular topic, you know, to do a self-study of a particular topic, and where it does not have a set syllabus and say, okay, this is what it is, you know, these are the topics that we are going to, this is the introduction, these are the topics, you know, where you will be pursuing, researching, and finding out things about that particular topic. Okay, so let me just present the guidelines and show you that, okay, here we go, okay, I guess you can see that, okay, just a minute, please. Okay, so this is the objective, to pursue independent research on a particular topic, it can be a thought, it can be an idea, but the topic has to be something related to the Word of God, you know, it can be a topic from the Bible. Okay, we'll have some time for questions after this, soon after this. So it can be a topic from the Bible in the sense, maybe you're exploring something on faith, maybe you're exploring something on gifts of the Spirit, but it should not be something that we have already dealt with during the course. Okay, so either you're, let's say in the third year, you might be having, I don't know if you're handling, you know, something worship ministry, if you're going to be studying that, okay, as a paper, so it cannot be something that you're currently looking at and studying, okay, or something in the past, maybe something to do with the, you know, the first semester, second semester, but it has to be, you know, even if you're, let's say you're considering something as a subject or a title, something that you've already covered, but it should be an angle or it should be some details that we have not studied in the past. Okay, so the idea is that it's the notes are not there, notes are not been given, it's not something that we discussed in class, now it's not something the lectures have been attended to in the past, but it's something fresh and new. Okay, it can be a biblical topic, something, you know, a biblical doctrine, but with a fresh angle, you know, if you're looking at faith, a completely fresh angle that you want to research, okay, so it can be an issue, it can be a challenge, a social, you know, social challenge, a social problem, it can be a political thing, an issue that is political in nature, something that is religious in nature, it can be any new thought idea concept, so it can be any of that, but the thing is this, in the research, okay, in the research report on in the research that you're pursuing, you are actually bringing out a biblical perspective of it, okay, so if it is a social challenge that you're addressing, okay, there is, let's say, a problem of addiction, there's a problem of pornography, a drug addiction, drug abuse in this particular thing, and then you're researching, you know, a particular, maybe a village, maybe a city, and you want to bring out some ideas or bring out some solution to that, bring a biblical perspective to it, bring a biblical perspective to why that problem exists, bring a biblical perspective to how to walk out of it, the steps or the path of recovery, right, so bring a biblical insight to that whole thing, okay, so it's not about the subjects that we are looking at, definitely not, that we have already looked at, okay, so let's stop right here any thoughts, any questions on this, about the topic, about the research, we're going to look at, you know, the methodology, we're going to look at some of the things, the timeline in a bit, so are you clear, you know, this is what it is, so each of you, each of, you know, every student is going to be, you know, thinking about, okay, some topic that you can pursue, you can refer to, maybe you can look into the word and, you know, research the word or research any other information, and it could be in the form of a problem, it could be in the form of, you know, something that is some struggle, but you're maybe researching that in order to find out a solution and presenting a biblical perspective of it, right, a biblical perspective of the problem, biblical perspective of the solution, of the, you know, the answers to it, right, so that's, so in a nutshell that's, that's what the whole, you know, the subject is about, okay, okay, so Asha is asking, is it going to be on MS word or PowerPoint, okay, so let's just hold that question, Asha, so we'll just go through what is the timeline and also I'll come to, come back to the report part of it, okay, okay, so, so there's a one page summary of your research topic, so the first thing to, first responsibility, the first task would be to, to come to, okay, what is the topic that I want to research on, okay, what is the topic that I want to search on, okay, do I, do I want to do a research on, okay, how to reach millennials, okay, how to reach out to millennials, how to share the gospel to millennials, so, okay, so who are the millennials, you know, what is their lifestyle, what is their outlook in life, you know, it's like post-modernism, so there's no constant, there's no, there's no absolutes, you know, all those things and, you know, how do I reach out or maybe you're, you know, in a particular country and in your country, in your, in your city, you know, you'd like to maybe do some, some kind of a ministry and so you want to, you know, research that ministry among a certain group of people and which, you know, which you, okay, this is the challenges, these are the group of people, this is their background, so, so the topic or the title that you're going, the topic of your research is very, very important, okay, so the topic also would give you the scope of research, so what do we mean by that, okay, the scope would be, okay, what are, what are the things that you're going to be researching, okay, how big is it, is that, that, how big is your research going to be, okay, how small is your research, so it's very important because the time frame that we have is one semester at like, you know, let's say four months, Jan, Feb, March, April and it's kind of maybe three and a half is what you can take into account, right, so the time frame is very important, so within that time frame, what is the kind of research that I can do, you know, let's say if I'm going to be saying, okay, what are, what is the church, the global church doing in terms of outreach, now that's a very, very vast scope, okay, so that's a very, very vast area, so if you're saying what is a global church, then you have to break it down into, in terms of continents, you have to break it down in terms of countries, which means that you will have to do a research on each of the, you know, nation in that continent to really present something that is substantial, the data that you're presenting, the information, because it cannot be just hearsay, right, it has to be data, right, this is what I looked into, this is what I researched, this is the, or this is the information based on which I'm presenting these facts, right, so it has to be that, so when you're thinking of the title, think about, okay, I have, this is this time, these are the days that I have, so within that time frame, you know, what is that meaningful research that I can do, okay, so think about that, so we have, we have a date for the submission of the title, submission of the topic, so which is 23rd of January, 23rd of this month, okay, so on or before Monday, which is the 23rd of this month, so yeah, let me just double check the date, 23rd, right, so one page summary, okay, this is the topic, and this is, this is what I want to do, okay, and this is what I'd like to, how I'd like to go about, just a one page summary of the research topic, why you chose that and what you'd like to do, of course, we'll discuss that in class also, so you can actually present that, right, you can talk about it, the thing is this, there might be some refining, okay, you might, and I might give some suggestions, okay, maybe the topic might be too vague, maybe I might give some suggestions, you know, why don't you consider, you know, something on these lines, et cetera, so we can fine tune that, so once the topic is, you know, approved, then you start, start the research, okay, collection of information, reading up, maybe collecting articles on it, people who have already maybe done some research on it, you can check on the internet, check in a library, and find more information on it, okay, so that's the, so the first task right before us is to find a topic of interest, and like I said, it could be something from the word of God itself, a biblical doctrine, or maybe, you know, at biblical times, you know, you can, you know, it can be anything, right, so maybe in the Old Testament, understanding of grace, whatever, so it can be that, but you go into it, and then you say, okay, this is, you finalize on the topic, this is what I'm going to be doing, and then once that is approved, then there's no turning back, okay, once we decide, okay, this is what it is, then it's better that, you know, you put all, because you're going to be putting all your efforts into it, and once we start, it's better that we don't change the topic, okay, so these two weeks, we'll take maybe after that conversation that we have on 24th of January, it's better, it's best not to change the topic, right, once we find you in it, once we finalize it, that's it, you go ahead with it, okay, the second thing is that there is a, on the 27th of February, so a month from the time we finalize the topic, you give a status of what work is happening, you know, what are the readings that have been done, what search has been done, what data has been collected, and how you've been going about collecting information, all that, right, it could be questionnaires, it could be, you know, maybe interviews, maybe it could be data from the net, right, like interviews and questionnaires, if it's going to be some qualitative information, right, people's thoughts and ideas and where they are, etc. So that kind of information through discussions, we could do that. Okay, so a status of that work is to be submitted in February, 27th of February, a month from the time we finalize the topic. Then the final research paper, the final presentation, the report, we will keep the date as 10th April, then after 10th April, we will have the presentations in class, so all students can actually present, right. So the presentation time limit would be about maybe 10 minutes or even less, so just give a very brief presentation, right, of course your research paper, what you submit will have all the details, so we'll be able to go through that. Okay, so there are some ways in which it needs to be done, e-learning students, there's some instructions there in the guidelines that is uploaded, please go through that. Okay, so with regard to the report, we're going to follow the MLA format and details are given there, right, what is the MLA format in terms of font, font size, spacing, margins, paragraph, everything, it is given there very clearly, so you can go through that. Of course it's not going to be a hard report, so there's no, you know, specifications on paper and what kind of binding etc, right, so like what Asha asked, so this is it, so it is a document, it is a Word document, when you make your presentations, Asha, you know, you can, obviously you can use a PowerPoint and present, but the report has to be presented, it is a MLA format, it's a Word doc, right, so that is, that is what it is, so I will also, you know, put the template there in the source section, I'll upload a template, also for the eLearning students, there will be a template, so you can, you know, you can go through what the MLA format is about and you can follow the template, you can use the template for your final report, right, so when it comes to that. Okay, so let me stop this. Okay, so any questions, any questions on the nature of the report, yes, say, would you like to go ahead please. Yeah, I can hear you, please. Thank you, sir. Yes, I just need, thank you for taking us through what to do for the research. Do you want to get more clarity on references? Are you going to be expecting a lot of references or are you fine with purely creative and fruitful interpretation? For instance, if you take a subject matter from the Scriptures, are you, are you fine with just, like, the whole research being just purely in the practical interpretations and thoughts on what that subject matter means in terms, within the confines of the Scriptures? Or are you also expecting that we go an extra amount, you know, to hear the thoughts of others on that particular subject matter? Yeah, so, okay, sir. Yeah, I get it. So in terms of, you know, if it is an original thought, obviously, you know, that's, that's perfectly fine, you know, your understanding of it and presenting that that is fine. But if you're going to be presenting or, you know, in your report referencing other authors, referencing other, maybe, you know, speakers or, yeah, people who have written articles, it's definitely, you would have to reference that because it's not your original thought. So it's, it will be required to reference that. And if it's going to be, of course, scripture, you would, it obviously, what would help be helpful is to, you know, reference the scripture portion, the chapter verse, and, and put that as well. Yeah. Thank you, pastor. Right. So, I have one more question from Abhishek. Show us any sample, it would be better to understand. Yeah, the, so the template will be there, Abhishek. But, you know, a sample report, actually, I really don't have permission to, you know, the students, it's their students work, right? So they've submitted that. Let me check. But the thing is, and I also don't want to influence the, the topic and the title that, you know, you want to choose. So maybe I can just put some, I mean, I can list down some sample research topics. If that would help. So your, so your question is on the report side or on the topic side. Abhishek, Maxon will have your question a little bit after this. Yeah, both the topic and the, see, with regard to the report, I'll just put the template and share the template. I think that would be more than sufficient. But with regard to the topic, maybe I can just share a few examples of research topics. And that would, that would be helpful. But yeah, what I really don't want to do is like, I love these to influence your, you know, your, I mean, whatever topic that you're picking, not too much rather, just give some idea where you want to go. Yeah. Okay. So, right. Maxon. And after that, Chris. Okay, my question is on project presentation. You said maybe presentation of report should be like 10 minutes. But the on final draft is on like minimum 25 pages. Yeah. How can in 10 minutes, 25 pages can be read? No, no, you, so yeah, so the presentation is just 10 minutes, which means you just touch upon some aspects of your research, what you, how you went about doing it and what you covered. But your in-depth work of data of tables of, you know, all the other information will be in the report which I, which I can read through. So, so that, so that's fine. So the 10 minutes is just to give an overview. And maybe if there are some questions that I might have, I can ask that and you can answer that. So, yeah. Okay, I understand. Yeah. So it's not going to be a line by line presenting of the entire report. We don't want that. So, yeah. Okay, so Chris. And after that, Harrison. Yes, Buster. I wanted to know regarding the draft, the draft that people submit, is there is, is there some sort of format to that? And what, how it will, you know, how will it sort of, you know, provide some view of the progress of the report. So I just wanted to understand that because that's happening one month afterwards. So. Yeah. So, so one month, you know, it's just a draft of whatever you have done. So there's no format to that. See, obviously, it's too early to start putting together as a report, because it wouldn't have reached any, you know, stage of completion. So, so it's just in your own words, it's just one, one of those things. So that's about it. Okay. And my other question was just with regards to, you know, when we, when we provide this report, is there any sort of possible outcomes to this? Or is it just some, some, some, just to evaluate each student? Do you see any sort of outcome to this? Well, first and foremost, it's, it's evaluation of, of the student, of the subject and the title and for the, for the purpose of the course. But beyond that, I mean, it's left to the student, if you want to, you know, put it in a, in a, like, I mean, use it as a blog or use it in a different forum altogether, that's, that's left to the student. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. So, Harrison, your question. All right. Thank you. Good morning, Sam. Morning. Yeah. I want to find out, okay, from the instructions given with, you said, a minimum of 25 pages and maximum of 30 pages. So my question is, doesn't mean that it should not exceed 30 pages. Yes. It can be, it can find 230 pages, please. All right. Thank you. All right. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? Okay, probably, I'm sure there'll be more questions as we go along. But if there are no, but if there are no questions about the topic or the title, maybe we can, we can wind up the class and see the next class is on the 17th. So, yeah, Chris, I'm just coming back to you. So on the 17th, you know, maybe you can talk about the titles, talk about the direction in which you want to go and, and we can discuss that to find that. Yeah. Chris. No, in the document, you have mentioned about e-learning students. So what about online students? How will they do the presentation? We'll have it in class. Okay. So they'll do it online. Okay. Yeah, we'll do it online real time and then e-learning will record it and update it or upload it. Right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So start thinking about it, thinking about what maybe some things that have been, you know, no, this, so Roshan, so that's the idea, you know, the subject is going to be different. It's not the same for everyone. So you're free to pursue whatever has, you know, interested you, whatever has bothered you, troubled you maybe, and you want to, you know, find more depth of information about that thing or maybe solution. So you can, you know, I think one way to look at it is, okay, what is, what is it that is close to your heart? What is it that's, both in terms of what is it that you're really passionate about, you know, when it comes to, you know, these things, also something that has been bothering, troubling, which you would, you know, find a solution for. Yeah. So it can be, I think that would be helpful. Yeah. Like, for example, yeah, I'll just share some thoughts. There was this person some years back who did a research on women ministers, you know, and this was, and the scope of that was her own town. So it was a village in Karnataka, not Karnataka. So women ministers. So it was about how, about the churches. So again, the scope was different churches. So the, well, the organized, organized churches or the churches that have been there right from the start institutionally, you know, by different denominations rather, and how each one responded to women in ministry. And so she also interviewed certain women who were there serving at present and some of the challenges and past and present, et cetera. So, you know, she presented all those, those kinds of, so yeah, she had some, some, it was actually maybe COVID times. So it was telephonic interviews, some questionnaires, which she sent and so it was a mix of all that, which she did, you know, to find out. Yeah. So it was interesting to really know that, you know, while we talk about women in ministry and maybe in a, you know, urban setting, we are more open. Well, it was interesting to see what, how the church was responding, reacting to women in ministry, right? Some of the resistance from the leadership, some of the resistance from the, you know, people to whom they were ministering, how eager they were to receive our resistance. So it was, it was nice to go through that. And of course, the biblical perspective, you know, the women in ministry, so it was good, right? So, yeah, so you can think of on those lines. For her, it was very close because this is her place where she grew up and where she was going to be ministering. So she, I hope it helped her. And right now she's actually, there's a church meeting in our house and she's ministering, et cetera. So I'm sure it would have helped, you know, that find out that information to pray through, you know, on those lines. Yeah. So, yeah. Okay. So the thing is to have a, you know, have a weekly routine, have a daily routine towards this because, you know, since it's not like lectures or anything, it's going to be dependent on you to have a healthy, you know, deadline for yourself and discipline thing, maybe daily, weekly. So it's good if you can have something in place, like saying, okay, every day I'll read so many articles or, you know, go through this information or at this time, I just a lot for independent research on the topic, maybe listen to some podcasts on the topic, listen, watch some videos on the topic, do some research. So it's good if you have some of those things in place. Otherwise, it'll be, it'll be April. And then we'll have to scramble together to put together a lot of things, right? Like someone also, you know, reached that place and said, I don't want to do it, right? It was the day before the presentations and nothing had happened all through the month. So I just want to, you know, encourage you to have those things in place, timely reminders, of course, these sessions that we have will help. But personally, you need to put something in your calendar and keep it in place so that you can finish on time, right? Okay, so if any other questions, anything that you'd like to discuss? Okay, so think about it, pray about it, what you would like to have as a topic. I think it's interesting and I'm looking forward, I'm excited because we have a class of what we have, how many of us, 10 of us, 18. So to have 18 topics and 18, you know, inputs and some things I'm sure are very unique to where you are right now. So I'm really excited to hear from you, right? What is it that, what topic that you're going to be pursuing? And I'm really excited about what is it that you're going to be presenting as well, right? So I'm really looking forward to that and I know it's going to be a very enriching experience personally for me to hear from each one of you. So I'm really excited. So yeah, it's going to be taking a lot out of you. So kind of it's good to have that self-discipline and say, okay, I'm going to do this in a timely manner and it'll be a very fruitful one. Wonderful. So yeah, I see your comment, Harrison. Good. Okay, so we'll close here. And thank you. So God bless. Any other clarification you can also, you know, can put it on the stream, any questions, so that it'll help the class also. Okay. And probably next class, we'll have a Google Sheet. So there's no overlap on topic. So you can put it there. So no one else picks the same thing, right? But of course, if it's going to be something geographical in nature, some place where you are, I'm sure it'll be unique. But even then, to prevent overlaps, we'll just put a Google Sheet. So each of us, each of us, each of you have access to it. And yeah, so there's no overlap, right? Okay. Wonderful. Thank you so much. God bless. We'll meet again next Tuesday for more on this. Bye-bye.