 Alright, the recording is on. Welcome back everybody to the second lecture on DC 3.0. We're talking about culture, culture of the organization, culture in the congregation, how to keep it aligned, how do we nurture the right kind of culture, so on. And towards the end of the last lecture, we just looked at the contrast between behaviors that give rise to a healthy culture among leaders and among those who are the staff versus behaviors that would create a toxic culture, a very unhealthy culture among the leaders or among the staff, of course to a person's people. So, if you look at it, I mean if you want to put this in a little box like this, you can see various kinds of elements in the culture. People, if you say, you know, when it comes to decision making, is it top down or is it opposite? So people can say they'll respond. Is it rigid? Is the environment very rigid? Is it very relaxed? Is it cold versus do people feel cared for? Is it disjointed or is it integrated? Like are people all doing their own things or you know, we're all feeling like one part, part of a bigger whole. Is the culture very focused on numbers or is it focused on quality? Is it hierarchical or is it flags? Is it micromanaged or are people autonomous? Are people free to make decisions? Is it reactive or proactive? Is it secretive or honest? Is it relationship, saving or the truth-telling? Are people compromising the truth just to keep relationships or is there a good healthy balance there? People are willing to tell the truth. Is it indifferent or curious? Is it trust-creating versus trust-destructive? It's just fear and these are not necessarily everything but, you know, we can say, hey, when you want to talk about organization culture, you're looking at all of these things, what is the current scenario within the earth? There's something to think about. Now, Jim Collins, he's not a Christian book but more of a management book. He's written several books but in his book called Good to Grey, he talks about characteristics that help organizations move from being just good organizations to being great organizations and then he listed these things. But the reason I put it here is you see that so many of these things are, you know, they align to what we would call as a biblical value. Now, this is a general management book. It's sort of a Bible book. It's a management book but if you look at the characteristics he's listed that help organizations move from being good to being great organizations, you find so much of parallel with what we would call biblical values. I will just go through some of these things. So he talks about having curiosity that is being willing to learn, willing to explore, looking at new ideas, being curious, being rigorous, not ruthless. That means, you know, you're working hard but you're not uncaring, cold, harsh towards people. It's a culture of discipline. It's very interesting, discipline. You have discipline people, you have discipline thinking, discipline acting. People are very disciplined. They are focused, they are working in a very disciplined way. He says what leadership humility. It's very much like what we learn from the scriptures. The leaders have to be certain. He talks about professional determination. Bible talks about us being religious, us being pressing through, enduring, endurance. Right people in the right jobs, unveiling faith. Just believe that because they are speaking from a gentleman in perspective. For us we are faith in God, faith in what he can do for us. Honesty about the facts and the current reality. Making use of technology. Having co-values, saying by co-values, which we have just spoken about. Understanding what differentiates us, what are we good at, and doing that well. And of course there are other things like economic values, financial aspects. Having passion on what we're doing and focusing on it. Being goal based rather than just doing out of zeal and excitement. And making decisions that are based on dialogue, that is conversation. And then also analyzing, reflecting on the decisions. So it's very interesting that these are things that are put out by general management. Leaders and a lot of it is applicable for Christian context, church organizations and so on. So think about these things. Making an organization go from good, being a good organization to being a great organization. These are some of the things that they have shared based on their research and study and so on. So what I want to bring our attention to is it is good to evaluate the culture of our organization from time to time. And it's actually a very scary thing because even I tend to think, okay, how are we, how are we doing as an organization, culture, how is the culture of our organization? And if people, people are working in the organization, have this express and say, hey, this is how I am feeling working here. What would they say? No, it's actually a scary. Will they say that they are really happy? Will they say I'm actually enjoying my work? Or will they say like who I'm feeling very controlled and feeling very, I don't have freedom or I've been, I'm making, I have to work very hard or whatever, I'm not being bothered or I'm not being appreciate. So I think about it and I try to listen to how people are feeling, talking, sensing, sensing how they're feeling and so on. Try to improve it. Now, of course, we have to keep the work going, but at the same time, we have to feel the pulse. Feel what is the culture of the organization, in understanding. So generally, how do we do it? How can we, you know, how can we get an understanding of where are we, where is the organization culture at? One is, we can ask ourselves these questions. What are the experiences, what people remember about the organization? So especially those who have been there for several years. Are they able to talk about the stories, the journey that they've made? Can they look back and say, hey, we went through this. Now, you know, for many of us, COVID, the last two years, 2020 to 2022 was a thing, but if people, those who have journeyed in the organization through that, and they look back, what would their memories be? What would the stories be about how we as an organization went through that? You know, what other things will they remember? In what are the stories they would say, you know, about that time? Will they say that, yeah, you know, God did some amazing things during those two years and so on. Will they remember, you know, some really powerful stories? So things like that. And for those who have been, of course, with the organization longer than that, you know, what were the stories they remember about their journey to the organization? That's one way to assess. Secondly, what would they say about leadership? You know, so if you ask just anybody in the organization, hey, what do you say about the leadership at the organization? What are the outstanding traits? What would they highlight? You know, will they say, well, he's very, very controlling, he's manipulated, he's not open, you know, or he or she is not open, he or she is not there. What would they say? And that gives us a feeling of, if you ask the people there, you know, ask the people who are working in the organization, ask them, what will they say? Similarly, what are the third one? What are the practices that people are excited about? Hey, what do we normally do? What are you excited about? I said, hey, we never did anything. We only work. That means, you know, that means there are no rituals that are creating memories that are affecting the behavior and thinking of people. But if they say, hey, you know, every month we had great food. Whenever there was a, you know, we celebrated birthdays. We celebrated people's, you know, special days. We went on a picnic at least once a year as a group or we had, you know, nice Christmas, whatever, things like that. So those are practices which we feel excited about. Those are the things that creating memories that are affecting thinking and behavior and so on. So we think about that. So we can ask the same questions about the church staff. We can also ask the same questions about the congregation, right? What will the congregation remember, the people in the congregation remember? Then another question we can ask is, hey, how do people behave in this organization? How about people here? Are they friendly? Are they supportive? Are they open to giving feedback and receiving feedback? Are people all closed? If I'm just quietly does their work and goes away, they don't talk much. You know, very cold, uncaring. What do you feel? How do people feel about the organization? So we're talking about feeling, not thinking. Why? Because when you're thinking, we tend to think like, oh, I'm supposed to say this. When I ask how you're feeling, then it's more, this is how I really feel, right? And that can reflect what's actually happening in the organization. So feeling is like a sensing of the temperature. What's really happening, and it gives it more direct expression of the culture as opposed to what people know they think, right? When they're thinking, they know what to say is right and wrong and all that. So how do you feel? Are people in but looking out to focus? Is it all about us and what we do or is it about the people we are serving? Are people risk takers? Can they in a way or are they totally averse to risk? Is the organization hierarchical? So these are just general questions to do a general assessment of the culture. And it's nice to think about these things, talk to people about it, and then maybe even have like some way by which people can express this. Maybe in an anonymous survey, maybe in just somebody, usually like an HR person, somebody from outside who's talking to the people and saying, hey, what's going on? How do you feel? So they really assess what is going on. Like if I as a leader go and ask people, mostly they all tell me the nice things. They might think I'm already here, but if somebody else is doing it, they just tend to be more open and just say what they feel. They're really feeling about the organization. So you can do it as a questionnaire. There's just an example and let people evaluate this in a very objective way. Or you can do it in an anonymous way and you can then evaluate how things are. So bring out questionnaire or feedback for a survey with questions can help. Now when we're talking about church, our goal is to nurture a kingdom culture. Now we have a big plus or a big positive. That is as a Christian church or a Christian organization, we are at an advantage because all of us working here are coming to the same perspective. We want to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All of us are coming to that mindset in a kingdom culture. So what would that look like? These are the expressions of kingdom culture. It's compassion, it's faith, humility, sacrifice, generosity, hard work, perseverance, creativity, stewardship, unity, integrity, exaltant Jesus. These are some things we can put out. These all are expressions of the culture of God's kingdom. And we see this in scripture. So therefore as a Christian church or a Christian organization, these things we should really be nurturing. These expressions in our culture. So the moment somebody comes to work or somebody comes into the congregation, they should become very evident here, seeing these things happen. These people are actually living this out. They're actually living by these things, whether in the church community or whether it's the church staff, the organization, they should see this expressed in our values. And we can nurture it by re-trading these traits, modeling these traits, guiding people into this and rewarding us. It's like we've already discussed this before. But these are things that we want to really nurture amongst ourselves. So lastly, what can we do to protect organization culture? So it is a lot of work to have a good culture. Doesn't happen by accident. It's a constant, ongoing work to maintain good, healthy kingdom culture. We keep monitoring. We have to keep making corrections. We have to correct ourselves, we have to correct the people and just maintain that. So what are some actions that we can take to protect the culture? Because it's not easy and you don't want it to be destroyed. One is to hire the right people. Because remember, ultimately, it's people who are going to determine the culture. So especially for the organization, you need to bring the right people in. People who can fit into the kingdom culture and who will help develop the kingdom culture. If people are coming with the wrong mindset, or I'm going to be a boss, I'm going to tell people what to do. I'm going to dominate people, control people, manipulate this, that. If they're coming with those kind of preconceived behaviors or mindsets, we shouldn't hire them, we shouldn't bring them in. So the interview process, which we talked about earlier, is very important. We must preserve good traditions. If we are doing traditions like celebrating birthdays, or doing nice farewells, or having some things, community things. And those traditions are helping us to keep it going. Things that you do well, keep that going. Encourage communication so that people can tell us what they're feeling. And if we listen to that, we will know if things are going right or going wrong. Things are going wrong. We need to address it. We need to recognize what behavior, not just performance. Performance is good. Of course, people are rewarded for performance. But even behavior, somebody did something that expressed or highlighted certain kingdom culture, recognized that. Talk about it. And that gives you, hey, that's a good thing. That's behavior that encourages the right kind of culture. At the same time, we need to address behavior that's contrary to the organization culture. If something is out of line, we need to address that. All people accountable to make sure that their actions are aligned to the culture we are trying to develop. And if there is toxic behavior, if there's any behavior that's wrong, then address it. Don't cover it up. So, for example, a simple example, a couple of, maybe two weeks back, somebody gave me a feedback that another staff in their effort to get something done because of a timeline and time pressure and all that. They wrote a very kind of a harsh email to some other people. And it was brought to my notice that I said, hey, and then I addressed it. I said, hey, why was that email written like that? Because we want to keep our communication very positive, very healthy. Yes, we're all, you know, we may be under pressure from time to time to get certain things done. But that is still not an excuse to, you know, communicate in a harsh way. So we addressed that. It's a small thing, but it's better to address it when it's small and then that person will say, I'm not supposed to do that. I'm not supposed to be rude to others, act to be kind. So we, you know, address it. Don't cover it up. Don't ignore it. Address it. Talk about it. So the idea here is we have, it is not easy to build a good healthy culture. Once you are doing that, you need to also protect it. Otherwise it's very easy for things to fall apart. So that brings us to the conclusion of our lesson on culture. Let me just pause here for a minute to see if there are any more questions, any points of discussion before we move forward. Any questions? So we've been talking about culture within the organization, how important it is, how to build it, nurture it, what are the characteristics, and then how to protect the culture within the organization. Any questions? What's good? Everything is good to go. Okay. Everything is so fast, so good to go faster. Thank you. All right. So let me introduce our next lesson, which is on finances. And I'll just introduce the topic, give you a few thoughts. Then we will continue that next class, next week. So another very important part of church ministry is money, obviously, because it requires money to do ministry, right? Even the church needs money to do the work, right? Yes, we are doing spiritual work, we are doing spiritual ministry, but just about everything costs money. If you want to rent a home to meet, it costs money. For people to come into work, you need to have the infrastructure. And so we all understand, right? It requires money to do the ministry. And so money is involved. And God has, in his word, he has put a system in place by which people can give for the work of the ministry. So obviously, God's people are giving their money to the church and the state ministry to do the work. They are contributing, they are giving on their own heart. But now it is our responsibility to manage this properly to make sure that we are being put stewards of the money that comes. And, you know, we can see examples in recent and older examples where if money is not handled properly, even good ministries or good churches can go down. But money is not managed properly. And I remember, you know, I'm just mentioning one example. I'm sure there are lots and lots of stories and examples. But I remember back in the 1990s, there was a powerful minister of God in the United States. And God was using him very powerfully, especially in the area of prayer. So he was based in Texas, a congregation, a big growing church, powerful. And then he was going around the United States, filling up stadiums. People just coming to prayer. So you can imagine, you know, you go to various cities and the stadiums will be filled. People just coming for prayer. So it was wonderful, amazing, amazing ministry. And things were going so, so good. He had written some books on prayer and everything was going so good. But what happened was in the church, in his church. And again, I don't know all the details, but this is what actually started the break down. People who are putting in money, of course, they would put it in envelopes. They put it in the offering box, or people would be sending money. Obviously, such a big church and so much money is coming in. The pastor is not sitting and counting the money. It's people who are handling this. You have the ashes who are going and collecting the money. And then, of course, there is a way on which everything is counted in part. But what happened was, and I don't know where this dropped a half. I mean, who was responsible for this? But, you know, envelopes would come and people would just take out the money. There would be prayer requests. You know, people are sending money with the prayer request. Just the prayer request is thrown out. So, like, the money is taken out, but the envelope with the prayer request is thrown into the bin. Like, nobody's even praying for it. There's no system, you know, how that's being handled. So, that was just one point. But like that, there are other things. I think, like, you know, some... Basically, the whole thing was being handled properly. And the TV channel came and recorded this. And it went on television. Look, this is what is happening when you send money, when you're putting money in the offering in this ministry. And they highlighted this. And it was so sad because almost overnight, it became bad news about how much envelopes and offerings were being sent were being handled. It went on television. It had such a repercussion. It impacted the pastor. It impacted the leader so much. He went into depression and, you know, just almost overnight, almost overnight, this whole ministry collapsed. His marriage broke. His marriage ended up in the post. It was just devastating. And what triggered it was this report on how the money was not being handled properly. The offerings that were being sent were being put into the, you know, the offering boxes. It was not being handled properly. Just that thing that went out, it brought this whole ministry to a standstill. This is one example where money, you know, the man himself was very good. So a genuine man of God. God was doing some powerful things through his life and the ministry. But obviously, he cannot control, you know, so much that's happening. Something was not handled properly and everything just collapsed. This is one example. But then there are a lot of other examples where Christian leaders have been responsible for misusing money, mismanaging money, doing wrong things and cause problems. You know, and I remember even Yungi Cho, you know, Yungi Cho, Feynman, and in the last of the largest, world's largest church, had night for everybody. He had such a wonderful ministry, you know, till the very end. But then towards the end, and he was very elderly at this point in time, when news came out that his one of his sons were mismanaging or misused, again, in some way, funds that belonged to the church. And Yungi Cho had signed off on some documents that allowed him to do that. And that caused such a bad thing. You know, to a man who had lived a life so well, who had done amazing, God had used to do amazing, but towards the end of his life, you know, these things came to light. It was pretty sad. No, but it was an unintentional mistake or, you know, we don't know the details, but Yungi Cho has gone home to be with the Lord. But it was really sad that towards the end of his life, you know, that something like this had to come out and cause a lot of dispute or damage to otherwise a life that was so well lived and many, many decades of serving God. So unlike this, we can, you know, see many examples. And so we can never understate or we can never overstate the importance of having good finance, accounting and budgeting, financial management when it comes to church or Christian ministry. Now, let's just mention a little bit about key principles. How are we going to raise money? How can we, first of all, we need to have people from the beauty studio ministry. Here are the key principles on how we're going to raise money first. We must know that if God has given us a vision, then our responsibility is to just share the vision. And let God stir up the hearts of people to give towards the vision. We must not force people. We must not manipulate people. We must not, you know, trick people into giving. Now, just share the vision. This is what we're going to do. If you feel certain in your heart to give towards the vision, give. You know, sometimes churches, ministries, they do all kinds of things. They would say, before the 30th of this month, you must send $30 or $30, whatever. And God will bless you. Unless they're trying to force people to give, they use all kinds of tricks. And I've seen all kinds of tricks churches, ministries doing. And it's not right. The simple thing is to share the vision. If God has given you vision of some work to be done, to share it with people and let God move on the hearts of people to give. And we see in the Bible that God stirs up the hearts of people. Example, when he told Moses to build the Tabernacle, he said, God told Moses, I want you to build the Tabernacle. All you do is tell the people to bring the offering. And let each one bring what is in their hearts. And it happens. They had more than enough to build the Tabernacle. Same thing during David's time. When he felt time to make arrangements for the building of the temple, he just told the people, said, you know, God has put in my heart that we should get these things ready to build the temple. This is what I am giving all of you want to bring. You bring what you want. And the people respond that they brought more than what was needed. So just share the vision. Don't force people. Second principle is this. If we serve people spiritually, they will serve financially. So you just focus on serving the people spiritually. And let God move upon their heart to serve financially. So serve them spiritually, then they can give financially. But without serving into people's lives spiritually, if we expect them to serve financially, that is typically not right. First is so spiritually into their lives. Serve them spiritually. Then God will move upon their hearts too. So that's it. Second, another important truth is to be a good steward. So if you're a good steward, then God himself is going to increase what you steward, how much you steward. So if you have a good steward of that little, when God sees your faithfulness in little things, then he will trust you with more. So be a good steward of whatever God has given you. Then be accountable to the people who are given. So if we are accountable to the people, then the people can trust us. They will be more free to give. They say, when I'm giving here, I know that the money is being used properly. It's not going to be wasted. It's not going to be mismanaged. So they are more free to give. And lastly, we must also be responsible to government authorities, whatever needs to be done. And we will talk more about this. Whatever needs to be done to be accountable to local authorities, we can do that, give a report of finances and so on. So these are biblical principles for us to follow when we are managing the money that is given to the church, given to the ministry. So from time to time, maybe once a year, I will send an email doing the course. They are saying, hey, these are areas where you can give. So I have to say, that's once a year. So not every Sunday when you're asking people, please give, please give, please give. We don't do that. We just let people know, hey, these are all the things the church is doing, the ministries are involved, people know, and they can freely give towards what they want. And then at the end of every year, we send the reports. So we followed a year-in-review report where the states, you know, what we have spent money on. So various areas of ministry. So people know, okay, this is where the money has gone. Now, of course we're not giving a report of every detail. But at a high level, these are different areas of ministry. This is where the money has gone. People have an idea. And then also our annual audited statements are put out on our church website right from 2001 till today. And every year's annual audited statements have been checked by the auditor. They've been approved. It goes up on our church website. So anybody who's interested, they can go and see, okay, this is the financial status of the church. So it's our form of being accountable to the people who have given the money. So we'll get into the details of it. There's just an introduction here today to the subject. We'll get into the details of the practical side of how to manage the money, how to budget, how to be able to handle this properly, how to do it. I'll just share some of the practical things we do here. Any questions on just this introduction? Any questions so far? Okay. So we'll pause here for today. We'll pick this up next week as we talk about finances in the church and ministry. Okay. Let somebody close in front, please. We thank you for this wonderful lecture that we've had this morning, Lord. We also thank you for the wisdom, the knowledge, the skills that you've given to our dear pastor, so that you can inculcate into us the sense of ministry and doing the right thing in the right time and in the right place. So Lord, as we go out of this lesson, we call upon your Holy Spirit to teach us and to guide us and not to be only hearers of the Word, but also doers of the Word. We do pray in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and everybody says Amen. Amen. Thank you everyone. Thanks for being part of the class. See you all again next week. Enjoy your day.