 Okay, the recording is on. Good morning everyone. Welcome to our class on 309 Urban Church Planting. This week we have only one lecture, because yesterday was a holiday here, because our Indian Independence Day, so we didn't have class. Let's just take a moment to pray. May ask somebody to pray with a class and then we both get started. Anybody wants to pray? Go ahead. Good luck to you, Brian. Have any father we thank you Lord again for bringing us the safe Lord. So see, I made my text on this lesson, Lord, you're teaching us, Lord. And we pray for that you Holy Spirit will empower us to open our heart that whatever we get fed today, Jesus may remain in our heart, may brought in us, Lord, that it's prayerful and that whenever we find out of this situation, we have to use this knowledge, Lord, that we'll be fruitful and your kingdom, your world will be full of them. Amen. Thank you. All right. Once again, everyone, to this class. So this course on Urban Church Planting, as we said, we are going to be focusing on church planting, specifically, but the things that we talk about could be applied to starting any kind of ministry in an urban context. So even if it's not a church, if you're planning to start from other kind of ministry, it would, we can still use these things or insights that we are going to learn. Plus, the same things can apply to a non-urban context. So even if it's a smaller town or even a village or some other context, where you're planning to start a ministry, many of these things that we talk about will, you know, can easily be transferred and applied in other contexts. All right. So I'm going to go ahead and share the lecture notes, which all of you already have. And then we will move forward from where we parted last week. So we have, we had spoken about, you know, getting God's heart for the city, why it's important how, you know, we need to feel what God feels, see what God sees for the city. And God would impart his strategy, his thoughts, his heart, his compassion for the city. And it's very important so that we are not discouraged by the things we see happen in our city. And we feel the heart of God, especially for the people in our city, even though, you know, there may be things in our city that are making life difficult and all of that, you know, that's happening. In spite of all of that, we still stay close to the heart of God for our city and come from that place as we do ministry. Now, we're going to kind of get into the practical, more and more as we progress, we're going to get into more of the practical side of church planting. And so I want to talk about here in chapter five to take some time to understand the natural dynamics of urban centers or the city in which we are going to work. So it's important for us to get a good understanding of what is happening in both the natural and spiritual. So we'll talk about the natural and we'll talk about spiritual. What is happening over the city, the urban center. But to get started today, you know, maybe we could just open up for a little discussion here on how is a city different from a village, just some quick thoughts here. You know, anything that you want to share, how is the city different from a village? Anybody? How is an urban center different from a rural village type of setting? Anything? Just, just be pretty sure you're talking. We can say, Pastor, that cities, the infrastructure, the is better and there are more amenities. It is good for people to be getting better provisions for medical education. They're better than villages. In terms of atmosphere, in terms of pollution and all, we can say villages are better. But cities are more polluted. They're more time consuming, traveling and everything, villages and people have more time and better air to breathe. What is coming to my mind right now? Yeah, so that's one thing, right? In cities, the same process is there, a lot of access to a lot of things are there. But at the same time, there are downsides, like I was pointing out, pollution, so on. I see Rupa sharing about being literate. So usually in cities, people in cities are more literate. They have the opportunity to study, advance learning, information, so on. That is true. Charles, go ahead. Go ahead, Charles. I think you raise your hand. How are cities and villages different? Okay, anyone else? More populated, sir. Yeah, so cities are densely populated. You know, usually you've got millions of people all living in a very wide area, whereas villages are very sparsely populated, mostly. Yeah, the people are distributed. There are a lot of groups of people here and there. Cities are very densely populated. I see our city is developed, villages are developed, animals are developed. So the whole development, cities are highly developed in contrast to villages and villages, the life is very different. What about the pace of change when you look at the city and the village? So you recognize cities are changing rapidly, right? A village, you know, you visit a village after 10 years, and maybe a few things have changed. You don't find any drastic changes, you know, after 10 years, 15 years, life hasn't changed very much, generally speaking. Whereas in the city, the city changes rapidly. You know, almost year after year, you see so many things changing, not only the infrastructure, but the demographic distribution, problems in the city, the size of the city, and the good and the bad, everything. It's just rapidly changing in the life of the city. The city is almost like, if you want to say, it's a moving target, meaning, you know, the way the city is keeps on changing. The dynamic within the city is changing at a much faster pace than the way things, the life in the village, the life in the village is almost static, you know, after decades, you would hardly find much change. Let's look at some of what is Harrison is saying, cities are busy and chaos, the cities are peaceful and quiet. Yeah, life in the city, busy, out of tension, people are, you know, for good reasons, bad reasons, people are very, you know, preoccupied, preoccupied in the village, like just a peaceful quiet, slow, so on. So just for us to think, yeah, that cities are complex, cities are dynamic. And so when they are doing ministry in the city, our mindset also must be accommodating to the changes that are happening around us in the city. And we must be aware, we must be able to respond to the things. But if we are doing ministry in a lid setting, things are moving, changing, you know, at a much slower pace, the challenges there are quite different. Just get us to think on the slide. Let's go back to our notes here. So when we talk about the natural dynamics of a city, here are some of the things we would be interested in looking at. It's been looking at the history of the city, you know, when was it established? Under what circumstances was it established? What was the motivation behind it? You know, of course, look at the administration, the government, the civic and the political environment prevailing. They look at the economy. They look at the demographic, which is the age distribution of the population, what are the languages, cultural backgrounds, and, you know, senior citizens, young people would take time to understand the socio-economic issues that are people in the city face or deal with. They look at the education in the city, you know, of what is the level of education, what are things people are pursuing, what are the interests of, where are the education institutions distributed in the city? What are the industries? Where are the industries located? How are women treated? How are women engaged much in the workplace? What about unemployment? What about, you know, the disabled population? What about the prison system? Other things like accidents and so on, all these things. Poverty, so a lot of these issues. So when we look at a city, we, and we talk about the natural dynamics of the city, these are the kind of things we need to be aware of. So when you are thinking of, you know, planting a church or starting a ministry in a city, it is good to do our homework. Try to take some time to understand, talk to people about it. Now, you know, these days, a lot of information is available online. So you can go online and actually literally explore a city, you know, through Google Maps, you can do a full survey of an aerial survey of the city. You can find out, you know, where are the institutions and so on and so forth. What's happening? You can read content online to get to understand more about the city. So things are much easier. I remember, you know, 20 years ago when we were planning to start APC, we didn't have these kinds of things, you know. And so I actually wrote letters to some pastors in the city asking them, you know, which would be the good areas in the city where I should think of starting a church. So I was depending more on, you know, what people would say to kind of understand what is going on in Bangalore City because I had been away for quite some time and lost touch. And so I reached out to the pastor to kind of get some information. But today, you know, a lot of this information is available online. It's easy to look at a city through Google Maps or through other sources and get a good understanding. It is very useful to do a study on understanding the natural dynamics of a city. And the appendix in these notes, we have a little documentation of the natural dynamics of Bangalore City, you know, some other things. Of course, it's always changing, right? Now, the question we want to ask is, why would, why is it important to understand the natural dynamics of the city when we are planning to do a church plant or start a ministry? Why is that important? Of course, you know, I've put some thought reasons here, but I just like to hear from you. Now, why would it be important to do a homework, you know, that to get a good idea of what's going on in the city? Why is that important? How would it benefit? The natural dynamics helps the planner to know the catchment area, the people that will be coming to the church in case you begin. Then you also plan, for instance, now if you are in the village setting, then you will know which methods of worship you are going to use. Are you going to use machines? Are the people going to clap hands? Or are they going to use the local local musical system like drums, like shakers and all that, the guitar? If it is a town, so you will find that you first know the catchment area, you know, you plan on the worship, you plan on the people that you are going to use. If the people are going to have salary, maybe you are likely to employ some people like in administration, but for it is a village, you might find that you are not going to put administrators, but you are going to have major volunteers and people who are not really skilled to that level. And in town, you might have skilled ones that have even studied the level that we need. That's my input. Yeah, so you've pointed out a lot of things, Charles. Thank you. So if we study the city, we will know where we should start the kind of church that we want to start, depending on whom we are planning to reach. It will also tell us how to relate to those people in terms of the style of worship, the kind of ministry we do. It will also show us what resources we have access to. Do the others people already qualify with them? So Charles pointed out many different things there. All very good, very good. I see Rupa's comment in the chat. It helps us better prepare to reach the people. Good. Any other things you can think of? Why should we try to understand the natural dynamics of the city as part of our preparation for church plan, or starting a ministry? Any other thoughts? Yeah. So I think Cungbilla's comment there, it must be by the serpent. So we can make wise decisions as we plan to engage the city. Rupa says to be focused and fruitful, very good. As I said, it informs our entire entry strategy, very good. Good ideas and good thoughts. Anything else anybody wants to share? Good. So all of these things are very valid, right? Abraham says it helps us understand the heart of the people. Yeah. So when we take some time to study the city, it really helps us in many ways. First of all, as a minister, you have a calling, all of us, we have a calling, and you may feel called to a certain kind of people. Let's say, example, you're called, you feel like God wants you to reach the young people, the youth, or you feel God wants you to focus on married couples and families. Somebody else may say, I feel God wants me to focus on children, whatever. Each one of us may have a specific calling and gifting in a certain area. It's very important to know where those people are. For example, if you feel like you got a call to reach the professionals, the working professionals, and if you go and start a planted church in an area where there are retired people or elderly people, where they finish their work and they return, because God has said, you know, you're wondering why aren't the professionals coming? Well, because you've started in the place that it's difficult for them to reach. The people all around in the neighborhood are people who retire and so on. And so they're the disconnect. So what would you want to do? You would want to plant the church. You want to start your ministry as close to your target audience as possible. So it's just us doing our homework, being what is in how we go about doing what God has called us. So you find where are the working professionals? Where are they generally populated? How can I be as close to them as possible? Or at least they should, the church should be accessible, the ministry should be accessible. There should be an interfaith happening. Same thing if you're doing for young people or college students, go where the colleges are, or at least a few colleges are. And then accessibility is very important. So think like that. And then, you know, what are the needs of the people, right? So when you are ministering, you are actually going to connect with them by first addressing some practical needs of the people. So when you study the city, you begin to understand, you know, okay, maybe there's a high suicide rate in the city. So that's a big problem. Or maybe a lot of people, you know, without jobs, you know, jobless, maybe that's a need I can talk about and address. So doing your homework really helps us, you know, together with God and together with the Holy Spirit, with the wisdom of God, we approach the city very meaningfully, very purposefully, depending on what God has called you to do. Of course, you're not going to solve all the problems of the city, and that shouldn't be our goal. We're not here to address every problem the city faces. But based on God's call on your life, based on what he has put on your life, you need to position yourself the best you can to serve people in the city. The apostle Paul, you know, when he went to Athens, and I'm referencing Acts chapter 17, when he went to Athens, he took time to understand, to talk to the people in the city. So if you have your Bible, and I know I'm going a little off the notes yet, but if we have a Bible, let me also open my Bible. So Acts chapter 17, and I'll just point out those verses that I, that I'm just referencing, if somebody could read that, to go into Acts chapter 17. So he comes to Athens, and in Acts chapter 17, let's look at verses 60, Acts 17, verses 16 and 17, Acts the 17th chapter, verses 16 and 17. Can somebody read that for us, please? Acts 16, Acts chapter 17, verses 16 and 17. Acts 17. Go ahead. Please do. Please, Maggie, read. Thanks. Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, it is risen in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the Gentiles worshipped, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. So, you know, Paul had come to Athens, and he was waiting for, you know, Silas and Timothy to come and join him, and he was waiting for the members of his team. Now while he was at Athens, he was kind of, you know, the first initial period of his time in Athens, this is a new city for Paul. What did he do? Verses 16 and 17, kind of, is giving us an idea that Paul was just trying to understand the city and the people in the city. It says here that he saw that this was 16. He saw that the city was given over to idols verse 16. Now how did that happen? I mean you can just imagine in your mind Paul must have toured around the city, you know, just going around, you know, walking around just, you know, we would say like he was just exploring the city, and he has noticed that, hey, the city is full of idols. So Paul wasn't, you know, sitting in a little corner, and, you know, no, he was going around the city and he began to realize this city is given to idols. People are worshiping, and he would see later on that as he is given an opportunity to speak to the Aeropagus, which is the elect group of people in the city, he tells them, men and brethren, I have noticed that you have an idol for every God, and there is also an idol to the unknown God, and then he uses that as a basis to start talking to them about the true and living God. So he kind of understood the city. The other thing you see in verse 17 is he is talking to the people, right? So he goes to the synagogue and he is reasoning with the Jews and Gentiles worshippers. So he's engaging, he's reasoning, that means that there's a dialogue going on, he's listening to their questions, he's responding to their questions in the synagogue, and not only in the synagogue, but it says in verse 17, even in the marketplace, so in the marketplace, here are all the people, the traders, the people have come, they're coming to buy and sell, they're coming to do business, and obviously, you know, in between those things, they're just standing and having conversation, they're talking. So he goes to the marketplace, he's engaging with the people, and he's kind of getting a feel, he's getting an understanding of what Athens is all about. What are these people thinking? What are these people, you know, what do they believe? What are they worshiping? So those two words are just beautiful, they kind of show us that Paul is taking time, he's come to Athens, it's a new city. Of course, he's anointed by God, he's empowered by the Holy Spirit, he's the apostle, and he's come to, you know, advance God's kingdom, but you also see him taking the time to do this natural work, this practical work of understanding the city and understanding the people who are living in the city. And I think that's a beautiful example, and that kind of leads into how he's able to speak to the leaders of the city and eventually there are some key people who accept and receive the gospel that Paul preaches to them at Mars here. So let me just go back to the notes here. So I want to impress on our heart that we need to, you know, take time to understand the city and as you do your little, as we do our research, it gives us a feel for the city, we can pray for the city, we can develop a heart of compassion for the city, God will place specific areas and needs in the heart of the city. He will also help us develop strategies to minister to the city and you know what you can do, what you should not do, what you should avoid, and so on. And I was letting us share a few stories here, you know, way back in, I think this was 2002, 2002. This was the year after 9-11 happened, anyway, I don't want to go into all the history there, but in 2002, we just, you know, made and just giving one example of where an exploratory trip did not materialize into something and another example where an exploratory trip materialized in the planting of a church. So I'll give both examples. So in 2002, we made a trip to Kabul in Afghanistan, so I went along with another person from our church at that time, we were a very small church, but we said, hey, let's go, let's go to Kabul, let's see if we can do anything there. And those days I was running my technology business as a company, so we could use that as an initial thought was to be able to use that as a means to set up something in Kabul and then, you know, of course, to share Jesus with the people. So we went on an exploratory trip and we went into Kabul, we spent three or four days there, I forget exactly all the details, but we spent three or four days there and going around the city, we saw, you know, the city was greatly damaged because of all the fighting that had happened. And our goal was, okay, can we use technology as a means to come into the city at that time. And, you know, at the end of the day, we explored, we went around talking to people, so on. And those days, there was only like one internet casting the whole city. And there was hardly anything going on in terms of technology, infrastructure, so on. So we came back, you know, saying that, look, it's going to be too difficult and also too risky at that time because of all the tensions that were happening, to set up anything and then try to do anything. So we explored, but it did not materialize in something that we could do to plant, to start a work. But on the other hand, that same year, 2002, we did an exploratory trip to a small town called Darulakata, which is about 350 kilometers from Bangalore city. It was near another city called Mangalore. So somebody had told us about this place called Darulakata. And they said, hey, that's a town that's about on the outskirts of another city. There are colleges coming up there, medical colleges, mainly. Students are going there to study, but there's nothing happening there. So that's a great place to plant a church. So we went there. And this time, I think there were four of us went gone. And we had no contact there. You know, we just got, somebody had told us that this is an opportunity, a place where we could start a work. We had no contact. We just like, okay, just going, let's explore. So we, you know, we went and we looked in and out of these campuses. There's just a small town. There were just these few medical colleges, nothing. So we were just praying, God, how do we do this? You know, we saw the college campuses, we saw that students were coming from many different places to study there, great opportunity, but nothing much in that town. And that day, as we were walking up in the thing, we came to like that small town center. There's not much happening with this thing. And we looked up and we saw there was a small place on the first floor of a building where they would show, they would play videos, movies. So it was not like a proper movie theater. There's just a small hall where this man would play videos like a movie and people would come and watch. So we just went up there and we asked them, you know, hey, what time do you do your movies on Sunday? So Sunday, I think he said 12, 13 or 1 o'clock or something. He gave us his timing. Then he said, can we rent this hall? And this also a small hall only. You could see it only 50 people. It can be rent your hall for two hours before your first movie shows. And we will pay you the money for it. And he was more than happy. He told them it's for a church. You know, we want to have a church service here. We want to rent it for two hours every Sunday before you show your first movie. And he was more than happy to rent it out for us. And then we also asked them, we said, look, next, you know, like two Saturdays from now, can we rent it on a Saturday also? We want to do a music concert. And it was a small hall. He was fine with that also, you know, because there's nothing happening in that song. So he was fine with that. So we planned, okay, in two weeks we'll go, we'll do a music concert, which was basically one person playing the guitar and singing some songs. We'll, you know, so we went the day before that, we stuck posters all around the town saying there's going to be a music concert in this place. And I remember this was almost 20 years ago, 2002, I'm talking about. And, and, you know, so we, we stuck posters and about, I forget the exact numbers, but at least 25 or more people showed up for that music concert. This is one of us playing the guitar and singing songs. And they came, they invited it back for Sunday service. And some people showed up for the service. And that's how we actually started a church client in that place called Delaceta. And some amazing testimony happened. You know, and so every, every weekend we would send somebody from Bangalore, they would take the bus overnight bus, they would get to Delaceta, they would do the service and they would head back to Bangalore. That's kind of how we started the service, services over there. And because we were a small church in Bangalore, and we couldn't a point of full time pass there at that time. So that's how the church started. Eventually, you know, one couple, they, they, they took up a job as, you know, the person of the man was a doctor. So he took up a job as a doctor, and he began to lead the church. He took a job as a doctor and a lecturer in one of those hospitals, and he began to lead the church there in Delaceta. And the work grew. There were one point of 45 students who had many of them had given their lives to Christ, and the work was growing. And it was just an amazing thing. And that eventually became what today is, APC, Mangalore. I mean, our church plant in the city of Mangalore, which has grown. And over the years, many, many lives have been touched. And today we have you know, a full-time pastor, and John Paul and his wife are there. And over the years, we have different people pastoring the church and so on. But what I want to share is that, you know, we did an exploratory trip. Those days, we didn't have the tools and technologies we have today. So we had to physically go scout the city, see what's going on there, see what opportunities could be there to start a work. In one place, nothing happened, Kabul. In another place, on one trip, a door just swung open, which then, you know, eventually enabled us to plant the church and, you know, that continued over the years into a church that has blessed the lives of many students and many people over the years. So just some thought there on getting to understand the dynamics of the city. So like I mentioned at the end of the notes, there's a sample on how you can study the city in terms of, you know, understanding what's going on in the city. Now, what I want to say is that, because the city is dynamic, that means things in the city are constantly changing. We have to keep a constant view of what is going on in the city. And things are changing very fast. So today, for example, in Bangalore City, there are many things we cannot do today, which we could do, say, 20 years ago. Today, because of the political situation and other things, people are a little bit more antagonistic towards the public preaching of the gospel and so on in our city. But, you know, 20 years ago, and I remember as a 30, 40 years ago as a teenager, I would stand in street corners and go on, even 10 years, let's say, yeah, 20 years ago, we had teams going around the city, you know, giving out tracks, and there was a little bit more freedom for us to evangelize and so on. Today, things are more disruptive and there's a little, there's more pushback towards the church, towards evangelistic efforts. In the same city, the city has changed. So we should look at new ways on reaching people, but there's this whole world of, the whole digital space, the digital world has become a mission field in the city. So while certain ways of evangelism have closed down, other ways of evangelism have opened up in the city, so especially the digital world. So we can reach people, in fact, millions of people, if we leverage what is available to us in the digital world to reach people in the city. So things are constantly changing and how we engage people in the city also keeps changing. The message is the same, it's the gospel of Jesus, but how we evangelize, how we reach out, the needs that we are looking at addressing will be dynamic because the city is changing and very often it's changing very, very fast. And so we have to keep a constant, be in touch with what's going on in the city and keep adapting our strategies towards what's going on in the city. Are you all with me so far? Any thoughts or any questions? All good? Okay, so Krista, go ahead. Yeah, Pastor, you had mentioned about schools and education institutions as a sort of an area, a customer area for having people attend a new church. Is that, are education institutions like a sweet spot for that, for this, a sweet spot as a source for people to come in and attend churches? Would you say that, are there any other sort of groups of people that could potentially also be a source? Yeah, so, okay, good question. Let me say this, like what we have seen, say even in our own city in Bangalore, things have changed a lot even in the educational side. So I will answer your question in two parts. So one is, you know, let's say five years ago, entry into education institutions to bring the gospel in was much easier. So we ourselves as a church, we had multiple outreaches into schools and colleges. We had what we were, you know, what Pastor Selina, the catalyst, and then we had what we were referring to as campus elevations into colleges, we would go in and conduct one hour programs and so on. So this was easy. We had easy access. We would tap into schools. And the third aspect was the counseling. So we could take Christmas counseling into schools and do workshops and so on. So five years ago, schools, colleges were very open. And at one point on a weekly basis, we were speaking to about 25,000 students. Plus we were on a monthly basis, we were speaking to close to 3,000 college students, you know, bringing God's word to them. This was, you know, talking about at least prior to three years ago. But then what has happened is the whole political situation has changed, you know, in Bangalore City. So now when we have approached schools and colleges, things are more difficult. In fact, we have not yet resumed our outreaches in colleges. That's still, you know, we haven't, colleges are not willing to let us come in to speak to the students. So that's almost zero now, other than I think one college. And schools, again, have come down drastically. So things have changed because of the political situation. And so at one point it was definitely a great place to reach out. Today things are a little bit more difficult. But we are continuing to look at ways how can we, you know, bring the word of God to schools and colleges. And we should continue looking at it, you know, and very intelligently speak to gain access to them. The other areas that I would, so the second part of the answer is there are other areas that we should look at. And we have looked at is one is Christian professionals. So especially in IT parks, in those special zones where there are a lot of tech parks and businesses there, what has helped a lot in the past is to start prayer groups for professionals outside of office hours and also outside of the office space. Many times we cannot do it inside the office space. We won't get permission. And also we cannot take away work time. So either it should be the lunch break or in the hours before the work, work day starts or at the end of the work day. So, you know, Christian professional groups or just prayer groups among the professionals was a good thing in the past, because, you know, we could do that. Now post pandemic, we are still looking at resuming. So it hasn't started back up. But that's another area we're looking at. So a third area would be to address the felt needs. So that's where Christmas counseling comes in, where we do parenting workshops, marriage workshops. And that also is a way to connect or interface with people in the city by addressing their needs. You know, everybody, every family, whether a Christian or non-Christian, people would like to learn about parenting, people would like to learn about, you know, marriage, how do I work, marriage, and so on. And so that becomes another area where in the past there's been a very good way to interface with people in the city. So schools, professionals, the felt need to the people. Now, what I know other ministries are doing in the city are, you know, addressing specialized needs, for example, drug addiction. So we have, so we don't have, ABC doesn't have, but other ministries are addressing that. So people with those problems go there and they are ministered to. So like that, I think different ministries can address specific needs and serve the people in the city. I hope I answered your question, Chris. Yes, maybe just a follow-up question, just from a sort of analysis point of view. Is there some sort of age profile, which is more sort of, I mean, they do desire to look out for this kind of way of, a new way of getting lives and getting transformed. Now, again, in generally speaking, generally speaking, if you look at the data, children, those who give their lives to Christ when they are children, they are most likely to stay the course. They have a popular encounter with God, they are most likely to stay the course. So if you look at data from, I think from Child Evangelism Fellowship, yeah, and so on, they put up this data and they show that those whose lives have been touched while they are children, partly, they are the ones who can stay the course in their life of faith. So children are a great, we must speak. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't put effort in other areas. We need to reach people across all age groups. But definitely in looking at that data that comes, ministering to children is a big thing. And if you can trust them, that's great. The early age, 14, and so they call it, I think, the 13 to 17 window or something like that. So that age group is very, very crucial. Yeah, 4 to 14. Yeah, thank you, 4 to 14 window. So, yeah, so I just wanted to start thinking about this in the areas where you are working, you're doing ministry, and we will talk a little bit later on how to develop ministries. But I can say this that in our own journey, we've seen that when we are aware of what the needs are in the city, it really helps give us direction on the kinds of ministries we should be doing, and the ways in which we should be reaching people in the city. If we are blind to it, we don't know what the needs of the people are, then we just kind of be groping in the dark, just randomly doing things. And we may not be actually connecting with the people whom we are trying to reach. So it always pays a lot to be aware. And also to keep in touch, because things are changing in the city very rapidly. The way the dynamics in the city are changing. And so we need to constantly adapt our methods of ministry to be able to reach the people in the city. So that's why the natural dynamics of the city are important. So I will pause here. In our next class, we talk about the spiritual dynamics, which is also equally important for us to be aware of what's going on spiritually over the city, then we can begin to address from that perspective also as we do ministry in the city. We are going to close here, and I'll just request a little please pray and dismiss the class, please. Can I pray, Pastor? Go ahead, Elan. Happily, Father, once again, we are most grateful for your goodness, your grace, and your messes. Father, we thank you for the opportunity and the privilege to be guided, O God, once again, and to be taught about machines transplanting in urban cities. Father, we pray that whatever that we have discussed, or we have learned of this course, may it be part of us in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, we pray that in our various cities, Lord calls us to influence and make an impact, and whatever purpose that you have called us into our various cities. Father, let me cause us to fulfill it in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray that you grant us the great grace and the special grace to be able to influence our communities for you, Jesus. We thank you, and we bless your holy name in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, everyone. Thanks for being part of the class. Until the rest of the day, I'll see you again soon. Thank you. Thank you, Pastor.