 Okay, would any one of you be okay to lead in prayer, please? How about Abraham? Abraham, are you able to? Yes, Pasta. Okay, so let's pray. Okay, yeah. Yes. Please can you hear me now? Is it okay? Yes, now we can hear you. Okay, so let's pray. Precious Father, we thank you for this morning. Father, our hearts and minds are open to receive of your work. Father, we thank you for what you are doing in our lives and we thank you for the opportunity you've given us to study and to know you. Father, we pray for more grace, more strength that whatever we are going to learn today is going to be part of us, that we are going to carry this word in our hearts and work in the light of it. Father, we pray that all transients will be granted to Pasta that everything she shares will be a blessing to us in the name of Jesus, we have prayed. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Abraham. So going back to our notes here, we have a couple of chapters left. This is about nurturing and equipping of believers and, you know, sort of giving the work to people that are faithful or raising up, you know, raising up the right leaders, developing them, helping them grow in God and, you know, sort of strengthening the church. We've already said that the church has leaders and the leaders make the pillars of the church. And then I think the next couple of topics here are about administration and then a little word of encouragement from the book of Revelation. So that's what we have left in this publication, APC publication called The House of God. So today let's begin with studying about raising people to serve God. Now, when it comes to a local church, we know that there is a mindset and this is sort of a historical thing that happened initially if you look at the 1st century church that was raised up under the apostles, everyone was serving in that church. But later on, you know, they say that, you know, Constantinople, based on whatever was done, you know, at that time, you found that the church had become institutionalized. You'll study about all this in church history. So the church became institutionalized and there was a clear demarcation between those who serve and those who just come and receive from the church. So the terms clergy and lady, that's when those terms also came about. And till today, there are many churches who follow that pattern where you have the pastors, you have the leaders, you have, you know, people who oversee the ministry and the congregation just attends. The congregation receives from the ministry that the pastors and the clergymen do. But, you know, we've seen that passage from the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 13, where we are told that God gave the five-fold ministry offices for the equipping of the saints, okay, for the work of the ministry. So it's pretty clear that God has a ministry for every saint and a saint is a believer who has been washed by the blood of Jesus, who now has the born-again life to live. So every saint, that means has a call on their lives. Every saint has gifts to manifest. Every saint has a purpose of God ministry to do with the growth and the advancement of God's kingdom. Thereby, it is important for us to equip every believer who comes to church. So this concept of clergy and lady, to consider that some people in the church have no calling or they are not meant to serve in any way. We've already seen that the word of God says something completely different. And so we have to see how to engage, okay, believers. So that's what we are going to talk about. So how are we going to nurture and equip believers? We've already touched on the subject, in fact, in the Kingdom Builders course and quite a lot of content was covered. We've looked at it in depth, so I may not go in depth, but we'll touch on the key things that need to be done to nurture believers. So one is we've understood that saints or believers have a work of the ministry that they need to engage in. We have to equip every believer to become a minister of God. So we look at the progression in the life of a believer from a believer to a disciple, from a disciple to a minister, from a minister to a leader. So that's how the growth of a believer should be. So how can we lead believers from just being believers to ministering to others? Now, we also must understand that the full time, the way ministry is understood by many people, the full-time ministers who are completely dedicated to ministry, who have their income from ministry, they devote all their time and energy to the ministry, that is not the only pattern that people can use to serve God. Yes, there are some full-time preachers, for some full-time ministers, but then everyone can serve God, in whichever way God calls them. So one could even serve, if you use the terms full-time and part-time, that tells us that someone is connected to church and they are giving in a certain amount of time to the church and maybe also getting a support from the church for the work which they are doing. However, one could be in the workplace, we use the term marketplace just for us to understand. So you have the church, serving within the church is like working within the local body, but the marketplace refers to people who are out there with a different job and yet they can serve God in the marketplace. So when we talk about equipping every believer to be a minister, we should not expect that ministers of God will only be within the local church and fit that description of full-time or part-time ministers. They could also be marketplace ministers serving God in their own way. So everyone should not be forced to quit their jobs. But when we come across people whom God is using powerfully in certain areas, certain vocation, we must see how we can encourage them to continue doing what they are gifted for and yet be ministers of God. So that is something that we have to understand. So we must help believers discover their gifts, their place, their function in the body of Christ. Now again, these gifts and functions could have to do with them becoming full-time ministers. So as we are working with a young person in our church, we realize that God has a call as a pastor. We'll have to do our part to equip that person to be a pastor. So we would provide the opportunities that they require. We would give them the guidance that they need. We could also give them information. Maybe your local church has a Bible college or it doesn't have a Bible college. So maybe you may want that person to get more training and you suggest, hey, why don't you go to this place or connect to this college and learn from this college. So we do our part, the best that we can do to groom them according to the gift or the purpose that God has for them. Now what if the person is gifted differently for the marketplace and their potential lies there? Then we'll have to see how to help them nurture themselves in that zone. Let's say IT professionals and they're doing an excellent job. So you may want to spend time with them and encourage them. Show them that, hey, God is using this skill of yours and you can be salt and light in your company. You live by God's standards. You practice the principles of God's word. You be a testimony and you can also encourage them to give a witness for Christ. Maybe they have the opportunity to share directly or start Bible studies in their company. Some companies have that provision. They allow you to meet and to just have these small groups where people can pray. And I know of people who have started Bible studies in companies, tech parks here in Bangalore and it has run really well. So encourage people from people who have not known Christ or those who are young believers. Just encourage them, hey, come, let's have a time of prayer together and just strengthen them in their journey with God. Sometimes these people belong to different local churches. We don't disturb the membership that the people have but we can encourage these marketplace ministers to do their work of witnessing, their work of nurturing other believers in an honourable way by respecting the local churches that people belong to. So in this way, we can help people discover their gifts, place and function in the local church. And it might be easy for some people to find their place but it might be somewhat challenging for some people. Sometimes people do one thing and they discover that that's not their calling. They might go from doing missions to teaching God's word to engaging in media and then they figure out, hey, media is my thing. So it might take some time for a believer to discover the area where they are fruitful but it is our task. Those who are in the leadership, those who are in the 5-fold ministry to journey with the believers and help them find their place. So that is the way in which we can do that. So basically what we are doing is we are catalysts. God has a plan, God has a purpose, God has a function for every believer. We are supporting them, encouraging them, helping them to discover that plan and purpose. So it's like the role of a catalyst. Just being there, stand by them and see them fulfill God's purpose. Then help believers discover their life assignment. So life assignment is the main call of God. The way Apostle Paul, he said that he's called to be an apostle to the Gentiles and God also told him, you're going to stand before kings, you're going to testify about me before leaders. So he did many other things Apostle Paul, but there's something called as the life assignment. Jesus did a lot of things. He healed people, he preached the kingdom of God. He did many things. He invited people, discipled them and then he prepared them for the life after his ascension. So he did many things, but one of the core things that Jesus' life was about was the redemption that he was to bring to mankind. So every individual has a life assignment. Every individual has that call of God on their lives to do that one main primary thing that God has called them to do. So even in this area, we need to be instrumental in helping people discover as well as fulfill God's purpose for their lives. Again, just going back to what we said in Kingdom Builders, it's not about us filling the empty places in church because you see, when we are serving in a local church, there's always need and we might think that there are certain ministries where you need people, I need people. Okay, you found somebody, just put them in, let them be there for years together, just help the church. That's what people need to do. But if we look at letting people minister only in that way, we would be stunting their growth. So the best way to cause a local body to thrive is to help people discover what God wants for them and when they are positioned accordingly, the entire church will flourish because they are in their primary calling, they are using the grace that God has given them and that strengthens the church. So that's the way in which we have to help people. Let them discover their life assignment, let them move in the direction of their life assignment. Now, for us to help them discover these things, it may so happen that believers, somebody gets saved, they are part of our local church, they are growing here and we discover that, hey, this person is gifted in worship and this is what God would want them to do, lead worship, lead many people to worship. So when we have that platform, we see how to provide opportunities. So we might say, hey, we have this sign up for worship team, why don't you sign up? Why don't you go through the training? Why don't you be a part of the practices? So we are helping them grow, not just in their skill, not just in their gift, but also as they journey along, hopefully their character also will be built up as they are being equipped to serve in the area of worship ministry. So in this case, something already exists in the church for that person to minister in. However, we might be talking to a believer in our church and wanting to equip them further and discover that what they are called to do, that ministry does not exist in church at all. So God may want us to connect them to that area of ministry. So we may want to see, okay, is there something like that happening in the city? Can this person join, be equipped? Can they be trained? Can they release their gifts there? Or maybe, I'm just giving an example. There's a couple and for many years, they have been serving in the area of marriage counseling and somehow they got connected to your church and while meeting with them and while talking to them, that's something that you realized. Now, how do we help this couple serve in the area where God has called them and you strongly feel this is the niche area or the core area where they must serve and there's no marriage ministry in our church. So how do you deal with this? Maybe you want to set up the marriage ministry and launch it and have some guidelines and just help them start that whole thing. And that way, what happens is they are serving in their area and it's also benefiting the church because God has an anointing on their lives with regard to marriage counseling. So we can encourage them to join existing ministries or we can encourage them to help them to start new ministries and that's the way in which we guide people. Now, some people can, as I've already shared earlier, they can be ministers in the marketplace. Now, they can be entirely ministers in the marketplace as in they don't preach and teach in church or they don't do anything that you see as your typical way of ministry. However, they might have a strong witness in the workplace. Might be a Christian person in the police, might be a Christian person in the armed forces, might be a Christian person in business, head HR who is helping many companies. So they might be entirely in the marketplace but they have a Christian witness where the way they work or the life that they live is an example and they may also be actively leading some of these small groups in their area. So just a few examples that I'm giving you. So there can be people who are impacting the seven mountains. We've talked about that, the area of business, the area of government. So we might have some people fight the elections and be positioned in the legislative assembly, member of parliament but making a difference in their own way for the kingdom of God in the area of education. It could be in the area of entertainment. So there is a need. Why should we not have people in all these streams standing up for God? There is a place and there is a call that people have and they can make a difference also in the area of art, in the area of media, sports. So wouldn't it be wonderful to have people in all these places. Now what if we stop people from serving the way God has called them? Let's take for example, there's somebody who God has called to make a difference in the field of sports. But if we insist that that person only serves in the church and these are the only things you're allowed to do. Forget about sports, forget why you're spending time practicing. Come here, be a part of the Bible study. So we must not stop what God wants to do through people and it really is going to take discernment, it's going to take that hard work to know people and what they are called for in order for us to guide them and develop them in that area. So in all these ways, people could be serving God and they might share with us and say, this is what is happening, pastor. This is how I am serving in the company. We can give them more inputs and we could suggest, I remember this one particular person from our church from a different location, not the location where I go, but a different location had started a life group, something like a, not even a life group, just a group that meets once every couple of weeks and they started praying together and people were experiencing miracles, people were experiencing supernatural interventions in their lives to an extent that once I met one of my relatives and she was telling me, do you know so and so? They are from your church, right? And they started this Bible study and she's from a different church, my relative and she was so excited, she's like, yeah, we meet, we pray and things like this are happening and it's amazing, is this how you all pray? I was so touched by that, that just to know that God's power is made available in the, this is all happening, it's a tech park, it's all happening in a tech park and really, we could see how God is leading someone and we could encourage them, strengthen the work which they are doing and it's really wonderful what God can do in every walk of life so we can continue to support and encourage believers, equity believers in the supernatural so just what I shared now about, when we have things like teaching from the pulpit we have resources that people can tap into in the form of books or PDFs or podcasts or YouTube channels or weekend schools that we run here in APC what happens is people can come and they can learn in detail what does the Bible say about being a witness? How can I share the gospel? Sometimes people have to be equipped even in these basic things and then they know how to do it right where God has placed them or moving in the supernatural we can talk about the biblical basis why the supernatural is important and how Jesus said you shall do greater things than these and then equip them on the gifts of the spirit now people may not know how, yes the gift is flowing prophecy but a little more about the prophetic how can I minister to a colleague how can I minister to a neighbor how can I minister to a family member how do I hear from God when we equip people and they have those handles they are able to do a better job they are able to serve God better they are also confident in stepping out and doing something for God out there in the marketplace and when it comes to the supernatural God is not limited God doesn't see whether we are praying within the church or outside the church amazing amazing things can happen so we must just be open and help people also to be open and miracles happen I have heard testimonies where I generally share this in the understanding the prophetic class but one of the young people in our church after understanding about the prophetic he was talking to a distressed colleague of his who was going through marital issues and so many things so much was going on and also the couple the young couple did not have children so after all this teaching about the prophetic and all just while talking to a colleague it so happened that the colleague is sharing about different things but this young person got a word be fruitful and multiply just random just random and the person was like looks like there is a word from God for my colleague here but how do I tell him will he receive it will he misunderstand anyway he got the courage and he realized that it was a word that God was giving for the colleague and he just stepped out and in the midst of everything that was being shared he just said hey I don't know if this is going to make sense to you but I believe in God and I believe that God speaks to people and God helps people in their situation and I feel like God is giving this word be fruitful and multiply and the colleague had not shared too much about the couple wanting to have children and all that but it really blessed that person and the testimony is that soon after they shared with this person that they had conceived and they were going to have a child but you see the prophetic word was released where in the marketplace how could a person minister a believer, normal regular believer minister if they are not equipped, if they don't understand hey this is the prophetic word I need to share this I need to say it in a way that this person is able to receive so you basically what I am saying is even for the supernatural it's important for people to be equipped and when we do our part local churches to equip our believers every place they can give witness to the supernatural working of God maybe they would say to someone sick in the office you know when the time is right they could say hey if you don't mind can I pray with you and the fever would leave or the swelling would disappear God is amazing, he can do amazing things anywhere but these are all believers who are ministering not just within the church but even outside the church normal everyday life they are able to bless people in this way we can equip people and guide them to be ministers wherever God has called them and provide leadership about mentoring there is so much that we have talked about but this is more in the area of ministry so even in the area of ministry sometimes people don't know how to minister so it is helpful to have some guidelines maybe in a given local church ministries have emerged over the last 10 years or 20 years and there is a lot of learning and unlearning that has happened by one person or several people it's good to capture that how can you capture it maybe you just write it down in the area of campus ministries it started out in this year and then these campuses were reached these were the activities that were undertaken but this had to be stopped because that happened so basically the knowledge we have the knowledge we have the guidelines sometimes it's important to spell out the guidelines when you go and speak in these places don't condemn other religions when you have these guidelines in place or something as simple as being punctual being timely please come on time or come 5 minutes prior when we have all this you have the the principles on which that particular ministry works and some of these are the basic principles it's very helpful because the person who is starting off from this point can make use of everything that someone else has done all along and the ministry only goes from good to better and best so in that way providing leadership providing leadership not just with guidance here and there but also guidelines helping people understand hey this structure works well you will be able to impact more people this way so you provide leadership in every way that is something that we have to think about that what are the areas where this person is going to need our guidance so once we provide the know how it becomes easier and of course through the lifetime and the ministry and the service of that individual there will be new things that one discovers and that can be added to the treasure of the information and knowledge that has been gained all along so in that way we guide the person we help them make a good start we help them even with regard to their character sometimes people they are they intend well but they might come across in a sort of a way which is not correct let's say for example pride one might be really very excited about their skills and their opportunities and wanting to serve God but the way they might do it it could come across as pride rushing into everything not giving anyone else a chance or talking about yourself so as a leader we might also have to address these character issues and say okay I am really excited that you are able to do all these things but you know what this area this seems to be happening but this is a better way to do it this is what the bible says so with regard to character with regard to skill with regard to that area of ministry you know how should it be done in an honourable way what could be some of the things that one could do to take this ministry forward but of course you know it would be their ideas God working through them we are not trying to control them but we are just trying to give them all the know how everything they need to kind of stand firm and from then on let God release what he wants to release through that person's life so you know support provide leadership leadership is directives direction because if we don't do that then sometimes people are good people are skilled they have a heart and a burden to do God's work but they don't know how and that could end up in them wasting a lot of time just trying to reinvent the wheel but when there's somebody who can guide them you know lead from the front that's what people say right we be an example and we also instruct people clearly then they are able to go a great distance and accomplish mighty things for God and we've also said that you know once someone has grown in the Lord and the ministry is quite well developed there might come a point where the person wants to do something beyond the local church you know and that happens their ministry is not just limited to one local church maybe God wants to bless many local churches with the ministry you know by a believer or a set of believers at that point one in leadership should be willing to let go release them with a blessing release that ministry to the wider body of Christ so that's a little bit about nurturing and developing ministries you know nurturing and developing believers to walk in their ministry so any any questions on that any thoughts comments I think most of it is familiar isn't it so yeah unless you want to add yes yes Charles and I was I'm appreciating the fact about the workplace people being ministers in the workplace here in Uganda we have a church called Watoto they trained the children earlier and they are in the workplace they are in the Lord they are in the parliament everywhere and the church is now known because of the Christian witness that is done by the people that are worshiping from Watoto so it is so important also to train that the Christians are on duty full time 24 hours even if they are on the street teaching and preaching or they are not on the pulpit but they are in the government they are in the music they are everywhere so I appreciate that and I believe that the Lord is using us for that thank you so much yes thank you Charles very valuable so whether or not someone is classified as a full time minister every believer is a full time minister isn't it they are full time ministers and they serve in the way which God has called them yeah so anything else that you may want to add to that alright if not we can proceed and the next topic here is about nurturing and developing leaders so along the same lines actually but this is about leaders okay leaders who you are definitely going to assign you know ministries to lead and when they lead there will be a lot of people following so this is about leaders so far we have only touched on the topic regarding the believers so what to look for in leaders now even when Paul did his ministry he developed potential leaders you know Timothy is a good example we have talked about that he picked Timothy because he knew the destiny that God had for him so similarly you have people like Titus you know and you had Silas so there are people who were leaders who were part of Paul's team how did he pick them there is there should be some criteria picking leaders and the early church also they picked those seven volunteers remember how did they even pick those volunteers there was some criteria so keeping all that in mind we are just going to talk about some basics about looking for potential leaders so what kind of people are we going to consider Paul root to Timothy find faithful men and entrust the work of the ministry to them so there is some criteria and we have to look for that criteria to raise up leaders so a good leader or a potential leader is somebody who has a good personal life example so someone who is serious about following God who is consciously trying to live for God in every aspect of their lives it's not just about ministry sometimes there can be that disconnect that somebody does ministry really well but they are not necessarily wanting to live the life but here is the most important thing for us in selecting leaders and here at APC we also believe that just the way one's life like personal life example when they selected those seven volunteers in the early church they look for men of good report so sometimes it's okay to give time to people I don't rush them to leadership because people also need time to grow people also need time to develop that intention within I want to serve God you know I want to do well so they need some time let them take that time let them develop that good report and you would also see that they are sincerely trying to follow God sincerely serve God for maybe months or even years sometimes we need to wait for a couple of years before we decide and I'm sharing this from a leader's perspective okay from so even years observing that person what is their intention do they want to get famous do they want to get a name you know what is the intention if they if you see over time that this person they are sincerely wanting to serve the Lord they sincerely wanting to serve God if I got there's a good potential leader for you so look at their personal life example what they believe how is their personal work with the Lord and maybe all along you're talking to them you can encourage them you would probably excuse me know their challenges as well in those areas help them to develop their prayer life their time in the world their time in worship their witness their you know their ministry so develop develop everything and over time you would also notice that they have a good testimony even people around them recognize and say oh so and so yeah okay if they if they lead you know it'll be good or yeah I'm ready to follow such and such a person they have a good personal life example so look for somebody with a good personal life example that person would make for a good leader also look for spiritual and emotional maturity so in the case of leadership it is important you know to have somewhat steady spiritual walk with God and even emotionally a lot of things happen but no we can't be up and down up and down but maturity will if you have that maturity there'll be there'll be some stability in the person spiritually as well as emotionally so that person again would make for a good leader and such a person hopefully they have a grown past the need for popularity self promotion and you know other things that only satisfy the fleshly desires that one has and also you know yes maturity is important personal life example is important the alignment when we want to have someone as a leader they're going to steer things they're going to drive things so how is their commitment to the vision that God has for the local church what is you know how much are they aligned to the direction the teaching the standards we do not want to have built up you know God's work beautifully over the years and then somebody comes in yes they have the potential and all that but they steer things in a completely different direction so that shouldn't happen or they change the standard so far the standards were upheld really well but here comes a person you know they would bring down the standards and that's a very sad thing so alignment we can also see whether they are aligned to the vision the direction the teaching the standards of the local church otherwise you know you can have somebody who is talented but it does not really serve you know the destiny of the local church that God has and in fact that can be very dangerous you know the work that has been built so far can be destroyed overnight so alignment to purpose alignment to vision is also very critically important also look for somebody who is responsible responsible simply means having that sense of commitment and you know somebody who takes things seriously now we can observe this by the way they treat the tasks that were given to them maybe you know if someone is taking everything lightly yeah we can do it later that doesn't show that commitment so if that commitment is not there in the simple matters you can't expect it to suddenly arise when a huge task is given but when we see that responsibility even if it's a small task you can trust hey yeah this person is responsible they will do it okay they will do the best that they can so is that person responsible what about their commitment you know they do they just conveniently you know sometimes even when it comes to like I was sharing with us you know setting up church Sunday services some of our teams come in very early like you have to show up by 7 15 am if you don't show up imagine you know in our location we also have to open the door so the person who has the keys if that person has an excuse and says hey I couldn't yeah it will be it will be really difficult for the entire team they have to show up if it's a cold day or a sunny day or whatever it is it's not about convenience it's about commitment so responsible how responsible is this individual will they show up will they do what they have you know committed to do responsibility is important reliability reliability is when you can depend on that person you know that if a task is given they will go an extra mile to get it done or they will put in everything that they have to do an excellent job that kind of a person because otherwise you know one will keep wondering will this person do it I'm not sure I hope they do it you know if they don't do it I need to be speaking to somebody else to you know do that work and that doesn't make for a reliable person if one says they will do it and they are not going to do it then obviously that person is not reliable excellence excellence is to do the absolute best that one can do so you just see their attitude you know whether they are the kind who will work hard they will they will do whatever you know whatever is possible by them are they able to do you know a good work an excellent work and then continuous growth continuous growth is a desire to keep growing they don't settle because you see in one season of life ministry and work could be going on really well but it has to it has to adapt it has to you know change in a creative way and one must be open if people are just stuck with their old ways and not willing to go to the next level and that can be a hindrance for the ministry actually so one who is willing to grow continuously and then again you know having no personal agenda sometimes people want to be in leadership because they have all these personal goals you know I need to accomplish this and that and when that's done they are they are quite comfortable to just quit and they are not very concerned about the vision of the local church as such so all these things matter and it's only when we are careful so when it comes to leadership you know it's important to understand the person understand whether the person has maturity in all these areas because once you hand over the responsibility then going in and doing all this back and forth correcting the person and all it's very difficult so we do our best and again nobody is 100% perfect not even the elders of the church nobody is perfect that is a given we know that but we just do our best and also step in whenever there's a need to address all these areas we must step in so that we help that person you know lead well yeah so see that the person has no personal agenda gift and calling whether it is suitable sometimes people may be very reliable but I'm just giving an example maybe there is something to do with your Christmas outreach where money has to be given money has to be spent for Christmas gifts for old age homes just one example but what if that person who is very reliable has no training in accounting or has no training in handling numbers or money or even basic they may be reliable but they will not be able to do the work because they are not gifted in that area they don't have a calling in that area so it's like that we also have to see whether the person is gifted otherwise it's not good for the ministry and it's worse for the person because they'll get frustrated they'll be like what is this task you know I'm doing my best but it's still not going I'm not able to accomplish this so try to make that right connection, gifting, calling responsibility, maturity everything and also check whether they are good followers because it's usually those who are good followers who know that a leader has to go through all these things to really keep the ministry going somebody who understands the challenges of their leader and somebody who understands if I'm a good follower if I do my best to support the leader over me then the work of the ministry will be done well so somebody who is a good follower who has a heart of a good follower generally a person like that will be willing to work very hard and that person makes for a good leader as well so look for somebody like that and also leadership is about imparting into people's lives so one who is only about accomplishing tasks it wouldn't help especially in the area of church and ministry because leading people is also about nurturing people so one must have a heart for the people so look for somebody who is also a good nurturer meaning as they are leading they know how to look out for potential leaders themselves and they know how to teach, equip guide, encourage support others so such a person would make for a good leader so I think we are run out of time now let's take a 10 minute break and we will come back we will be back at 10.01 and let me see if possible I am just trying to complete the portions today so you have time next week I mean you don't have to join a class let's see let's go for a break class and we will come back in 10 minutes thank you