 Right, good morning John. I think the students should be joining in soon. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer before we get into our session. Let's pray. Father we thank you so much for this time. We thank you for giving us yet another opportunity to come together and learn Lord we thank you for this entire course of urban church planting and thank you for everything that you have imparted in us Lord. We pray that even as we continue to learn that Holy Spirit you will speak and minister that you will open up new doors, new visions, new plans and hearts in our hearts and our Spirit Lord to build your kingdom. We thank you Lord. We give you all the praise and glory. We just submit this time into your hands. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Alright so last class we we looked at chapter 24 when it comes to ministry. How do we make the journey? How do we step out? We get on the ground, get started. We establish commitment to the call that God has for us and remember when in ministry whether it is church planting or any other you know any other part of ministry. Distractions are part of it. There's going to be distractions coming from every side. There's going to be challenges that are going to be ups and downs. You know life is not always easy right? You will have ups and downs right? There will be things that you have not foreseen or situations that you may not have thought of just come up right in front of you but here's the thing you stay focused. I love what I just a reminder you know as long as when Jesus was walking on the water you know I always think about this. As long as Jesus was walking on the water and he said Peter come forth and Peter also walked on the water. He was doing the impossible but as long as his eyes was on Jesus Peter was able to walk on the water. The moment he turned his face and looked elsewhere looked at the storm he began to sink and it's a powerful lesson for us you know you may be walking on the storm you may be walking on waters doing the impossible doing what God has called us to do. Stay focused let your eyes be fixed on Jesus. He is the author the completer of our faith right? Be tenacious be persistent right? Don't quit until God says your work is done right now you know I would always say this ministry is not for the faint hearted. If we are you know when I say ministry I'm talking about you know first planning, pioneering, ministry we talked about it right? We need to be spiritually strong. We need to be consistent. We need to be disciplined. We need to be you know walk in wisdom, plan, prepare, make the right decisions. There's so much that is involved as you make this journey right? We've got to keep learning, keep adjusting, protect what you have you know last class we just talked about that right? We protect what you have nurtured over the years right? So this could be in wrong alliances you know nowadays we've got ministries working together that's wonderful but make sure that you choose the right ministry. Carefully decide how you want to you know together as ministries how you want to serve the Lord together right? Be a steward not an owner that means encourage others to be part of what you're doing. Take care of yourself and talk about yourself. It is your your physical health, your mental health, your abilities, your skills. Take care of it, develop it, grow in it and very importantly plan for the future generations right? When you plan you know the Apostle Paul did it where he was able to raise up leaders and he appointed these leaders he knew that raising up the next generation was very important right? Because they'll be leaving the legacy. When you raise up the next generation you know that the work is going to continue and that is the call leaving a legacy right? And then there'll come a time when you will have to step out and hand over things at the right time. So let's go to chapter 25. If you look at your notes there's just a question there but let's just talk about this right? Now growing up in you know maybe the early 90s I know some of them maybe even before that 90s early 2000s and many of us have seen church right? Like you know what church was and how the church has evolved right? You can also look at the things that are happening in terms of urban living, in terms of life right? Around us you know early 90s we didn't have mobile phones, we didn't have so much that we have right now. So life has been progressing and right now we are in 2023, life will continue to progress. We will definitely see progress year after year, decade after decade. Now this is 2023, 20, 20, 30, 3, 10 years a decade from now it is so obvious that when you look at the future things would be so much more advanced, so much more you know technology, media, all of these things will only cause urban living to just go up to different levels. So let's talk about urban life right now. We did that a little bit of a survey right? We seen that especially in our nation, nation of India, I could also say in Africa we've got a lot of these villages and towns, many of them are moving into cities. So you've got cities that are growing and people are growing, their mindsets are changing, their thinking is changing, the atmosphere is changing meaning the way things are done, everything is changing. So what is the future of urban life? What does it look like? So if you look now there's already so much of advancement but let's just put down three points right? And then put the points here just for our learning, for our understanding right? Number one, when you look at urban life, the future of urban life, there's going to be a mix of culture. Now no matter which country we are in, we will have people from different cultures. There's going to come a time when all these mixed cultures, people from different cultures are going to work together and most probably there'll be a time when these cultures or these traditions that people walk by, people followed for hundreds and hundreds of years, slowly they're going to die away, right? They're going to slowly die away because there's a mix of culture and people are going to just adopt this urban lifestyle. And that's number one, that's a mix of culture and then we'll also see how it's going to impact and affect the churches, right? The church, the future of the church or the ministry. Mix of culture two is because of this urban development, right? So we will see development in the corporate sectors and the government and accessibility. Every area there's going to be development, right? So this will increase job opportunities. So we're going to see the economy grow. People are going to get more jobs. I know that right now there's a lot of debate on the economy is low, there are no jobs, but that is untrue. There are jobs, there's so much and job opportunities are just going to increase. And three, there's going to be easy access. When I say easy access, easy access for amenities, accessibility, easy access for work, for many, many, many things, right? Now look at this. I would say maybe five years, right? Not very too long, five years, right? Eight two thousand and eighteen, right? About two thousand and eighteen, seventeen, eighteen, five years before. The whole concept of work from home was very few, right? I remember meeting people and you know whenever they say, hey, I work from home, I'd be wondering doing what, you know, what can you work from home? And you know, I'm sure most of them must have felt this, right? Work from home, five years back. Now we're in 2023, work from home is a normal thing. It's normal, right? You've got companies who, especially in the nation of India, if you see many corporate organizations and companies have closed down their, you know, their spaces which they have taken because it's no use. They might as well just work from home and give better productivity. And now there's easy access for, with all, you know, even the smallest of things. You can get your groceries home, you can get your products home, they come to your door. Nowadays, I'm just reading this article on this article. It's an Indian news article, Times of India. And it said, it said that the nation of India is coming up with, you know, these apartment complexes where everything is inside, including schools and hospitals. So you don't really have to go out. You can stay in that community and everything is there inside. Right? So why am I talking about all this? The reason is we're going to be also looking at now, as a church, how must you and I change or adapt through these changing things that we're seeing around. Look at future projections. We look at, okay, there's going to be people coming from all kinds of towns and villages. They're going to come to cities. And now if you have planted a church in the city, how prepared must you be? What must you do to plan and prepare for you to reach out to every community, every sphere of influence? So the future of urban life is only going to develop more and more. And now one of the things that we can look at now, let's go to a few disadvantages. Right now, there are plenty of disadvantages, but I also want to, I just want to pick up maybe two disadvantages of urban life. Right? Number one is being hybrid and multifunctional. Now, it's not that it's a disadvantage, but it's more of a, being hybrid is good. Right? But there are times when it can be difficult for people. Right? In the sense, we are people. We need people. We are relational by nature. Right? So for example, you know, when COVID hit in 2020, we were all locked into our homes. We really understood the value of people. I'm sure I especially did, because it was too much. For me, it was like, because we are people person. We need to talk to people. We minister to people. Right? And another disadvantage could be lack of spaces or lack of privacy in a growing setting, lack of open spaces, lack of pollution, sense of, there's no sense of community. So all these could be disadvantages of urban living, but let's look at the future of the urban church. Now, I know there's no points here, but I did quite a lot and I just read about it and there's not much that is available online. You know, many of them have shared their thoughts, shared, there are a couple of books also talking about how you and I as believers must be prepared for the future and look at the church of the future. But here's what I want to do this class, right? I want maybe some of us to share what do you feel is going to be, which is already there, which is going to increase, or what are the new prospects or things that are going to come when it comes to church, when it comes to ministry. What is it that you can just feel free, you share your thoughts and we can put them down. But what do you think is the future of the urban church? Like for example, are we going to see thousands of people in each church, which is wonderful? Or are we going to see thousands of churches planted with smaller locations? Or are we going to see more of hybrid churches? Are we going to see more campus churches online? So what is it that you feel? So you can think of maybe in the next decade, 2023 to 2033. What do you feel is the future of the urban church? And I'm going to leave this open. So feel free, please feel free to share. Don't be quiet, but feel free to share and I'm sure we will learn together. We will share these thoughts. Nobody is wrong. It could be a simple thing, but it's all right. It's good to share and just learn together. Is that okay? So I'll just leave it open. What do you feel in terms of the urban church? What do you feel in the next decade is going to be most impactful? Or you can just share anything on the church the next decade? Yeah, I was thinking there would be more churches and people also would love smaller communities and I think there would be a lot of church plans and there will be a lot of people who will come coming to know the Lord love the Lord especially looking for communities because that's what lacking corporate and to share to discuss to to share the burdens and all that. So I think there will be a lot of focus on smaller churches is just my thought. But there will be more church plans and no more people would come to know the truth of the word and at the same time technology also would go into a very high impact mode. Reaching people at their need like looking at not only on Sunday service but also on weekdays how the word would reach people so the technology would definitely have a lot more impact when it comes to the next decade. Thereby there will be a lot of people who would come to know Jesus. I think people would be even willing to introduce people to churches because of the word, because of the community, because of the availability of word in our fingertips. That's nice. Thank you so much John. Like we said one of the disadvantages was communities and John said it well and I know many people who refer to be in the smaller churches maybe maybe 100, 150 or even smaller. Because you got now I'm not saying we don't want the churches to grow. I'm not saying that. So I'm sure that's not what even John meant. But John was trying to say is that people are going to look for these smaller churches. The bigger mega churches are going to continue. That's going to happen. But looking for those smaller churches where people can really build relationship, build communities. And I completely agree with John. People would definitely look for that. But then we also need to balance. We can't say hey my church is growing to 200. Now what do I do? I wanted my church to be 100, to build communities. You come up with ideas. We can just plan to do two services or something. So again, thank you John for sharing. I think there will be mega churches as well as there will be more on-house churches as persecutions will be more so online. So online churches will online, okay sorry, so online churches will help when the churches will be demolished by anti-Christ elements. Thank you Subashish. Thank you for sharing. So Subashish says the whole aspect of mega churches may come down. Now I know we are from India but I want you to come out of India. Come out of India. Think globally. I know that persecutions and all these anti-Christ elements and the things are going to come. But let's get out of the box. Let's come out of India. Let's think of it globally. Yes, anyone else would like to say. Thank you Subashish. Thank you for sharing. Ken, maybe some of them from Georgia, Paul, would you like to share some things that are happening at your home and some of the improvements that you have seen and maybe what you can project in the coming years? Yeah Paul, go ahead. Yes, in my country here I see the projection. Yes, the urban churches will continue to grow because there are a lot of revival, restoration, crusades going on. So so many people are going to turn to the Lord and to seek for Jesus. And what is happening even right now, the states, that is the state is already threatened. They have already started bringing sanctions against the church. They say these boner guest churches, they make noise in the urban places. So there are already laws. We have the laws called the National Environment Management Act. They're already imposing it on the churches say if you are going to pray, you are everywhere, everywhere making noise. So you have to pray in low tone. So that is one of the threats I see. And then also to agree with what Jonas talking about the mega churches in my country, mega churches. Now people will be looking for the small, small churches because they have more intimacy with the people to address issues of the people. Whereas in the big urban churches in all people, just many, even the big renowned pastors, they don't have time to focus on the individual problems of people in families. For example, people just go pray and worship, walk and go away. But the small, small churches are more focused on the look after their ships, more than those big mega churches. So that is what I can say for now. Yes. Thank you so much, Paul. Paul, where are you from? Are you from Africa? I'm from Africa, a place called Uganda. Uganda. Okay. So Paul, I just, sorry, I'm going to ask you just one more question, Paul. Over the last 10 years, what have you seen in the church? Like what have you, like when I say church, not your local church, but in Uganda, the church, the body of Christ, you know, you can just share what have you seen that has really impacted over the last 10 years? Like it could be internet, it could be social media. What is it that has helped the church to become stronger or to, you know, just grow? Can you share maybe a few things about this? Yeah, actually it is the social media. When they pray and it is broadcast on the radio and television, then people come to know, hey, there's a powerful church this side, there's powerful church this side, then through media, the radio, that is what makes people to know about the church. So that is what I've been seeing in my country for the last 10 years. Wow. Thank you so much, Paul. Yes, so we see that, you know, media is majorly impacting the church. Anyone else would like to share? Yes, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to share my personal insights. I feel like a lot of youth will be active in the upcoming days, because I don't remember when I was a child, I haven't seen much youth active, like how they are right now. And I feel like so much youth are active in church right now. And as the day goes, I believe much more youth will be taking care of things. Youth will be volunteering and they will be stepping out to preach the gospel. And technology as John has said, technology is also one thing. That's being accepted more in churches right now. Back in when I was a child, I remember pastors preaching, the television is satanic and but right now they have live churches, they are telecasted, they have their own TV channels. And I also feel like even the children, right now I'm teaching in children's church. When I was a child, what doubts I never had, they asked me those things. They are so deeper in the world and their maturity level is kind of different. That's what I feel and they know things more quicker and in the early stages of their life. They know the definition of salvation. When I was a child, I know Jesus is good. I know he gave his life on the cross. That was enough for me. But today's children, they need more information. They need facts, they need proof, they need evidence and they are questioning us why you're saying this, why you're saying that. And I believe in the upcoming days, even children, if we give them enough facts and proofs and evidence that we convince them on their faith, I think even they will be growing stronger and more than us, they might be preaching the gospel much more strongly through their life. I strongly feel that as I'm teaching in children's church right now. So yeah, that's all. Yes, thank you so much, Jafina. So increase in youth. Now it's interesting that Jafina said increase in youth, right? Because if you look at what's happening in some of the countries, there's so much, definitely there is an increase in youth and youth ministry, but there's so much that is happening that the evils of this world, we look at the LGBTQ, the gay community, you look at the rise of openness, of satanic worship, and you look at the rise of all these hearts that are coming up. And also the diluted gospel, but it's interesting to know that we know that God will definitely raise up young people who will stand for the Lord. And also children, yes definitely, children are way more, the questions they ask are questions that we would ask when we were probably 20 years old. But they're so high in their level of learning and their level of grasping what is being taught. So yes, we will see them also. You've got the pros, you've got the cons. And so I love the Psalmist when he says children are like arrows in your quiver. So there's a lot of pros, there's a lot of cons. And as a church, we must be able to use them as arrows, point them to the right direction, have them to understand the things of God and ministry and God's word, because it's going to be increasingly challenging for them in a world that we are seeing right now, where the enemy is just doing so much. So yes, thank you for those two points, Shefina. Anyone else would like to share, what do you think is the future of the urban churches? I'll just share something that I've been thinking of. I think one aspect of the urban church is going to be these the campus churches. Of course, globally, it's still growing. There are a couple of good, when you see globally, there are a couple of churches that already have these campus churches. And I feel that over time, campus churches are going to grow. So what are these campus churches? Campus churches are basically going to be live stream churches, right? So they're going to watch. I think I've shared this last time. So let me just try to explain this concept, right? I read about this, and it's really interesting, and they're already doing it in the United States. And I'm sure it's going to come into different countries. So you've got your main church, main church, for example, starts at 10 a.m., right? And you've got places in different countries or different states, different countries, and there are pockets of churches. So what will happen is here is the 10 a.m. service. Even here, they would start the 10 a.m. service. So they have 40 minutes of worship. So all these places will have the same thing, 40 minutes of worship, then they will have maybe announcements of what and the main service, the main, probably the main sermon will be live streamed from here. And it will be, you know, everyone at these different places, campus churches will watch it live there, right? Now it is like an online church, but it is not an online church because there will be people there sitting. So there will be ministries like live groups, women's ministry, several groups, you know, children's ministry, all of that will be there. But the main service will be that which is followed there. And there will also be a campus pastor who will look after the people there. So that's something that is on the rise, right? And I believe that that is something that especially, you know, when you look at India, we've got so much of, you know, you know, educational growth that's happening, colleges and these great big universities that are coming up. So this could be one, you know, one thing that the church must be prepared for, right, to be able to live stream. Of course, we're doing the live stream now, but to become like a satellite church, right? So campus satellite churches, that's something that will definitely come through. So, yes, I just shared my thought. Anyone else would like to share what do you feel is going to be the future of the church? Do you think that there's going to be street evangelism? Do you think there's going to be healings and miracles? How are these healing and miracles going to be? Just feel free to share your thoughts. It's not only about, you know, church growth, or it's not only about, you know, you know, the growth of the church, but also you can talk about, you can share about what do you think the level of those in the church is going to be, or what are some of the challenges that we will see going forward. Never really thought about some of the challenges, because when you look at what's happening now, things are quite convenient, right? You got a church, you can't go to church, you just stay online. The click of a button, you watch the entire service online, you pay your tithes online, everything is online. So things are very convenient, but yeah, would anyone like to share? Maybe even when you look at, you know, recently talking to a pastor who was from a church in the village, right in India. It's a proper, like a deep in the village. So you were just talking to him and he was saying, now we have, we had this day, Bible studies online. So happy. Now I've gone to his place in the jungles. It's just one house, and the next house is maybe almost a kilometer away. He said, we have online Bible study. So I talked to myself, wow, this pastor is deep in the jungle. So the first thing I asked him was, is there internet connection? So he said, yeah, there is internet connection. So nowadays, you know, all these internet service providers are there everywhere. There was a time once you go outside of the city, there's no internet, but now deep in the jungles you have internet. So, you know, it's advances that we see. All right. So feel free to think about this, right? Remember, though, the pioneer must always look ahead, plan ahead. He must have the ability to foresee, and he got to foresee things, right? 2033, you know, if you see Bible college, I'm sure things are going to be so much more different. Of course, we stick to God's Word, we teach God's Word. But, you know, there's going to be different topics. There are going to be different ways of ministry. We don't know how things are going to be in this next decade, but we got to foresee things ahead. Okay. These are the things that we see. These are the, you know, the plans that we have. This is what we see globally. And let's be prepared, as we prepare to minister, right? Let's look at this, this last few points here, chapter 27, end the searching and preparing for the future. Number one, looking at trends. What is the trend? You know, I was just talking to our digital distribution head who works with us at ABC, and he was saying that, you know, towards in Bangalore, in our city, there's one portion which is the east of Bangalore. It has the highest number of Instagram and Facebook users across the city, east of Bangalore, because it's more of a corporate IT hub. So he was saying, you know, what, instead of, you know, doing all these worship evenings, booking the venue and, instead of all of that, just do good digital distribution promotions. So the moment people open Instagram, it will show, okay, you know, this is the closest church near you, or, you know, they open Facebook, it'll show. And it's reaching millions of people by the click of one button. So I was just thinking of it, look at what we can do. Looking at trends, we've got to be, we've got to flow with them, right? Two, very important, to balance what you're doing by listening to the Holy Spirit. Very, very important. Now this whole AI and artificial intelligence and all that is coming up, sometimes we are so dependent on them. We tell the Holy Spirit, I'll talk to you later, no. See these tools and all of that that is there is good. But you need the person of the Holy Spirit. He is God. He is the one who will give us the wisdom to use what is there around us, right? Now, for example, you know, you're a pastor, you have to prepare a sermon. This is just an example, right? You've got to prepare a sermon. You can just go to Google, go say, you go to AI or whatever, you just say, prepare a sermon on discipleship. You'll get a full sermon and then you go to other, you know, PPT platforms, Canva and different other platforms. You say, prepare a PPT for discipleship. You'll get the whole thing and it's good. It's wonderful, right? We need these tools. But what is the disadvantage? I'm not going back to God's word. I'm not hearing from the Holy Spirit because everything I got on the line. So here's the thing that we must do. Very important. We spend time in God's word, spend time listening to the Holy Spirit, ask God, speak to Him, spend time in His Word. Then you and I can use the tools that God has given us, right? That's where you will find the anointing. That's where you will find whatever you're doing with a blessing minister to people, right? Rather than, you know, I'm not saying, don't use Google and all of the material that's available online. Use it. But first, go to the Lord. First, ask God, listen to the Holy Spirit. Very important, pray and massage in the future. That means foreseeing, trying to come up with strategies and ideas about the future and future preparedness. When you talk about preparedness, you say, okay, now this is what we will do going forward. We see these other trends, these other ways that we can reach out and preparing for them, right? So when you look at, you know, we talked about youth and children, we talked about smaller church communities. So how can we prepare for them? Come up with ways, come up with teaching programs, discipleship programs, and there's many ways but to be prepared for the future, right? So these are just a few points and there's more that we can learn. What we will do is, next class, we'll just look at chapter 28, 29 as well. I know it's the appendix, but I just wanted to go through this to get an idea on how you and I must prepare for ministry. So next class, we'll just do this, and then we should be able to close off for this entire course, right? Any other questions, any other thoughts before we close? Okay, right. So we'll close for today. What I'd like you to do is, you know, just always, you know, you can just go online, start reading about all of this. It's nothing wrong to read about your nation and about what's happening, the technological advances, read about it, update yourself, be prepared, learn, develop, right? And that way, what are we doing is we are preparing ourselves for God to just open doors for us. And when those doors open, we're not in panic mode. I know, okay, I've prepared for this. I know that this door is opened by God and I've prepared and I know how to minister to them. All right, so read about it, right? Go back home, read books, try to understand your culture, the things that are coming up, and I'm sure these are very important when it comes to ministry, right? All right, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, and have a good week ahead. I'll see you soon. God bless.