 All right, welcome everyone. Good to see you all. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. We'll begin. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time. We pray God that even as we sit together and just learn and study a word of God, we pray that you will minister to our hearts, that you will build new ideas, new strategies, that Lord, you will use us, Lord, for building your kingdom here on Earth. We thank you. It's a wonderful opportunity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Before we go ahead, let's just do a quick review of what we did last class. We talked about the Holy Spirit being our leader in terms of church planting. We know that God has... He gives us the ability. He gives us the strategies, the ideas, the wisdom on how to do things. But we must always be people who would rely on the Holy Spirit. Our dependence must be on the Holy Spirit. Eternal fruit is gathered only through, depending on God and not by our own self. When we looked at the definition and objectives of church planting, one of the main objectives of church planting is to establish a community of believers together, to be self-sustaining communities. We also saw that a community of believers where they are hosting the presence of God, new, discipling new believers, influencing the region and the surrounding areas and neighborhood, and then multiplying into many, many more churches. Then we also looked at chapter 4 briefly. We looked at how God has a heart for cities. It's not like God is just saying, okay, go and start churches. The Lord Jesus, when he was doing his earthly ministry, he looked over Jerusalem and he weaved over the city. There are many times the Lord Jesus was burdened to pray over cities. You and I must understand that whenever God has placed us, whenever God wants us to do our ministry, God has a heart for that city. God has a plan. God has a purpose. God has a vision for the city. And as leaders or pioneers, we're going to start a ministry. The Lord Jesus wants us to catch that vision that he has to catch that zeal or that passion and desire to see a city saved. He wants us to catch that. And so we learn that we must get God's heart for the city. We must learn how to see people, how God sees people. And there'll be times when things may not be going right in our city, but how does God see it? People may be turning away from what we're doing, everything that is against God. But how does God see it? God sees it as I send my son, the blood of Jesus was shed even for them. So his heart is for them to be restored, to be redeemed. And we must be moved with compassion for the people in our city. We must be people who pray for our city. When it comes to church planting, this is the spiritual foundation that is very important. We talked about foundations a lot. This is the good foundation where we look at the Holy Spirit. He is our guide. He is our strength. And we build or develop a heart for the city. When we have a heart for something, we'll give 110% for it. The Lord Jesus is looking for intercessors, people who want to do something for the city. But He's also asking us to catch that vision. So today, let's go to chapter 5. The natural dynamics. So all this while we're just looking at a few aspects of the spiritual dynamics, which is prayer depending on the Holy Spirit, trusting in God. And now we're looking at a few natural dynamics of urban centers. Now we talked about how villages and towns are very quickly becoming cities or people are moving into cities. Lifestyle is changing. Villagers are no more villagers because they know how to use technology, they know how to use internet and things are changing. Now you and I, when we are planning to start a church, planning to start a ministry in a certain place, it is very, very important, critical that we do a good homework on the place. Now if you look back on the great apostle Paul and the ministry that he did, we see that whenever he went, he had a heart, he knew the dynamics of the place. How do we know that? Just an example. To the Perians, he knew that there were people who knew the word. So there were times when he would have really been able to preach and teach with accuracy. In Act 17, we see that he goes into Corinth and the great sermon in Aeropagos in Moslem is preaching there and it says, some of your own prophets have said this. So he's done his homework. He's learned about the place. He's learned about the culture. He's learned about what their belief system is. But this is a apostle Paul's talk. How did he learn that? Probably he went to people, asked them, he read maybe articles that were there. But what about you and I now? Everything is available in the tip of our fingers. So for example, you want to start a church in Egypt, this is an example. You go to Google and you say, culture of Egypt. He has a whole list. You read it. This may sound like a church planting. I need the Holy Spirit with me. I'll just go out on the streets and do evangelism and start the church. No. You sit, you read the dynamics of that city. So Egypt, indeed everything about Egypt. Then you open up, you see what is the background of Egypt? What are the work culture in Egypt? Everything. You have to read about it. What is the political crisis? What is the belief system? What is happening in the market sector? What is happening in families? What is the main religion? What are the different kinds of religions? What is the literacy rate? So you get everything in the tip of our fingers. The question is, how is a city different from a village? Now, there are spiritual dynamics that are natural dynamics. And we know, right? So if you're doing ministry in a city, there are natural dynamics, there are spiritual dynamics. In a village, there are spiritual dynamics. Now, what are some of the natural dynamics that you and I must consider if we are thinking about planting a church out of ministry? Look at that list there. First one, the history of the city. Who, why, when was it established? Now we may ask ourselves, now we're talking about Jesus. They're going to be talking about the cross and the Holy Spirit. Then why would I want to know the history of the city? We need to know it. Excuse me. Then civic administration or political environment of the city, the economy of the city, the demographics, very, very important. The age distribution, whether you have to do more youth meetings or more marriage conferences, language, cultural backgrounds, whether there are more senior citizens, you know, you get the demographics, right, you understand, you get a feel of place. Social economic issues, what's happening in the city? Is the city, what are the, what is the main economy of the city? Something that you can read about, try to understand. Then you look at the educational institutions. What is the, you know, the education system? What are they teaching? What are the different kinds of levels of education systems, educational institutions that are available in the city? What are the industries, the industrial hubs, women workers, unemployment, of course, you know, disabled population, businesses, the homeless, the orphans, so you do a complete analysis of the city, right? Now, why is this important? When it comes to church planting, you and I must get a feel of the city, right? Now, for example, I go into a city and I see the city is filled with youth, right? There is a lot of youth everywhere that are colleges, everywhere that are universities. There's a lot of youth that are there. Now, one thing we know, we can, how do we target you? So, you come up with different plans, different strategies, that we talk about how to do that. But you already get a feel of the city. Or if you look at, for example, here in Bangalore, the location that I am serving in right now is the east of Bangalore. That is the IT hub. So, before coming to, when I was here, when I really located back from another city to Bangalore, the first thing I did was, went to Google and I read about east of Bangalore. I got an understanding. Okay. Every day, there are about 2 lakh people working in a certain place, in a corporate sector. It's a corporate office, a tech path we will call that. Every day 2 lakh people come and go in that one tech path. East Bangalore is the fastest growing sector in the entire Bangalore. 3 East Bangalore is the most developed in terms of infrastructures, the most developed place in the entire Bangalore. So now, the first thing that comes to my mind is, okay, I've got 2 lakh people coming in and going. That's only one, you know, office tech path maybe hundreds of offices. 2 lakh people. So I get to know, okay, what works here now. You know, it's not a village setting. These are guys and men and women who are in the corporate sector who work 7 days or 6 days a week, Monday to Friday, morning to evening, working hard. They are probably married but they're going through all of this. There'll be stress, there'll be challenges or the hard work, so much that we'll be going through. So how can we reach out to them? What are the things that we can do? Then we can look at you know, the age distribution or the language. So one thing we notice is that since they're corporate people 9 out of 10 or 10 out of 10, all of them will know English. So we know we can target all the 2 lakh people that are there. Now like this what I noticed was there were these tech parks every 5 kilometers away. And these places had again people working and there were businesses that were because of the corporate boom in that place. There were businesses that started food businesses hotel businesses different kinds of businesses that started. Now what happens? You and I get a feel of the place that we are ministering in. We get to understand these, the people that I'm reaching out to are the corporate sector people who are learning, hard working, they go to office and come. Now you cannot expect Bible study in the afternoon in their house. Why? Because it's not a village. In the village they have nothing to do so they will sit and do Bible study in the afternoon. But here we can't do that. So you get a feel of the city. Now the same way, wherever we are, very important to get a feel of where you want to do ministry. Don't be in a hurry to launch something or your own ministry. Don't be in a hurry to launch without doing your homework. Do proper homework. The first homework is to pray, seek God, yes, the spiritual and in the natural. Do proper homework. Study the place understand the people understand their lifestyle the timings that they have. Now, for example, if we are at the corporate you know you're ministering to the corporate sector we cannot expect to keep a plan. Let's do a worship evening entrance. You can't expect to have it at 4 o'clock in the evening. And if you keep it at 4 o'clock in the evening, nobody will come. Why? It's Monday to Friday work is from 9 to 5. So, if you have worship evening at 4 o'clock, nobody will come. Now, it's not whose fault is it? It's not their fault. They are working. We have to be wise on how we plan. So, it's very important to get a feel of the place. Then you also look at educational institutions. So, for example, you're want to reach out to educational institutions. Okay, so how do I reach them? I know how to speak in English. So, let me target the English speaking colleagues. How can I go in? How can I minister to them? How will God open the door? Then you look at different opportunities. Say, okay, can we do life skills? Can we do counseling programs? These are the different opportunities. And even as we go ahead, we'll talk about the different ways that we can start ministry, the different options that we have that God can give us to build the church. So, when we see this natural list, the natural dynamics always keep this in your background. So, anything that we do in terms of ministry in the church you must look at this background. Okay. Is it something that is going to relate to the people that I am ministering to? Right? So, for example, I keep giving a lot of examples so that we can understand. Now, as I was saying, East of Bangalore is a corporate sector. We've got only IT companies, big apartments, big colleges. So, IT hub. Now, imagine if I say, okay, come on church, we're going to do ministry. Now, is slum ministry good? Yes, it's good by reaching out to the slums and children. Now, the problem is there is no slum there. So, what must I do? I know that this is not something that is going to work in this area. So, I need to understand. Okay. I should take it off. Now, you've already done your survey. Okay, take it off. Okay. Let's try prison ministry. Okay. Now, for prison ministry, people are working Monday to Friday and these are the working family members. Saturday is a day that they want to stay at home, rest Sunday is church. We'll try it out. But if it doesn't work, it's all right. Right? So, it's not like you're putting all your focus into that. The main focus is, okay, if it's a corporate sector, I need to be able to minister to them at that level. Their understanding. Right? You know, what's surprising is this is something that I don't share. You know, our location at White Feeding, we have a lot of people, all of them are working professionals, right? They're all in the corporate sector for 15 years, 20 years, all of them are there. You know, volunteers, they have an Excel sheet and I saw that I was surprised. I was so surprised and I was like, wow, these other people we are ministering to, they have an Excel sheet to show where the emperor is. Where is the exit? Where is the book table? How the book table should be placed? We have an Excel sheet on how many cables are there? How many? Everything is on Excel. And then they open that up and they keep these are the people we're ministering to. They know everything. And so we must understand, as leaders we must think in their mindset. This will help us to pray for the city to develop a heart for the city. Right? Now, if you're in now in the city, you may be so we can divide the city into north, south, east, west. For example, you're in the north of any city that you are in. So you pray for that part of the city. You're praying, asking God and God begins to lay certain things in your heart and you begin to pray for these things. Now always remember in a city, there can be different dynamics. Right? Very important now, especially if it's an urban city. North, south, east, west can have different dynamics. What happens, what works in the north of a city may not work in the south or what works in the west of west area of a city may not work in the east. Right? So learn to also understand the dynamics of each city of each area in a city because we pray for our city but if God is strategically placing you in a certain part of a city learn to understand the dynamics of that area. What happens? So for example I'm just going to give you examples of Bangalore because I've been born and brought up here so I know a lot of places here. If you look at south Bangalore so east Bangalore we saw it's filled with corporate offices. Now look at south Bangalore it's very different. It is small houses and it is a place where there's not much of corporate that is happening there it's there that is prevalent but there's also a lot of slum ministry there are smaller companies smaller offices the demographics are a bit different to that of west same way in the other areas of a city so if you feel that God is placing you in a certain place in a city understand the dynamics of that city and pray for that this will also love God to place specific areas and needs of the city in your heart so for example you pray God will say why don't you pray for the families in this area families are breaking many families are going through challenges or why don't you pray for the youth there's too much of chaos among the youth the enemy is doing too much among the youth there's suicidal tendencies there are people who are into drug addiction depression living immoral lives why don't you pray for that the Holy Spirit is putting that in our heart God is placing in our heart to pray for the city and this will also be important for us because when we are praying for the city God will give us ideas and strategies to minister to the city people he will give us ideas let me give you this example many years back when I was in the city of Mangalore I saw these wonderful colleges huge colleges like institutions educational institutions whenever I would go there were college students coming out from everywhere so I thought to myself where are all these people coming from right so there was medical colleges there were engineering colleges there was all kinds of colleges and these colleges are so big which has about thousand or 800,000 people in each college so began to pray I said God open a door for us as a church into these colleges so we prayed for about 6 months I remember we would go out in front of the colleges and give out these tracks many times the people would come and say hey you are not allowed to do this can you please go we would go away and what happened was we we just went into one of the best colleges so we said okay let's choose the best college in Mangalore in the city we chose the best college and we walked into that college and we went we said we want to meet with the principal so we went we met with the principal the principal we told him see this is what we are we are Christians we have a church here in the city and we want to come and I remember many children are going through drug addictions youth are going through suicidal problems we are living in moral lives drinking all of these problems can we talk about life skills can we talk about how you know as young people as teens and youth we can live a good life honorable life we take principles from the bible we may not say the verses but we take principles from the bible and teach the principal was so happy he said when do you want to start he didn't do any background check on us he said when do you want to start next week we entered the best college in the city because of that those started opening in different colleges we took scripture classes light school sessions in many colleges nursing colleges engineering colleges got open doors now what I am trying to say is when we pray for the city when we have a heart for the city when we understand the dynamics of a city God begins to give us strategies and ideas God will begin to open doors for us all we have to do is trust in him right here pastor has written about Kabul and how he went to Kabul exploring Kabul and you know he just shared briefly heard him share in some of our pastor's meetings where I got just ministered to him went to Kabul and he began to study the different things that are happening there stayed there for a couple of weeks began to study and learn and try to get a feel of the place but eventually it could not happen because his travel to the place he was in the United States at that time so traveling up and down was a problem but he was able to do some kind of a ministry there and then launching of APC in Delhi which is in Mangalore outskirts of Mangalore that was again wonderful where as a team three of them went went to this place hired a hall did an event a worship event and that's where the church was born so this is very important again the the initial homework is very important this homework of sitting down getting to know the dynamics is very very important and it will lead us into the right track let's get into chapter 6 any questions any thoughts you would like to share alright let's get into chapter 6 the spiritual dynamics of urban cities now God is at work in our cities but over time what's happened is there are all kinds of demonic oppositions demonic work, demonic activities that have perverted God's design for a church for a city God's design for a city is to be a city that is clean, that is to be pure to be holy, to be righteous of course the enemy has come and Satan has come and he and his angels and his demons are are doing their activities and there's so much of sin in the city look at these verses let's look at this in the book of revelations the Lord Jesus is talking to these churches right so in revelations chapter 2 he's directing his attention to these churches first one revelations 2 and verse 10 can any one of us read that please revelations 2 and verse 10 fear nothing that you are about to suffer behold the devil is indel about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested and critically appraised and for 10 days you have a friction be loyally faithful and to death and I'll give you the crown of life so we see here the church in Smyrna the Lord Jesus is saying a presence of people is there in the church that belong to Satan they will hold you they will take you they will put you in the prison they will persecute you to be to go through intense persecution but the Lord Jesus says stay strong in those times so there's a presence of a group that belongs to Satan this is in the church the church in Pergamot revelations 2 13 and 14 go ahead anybody can read please I know where you live where Satan has his throne yet you remain true to my name you did not renounce your faith in me even in the days of antifers my faithful witness who was put to death in your city where Satan lives the words are so strong Lord Jesus is saying there are some I know where you live where Satan has his throne right you did not renounce your faith and goes on he says who was put to death in your city where Satan lives so the Lord Jesus is clearly saying hey the devil Satan has his throne his dominion his authority is in the city right so designed for cities are to be blessed to be prosperous to do well cities may grow churches may grow that's God's design but Jesus is he's pointing out to me saying in this city where Satan has his throne where Satan lives so the word that means what the work of the enemy is strong in this place right the doctrine of Balaam is infiltrating this church so deception the lies of the enemy is infiltrating next one the church in Thyatira 2 verse 20 revelations to 20 revelations chapter 2 verse 20 nevertheless I have a few things against you because you allow that women jistible who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to come as sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols right so again in the church in Thyatira these are the things you told me this woman Jezebel now if we look back to the first kings and the life of Jezebel it is not that Jezebel has you know resurrected from the dead and come you know it's the spirit of Jezebel what does the spirit of Jezebel do calls herself a prophetess who misleads people right and makes my servant fall into sexual immorality and involves them into eating of food sacrifice to idols so enticing the spirit of Jezebel to entice to bring temptation so that spirit is working in Thyatira a false prophet who is working in the church in the city of Thyatira now it's not like Jesus doesn't know Jesus himself is saying all of this let's look at the last one church in Philadelphia chapter 3 and verse 9 revelations 3 and verse 9 indeed I will make those of the synagogue of satan who say they are Jews and are not but lie indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet and to know that I have loved you I will make those who are of the synagogue of satan that means what does it say that means satan has a synagogue that means a place already established in this place of Philadelphia our that's 39 synagogue of satan who claim to be Jews though they are not but they are liars I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you so again a presence of a group of people who belong to satan and will cause them to bow before the church now all of these places you see the spiritual dynamics of this church everywhere satan has his presence every city satan has his work you got the spirit of Jezebel you got the spirit of satan you got the spirit of accusation false prophets the work of the devil his throne meaning his authority his dominion, his power is working over the cities so when we see spiritual beings influencing national leaders understand that that is the work of the energy where the enemy can use people to overpower cities he can control cities when we read the book of revelations we see that Babylon is referred to as the enemy's territory and satan attempts to pervert to steal, to kill and destroy God's design for the city so when you and I understand and know what God wants to do in our city we also try to understand the spiritual aspect we have seen the natural aspects these are the people, this is the state this is what the demographics are the youth the families the young adults, the teens the senior citizens this is the economy you have done the natural but the spiritual is as much as the actual so you look at where the enemy has his throne where the enemy has his working what is he doing right now it's not that we are setting our focus on the enemy it's not like we are spending time looking at what the enemy is doing they're just trying to understand the spiritual dynamic so that when you and I pray we can pray taking the name of Jesus in authority breaking those bondages Satan attempts to destroy the plan of God's plan in a city but the church which is the body of Christ which you and I want to plant or pioneer to start in a city that is what is going to go in advance against the kingdom of the devil what does Jesus say I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it so the gates of hell are there in every city but we don't focus on what the devil is doing we understand it and we counter attack okay so this is what the devil is doing we're going to continue to use the name of Jesus we're going to continue and pray continue to raise our voices and pray for the city, pray for our youth pray for our families, pray against demonic oppositions, pray against the influences of the devil, suicide tendencies, depression you know now the LGBTQ and all these things that have come up against the word of God we can stand and pray so it will be useful to know what God is already doing in the city what are the demonic strongholds and then we can target our prayers towards that right so culture right so now when we understand some of the some of the spiritual dynamics it is often expressed in these different ways again the spiritual dynamics may be different for different places different cities, different regions, different nations completely different right now culture now if you look at our nation nation of India it's a nation filled with culture we have art, dance we have customs we have superstitions that we cannot count superstition for even colors of any kind of thing that are superstitions it's one time I was in a hurry and I booked a cab and sat on the cab I had to go to a certain place suddenly the driver stopped said what happened he said I said come on quickly I need to get to this place I'm already in it why have you stopped the road is empty I said no the cab has passed by a black cab so I said the cab is going and finding food for themselves why are you on the road it's bad open what if we meet with an accident so he said next 5 minutes we have to wait here so for the next 5 minutes I was sitting in the car waiting for the cab for the driver to believe that the cab anger is gone the cab doesn't know why is it there the cab doesn't even know why it has crossed the road it has just crossed the road but he was superstitious and these superstitions can get bigger and it can cause divisions it can cause panic it can do so much it can destroy a person's life then you got social geography that is distribution of religious groups dominant ideologies philosophies religious leaders religious systems our nation is a nation with so much that is happening innumerable gods right so again what is the what is the understanding of these religious groups what is the dominant ideology of the city it can it can be portrayed and evidently studied you will understand what are the moral values some places you see that people are they are just with each other they somehow look after each other or some places they mind their own business they don't have any problems but in some places there is always spikes always murder neighbors killing another neighbor moral values addictions human trafficking bonded labor suicidal greed corruption crime rate all of this are the works of the devil through his spirits and then when we know this what are the major needs to be addressed in a city what kind of problems are NVO spacing what kind of problems are church spaces when we know this we know that it got something and we can and do our ministry I always say this what worked 5 years ago doesn't work now or what worked 10 years back may not work now people have changed the national dynamics have changed the spiritual dynamics also have changed you know who knew that in a nation like ours would come a time when the gay and the lesbian marriages would be open it's open now in our nation so things are changing and so we must also be aware of what the enemy is doing there is a question that we can ask ourselves think of examples where you observe something expressed in the natural which is indicative of certain spiritual dynamics in a city and how does making such observation help you develop a strategy towards that area or that need so let me just help you understand the question think of a certain maybe in your own cities think of a certain thing that you know is the work is a demonic work it's not a natural thing and think of a how you know maybe some decisions that you have made or you are planning to make to develop a strategy and how to help these people I'll give you one example I'll just share this and I'll probably leave it open for a few minutes first one in our city you know that Bangalore has the highest suicidal rate in our nation and I was so surprised why Bangalore it's a good city everything is there people are working economy is good loneliness so that's a problem, that's a demonic work what is it that we can do to reach out to people what are some of the strategies that we can do so I'll just leave this open is there anyone is there something that you would like to share where you know that in this certain area this is the problem and what maybe a strategy that you are planning to develop or you already developed to minister in those areas would anyone like to share I hope you understood the question anyone would like to share it could be in your hometown it could be wherever you are your neighborhood your cities anywhere or even your nation anyone would like to share alright so then what you can do is you can probably make a note of that I feel that this is something in my area of my city that needs that we know it's a demonic work it's a demonic oppression and we see that the devil is working there you can come up with ideas so for example I know a pastor who is very close and he he lives in the city of Mumbai and God has placed in his heart for to prostitutes in red light areas so I asked him how did you start this ministry so he used to pray and every time being a man going into these red light areas people will question so he said God how do I reach out how do I do it and God just gave him an idea he said go to the police and get progression from the local chief like the head of the department so what he did was he went to the police officer and he said see this is what I am Christian like to help these people these are young girls maybe some of them below 18 I'd like to just share about Jesus they may be lonely and so somehow through God's favor he got it all open and he started on with Christmas carols just going with 2-3 of them singing songs, Christmas songs in that red light area picture this he got hundreds of prostitutes living in that road he would go there and they would sing songs obviously the prostitutes would come out and he would do this in the daytime so over time he was able to minister to them people started trusting in his ministry people started over time even those leaders who let the prostitution ring were open to him coming in sharing the gospel ministry to him you can see God's favor but the background was a lot of prayer God laid in his heart so he was able to do it and he's continuing to do that ministry to them many times they also rescue some of them some of them are even given jobs in the city and many lives have been changed through his ministry in the same way you and I can identify places in our city if you feel that God is placing that in your heart prayerfully you can develop a plan develop a strategy form a team see if you can go reach out to these places sometimes it's not like we have to start a church only God can use these ministries as well our pioneering ministry is to do urban church planting and ministry right okay we will stop here we will continue from the next class and we will pick up from the next chapter which is chapter 6 chapter 7 urban church planting and missions and book of Acts we will pull up some examples from there and we will learn from them thank you so much I know we I've been speaking the most but from the next class we will keep it open I'd love when you share your thoughts as well keep it more interactive as well thank you so much for joining catch you up the next class God bless