 class. Okay good morning everyone and welcome to the class the recording is on for this lecture so the lecture will be recorded and we can also share it on the e-learning portal for the benefit of those students who are learning through the portal. All right let's pray then we will get started I want to invite somebody just to please pray with us and we will get our class started. Somebody can unmute your mic and please pray. Go ahead friends. Thank you father. I give thanks to you a lot. Thank you as I gather in this time lot. As I go into in this class what help us to understand that each of the things that we will capture and to use in our ministry lot help us understand and so I pray for faster give him wisdom that we will get more and more instruction lot. Thank you in this time and also those who did not I pray for them they will turn correctly a lot. Thank you. Thank you friends. Thank you. Right so we are talking about urban church planting and we are just laying some basic foundational understanding before we get into the the nuts and the bolts and the things of you know how do we go about doing this. Yesterday we started talking about getting God's heart for our cities and that's what we wanted to be we're emphasizing on the lecture yesterday and we want to spend some more time on that I will share the the notes so that we could all follow along in the notes and so we talked about you know the fact that God identifies himself with cities now primarily the city of Jerusalem he calls it the city of the great King Jesus called the city of the great King referring to the city of God and we also saw that you know God looks at cities he sees what's going on and he is touched by what's happening in the cities in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah in the case of Nineveh and we said that you know God was displeased with all the sin that he saw that was happening in those cities we also looked at you know how Jesus saw the city of Jerusalem and he wept over the city and we asked ourselves this question you know why did Jesus weep you know over the city of Jerusalem right so let's progress on that from there now we're going to just look at a few more aspects of God's heart for city and then the emphasis here is we must you know capture God's heart that means we too must have God's heart for the communities we live now of course you know when we talk about city you know each time you are trying to reach the important thing is to get God's heart for that community for that people whether it's a city or a part of a city or a town or a village you know whatever come into your part of get God's heart for them another important thing we want to look at an ax the 17th chapter and we will read verses 26 and 27 somebody could read the ax 17 26 and 27 so we can read it please or ax 17 26 and 27 go ahead somebody could read that for us and and he had made him he has made from one blood every nation of man to dwell on all the face of the earth and has to determine their the appointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might go for him and find him so he is not far from each one of us so it's very interesting you know right here in ax 17 Paul is in the city of Athens and Athens at that time was the intellectual capital of the world and in the city of Athens you know from this city and from this place came many of the prominent Greek philosophers in those days or just prior to Paul's time and while Paul is now speaking in that city of course when he comes to Athens he surveys the city he gets a feel of the city and so on and it's very interesting there while he's he has the opportunity to speak to the people that Athens and he says this he says you know God has made from one blood every nation of man that means you know we all have the same makeup composition God create all of us same and he says that in verse 26 God determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings very interesting so where do people dwell of course you know at a very broad level we say okay we all live in nations in our countries we all belong to a certain country true but we also dwell in communities we also dwell in towns or villages or cities but that's also dwelling and it's saying here that God has pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings so God's in some way and and you know we we don't know all the details but God has been involved in the appointing of the times and the boundaries the times and the boundaries think about that here it says God has appointed times and boundaries for the dwellings of their people are living times and boundaries whether it's you think about it in terms of nations or whether you think about in terms of cities communities somehow God's hand is involved in that so what I want to impress in our hearts is this that God's hand has been involved in the community or the dwelling place where you are whether it's you know whether you think about in terms of the city or whether you think about it in terms of your town or village or whether you think about in terms of the nation God has been involved in the establishing of that community of that city or that town or village so no village no town no city or no nation has happened by accident there somehow God's hand is involved because he says yeah he has determined who God has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of the dwellings and very interesting verse 27 why was why is God involved in this was so that people seek the Lord and find him so somehow in every city there is something there or in every community there is something there that God has put that would point them to Jesus you know so we need to look for this look for this God what is there what is that in my city that you have placed so that people may seek you and find you let me say well I never thought of it like this well if you look at these verses that's what they're indicating so we need to begin to pray say God what about my city or what about the community where I'm living what are the things here that can point people to you because you know you let them dwell there so that they might seek you and find you so what about that God how can people in my city come to know you and you may not pray necessarily in these words but the prayer is simple now God what is your heart for my city how can my yeah how can these people whether it's a village or a town or a community wherever you look what are we looking at how can these two come to know you now God's put something there which is redemptive in nature that will point them to him and we need to pray and ask God so when we think about this you know we must understand the importance here of receiving God's heart for our city because it's almost like a key to unlock the city for God it's almost like if we can identify God's redemptive plan for the city it will help us in reaching our city so in the book taking our cities for God John Dawson you know he shares some of these things of being able to look for God's redemptive plan for the city and you know and it gives an example saying like each city has a certain destiny and it's been it's it's it's known for something and sometimes one of the ways that you could recognize God's redemptive plan for a city is even if it's the wrong it's been misplaced or it's been perverted right so instead of doing the good they end up doing the exact opposite the bad but that bad is indicating that God's original plan was the opposite so you understand hey the city was meant to be a proclamation of the gospel but it's a proclaim the gospel they may be putting out wrong things or you know proclaiming the opposite but the original plan was to be a proclamation to be a proclamer of the gospel to be a city that would spread the news of Jesus Fire and White you know so you can understand the redemptive plan for the city we're just praying over it understanding what's happening and you know getting God God this is the destiny or this is your plan for my city and I want to see that fulfilled I want to see that restored okay so as we talk a little bit more about cities and God's heart for the cities God wants us to pray for our city we are all familiar with Jeremiah 29 let's go there this is again interesting passage of Jeremiah 29 verses 7 and 8 somebody could read that for us we're all familiar with this Jeremiah 29 7 and 8 something please read it work for the good cities of good of the cities where I have made you go as a prisoner pray to me on their behalf because if they prosper prosper you will be prospered do to I Lord the God of Israel warn you not to let yourself be deceived by the prophet who live among you or by any other who claim they can predict the future do do not do not pay any attention to their dreams yeah so Jeremiah 29 so thank you so he says you know now that the background is this right the Jewish people have been taken captives to Babylon so they are actually in a bad situation bad situation meaning they are captives they are in exile they're living in Babylon it's not their home city they're living in a foreign city but in that city God is saying hey I want you to seek the peace of the city I want you to you know pray for it you will have peace so it tells us something very important that you know whichever city we are in we can pray to the Lord for our city God himself is telling his people pray for the city so we pray God I salvation my city has pray for the well-being of my city I pray for the peace of my city now I pray that the city will experience Jesus in a very powerful way pray for the city right our prayers may be very small compared to you know the the challenges of the city the needs in the city but it's not about you know how big our prayers are it's about how big our God is so our prayers are small but God is big right he's much bigger infinitely bigger than our city you know sometimes when we look at our city things can be very intimidating right we look at our city we look at the problems we look at the challenges we look at the numbers of people millions we look at all kinds of things it can be very intimidating when God says you know pray for the city and we realize it's not about not you know how big our prayers are but it is how big our God is and he's bigger than the biggest challenge we have in the city right so we just pray God bless our city God touch our city God visit our city God let us experience a mighty work of God the people may be safe he will come to know you and he said pray for the city in its peace you will have peace the other thing we understand and of course you have already studied this in your course on prayer is that God looks for intercessors for the city right so when God is looking at the city we know we've said earlier he sees the problems in the city he's very aware of what's happening but he's looking for people will pray for the city and that's what you and I should do and we just look at these verses once again quickly just to remind ourselves and Isaiah 59 verses 14 through 16 somebody could read that for us Isaiah 59 14 through 16 please so shall I read go ahead please just as it's turned back and I just will stand afar off for truth is far and in the street and equity cannot enter so through faith and he who departs from evil makes with himself or praise then that then the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor therefore his own our God's salvation for him and his own righteousness is sustained him it's the same yeah thank you so you know we see this scripture and we also see a very parallel scripture in Ezekiel 22 you know in both these passages and Isaiah 59 14 through 16 also in the parallel passage in Ezekiel 22 29 to 31 we you know it describes to us the condition of the city right that things are bad there is no justice people are being oppressed all kinds of things happening and in both these passages as f 59 and in Ezekiel 22 we see God's response you see that in both these passages it says God's looked for an intercessor he looked for somebody who would stand in the gap for the land of our city so why God's aware of what's happening in the city what is he looking for he's looking for intercessors he's looking for people who will say God I pray your mercy I ask for your intervention God I pray for the city I pray for you know the things to change my city and so God is looking for intercessors for the city so this is one very important reason why we need to get God's heart for the city because when we begin to see the city the way God sees it and we're able to pray for the city for the things that are things that matter able to pray for the city and lift that up before God right that we don't look at it as okay this is the end this is the doom you know this is the city will never change it's been like this for so many years now we just pray and see God touch the city all right and and you know we if we are going to work with God we need to be able to walk with God we need to walk with God so we can work with God so we have to be in agreement with him in our city we have for our city we can walk with him then we can work with him in doing what he wants us to do for the city so I want to encourage you you know as we talk about get you know urban church planning as we talk about you know how do we work in the city in planning a church or a ministry you know just beginning to say God you know I'll give me your heart for the city helping to see the people as you see them help me to have compassion for them your compassion for them help me to pray for my city as we begin to develop your heart that for the city and it's an ongoing thing it's not like I pray once and it's over no I mean you can see and when we start talking about when we get into this course and let me just yeah when we get into this course and be you know we start talking about some of the things we can do in preparation to work in the city of planet church in the city and as you start thinking about your own city sometimes you can get very overwhelming you know when you look at the problems when you look at the size and look at the complexity of the city it can become very overwhelming it can be become very discouraging we tend to take the mindset that well nothing's going to change so first avoid that the city may be in yesterday are big but God is still bigger God is still more powerful right so don't get overwhelmed by the complexity of the city second thing I want to alert us to is don't get hardened towards the city sometimes it's easy for us to become hard hot towards the city that means you know we get upset with the city we get angry with the city we say all the bad things about the city I'm not saying don't recognize the problems we need to but I'm just I'm think don't get upset with the city some people are so mad at their own city which they live in they're angry they're angry with their officials they're angry with people they're angry with certain communities they're angry with certain things that are going on they upset now if you're upset about the city it's going to be very difficult to do something good for the city it's going to be very difficult to pray for the cities when we very difficult to love the people in the city so that's the second thing God your heart from getting hardened towards your own city now when I use what city remember it could be a community among whom you dwell it could be a village it could be a town wherever you're living wherever God has placed you wherever you God has put you to work two things don't get overwhelmed and don't get hardened towards the city so God's heart is towards the city and in closing you know we see the New World you see the heavenly city Jerusalem coming down so God is a prepares a city for his people to dwell in so you can you know that's just a little side note there that hey God does is interested in the city and in cities and everything ends even in a city right so any questions before we go forward any thoughts and any questions everybody's with me so far so what is that you know we need to get out of the city never you are so God give me your first place or place that you know God sending you to or way or maybe he's placed you already there then give me your heart for the sitting now another important part here let me share my screen when we start talking about urban church planting is to understand the natural dynamics of urban centers that means cities and it really helps it is really good for us to do our homework to know to understand the city right now and today we have a lot of tools available and I remember the church all people's church in those days the only thing I could do was to write to a few pastors in the city so we were living in the US at that time so I knew a few pastors from Bangalore and I wrote to them I said you know we are planning to come to the city come and come back to back areas in the city that you recommend where there are no churches that you would can point us to where we should be thinking of planting the church now in those days we didn't have the ability I mean to do the kind of searches you can today you have Google Maps you can go online you can survey the city through Google Maps but those days we didn't have that opportunity to do that so you know we didn't have those tools that we have today and we're talking about over 20 years ago so you know we we try to do our homework through whatever we could without few letters and these you know ask people as pastors to make some suggestions about areas Bangalore but today we have tools through which we can get information about cities and places we're going to minister in and we're going to you know address that but let's just talk a little bit briefly on how is a city different on a village you know if there's some thoughts here you can just share randomly a city of village what are some differences this is to get us to think right you can unmute your mic or you can type in the chat a village a city what are some differences that you can think of between these two kinds of places you can type in the chat or you could just unmute your mic and share your thoughts we just discussing so this is there's no you know right or wrong answer perfect and just share your thoughts almost what do you think some of the differences are between a village and a city especially the context that we are thinking of discussing so Kiran says different development in village side we can go ahead Thomas go ahead we can you see the multi language in the city and different culture different kind of people in villages where we can find one language in a simple lifestyle the simple message and simple things are okay but in city they're coming from the different parts of the places when we impact one person he can go and impact the whole village you can see in the gospel as well so cities are the very important especially when we have discussed about Nina ways today that moved my heart that's really touched my heart God because the city is the center place where people came here and being here and doing the things so it's very important to touch to the people in the food sorry think my connection dropped a bit and Thomas said usually in a village you know it's very homogeneous there is one of people who are of the same culture usually they speak the same language but as we come into a city this heterogeneous is very complex it's it's there it's diverse you have lots of community different communities lots of different languages people have come from different places very often from different parts of the world they're all living in a city unlike the village and then I see in the chat a lot of you have type different things there is differences in development education colleges and schools population and time and also mentioned in the kind of work office work these are all big differences between a village and a city you know a village usually development happens very slowly you know after 20 years you you might see little change you know maybe there's a new building that's come up or something like that you know it takes a long time before you see any change and and the way people are living and so on but it's in the city things are changing very far in this chapter when we talk about the natural dynamics of urban centers what I want us to understand is that we especially for us people who are working in cities we must be aware of what is happening in the city because things in the city are changing very fast lots of things are changing and if we are not in touch with what's happening we could miss out on impacting people so let me just explain you know maybe I can use Bangalore the city as an example and those of you are familiar with Bangalore you will understand your rate you know in the 1980s that time I was student here the Bangalore prior to that and you know what was was known as the guard it was known as a pensioners paradise it was known as a retirement city of Bangalore you know that the British were here they had established a lot of controlment areas very very nicely developed lots of trees and you know they done it up well those those certain areas and so in Bangalore it was very beautiful city it was very quiet city very peaceful so literally in those days I used to cycle from home to pool it was almost like eight kilometers and so I you know go on cycle on the roads today you hardly find any cycles on the streets of Bangalore you know maybe people use it as in a small in maybe in their own apartment areas or so on but you don't see cycles on the roads but those days the roads were there was not much traffic few cars and the roads were literally quiet and people used to cycle from place A to place B these two one cycles this is a very peaceful city it was a you know a place where people used to you know come to a tire they used to come to just enjoy the garden I mean the beautiful trees in a very quiet city those were in the 80s then now then what happened in the 90s of course the government was doing things to develop the country and so they invited a lot of foreign foreign companies they opened up for foreign investors and so on and what happens a lot of multinational corporations companies came straight to Bangalore Bangalore was one of the attractive cities just some of course there are other cities like Delhi and Mumbai but Bangalore was you know probably the most attractive city at that time a lot of multinational companies came in and by the end of the 1990 1990s early part of 2000 there were lots of call centers and they call them IT enabled services set up here all across and suddenly things in the city changed very drastically you know we went from a city that was a garden city a pensioners paradise very quiet and peaceful city suddenly you had all these companies come in set up offices and you had people moving into Bangalore from just everywhere and and call centers opening up every place all around the city I mean it's good overall good for in terms of you know employment or all of that but I'm just saying I'm just looking at the dynamics the change that took place in the city and then you know it had a huge impact on the youth because these call centers they were just hiring people you know many of them would just finish 12th grade education if they could speak decent English they can get into call centers all they're doing is answering phones you know for various things they get them training and so on so suddenly the young people that they finished 12th or they finished a basic bachelor's degree they get employed in the call centers they would be earning huge money which was huge for you know so the youth suddenly had a lot of money coming into their hands they would work in these call centers another thing was people working on different shifts you know suddenly these young people were working at night you know because they had to serve the US or the UK or overseas you know different time customers in different time zones and so they had a huge impact on the young people you know young people had a lot of money they were working at these shifts they were there were all these malls opening up in the city and so on and so we saw a drastic change happen in the city of Bangalore and then so this went on for you know quite a good part of 10, 12, 15 years and then suddenly there was you know what they call as a dot-combust so some of these things the IT enabled services, BPO's a lot of them began to close you know so people had to change you know and so of course we do have some call centers but not as much as it used to be in the early part of the 2000s there are still some call centers and data centers and a lot of there was a shift more towards other kinds of IT enabled services so that's that's still happening but there's been a slight change more towards the development side and so on so what I'm saying is if you look just look at the last 30 years in the city of Bangalore there's been tremendous change happening the city has exploded in terms of number of people people from all over the country all over the country and many parts of the world have moved to Bangalore all kinds of you know the large multinational corporations opened up and so it's the city in one way is booming but then there are also lots of challenges for the people so why is all this important well as a church as a christian ministry we are impacted meaning we have to be able to serve the people well they need that different the times are different we have people to release towards changing the city so how the church does its ministry should adapt towards happening in the city right we can't be doing ministry the way we've ruined it in the 1980s right today things have changed people's needs have changed even the young people in the city they actually things have changed and so what we do how we serve how we minister how we look at the city you know what should change we should see what's happening in the city and then begin to minister to people and meet the needs address the needs from a biblical perspective preach the gospel in a way that is relevant to their needs and then we all know the last almost two years now almost two years the pandemic hit so again that has impacted every part of the world we have impacted our city again so you know a lot of people have been affected in many different ways and people have lost their loved ones family incomes have been affected household incomes have been affected and a big impact of the pandemic has been on the mental and emotional well-being of people it's a big thing that means people have been affected mentally and emotionally because of the lockdown I'm not saying other things have not happened yet they may have lost loved one opposed to them but mentally and emotionally they've all been impact every one of us all of us have been affected you know and how do we keep our sanity how do we keep our mind stable when you know we can't do the things we normally would like to do and and and so things are different now in the city so what we should be praying about now is God how do we reach our city now things have changed people are going through different kinds of challenges right now because of the pandemic every city every part of the world has been affected how should we adapt to what is happening so that's what we want to talk about and we discuss the natural dynamics of the city so let me just share this the pdf I will highlight when we say natural dynamics what are some of the things we should be looking at and then we will develop this for next week so when we talk about you know the natural of course we we have to also talk about spiritual dynamics which will come in the next chapter there are natural and spiritual dynamics over a city by natural dynamics what do we mean we mean okay a little little bit about the history right I'm not saying you need to know everything but just a little bit more importantly what's happening right now you know what is a political environment in the city or in that region what's the economy like what are the demographics meaning the age distribution of people the cultural backgrounds and so on what are some of the socio-economic issues what are the challenges people are facing and now because of the pandemic you know many of these things have been affected what about the education what about the distribution of education institutions where are the schools and colleges what are the major industries and where are the industrial hubs that are in the city what about women how are they being treated what about unemployment what about you know the disabled population prison system that you may look at some other things and I've just mentioned a few like you know what are accident rate homelessness orphans and other things these are all the natural dynamics of the city that we must be aware of and you know it doesn't mean you know you think what the whole I mean you can look at the whole city but at least be aware of you know the areas where you are ministering and try to understand you know this is what is happening in the kind of people that I am ministering because now once you want to understand that why is that important I want to understand the national dynamics of the city when you're planning to start your business one it's going to help us get feel for the city as a whole okay this is injured what's happening in my city these are challenges you know so today when you talk about Bangalore you know Bangalore has a high suicide rate drugs is a big problem here mental health issues are a big challenge here you know so these are certain things we would talk about and we have a high suicide rate for teenagers for you know young people you know it's among highly ranked in this in the country so that these are things we need to address so get a feel for the city then pray for the city so this again God how do we reach people in this area you know or reach people in certain areas that are on your heart then as you begin to pray God will place specific areas in needs of the city right so you know remember we're not going to solve all the problems of the city of you know that's not it but as you begin to just pray for the city God will place certain things he wants you to do you and I are not saviours you and I are not going to save the whole city but God is going to use us in specific areas and for certain needs so that's what we want to know God what do you want me to do what are the specific needs you want me to address for my city right so as you begin to get a feel of the city begin to pray for the city God will place certain things for you to he'll give you your assignment for your city our community and then along with that you'll be able to develop strategies to minister in the city or to the people in the city right so it's important for us to understand the natural dynamics because then it's going to help guide what we are going to do in the city right we will get into the details of how we do this later on but I just wanted to you know this is just to help us say that look as we prepare to minister in the city that two areas we need to look at we need to look at the natural dynamics we also need to look at the spiritual dynamics what's happening spiritually in our city as we prepare to start working and we will get into the details of how to do that okay any questions before we close in prayer today any thoughts any questions did everybody understand when we said natural dynamics of the city you understood what we're talking about yeah all right good yeah I see it let's take a moment to just pray together and you know we will pick this up we'll expand on this uh next week can somebody close in prayer and dismiss us please connan joe would you like to please pray and dismiss us no connan sorry uh this okay never mind maybe um can I ask somebody else to pray then not able to all right okay I understand uh yeah can Dave can you pray and then give a close your connections okay by the way come before you we thank you Lord for today and for for the class today Lord Jesus we thank you that we're getting to know about the church planting the ministry Lord God and especially the urban church planting Lord Jesus we renewed today Lord Jesus that we have a heart for the city Lord Jesus and just each one of us in our own different distinct city Lord Jesus and help each one of us to understand your purpose and your your will for our city Lord Jesus so that we can put your your wills for our our city and for our country Lord we want to thank you once again for today's lesson and today's what we've learned today Lord Jesus let that be in our hearts and in our minds so that we can follow through Lord Jesus in your name we pray amen all right thank you thank you Karen Prince thank you each one