 which is of growth and development. Just before we jump into chapter four, one point that I want to make was, see we talked about different kinds of structures. And we might want to find out, like every time we come across a church, we might want to find out which category does this church fit in. But also, you know, let's remember whatever category a particular church fits in. The actual question that we should be asking is whether the people are a part of the body of Christ. So it's very much possible that a certain structure that we don't approve of, in that structure also there can be those who are born again. They are part of the kingdom of God. They are part of the body of Christ. So we mustn't just judge people on the basis of their denomination or on the basis of certain church structure that they have adopted. So it's just something for us to remember that we mustn't discriminate just on the basis of the denomination. Actually, a question to ask is whether they are born again and they are a part of the kingdom of God or not. So I think that is the more important question. So having said that, we can move into the next topic here. OK, stages of growth and development. So just the way we see a little child grow into an adult go through various stages. Every church also goes through different stages. And we must bear that in mind. If you observe the church in Jerusalem that had its own progress, so you found that it was born on the day of the Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was poured out. And the church started growing very rapidly because the Holy Spirit was working among the people. There were signs, wonders that were taking place. And as part of their discipleship strategy, the house meetings were the primary weighing which they could minister to their own people. So house meetings were happening in the early church. They would also meet at the temple. And that's what we read about them. We see that the initial leadership was provided by the apostles. And eventually, they found that there are things that need to get done. So they would need deacons. So deacons came on board. We find persecution starting up in Jerusalem. And because of that, the church gets scattered. So it's the believers who go to various regions. And later on, we read about how these believers could have been the reason why some churches were placated. So wherever the believers went, churches got planted. And then later on, we find the apostles also stepping out on missionary journeys and planting churches. Then eventually, we see that the ministry teams emerge from the Church of Jerusalem. And they step out. This church grows rapidly. And it does well. And in the long run, the Church of Jerusalem becomes that base church to which the other churches connect. They ask for decisions from the leadership of the Church of Jerusalem. So it becomes a very prominent church. There are other aspects also you see happen here. You see that there are certain conflicts that come up. But the apostles handle them pretty well. You would see that the doctrinal issues that come up, the apostles handle that well. But then you don't really see the involvement of all the apostles in missions. At least you don't read about it. You only read about a few of them stepping out. And eventually, you don't read about the Church of Jerusalem a whole lot also. So that's a little bit about the Church of Jerusalem. And everything began from the Church of Jerusalem. Now, I told you that during persecution, believers went to different places and they had planted churches. So one of the churches which got planted is the Church of Antioch. And why is the Church of Antioch important? Because it is a model that shows rapid growth. It shows team ministry. And it's a multicultural church. So something different from the Church of Jerusalem. The pastor of the Antioch Church, Nobannibus, could be considered as that key leader. And we know that later on he brought Paul to minister together with him. And we see the team ministry unfolding. So you have other teachers in the church. You also have Agabus, who comes in, who is in the prophetic office. So the five-point ministry offices are functional in the church. And you read about the growth of the church. In a matter of a couple of years, the church is thriving. And they're doing very well. Believers are being strengthened. They are being equipped and raised up in this particular church. You also notice in the Church of Antioch that at a time when they heard about a need in the Church of Jerusalem, the Church of Antioch kind of wants to send aid. So in addition to the spiritual ministry that is going on, they also engaged in some sort of a social work to help the other, the mother church. Then eventually you have apostolic teams that are stepping out of this church. So there is a connectedness. They go to the Church of Jerusalem when it's time to make that decision about the Gentiles and the rituals, some of the patterns that the Gentiles should continue to follow. But after that, you don't really read too much about the Church of Antioch. We only read that teams stepped out from the Antioch Church. So you had the missionary journeys of Paul. And we know that Paul and Barnabas had a very sharp conflict that arose. And it didn't go well because both of them, after that, went there two separate ways. And you don't also read about Paul and Barnabas continuing to provide leadership to the Antioch Church. Now, we don't know if they already had stronger leaders develop and they kind of handed over the church to those people. And Paul and Barnabas, they stepped out in their primary calling of their lives, which was to be in the apostolic calling. All this is what you read about the Church of Antioch. Now, in both of these churches, you're seeing things unfold. You see the birth of the church. You see leadership emerging. You see the equipping of the church. You see the movement of the leaders and the mission of the church. Eventually, both the churches seem to have moved on to a more apostolic role. When I use the word apostolic, I mean, don't get hassled or what is that. It simply means extending the kingdom. Extending the kingdom of God to new territories. That's what it means. So you find both the Church of Jerusalem sending out leaders to new territories. And similarly, the Church of Antioch also sending out teams to new territories. So these are the stages that we observe in these two churches. So having this in our minds, the churches that we are a part of, we will talk about the normal stages of growth that any healthy church would go through. The first stage is the pioneering stage. So for a church planter, this is a crucial stage where the person would establish commitment to a territory. Now, how is the territory chosen? Generally, it's by a word from God. Maybe God has spoken in our hearts and said, OK, I want you to go to Bangalore and I want you to plant a church there. So generally, it happens that way. But also, it could be because of a need which arose and God kind of moved you in that direction. A pastor who was ministering in a certain place left, and now your church leadership suddenly approached you and said, we know that you have been groomed for something like this, and here is an opportunity. Would you like to go to this place where there is no pastor? Would you like to take over? So sometimes it may happen as a result of us responding to a need. But generally, God puts it on our hearts and we know that this is the place where we have to go and we have to plant a church. So this is the pioneering stage. So any individual who is going to plant a church, they have to demonstrate commitment to the territory. So you're clear about it and you go to that place and you kind of plant yourself over there and do whatever it takes to be established over there. All right, so that is how it all begins. Then you lay the groundwork. The groundwork is primarily spiritual nature. We have studied when we did prayer and intercession, when we talked about the believer's authority, that in a given region to establish the kingdom of God, we engage in prayer, we engage in intercession, we engage in worship. As we do this, the spiritual atmosphere is kind of primed to continue God's work there. So you wait on the Lord, maybe you're not doing it alone. I know of certain church planting movements where they go as teams and as a team, they do this. And I know one particular pastor, he was sharing this testimony, how he decided for six months, he wouldn't preach. For six months, they only gathered for prayer, intercession, worship, because they were laying the spiritual groundwork in that area. So this team did only that for six months and only after six months, slowly, they kind of started having their services. So you do the groundwork initially. Along with the spiritual groundwork, you may want to build bridges with the ministers in that area, maybe there are already some churches that exist and then we will talk more about this later. So I won't go into details of it, but you basically kind of establish a good relationship an honest relationship with people around. And yeah, so then they are also accepting of you doing the work in that place. And you begin to understand the dynamics of the place. So you may want to do some out-preachers initially to kind of know how to reach people, how to win souls for the kingdom of God. So all this goes into your pioneering work in a given place. So the phase, the pioneering phase is actually the foundation-laying stage of ministry. And it is said that when you want to build a tall building and a strong building, you have to really dig deep. Unless the foundation is deep, you cannot have a tall building, is it? If you have a shallow foundation, it can only take, I don't know, ground floor, first floor, but if you're thinking of building a strong building, let's say 16 floors, then you don't, you have to go really deep, have that foundational pillars in place and that goes for the church as well. So you lay a very strong foundation spiritually in terms of the vision, the clarity of the vision. So many of these things and some working with people, you know, the way you're gonna build the team and all of that. So you lay a strong foundation and a deep foundation if you want to establish a long-term work. Okay, so that's about your pioneering stage. And then the work will move on to the administrative or the organizational structural stage. Okay, now put in timelines again. Now you might ask, okay, how long should it be? Again, it is completely dependent on the direction of the Holy Spirit. There are people who take a year to just pray and worship and think and write out the vision and all of that, okay? But there are people, they know, they're very clear, their entire lifetime, professionally, maybe they were doing something else, but all along, God was speaking, they have the vision, they just kind of launch out. Two weeks, they might engage in something like the pioneering activities and then slowly they might actually start off their services. Okay, so it depends. You have to be led by the Holy Spirit. There's no correct or wrong way of doing it. Okay, so we'll quickly take Hope's question and then I will move forward. Hope you have a question? I'm not sure. I think it doesn't know that is... Five is six. Yes, yeah. Okay, okay, all right, fine, fine, then we'll continue. All right, so the next stage would be the administrative organizational stage. So this is the time when you put your systems in place, you know, what Abraham asked earlier. So what are these systems? These systems could do with how your team is going to look, okay, your structure, what will be the leadership structure of your team? What will be the areas of emphasis like when it comes to missions, the mission of your church, you know, you might put down, okay, we are a missional church. We would like to emphasize on the gifts of the spirit. So certain key things that God is putting on your heart and saying, hey, this will be the main thing that your church is going to be ministering on. So you work on all of that, you receive it from the Lord, then you put it all down, okay? So these will be our areas of emphasis, okay? Then other aspects, organizationally, how are you going to run this? So there will be things like registering your church, there will be, you know, establishing a good connection network with other ministers of God. So you kind of define all that, how are we going to do all these things? And then, you know, you might want to put other important systems in place, for example, your Sunday services. So what will be the normal format? So you would put that in, cell groups, like what will be the discipleship model of your church? What are you going to choose? So broadly, you put down, okay, this is how we're going to do this, this is how we're going to do our preachers, this is how we're going to do, you know, X, Y, and Z. So the important thing is to, you know, come up with these systems early on, at least the broad structure can definitely be fine tuned a little bit as you go further, but put systems in place in such a way that what you are doing when you have very few people is what you will be doing when you have, you know, a large number, maybe 5,000, 5,000 plus, okay, for example, I will tell you, I still remember, you know, when I was freshly like on the pastoral team, I was a volunteer pastor, you know, seven years ago, and maybe a decade ago actually, and we had this meeting with Pastor Ashish, and you know, I was just kind of new in the pastoral team at that time, and he was sharing, he noted on the phone, he said, look, this is our pastoral structure, okay, senior pastor, pastoral team, then ministry team, side group leaders, so you know what, it hasn't changed, it's the same, there's a lot of other changes that happen inside that structure, but it's the same, so it's good because, you know, if it was different back then, and then now it suddenly changes, and then it changes again in two years time, it's a lot of confusion, but I'm just giving you one example, right? Similarly, the cell group idea, it's the same, like from the time I joined church to now, maybe a little bit of tweaking has happened, but we primarily, you know, we had adopted that G2L model, and sort of a modified version is what is going on till now, so when you put those things in place, it's a lot easier, so the church can keep growing, even the church service format, I don't think any major changes have happened, like I've been in this church for maybe about, I don't know, 17, 18 years now, but it's the same, right? Even when we kind of, you know, have our smaller congregations, we use the same format, so it's easier, when a pastor and a pastoral team define these things early on, even if the numbers grow, you know, things remain the same, so and that's very helpful, and if the team can put it down, nothing like it. And another important thing, you know, godly standards and guidelines, this needs to be established, so again, I've noticed, you know, pastor right from the start, I first joined as a volunteer, also we had like a guideline document and you know, about certain standards and our principles, values, those things don't change, okay, those things remain the same. Today, when we induct volunteers in our branch locations, the values remain the same, right? So what happens? The church is growing, but you can maintain the values, you can maintain the standards. So for a person who is pioneering, and they come to this stage of setting the processes in place in an administrative organizational way, if you put it down once, it's very helpful, people can follow them and of course, you can keep adding good things to it as you go along, but the primary standards remain the same, right? Things like, you know, we talk about excellence, we talk about teamwork, we talk about integrity. So these things remain the same. Even if new people join, it's very easy because they just have to get oriented in a meeting and then they know, okay, these are the values, this is the way to do things, come on, let's do it, right? So the church can grow to 50,000, but you still have the same values that you're passing on to the 50,000 people or one million people. So it's good for a pastor to kind of set that in order. So the administrative organizational structural phase when you put all these things in order. Now, new ministries, how can you have new ministries growing out of the church? You could have people from the same church stepping up and addressing an area of need or there is an area of need, okay? And you don't have people in the church to minister. So you might want to trust God to bring those people in, okay? So yeah, it's done in various ways. We'll touch on that later maybe. So that is your administrative phase. The important thing is to put people, put structure, put processes, systems, and also the right people in the right areas of ministry. So why are you doing all this? Basically you're creating an environment for effective growth, that's all, okay? And the church would grow from 50 people to 100 people to 200 people, to 500 people, to 5,000 to 10,000. It's easy for the church to keep growing, okay? If you have these things in place. So after starting off, you put the structure in place, then comes the pastoral team stage. Pastoral team stage is nothing but you know the, let's assume senior pastor founded the church. Now certain systems are in place, people have started coming. Now as people are joining the ministry, God when he gives you a vision, right? He puts that in the hearts of others also. And definitely God will connect people with the same common vision. And you identify those people and when you identify a certain grace on people's lives, you kind of groom them into leadership, okay? So the senior pastor grooms them into that place and this team now has a shared vision. They're all moving in the same direction of growth and expansion. So the good thing is this pastor develops a team, okay? And then he's able to do much more because we are aiming for growth. We are aiming for growth, one person cannot do everything. So you definitely need more people partnering together with you. So develop a team. So that would be a pastoral team stage. And one point which pastor has put here, he has written, the more trust you give, the more faithful your leaders will be. So that's from his wisdom. So I'll just leave it as it is. Then the next stage here would be the equipping stage. So under the equipping stage, now that you have a pastoral team in place, you're concentrating on the believers. You're concentrating on the saints because remember I told us from Ephesians 4, we are instructed to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So you're focusing on the church, focusing on teaching the church, focusing on training the church, focusing on mobilizing the church. So we would disciple them. We would teach them about supernatural ministry. And we would equip them on how to do ministry, training in ministry. So that can be provided. So when we do this, what happens? The people catch the mission. The people are equipped. The people recognize their calling. The people recognize the grace on their lives. And the church, the entire church is able to make an impact, okay? Where God has called them. So it's not just the pastor anymore. The pastor is investing into the people. And the people are the ones who are stepping into their roles of ministry. They are serving and they make an impact in their region and various other parts of the world. So it becomes more like a mission of church, okay? So that is your equipping stage. Just pouring into the congregation. Now, if we have done all these things, then that apostolic aspect that I was talking about, basically new territory, okay? So this pastor who has a pastoral team, he has built up the church congregation to mature them in God. The pastor himself can move on to a more apostolic role, okay? So he could be guiding the pastoral team and he could, you know, the pastor team could be doing more of the ministry with regard to the church, but he could be serving in other aspects, that are available for in the city-wide region or like a national level, there are certain ministries, right? So the pastor could be engaging in those things, but he's very much a part of the church, but primarily your activities, like your pre-chain, teaching, member care, those kind of things are being done by the pastoral team because there's a good pastoral team serving over the church. So the senior pastor has moved on to more of new territory, getting new territory for the kingdom of God, more of a kingdom, expanding the kingdom mindset, okay? And similarly, since the people have been equipped, they've been raised up, we can expect the people also to be willing to step out. You know, the way we saw the church of Jerusalem, eventually the apostles stepped out to serve other churches. From the church of Antioch, you had, you know, Barnabas and team, fallen team go out and plant new churches, right? So from this church, initial church, we can come it as the base church, okay? Several teams can go out making an impact over the city and the region. So these are all the, these are some main stages that a church would go through, all right? So I'll just read it out for you once again. So what are the stages of growth, pioneering, where you go, you do the groundwork. The second one is administrative or organizational structural stage, where you establish systems where, you know, you identify people, the right people. Then you have your pastoral team stage, where you establish your team, like your nurture leaders. It's more about developing leaders. Then you have your equipping stage, where you equip the congregation. And finally, you have the apostolic stage, where both the senior pastor, as well as the congregation are able to do more for the kingdom of God. So a couple of other aspects that we will touch on in the growth of church, the growth of the church. See, when we lead a church, right? There are many stages that the church will go through and various transitions as well, okay? So the pastor has to be mentally prepared for these things. And it's going to take a lot of wisdom, a lot of anointing, a lot of grace to lead a congregation through all these stages. Now, see, we are attending Bible college. So you have an idea of some of the terms that I'm using equipping, pioneering, you know, you have an idea, but a pastor is leading a congregation. A lot of people may not understand, you know, the direction that the church is taking. So it's not easy, it's not easy, because everybody has their own idea of doing church. You know, if a pastor makes a decision in line with, okay, we are going to be a supernatural and an apostolic church, and he's making decisions in line with that, the people who don't understand, right? They might look at the pastor very differently and say, what is he doing? Why is he making these decisions? So taking the people through the stages, through transition, you know, it is a tough task and you really need to be connected with God and have that grace to do that and continue to care, nurture the people, love the people through all of this and never lose the mission, never lose the vision because you want to be salt and light, you want to make an impact, you know, you have to keep the focus, okay? So it's going to be a challenging journey, but of course, God is there with anyone that he has called to do this work. So a couple of pointers. So, you see, I can share my knowledge, but I wouldn't classify myself as a pioneer in any sense because, you know, I am part of the pastoral theme and I have observed, I think, I have a stashish from Paul in the category of a pioneer who has founded, you know, all people's church. So he's writing out of his experience, but I can talk from my observation, okay? Because it's a lot easier for someone like me who's leading a, you know, as an associate leading a branch church, of course, in coordination with the senior pastor, it's different for me, but I can share from my experience. So he talks about constantly moving people forward. Now, I told you the journey that a pioneer pastor makes can be very difficult, okay? And people are usually comfortable in any given setting. Now, if you want to move them to another setting, you want to do things differently. For example, you know, there's one location and then you propose that we can have two locations, right? Or we are opening up two locations, right? People may not like it. They'll be like, why, there's already one location. Why do you want to open up another location? But it's going to take grace to move them forward and say, dude, this is God's vision for us. Thankfully, I think for APC, from the time I joined, pastor's been saying five locations, five locations, five locations for, you know, over a decade now. So it wasn't a surprise when, you know, these locations actually started and services were conducted. So that was always part of the vision. So just an example, constantly move people forward. So in line with the vision, when you propose some new things, people may not want that transition. People are resistant to change. So it's going to take grace to keep people moving people forward. Okay, then it says here, yeah, bridging across two levels. So here he talks about how people also need to go through, like in that personal journey, need to go through the stages of growth. Now, when believers come in, they might be in the stage of, you know, toddlers and babies where milk is good enough, you know, that keeps them comfortable. But when you start to provide solid food, you know, there's indigestion because they just cannot take it. However, how do you take people along in the vision that God has given? Stage by stage, step by step, okay? So now when the church starts at the pastor knows, oh, okay, this is the direction God wants us to go, we want to be an apostolic church. We've left with the believers, they will be strong enough, they will step out and do the work of the ministry. So when the person starts the church and encourages those who have joined the church, say, okay, come on, you serve, they will be like, why should we serve? You serve, we will listen to you, you preach, right? They might come from that mindset, but little by little as the pastor preaches the word and shares with them, doesn't look, this is what we've seen the word of God. You know, there is a grace on your life, God has a plan for your life, you're called to extend the kingdom of God. So we, equipping the saints, high-poor ministry, slowly, little by little, little by little, little by little, what happens? Even the people are growing from babies to teenagers to young adults to adults. So at some point when the pastor says, okay, mission teams, let's step out, they have the same understanding because the pastor has also kind of bridged that gap between the levels from where they came to where they are at. So, you know, that kind of work goes in and yeah, the pastor has to keep the vision and keep moving people forward. And also, yeah, he talks about you lead the change, okay. So lead the change means sometimes, you know, you have to make those choices and decisions that make people uncomfortable, yet you have to take on, you have to step forward and do it anyhow, okay. For example, I think there was one point, this was in 2008 and I've heard pastor share about this. There was a time where evening meetings were conducted and it was called the outpouring at that point and it was a great time of people worshiping the Lord and God's Holy Spirit, you know, ministering to people. It was just like, I think it went on for several days. I don't know exact number of days, but it just went on, right. And I've heard him share that people had questions about how long is this going to go on? Why should we do something like this? You know, what is happening? What does it need to worship like this? So, but he had made a decision, okay, this is what the Holy Spirit is doing in our congregation and we are going to, you know, make provision for this kind of worship. So, you know, they kept it going despite the questions, despite the, you know, comments of people. So, a leader needs to lead the change and say, hey, we're doing this and this is why we're doing this and, you know, hopefully people will catch up. Okay, so another key that he puts across here is right people in the right place at the right time. Okay, and this cannot be overemphasized. Those of us, you know, from the corporate world, we know how important this is. It can be the right time. It can be the right place, but if you have the wrong person, then, you know, it can be chaos. So, again, it's going to take a lot of grace, wisdom to identify people in positions of responsibility and leadership and a leader has to be careful about that. Then adapting to the challenges at the new level. So, you know, it's a very risk-taking kind of a job when you wanna see the church grow. For example, if, you know, you're teaching about the prophetic. Okay, and people have now understood that the Holy Spirit imparts gifts to us and every believer can flow in prophecy. Now for the people who heard it for the first time and they are still kind of getting a grip on this truth, the application of the prophetic could be all wrong initially, maybe, right? So, some people might use, or that says the Lord for everything, or God told me, God showed me this, so I'm doing this, without even knowing how to check the prophetic word or how to test the prophetic word, okay? But as a pastor, you are determined to take people on that journey of moving into the next level. Okay, yes, we are meditating on the word. We have studied all these basics. We will open ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit. The church will experience growth in the area of the gifts of the spirit. You know, it's like a risk only because once you take them to the next level, some people might not know how to use that truth initially, right? And there can be chaos, but that's a risk that the pastor is willing to take. Yeah? So, whatever we move people to the next level, there can be challenges at every level, but the pastor would need to know how to navigate through that difficulty or challenge, okay? So, yes, we will pause for a minute just to clarify any doubts that we may have. I will take up what Beth has written here. She says, regarding the apostolic function stage, won't there still be a need for internal care as new believers are continuously being added to the church who individually need equipping ministry or community? Yes, yes, Beth, definitely. That's a very good question. Yet, the church is in that stage, but remember we said that the pastor, hopefully by then, has established a good pastoral team and he has also defined his role, okay? So, it's not like he has taken his hands off of caring for the church, okay? And it's not like the pastoral team doesn't exist anymore to take care of the people. So, all those ongoing nurturing tasks will continue, all that will keep going on while the pastor moves on to other things as well, okay? So, does that make sense? Great, yes, good question, Beth. Yeah. So, yeah, Klaus, I think I have any thoughts from your side as you've heard about the levels that a church grows through, you could think about it. You could think about it. All right, so now we will just move on to the next chapter here. Let me see, I will cover as much as I can. The next chapter is about what makes a strong local church. So, some of us could define a strong church by the size of the church, okay? That may not be the best indicator because let's assume people come in to a church and they make that journey of growth. So, as the numbers are increasing, if the people are mature in the word, in their gifting, their calling and all of that, then yes, it's a strong church. But if the numbers are increasing and the people remain as babies, you know, it'll just become like a big nursery, okay? And we all know how much effort it takes to take care of the younger kids, okay? So, that wouldn't make a strong local church. So, a strong local church is a church where, you know, it's fulfilling God's mission and people are also fulfilling their own calling, their purpose in life, their growing in the Lord. So, we want to see people grow as well. So, numbers, yes, but more about the spiritual maturity. And remember when we began talking about the local church, we said that that is the mission of the church, isn't it? What is the mission of the local church to disciple the people? And as I think it's Ephesians 4.13, it says that you bring people to maturity, okay? So, that's what is happening before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. People are being brought to maturity in Christ Jesus. So, what are some of the key aspects that make up a strong local church? So, the first one that is mentioned over here is a strong vision, right? Strong leadership with a God-given vision. So, a vision is very important. Because without a vision, what happens? There's no direction. Without a vision, scripture says, people perish, okay? Or in other words, when there is no vision, our efforts are all over the place and we end up becoming unproductive. So, what would a person who is going to plant a church need? What is that one thing that person needs? The answer is vision. If there is no vision, then, you know, you wouldn't, you would do something, but that will not be effective for the kingdom of God. So, a vision is the key thing, okay? And scripture also says that if a blind person leads a blind person, both of them will fall into the ditch. So, the leader must have a clear vision and the leader must align himself to that clear vision. He has to start moving towards that vision and also start communicating that vision to the people. How often should one communicate the vision to the people? As often as possible. So, one observation, I don't know if you have made that, but Sunday services, when the video announcements are played, the vision of the church is, you know, it's spoken there, right? Like all people's church, our vision is to be sought and like the city of Bangalore, you know, nation of India and to the nations of the world. So, that is the vision. And how often is it repeated? As often as possible. Otherwise, the church will not know the direction in which it needs to move. If only the pastor knows, and the vision is only in the pastor's mind, then how will the church follow? So, strong leadership with a strong vision is the first precursor for a strong local church, okay? Yes, so vision is important. A strong leader. Now, to talk about a strong leader, define a strong leader, I think that's an entire course for you, right? On leadership, so we won't get into that, but you understand who a strong leader is. We need a leader who is leading from the front, leading as an example, and that's very important. What if, you know, the church lacks a strong leader? A scripture tells us that this is the tactic of the enemy where, you know, he knows that if a shepherd falls, the sheep will be scattered, okay? So, how to get the entire congregation if you can get the leader, right? But if you can't get the leader, if the leader remains strong, then that person can continue to serve the purposes of God and establish a strong, long-lasting work for the glory of God. So, very important, number one vision, okay? And a strong leader with a strong vision, that becomes a necessary thing for a strong local church. Oh, okay, we've run out of time here. So, we're gonna stop here, but we'll come back to this. So, some really interesting insights in this chapter and the next as well. So, if you can, please do read up and come. I mean, I don't know, if you have questions now, we won't be able to take it up because we've run out of time, but you can please jot it down and we can begin with questions in the next class. Is that okay, class? Is that fine? Fine, man. Yes, yes, okay, great, great. All right, thank you, everyone. I know you have another class to catch. Could somebody quickly pray and then you can leave? I can pray, ma'am. Yes, yes, hope, please go ahead. Thank you, Father, for your goodness. Thank you for this day that you have given us. We lend a lot, help us to put into practice what you have been through today. I pray for your grace for all of our students and even teacher with teachers, we pray for Pastor Nancy, your Lord, continue giving her wisdom and your mighty Holy Spirit. May you guide her and may we learn more and more in full measure. In my name of Jesus, we pray that God we are going to make us understand what we want us to know as we are saving you in our local churches. We praise you and we honor you. In my name of Jesus Christ, Father, we pray and believe. Amen. Thank you, Hope. Thank you so much and thank you, everyone. Bye for now. God bless you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye, God bless. Bye.