 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to today's session. Today, we are going to study on the last two chapters from the Code of Honor, which is the last chapters of this book. Before we could begin with our session, can I request one of us to please lead us in prayer? Father, we want to thank you for this time, not be submit ourselves, even as you've come before your presence, to learn from your word, to learn from the foundations that everyone, all of us need to adhere to as we step into ministry and as we continue to minister to you and your people. We pray to God that you continue to speak to us, enrich us by your word and help us to stand firmly for the truth that you have called us and help us to be accountable for what you have entrusted us, Lord. We have been passed down at your hands, speak through her word and help us to understand the mysteries of your word. We praise your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Today, we're going to study on the very important part, that is the money. As money is an important part of our Christian ministry, we also see that there is a need, you know, and every day in, day out, we all have expenses, so there is a need for money, not only personally for each one of us, but related to our family, for a situation that every day need, but then even in Christian ministry to run the ministry, we need money. So it plays a very vital role personally in the minister's life and also to lead a ministry, to lead a ministry. So what happens? So we are going to concentrate in the ministry, okay? As a ministry leader, how we need to conduct ourselves with regard to money, how we are going to handle, you know, this money in our daily life and in ministry, how are we going to focus? What is the part that we can play in handling the money in the ministry and how we need to handle it? So there are some do's and don'ts that we would be learning in this chapter. So sometimes the need to run a ministry, we may have to raise funds and we are going to learn how we can raise funds wisely because most of the time we have seen or some ministers, we have seen that, you know, they end up becoming money-minded when it comes to raising funds in the ministry. Yes, as there is a need, there is a way how we can raise funds. So yes, because there is a need, you raise a fund and you try to meet the need and the ministry keep going, that is okay. But then what happens, this should not become the lifestyle of a person in the ministry. It shouldn't become a money-minded, you know, I need money to do everything. So how will I constantly keep, you know, money flowing into the ministry? So day in and day out, instead of as a minister of God, we need to focus on how I can impart to people how I can teach the word of God, how I can expand the gospel. So instead of that being in our mind, how a minister of God changes his mind and his mind started to focus on being money-minded. So he sets his mind on money and how I can earn money, how I can keep the flow of money coming into the ministry. So what happens here is focus is getting changed from being the minister of God, being setting his focus on the word, how to impart the word. Now his focus is changed, his focus is diverted towards money. How I can keep the money flowing into the ministry? What are the areas that I could do to see to it that there is always flow of money? So we need to see to it that our focus is on the Lord and on the call that God has placed in our life. And let not our mind or attention be on money. So this chapter today, we're going to see on some common struggles that we as a Christian minister would face when it comes to money. We see the first point here in the book says, for the love of money, can I request one of us to please turn to 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 and 11? So this session, we're going to keep it very interactive. I would request everyone to be part by please unmuting your mic and reading the scripture and also share your questions whenever it's needed. Just raise your hand so that you can share and we can talk and keep this session interactive. Thank you. So if someone has taken up 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 and 11, I would request you to please read. 1st Timothy chapter 6 verses 10 and 11. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through many sorrows. But you, O man of God, believe these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Thank you. The very verse here says, love of money is a root of all evil. Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, this is something very important that I want you as a young leader, stay away from this for which some strayed from faith in their greediness. So it's not a problem just started now in our time, but then this has been there from the early days of the church. Paul clearly says, some strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through which many sorrows. But you, O man of God, believe these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. So the Bible warns us, as he says, stay away from women, the same way stay away from money. This is the second thing which the scriptures warning us. Stay away from money. That does not mean that we don't need money or we should not handle money. It's not that. But keeping our mind on money is something not right. Constantly thinking of getting money is something not right. Or maybe in our ministry there may be a lack of money and wondering how we are going to get what we need to meet the need of the ministry or our personalities. But then that should not, you know, whatever our need is, we need to set our focus on God and look at God to meet our needs and see how we can manage ourselves by cutting down the cost or there are many ways that we could handle money in a right way. But then if we have, you know, if we keep our focus on money, so there is a very slight, you know, easily sometimes we may slip into the love of money. So how I can tell you one is having this love of money or one has been controlled by controlled by this love of money. There are a few points that has been listed in our notes. If you have, you can please turn to page 161. Which says, if I'm constantly thinking about how to get money, then I'm controlled by money. If my decision on where I will minister is based on how much money I will get as an offering, then I'm controlled by money. If how much I praise and celebrate God is in proportion to the offering I get, then I'm controlled by money. If I give more importance to people who give bigger offering, but not as much importance to those who do not, then I'm controlled by money. If I'm willing to compromise a little on integrity and do surplus things in order to raise money for ministry, then I'm controlled by money. And if I feel good when I get to move around with celebrities, rich businessmen or some big people, because I feel they can make a large contribution to my ministry, then I'm controlled by money. So these are the some of the ways which the scripture also warns us, never do anything for money. God says, be focused on me. This ministry is mine. I'm the one who need to be focused, who need to be exalted, who need to be looked upon, dependent upon. But if we are dependent on our money, on the money, our focus changes. The way we lead our life, the way we lead our ministry changes. We tend to give importance to something else than God. We tend to celebrate people than to celebrate God. We tend to talk about people and praise them than we talking about Jesus and praising Him. And also, if our teaching and preaching and exalting God depends on the offering that we receive, the right intention is not there. There is no right attitude towards God or towards the worship. So we need to set ourselves right. We need to keep ourselves focused on God and His ministry. We receive what we don't receive, but I'm going to lift His name high because He is my provider. He is my healer. He is my refuge. When we set our focus right on the Word, on God, other things will fall in its place. It is very, very important that we don't do anything for the sake of money and we treat everyone at the same level. So the next point says, do not be in it for the money. Ministry is not for money. Some people get into the Christian ministry where they think it's an easy way to make money. They think all we have to do is to preach a couple of sermons and then visit some houses so that we can make easy money and we can lead a life, lead a family, lead a ministry with that. The motive of being in the ministry at the first place itself is not right. So how we can expect God to move in that place? The very motive here has been the money, the easy way to act life. No, we are in the ministry and there is so much more things to do. Because we are in the ministry we need to be much more excellent in our work than the other people are. Our standard should be much more higher than the people, it's the standard outside. We need to work hard because the scripture says, Paul says the labor in the Lord will not go in labor where we give, we work hard more than hundred and once. We need to work hard. We need to labor in the kingdom of God. There's so much thing to do when it comes to serve the Lord in the ministry. There's no time limit we can set. We need to be available for people 24 by 7. So it's not that I'm not saying you're like 365 days, 24 by 7. No, but keeping our self available. When there is a need for people you are there to be there for people because of this thing, his name saying God was there for me. He has lifted me, you and me for this. To serve his people, to be there for them, to help them because Jesus was there. He has already set an example how we need to serve. Jesus never did anything for the sake of money. So here's the example that we can form. So in the Christian ministry we need to be very careful to set our motives right, to keep things in order, our motive should not be seeking the financial support from others to run our ministry. Especially people, some of the ministries in India they seek financial support from overseas. So this has become a trend in some states, some cities where people start the ministry to seek financial support from overseas because they are ready to support the ministries in India to establish the ministry to serve among the villages among the rural part of India. So what happens here is the ministry leader in India may ask a surplus amount from the overseas and when he gets that amount yes, he will set up a ministry he may do certain things but the cost may not be the same as what he receives and he needs to be accountable. Well, if that amount goes may not be the actual amount that he would spend in the ministry. So as a ministry leader we need to be accountable. Yes, we need to be accountable to God and also accountable to the organization who's supporting him with the funds. So what happens here is generally this has been the trend or this has been the pattern in India for the ministry leaders I'm not very sure about the other places but here in some of the places what they do is they start the ministry and they first start an orphanage or an old age home. So what they do is they share the pictures they show the photograph saying that I'm taking care of 100 or 200 children I have adopted a village a rural area where this is the need that the people are having. Yes, there is a genuine need but then I hope and I pray that the ministry leader who's portraying the need of the people actually receives the exact one that what is needed not demands for a huge amount and spends very little to the people. So these are the areas as a leader we need to be very careful God is still watching God sees our motive our motives need to be right we are accountable for every money especially when it comes to ministry this is ministry this money belongs to God with fear and with trembling we need to handle this money because the person who's sending from abroad is giving it for a good cause he's sowing in the ministry he's sowing in the kingdom of God for this money to be used so as a ministry leader with all honour with all good motive the intention that you have started this ministry the orphanage or the old age home we need to use that funds wisely wisely if it's been used that way you see the blessing of God upon you but then if it is misused we are accountable to God we are putting ourselves in a very dangerous position in the kingdom of God and the next is so spiritually let people give materially so spiritually let people give materially can I request one of us to please turn to Galatians chapter 6 verse 6 and the other turn to first Corinthians chapter 9 verse 11 and 14 please let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches first Corinthians chapter 9 verse 11 and 14 if we have sown spiritually things for you it is great thing if we read your material things even so ma'am you want me to read this in this one the first 14 which is in the notes yes 11 and 14 okay if we have sown spiritually things for you it is great things if we read your material things even so Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live for gospel amen so what it says here Paul is instructing the Corinthian church if we have sown spiritually for you it is a great thing we will read your material things so he is instructing them do not set your mind on the material things God has ordained us as a leader as a ministry leader we need to invest on spiritual things spiritually into the lives of people let our focus not be on money when our motives when our intentions are set right I need to share the gospel people receive Jesus as the Lord and Savior I need to see people their lives are transformed they are leading their life as per the will of God God's call and purposes are fulfilled in people's life when our focus is set on that and we run towards people with a good intention of teaching the words serving people being there for them not for the sake of anything else for the sake of God so in this way when we sown spiritually we see automatically material things will flow God will put the intentions in their heart to bless us to bless us with our material needs there are many proven examples especially in our class when you started your ministry when you started serving God I am sure in many ways God has blessed each of us if I only ask open to all when I ask can you share a testimony of how how you serve the Lord and how God met your needs I am sure each of us will have a testimony to share because this is what the Lord says this is what the Lord says that when we sown spiritually into people's life God in turn will bless us and meet every need of us so what we learn is we must first sown spiritually and then when we do it faithfully and consistently without any expectation God will lead people to bless us bless us in different ways it can be financially it can be material all our need will be met but we need to set a focus on God to serve him so we also realize that this may not be possible in some of the the rural places the churches where very poor people attend the church in their situation it may be difficult for the ministry leader to run his church to pay the bills to rent out the place he may have to rent a church pay the rent to a church electric city bill or serving people being there to provide for the church people so in that in this situation the ministry leader need to serve people need to provide people so he may not get anything from the congregation but then he needs to be a blessing so in that cases we need to look out for pastors and ministry leaders and we people who live in the city should be there to bless them should be there to encourage the ministry work what we are doing in the rural area so we need to be a blessing we need to sow their ministry sow in those ministry leaders so that financially their needs are being met so that they don't set their mind or focus on their daily needs when they need to go through but without any without any difficulty the man of God can serve the Lord in the area among the poorest of the poor so it is our duty those leaders who are in the city to be there to help such churches in the rural places the next point here we see is keep your fund raising clean transparent and honorable it is very important for the main reason why we raise the fund for example if we may raise a fund for a building church now we need to keep that fund that is coming in and make use of that fund only to build the church purpose we cannot use that fund as there is an immediate need in the orphanage the ministry leader may also have an orphanage and then there is some kind of shortage there so he should not take the fund which has been raised to build the church he cannot take the fund from there and use it towards the orphanage he needs to use it exactly for the purpose that he has raised the fund though it is both maybe from the ministry run by the same ministry leader he needs to honour the people who are blessing the cost was what they have given if at all it happens that he has received a surplus amount he has constructed the church and there is a remaining some amount so he needs to keep the congregation updated and take their permission to use that fund towards something else it may be an orphanage or it may be towards another ministry like traveling on missions or it can be any other children's ministry any other area you are going to use this fund first we need to keep our congregation updated this was the amount certain amount been collected and this was the actual cost the expense that has been made and this is the balance amount that we have so can we use this amount towards our youth ministry or can I use this amount towards a children's ministry we need to be transparent we need to take permission from the congregation because it is not our money it is theirs money they have sewn into the kingdom of God towards a particular project now we need to take permission and move on to the next step now whatever we do we need to be we need to keep it transparent we need to make a note and keep it available and we need to this is what we do at our church any funds that has been collected we keep it transparent we keep it updated for example recently we had this Covid relief fund where you know our church came forward to raise funds and and meet the needs of the pastors all over India so we had received about 8000 requests we never thought about it but suddenly within a weeks time or 2 weeks time we extended one more week so we received about 8000 pastors requesting for help financially so it was in different ways some pastors to manage their family to provide their groceries some of them could not pay fees for the school for the school and towards the church many other ways so we had some criteria for which they would like to apply so we had received 8000 so what happened pastors set up a team and also some of our bible college students were part of the team to help us out so we started calling we started calling on the pastors for this fund and at the same time on our church website we had created a page saying how much the fund is coming in as you give you see the number there and then how much has been used towards which ministry is it towards the family pastors family is it towards providing the groceries to the rural area, rural villages remote places to the pastors who are there is it towards the pastors children's school fees in many areas so what we need to do one side there is an update happening on the page online so how much money is gone how much money is come the balance what is the balance all the details have been updated on the on the webpage online so anyone anyone from any part of the world can log in to our website and go to this fund raising page and get all the details and at the same time we were not providing this fund to everyone we had a verification team so we started verifying is it a genuine need can they survive themselves or is it difficult and also there were many other steps that we were verifying and we were supporting to the pastors who had need so from 8000 it came up to 1000 or close to 4000 I am not very correct with the numbers like how many pastors we had to but it was around 3500 or 4000 pastors we could help pastors and their family and the rural villages we could help them so whatever we did was transparent we kept it available for our church congregation to see and here are some things when we raise funds to keep in mind do not claim to live by faith and then go around directly or indirectly hinting or even compelling people to give we should not do that when we say we live by faith then we need to depend on God or when we need you can say there is a need if you are willing you can be a blessing and don't have to do that indirectly or asking people to pray there is a need or compelling people if you give you will receive a blessing if not God won't bless you these are certain things that we can avoid do not use prayer request as an indirect means to tell people that you need a certain money do not go after big businessmen politicians also and asking for huge saying that there is a need in the ministry this is something that we need to intentionally avoid forcing people to give money or emotionally manipulating them to give money we should not do that people come to church come to our ministry seeking help they may have some struggle and they have come so we should not make use of their emotional need by we emotionally we cannot expect them to bless us in turn with certain amount of money so with this we will move on to the next point do not be dependent sorry do not be dependent on foreign support very clear very clear as much as possible I think our churches in India have enough of funds where we all can manage people are grown working in very good companies you know we can survive as much as possible when we look at things around when we serve here among the people I think we can survive on our own we should not we should stop having this mentality in our mind that we need foreign support to sustain ourselves here or to serve or to do ministry in India we should not have this thing in our mind we should always think this is God's ministry if God as if God wants us to start the ministry God will be the provider God will lead us our dependence should be totally on God and not on ourselves we need we do not have to seek for any foreign support now the times have changed in India we all are doing well we just need to have the right kind of heart and mindset as we serve here because the cities in India are the power centers where the places of wealth are if you are starting a ministry in the city I am sure yes in the initial days there may be few challenges but then as you genuinely serve God you see the growth in your ministry and you can survive on your own now as ministry leaders we would like to give this this is what we encourage our students to do initially when we start a ministry there will be a financial need so how do we go about it I'll just share what our pastor did when he came back from US as he was working he came down with his family with two children he came he came in 2000 when he came back yes he came back to India with the intention of starting a church and at the same time starting a business as well so first what he did is he started a business he started in about 2000 December December 2000 he started his business he came in and I think Jan 2001 he started his business and in Feb 2001 he started the church so what happened financial need of him his family was met through the work that he was doing at the same time he can also support the ministry and you know and start the ministry and later as the ministry grew much bigger and the ministry needed more of his time then he also sends the Lord asking him to close down his business he closed down his business fully concentrated on the ministry till then he was trying to handle both ministry and business but he kept it very clean he kept both the things separate he kept the accounts part of church and business separate he never mixed it together this is something that we can learn in fact the business blessed the ministry he sort of that he put in his tithe and also whenever there was a need in the ministry he could put in some extra funds to run this ministry because he was earning he was working but then it was not vice versa he never added a rupee from the ministry money to his business he never did that this is something that we need to be very careful when we work and when we do our ministry two are separate two are different we cannot mix both but then we need to be very mindful that you know how we handle our work and our ministry and when we receive the foreign funds at the same time we need to be accountable by giving them the correct details how you used that money we should not be billing them double showing up different projects yes you provided a fund to you know to construct a church but then with that money I have also used it towards the orphanage or I have also used it towards the other ministry we should not do that what they have provided you use it only for that purpose remaining you be accountable to them and return it to them this is God's money we cannot personally handle it on our own check what the organization the Christian organization who blessed you from different place ask them what can be done if they say send it back be happy give them completely let your bills be clear do not double billing do not you know show different projects and you you expand the expense increase the expense towards by conducting crew sales conducting some meeting now we should not be doing that whatever purpose that we receive the fund for we need to use it for that and if there is any excess give it back see to it our expenses are within that budget what has been given it should not even super exceed and demand for more money we need to be very careful we need to be mindful when we handle money especially more careful when we handle money of somebody else or some other ministry organization we should not divert funds from one project without the donors permission clear permission need to be taken write it down let it be inviting show them the clear expense this is what the expense was are you willing can I use it for other purpose if you want me to send it back I would be more than happy to send it back be clear what you do let our hands be clean we should not rob overseas ministries by showing any extra amount extra expense we are robbing them this is not right friend of god this is sin so we need to avoid doing any such things do not mix ministry money and business we already discussed on this keep ministry accounts separately from the business God's house is not for merchandising do not do not be a temple thief so this is one more way where the many churches come up that you know they try to make a small business center in the church by selling the products like you know it can be anything like holy oil holy water then we have supernatural or miracle salt or they have some calendars photo frames bible now when they sell if they give an actual cost it is okay or even if they keep little bit of profit for you know to meet the administration need it is okay but what if they add make it double the cost double the price make it a business so this is when it is wrong this is where we see the book of Matthew chapter 21 to 14 Jesus you know chases the merchandise people the business people they were in the house of God what happened the people from very far of places they coming into the temple of Jerusalem to do sacrifice instead of carrying the sacrifice from their places like whatever the sacrifice it can be the sheep or the lamp or it can be the pigeons and doves whatever it was so what they did is they started selling them for double the price so your God says you are the den of thieves so we need to be very careful we did not do that it can be some you know of publications many things that they say but see that it is a genuine cost that we say and do not we should not force people by saying if you buy this book the man of God would have written a book and saying okay this is one of the best book and if you buy this book God will bless you and if you buy two books God is going to bless you this way and telling and also putting an auction on that book if anyone can buy actual price of this book maybe for example I'm saying maybe 500 and the person is saying who can buy this book for 1000 who can buy this book for 2000 selling a book that is marked at 500 selling it for higher rate by you know putting it on auction and saying that can you give 50,000 for the ministry over this book so that you know God is going to bless you might be or you will receive a miracle within a week these are the different business strategies that people use most of the time in many of the Christian television channels we see how people pressurize take your phone now right now pick make a call transfer the amount commit yourself do you think God will be happy about it God said freely you have received freely you give don't make my blessing a business to us people in fact Jesus saw the 5000 people who came to hear the sermon they hungry didn't want to send them back he saw the very need of people and what did Jesus say I don't want to send my people hungry let's give them something to eat so whatever Jesus had he multiplied its superantry and he gave them he was a blessing to them but he never took from them Jesus never demonstrated saying that you have to give double the money so that you'll receive that much of blessing Jesus never demonstrated that so what are we teaching Jesus showed us that in giving you will be blessed and we'd be mindful of that as the ministry leader can we see how we can be a blessing what we can give to our congregation to our people then getting into a time of greed getting into this getting into the mindset of money minded how we can raise funds how we can receive much more money to the ministry how we can take ministry international how we can multiply the need or start different projects or ministries so that we can financially be supported towards each and every ministry ministry this should not be in the ministry leader's mind money should be something at least yes that is a need but God will make that need as a ministry leader we need to be focused on how we can serve people and also there's another one says give financially into other ministries so as a church in the city and as you've been blessed by your own church people when you see the financial flows going to your church you need to be mindful of blessing other ministries or a need around us especially in the rural areas where we said the congregation may be poor the pastor needs help to bless you know to run the church and at the same time a bless is congregation people so we need to look forward for those churches and be there to bless them continually every month after month so as a church as a ministry who are doing well financially we need to support other ministries by giving into them so with this we complete on this chapter money I open it to the class like if you have anything to share add or discuss please feel free to unmute and ask your questions or share your thoughts and insights class go ahead if you have anything to share any questions yes please ma'am I have a question like you shared a point so spiritually let people give materially ma'am in northern India we see there are many pastors who have a price list if you like if you want a family blessing prayer you have to pay this much if you want the pastor to come in your home and visit you have to pay this much ma'am is it good or bad according to bible tell me Sid what do you think according to me it is like looting people it is bad exactly you answer the question that should not be our intention I have also seen some man of God going into the people's house sitting till you give I will not go you will preach you will share but till they have been blessed financially they will not leave that house or preaching the word expecting something bigger from them or knowing that if I go to this house they will be blessing me with a bigger money or if I go to this businessman or if I talk about this businessman in the church he will bless me with a big type or a big offering or if I promote his business in the church I will be receiving a bigger offering church is not a promotional center we need to be mindful of that it is not a business center church is a place where we talk about God as we already studied like do not give the pulpit time to the devil we should only share the word of God from the pulpit and you know speak about it, exhort, encourage people direct them to Jesus Elisha yes, yes Jim he is great I have a more like a discussion point so imagine a pastor or ministry leader he is working so where does his type and offering should go can he invest in his own ministry or is he subjected to give to the local I mean maybe the mother church he benefited from earlier so what are your thoughts there are two ways to one if your church is in the initial stage it is still growing and there is a financial need in the church so there you will support yourself you will give financial aid to your own church and see to that you know you will type and give your offering to your own church to support it to financially run and manage it well the church congregation is meeting the financial need then we can financially give a type and offering to a mother church this is what is my God it is not like right I am not saying this is 100% right this is how we need to follow this is just my suggestion this is my suggestion but then you need to give that to the church it needs to go towards the kingdom of God even as a ministry leader if we receive the type and offering for example if it is a church where the management is set where you receive a salary so because you are receiving a salary a set amount you know what will be your type and you know how much to be given as an offering but if there is small churches in the rural areas and all they they try to live their life or manage the ministry in the type and in the offering individually what they receive sometimes in the church they receive sometimes when they go on house visit they receive so whatever amount they receive they should see to it that the type and the offering has been given to the church now that can be to their own church because there is a financial need in their own church or if the church is settled and the financial needs are met they can bless other churches or their mother church so it is just again just my thought so you can take a call John or we can discuss this point on Tuesday during the mentoring hour with pastor also sure yeah thank you and also I encourage all our students to be there for the mentoring hour on Thursdays and also for the time of supernatural every Friday it is a time of blessing I would encourage all our students to be there from morning 8 to 9 yes Elisha please go ahead hello ma I want to find out I know of a church that the head pastor only organizes revival and prayer meetings for the members when we have the intention of raising funds so whenever there is a call to prayer there's a call for a totaling prayer he organizes a nice program and the main intention is not to to equip the people but rather to to meet his financial needs I want to find out if this intention is good enough to organize prayer meetings because you want to meet your financial needs as a minister anyone in the class can help me with this question because I'm not able to understand the question there's some disturbance I guess in my side that I could clearly I didn't get Elisha's question clearly Elisha is it possible that you could type in the chat so I can read your question and answer or anyone if you all have heard Elisha through can you John Divya if you have heard Elisha's question can you please help me can you just tell me the question what Elisha was asking was it clear were you all able to hear I was not able to comprehend Elisha if you could Elisha it would be good if you could type the question on the chat yes ma'am I'm typing the question because you know for me I don't know I think my side your voice was little breaking and I could not get the question can I request you to please type it may be a very important question can I request you to please type okay I'm typing ma'am yes thank you anyone else in the meanwhile any other questions do we have before we could close the second and take a 10 minutes break because this is very important especially for our ministry leaders we need to understand how we can handle money industry yes please go ahead ministry and money they are two different things here okay I think let's answer his question before I can make any put please yes thank you the pastor only organized pre-meetings for his church when he wants to meet his financial needs is the intention right okay yes if he is conducting a pre-meeting or a crusade and with this intention the intention is good intention is good there is also a big need to conduct this crusade and the pre-meeting so you can raise funds you can raise funds the best thing what we can do is you have a committee member you raise a team where they you will have an account set for this particular crusade for this particular meeting so all the funds that come in will be accounted so we know how much has been collected towards the need of this crusade or towards the need of this pre-meeting now the next the expense for example if 10 lakh is been collected and if the expense of the crusade is about 8 lakh so there is a balance of 2 lakh you can tell the congregation thank you so much for blessing us with this amount we have received surplus and lakh okay and we have and the expense was about 8 lakh and if you need to have a team will be accounting the money that is received at the same time the expense has been detailed along with the bills have been collected especially in ministry the expense need to be supported with the bills not the bill that is simply written in a piece of paper no it needs to be official bill with the tax number yes there are small expenses small expenses of people who do not have the tax bill okay we can write a voucher for that but then most of our big expenses need to be need to receive a bill it needs to be supported for 8 lakhs we need 8 lakhs supporting bill okay we need 8 lakhs supporting bill just give me a minute please sorry about it okay I am back so we need to keep the expense clear and the balance 2 lakh we need to tell the congregation that there is a balance 2 lakh how we can use this and you can ask them and then take their permission how to use it for the next event or keep it for the next event to happen did that answer your question Elisha so what are the don'ts because we have received 10 lakh we should not be creating an expense of double billing or making it show people like the expense was 10 lakh or sometimes we should not add extra expenses to it and show it became 11 lakh or 12 lakh and saying we are in need of 2 more lakhs extra we collected 10 our expense went up to 12 so please give in 2 more lakh you know this should not be our intention in this way we are robbing people alright can I make an input ma? answer your question Elisha yes yes enough please alright let me start from what the question asks a pastor only organized prayer meeting when he want to meet his financial needs now the statement said when he is going to meet his financial needs this is my own contribution if he is going to meet the church financial needs then I am comfortable but if he want to meet his financial needs in thanks of what one thing that led me to what I wanted to say before one thing is ministry ministry is one thing financially ministry is another thing when we are talking about financial integrity these are to apply with ministry you see today many people open a ministry because of money I am a preacher everyone of us loves money but we give account of everything to God as a preacher my own experience let me use this when we started our ministry we don't have account church account then so I would tell a brother in the church whom we are doing the fellowship in this house who the money so one day I asking how much is the money it would be very clear he said pastor I spent part of the money I said why you didn't hear from me who is the general of us here you didn't hear from anybody you spend money I said that is a sin but I wouldn't want to go to punish you with it I approve it but make sure you return the money back because as a the leader if you sex otherwise there will be punishments for not taking but for me to live in that punishment I went to God please have mercy on him but I have given instruction to return the money now if we must be sincere we should not tamper with the church money the moment you brought the money you may bring the money but the moment you say you donate this money or you give this money to God is no longer your own money is God's money and you have to give account to your members to your committee you have to give account of everything that is from God that is where many people miss it because we mix we want how will I put it we think because we are the leader of the church we have access to money then we can go ahead and spend it no money is not your money any longer even if you have $20 billion and you bring it to the church the moment you made up your mind and said to the church God work in the spirit it will hold you accountable to it whether you like it whether we like that or not is not your money any longer we must be we must know that financial integrity in ministry is number one key I minister of God he said something he said he was not having one Naira in his pocket that judge has money and the money is right there in his house and he does not have one Naira and the money was kept under his wife and his wife was not around he traveled his wife in UK why is Nigeria there is so much money in that place I don't have money please can I make use of it the wife said you are my Jew but the money question is for the ministry before you spend it we have to also take the rest of the brother that is financial integrity so we must know understand that financial integrity is very very good any pastor, any preacher will organize a program because of money because of financial needs of his own he has missed it we do respect but there is also a way because ministry you say something you can't stop God with that money once you are dead genuinely God will bring the money God will bring the money because not let his own empty it may be difficult for us in the beginning of ministry but he will surely provide he will have seen it doing many things for people why won't he do for me but there is always a time for everything thank you so much yes thank you thank you enough for sharing this is very important yes we need to have integrity in our money what we did in our church from day one like what pastor did from 2001 onwards even though there were about 10 people meeting in his dad's place they started writing the tithe and offering so they have a book with all the details and even till date no matter even we are different in location every week the tithe and offering that we collect in the church we have a team it's not the pastor was counting we have set a team in our church so after the service the team takes the money there are about 2 people sometimes 3 they sit together in open space not inside some room in open space they sit and they count the money so what happens when they count other people the people in the congregation look at them one will take it and also the people the team who are counting their money will not be related to each other all 3 will be 3 different people okay so they will come accounted and they will count the money and they will write how many 2,000 how many thousand how many 500s each rupee note in the envelope giving all the details or they close it and they will hand it over to the pastor and then what pastor does though because we are from a different location for example if you are in Bangalore they somehow reach it to the main office church office so in Bangalore we have 5 locations so 5 locations every Sunday they receive the tithe and offering there is a team sitting in the location immediately after service they write it in the envelope and by Monday or Tuesday they will see to it that money reaches the church office and they also take a picture and send it keep the account updated and then what we do is we in Bangalore what we do is we collect it and we calculate there and we take a photo and send the details to the church office the account is in the church office immediately our team is updated that this is the amount that has been calculated and this is the number of people that attended the church service these are the many adults we had the many children we have and first time visitors first time who have come to our church we take account of every detail so all these details will be entered in the envelope above the envelope and we insert the money inside the envelope and then later during the week we deposit it we deposit it at Bangalore we deposit once a month accumulating all four weeks and we do together we deposit because there are certain charges each and every deposit have certain charges so to make that admin easy we started doing it one deposit every month one deposit so in that way we pay a fee once and we deposit that amount this is how we manage our account so everything has been accounted everything is clear and it is we are getting the church people also involved somebody who is very genuine in the leadership will be there to account all this so this is something that is working well and it is clear this is something that we at church we practice it and if it is helpful we can even apply it in any of our ministry areas so with this I think we have already crossed N5 we will take a quick 10 minutes break or you know and after 10 minutes we can come back so maybe by 10-15 we can come back so you can apply 10 minutes to your own time zone and we can come back and we can go through the next and that will be our last chapter on fame is that okay thank you thank you so see you after 10 minutes