 Okay. Recording is on. Let's take a moment to pray and we'll get started. Can I please ask somebody to pray with a glass? Then we will get started. Go ahead. Anyone? Just pray together. Pastor, can I pray? Go ahead, please. Publicious Father, we thank You and praise You, Father God, for this wonderful week which are given to us. We give You all the glory, honor, and praises, Father God, for everything. Lord Master, Your mighty plans for each one of us, Father God. We pray that Father fill us with Your spirit of wisdom and understanding to receive every word which is going to come out from Your servant's mouth. Let these words should not be vain words for us, Father God, but let these words be life and let we be able to use these words of Father God in our person, ministry, in our personal life of Father. We pray and we ask You, Father, let Lord Master, let Your Son receive the word of revelation from the throne room of Yours so that every word which is going to come, let it carry the power and Father, Father, let it carry the spirit of God. I thank You, Father God, let it defy us of Father, let it build us of Father, let it build our faith, let it be productive for our ministry and Father God so that we can be able to stand together to build the kingdom. We give You all the glory, honor, and praises, and since it's going to be true. Thank you, Father. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to BC 309, Urban Church Planting. So today, the last class, we covered all the way till the sharing the notes here. We talked about urban church planting and missions. In Acts, we are now going to get into our next section, which is we're going to talk about practical aspects, get into the practical side of planting a church or engaging in urban missions. How do you engage the city as you try to bring the gospel and the message of the gospel to them, right? So we're getting into practical things. I'm going to share just, you know, the things that we can do. Some of these things may be directly applicable in situations that you may find yourself in. But some of these things may need to be tailored or customized to your local situation. So please understand that, you know, not everything I say can be applied directly. Some things may need to be customized or tailored to your specific situation, but it will give you ideas on what need to be done. So how do we get started in church planting? Now, your personal preparation as a church plan term, somebody's going to pioneer a work. I purposely left it to the end because before you kind of, you know, so we would discuss that having understood what goes into the work. Okay, now how do I get ready for that work? So I thought it was best to talk about it towards the end of the course. So we purposely left it there. So we'll come to it, you know, what can we do to prepare ourselves? But let's get to understand, you know, what goes into it? What is the work involved? What goes into starting a pioneering a church or any kind of Christian ministry? What goes into it? And here are some things to, we can think about and share. So the first thing, you know, we were talking about is a core team. Sometimes God may use you as an individual. And we have examples of that. For instance, when Philip went to Samaria, you know, he may have gone alone. He may have other people may have gone with him. We don't know, but he's the only person mentioned there as preaching in Samaria. So Philip goes to preachers and he's called from there to go into a desert place called Gaza, where he is given the opportunity to interact with Ethiopia. From there, he goes on to Caesarea. So as an individual, we see him moving. And God is using this man Philip as an individual. And Paul, when he begins his ministry, he goes along with Barnabas or two of them are there. But thereafter, we see that Paul always ministers as a team, a church planting team, an apostolic team. When he goes out. So we don't rule out the fact that God may use you as an individual. But it's always good if you can have a team of two or more people to be involved in this work. Right? So the church planting team. Now this could be you and your spouse. Or it could be you and your spouse and some other people. Or it could just be two of you as friends who have known each other. Well, you know, the team can be any kind of composition, meaning it, you know, different, different. And so over the years, in the kind of teams have worked in have been very different. So when I was in school and college, it was me just initiating the work and then other people came alongside and we were all just students and we work together. And we started different things in the area of the college campuses that we were. Later on, after I got married, Amy and I, along with another couple, we pioneered together bilingual church in New Jersey, an English Spanish church. So in that case, there were two married couples working together as the church planting team. And then other people came on alongside us to help us in that work. Now when we move back to India to start all people's church, which is Amy and me came. And then we started from the very first day. Another couple came. And they were, you know, Georgie, who was he was a school friend of mine. And we used to do ministry in school days together. But now, of course, both of us were married. So Amy and I and then Georgie and his wife Joyce. So from the very first service belongs, they came. And so we were there two couples. And initially, we started the work that way. So you know, God would orchestrate this whole thing. And how you, you know, what kind of core team you have. But it's important, I would say it's important to have a team, you know, just so that's not you alone as far as possible. But you and your spouse or maybe three or four of you make that team. Now, some of the things to keep in mind when you know, about the team is the members of the team are very important. It's, you know, the people in the team should have a healthy relationship with each other. There should be trust, support. No, there's not competition, you know, so if you have three or four people are trying to be better than each other and competing with each other, that's not a good team. You should also be united, theologically and spiritually, one heart, one mind. This is also very important, because otherwise, later on, there will be those kinds of problems that what you teach and preach and so on. Another thing to look for in the team is, can you compliment each other's gifts and skills? You know, somebody can minister to the word, somebody's good in leading worship, somebody's good in prayer or, you know, other areas evangelism, administration. So if you have complimenting gifts and skills, that is very useful. Right? Another important part of the team is that you need everybody to be committed to this vision of the church plan. Yeah, so nobody is coming along just because, you know, they're just occupying a spot or they're not really committed to the vision, then that's, that's, that's pointless. So your team must have people who are really committed to the vision of planting the church or pioneering that work in that place. Right? And it's important that you have a leader for the team and everybody supports that particular leader in the church planning team. That means because the leader is overall responsible. He is the vision bearer. Others are part of the vision, but there has to be a clearly identified person who's going to lead. Otherwise, everybody will pull the work in different directions and there will be chaos. So it's very important that the church planning team have a clearly, has a clearly defined identified leader. So getting your core team together is very, very important before you get started. Right? Or, like I said, in some cases, you may start to work yourself alone, but sooner or later, you need a core team. You need a few people that you will, that you can identify will become part of this team so that together you're going to get the work done. Right? It's, don't try to continue on this work alone for too long a period of time so that church planting core team is important and God will bring the right people and you need to hear some things you think about in terms of having a really good core team. Now, in our own experience, what we do here at All People's Church, so initially, like I said, when we started one location, then we started other locations and so on, over time what happened was, within the church, people were being nurtured, people are being trained and they're learning how things are happening within the church and so when we wanted to plant out new locations, and I'm especially thinking about our fourth and fifth location in Bangalore City, it was very easy for us. You know, I remember actually when, you know, at this time, I think we, this was somewhere in, I think it was 2012, and by the time we had three locations in Bangalore, in our city and yeah, I may have got the year actually wrong, I'm not very sure, but somewhere around that time, 2012. I remember once, one day, one of our young men, he had met for an accident and so he was in the hospital, so I went to visit him in the hospital and when I went there, there were already some of the other young men there, you know, they were there just to be with him and so on and so while I was there, and we were in the hospital's room, they were all surrounded and he was one of our young men, he'd met an accident, he was there and we were just talking and at that moment, in the hospital room, it was like God just, you know, asked me a question, what are you doing with all these young people? Young man, what are you doing with all these young people? You know, so I'm there, I've gone to visit somebody, if you're in the hospital, there are about, you know, six, seven young men around and the Lord is speaking to me, what are you doing with all these young people? And the next thought that comes to me is with these people, you plant a new church, so right there in the hospital room, I asked them all, I said, hey guys, you know, it's a very strange location, it's a strange place to say, talk about church planting, but this is what actually happened. In that hospital room, with all these young men around, I said, hey guys, would all of you be ready to go and plant a church in Bangalore East, that is, you know, Whitefield in the name of the area? Would you be ready to go and start a church, a branch church there? And right there in the hospital room, they all said yes right, so that was the core team of people, then I said okay, and one of our young men was not there, I said, you know, I'm going to ask him to lead this work and we will get the team together and we will launch. So after that meeting, I spoke to the other person, I said, hey, you know, people are ready, would you be willing to lead the team and we'll go and start this new location, church in this new location and you know, within, I think within a month or two, we actually launched our fourth location in Bangalore and the core team was these young men. Now it was easy for us because they satisfied all these criteria, you know, they were already in good relationship with each other, theologically, spiritually, we're all flowing together, we're all part of the same church, they had different skills that complemented each other and they were committed to the vision of the church plan this, yeah, we'll do it, you know, we'll go and they already knew what all needed to be done and then we were able to just quickly launch, we started the church and you know, that's how the fourth location and in the same way, you know, similar way, we launched our fifth location, just spoke to a few people, are you ready to go and start here? They all said yes, the team was put together, they went and started. So from the main location, we got a team to go and start fourth location, fifth location and it was very easy but the point I wanted to make is, you know, the core team, you know, these things are very important, the relationship, the being of the same mind, theologically and complimenting each other's gifts and being committed to the vision and having a leader, if you can get that together, you can have a core team that can go and get the work done, right? So this core team is important, let me pause you to see if there are any questions on this before we move forward, are you all with me so far? Okay, all right, any questions? So that's the first thing, try to get, you know, getting a core team together is important, let's go. Next, you start preparing for the church plan, right? Now, again, you know, you have to tailor this to your own journey but I'm just giving you these ideas. So today, a lot of preparation can happen remotely, because we are able to gather information online, we could survey an entire city online, you can gather information about the demographics and what's going on in the city, just online. So you could actually do a lot of preparation from a distance but 20 years ago, it wasn't so easy, right? So I, when we were getting ready to come and start All People's Church in Bangalore 20 years ago, now we couldn't do an online survey or, you know, 22 years ago, couldn't do an online survey and all that stuff. So we actually wrote letters to some pastors asking them for information, asking them for some suggestions on, you know, where to start the church and so on and so forth. But today, things are very different, you can go online, you can look at Google Maps, you can survey a city, you can read up a lot of information online, you can really understand the city from a distance, you can study its natural and spiritual dynamics from a distance. So part of the preparation is trying to understand the people, what is happening, the natural and spiritual dynamics that we spoke about, you know, study and take some time to examine it or you may be already living in that same city that makes it a little easier or you may be in a different place and you're planning to go to a certain city to start the work but you can really, you should take some time to do some preparation, right? So you pray about, you think through on the natural and spiritual strategies, write down, you know, what you're understanding, write down the thoughts that the Holy Spirit is giving you, discuss with your team, the people in the team are also praying, they will come and discuss and say, hey, you know, this is what's happening and so on. And so you can share those thoughts with each other, listen to what the Holy Spirit is speaking, he may give you some ideas, strategies as you are preparing from a distance, you may be preparing for it. Another thing that can be done, if possible, is develop a contact list. That means you may already have some people that you know in the city, friends who've moved into the city, so you reach out to them and say, hey, you know, I'm planning to come to this place and I'm planning to start it's a church in this area, but you know, you share the vision with them, they may be able to help in some way, right? They may be able to give you information on what's happening in the city. They may suggest places where a church blunt is needed. They may connect you with other pastors in the city. They may be able to provide support in terms of just the practical things that need to be done, but also keep in mind that if they're part of a church in a city, don't ask them to leave. You know, don't tell them, leave your church and come and join me. That's not a nice thing to do. So don't do that, but just by, you know, they can give you some information, they can give you some direction, that's perfectly fine, but don't tell them to leave their church, okay? Unless God directs them to do it, that's different, but don't ask them to do it. So as part of your preparation, you know, you get to know, okay, get to prepare yourself, understand the city, if there are people that you can reach out to do so, get to know the pastors in the city, get to know people who are already working in the city, build relationships with them, let them know you're coming and what your intent is, and so on, right? So now over here, and we will be talking about this again a little later on, you know, it is very likely that in any city that you're planning to go start a church or a ministry, there is already some Christian work happening. There may be other churches, there may be other Christian ministries already in that region or in that city. How we enter and how we relate to these churches and pastors is very, very important, right? Do it very humbly and do it in a way that doesn't make them feel threatened that another church is coming and starting. Now, this just is, you know, the situations and the scenarios can vary. Usually in my case, when some young person comes and tells me, hey, I want to start this church in a city in Bangalore City, you know, for me, it's like, hey, that's amazing. Let's go do it. I'm here to help you in a whatever way I can. Let me know and I will help you and help you start. And some of these young people in Bangalore City, they come and they talk to, you know, they spend time with me learning just how should they start their church? How should they go? And so, you know, so that's my approach. It's like, I'm all for it. I'm not in any way threatened by it or intimidated by it. I just do the best I can to support them, help them, encourage them. But that may not happen in every city. Like, you know, maybe if you go into a city somewhere, maybe there are people who may not like it, like the fact that you are coming to start a church or you're coming to plant a church or start a Christian ministry. They may not like that idea, you know. And so, I'm talking about other pastors and other leaders. They may try to interfere, they may try to discredit, whatever. But from our side or from your side, as you are going to plant a work, the best, do the best you can to maintain good relationships with the pastors or with leaders of Christian ministries that are already operating in the city. So the one thing I always suggest is, go ahead before you start your work, at least the ones who are in the near and nearby to where you're going to start the work. Let them know that you're coming. Let them know that, you know, you don't in any way are going to interfere in their work, especially, you know, people of the same kind. That means if you're planning a spiritual church and there are other spiritual churches in that area, you know, try to establish good relationships with them, with the pastors and, you know, make it very clear, you're here to compliment what's already happening. You're not here to compete or distract from their work. All right. So maintaining good relations. We'll talk more about that a little later. So once you've done your preparation when you can prepare from a distance, of course, the next thing is to go on site. So at the right time, make the move. You go into that city, you go into that region where God wants you to get your work started. But before you make the move, it's important that you plan on when and how you would go about this. You go through a survey phase when you're on site. You prepare, we'll talk about each of these phases. You launch and then you copy on that. Now I'm giving you all of these thoughts and ideas. You know, this is not a rule book, right? This is not the 10 Commandments of Church Blunting. It's not that. It's just ideas. This is how you can work with God. The most important thing is to follow God. You know, God may do something differently and that's perfectly fine. God may lead you differently. That's perfectly fine. But try to make use of these things. But these are common approaches that generally many people have used in planting a church or starting a ministry. But remember, these are not the 10 Commandments. I mean, this is not the only way God works, right? Now these are just ideas or suggestions or approaches we can take, right? So getting back to this. So relocate. You go on site and you go through the survey, the preparation, the launch. We'll talk about these three. Part of going on site is to plan for your finances. How are you going to fund the work? This is a big thing because starting a church, starting a ministry will require money, right? You may need to rent a hall. You may need to do some promotion work. If you're going to start a church service, you need to buy equipment. You need to buy chairs. You need to... So many things that cost money. So how are you going to fund the launch of the church or the ministry? Now if you have different options, one is you can work for a period of time and from what you earn, you can start your work, start the ministry. Let me see the Apostle Paul and his team. They did this in Acts. When they went to Corinth, Acts 18, they were in Corinth and they were making and selling tents while they were also involved in planting a church and a good strong church in Corinth was splunted. When Paul was in Ephesians, he spent more than three years there. That was a longer period of time he spent. And it's most likely that he worked there while he was in Ephesians because he talks about it in Acts 20. He says that he worked with his own hands and he provided for his own needs. So Paul was working for three years in Ephesians while he was also establishing that church and nurturing leaders. Same thing when he was in Thessalonica, he and his team were working. They were doing something, most likely building tents. And he writes about that in Thessalonians chapter 2. He says, I've worked with my own hands, our team, we worked with our own hands. We were not a burden to you. As they planted the church in Thessalonica. You may choose to do something like that. You may choose to work and plant. That's what the apostle Paul did. And keep this in mind that just because Paul was working and planting a church, didn't take away from his apostolic anointing and calling. He was still an apostle. Just that he was working and planting a church, but he was still an apostle of God. And he planted these churches. And then he moved on. So you can take that same approach if the Lord leads you that way. And you may continue to work professionally and raise up other leaders, or you may at the right time transition into just overseeing the church and when the church is able to support you financially. There are other, so you could basically fund the church plant through your personal finances. Or there are other ways you can raise support. If a church is sending you out, then the sending church will probably help you financially until you can become self-sustaining. Or you could get help from other people who want to be part of your work. And so it may not be the sending church that supports you, but you could get money through people who are behind the vision who may support you. But the point is, you need to think about this, pray about to see what God wants you to do as you plan for the church plant because it does cost money. You have to pay your own bills. If you have a family, you've got to take care of your family. You've got to take care of your church planting team. And you've got to pay for all the other expenses that are involved in doing a church plant. So think through this, and you definitely have to do whatever the Lord is leading you to do, and God will give you a clear strategy. And part of this is also planning for other needs. You know, your family, children schooling, if you have children. So think through on all these matters and have a plan, how you would address these needs. Okay, let me pause you. Any questions so far? You all with me? You okay? Let's move on. I'm assuming all of you are still following me. Some other things to think about in the preparation phase is get to understand the legal, administrative, and regulatory matters that are involved. So wherever you go, understand that when you start a work there, it's not just about doing the ministry. It is, there is a responsibility you have towards the government, right? Because you're not working in an empty space. You're working in a city, you're working in some region. All of that comes under the government that's there, the civil authorities. So it's important to understand the legal side of things. What are you allowed to do? What are you not allowed to do? So on. It's important to put in administrative systems in place. Like you got to have a bank account, you got to have some accounting happening for the money. Otherwise, the whole thing could get into trouble. And you also need to have follow government regulations. They may want you to file a professional income tax for yourself, for the people who are working, so on, so forth. So be familiar with these things. Get to get the right help when you go into a city. Think about these things. Okay. Now we are talking about these things in the other course on church, ministry, administration. So all that you're learning in that course comes into a play right here. Right? So as you go into a city, ask the question, how do I form a legal entity? What are the regulatory compliances that I need to adhere to? What are the administrative systems I must have in place to make sure everything is okay? Otherwise, you go into a place as I'm going to start a church, hallelujah, you start preaching, all that, okay, people come. But then, if you're violating some laws, the police can come. You know, people can come, people can take this up in a legal sense and then unnecessary trouble begins to happen. Right? So just keep this in mind that part of church planting is you got to be in compliance with the legal administrative regulatory requirements of that particular place where you're going to start the work. Don't violate it. Otherwise, all the good work that you do spiritually can suddenly come to a halt if any of these problems arise, right? So try to prepare yourself with this. Ask the questions. You can research online. Ask people what in that city to guide you or ask the church that is sending you to give you the guidance on these matters and they will prepare you and you should be ready, okay? So that's so far in terms of preparation and overview of how you prepare. Let me just run through it very quickly. You know, think about a church court team getting the work started. You can prepare from a distance do some research, plan to relocate, get on site, plan for your finances, plan for other personal needs and plan for the legal administrative regulatory matters that are involved. So now part of your planning is you need to survey the city so we have done your preparatory planning from a distance. You've gone online. You've looked on Google Maps. You've read about the city. You've got all the background information. That's wonderful. Now you're on site. You're in the city. Now you've got to try to get a feel of the city. What is the city like? So you survey the city. Take time to get a feel of the city. And there's a sample towards the end of this document. Of course it was done some years ago for our own city, but something similar. You try to understand the demographics and what's going on in the city. If you survey the city, go around the city. And it's very interesting when you look at how Paul worked, how the apostle Paul worked. Let's take some time to read both of these passages. Let's read Acts 16, 11 to 15. I think it's very interesting just to see how Paul did his work. Acts 16, 11 to 15. Somebody could read it for us, please. Okay, go ahead. Shall I read first? Please go ahead. Acts chapter 16 verse 11 to 15 says, Therefore sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samuthris. And the next day came to Neopolis. And from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made. And we sat down and spoke to the woman who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Teatera who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay. So she persuaded us. Now think about this. So Paul and the steam, they come to the city of Philippi. Now it was a new city for them, right? They're just Paul and the steam, they're just moving from city to city proclaiming Jesus. They did not have a course on urban church planting. They had none of these things which you and I have today, right? So then somebody said, why should we do this course? Because to whom much is given, much is expected. God has given us much. He's given us all these resources. So he's expecting us to make years of these resources. In Paul's day and time, they didn't have all these. So God just worked with them, with whatever they had. But always remember the law of God is to whom much is given, much is expected, right? So don't take, Paul just randomly went and I also randomly go and God expects us to be responsible. All right. But going back to Paul's scenario, you know, Paul and his team, they just come to Philippi and notice what it says here. They, verse 12, end of verse 12, they were staying in that city for some days. And we don't know what some days is. Was it three days? Was it seven days? Was it 10, you know, or I don't know, right? Some days, maybe it was three days or four days. Well, how many of our days leading to that particular Sabbath day, right? So they were there and we can just assume that they must have been going around the city asking, hey, is there any religious, is there any prayer meeting happening, anything going on? And they must have got some information saying, hey, on the Sabbath day, there's a prayer meeting happening by the river side. You can go there. So on the Sabbath day, Paul and his team, they go there because they've been told. Prayer is because there's a prayer meeting happening regularly by the river side. So they go there. That's verse 13. And they start talking to the people. Now here it was a women's prayer meeting. It was the women who were meeting there. And there was a lady who was a businesswoman. Her name was Lydia. So she was a businesswoman. She was part of the prayer meeting. Now, when Paul and his team come, they start talking to these people, these women's prayer meeting, right? And they start telling, obviously, they're preaching to them about Jesus. Now, this women's prayer meeting, they must have been Jewish, I think, and they're just talking about whatever they knew. But now they're paying attention to what Paul has to say about Jesus Christ. And notice what happens in verse 14. The Lord opened her heart, just beautiful. Then God opened somebody's heart as Paul is preaching. And then she says, hey, come to my house. And from there on, we see how the things that happened, in Philippi, and demon-possessed girl is set free, and the jailer is affected. And there's the things that happened that they'd established a work in the city of Philippi. But how did it all start? Paul and his team came there, and they stayed there for some days. They were just surveying. They were spending time in the city. They must have asked around. They got one contact. Go by the riverside on the Sabbath day. There's a prayer meeting. So they went there. And from there, the doors began to open. Very interesting. So that one contact, which they would have obtained as they surveyed the city, opened the door. God just led them that way. So when we are on location in the city, just be open to what God is doing. As you are saying, God, I want to start a church in the city. I want to plant a church here. How do I do it? God can give you that one contact or somebody who is going to, in that city, who's going to open the door, who's going to welcome you, and the ministry can get started that way. In Chapter 17, Paul and his team, they continue. They're on their missionary journey. They're planting churches. They're starting work in different areas. In Acts 17, they come to Athens. And very interesting, once again, to see how they went about church planting in Athens. So can we read there from Acts 16 to Acts 17? Sorry. What's the 16 to 23? Can somebody read that for us? Go ahead. Is that Ashar? Congratulation. He resists the Jews. I am with the Prince. For the first in the marching place, daily with those who have been to be death. Then a Korean and a Stoic philosopher encountered him. His son said, What does this babbler want to say? Others said he seems to be a proclaimer, foreigner of foreign gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to be Arafakas saying, Maybe note what this new doctrine is of which he speaks. For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, therefore we want to know what this thing means. For all the Indians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new things. Then both the international thing, Arafakas and Sajma say then, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. Whereas I was passing through and comparing the objects of devotion, I will come in also with this inscription. Through the unknown God, therefore the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you. Okay, so thank you. Acts 17 verses 16 to 23. So Paul comes to Athens. What does he do there? Now some of his team members of, he sent Silas and Timothy, he sent them away. So he's kind of alone there in Athens for some time. What does he do? He kind of goes around the city. So you can just imagine Paul is surveying the city. He must be just praying around the city and saying, seeing what's going on. He sees a lot of idols in that city. He's going around the city. And then he also starts engaging with the people. He's starting to talk to the people. Hey, what do you do? He's trying to get the feel of, what are these people all about? So verse 17, Acts 17, verse 17, he's reasoning with the Jews and the Gentile worshipers in the marketplace. So he's in the synagogue. He's also in the marketplace where, you know, a lot of people interacting, buying and selling, he's talking to people. He's listening to them. He's having conversation with them. He's asking them questions. He's letting them ask questions. And of course, in all of these conversations, he is presenting Jesus to them. So then they realize that Paul is talking about something new they haven't heard of before. And so what happens? These, you know, verse 18 says, you know, he's talking about Jesus and the resurrection. I mean, we haven't heard about this. It's something new. So what do they do? Verse 19, they take him to Aeropagus. Aeropagus, otherwise translated as Mars Hill, was this elite group of people, maybe about 12 to 24 people who were like the elders of the city. They were the highest intellectuals of Athens. So Athens itself was a very intellectual place, but they had this special elite group called a group of people who sat at Mars Hill. So Mars Hill was an actual location. It was a hillside, but this group sat and they would, if anybody had a new idea, a new philosophy, they would come and speak to this elite group of people. And they would decide, you know, whether this is worth discussing, worth talking about or not. So Paul is invited to speak to this group, the Aeropagus on Mars Hill, so this group of people. Now, so what an opportunity? Like you're standing before the, you know, if you want to think about it today, you're standing before the governor and the chief minister of your state or, you know, the people who make decisions or some highly intellectual professors in your city or something like that. You know, so Paul comes and then he starts talking to them. But it's very interesting how Paul speaks to them. He's, he starts telling them, look, I see that you're very religious. So he's done a survey of the city of what these people are involved in and then he starts with that. You know, this is what I know about you. In fact, as you read his sermon, you find that he also read some of the literature, you know, and he quotes from some of their own poets. And he says, you know, one of your own poets has written this. So that means in that time that he was there in the city of Athens, he surveyed the city. He conversed with people. He learned about their culture. He learned about even what their poets have written. And he used all that in order to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to this elite group that he had the opportunity to stand before, right? And this Act of 17 eventually tells us that some of the people in the Aeropagus believed. That means he, you know, he preached Jesus to them and these, some of the people, elite people believed. And it's most likely, you know, a church was established in Athens and then Paul moved on. But the point I want to bring across from both these passes in Act 16, Act 17 is Paul took time to understand the city, understand the culture, understand what was going on. He surveyed the city while he was on location and then God orchestrated his path. And I just imagine in Athens, and I'm just getting ready to close here, in Athens, you know, one day when somebody would come and say, Hey Paul, I got an appointment for you with the, with the Aeropagus, at the Aeropagus. Tomorrow they want you to come and talk to them. I mean, that's a divine setup. God set that up for Paul, right? Because otherwise Paul was a nobody in Athens. But for him to get an opportunity to speak to the highest elite group of intellectuals in Athens, it was amazing. But Paul was doing his work, surveying the city, having conversations, understanding the culture, and then God set up an open door and he spoke to the highest group of people in Athens and some of them even believed what he presented. So, surveying the city, understanding what's going on. That's something important to do, right? We'll stop here for today. We will pick this up tomorrow. We'll continue from here. Any questions? Any thoughts? Hope these things are being useful to you, all right? We're just getting into some practical, integrity things, what need to be done when we go about learning the church. Maggie, you have some questions. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Concerning Act 16, when Paul head back to it, there was a prayer meeting going on in a certain area. Does that mean that there was a church planted there before Paul arrived, or it was just a custom Jewish custom to do that to go there to pray? Yeah, good question. From what we can understand, it was more of a Jewish prayer meeting. Like, for example, they had the synagogues where people would meet for prayer. The Jewish people would meet. So this was an extension of that. So these were the Jewish women who just met by the riverside for prayer and singing and whatever they would do. So Paul was directed towards them. We know that it was not a church because they had not yet heard about Christ. It was God who opened Lydia's heart to the message of Jesus Christ, and she welcomes them in. Salvation came and so on. So that's what we can infer from what we read there in Act 16. Yeah, okay. Sri Kumar. Thank you, Master. Master, I just have a doubt regarding to know what you discussed about Paul, that he used their literature to convince the people about Jesus and even they used their poems and the songs to focus on Jesus. Now, this is something which recently happened maybe a few months back. So regarding to that, the people started quoting the scripture and that's why I just want to know how the people are using this scripture. And I will tell you what was that. That recently in India, one of the famous worship leaders used the Bollywood songs to preach the gospel. And later he said that Paul did the same thing when he was in that particular location. And he also used their songs to preach the gospel. So how can, is that the right thing what he did? That is my question. Thank you, Master. Interesting. That's a good question. The reason I'm laughing is, we shouldn't take things overboard. Right. So exactly what you were saying, there was a time in the United States where pastors were spending so much time watching movies. So in order to prepare for Sunday sermon, they'd be watching movies so that they can take things from the movies and use it in their Sunday sermon in order to appeal to the congregation. Now, this was such a silly thing. But it was true. It was happening. So they spent more time watching movies, talking about just generally secular movies in order to see what they can take and put it into their sermon on Sunday as part of their sermon preparation. That was ridiculous. So that's pushing this idea too far. Right. So what I would say is there is a right way to do things. You know, and then there is a misapplication of truth. So the right is, okay, of course, you know, if there are things that we can, you know, you read something in the newspaper, you hear some news event, and you're using that and saying, hey, you know, look, you're using that as a point of discussion or connection. It's fine. But as people of God, you know, we have to spend time in the Word of God and in prayer. That's our preparation for administrative people. And then, yeah, you do read, you do take your information and use it, but it shouldn't go overboard. And secondly, it should not distract either us or our audience. So in the case where you're talking about, you know, using music from, you know, the film industry, Bollywood, Vera Baricicular, and using that to proclaim the gospel, personally, I think it's pushing this truth too far because the Bible says the gospel is the power of God. Right. That means our dependence is on the message of the gospel. That's where the power of God is. It's not in, you know, quoting, you know, referencing secular music or that's not the power of God. That's not where the power of God is. The power of God is in the message of the gospel. Now, if somebody wants to use one point of reference for people or a point of connection, it's okay. But we shouldn't go overboard with it. Our dependence is not on the secular music. Our dependence is on the message of the gospel. Or it's not on the news. The news can be used as a point of reference. So, for example, if you listen to some of Billy Graham's sermons, it's quite amazing. In many of his sermons, in his big crusades, he would reference one or two current events that are happening. So the audience knows that, okay, he's talking about this event or this one. But it's only that that's not the main message. The main message is the message of Jesus Christ. But he uses those points of reference to address problems in the people saying, look, this is happening. So there is a problem. This is happening. There's a problem. But the answer to the problem is Jesus Christ. So then he preaches the gospel. So it's a very nice way of, you know, of the way he presents the message. But the focus is not on the current event or the connection he's drawing. The focus is on the message of the gospel. And even in Paul's preaching, Acts 17, he does reference, you know, he takes a quote from one of those poets, but the focus comes back to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So I think to answer your question, it's okay to reference cultural points or current events and other things, but that itself shouldn't be the focus. We should come back to the gospel because that's the gospel is the power of God. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thaisha, please go ahead. Good morning, Pastor. Good morning, everyone. You said, preachers before, that we're using movies to preach the gospel. But were people being saved through this method? That's a good question, too. You know, they were able to entertain their audiences. They were able to maybe keep the attention of the audiences for, you know, that 25 minutes, 30 minutes. But that whole thing eventually died out. It was actually part of what was called as creative church movement. This was kind of on the forefront, let's say, and the early, the first decade of the 2000. It was called the creative church. And so part of that, people were doing all these things. But it has died out because it didn't really produce the kind of results. You know, the life transformation was not happening because like it's the gospel that changes lives, not these stories from movies and so on. You know, yeah, good question. Okay, Pastor, thank you. Okay, let's wrap up. If there are no more questions, can we ask somebody to pray and we'll dismiss and we'll meet again tomorrow? Somebody can pray and dismiss us, please. Reverend and Father, we thank you. We thank you for this study of this morning. We thank you so much for the knowledge of God and for us to know your truth and the true church and set us free and we thank you so much that we know your power and nothing else can do your work. Nothing else, even from the secular world, can do or replace your Holy Spirit and the work that you have done in the ages and through the ages and will continue to do because you are the supreme ruler of the universe. You are the most that God and we thank you that your gospel will not be diluted. Lord God, even if we want it to cannot be, you will rise up, your people empower them and send them out right in the olden days. So we thank you, Lord God. We thank you so much for this study and we thank you so much for your church that need planting, Lord God. We say the harvest is ready, but the laborers are few. So Father, rise up the laborers as you keep us to go. Thank you so much for Pastor Ashish and the favorite team that organized this course. We thank you so much and we give you thanks for their health and strength and continued protection on each schoolmate's father in their own respective countries, cities, states, father, wherever they are, all over the nations, you are imparting them with knowledge to impact their communities and the world in Jesus name. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you everyone. Enjoy the rest of the day. I'll see you again tomorrow. God bless you. Thank you. Bye now. Thank you, Pastor.