 Yeah, it was just a thought and now it is a question that God only used anyone who was ready. Yeah. So if, because in the New Testament, even in the Old Testament, people like Deborah, God used them because there was no man to stand up. There was another lady who killed a general or a king because men were afraid to go into war and to kill the king and then God gave a woman, a king to the woman and the woman killed that person. That's what's going on to my mind faster. And secondly, on the issue of women not preaching or not speaking, I think Paul said also somewhere that he didn't comment the same thing to other churches. So woman not preaching was particularly to that church based on the question they asked him and what was going on. So we should not generalize the scriptures. We should read them based on how they are written, where they are written and why they are written and to whom, I think. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Maggie. Thank you for that. Yeah, God can use anybody. Just a willing heart is what he's looking for. And yeah, one more thing that you said is, you know, that it's like not in the other churches, right? That's an additional point there and I'll talk about it. But before that, I saw that I think Samuel has been removed from the meeting. I don't know how that happened, but I got a message saying he's been removed. So if you're on a group, could you please ask Samuel to join back? I don't know how that happened. I didn't remove, but he's been removed from the meeting. So if someone could please invite him back, that would be great. And just a clarification while I was sharing the section on women in ministry, I got a little confused of whether Haldah is Isaiah's wife. So in what I said, it sounds like she's his wife, but actually no. I just kind of double checked it again. So my apologies. So Isaiah's wife is another prophetess, but Haldah is another prophetess. So I just want to clarify that. Yeah, okay. And Mangi, the other churches, right? I think that that passage is also an interesting one because that's about head coverings where in the Corinthian church, Paul tells the women to have a head covering. And I know that many churches practice that as well. But towards the end of that passage, he says that we don't have any such practice in our other churches. So that's about head covering. And that again, because there is a context to it. The Corinthian women, they would do up their hair and all. You know, so many things are there to explain for that. But he makes it clear at the end of the passage. I think it is the same passage, you know, 1 Corinthians 11 where he says that we don't have any such rule for the other churches of God. So then again, we can note from there that it's not a rule. People who want to cover their head, women they can. Those who don't want to, it doesn't really affect our worship unto God in a public gathering. Yeah, so that's an additional point. Yes. Anything else, class, that you would like to discuss in this regard? Okay. I think the biblical base is quite clear. So women can be encouraged. One of the things that I would also add to it is that in several cultures, women are discouraged because of the cultural mindset. So from my observation and what I hear others say, it is difficult for women to minister and to stay in ministry. You might find that they will minister for some time and then they, you know, because they couldn't get much support, they kind of give up. So because of these cultural reasons, it could be said that, you know, encouraging women or supporting women and not mean that, you know, we're doing something extra to, you know, tell them to minister. You know, just being around, just being positive about women ministering can be a great encouragement for a lot of women. Otherwise, what happens, you know, because of the cultures, women either they don't step up or if they do step up, eventually they want to give up. Right. So I just, I just want to add that note because I am all in the ministry and we will have women around so we can be positive and encouraging for two women. Yes. Yes, Maggie. Yeah, go ahead. Okay. Thank you. I have a question based on what we are speaking now. I know we are living in modern era. I think it's most modern era. And we still have some places like Arabic world where like Saudi Arabia, women are regarded second class and women cannot take center stage or some leadership roles. Or let's say, for example, Afghanistan where women are not allowed to lead nor to work without covering their heads. So in case we plant a church in Afghanistan, how do you handle that? The women to cover their heads in the church or what do we do? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you, Maggie. Thank you for that. So see, Maggie, we will understand what the Bible says. So it's not about one particular country's culture or one particular community's culture. We are talking about kingdom culture. Kingdom culture. So what does the Bible prescribe? Can women minister? Yes. Do they always need to have head covering? No. Okay. So all these things are clear. But now coming back to the cultural context. Okay. So it is like, it is possible that in some places, you know, it might be like a pioneering work where it's hard at first to have a woman minister and then for people to accept it. But we might have to make that journey to break that tradition. And it can be very difficult. Again, you need God's wisdom and discernment to do it. So yeah, in a place like Afghanistan and all, you know, to go counterculture like that, I don't think it is easy. But it can be done in, how do I say it? Not like in a rebellious way, but I think it can be done. Okay. So yeah, that's what I would say. But then again, you know, sometimes what happens if there is like a one-off ministry. Opportunity mangy like for example, I'll tell you is when we go to the north of India, there are some places where the people may not be open to you speaking if you don't wear a head covering. Okay. So like when we go for missions and things like that as part of our guidelines, we will also tell the women like you have to dress in the Indian attire. You know, Savarkamis with the Dupatta on your head. That is just to see we are going there as a one-off thing and we want them to receive from us. So we don't want, you know, our clothes or the head covering to become an issue of contention. We believe that you don't need it. However, it's just like one opportunity, one window of opportunity. So why argue about all these matters? We follow their rules. If they say, okay, you have to wear this color, whatever, whatever. Yeah, that's all fine. We just go minister and, you know, have the head covering, preach, come back. So yeah, that's what I would like to say. And I hope it makes sense. Yes, that's thank you. Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you. Yes, but it is hard enough to have, you know, women share. You know, sometimes we've had that, you know, people will be like, what are you saying? You know, there are three women doing three different things. How could you let women take the sessions? So then we don't say anything about it. We just, you know, hopefully that is counterculture and eventually that will help them realize that the Bible doesn't really put a limit on which gender can minister. Yeah. Okay. All right. So any more questions or are we ready to wrap up this topic? All right. I think we've spoken enough and there's enough clarity. So let's go forward then. Thank you everyone for those questions. Now the next topic here is about systems and processes within the local church. So systems and processes are for organization. And I think you are also studying this in another course if I'm not wrong. So I'm just going to go over this, you know, quickly. So we need to have some way of managing the activities of the church. So systems, putting systems and processes in place will help us more efficient. So what are the reasons for being organized in the local church context? If we are organized, we can be excellent. If we are organized, we can ensure proper functioning of the church activities. And we can also see multiplication and growth. Or in the words, you know, today, we're all familiar with the cop. We can scale. Things become scalable. We can impact more people. And whatever we are doing, you know, it can really bless people's lives. So that is the reason why we need to have some order, some organization, and thereby systems, processes in place. So in this chapter, we are going to look at various processes, but they are divided in, like, with the understanding of the human body. You know, in the human body, we have systems, we have a circulatory system, we have a skeletal system, respiratory system, so on and so forth. But all these systems working together ensure a healthy body. And the same way, for a local church to be healthy, what are the systems that will help? So we are using the human body language here. But these things have to do with the local church. So the various systems that we need in the local church. We need a circulatory system. Now in the human body circulatory system, it ensures the flow of blood to every organ, every part of the body, and thereby there is good care and good nurture of the physical body. And in the same way, in the local church, we need to have some systems which will ensure that people are being nurtured, they are being cared for. So again, for every local church, the programs that they adopt, the processes that they go by can be specific to that local church. So this is not like, you know, these are the, you have to, you know, cooperate these things in your local church, it's not like that. But there are just some examples that we want to put out there, which will help, you know, functioning of the local church. So in the circulatory system, an opportunity for one-on-one mentoring. So if there is one-on-one mentoring, obviously, you know, people will be enriched, people will be guided, people will be strengthened to continue in the faith. So that can be done. We can also have small groups. We know that small groups have, they help people connect better. You know, people will have relationships. And so there'll be somebody to speak into the life of another person, teach them God's word and, you know, keep helping them grow up in God. So small groups will help as part of the nurture in a local church. There can also be something called the member care, member care team. So member care team, TPC, what we do is we have a specific ministry or like it is, you know, it's something that we do intentionally, member care. As part of the member care, there are a couple of processes that we have. There's something called one phone call in which we, you know, regularly make phone calls to our members of our congregation just to ask them how they're doing, you know, how they're keeping. So at least we know, you know, if they are in a situation of need, we can address it. So things like that. Then under member care, you could put your own, you know, processes. Under member care, there is, you know, taking, if someone is sick, then how do you take care of that person? If someone, somebody is in a difficult situation, you know, there are different needs. It could be a financial need. It could be, you know, an accident that has taken place. So many things can happen. So how to step into those situations and behave to those families. So you can actually, you can actually get that out. Maybe you have small teams, response teams that step up that will help people in their situation. So they can member care team. They can also be specialized counselors. Because we know that, you know, people are in need of counseling regarding, you know, their marriage issues, need of counseling regarding, you know, various, could be other relationships in church, you know, a strife, division. There can be need for counseling for young adults with regard to their career. So there can be these specialized needs. So basically, we look at the congregation, we understand the needs and then we come up with solutions. So these are all just some examples. You could pick from these or have your own, you know, necessary activities. They can also be regular seminars, seminars on topics that are relevant. So if there are young families in the church, maybe marriage seminar, parenting seminar, you know, managing one's finances. These could be relevant topics. There are a lot of working professionals. You could have a workplace related seminar. So all of this will strengthen and nurture the believers. Now let's look at the skeletal system. Skeletal system is nothing but the structure that supports. So that forms the support of the human body. And similarly for the local church, you know, the good leadership, proper leadership, then the organization, the way things are organized, the way the administration is planned out. All of this will strengthen. It will provide a framework for other things to be done. So we must make sure that, you know, we are working on all these areas. And how to raise up these strong leaders. I think we've already discussed that under another topic. So we won't go in a detailed manner into that. But we know that strong leaders make strong churches. So one must really invest in building leaders. Okay, next would be your muscular system. Muscular system ensures strength and mobility. So in the same way for a local church, strength and mobility will come from equipped people. So how can we equip people? We can plan for training sessions. We can plan for mentoring sessions. We can have, you know, some hands-on experience sort of sessions when it comes to ministering, how to minister, how to be a minister of God, to prophesy. We can have all of these equipping sessions that will strengthen the people. And that will make them confident in serving wherever God has called them. So trainings can be done. One-on-one mentoring can, they can also be like a general teaching from the pulpit as well. Now that is helpful. But if we really want people to gain confidence, especially in ministering the gifts of the spirit and areas like that, one would also need to plan additional trainings. So look at your congregation, look at where they are at and then plan accordingly for them to very confident. Along with this, we could create opportunity for people to minister. One thing is to learn. Another thing is to actually live it out, to practice those things. So at church, if we have, you know, people can use those gifts, then that will also bring rapid growth in their lives. So we can do that, give them opportunity to minister. Okay, so there are few aspects listed here, but you could pick whatever would be relevant for you. Next would be the digestive system. Digestive system has to do with strong nourishment, your regular food, regular meals of the day, balanced meal that is providing nourishment of all your macronutrients, micronutrients, everything that you need to be alive. So in the same way, for a believer in a local church to be strengthened and nourished, some of the key things that we must look at or be careful about is the ministry of the word from the pulpit. Now if that is in a strong way, in a planned way, in a way as led by the Holy Spirit, obviously people will be strong, they will be equipped in the Lord. Then in addition to that, you know, yes, we do address certain subjects from the pulpit, but there's always more questions, isn't it? There are subjects that individually we want to meditate on individually. I am focused on, okay, on the word of God, what is the value of the word of God? How can I apply the word of God? So if there are additional resources that one can use, that will help them in their work. So maybe these resources can be publications similar to what we have here at AC. Nowadays we know we're moving more towards the digital platform, so we could have resources online. You can have a certain podcast, just talk about it. Explore various mediums and make the resources available. Encourage people not just to be equipped only by the ministry of the local church, but we can also be open for people to receive from what God is doing in the global body of Christ, because we know that there is always a move of God. God, if you look at Church history, the way he moves, the things that he brings focus to, there is something God is doing in the larger body of Christ. So we must encourage people not just to receive from the local church but also to keep their eyes open on what God is doing in the global body of Christ. Basically, promote a learning culture and in that way people will be equipped and they will be strong. The next system is the respiratory system. When we talk about the respiratory system, it's all about breathing, it's about life. If you compare that with what the Bible has to say, the work of the Spirit, that brings the freshness of the Holy Spirit into our lives. How can we maintain the freshness of the work of the Spirit in our congregations? How can we have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit? This can be done by allowing or making room for personal as well as corporate times of prayer, corporate times of worship. So we're letting the Spirit move, we're letting the Spirit work, we're letting the Spirit minister to us and God is able to impart new things into us. We've already talked about equipping people in the gifts of the Spirit but there can be opportunities for people to move in the gifts of the Spirit. We know that the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit scriptures say it is for the benefit of all. So when the believers in the local body start to manifest the gifts of the Spirit, it's actually bringing the freshness of the work of God in our midst. I love the work of the Spirit in our midst. That is the respiratory system moving on. Nervous system. Nervous system. We are aware it's about picking up information. It's about relaying information, sensitivity, response. So just the way for the human body you touch something hot and immediately you have a response to that to protect yourself. So in the same manner for the local church there has to be a mechanism to find out what things are, the things that can damage or the things that can destroy what God is doing in the local body. We need to pick up on those things quickly and have a response to it. So what are some of those aspects? Maybe there is gossip going around in the... So how can you pick up on it quickly and then address the matter? We have to be sensitive. We have to address the matter. We also have to act quickly. So for this again we can have some processes in mind. And whenever something comes to our attention we must not leave it for tomorrow but we must deal with it quickly so that the rest of the body is not affected by something wrong that is happening. Endocrine system. Endocrine system it's more like it controls the body but in an invisible way. So you have all these hormones that are regulating our functions and they are just there. But what if they are not there? If they are not there, then we talk about certain that people present with maybe a diabetes or a thyroid issue because that hormone is not functioning it's not sufficient. So in the same way there need to be some reminders in the local body which we may not talk about from the pulpit directly often these things are part of the fiber of the local church. And when these things are repeated from time to time it just helps the body function normally it just helps the body function effectively. So that is about the endocrine system. So what are all these aspects? This would be like the vision of the church which can be repeated often then people will know what it is. We can talk about some of our core values. What are our core values? Yeah, these are all important subjects but it's there. It's always incorporated into the messages. Every Sunday a pastor may not preach on the vision but maybe the vision is part of the announcements and it happens every Sunday quickly you know the vision is stated. Now the vision can be a part of the brochures that you print. The vision can be a part of your website so everywhere people look they know hey this is the vision of our church. These are the values that we live by so it's there but maybe not as directly as from the pulpit preached again and again. So that is like your endocrine system where you have these essentials and they help you be effective. Then of course there is the excretory system the body is very careful to eliminate the unnecessary things from the system let it stay long then it can become toxic and dangerous in the same way. Coming to the local church we must ensure that we are eliminating unhealthy unhealthy culture, unhealthy practices so again the list would have things like gossip back biting, division having factions in the church strife, selfish interest self promotion whatever is like the work of the flesh we have to find a way to address it appropriately and deal with it quickly because if we don't deal with it it stays on and it becomes toxic so if it was affecting 2 people in the beginning it starts affecting 50 people if we let it continue so we have to filter these things out and in addition to the processes that we follow maybe we want to meet one on one all that we talked about in church discipline beyond that we can also ensure that we have times of prayer and repentance and genuine fellowship among the people which will strengthen strengthen the body which will help everyone see that hey we can't have the works of the flesh in our midst so the excretory system basically get rid of the unhealthy culture, unhealthy practices reproductive system so we need to have a system in place that will ensure increase increase and reproductive system it's like continuous multiplication and that's what we want in the context of the church going to all the world make disciples so we our heart is for many many people know the gospel many disciples to be prepared to give witness for the resurrection power of Christ so multiplication how can we multiply we need to think about this sometimes what happens churches can become that cozy unit we are very happy we are in our own salt shaker and everything is going good ok maybe we are living by God's principles and we are being the pillar of truth and we are being a voice to the nation and all however we have to think of others because great commission is the mission of the church we can never forget when we talk about the reproductive system it has to do with the great company so what is it that the local church can do to win more souls for the kingdom we may come up with certain you know outreaches in our locality we can come up with some outreaches on the internet we can come up with outreaches as part of our Sunday you know Sunday programs or we can encourage equip people on evangelism wherever they are going they are working they know how to share win souls for the kingdom so like this that's where the multiplication comes in and then also equip people on missions equip people about discipleship and so the entire church is involved you know in impacting the city and that makes a huge difference but what if that doesn't happen you know we kind of stagnate we stagnate in our own circle and that's not healthy that's not healthy and you know there is a course I think this will be in your next semester it's about the apostolic the apostolic church so more and more we see that god is raising up churches that sorry everyone there is some issue with my internet so I was saying that god is raising up churches that are planting more churches okay so that is also part of our multiplication we can be a very functional and an effective church but you know we are also looking at raising up new bodies of believers so that all of this has to do with the reproductive system of the church so it's a simple way basically for us to ensure that the local church open body is functional and healthy and the processes that one adopts as I already said it can be specific to your own context now here there is also an additional note about local church ministries and ministry teams for us to be organized and serve well we have to meet I mean we have to have all the system in place so that is one thing now there can be needs congregation and we must address those needs with the relevant ministries so based on the needs one can have a ministry for if there are a lot of young adults in the church then you definitely need a young adult ministry if there are children in the church then one definitely needs children's ministry if there are single parents in the church then maybe there is a need to address that area and strengthen those people so you might want to do something specific to that so one needs to come up with ministries or rather be led by the spirit to have the right ministries in a local body also have ministry teams now for each ministry to function we would need a leader maybe if there is a need for some full time paid staff then yes we would hire them in addition to that maybe some volunteers also are required so in this way we can set up the ministries and the work can go on here in this section there are some examples presented from the way at APC there are ministries and teams that are centered around ministry functions there are ministries and teams that are centered around felt needs ministries and teams that are centered around specific events ministry functions meaning let's say the prophetic so our teams which can engage the prophetic they know how to function in that they come together ministries that are based on felt needs let's say counseling so they can be a team of people who are specialized in counseling you know mental disorder something like that so they come together to be an answer to that problem then centered around specific events so this is like for example here we have conferences every year we have certain specific conferences women's conference so there are teams very specific to that conference every year we kind of come together just for that one event there are team members we work the conference is done that team is disband so in that way there can also be teams that are most specific events so just some examples we could apply it as relevant and there is a list actually mentioned from the apc teams so there is a list of teams that are centered around ministry functions it says worship team prayer and intercession team life group alpha group missions teams performing arts teams school outreach team we call it the catalyst college outreach team is called campus counseling just chrysalis counseling ministry and so on so these teams again they have people of different age groups some teams require a lot of training whereas some other teams you probably have those trained people come together and serve so yeah in this way people can serve then some ministries here at apc that are focused on felt needs children's ministry youth ministry young adults marriage enrichment men's ministry women's ministry so those are examples centered around specific events it can be your sunday service sunday service also is a huge event so sunday service specific different teams in a given sunday service there is a training team, hospitality team parking resource table different ones are listed here and as I said earlier your conferences youth camp, church camp so these are some of the teams and what is the good thing about these teams is they have the hard to serve they have the same common goal to achieve to have excellence to make sure that people are impacted and all that so every team will have its goal that they are aiming at and in these teams people tend to form relationships and when relationships happen whatever we discussed earlier the whole circulatory system so you nurture one another, you strengthen one another and thereby the church is also strengthened so basically we are talking about having these structures having some systems having some processes having some teams and this will enable us to be an effective local church all those aspects of the blueprint that we have seen the local church should be the army it should be the body it should be this and it should be all of that can be lived out in an organized way and we can achieve more so the last note here is about having room for spontaneity since we are talking about structure it's good to always throw in a note there and say hey we will organize in this way however if the spirit of god you know allows us to move slightly differently do things slightly in a different manner then we must not become very rigid and say that hey no this is the system this is the process and it's not going to change right so if you become rigid like that then we will become ineffective so have a structure have a system but don't become rigid always be open always be flexible for god to work I think this is a very practical subject that we have covered just now yeah so any thoughts on that I think it's quite straightforward in fact okay Charles says cells make tissues make an organ organs make systems and systems make an organism okay yeah that's right yeah so these systems will help make the local church better any additional thoughts okay let's think what if there are no systems there's a local church and we don't want systems how would that look thank you very much that's one thing I wanted to ask when there's no system no how do we how do we manage in the local church or how do we operate in the local church because one thing for me right now is that in my own church as in the one I'm in right now there's no system at all and it's so difficult to like regulate things everybody's just doing things the way they feel like doing it and to be crazy so in such situations how do you cope or how do you manage things and still serve God you know the way that pleases him not the way that pleases man thank you yeah thank you Harrison good question again you know depending on your capacity in church you can offer to help right and see if something can be put in place and just to add and when you don't have position of authority so you don't have any right to say anything or bring any change or do anything to bring that change so it becomes super difficult so how do you work with that yeah so maybe you could offer you know you could offer your ideas is what I would say Harrison like maybe put it down on paper write out like some guidelines some flow a process and propose it to your pastor or the ministry leader over there and say hey I just had these thoughts what do you think what I'm saying is we can do our part maybe see not everybody is great with these systems so we can offer help and who knows you know they might adopt that and they might like the way it works and that can spill over to other ministries and systems can come in place yeah just a suggestion because you're saying can I say something okay can I say something pastor thank you Charles just a moment Charles yeah okay yes you could please okay thank you yes Charles please go ahead when the church has no ministry rather when the church has no system as we looked around the respiratory system the nervous system the endocrine system all these systems make up the organ that's why I sent that part like cells make a tissue tissues make organs and when we get organs combined together we make a system and when we get systems combined together they make an organism now an organism is a complete entity it's something that has all the systems now when an organism is lacking a system it is malfunctioning it is not working well so now what happens when there is no system when something has no systems then that organism ceases to exist because it will be temporary so a church without systems will really really really be at the verge of collapse because at least there would be prayer and worship at least there would be maybe some processes of providing feedback directed to leadership at least one but it can't be that the church has no systems maybe these systems have not been streamlined or grouped as they have been grouped according to our course so a brother or a diggo even if you would not have a directed leadership role but the truth is those systems are there but they have not been nurtured they need to be nurtured and as Pastor Nasi was saying you over her it I thank you okay just to I want to chip in some things okay yeah I love the word and brother Charles yes you know the okay Harrison sorry to interrupt I think we are kind of out of time here so what I would say to those who need to leave the call please feel free to do so those who want to stay on you can stay on okay all right yes thank you please continue Harrison all right there is a system but it's not effective and now talking about her or putting up you know some ideas that I can bring you know the change or maybe make the system effective sincerely speaking I'm not just only the one you know bringing ideas there are many people there are so many people who have brought in ideas and there's one thing I also believe that okay even if you bring in ideas and the same old culture is there it will eat you know your strategy for lunch you know one thing I'm trying to say now is that when the culture of that system is not working we need to change first you know the culture before you introduce a new system so for me right now it's something that when it comes to helping I've been doing my own part you know because I'm a tech guy so I've used media you know to like you know building on some things you know for the church you know just to bring them some rules and regulations that can help the church to grow and sincerely it's really helping the church to grow but you know what you know you know what you know you're pursuing you know what you're trying to you know the change you know you're trying to bring in but when you have you know the same old culture playing in the in the news strategy then you don't see the effectiveness yeah yeah so Harrison I think you know you're on the right track so just do your best that's all I would say let's see yeah and thank you thank you so much for sharing also Charles thank you for sharing and quickly answer Abraham's question thank you he says please what is the first system that should be implemented you know we're so grateful God doesn't send us in bits and pieces right Abraham you don't just get the lungs only the lungs are not born the whole system is born so I think everything is important but if you ask me what is what could be the priority I would say respiratory system like if you can't breathe then you know you're not alive so you know so yeah I would just say that and okay thank you everyone I let you go you have another class so do I okay so have a blessed day and I hope to post your next assignment today so then you can also complete it in time and we can complete this course in time alright okay thank you everyone bye for now God bless thank you