 in it. Okay. All right. The recording has started. Welcome everyone to the class. I'm seeing some people having some problems connecting to the class. But we're going to pray. Let's pray and we will get started. Others are coming in. I don't know why people are finding it difficult to connect. Okay. Thomas is connected. And hopefully Aaron will connect as well. Okay. Let's pray. We will start. All right. Thomas, would you like to pray so we can start? Is it possible for you to pray? Thomas? I can't hear Thomas. Thomas, we can't hear you. I'm not sure but your mic doesn't seem to be on mute. Some reason we can't hear you. Okay. All right. Dave, why don't you please pray and we will start. Thank you. Sure. Father, we thank you for this wonderful day. Again Lord Jesus, thank you that we've gone through our classes. But we are going to do another classes now Lord God. I pray that you be with us and you anoint each one of us. We pray that your spirit to be with us Lord Jesus to open up our heart and let your word in our heart Lord Jesus so that we can be so that we can apply it in our life Lord Jesus. So then not just by learning Lord Jesus but let every knowledge that we have let us be thankful to you and let us be able to apply it in our life Lord God. We thank you in the mighty name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. Thank you. Good morning everyone once again and thank you for connecting to this class today. We are continuing our journey here just sharing practical things on urban church planting and things that you and I keep in mind as we either plant a church or start some sort of a ministry in an urban context right so we just want to communicate practical things that we could use when we go about doing this. So let me just share the PDF that we are reviewing. We are in the second section of this course where we are looking at the practical side of urban church planting. So yesterday we talked a little bit about knowing your target audience and you know how they are connecting and so on. You know one of the things that that and this is just a side note and one of the things that as a pastor and as a church ministry we usually have this discussion is you know when we when we do our services our Sunday morning services you know many times we do sermon series you know a series of messages to cover a certain theme or topic it could be a study of a book in the Bible it could be a study on a certain topic and so that whole study is divided into several series. So the big question I think many pastors and we also here at ABC try to try to understand is how long should a sermon series be you know is having a long sermon series good or bad you know if what if you do five sermons in a series what if you do eight sermons in a series that is two months now what if you do 12 which is three months is that too long to be on a particular topic and the fact is certain certain series will take that long for example you're setting first Corinthians you know there are 16 chapters there so it's going to take you at least 16 weeks or so you know to cover that book and so on so there's just a side note so what do we do we try to get a feel of how the congregation you know every congregation is different just depending on you know where the congregation is so you're not going to get a universal answer but at least for your own congregation you know you need to ask them are you okay are you comfortable and so you know right now we are doing a poll through our youtube channel just to get a feel of you know how are people and right now we are transitioning from online services to in-person services at the same time we're doing a sermon series so we're doing a poll just to get a feel of you know what is our the people that we're serving how are they going through all of this you know so I'm just putting that example out saying that you know not only in your starting phase but also down the road you know as you are doing your ministry it's good to get a feel of you know the congregation the people you're serving how are they engaging with the ministry how are they relating to what you are giving to them you know it's good to ask them let them express and of course you can do this through online surveys and things like that okay that was just a side note so what we said was you know as you're preparing to launch get to understand your target audience and there's nothing wrong in saying look these are the people I'm going to serve they're my primary target they're my focus area and you are of course open to everybody but this is my focus area right and then as you go about doing that identify people whom God has already prepared and I shared with you yesterday towards the close towards the end how when we started All People's Church in 2001 here in Bangalore in a very first service a very old friend of mine a school friend of mine walked in and of course you know by the time we were all married and he he was married he had a child we were married I was married and you know we had two kids so it was a time pass but the moment he walked in was like a great connect and he was so much part of the start of the church and for several years until you know then he has a family moved overseas but for him to walk into that very first service was such an encouragement to us you know and so you know I could only say God orchestrated that and it was a very important thing so like that God orchestrates you know these connections people he brings into your life and you need just to be open now especially as you go about getting ready to launch so we talked about identifying your launch location better you're going to start and you choose them you know you look at some practical things about your launch location right so we're going to move forward from there a couple other things as you're preparing to launch and you identify your launch location is also identify other locations around where you are starting your ministry right maybe the church hall or the office the place where you're starting your ministry you need to know hey there are places where we can evangelize we can go and you know reach out with his campuses malls wherever you know depending on your city whatever is permitted where are the places you can meet people to disciple them you know there may be coffee shops and you can say hey I can meet with you there during the week to disciple to minister to you maybe restaurants or maybe believers homes so on or sometimes there are people who come with special needs you know for counseling for finding jobs for de-addiction programs so on so you need to know that there are these options available for them so that you can guide people if they come guide them to those things so be aware of all of these these kinds of things so that when people reach out for help you will be able to meet with them in places that are convenient to them and also guide them to places where they can receive help now just a side note is in this course we are focusing on a church plant you know how you're getting a church started now some people may wish to take a house church model that means they are not interested in you know moving into an auditorium and having a big congregation and you know doing all those kinds of things they may just choose to have small groups of people meeting in different homes so we call that a house church model and you know in some scenarios that may be the best option I remember for instance when there was a lot of persecution happening this was I think it was somewhere in 2000 I might get the years wrong but I think it must have been around 2008-09 especially in Orissa you know the state of Orissa one of our states here there was a lot of persecution happening it was very bad and we had a church plant in one of the smaller towns and churches were being attacked and in fact of a pastor there you know people had actually come and caught them and when they started to happen he spoke to us and we said yeah close down we were renting a hall we had equipment we had all that set up there we said okay yeah go ahead close it down move the equipment over to your house and all of that because people are targeting you know these wherever churches were meeting and so he was doing that in fact in one of those occasions these people actually caught him you know and somehow he just you know he literally he wiggled his way out and he you know he escaped so that they couldn't harm him but it was those kind of very severe persecution and so I think for a whole year or for two years and again I may not remember the curation correctly but there was no you know meeting as a congregation so there were about 60 people and they were only meeting in small small groups very quietly in people's homes and that's how the church went for about two year period and until when everything subsided you know they got back to congregational mode so in some situations a house church model is a good option and so if that's the way you want to go that's fine just so you just have you know churches happening gatherings happening small gatherings happening in different homes so it's not very visible outside people don't see you know large numbers of people going into a place it's just few people meeting in different homes you know that way but what we are really focused on is you know planting a church that will grow into a large congregation and then go forward from there okay so we move to the next part of the practical side which is the launch phase so you know you've done all your survey you've identified where you're going to start you've identified your location you've got your place to start which may be a hall it could be a home whatever it is you know so you're ready to start what are some things to keep in mind once you're launching the Sunday services or the ministry you're going to open up you know there are many different ways you can do a launch you could do a simple quiet launch that means you just get your services started there's no fanfare there's nothing big happening or you could have a very special launch event where you you know invite people from all the neighborhood and you have something special like a music concert or a gospel meeting or a healing service it's very highly visible to the community around you know either way whatever you feel is conducive all depends on the place where you are starting and you may want to launch in a very big way or you may do a very quiet launch either way you know you can determine or you have a series of special meetings where you invite people from the neighborhood to come you attend and you can have a series of seminar messages on a certain topic invite people to come so they're different ways to launch but some simple things to keep in mind when you are launching is you know keep things simple so that new people will find it easy to follow so don't get don't make your service or the ministry very complicated you know when people come they should just understand okay there's a time for singing there's a welcome address and then there's a message and then people pray and are dismissed to keep it very simple set your expectations you know so usually the first service or the first few services is what this you know set is what people understand and then that's their expectation thereafter right so you let people know hey this is what our service is going to be like and so on even if you're doing a special meeting like a big concert you can you know slowly tell people hey this is a very special event but our regular services will be like this we will have 30 minutes of worship or 40 minutes of worship we will have a time for the word and prayer and so on you know you let people know what to expect when they come to your services share your vision why are you starting the church why are you starting the ministry whatever you're doing right so when people come in the beginning you have launched that's a good time to envision people so the people understand why you're doing what you're doing and if they feel in their heart they want to connect they will do it right and communicate the vision that God has put in your heart I remember when we started all people's church and you know at the very beginning we were in in the living room it wasn't a very big space we just had about 12 people but in the very first service and for many of the you know the services in the earliest phase we kept repeating you know our vision is to be salt and light in the city of Bangalore a voice to the nation and to the nations so from the very beginning that was the vision and it hasn't changed so people who are thinking you know okay we are going to influence our city we're going to influence our nation and we're going also going to influence nations and at that time we were just 12 people sitting in a living room but the vision was there that one day we would become a people who would impact nations right so we started sharing that vision from day one from our very opening service this is our vision to be salt and light in the city of Bangalore a voice to the nation of India and to the nations so that was the vision as people okay you know now there are testimonies people have you know shared with us that when they saw this I mean and those days we also used to have a map that used to be projected on the screen so they'll see the map of India they will see the nations you know on the screen and people have shared you know that that vision was something very captivating it caught their attention they said I want to be a part of it you know and that encouraged them or that was a major decider for them to be part of the church so sharing a clear vision sharing why you are there what you want to do is going to really you know help people decide whether they want to be part of what you're doing and one very important thing from the from the beginning when you start the church or the ministry keep everything focused on Jesus you know let people know it's not about you it's not about your gifting or your personality or anything it's not about a person a human it's about Jesus so you know focus everything on Jesus and keep maintaining that throughout okay from the very beginning from your very first church service or from the time you start the ministry do it like that some other thoughts to keep in mind when you are doing your first service and sometimes people forget is you know plan for follow-up right so you have invited people and you know you don't know who is going to come so there'll be new people who come uh they will you know they may just come out of curiosity they may come because hey something new is happening in the neighborhood or whatever for various reasons people are coming now your goal is not to just get them to come for the first for the launch service your goal is to see if you know you could have an ongoing relationship with them and they can keep coming back and become part of the church a part of the ministry now for that to happen you need to know their name you need to get their contact details so that you could follow up with them right so you need to have a very simple non-threatening way to establish connect with the people who come and to be able to follow up with them right now you don't want to become a nuisance to them you don't want to trouble them but in a very simple way that you get their contact details so you can follow up so uh to even just their phone number you know so as part of the very first service keep it in mind you know people are going to come but how can I follow up with them right so what we used to do is we should have like a welcome packet so in that packet there would be uh maybe a New Testament uh uh you know a book something that we can give to them that they will want to take back with them and of course there's a little information about the church and we also give them a little contact piece of a car where they can put in their name and at least a mobile number and they want to they can enter their email it so a very gentle baby say hey you know welcome here's our welcome packet is our gift to you uh so put something in that they will want to take back with them uh but here's a little contact card if you know we'd like to be in touch with you so if you don't mind can you give us your name and number or name and email ID whatever you prefer so that is very important you know so now it is true that not everybody will fill it up and you can't force people to fill it up you're only making a request and you're explaining why you're saying it's we are going it'll help us be in touch with you right so uh you give it out to them and you know usually you know people will fill it up and give it back some may not and that's okay right some people just come to see things for the first time and if they're interested they may come back on their own and the second time they may fill up the card uh but uh you're giving it to them and uh then then you have a way to receive it back you can say you know some you know uh we will come and collect it from you or you can drop it in that box on your way out you know some some way for by which you can uh you know collect that back but this is very important and you train people and if you have your core team and a few volunteers by this time you train them and say hey you know this is how you go and you collect the contact information establish a rapport make friends and uh you know that's how in a very in a very loving way in a very gentle way you collect their information and of course then you can put it into a you know you store their contact information in a in some sort of a contact list um i will show you we will show you in another course when we talk about media and technology i mean talk about software systems we'll show you you know there are church management systems that you could use where you can store church you know this kind of data or you can just use a simple excel sheet where you put their name number email or address whatever and store it right but don't lose that information because that's important that's you know when you need to follow up with them so once you get the contact information make sure you call them within one or two days and uh it's just a welcome call you know you just hey thank you for coming we are so happy uh that you did you enjoy the service do you have any thoughts you have any feedback other things we can pray for you about and uh you know we'd love to have you back with us next sunday or you know if there's something happening happening in the middle of the week you can call invite them for that or you can invite them through the next sunday service and so on you know or if you're doing a house group meeting you can invite them to that house group meeting but the important thing is this yeah you know you are investing so much into the launch into that opening service don't lose out on the people who come right welcome them now of course there may be people who come from other churches and one of the things we have been doing from the very beginning is we always announce we tell people if you're if you belong to another church where god's word is being preached remain faithful there but if you're looking for a home church then come back worship with us and see if this is where god wants you to be planted so it's kind of a standard announcement we make where we're telling people look if you already are part of a church we don't want you to leave that church and come here you'll be faithful there but if they are searching for home church maybe they're new to the city or maybe they haven't really settled down in a particular church they're still searching looking then you give them the option to see if you know this this new church that you are starting this new service that you've introduced is something that they would want to consider right so that should also come through very clearly okay so keep this in mind the follow-up part to the launch is very important and thereafter you continue to do this every service so even today right 20 years later we still do the same thing right when we have a service we welcome anybody who's there for the first time and we do this you know we give them a welcome packet we request them to if they want to fill up a card so we could follow up with them now during the pandemic the last two years things have last almost a little over a year and a half now things have changed because we're not having in-person services so what we did we just moved this first time this is a card to online so we just tell people if you're with us for the first time you can go online and fill up the card and we still have on a weekly basis you know maybe two or three sometimes more sometimes less uh yeah people will fill up this thing then they let us know hey uh this is my first time I'm looking for a church and so immediately on when we get that information on Sunday by Monday somebody will call them connect with them answer questions so we still do the same thing even though we are in an online mode because that follow-up is important and you're there to serve people they are looking they have questions they may need assistance so you're just providing in a loving way in a gentle way okay so let me pause here is any everything okay any questions so we just talked about the launch we went through pre-launch this is the launch this is how you launch your service here are some practical things you can do or when you start your ministry here some practical things you can do any questions so far or any thoughts any comments I think okay okay any questions Thomas you have a question or I see your comments in the chat so let's move forward now we're going into another chapter or in this whole discussion and we're going to talk about strategies for urban evangelism or urban missions so you are planting a church you've done all the preliminary work and then you've come to this launch that means you officially made yourself known to your community the area where you're doing the ministry as a church or you could you know it may be a ministry may not necessarily a church it may be you know you're shouting a youth ministry a music ministry a coffee shop whatever ministry you know so you have officially launched you've opened you've started the work now the next thing of course is to reach out to the people in the city or in the community so we call that evangelism or missions you're reaching out to people in that urban setting you know so how do you what can you go up how do you go about doing that what are some of the opportunities you should look for and so I just you know we just want to share with you things that we have done here in Bangalore and things that have worked for us and of course you know we have to keep improving or keep adapting as time goes by because the city itself is changing how things are happening around us is changing so we constantly keep adapting the methods the the ways you can reach out to people right so just sharing some thoughts here that you could use in your part of the you know whichever city you are involved in now the first important thing is to keep methods that are wholesome right that means they should be spirit led they should be legal they should be ethical don't you know in in in talking about reaching people in the city don't get into something that's you know dishonorable definitely not nothing that's illegal definitely nothing that's unethical right for example you know and this is something people accuse the christian church of I think many many times incorrectly or they're giving out money so that giving out cash now so that people can come to their church or so that people can come and become christians you know to my knowledge I've never known any church or christian ministry doing that but these kind of accusations come you know definitely we don't engage in such things right so that is unethical it's illegal you know we're not trying to convert people by money or coercing them into these kinds of things right so we don't engage in such kind of methods we don't engage in you know making false promises and trying to seduce people to join the church and things like that so our methods must be led by the holy spirit they are legal and they're ethical right they are clean so that's very important and also we must be relevant culturally sensitive be culturally relevant so depending on the kind of people the community you're working with you know be sensitive to the local culture the culture of the community be sensitive to you know how things are done there so be relevant be sensitive right don't offend people or don't offend you know their culture while we going about presenting the gospel to them and our goal is not to hurt people our goal is to present the message of Jesus and see if they're interested in knowing more and wanting to be saved and receiving the gospel so we just must be careful in how we do this right so you know this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 16 to 23 is a wonderful guideline too for us in doing ministry especially in the context we're talking about in urban missions let's take a moment just read that 1 Corinthians chapter 9 could somebody please read this passage for us verses 16 through 23 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verses 16 to 23 somebody could read it for us please 1 Corinthians chapter 9 16 to 23 for if I preach the gospel I have nothing to post or for necessary is lead upon me yes wow is me if I do not praise the gospel for for if I do this will willingly I have a reward but if against my will I have been influenced with our stewardship what is my reward then that when I praise the gospel I may present the gospel gospel of Christ with our charge that may not abuse my authority in the gospel for for through I am free from all men I have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more and to the Jews I be became as a Jewish that I might win Jewish to those who are under the law as under the law that I might win those who are under the law to those who are without law as without law not being without law towards God but under law towards Christ that I might be those who are without law to the week I became as weak I that I might win the week I have become all things to all men that I might buy all means save some now this I do for the gospel sake I I may be partaker of it with you okay thank you thank you so Paul is talking about his motivation in proclaiming the gospel and sharing the gospel and in fact he's so motivated he says was me verse 16 was me if I do not preach the gospel and as I'm compelled to preach the gospel and it's a stewardship it's a it's a binding it's a responsibility that you know it's a trust that God has placed in me that's verse 17 and so he says you know how does he go about of course he says and I do not abuse my authority in the gospel I don't misuse the gospel and what God has entrusted me with but what do I do verse 19 he says I make myself a servant to all so I go in to serve the people I make myself verse 19 I've made myself a servant to all so here's a simple key right when when we are thinking about strategies methods our goal is how can we serve people and like we said earlier the reason we want to understand our target audience is because we want to know their needs so that we can serve them serve those things address those needs so how can we serve people verse 19 so that by serving them he says I can bend them I made myself a servant to all that I might win the in the more in more people so you serve you address a need and in that process you're able to bring them to the Lord Jesus Christ now he says you know in this process of serving people verse 20 he says I am becoming like the people I'm serving in the sense to the Jews I become like the Jew those were under the law I become as one under the law those are without the law and become as one without the law but yet I remain under law to Christ to the week I become weak I've become all things verse 22 I become all things to all men that I might by all means save some so the point here is that I step into people's worlds right I relate to them in a way that they can understand in a way that they can you know connect and I relate to them and the reason I'm doing this is so that I can ever be able to you know share the gospel and lead them to faith in Christ so polishing for the gospel I serve people I become relevant I relate to them I step into their world so that I can you know then reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ so that's what we need to think about as we are thinking of strategies and methods ways in which we are going to serve people right we are going to step into their worlds what are things that they are facing what are things that they are going through how can we help them right so for example you say okay I want to reach college going students okay that's good that's your target audience but we need to step into their world what are they going through what are their areas of struggles what are their challenges what are their needs no we need to understand that and then when we step into their world we need to be able to address those names need to be able to help them and serve them in those needs and you know in the process we're able to engage bring the gospel to them and hopefully they will find their faith in Christ Jesus okay another important thing is this that when we do the ministry when we think about the strategies we're going to use when we think about methods and means to reach people very important we don't want to intentionally offend people okay let's read that first Corinthians chapter 10 verses 31 to 33 can somebody read that for us please I think it's good to read these scriptures so that we understand what the Bible is saying so let's go ahead first Corinthians 10 31 to 33 somebody can read that therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do do all to the glory of God give no offense either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God just as I also please please all men in all things not seeking my own prophets but the prophet of many that they may be safe so Paul is saying whatever you do do it to glorify God and don't offend people verse 32 give no offense now of course some people will be offended just by the fact that we are bringing the message of Jesus Christ to them I mean that you can't help but don't offend people as far as possible they're not here to you know hurt them hurt their sentiments or any of those things so give no offense verse 32 either the Jews or the Greeks or to the church of God you're not offending Jews Greeks or God's people not not here to offend anybody verse 33 just as I please all men and all things very interesting because on the one hand you'll find that Paul says I'm not a man pleaser relations one and worse 10 I'm not a man pleaser so true we are not here to please people and yet at the same time verse 33 1st Corinthians 10 says verse 33 says I also please all men in all things that means he's not so when he's talking about pleasing people he's not like doing things just to you know find favor with them but it is look I'm here to serve them I'm here to bless their lives in all things and I'm doing this not for my profit but for their benefit so that they may be saved right so that's again a guiding instruction for us that we you know in the strategies we use and the methods we use don't go and offend people instead bless their lives you know you do good to them so that through that they may come to know Jesus and they may be saved okay and one last thing is in deciding on the strategies and ministries you're going to use it's very important that people will find no opportunity to blame the church or blame the ministry let's read this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 verses 3 and 4 please we do not want anyone to find Paul with our work so we try not to put obstacles in anyone's way instead in everything we do we show that we are God's servant by patiently enduring troubles hardship and difficulties thank you notice he says you know we don't want to offend anybody so that the ministry should not be blamed and everything we do we commend ourselves as ministers of God we know in other words the way we present ourselves we should be ministers of God now just quickly share one one example over here in Bangalore what happened was in in in an effort to and this happened many years ago in an effort to have an outreach event for college students this was in the middle of our city Bangalore city in an effort to have an outreach for college students there was a fair and so this was an outreach by a church to reach out to college students so they organized like one day actually a half a day Saturday afternoon a fair yeah so there was music and all of that and in order to attract students to come what was done was have this you know what we call it like a lucky draw you know so that means you keep your name you're you know you fill up a form and they put it in and then they they you know they do a lucky draw so the first three people get prizes and they had very exciting prizes like a high-end racing bicycle was the first prize again as something like that you know but the whole thing was to attract students to come to that fair that event and it was all done in such a way that you know students will be attracted to come and then when they all landed up there just before the the draw of that the lucky draw you know you preach the gospel to them now I guess the church was very enthusiastic very zealous and trying to do something very different but you're not really backfired in the sense that people felt in some way violated why they said okay this was presented as a fair this was presented as you know some music was happening and some games were happening and there was this lucky draw and there was exciting prizes so you know of course all the young people were attracted to it and then when they all came there the gospel was preached to them and of course they had to wait because only after that they could they would do the lucky draw and the prizes would be given out but people felt tricked they felt tricked into something and it really left a bad taste of course you know the prize was given somebody one you know a cycle and somebody won one whatever the first three prizes was I don't remember all that but in that whole you know that whole quote unquote outreach event people felt tricked that they were you know attracted to it in the name of it being a fair with music and games and prizes and all that but in the end the gospel was preached to them and that was not made known to them right so I'm just giving this example because it's actually happened and to point out that we don't need to do such things where we are you know in some way tricking people to come to an event you know it should be you know if you're going to have gospel music you're going to have the preaching of the gospel stated very clearly stated very openly hey this is an event where there's going to be gospel music there's going to be preaching of the gospel come if you're interested you know so that way the ministry will not be blamed the church cannot people can't point fingers and say hey look what are they doing they're you know in somebody you know tricking people into something you know everything is clear everything is open people know beforehand what to expect when they come to that event there is going to be gospel music there's going to be the preaching of the gospel there'd be an altar call whatever everything is clear and then they can make a decision do I want to go or not to go right so I'm just giving one example where this whole event outreach event was I mean there was a lot of money spent and a lot of things done but the end result was people felt hey this was a big trick to preach to us you know to get a crowd and preach to us so we should be careful not to end up doing such things so the ministry must not be blamed in the strategies we choose in the methods we choose in reaching out to people in the cities in the urban crowd okay so let's pause here we will pick this up again next week you know we'll get into how do you develop strategies what are some of the strategies we have used here in Bangalore and you know of course with time these will evolve these will change and so on but I just share with you from our own learning and experience so that you know you could use whatever is relevant it might spark some other ideas for you so we will pick this up next week before we close just want to ask any any thoughts any questions yeah everyone's with me so far okay all right so we're going to close we're going to ramp up for today and this week and then we will pick this up again next week and take it forward could somebody please close and pray and we will dismiss who would like to pray Thomas your phone's okay now or can we we can't hear you Thomas all right maybe I'll ask okay once not okay all right let me just ask Aaron to pray and dismiss us show pasta let me pray Lord thank you for giving us this opportunity to learn once again Lord Father and thank you so much for giving us this spirit of understanding each day Lord for and then Lord we just want to say thank you again for being with us throughout this month Lord I urge and I pray for on behalf of everyone to to fulfill my heavenly calling for your kingdom and Lord let us not compromise the calling gifts in Thailand that you have placed in our life so Lord help us all to fix our eyes on you alone and Lord we just want to say thank you for hearing our prayer and I submit this raise of the day into your loving him amen amen thank you everyone thank you we'll see you again so bye now bye bye everyone thank you thank you God bless