 All right. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to a new week. Trust you had a good weekend. Right. Let's begin this time with the word of prayer. Maybe one of us can please lead the prayer that we begin. So Charles, would you like to pray? Anybody else can please pray before we begin. Our Father in Heaven, we bless you. And thank you for all you have taken us through thus far in this class. And we thank you for our wonderful instructor, who you have been using to impact upon us in the Knowledge Lord on discipleship and soul churches. We bless you, Father, because coming here isn't in vain. It's in preparation for things you have prepared for us ahead of time. And we pray for wisdom. We pray for understanding. And we pray for the ability to retain the knowledge that we have been impacted with and instructed in. And Lord, to use it for your glory that you Lord will be glorified and you Lord will be revealed to all the world. Thank you, Everlasting Father, in the name of Jesus Christ we afraid. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. All right. So we've been learning a lot of content over the last entire course. We looked at spiritual things that need to be done as a cell group leader. We looked at administrative things, practical points where, you know, so overall how a cell group should be. And last week we talked more about the personal life, right? We talked about how the heart of a leader. Let's just quickly do a review of what we did last week and then we'll get into today's class. So we looked at the cell leader's personal spiritual life and how this is so important because it's not only in a cell group, but when we spend time in God's presence, when we hear from God, and we are spending time in God's word and worship, it reflects in our public ministry, right? It could be anything, right? It could even be volunteering tasks. But what we do in our private will show in public, right? So maintaining a personal walk with God, a strong personal walk with God is very, very important. And this is something that must not be taken the second place. It must not be taken the second place. Because many times we are volunteering, we're doing tasks, we have a to-do list, maybe in ministry or even in the workplace. We have tasks to do and it can keep us busy. So we must always have this balance of understanding, okay, even as I work, even as I volunteer and serve in church, everything must be done out of our personal walk with God, right? And if you see the Lord Jesus himself in his busy schedule, he had thousands of people who are following him, but many a times he said, he told the disciples, send everyone away and he would go up to the mountains or take the disciples up and spend time in prayer. So maintaining a personal walk with God as leaders is number one priority. And out of that comes our ministry. Out of that relationship and time with God will come out, our wisdom of God, the grace of God, the anointing, the strength that we need, both physical strength, spiritual strength, out of that time with the Lord. So as leaders, as believers, just continue to maintain that. Continue to maintain that time of prayer, that fellowship with the Holy Spirit. That is very, very important. So do before you teach, live it before you teach it. So that's what we always emphasize, maintain a life that is consecrated to God. So yes, there will be times we know the enemy is like a roaring lion trying to just devour anyone. It doesn't matter to him if we are in ministry for 10 years, 20 years, he's just waiting for an opportunity. So always be aware, get rid of demonic strongholds in your life. Now these three demonic strongholds can be something very small. It could just be, we talked about it last week, right? We talked about how it could just be playing games right now. It's not wrong to play games on the video games or games on the phone. But the moment it becomes a stronghold, meaning if we are not able to control it, it becomes a stronghold. Same thing with social media and things that we watch online. All of these things, we must have a control of it and get rid of strongholds in our life. It also could be other things like jealousy, pride, anger, just this feeling of being high up, all kinds of things. So get rid of it, walk in the fruit of the spirit, shut all those to the enemy and receiving healing and offenses for who hurts and wounds. So we talked about this as well, where as leaders, it's not always that people are going to say, wonderful, great, you've done very well. There will be times when people will ridicule, people will hurt you, people may say things that may not be true. And we are human beings. We do feel hurt, we do feel offended. But as leaders, as children of God, we can come to a place where we can renounce all these hate and ill will and resentment that we have against people. They could be people who are believers, they could be even unbelievers. Because the moment we have these feelings and these hate and ill will unforgiveness, it eats into our soul. Because that Proverbs 1840, the spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who can bear it. So it's really wonderful when things are going well, you have a good team to support you in ministry and things that you're doing. But there will be times that people will may cause offense or hurt, but get rid of it. We are not meant to be stoic. It's not like we don't have feelings. Yes, we do have feelings, we feel hurt, we feel resentment, we feel ill will, we feel, how can this happen? This person was so close to me, we worked together in ministry, how can he say this about me? It's a genuine feeling. But through the help of the Holy Spirit, we can come out of these resentment, ill will and hate. Maintain and know your priorities, your personal work with God, your family, wife and children, job, ministry. We also look at being an example, how the greatest message that we can preach is the message of our life, how we live is the greatest message. And then we look at the heart of a leader, the heart of servanthood, keep a constant examination on heart attitudes. We look at this, right? Our attitude is very important in terms of what we're looking at, what we are doing, how do we look at our problems, how do we look at our success, our failure, what is our attitude towards it? Because our attitude is one contagious and our attitude will affect the outcome of our work, or of our ministry. If our attitude is very casual about ministry, about our work, or our business, anything that we're doing, what will happen, it will reflect the outcome we'll show. And eventually our attitude is contagious, it's going to spread to others. So be a dreamer, nothing wrong in dreaming big things, having big visions, having big plans. But even as you do that, we surrender to God and we say God help us to accomplish it through the power of the Spirit. Be totally committed, be positive through all seasons. So we, I think we stopped here. Sure. We stopped at developing the leader in you. Yes, I think we stopped here, developing the leader in you. All right, so we'll pick up from here and feel free to stop me if you have any questions. You can raise your hands and mute or you can also type your questions in the chat and we'll try to take some time and answer that. So developing the leader in you. Four important areas to grow in leadership. First one, competence. Competence is basically our knowledge, what we have learned, our skill, what we can do and our experience, what we have experienced, right? Our tenure in what we are doing and Second Timothy two and two says what you have heard from me through many witnesses and trust to faithful people will be able to teach others. So knowledge is very important. Competence, this is something that as leaders we can always grow, always develop, right? And no matter which place we are at life, we may be youth, we may be married, we may be parents, we may be well advanced in our work, we may be coming to the time of retirement. Knowledge is something that we can keep developing. Skills are something that we can keep developing, right? And when we develop that we begin to grow in it we become more effective leaders and we'll be able to teach it to others as well. Next one, be confident, right? Now confidence is something that comes and there are people who are confident naturally and there are people who are you know, who gain confidence over time, right? So for example, you know there are people who are confident to speak their heart out in front of a camera but it doesn't really matter to them that the camera is just so free and open and it's so confident whereas there may be others who are you know, not confident in front of the camera like me, right? I'm sharing with the second years as well, you know growing up I never really you know was involved in being on the stage and talking in front of a camera I never really have that and so when I joined the ministry it's not like I didn't have confidence I loved teaching and preaching the word and you know, just developing and growing in that leading worship I enjoyed it, right? And I thank God for the opportunities but one thing I knew was there were times when I felt that I could not do it many a times I felt I could not do it I just felt like this is overwhelming, right? Because for me it was initially I never went on stage it was not me at all from the time I was a young boy all of a sudden I'm there in front of people and maybe talking or leading worship I was confident when I was practicing or preparing but sometimes when I go on the stage I would lose confidence and many a times because of the lost confidence it has led to not being very effective but thank God for his grace you know he still boasts of his spirit but confidence is very important and over time we can gain that confidence with no confidence we can do very little imagine you know a person who is shy in front of cameras shy to stand on stage like that but if God has called them to be a pastor or a leader and this person says no I'm not going to do this just because of just one aspect of confidence he or she can you know just push away the call of God in their life so confidence without confidence we can do very little you know it's human feel nervous to feel that hey I'm not prepared enough and all these emotions that come in but over time confidence can come from positive experiences you know take small steps right rather than big steps and I remember when I was when we joined Bible college as students I said okay here is my time to learn right so I said okay I would always try to stand in front of people I would be very nervous even though they were my friends in Bible college very nervous to stand in front of them and maybe lead worship or share a word and my friends I remember in college would say hey what is your why are you so worried you got good English we are struggling with English but you are not good English you don't have to feel that you are not confident but that was inside right so it was not about the English it was not about the skills so over time confidence is built right through positive faith in God see difficult opportunities difficulties as an opportunity to grow confidence is built by believing in the gifts that God has placed in you very important you know some of us may feel that hey I don't have any leadership skills but you know there is an opportunity come hey why don't you lead this cell group or why don't you lead this volunteer team what do you do right believe in the opportunities believe in the gifts that God has placed in you right and the door is open and God is giving you that door don't shut it off work on it take those opportunities because that is developing the leader in us right confident is built by encouragement as well stay around those who encourage you very very important you know people can encourage us I remember leading in my initial days I would lead worship and I knew I messed up but I knew probably something went wrong but I remember our pastors and our worship pastor they would say you know Paul you did well just these are the things you because they gave feedback these are the things you can do well and it really built confidence in me hey if I've done this much I can get better if I was able to lead worship for 45 minutes which was a big deal for me so then I can get better at it because people have encouraged you so I'm just giving the example of worship and it could be anything right in your life as leaders maybe leading a team is wisdom sometimes when you feel God I don't know how to make decisions or I don't know how to solve problems in a team not good team leader but when we have confidence and it's built over time we'll be able to lead effectively right then is compassion compassion is the key in everything that we do if you look at ministry look at Jesus he said everywhere from the beginning of his ministry if we see that he whatever he did he did out of compassion he didn't do it motivated by you know fame or people should get to know him or popularity or you know nothing Jesus was motivated by compassion that was his motivation remember on the mountain he saw those thousands hundreds and thousands of people and he says his heart was moved with compassion when he saw the blind his heart was moved when he saw the the woman with the issue of breathing he was compassionate and so Jesus himself was motivated by compassion so you and I can learn from this as leaders right let us be motivated by compassion now if we don't feel compassionate if we don't feel love for the other person what we can do is pray right because pray and ask God God help me to do my ministry out of love for people because many times we can do ministry out of love for doing ministry I hope you are getting what I am trying to say I just love doing ministry why because it's nice it's interesting I love to do things I love to sing songs I love to lead people whatever the reason may be I love to do ministry because it's ministry but Jesus didn't do what he did because it's a ministry he did because he was motivated by compassion that is why we see that there was so much of fruit in his ministry and when we move with compassion when we are ministering out of love and compassion people's lives will be touched as leaders this is something that we must develop and again it's a process we grow we grow in love and most of the gifts that are there it's not like we've received it and we have it and that's enough each of them we can grow in those gifts grow in those talents and abilities that God has given us so compassion collaboration develop the ability to work with others those who lead you those who are your peers those whom you lead work with each other to work together as a team did Jesus do this yes even though he could have done a lot alone but he made teams he had 12 people then out of that 12 later on he chose 72 others and then they all went reaching the gospel God places people in your life strategically right so you must establish a connection so that you can give in to them and they can give in to you right so for example each one of you you know I know that it was online but as students God has placed each one of you to you know be together they've connected each one of you and there's a reason for it established together you can speak in to each other's lives and give in to each other's lives be a blessing to each other because there will be seasons that will change right I understand that we are all in different countries and online we have our limitations work and all of that you know God has placed us in this season strategically it could be college now then it could be workplace then after the workplace it could be you know other places like for example your friends in the apartment or your neighbors and these are strategic God has placed them strategically establish a connect with them and within the church as well it will be good to collaborate with each other in a sense if there are two life two cell groups we talked about this get together work together as a team and that way you'll see that stronger together God has something for you to give to them and you can connect with them so that you can speak into their people's lives so let's look at this five levels of leadership five levels of leadership first one position people follow you because they have to so two reasons one is because of your position and two is also because they see something in you right they see that call of God they see the anointing of God in you so people follow you because one they have to two is the permission people follow you because they want to follow you right now as a baby if you're a leader in the church leading a volunteer team just pioneering a ministry if there are people in your ministry and people in your cell group and the teams they want to be there because they see something in you right recently just a couple of weeks back I was thinking about this how God places people under our care suddenly there was this whole feeling of responsibility God has placed lives under our care as a pastor there are people who come and share their thoughts share their challenges, share things and we talk into their lives speak into their lives so how much how responsible we must be what we say what we do I think it's just a heavy weight but a weight of responsibility and I talk to myself God I must really grow so much more in wisdom in the ways of God to walk in the anointing of God because these are people you have placed and they are willingly under our leadership they're there under our leadership so how much more I must do for them right this sense of responsibility comes three is production people follow you because of what you've done for the organization wonderful and if you're a pioneer it's wonderful if you have people following you it's such a joy especially in ministry it's not like they're following you but they are part of a bigger picture the church but as a leader because of what you've done in the organization that matters on February 18 which was a Saturday we had our membership classes here on Saturday and I'm sharing also the second year it was our 22nd year anniversary 22 years of all people's church and it was just so wonderful to see what started with this 12 people being ruined and what God has done now just the impact that ABC has been able to do people follow you follow your leadership because of what you've done for the organization of course the Lord continues to anoint the Lord continues to bring people into your ministry into your teams that you're doing but there's a sense of responsibility right then there's people development people follow you because of what you have done for them this is so true we have a wonderful team in APC it's called member care and this team looks after the needs of people of course we have the pastoral team but we also have a strong member care team that offers all locations and these teams really reach out call our members talk to them and pray for them over the phone and they feel so they feel so especially with a bigger church not everyone may be reached out but this member care team we have something called as one phone call where everyone gets a call during the month in a month and just a casual call how are you doing how are things in your life how is your spiritual growth how are the children just developing a relationship what happens is they feel connected to the church it may be a big church but they still feel connected people follow because of what you have done for them it could also be sacrifice of your time to counsel them sacrificing your resources that you have being available at you know times not very convenient times being available to pray with them Paul the Apostle says I rejoice with those who are rejoicing and I mourn with those who mourn I have everything to everyone else right so why because people follow follow you because of what we have done for them they feel this sense of connect this sense of not a sense of a burden to follow but they just want to do it and finally personhood so the five piece of leadership personhood people follow you because of who you are and what you represent powerful so just remember the five levels of leadership position permission production personal development and personhood right so any questions before we go ahead any questions any questions in the chat let me just check no questions any questions can we go ahead personal development or people development sorry how can we can you be a little louder please personal development or people development personal development or people development okay so there are two in this five piece there are two things one is personal development people follow because of what you have done for them so people development and then is it people development or personal development yeah it's people development development yes alright any other questions is everyone able to track along feel free to stop me if you have any questions let me just present the notes again so moving up the steps of leadership the higher you go the longer it takes right now we know that you know the higher we go it you know there's more responsibilities involved in it right higher we go the level of commitment is higher right so if you look in even in a corporate sector you have somebody who joins at entry level they are able to you know this work and do things they have to just finish their tasks go back home but as you join from an entry level if you become a senior executive there may be certain commitments that you'll have to do you know then from there you may become a team leader then you have higher level of commitment then from there you move on to assistant manager level of commitment increases assistant manager to manager then senior manager then operations or director and then you have CEO whatever right so the higher you go the higher the level of commitment right so picture this in ministry right now we may start off small volunteering team leader in the volunteer teams then all of a sudden you get an opportunity and then from there you become a cell group leader from a cell group leader they say hey you know we we are looking out we wanted a cell group coordinator can you be the cell group coordinator for these many cell groups okay so then you move on cell group coordinator the commitment is small then they say hey we have you know we have more than 50 cell groups so we were looking for a cell group pastor so do you think you can do that okay cell group pastor commitments go up the cell group pastor we have a lot our cell groups are growing even more so we are going to hire an associate or assistant cell group pastor so you have to train them and also train the cell group leaders so you see the higher you go the higher is the level of commitment but here is the thing the higher you go the easier it is to lead meaning you grow right you grow you acquire knowledge you go through your seasons of ups and downs you have gained maturity you know you you learn from your mistakes higher you go the easier it is to lead now not always I would say it's easier to lead in terms of you know if you look in the corporate sector may not be always that way but you and I have the opportunity to speak into people's lives right now again speaking into people's lives it all depends on how we talk to them how we build them up the levels of leadership that we just spoke about so the higher you go the greater the growth you never leave the base level or the levels below where you are which means even as you grow up the ladder you continue to raise up other people who are lower to you lower levels than you now in ministry we must understand that all of us are on one ground we all stand on one ground right we are all equal in the eyes of God there are different callings there are different functions in the body but we are all one so nobody is higher nobody is lower but there is this whole aspect of leadership also Paul brought it out in many of his episodes they will go the point of leaders and it gives us an opportunity to speak into their lives you must carry on you must work to carry other leaders with you even as you step up so a wonderful leader will do that a great leader will always you know take people and raise them up to this place of leadership it's not like I'm growing and I'm happy and I'm going to be up and everything else I will only be able to do everything as a leader our responsibility even in ministry is to take people with us even as we grow Jesus did so wonderful took those 12 disciples and he taught them trained them for 3 and a half years and they had their shares of failures and mistakes that they made but the Lord Jesus lifted them up to a high position he took them as made them become leaders all 12 just all of them were able to become those leaders maybe Jesus when he saw them he didn't see them as fisherman tax collector but he saw them as leaders so this is a powerful powerful way of raising up other leaders look at them not how we see but look at them how God can God sees them and what God can do in their lives right so we complete that let's get into this 18 very very very important topic as a leader even as we speak into people's lives even as we lead people whether it is 2 people 5 people 10 people 100 500,000 doesn't matter as leaders we must develop the ability to minister the word of God and minister through the Spirit very important let's look at this point the ability to teach the word of God 2 Timothy 2 and verse 15 study to show yourself approved unto God a workman that needed not to be ashamed but rightly dividing the word of truth let's look at 2 Timothy 2 24-26 as well and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God for adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will now this is the last epistle that Paul is writing 2 Timothy he knows his death is imminent and I always mention this right if it's your last letter you will write the most important things that you want to communicate to the loved ones and 2 Timothy 2 15 says Timothy I've made you I took you and you were probably about 17 years old you've seen the ministry you've seen everything that we've done now you're pastoring the church for nephesis it's an important place it's a hostile location people are going to come after you but you show yourself approved unto God how do I be approved unto God by rightly dividing the word of truth and by teaching the word of God you will not be put to shame so if you see all through from the from you know apostle Paul's ministry it's a powerful powerful point that we can you know just draw out from here Paul says in 1 Corinthians he talks about how the word of God is foolishness to those who are perishing but to the power of God unto salvation and he says woe is me if I do not preach the cross of Jesus Christ all through the apostle Paul's ministry the core of his preaching and teaching was the cross of Jesus Christ did he have testimonies to share plenty did he have personal revelations to share plenty did he have you know churches that he planted you know the leaders that he raised up so much that he could talk about so much you know he could have talked about you know when I was a young man I was under and then I was learning about this this this this I was doing this this this now he doesn't say okay you know he doesn't boast about all the you know I went in the first ministry journey these are the churches I started second missionary journey third missionary journey these are the things I did you know and I did more than what all the you know disciples 12 disciples did together and you don't say that apostle Paul always taught the word of God he whatever he did his whole preaching teaching was always about the word there was never a time he preached about his personal experiences you know I went only to in the book of Galatians he briefly mentions you know his testimony I was you know I was in the desert in the wilderness I then he also says I know a man caught up in the third heaven that's very briefly because his his his point was to teach the word of God so what is it that we can learn as leaders yes testimonies are good yes our experiences are good as we thank God for healings miracles all of these things wonderful the work of the spirit but Paul is saying teach the word another place he says Timothy preach the word second Timothy itself in season and out of season whether you feel it whether you don't feel it whether people say preach or people say don't preach you preach the word rightly divide the word because it is the word of God that can touch people's likes so you and I must become a student of the word as steep as as leaders in ministry become a student of the word we can never say that I know all of it or I know the Old Testament I know the New Testament I know about baptism I know about Holy Spirit there's always something that we can learn they're just a drop in the ocean right become a student of the word go back to the word as leaders you know over time I learned this and I'll share this with you people would come and ask us you know questions they would ask suggestions many times I would give them those answers to those questions and even suggestions but over time I realized that my answers are very practical suggestions are very practical of course it may have helped them but I need to give a word as well the word of God to back up that whatever suggestion I'm giving give a word as well what does the Bible say about the suggestion that you're giving and when we do that there is more weightage because we are holding God accountable to his world so all of us as leaders become a student of the word in the Old Testament begin to read go back to the New Testament begin to read ask God do your word studies character studies you know you have different kinds of material right now common trees so much that's available become a student of the word of God to the baptism in the Holy Spirit right because we must be baptized in the Holy Spirit as leaders ask God to baptize us and I'm sure you each one of us know about the baptism of the Holy Spirit ask God to baptize us God baptize me in your Holy Spirit and we need it as believers as leaders and then we always use this example in the book of John Jesus resurrected he meets with his disciples and he blows on them the Holy Spirit and then what does he say receive the Holy Spirit after they receive the Holy Spirit Jesus says go and wait for the promise of the Holy Spirit wait a minute Jesus you just blew on us the Holy Spirit we received it what happened that was the 2nd Corinthians 517 if anyone is in Christ they have a new creation they became new creations they were born again but Jesus knew they needed the baptism of the Holy Spirit to you know face the world as leaders we must be filled with baptism of the Holy Spirit know how to teach someone about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and pray for people to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their lives and how do I do that very practical God we are praying we have baptized in the Holy Spirit we teach them about the Holy Spirit see the Holy Spirit is like this he's a person he comes with these gifts and he comes he comes with 9 gifts so all we have to do is pray ask God it's not me who's giving it it is God who's giving it so pray to God God will give it to you so what we are doing we are teaching them that we can receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our lives now one of the things that hindered me initially was I used to feed what if I pray and many times people come and what if I pray and they don't receive anything those thoughts over time I realized that see firstly we need to be expected when we come into God's presence and secondly it is not me who's giving the gift it is God it is the Holy Spirit so there's no pressure on me God is just using me as you and I as a tool to pray over people so we can come out of that feeling of what if they don't get it what if they ask questions of it what if they feel that I'm not anointed enough all these questions may come up but don't worry about it as leaders walk in freedom walk in freedom you are doing your part God will give the gifts God will baptize God will do what he has to do we just encourage them if it doesn't happen as leaders before we go I think we'll take a break and we'll come back and continue from ministering healing let's take a break like a 10 o'clock and we'll continue from here thank you