 Okay. Good morning. Welcome. Hi, Francis. Hello, everyone online and what's happening? Hi, Nikhil. Hi, Sri Rada. Hi, Anand. How are the assignments going? Pretty hectic, I hear. Church history, huh? Nice, nice. Well, I hope you all are doing well. Christian history or church history? So, Rin is not sure of the assignment? I'm not studying. Okay. Alright, let's come back to the local church. Yeah, so we finished chapter four last class. It talks from your notes, House of God, chapter four. We'll just do a quick review of it. We did two case studies of two different churches. One is the Jerusalem Church and the Antioch Church, how they grew, and we looked at the different stages of growth from the pioneering stage to administrative stage, pastoral equipping stage and apostolic function stage, et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, so all of the stages, I think for you, if you yourself as leaders, are kind of important just to remember these stages. It is very easy just to look at it as information from a course that you studied, which Roshan taught and forget about it. But I think, especially this subject and most of the subjects in the college is very practical. It's not necessarily academically standard when it comes to theological studies. But so because this is practical, I just want to emphasize it just to remember them. I'm sure it will come in handy when you go back home and I'm sure you will be reviewing all of these later on as well. Okay, let's move on to chapter five. Chapter five is titled, What makes a strong local church? What makes a strong local church? Okay, so it's a question for us. So what according to you? What do you think makes a strong local church? Sure. Alright guys, one at a time. Slowly, slowly. Okay, so who wants to? Okay, you said something first. It depends on the pastor. It depends on the pastor. Strong leadership and fellowship. Strong leadership and fellowship makes a strong local church. It depends on the pastor. If the pastor is strong physically, spiritually, mentally. And the doctrine what they are following. Okay, what makes a strong, okay. I think you ought to write these points down because those are your answers, you know, and some good ones. So what makes a strong local church? Yeah, feel free to post online on chat section as well if you want to. Or you can unmute and speak as well. Okay, yeah, Francis. The unity of the congregation. The? The unity of the congregation. The relationship between pastor and... The relationship between the pastor and the congregation. That's awesome. Yeah, it makes a strong local church. Okay, it talks about unity. So wonderful point. Make a note of it. Make a note of your own point. Anybody else? Yeah, come on. Nina, what do you think, Sri Radha? What do you think? What makes a strong local church? You can add more to the points that you've given. Also their faith. Whose faith? Their faith. The people's faith and the pastor's faith, if they have a strong faith or not. Okay, people's faith. How much they are actually following what's being taught? The word. Right, okay. Okay, so much of doing is actually happening versus... Okay, just listening. Okay, a praying church says Nina. Shiv Kumar says spirit-filled leader and church members. Wow, okay. Anything else, Nina? What makes a strong local church? Spirit-filled, yeah. Shiv Kumar just said. As well, yeah. Spirit-filled, okay. Cooperation. Okay. So let's go from the beginning. So you said pastor depends on the pastor, doctrine, unity and fellowship, praying church. Okay, so all of this, some amazing points can have some points. Or it can just have, you know, be like a goal. So if you're starting a church or planting a church, you want your church to be a spirit-filled church. I want my church to be spirit-filled. You're right on the board, right? You know, goal board or whatever. And then you can ask us, okay, so how are we going to attain that, right? How are we going to attain that? How are we going to have a faith-filled congregation, as you said? So these are not just one points. These are like, it could be a header. And then under that, you can have your mission and, you know, and whatnot. So yeah, all of it's, I don't see why we have to continue doing this chapter. But because you've already mentioned all the points that's in the chapter. But yeah, guys, you're awesome. You know, talk about leaders. You're there. Okay. A devotion to the apostles teaching. Word breaking of the bread fellowship and prayer. Yes. Word has to be preached and taught without compromise. Okay. Word has to be preached and taught without compromise. They're such powerful and insightful points, guys. And I say this again, so please make a note of your own points or of all the points that was mentioned, because all of this is going to come in handy later on when you decide to just flip the page in your notes and seriously, I wrote this, you know, but good. So in this chapter, we look at one of the points that when we look at what makes a strong local church, the first thing that's mentioned is a church where there is a strong leadership with a God given vision. Okay. A strong leadership depends on the stats from the pastor. Yes. There's so much pressure on the pastors, guys. Okay. Or leaders. All of you are leaders, right? So a church where there is a strong leadership with a God given vision. Okay. So before we get into strong leadership, vision. Give me your definition of vision. The power of your vision is what? 0.25. Go ahead. Go ahead. Use the mic, please. Yeah. Vision is like where the pastor with this God given vision, like where might where the where you're going to lead the people shepherding, like they want to take from the level one to high, I mean, it's a higher level of worshiping God and knowing the word. Okay. Okay. Thank you. A picture of the future. A picture of the future. Wow. Rhyming poetry. Blast from the past. Picture from the future. Having a goal or mission for life. Having a goal or mission for life. Having a goal or a mission for life. Vision is mission for life. Vision is? Mission for life. Okay. What is the difference? You brought this on yourself. Okay. What is the difference between a vision and a mission? It's like certain tasks to be done. Sorry, what's that? One task to be done or like what? Vision or mission? Mission. Mission is a certain task to be done. Okay. Like when there is one, especially in taking for example of wars and all like they have, this is our mission. We have to go there and do it. Okay. That's the mission. A vision. Having many missions maybe or one certain mission for whole. A vision is to have many missions. Or having one certain constant one. Goal. Goal? Okay. Okay. It's confirmation like what we are going to do. If not, then we should ask how are we going to use this? That is like a confirmation of our future time. All that is wonderful. But what's the difference between vision and mission? Yeah. So vision is the ultimate thing. That's what like you say you want to go from step one to step 10. The vision is you want to go to step 10. Right. That's the end goal. Right. The end game. But the mission is what are you going to do to get there? That those are missions. And so as you said, if you want to, the vision is to keep having more missions than it's like epic. What's my next mission? My next mission is the next mission. Get to the next vision. What is your definition of vision? Let's come back to that. And why is vision important? Vision means it's actually different for everyone. So it may be the guidance of God that where he wants to lead us in our life. So certain people have different, I mean, it varies from person to person. Okay. So it is one of the God's guidance or God's desired position to be. Where he wants you to be. Right. Great. Thank you. Anybody else? Vision? Francis? I think it doesn't have to be like a perfect definition. Just what is your understanding of a vision? Okay. So tell me what happens when you don't have a vision? Sorry? We don't know what we are going to do. You don't know what you're going to do? Okay. Don't look like we don't have any doubts. Always have doubts? Okay. Have any one of you been in a place where you don't know what to do next? Constantly. Consistently. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That happens to me also. He's like, oh, Lord, what my next season going to look like? I don't know. But yeah, vision I think is very essential, isn't it? And this is not just biblical. From the corporate world, it's universal that every institution or organization or corporation will have this mission statement or a vision statement. Isn't it? Yeah. We stand for this. We stand for that. Go to any hospital. They will just not have the name of the hospital. Under the hospital, they'll have something else. Touching lives, touching million lives, saving lives, blah, blah, blah, all that. So having a vision gives you a certain purpose or aim in life on how you can get there, isn't it? So it's like, it's a very cliche example. Forgive me for using this, but like Google Maps. Most of the, sometimes Google Maps is very irritating. Right. It takes you in certain roads, which is possible. But what you do, the first thing what you do is you are here. You want to go there, isn't it? So you put in the location. You have to, isn't it? So you are envisioning where you have to go or where you want to go. So you basically having a vision simply tells you where you want to go or where you have to go. Right. And then you will have on the way to get there. Okay. You know, like just like Google Maps, you can say, you can go this option one. You take a left, similar as EPA that, you know, estimated time of arrival. You can take this route, you know, and so having a vision and being open minded about God's leading is very essential. So the way to that vision, God may say, okay, let's just take a detour, you know, et cetera. So, so all of that is kind of very essential. So let's look at Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18. Proverbs chapter 29 verse 18. Where there is no revelation that people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law. Can you read that again, please? Where there is no revelation that people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law. Yeah. Thank you. Which translation version is that? So NKJV. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So without revelation, right? With God's revelation, people cast off restraint. Yes. We says where there is no prophetic vision. Right. See how it's interesting choice of words, revelation, prophetic vision. So hearing from God is what it's been prophetic, isn't it? And God, okay, Lord, what do you want me to do? Why are you calling me for this ministry? So it's very interesting. It says without a revelation or a prophetic vision or a word from God, the people cast off restraint. What does that mean? Casting of restraint. What is cast off restraint? Does anybody have a message version you want to look at? If you can. Let's see what cast off restraint. Okay. People can't see what God is doing. People can't see. If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. If people can't see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves. That means the casting of restraint. Restraint is what? It's something is resisting you. Right? Something is kind of telling you to go in a certain direction. Right? So casting of restraint means you're just taking it all off. You're running around like a headless chicken. Wherever you want to go. One of the perfect definitions of vision, I remember is that when having no vision, it's like running on a treadmill. Has anybody run on a treadmill? No. Yeah. So you're running. A lot of things are happening, but you're in the same place. So without vision, it's kind of very similar. You're doing a lot of things as a ministry, as an organization. You can do a lot of things. If there is no vision, it's like simply running on a treadmill. There's a lot of things happening, but you're just there. Can someone read Habakkuk chapter 2, verse 2? Then the Lord said to me, write my answers plainly on tablets so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. Yeah. Thank you. The Lord answered me and he's saying, write the vision. So there's another important verse. He doesn't just say have a vision, but write it down. Make it plain. That means make it simple, make it understandable or communicate it. Make it plain on tablets. That means write it on the stone, basically. That's what tablets is not iPad. So he may run. Who reads it? So you see the choice of words there. You have a vision. Write it down. Communicate it. So those who are doing or running have a direction on which site to run or where to go. Again, not just running wherever you want to run. Okay, so it's very easy. Matthew 1514 says, it talks about blind leading the blind. Can a blind lead the blind? Answer? Can a blind lead the blind? No. I mean, it talks about it's using the tangible to explain the intangible. That means it's using the blind. They're using the language of the site. You can have site and still not have vision. That would do very different things. Okay, you can have site but not have vision. So here in this example, in this verse, Matthew 1514 says, and if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch. It's simply saying, a person without a vision, leading a bunch of people, it's dangerous, so to speak. How many of you have seen, I'm sure there are, I haven't seen a lot of doctors who are blind. A lot of doctors who are blind. I'm sure there are. They might be. I'm not saying never, but I haven't encountered. I would be very nervous if I know that a blind doctor is doing a surgery on me. I'm like, yeah. So where's my hand right now? I don't want you cutting in the wrong places. It's quite a risky thing, isn't it? So I think one of the first things that we need to establish as leaders is when you especially, it's a very good place to be in when you don't know what to do next because you don't know what to do next. It's a good place to be in because that tells you that you need a vision. It's beautiful to be in that place. It's like, Lord, I don't know what to do next because you are 100% hopefully dependent on God. If he doesn't come through, it's as simple as that. Moses kind of understood that in so many ways. He's like, yeah, promised land is there. It's all good. I'm not interested in the angels, but if you don't come, I'm not going to go. So I might want to do this, this, this, X, Y, and Z, but if you don't tell me where to go, I'm not going to do anything. So in addition to a vision, that is in addition, so you need to have vision without a doubt. So in addition to a clear vision from God, we also need strong leadership. We also need super strong leadership, strong leadership. Okay, so come on, define strong leadership. What are the leadership qualities that you like to see in a leader? Who sets an example? Who sets an example? Okay. Customized. A godly character. A godly character. Wait, wait. Write down those points. Okay. These are your classmates. Okay, so a strong leadership is the one who sets example. Godly character. Okay. Humility. Humility. Okay, a leader who is humble. This is, again, just don't give me an answer for this. I want it to be an answer which you like to see in a leader. Okay. So don't just say, okay, oh, these are the leaders I've read. John Maxwell's 24 leadership, blah, blah, blah. So what are the qualities that you like to see in a leader? Leaders should apply himself after he should teach. Okay. So being an example. Yeah, thanks, Nikhil. Who is from the front, Shivakumar says. Sorry. Who can handle everything? Who can handle everything? So that's the quality that you like to see in a leader. Okay. A leader should be hearing from the Lord and should be able to deliver. Oh, yeah. A leader should be able to hear from the Lord. Okay. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay. He sets an example. Okay. Those online. Prabhu is saying one who leads by example. Wow. It's come like three, four times now. He leads by example. So, yeah, go ahead. You say. Who is responsible. Who's responsible. And a good listener. And a good listener who's responsible. So these are qualities that you like to see. Okay. Who's responsible. Define responsible. Like if the leader is given a task, the leader does it well and puts his full effort into it. Very nice. Okay. Yeah. The question says leader has to preach what they practice and be, I think you meant the other way around. Okay. And be fully convinced in the faith and word of God and be led by the spirit. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Should be a good steward of the things trusted with. To be a good steward with the things responsible. Okay. And accountable. That's what stewardship is. Yeah. Accountability. Yeah. How many of you have encountered bad leadership? How many of you have experienced or encountered bad leadership or general anywhere, wherever it doesn't have to be spiritual or church at all. Right. Okay. So what was one of the things about that long leadership that bothered you? I'm not talking about a person. I'm talking about the expression of that leadership that did not help you. Partiality. Okay. Double standards. Partiality. Yeah. Okay. So write this down as well. Okay. Things that you don't like to see in a leader. Okay. You experienced it. Yes. I want you to say what you've experienced, what you've seen. It's like having that this is what I told. This is have to be done. I don't want to take suggestions of what you're telling me. Okay. So he's not a good listener. He or she. Leader. Okay. To nosy. Who you talking about, right? Okay. All right. Anything? Ratha. Sorry. Sreela. I thought you had something to say. Huh. What the leader is saying instructing to other people what he first he need to do. I was the the who is following him. They will get on. The misunderstanding. They will get on. Reconnection. No. They lost their connection with the leader. He's doing like this. Okay. Okay. We should redo that type of. Okay. Gossiping. Emotional. Emotional. Emotional. Yeah. Okay. We're all emotional beings. What's wrong about being emotional? I mean. Yeah. Yeah. Specific. I'd say over emotional. Okay. Emotional. Okay. That's not good enough. Yeah. Over emotional. Yeah. Yeah. Not emotional. Yeah. Okay. That's not good enough. Yeah. Over emotional. Yeah. Yeah. Not. Not being able to endure the difficult situation when it comes just bursting out and shout on the. Not being able to handle a situation. Tough situation. Control situation. Okay. Okay. Jack says aggressive and manipulative. Wow. Okay. Manipulative. Yeah. Aggressive and manipulative. Wow. I hope you've made a note of all these points that you've given. And yeah. All of these. Yeah. But qualities that you've kind of experienced it. Yeah. For me, I think one of the important qualities that I look for in a leader is. Sure. Example in all of that goes without saying. But some there's something about. Handling people well. If you can handle people well, or if you know how to handle people well, if you don't know how to handle people well, that means for me, it's. It's one of the qualities of not being a very strong leader because you're leading people at the end of the day. Isn't it? So how well are you able to relate to them? Are they able to relate to you? It's not just you to them. It's about how they look at you. It's also very important, isn't it? And so if I'm speaking to an audience, it's very important for me to know that are they viewing? Are they looking at me as a pastor or as a teacher or as a friend or as their brother? Whatever it is, right? And so depending on how they view at me, I can connect to them at their level. What I'm saying is so I think it's super important and I've learned. So I watched a lot of football, English football and all the interviews about the football managers and the team. And I like to do a lot of study leadership studies on all of that is it all comes down to man management. That's the word, right? Man management. That's very corporate man management. We are not managing. We are leading, you know, but there's a difference. Yeah. So I mean, everybody's not a perfect work. We're all working towards becoming better in all of these areas that you mentioned. So yeah, all of that is other great definitions of being a strong leadership. All of this is an addition to the vision. Now you can have all of this good qualities of a leader and without a vision is absolutely useless. Right. And so a good, a strong leadership like Nina mentioned, right? It's being able to hear from the Lord. If you've heard from the Lord, that means you have a vision and then you kind of, okay, you work on how to, you know, grow. So Moses kind of grew into a leadership role. Like, you know, so God gives him the vision. He says, go to Egypt, bring my people back. He was Moses. I don't know how God has amazing patients. You know, you read the chapter. Why me? Why should I go? Why me? Why should I go? I can't speak. I can't stand someone else. So like, yeah, it's not a good leader. I want confidence in a leader. You know, so, but God is amazing. He sees, you know, he has a vision of who Moses can be. And so he pushes, isn't it? So that's the beauty of our Lord. And I think it's a very important character of a good leader will have is that he sees the potential in what you can be. Right. And you work with that person until you can get that person there. Isn't it? And so that's vision and strong leadership is essential to say the least. There are a couple of scriptures mentioned in your notes. You can make a note of it. Zechariah chapter 13 verse seven and Isaiah chapter nine verse 16. Isaiah chapter nine verse 16. Okay. Well, quite a bit of time on this point because it is important. We're still in the topic that talks about what makes a strong local church. Okay. You might be a pastor one day soon leading a church, or you might be a leader in a church. Okay. It's okay. It's fine. No pressure. Nobody is forcing you to become pastor. It's okay. But all of you are already leaders. Right. You know, in many ways, you know, for the first years. Pleasure. Right. In Zechariah 13 seven, it says, we can read the scripture later, but in just what it simply says is if the shepherd fails, the sheep are scattered. Right. If the shepherd fails, the sheep are scattered. That means if the sheep cannot hear the voice of the shepherd, they have no direction. So they go. There's no restraint. They begin to go everywhere. Isn't it? And so they begin to do whatever they want to do. They'll panic. Again, I am sorry to keep using this example from Exodus is when Moses was away with God in the mountains for all the right reasons for 40 days and 40 nights for them. The shepherd is not there. Is in the leader. And so they cast off their restraints. They began to do whatever they wanted to do. Isn't it? Yeah. So there's a wonderful video and maybe when we speak about some 23 eventually, when I was doing a study on some 23, I found this beautiful video on YouTube. I talk. It shows, you know, a bunch of people just trying to call the sheep. The sheepers like all over the, they are grazing on the field, beautiful green grass field. They're trying to call make different sounds. The sheep don't respond. The shepherd comes and he starts calling them. He just makes weird sounds. You know, everyone start running towards this one man's voice because I mean that example from John chapter 10 that my sheep hear me and know my voice is so beautifully portrayed in that video. And yeah. And that's what Zachariah 13 seven is talking about. So without vision, without strong leadership, a lot of things can go wrong. Okay. Any thoughts or any questions so far? Are you following with me? Okay. Oh, yeah, I have the video. I'll share it. I'll share. It's a shepherd video, right? Just to be clear. Yeah. Okay. Anything else guys? Any thoughts that you want to share? Questions. Okay. On the side note, last year, earlier last year, pastor did pastor, did CDs on leadership called the four C's of leadership. Go back and revisit those. It's very helpful. I'm sure it'll be very helpful. One more other thing, pastor, like, see, I've actually saw some people like this. So when this pastor is leading one church, the, I mean, his son, his coming after him and leading his church. So is that okay to just continue to his dad's vision? I mean, I'm not, I'm not agreeing with that. I should have our own vision, but, but God is using them very greatly, like following his father's vision. What about that? What's your thought on that? Yeah. I can't speak for others. This is like nepotism in the Christian industry. So, see, I think if the person who's taking over the mantle from the, if a son is taking over the mantle of son or a daughter, whoever is taking over the mantle from the father or the mother, if the person does not have a burden or a vision, it will not last long. You can try to manufacture or, you know, with your own strength, but eventually you will, you'll become very tired and the growth will stop. It'll become stagnant. Why? Because there is no vision. There's no burden personally, right? But then if that person chooses to seek the Lord, and we see that in the Bible as well, Aaron and sons of Aaron were in priests, right? It was all there. Sometimes it's just a responsibility. But I think in this day and age, it has to come down to the burden. So, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't necessarily agree with that. Because that's what I think. See, I come from a family of people who are involved in ministry. My uncle has a church and, you know, we all know the pressure of what we call, you know, what PK is, right? You know what a PK is? Yeah, pastors kids. It's a universal language, by the way. You're a PK. Yeah. So, the pressure on a pastor's kid is huge because everybody is looking at him, like, hey, look at this pastor's kid, see how he is. And most of the time, the kid, because of that pressure, they break, right? Because, see, living a Christian life as is challenging. It is challenging. And then living with the responsibility and the burden on the weight on a young shoulder with certain expectation is not fair. I would say that. But it is what it is. Isn't it? So, yeah. Okay. Nina, you wanted to say something? Okay, cool. How about you guys online? All of you okay with following? Okay, one other bad quality Nina has mentioned is not consistent. And I think not being consistent in, it could be in so many different factors in what they say, what they do, you know, if they're not consistent. Yeah, I think consistency is such a beautiful point. It's discipline talks about discipline. Isn't it being consistent? Yeah, and yeah, being on time isn't. Yeah, our seasons are consistent. At least for so far, so long it was consistent. If summer comes late, what will happen to the world? Our seasons are consistent, isn't it? Winter, if winter comes late, we all start talking about it. Isn't it? So, what we're talking about the month of August last month is for the first time in 100 years in Bangalore, it hasn't rained in the month of August. You know, this is like a sudden inconsistency and everybody starts talking about it and the global warming weather and all of that. So, yeah, consistency is a good thing. Yeah, we can talk about it more. Actually, you know what will stop you because the next section has quite a lot to go. So, I don't want to just take five minutes. We'll stop here, we'll come back and we'll resume. All right, take care.