 Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome to a new week. Hope you had a great weekend. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer. So, maybe one of us can please lead a prayer before we begin the class. Any one of us can read this. Okay, thank you very much. Yes, go ahead. Hey, Venerable Father, we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for the good things you've done in our lives. We thank you for allowing us to meet together. Lord, you promised that when two or three have gathered in your name, you will be in their midst. So we trust that you are in the midst of us regardless of the geographical distances because you are a spirit, Lord. Now, Lord, abide with us here. Lord, help us to understand and also work with our teacher. Give him the Holy Spirit's action and the right of vocabulary that even the methods he will use will be suitable for us to understand that your name will be glorified when Jesus' name will be believed. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Charles. Thank you. Right. So let's begin today's class. I just want to remind us that I have posted the midterm assessment. So feel free to just go ahead and finish the assignment and then you can post it back on the Classwork tab. So we're almost coming to the end of our study. We have a little bit more. We're going into section three today. So last week, we talked about building relationships. Being relationship, right? Building relationships within as a set of group, as a leader, that's something that we must do, build relationships, be a people person. Then we also talked about the ability to counsel as leaders. Yes, we must develop the ability to counsel as just how we develop the ability to minister the word, read the word, preach and teach all of that was also developed the ability to counsel one another. And of course, we do know that there are certain cases where people would need professional counseling. So then you can just transition over and hand over the case to somebody else. But we must have at least some basic kind of counseling skills. So today, we'll go into step three, which is raising up disciples and reproducing leaders, raising up disciples and reproducing leaders. Right, just one. Okay, church leadership. I hope this is visible for each of you. Let's make it a little bigger. Okay. So church leadership. When you talk about leadership, the first thing that probably comes to our mind is responsibility. And especially when you talk, when you look at the corporate sector, when you talk about a leader, it involves a lot of responsibilities, delegation. Let's look at what church leadership is. Of course, in the corporate and in the ministry, the word leadership, it doesn't mean the changes, but the attributes or the principles of leadership in a church and in the corporate sector, it definitely will change. So leadership in the church is important. Here's what Dr. C. Peter Wagner lists out one of the most important keys of the church of church growth as a pastor who is a possibility thinker and whose dynamic leadership has been used to catalyze the entire church into action for dynamic growth. Right, so it's a wonderful, it says that a person or a pastor or a leader who's thinking and whose dynamic leadership has been used to catalyze church members or the entire church into action. Right, now we must understand in a church there are people coming from different cultures, different facets of life. There are youth, there are teens, there are young couples, there are mid-aged couples with children and then there is older couples as well, right, senior citizens. So they all come with, you know, there are different walks in their lives. Some are enthusiastic, some just come, they want to attend church and go, you know, so there are different kinds of people, but as a leader, a pastor who's probably reading a group, his thinking or his dynamic leadership can be used to catalyze the entire church into action. Right, so for example, there's a church, this is just an example, right, where there's a church and they're meeting every Sundays. It's been a year, there are 50 people at the church. Right, so the 2023 has, 2022 it's been 50 people, 23, 2023 has started, it's been 50 people. There's no growth in the church. Now, as a leader, first thing I must do is, I should think, what's, why, what is happening? Am I not able to, you know, use our church folks to, you know, get them to be passionate and, you know, their zeal for the Lord should grow and how do I do that? These are certain things that we must think about, right? Now, of course, there are 50 people in the church, for example, then we try to equip those 50 people and that they go out and bring many more people. Now, this is a survey I was reading, 80% of church growth happens within the church. Right, so for example, you have people in the church, they will go and invite other people to church. 80% of it is that way. That is through one-on-one relationships and, you know, just by inviting them. So it's 80%. Right, so as leaders, we must be dynamic in our leadership, right? Yes, there will be ups and downs. Some days we feel, you know, strong in the Lord, we feel energized. Some days we may feel weak, we may feel tired, we may feel weary, but it is during those times when you're picking, we have to pick ourselves up and say, okay, we're doing this because I need to be a dynamic leader because how I portray, what I do as a leader is going to affect the church. It's going to affect the cell group or it's going to affect the people under me. Right, so very, very important. As leaders, we must have a dynamic possible, you know, a futuristic thinking, be wise in our decision, be dynamic leaders and that will just overflow into your team in the church members. Right, now let's look at this. The universal principle of church leadership. Now, as I keep teaching, feel free to just unmute and if you have any questions, any thoughts, feel free. You can also post your questions. We will stop and answer those questions, right? Right, the universal principle of church leadership. Leaders will build great churches. Average leaders will build average churches. Anti-leaders will harm and break down churches as well as church leaders and their visions for God. Look at that. It's self-explanatory. Great leaders will build great churches. Average leaders will build average churches. Anti-leaders are leaders who are against the church and against the things of God. They will harm and break down churches as well as church leaders. Right, so wise leaders know that they must utilize all available leadership to the maximum and therefore concentrate on equipping and mobilizing them function as well as possible. Right, so let me give you a couple of examples. So for example, you got it, there's a church and there's only 50 people. But in those 50 people, you have maybe, for example, five people who are in the corporate sector. They are high up, they have matured and they are up in the ranks and leadership skills. Now, in the corporate sector, Monday to Friday, they are managers, senior managers. Now, on Sunday, they just come to church, sit and go. Right, so what must we do as leaders? First thing we must do is use available, utilize all available leadership to the maximum of our ability. So what we can do is, hey, I wanted to just talk to you about five leaders, five of them from the corporate sector. So you speak to that, you say, I know we are a small church but the vision is one day we're going to become big church, we're going to grow, we're going to be 200, 300, 500 people and so we need to begin to work that way. So can we have different teams? Let's have one of you take care of the welcome team, one of you take care of the ushering team or one of you take care of the book table team, one of you can probably take care of the mediating. So you assign them, these are leaders in the corporate sector. What do they do? They will do it really well. And one of the things I've noticed as a leader, as a pastor in the church, these people who are in corporate sectors and people who are really high up in leadership, you share a vision with them, you share with them, hey, this is what we want to do, they work on it immediately. Without a vision, they feel out of place. So I remember this, this one time, I shared with a couple of men who are, there was two men and one lady in our church and they all are up in the ranks in corporate leadership. So they're all above senior managers. So I just began to talk to them, hey, why don't we do these things? They took it to another level. They just, they had everything ready. They had a pie chart. They had documents ready. They said, okay, this is how we do it. This is the vision for one year. And they made a five-year vision. And what was the thing about? So I think it was the welcome lounge. So when new visitors come, we direct them to the welcome lounge, greet them, just give them some refreshments, make them feel welcome, thank them for coming to church. That was the thing. They made a five-year vision. They said, this is how we can do it. These are the things that we may need. Everything was documented. I was, wow, look at that. It's not that they're just simply up in the ranks. They know what they're doing. They're so articulate. Everything was considered. And I thought to myself that that day, we have such wonderful leaders in the church and sometimes we don't know. Sometimes we just think that, hey, I am the preacher or I'm going to teach. I'm going to preach. I have to do everything. No, not really. There are people within the church, within the ministries who have great potential but haven't been given the opportunity at all. Now, this other thing happened with one person at church. And one day, as I was talking to her, she said, one thing I'd like to do is pray. She said, wow, not many people spend hours in there. So I began to talk to her. She was saying, of course, she's married. Her children are grown up. She was saying, I love to pray. After I finish all my chores at home, I spent hours in prayer. And every time she prayed during the prayer time at church, there was this passion, this seed that she prayed with. It didn't matter to her whether there was one person or 10 people or 100 people. It was the same seed, it was the same passion. So I remember going up to her one day, I'm saying, why don't you lead the prayer team? Why don't you join the prayer team first? And then eventually you can lead the prayer team. She joined the prayer team. And then she started rostering people in the prayer team. And she says, I feel so satisfied just being in these teams. Success in the ministry is based on the ability to raise up successors. So therefore success without raising successors is a failure. That's strong worth, right? Success in ministry is based on the ability to raise up a success. Raise up people, raise up leaders in every team. And when we do that, we know that we are being successful because sometimes as the ministry grows, we may feel that this is enough. So for example, for the welcome team, you have five people right now where the church is maybe 50 people. Now once it's 200 people, you can't have five people in the welcome team. You need more than that. So we need to teach, even as we train others in ministry, we need to teach our leaders to train others. So there needs to be a successor. There needs to be the growth in ministry teams as well. Great leaders understand how to get everyone to participate. Very important. Everyone are important in the church. Now there will be times when people will come up to you as a pastor or as a leader. They may share things with you, right? Personal things, personal challenges. So this one time, I remember this gentleman, he was, he's about his, maybe his early 40s, he's going through a rough patch in his life. Just this season of tiredness, he got laid off his job, he's got commitments and he was so broken and the church was, you know, he was beginning to throw the gifts of the spirit of the previous church that he was going to was saying, you know, you can't do this, you can't, so he felt that there was, you know, he didn't feel that he could be himself. So, he was going through a lot and he just stepped into our church once. This is a couple of years back. And I remember talking to him and he was saying, you know, this is the thing, problems in the family, problems at work, laid off at work, have commitments, everything is going wrong. His children didn't respect him, they were living a very carefree life, so he was very broken. But he had come to church. So, then after a couple of weeks, after four or five weeks, I saw that he's been regular to church. So, I asked him, what do you do? He said, I'm an IT, all this IT work in the laptop and all these things. But what are you passionate about? He said, I'm passionate about sound. I've always wanted to be a sound engineer. So, I remember telling him, hey, we need people in the sound and setup team. So, I don't see if this is a thing. Sound and setup team, you have to come at 6am in the morning and then you have to set up everything, the mics, the sound system, the monitors, everything needs to be set up and then it should be ready by 7.30pm because 7.30pm, the worship team will come and they have their sound check and 8 o'clock Sunday service prayer starts. What do you think you can come at 6am? He said, yes, I'll come and it is a couple of weeks, maybe about four to five weeks, but then he started coming for the sound and setup and little did I know that after some time, the people on the team, the sound and setup team came up to me and said, this new person, he knows everything about those mixers and all those things, how do you use them? He knows everything. He's like an audio engineer, so I went up to him and said, hey, I heard that you know everything about this and he said, yes, I was very passionate about it, I learned everything on my own and so I know most of it. And you see, what I'm trying to say is there are people with different skills, different abilities unless the opportunity is given to them you may not know what they're able to do. And now he's leading up the sound and setup team. He's a leader, he trains those in the sound and setup team because he's so good and so passionate about what he does. He's been committed to the church, committed to coming early, so it's great to get everyone to participate. Along with the pastor, the rest of the leadership must be totally committed to the church growth. A leader's effectiveness is greatly influenced by those closest to him, that is his leadership team. Let's read that again. A leader's effectiveness is greatly influenced by those closest to him, that is his leadership team. Now as a leader, you will have a team. Remember we talked about this previously as well. We cannot do ministry alone. Ministry is about people and great leader will raise up teams, raise up other leaders and work together as a team. But imagine this, imagine there's a pastor in the church and he is always grumbling, always angry, always upset about things that are happening. What's going to happen? What the leadership closest to them will say, oh man, he's come. I wonder what kind of food he is in today. He's angry, upset. And what's going to happen? It's going to, remember the effectiveness, the leader's effectiveness is the others in the team, his team members are greatly influenced by him. If you have a leader who's upright, who's always positive, who's always looking at things and saying, hey, this is a vision, this is what we can do. Don't worry about our failures. We will pick up our socks. We will continue to do what we're doing. Yes, there will be times we will fail. Let's continue to trust God. God has a vision for us. There will be ups and downs. You're just re-energizing your team. What's going to happen? The team is going to say, hey, yes, God is with us. Thank you. We begin to influence the people under us. You have a senior pastor, then you have the associate pastor. The associate pastors begin to walk in that same anointing, that same effectiveness. This is what we said and this is what we can do. We begin to release that to our leadership team within the church. When people follow a leader because they want to, he's on his way of great achievement. But here's an important point. One day, we too will pass away. Any investment we wish to make in our succeeding generation, you must deposit into the lives of those who come after us. I'm very important. No. I'll just remind you of this example. What happened was people of Egypt, people of Israel have come out of Egypt. And after coming out of Egypt, God told Moses, this generation will not enter the promised land, but a whole new generation will enter it. So those who entered into the promised land was a new generation. Probably some were born in the promised land. And some of them were maybe small little children and they've gone into the promised land. Everything is fine here. There's a land flowing with milk and honey. There's good cultivation, good crops, good rain, good harvest, good weather, good work, good water. Everything is available there in Canada. Now, what was the mistake? The people did not invest into the next generation. The Israelites. So what happened was they did not tell their children what happened. They did not tell their children that, hey, why are we in this land? Because one day we were in Egypt. We were in bondage. The Egyptians used to beat us. The Egyptians used us as slaves for 400 years. But with God's mighty hand we came out and we came out to the desert. And God did these wonderful miracles. He parted the seas of the two. He was a pillar of cloud. He did mighty works. He spoke to us on the mountain. And then we came out of Egypt. We were wandering the desert because of our sin. It took us what should take about 15 days. 40 years and now we are here in the land of Canaan because God had promised us this land and he has faithfully given us this land. They did not teach it to the next generation. So the next generation had no clue what had happened in the past. That is why people of Deuteronomy, which is Deuton the second time, was written as a reminder. Listen, this is what happened to you. This is what you were. This is how God brought you out of Egypt. So the whole book of Deuteronomy is remember, remember this happened. Remember that happened. If we want to see, we must understand that we are going to move on. Right? We need to start investing in our next generation. Right? That is why some of the things that we teach at APC, especially in our children's church, it's not about it's not just children's things. It's bigger things. Some of the material that we do is what we are studying. Because nowadays children on their IQ levels are very high. They are able to grasp. They are able to learn. They are able to understand. They have a great ability to grasp things that are happening around us. A picture this 10 years ago or 15 years ago where children are able to use phones and tabs and they know how to go and download and do all these kinds of things. They didn't know. They have no clue. But now you have a three-year-old starting from probably three years old. They know exactly where to go. They know what to do. They know how to get it done. They know how to download things. They get it downloaded. They know how to do it. So you see this generation changes. It's now 10 years down the line. We never know how church is going to be, how leadership is going to be, how things are going to change. But we need to start depositing into our children's lives. That is the rich deposit is very important for our next leaders. Some of the things that I personally do is just something that I personally do. Whenever I children whenever they are around and they do something wrong or they have a question we make it a teachable one. We teach them through the word of God. What does the word of God say? I remember last week my son came up to me and said why do we have to put money in that box of the bag which Kalei everyone passed the bag. I said that's an offering to the Lord. What is that? And so it became a teachable moment. This is what it is. God gives us and we give back to God as a sign of our faithfulness. Of course I can use those big words but just trying to make them understand and sometimes what I do is whenever there is worship sessions I just take them along. They may not be sitting for the entire time but whenever possible they can at least watch. They get an idea. This is worship and prayer. When you go back home you can just talk to them and say which is your favorite song. Basically what we are doing is at a young age we are trying to cause it of God to their lives. Those seeds will bear fruit to their lives. Any questions before we go into next step? Any questions? OK. Training cell members into cell leaders. Now we talked about this. Remember the APC-12 model. Somewhere in the beginning of this course APC-12 model was one leader. You have 12 people in your life group and those 12 eventually all 12 of them become leaders and start their own life groups. So we talked about that. That's our goal. We want to see that happen. But how do we do that? What are the steps that are important? What are the things that we must keep in mind as leaders? As we raise up cell members to become cell leaders. Let's look at this. Step one develop relationships with members. As a cell leader we must develop relationship. Again, remember we need to be relational. We need to be people persons. We need to be able to develop the ability to be close to one another to develop relationships. This comes over time. As we develop relationships with cell members gently we point them down the path of a greater ministry. Meaning we tell them just gently we can say we started this life group maybe one year down the line we can say hey as a life group we want to see our goal is to raise up many more leaders. So do you think you can lead a cell group? It's something that we can just consider and give them time. Give them time say hey take your time let me know there's no pressure let me know whether you if you don't want to you're always welcome back to be part of the cell group but look for those who have a heart for God and that is the most important attribute. Other things can be learned teaching, preaching leadership skills all of that can be learned over time. But do they have a heart for God? Once they have a heart or a passion or zeal to do things for God all the other things all the other attributes can be developed as a leader. Spend time with them doing things they enjoy doing. Invite them to your home help them with projects you know Jesus was disciples were his best friends it's not like Jesus had some 12 disciples and then he had some other best friends somewhere else of course we know that Jesus there's no partiality but he he had best friends and he was always with them and I always wonder those 12 disciples son of God they saw the humanity of Jesus humanity of him when we that's something that we may not get an opportunity to see they saw God become flesh, they saw the humanity of this man just walking around in Jerusalem today or somewhere we are they went together, they ate together they slept together they probably had meals together so much together they planned out together everything was done together and after that after three years, three and a half years he says now it's time for you to go because he built a relationship with them a relationship with a foundation stone to obtaining the best out of people you have to win their hearts before you can win their hands what a powerful point this is right? you have to win their hearts before you win their hands you cannot accept people to keep doing things you have to volunteer, you have to volunteer we don't have volunteers please volunteer you can keep doing that if we haven't won their hearts they may be obligated to do what they do and there's no joy in that so if we win their hearts first so as a leader one of the things that you can do is especially if you are a cell leader and you know that there are 12 people in your cell group but there are 3 or 4 people who are very passionate very zealous try to spend that additional time with them maybe just get together talk things, be there you know win their hearts it's not like you're going to win their hearts just to make them work in the ministry or volunteer do more things it's not about that it's just that you are building a good relationship there's this wonderful unity that has been developed and it's a joy for that to happen especially as a pastor I can say that sometimes we need people volunteers we need people for for all that is happening within the church but there are times that people don't want to step in they don't want to serve and all of that it's okay why does this one person at church he stays very far off so about 30 kilometers away so they had moved to another place our service starts at 8am but one thing I knew that he is a leader in the corporate sector so he can really be a good team leader so I met up to him one Sunday I said hey how are you doing how are things how is your life, how is the work especially talk to him and I asked him this is something we need a team leader to look after in terms of caring for the members is it something that he said no I can't do it I come from I moved my house 30 kilometers away I just thought I'll come today but I will not come every Sunday and I said okay understandable 30 kilometers away so I remember this thing it's alright but in case you want to serve with anything just let me know there is a leader so as he said he never came every Sunday it was a genuine reason it's too far 30 kilometers 8am service it's not easy but maybe now and then I would just talk to him because one thing I knew that he would also attend our service online so he needed somebody to just talk to and be ministered to so every now and then I would call him talk to him and I build a relationship meaning I just got to know who he is what work he does and what his family about just general things and he began to share his prayer requests every now and then I would send him some WhatsApp messages and you know we just built a genuine relationship now it's not that I built this relationship so that he comes to church I knew that he's part of ABC he's part of our church God has placed him under our leadership so we must take care of them we must be people who can bless them he's very far away he can't come he's been watching online so we need to minister to him and so every now and then I would call and say hey how was the Sunday service you know you watched online so did you enjoy the service did you enjoy the word just over time a couple of months went by and he started coming to church every week every week he would come and meet me he would begin to talk to people in the church and he would come with his family so and his children would attend the children's church and teen church he had a teen son and every week they'd been coming so it was a month I saw that every week they were coming and then after that he just came up to us and he said I made some of the details he said I would like to serve in any team I said yeah sure and he served for a month and he saw every week he was coming and he would sometimes be there at 7.30 a.m he was there he was serving and then eventually he became the team leader of one of our teams team leader so it's not something that I had to force him I would say something that you have to get up come on it's once a week just do it for the Lord God will bless you you don't have to say all of that just build a relationship win their hearts and you know that every Sunday 30 kilometers away he's there at 7.30 a.m with his family and even their hearts they will do all that they can they will give their best for the team and for the church step 2 develop ministers out of members after you've developed that initial friendship you get them to the leadership you test their willingness to serve take them with you as your minister meaning ask leaders to be part of the cell group there are times when there are new cell groups starting maybe you can ask them to join you wherever you go challenge them to think about other cell groups how cell members need responses for example there will be some people in the cell group who want to be prayed for so you give them an opportunity he might be praying for this person and then you know why don't you minister to this person right so remember all this is being done while they are members because they are still developing them into that leadership right now even as you do that very important is to check their attitude right because sometimes we talked about this previously also a little bit leadership should not be given in a hurry book of Proverbs talks about it like leadership should never be given in a haste right look at their attitude because there's gifts there's talents which God has placed on us that's wonderful but attitude supersedes all of these gifts if you have these wonderful gifts and talents that God has blessed us with but our attitude is not white we're always walking, ridiculing talking wrong things or you know people that's not the right attitude but the gifts will still remain the Bible teaches us that the gifts of God are irrevocable God has placed those gifts and talents right but it's our attitude which we need to maintain check on their work or what they've been doing have they been able to spend time have they been able to grow in leadership look at you know especially when you think of raising up potential leaders see you know don't ignore these vital areas right like in the sense are they are they open to all kinds of ministry are they willing to do the smallest of tasks are they faithful in those small things you know there will be meetings there will be seminars are they willing to come these are small things yet very important things leaders who have no heart for the lost or mentor based discipleship have been given groups which then stagnate right so there are people who have leaders who have no heart for ministry or you know there's no heart for leadership for raising up other leaders what will happen is that church or the ministry the team will stagnate right so even as we develop ministers give them time but also give them opportunities to step out right stage 3 make the challenge after you you know you will give them 6 months or a year you build your relationship given them 6 to 7 months or even a year to just step out begin to check on their leadership skills are they able to minister to people are they doing the tasks that have been assigned and if you feel that they are ready just train them assign them to be self group leaders give them responsibilities but don't give them a title because give them confidence have them to be share what you have seen in him publicly encourage them share what you that you worked along with them respect them honor them remember that they are core labors ask them to you know basically you are telling the church you are telling the life members hey this person I have seen his work I have seen that over the past year I have been working with him closely he has done a wonderful work he has been faithful in serving you know so he is a core laborer of Christ and so now we are you know we respect him we honor him and we release him to be the leader and he is going to start he or she is going to start their own serving group so let's pray and bless them basically what you are doing you are publicly you are saying that you have tested you have seen he will do a good work even as I say this I think one of the most perfect examples of that of Paul and Timothy Timothy as a young boy about 17 years old Paul picks him up and says Paul let's go let's go for our missionary journeys and he takes him he sees Timothy sees everything everything he sees he sees Paul being beaten, put into prison he is seeing Paul's attitude he is seeing Paul how he has served even in the troubles what kind of attitude he has how hardworking he is everything he has seen right and now Timothy now Paul is getting old he knew that there is something important for Timothy and so towards the end says okay Timothy you go you pastor this church Ephesus the church is already a very established church they have bishops, deacons overseers everything is there the church is a growing church but it is a hostile place Ephesus there is going to be problems there Paul you go and lead the church there so what is he saying to the church Timothy my fellow worker in Christ he is writing to the church Ephesus he is my fellow worker in Christ right he is my brother in Christ he is my co-laborer in Christ he has the same spirit that I have he is writing all this Paul does not say his boy I only took him up I am the one who chose him I know what I should do with him right he says he is a co-laborer he is my son he has the same spirit in me so honor him don't let others despise you because of your youth or for your young age there may be people bigger than you they may know more than you but you are the leader in Ephesus so we see that finally step 4 help them to start their cell even as you release them it is not that you release them and tell them you go and start your cell group some of the things that we can probably connect people to their cell group provide them with the names and numbers of those who they can connect to so you don't spoon feed them but you learn to delegate you tell him or her to do it these are 10 numbers even as you start the cell group go back home call them up let them know you started the cell group give them the timing, give them the date and follow up with them and then let me know what is their response so you are helping them to start let people test their wings if you only do things you know well and do comfortably you will never reach higher goals so have them to imagine if you raise up a cell leader you give them 10 numbers and say you will have to go back call them this person says I don't like calling then in a haste we have made a decision this person must be willing to do all that help them to step out comfort zones and then see that they are able to not be complacent just be there for them to build them up, to stir them up and continue to push them to get off the ground to get off their comfort zone so these are simple steps that we can do to help people move from being cell members to eventually being cell leaders Kennedy sorry since I was projecting the notes I didn't see your question can we come back, we will take a break we will begin with answering Kennedy's question then we will get into your study we will take a break, we will come back in 10 minutes thank you