 Right. Good morning everyone. Welcome to new day and let's just begin this time with a word of prayer. So maybe any one of us can please lead in prayer. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this morning. Lord, we humble ourselves once again before your presence. We pray to God that you would speak to us. Talk to us, Lord Jesus. Help us to understand your word in a better way. And we pray that you would make this time beneficial for each one of us. And also, we certainly pass into many hands that you would speak through him. Help us to know your heart, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, John. Okay, so BC 206 is coming to a close. We are almost done. I hope this has been a good learning for each of you. I really enjoyed just preparing and I personally swear to learn to Lord. So we've come to chapter 12. We've been talking about the pastor. And last week we spoke about the roles and responsibilities and rewards of the pastors. And so we saw what are the responsibilities as a pastor. What must they do both in personal life in terms of looking after the church and family as well. So we looked at a couple of those responsibilities. And then we also looked at the rewards. We focused on how the Lord is our reward and how Apostle Paul also says that my reward in heaven is you, the people. And the fruit of our labor is our reward. It's so wonderful, especially as pastors when we see a church growing, growing not only in numbers but also growing in spiritual maturity. People are growing in the word. It's such a joy to see that. It's such a rewarding feeling. And so this week what we'll do is we'll, chapter 13, we'll go through chapter, chapter 12 is the restoration of the ministry of the pastor. So what I thought was we will do that next week. But this week we'll go to chapter 13. And since we are on the same track of the responsibilities of the pastor, so we'll just look at practical keys to doing the ministry of the pastor. And we'll finish this in this class, this one hour session. And then the next session, you can feel free to do your assessment or your assignment or you can just keep that time to study whichever course that you would like to. And then next week we'll come back with a restoration of the ministry of the pastor with this and the week following that I will be traveling so there won't be class. So next Thursday will be our last session and we'll do chapter 12. So this week we'll do chapter 13. I hope that's all right. Okay. So chapter 13, we have there a list of general responsibilities of a pastor. Now I know we've talked about it but there may be some repetitions but let's look at a few general responsibilities of a pastor. First one, to pray and grow in relationship with God so that what is undertaken by the congregation reflects the leading of God. Again, we emphasize this as pastors. The most important area of our life must be prayer. Prayer and growing in God's word. As leaders, we cannot be in a place where we are saying, okay, I know this so I'm comfortable in this. No. As pastors, our heart's desire must be that we continually pray, we continually grow in the things of God. So for example, you have a congregation of maybe 20 or 30 people. Now as the years go by eventually the congregation will grow. And so every Sunday we must be able to share a sermon or a message. And you can't give something fresh if we are still sitting in a pond. Jesus said, rivers of living water shall flow. Now how will that river flow? Unless we drink of it, meaning we need to get into God's word, then we get something fresh, stay fresh in revelation, stay fresh in the word of God. And this is very important. The moment leaders put prayer and studying the word of God secondary, then something's wrong. I just remember this example. I remember I joined Bible college and when I joined Bible college, I just left the IT company and I joined. And I joined with one thing in mind. I wanted to grow in God's word. Nothing else that mattered to me. I didn't care about the food. I didn't care about anything else. What are the classes? What are the timings? Nothing bothered me. All I wanted to do. I had one vision in that two years to grow in the word, to grow in the spirit. And that's all to grow in my relationship with God. So that was in my mind. But the moment I joined Bible college, I realized that, hey, I'm doing things. I'm praying. I'm reading the word of God. But a lot of my time is going to things that are not really important. And I thank God for, and that's why prayer is so important, right? I remember every time I pray, I said, I would feel like some things are not right. I can give so much more to God. What is wrong? Am I spending too much time talking and doing all the other things? You know, we used to stay in a hostel. So all the friends, all the boys would be together. And then, you know, of course we had a phone. And I remember, you know, every now and then while studying, the phone would beep. Now, the thing was, I was also on the worship team that time. So I needed a phone to coordinate with things in the worship team. And so it was a common thing. But I realized at one point of time, the phone is causing me to stop spending quality time with God. And it is stopping me from spending more time reading and praying the word of God. So I switched off the phone and I kept it away. But eventually, while praying, I kept thinking of the phone. What if somebody is calling? What if somebody is trying to get in touch with me? So many times I switched on the phone again. And then one time, I remember, I said, God, I cannot do this. Either I quit because I don't want to, you know, put half Bible college, half my mind somewhere else. Either I quit or I choose to give my full time and effort towards Bible college. That is a desire for me, right? And I remember I went to the restroom. I put the phone into the toilet and I flushed the phone. I didn't want it because I wanted to grow in God's Word. So two years, no phone. I just didn't want it. So many of my friends are like, why did you, at least you should have given the phone to me, but I just didn't want it. And the reason was I wanted to know that what I'm doing, I wanted to see God work in my life, right? And so when we desire this, God will come through. When we pray, when we seek God, it's an ongoing relationship. It keeps growing. And then you will see it reflecting in the congregation. That's the most beautiful part. You will see it reflecting in the people that you're ministering to. You'll see it, right? Two, focus on families. Focus on personal family's welfare that they are cared for spiritually, emotionally, physically. Now, we did talk about how there are great pastors and great ministry leaders who do a lot of ministry work, but not looking after the family's welfare, right? They very, they give 100% to the church, which is good, but they have not looked, not cared for the family. Now, the primary responsibility, and I remember people used to give this example, right? So there's God one circle, there's family one circle, and then there's ministry one circle. And I realized that's so wrong because it's a big circle with God and inside God is family and ministry. And at the APCs, one of the things that we always emphasize is that it's first God, then it's family, then it's ministry. Some may say, oh, then how can you put ministry third? God is first, right? But second is family, then is ministry. So there will be times as pastors, you will have to sacrifice, you will have to cancel meetings, you will have to say, no, I'm spending time with my family, spending time with my children, and that's a healthy thing to do. Because sometimes you may feel that our comfort place is holding the mic and preaching. That's our comfort place. And we like to do events, programs, that's wonderful. But in that process, if we don't look after the family, you don't look after the spiritual needs of the family, emotional or physical needs of the family, it, again, like what we talked about, will be good in ministry. But like I suppose Paul says, how can a person not look after his own family? How can he look after the church of God? So as pastors and as ministry leaders, there may be busyness, but take a break from those busy times, spend time with family. Three, seek God's vision for the church and be the primary vision caster for the ministry. Very important. Now, if you have your own ministry, you seek God's vision for that ministry. God, what is the vision that you want me to do? You have for me, what is the vision? Is it to, you know, you'll get a feeling, the more you spend time in God's word, God will lead you. So it could be, the vision could be to touch lives, communities within the city, maybe in the nation, the nations, or maybe, you know, equip people in God's word. That could be a primary vision just cause another vision could be only discipleship. As a church, we want to be discipleship. Another vision could be just building community and fellowship. So different ministries have different visions. Another vision could be more mission-minded, right? As a church, we're going to go and reach out, evangelize and start churches in different other places. Now, not all of them may have that vision. Right? So you seek God's vision for the church. And two, be the primary vision caster for the ministry. If you get a vision from God for your ministry, or you already have a ministry, you already have a vision, be the primary vision caster, which means if we have the vision and we don't share it with the church, there's no use. How can I, you know, when Jesus, let's picture this, Jesus came and he started his earthly ministry. What did he do? He, first thing he did, he told, he told his disciples, he chose the 12 disciples and he told them, this is what is going to happen. This is what is going to happen. I'm going to be here for some time. I'm going to be taken away. I'm going to be beaten. He's telling them what's going to happen. But all of this, but you will see that, you know, he talks about this through the sign of Jonah. He says, just like the son, like Jonah was in the belly of the fish, the same way the son of man will rise on the third day. He's putting forth and he's letting them know that this is the vision. This is why I have come here. And one day I'm going to go, I'm going to rise up from there. I'm going to defeat the enemy. He's already shared the vision with them. And he kept telling them every now and then, especially to the disciples, he kept reminding them, there's going to come a time. I'm not going to be here with you, but you will carry on what is being done. And so when Jesus resurrected, they caught that vision. Oh yes, Jesus said this. Initially, when he was on the cross, they didn't understand it, but after he resurrected the vision, they caught it. Okay, we have to do it. Now Jesus is not there, but you see how the early church just took that vision forward. So vision is something that needs to be repeated. As leaders, keep repeating it. Every time you have meetings, every time you have Bible studies, it could be just three, four people. And you could just keep telling them, hey, one day we want to see the church this way. We want to see many hundreds of people, hundreds of lives being touched. Small groups coming. You just share your vision with people, with the church especially. And then there are personal visions. For example, God is leading you towards something. If you'd like to, you can share it. If not, you can just keep it to yourself and pray about it. But as a church, seek God's vision and keep reminding them. Because there's a reason to remind them. See, we can go through the whole process of church. Come Sunday morning, finish church, go home. Come Sunday morning, finish church, go home. It just becomes a process, right? You know, okay, Sunday morning church. And then it gets over and then we all go have lunch and then we go home, we rest. And then next day, the Monday starts. Yes, it's a routine. But if the vision is strong inside, it doesn't become a vision only for Sunday. So in our mind, it'll be, hey, Monday, I'm going to office or I'm going to meet somebody. I hope I can get an opportunity to share the gospel with them. Why? Because in church, the vision is being repeated. And so it can really affect and it can really be something that can really minister to the congregation. Fourth one, oversee the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. Now, you are, as a pastor, you will be in charge of preaching and teaching the Word of God. But you will also be in charge of protecting the flock. And we talked about this previous class as well, right? So there will be many doctrines, many false understandings about entering the church. But as pastors and leaders, you and I must be able to protect the church, right? Protect them from wrong doctrines. And also when it comes to teaching and preaching the Word of God, make sure that, you know, if you feel there are people in your church that can preach and teach the Word of God, one, give them response, give them opportunities, right? And two, if you see that they're growing and they are developing and you feel that they can be good leaders, continue to give opportunities. Now, the mistake sometimes what happens is it's happened in many places where, you know, a pastor may choose a young leader and this young leader is given a couple of opportunities and he does better than the pastor. That he teaches or preaches better than the main pastor and everyone are talking about him. And the main pastor, if everyone forgotten me, they like this new guy. And then, you know, we may not give them an opportunity again. Now, that is the wrong thing to do, right? So give responsibilities, give opportunities. Our vision, our mission is to build people into Christlikeness, right? So oversee the teaching and the preaching of the Word of God, right? Now, this also comes to play when, you know, especially when a church, once it keeps growing, you're going to have something like small groups. So other people are going to lead the church, lead the small groups. Very important to make sure that every teaching and everything that's being taught in these small groups and like groups are in line with the Word of God. That is why we at ABC, we have something called as life groups. And in life groups, what is usually discussed is what is preached on Sunday. So it's not some random topic which any leader can just choose and just speak about it now. So what is discussed on Sunday was my mind. So we're going to, you know, just take a few pointers from that, leave it open for discussion. And then the life group leader just facilitates the whole, you know, discussion time. So we know that all the life groups that we have across our city are talking about a Sunday sermon that was preached, at least having their own teaching and all of that. Now, the teaching may be good, but we need to be overseers of that, right? What if they say things that are not in line with the Word of God? Now, something that is already said is very hard to take back. And so it's very important that you oversee these things, right? Be the steward responsible for the administration of the sacraments. Now, as of now, we know the church has two sacraments. One is the Lord's table and two is what a baptism. So be good stewards of responsible for the administration of these two. So in terms of the Lord's table, very important that you teach about the Lord's table, you teach your congregation, make them understand, lest it becomes like the church in Corinth where, you know, the church in Corinth, they were flowing in the gifts and they were doing all these wonderful things, but they had immaturity in them. That is why the apostle Paul was, you know, stunned with them. He says, don't you have homes where you can eat and drink because you'll are coming here, you'll are taking the Lord's table whenever you'll feel like there's no order, there's only chaos within the church. So in terms of administrating the whole thing of sacraments, ensure that it's done in an appropriate way in an orderly manner. And there's reverence, you know, there's a sense of, you know, knowing that, hey, this is what Jesus did for us and there's this joy, there's this freedom in the presence of God. So it's very important to teach the congregation. Now, the mistake that I made is many times I thought, okay, they already know. They know, okay, you know, Lord's table, you should, you know, be prepared for it, prepare your heart, prepare your mind. But over the years I learned that not everyone know because people may be coming from traditional backgrounds to a spiritual church. Now they know I just have to take it because everyone are taking it. So it's very important to teach them, right? Including people who are believers in the con, teach them, remind them this is what Jesus did on the cross and when we had partaking of it, this is what we receive. This is what we are opening our lives to the power of the cross. This is what happens to us. And so when you're teaching them and you're administering this, the Lord's supper, this power and that, right? And including water baptism. So some of the things that we do, a couple of practical things that we do at APC, maybe you can also think of implementing that in your church if you haven't yet. One is we have something called as a water baptism consent form, right? So what is this? This is a form which if a person wants to be water baptized, he has to fill in this form. It's basically a consent form saying I, Paul, Emmanuel, I'm agreeing to be water baptized under this pastor and this is the church and this is of my own doing and nobody has forced me to do this. Now, why do we have this, right? Especially in our nation of India, people may come up and say, you know, pastors, you're not forcing people to be water baptized or you're not converting people and all these allegations may come up. So you have the water baptism consent form. We also have a photo which is stapled to that form and it's sealed and signed by the pastor of the church. So even the person who's being water baptized is signed. So that way practically we've done our part, right? And then we also in the spiritual aspect, we pray for them, we teach them what is baptism and the Book of Romans talks about it, how their water baptized, they recognize the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this practical thing is very important. Let me give you an example. There's this one time, a young man, a young boy, he's a student. He said, I want to be water baptized. And so I said, okay, he's been serving in the church for more than a year or so. So I said, okay, there's a water baptism consent form. So he filled in the form. We had the photo. We stapled it. And then I asked him a lot of questions like, is he okay? Where's his parents? Okay. So he said, no, my mother is a believer, but my father is a unbeliever. He doesn't believe in Jesus and he's not here. He's in another nation. But this is what I want to do. And so the mother was very happy, but he filled in the form. We did everything. We finished with the water baptism. And a couple of months later, I get a call from his father saying, who are you and why are you behind my son? Why are you? What did you do to him? I heard that you have done some ritual on him. And that is why now he's not getting a job. He's nothing is happening good in his life. And it was a difficult time, but he said, I'm going to come back. Come to India. I want to meet you. I want to talk to you. And he didn't come. He came in and he came and he met me. He was really upset. He said, how can you do this? You people are converting, you know, our religion is in India is as a nation. You know, our religion is Hinduism. How can you change it? You bring the Western culture here and all kinds of things. And I remember telling him, you know, uncle, I appreciate you and I appreciate everything that you're saying. I understand you're hurt and all of that. But this is your son's own doing. He's above 22. He's above 18 years of age. And this is the form he filled in. This is the form that he signed. This is what he also wrote there, why he wants to get water baptized. And he saw that in his own handwriting, his son's handwriting. And he completely calmed down. He said, okay, then it's not your fault. It's my son's fault. I have to talk to him. And the matter just was resolved. I just in a few moments, it just got resolved practical step. But after that, you know, he went through his trouble where his father, you know, troubled him, but he was turned and he was confident in his faith. So in terms of administering things in the sacraments, teach, do the practical things and then make sure it's done in a responsible way. Sixth one, in all things strive to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. I think the number one need for the church right now. I wouldn't say number one, but one of the main needs in the church is unity. Right now, where there is unity and where there's oneness is where it's beautiful. The church is nice. Now imagine there's divisions within the church. I think as a pastor, I would never want to go, you know, it's going to be so difficult because we have groups of people with different ideas, different plans. And then you know that these two groups don't like each other and they are ministering. So as a pastor, our main one of our, you know, something that we strive for is to maintain unity. Now to maintain unity, there will be times we may have to make hard decisions. There will be times we may have to take stern decisions, but it's important for the church, right? Maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Remember in 1 Corinthians, the Corinthian church is the best example, right? So there's division. Some say I follow Cephas, some say I follow Paul, some say I follow Christ, some say I follow Paul. So there are different groups of people and Paul is writing and saying there's no, can the body say I don't need you? Can the eye say to the leg or the hand say to the mouth, I don't need you. When you are in one body, you are all in unity with one another. So it is something that we have to strive for. It doesn't happen automatically. Remember that in a congregation there are people and people with different temperaments, right? People with different ideas, different, you know, plans, different thoughts, right? Individuals, we're all different, right? We have different characters, but the responsibility of a pastor is to bring all of that together to maintain unity. Just open to 1 Corinthians and there's one thing that the apostle Paul did. Forget the chapter and the verse, but in 1 Corinthians, there are people within the church who are causing trouble, right? And I forget which verse is that, but it's in 1 Corinthians. They're causing trouble within the church and Paul says to them, put them out of the church for now. I think that verse is, he says, hand them over to Satan now. That's a big understanding. We must understand that Paul is not saying, you know, put them in Satan's hand. No, which means take them out of the spiritual authority or the spiritual control of the church for a while, right? Now, there will be time. Sorry, I'm not sure where that verse is, but it's in 1 Corinthians, I guess. So what are we trying to get at now to maintain unity within the church? There will be times when we have to bring correction in a stern way. There will be times we will have to take drastic steps of requesting people to move out. Now you may think, oh, that is very stern. How can you tell a person to move out of church? No, you can't. If they are disrupting, if you feel as a pastor that this person is causing problems within the church, disrupting the unity of the church for the sake of the church, right? First, you give them an opportunity. You correct them. Two, you give them time to change. Three, after a certain period of time, you don't see any change. You don't see any change in their character or the way they are. And you still see there's division and there's hatred and there's the sense of disunity. Okay, thank you, John. It's 1 Corinthians 5-5. So if you still see that happening within the church, as a leader, it is your responsibility. The mistake that I made many a times is that if somebody had a problem, I would say, okay, it's okay, just be good. Don't fight among yourselves. I would try to look at it in a spiritual aspect. Spiritually I would say, hey, why don't you pray? God will remove all your hatred. But then I realize, hey, this is the wrong way to deal with it. The entire church is getting affected with this one person or this one family. So I have to deal with it. And I was very young, so I felt, okay, these are people who have been in the Lord for many years. But then through the advice of our senior pastors, other pastors, I understood that, hey, the church is important. Once this is out of the way, the church will be in peace. So for the sake of the church, you have to be willing to make decisions. Many times I've taken the dust, put it under the carpet and said, my church, the church is clean. It is not clean. Only thing you have to move the carpet and the dust is there. So, hash pastors, many people will talk, many people will say many things. But if you are right, the psalmist says he will cause your enemies to falter and he will cause you to be honorable in front of your enemies. That's a verse that I always declare, right? People say many things and if you know you're doing things right in the eyes of God, you're leading God's people in the right way. God will cause honor over your enemy, cause you to be successful and honorable in front of your enemies. And so pastors, you must be willing to make these hard decisions, right? Seventh one, establish ministries that seek to ensure that every member and prospective member is cared for in Christlikeness. Now, another very important aspect in pastoral ministry is member care. Now, you have members coming, people coming into the church. So, they are different people, different individuals. How will you care for them? We must be able to care for them. It's not like they come, they sit on Sundays, okay, they're giving to God, they're growing in the world. So, that's more than enough. So, Monday to Friday, I will sit back. No. So, it calls for caring for the members. How can I do that one? Everyone have a birthday so you can call and wish them. Everyone who are married have a wedding anniversary so you can call and wish them. Every family who have children have something or the other they would want prayer for or need help for. So, you can be there for them. Everyone in the family will have people who will, you know, eventually pass away. So, there's time of bereavement. So, these are things involved in terms of member care. Caring for the members in Christ's likeness. Now, at APC, we have something called as the member care team. And in the member care team, we have OPC. We call it OPC because it's called one phone call. So, every church member tries to get a call and we just talk to them. One. Two, there's, you know, birthday wishes, anniversary wishes. There's, when there's a death, you know, we make sure that we are there for them. You know, there's a, there's a team in the, you know, just being there in the home for prayer. And then there's another team looking after the, you know, the burial and all the procedures. A lot of practical things involved. Now, the family is mourning. The family is in bereavement. They can't go and do all the practical things of assigning registers and all of that. That's not the time. So, as pastors and as a church, we must be there for them. Right. So, many other things, right. So, there will be times of counseling, times of caring for the members. People will come and say, you know, I don't feel cared for in the church. I can't say, you can't say, no, if you don't feel cared, then you look for another church. I can't say that. Right. As a leader, I need to care because they are my sheep. I must be willing to care for them. Right. And so we have different kinds of people within the church be willing to care for them. Right. One of the things that I can suggest, you know, pastors or people who are leading ministries here is to, is to form a team. Right. Don't put the burden only on yourself because if you do so, you may not be able to fulfill the whole thing. Right. It may not be too efficient. So, if you feel, you know, there are 100 people in the church, form a team of maybe 10 or 15 people. Right. You have about seven girls, seven, seven men, seven women, probably a couple of youth as well, have them a team and train them up. Teach them how, what is member care and what we want to do, what we want to achieve. And so when you're building this team, you'll know that, you know, you oversee the team. But you know that, okay, all members are being cared for within the church. So if there's any counseling need, any material need, financial need, everything comes through the member care team or it can come directly to the pastor. But we know, okay. Now, one of the issues is that once we become 500, 600,000 people in the church, right, it's a large gathering. And we may not be able to meet every need of the person. But here's the thing, as a pastor, if you start off something when the church is small, when you really have a strong member care team, as it grows, the members themselves will feel that sense of member, you know, there's a care. There's, there's people, there are people who can look after us. There are whenever I have need, there are people I can go to. So the culture of caring for members is already set in place. So that is why I always emphasize that, especially small churches, it is very important to build, to look at the vision. Okay, 10 years from now, if I want to be this, I have to start working from now. I have to start setting in this culture. Okay, this is the culture of the church. So 10 years from now, they'll know, okay. One thing we know about this church, this is what it is. If we need help, they are there, or if we call the pastors, they're willing to come. So set things in motion. Establish ministries that every member is cared for. So that could be member care, that could be prayer cells, that could be care cells, that could be life groups, that could be women's ministries, men's ministries, workplace ministries, so many ways. Build teams. Eighth one, raise up God's people into leadership of His church, equipping, empowering, and supporting them in their God-given ministry. Okay, John has a question here. How do you avoid the pitfall of gossiping during member care? During member care, John, I didn't really get that. Yeah, so let's say we are assigning people to call people and eventually ending up not getting to know them when we are starting to gossip. Yeah, so that's what, so John, one thing is when you're choosing leaders, choose them wisely. Right now, I know that there could be times when they may get to know each other and they start talking about many other things. So one thing good is to meet with them every month or maybe every two months, three months, meet with them and keep reiterating the vision with them. So the reason we're doing this is so that we can build each other up, care for each other, and we don't want, you know, you can openly tell them because that's a team that you are building. You openly tell them, let's make our calls more effective, avoid talking about things that are happening in the church. If there are, you know, things that, you know, problems within the church or some issues or somebody is going through a problem and they've shared it with you, you know, tell them. That's all confidential. Don't talk about it. You know, yeah, John, so the mistake I've made is I've not told. I've, many times I felt, okay, they'll do it. They'll do it the right way, but I was so wrong. Right. I was so wrong. So one of the ways is to tell them, right? Tell them, tell your team. This is what I expect. And this is how we should, you know, build this member care team. What is the reason of starting the ministry and why we are doing this? And also tell them that, you know, if you see that there's no change, let them know, again, as what we talked about, right? Let them know that, you know, we may have to, after giving repetitive corrections, we don't see any changes. You can tell them, hey, I feel that you can, you know, just begin to start a continue attending church, but take a break from the member care team. But it's very important that you tell them, right? Meet with them. Tell them. Yeah. Okay. Raise up God, God's people into leadership. Very important. Paul raised up wonderful people in, in his life. Wonderful, wonderful leaders. Titus, Timothy, and many, many other leaders who he raised up, you know, just, just people who have, you know, Paul equipped them. I think the most beautiful example of, you know, raising up leaders is Paul and Timothy. And I think every ministry uses that. Even Joe, Moses and Joshua, right? Beautifully, the beautiful transition. Moses led the people. Moses took Joshua, most of the places that he went, Joshua saw the life and the ministry of Moses, Moses took on the responsibility. And we could just see that transition happening. And look at Paul and Timothy. Paul chooses Timothy about 17 years old. They, you know, they, the church said that he was a good man who loved the Lord. That's all. No great talents, nothing. He loved the Lord serving in the church. Paul chooses him a little bit. Timothy, you know, that he would be in the books talking about him thousands of years later. Right. And, and here we are seeing that, you know, Timothy is raised up. There comes a time when Paul is saying he's a cold laborer with me. He's no more a small boy, 17 years old, just walking with me. No, no, he's a cold laborer in Christ. He's reached that place of maturity. And he's there in Ephesus. So it's wonderful to see, especially as pastors and leaders, when we see men and women of God raising from a place from where they are to where God wants them to be. That is the greatest joy that we can find as pastors and leaders. Right. Yes, it's wonderful to see the church grow. It's wonderful to see the thousands of people coming into church. That's good. But I feel the greatest joy is to see a person from where they are to where God wants them to be. And that's, that's wonderful. Right. So that should be our vision always as pastors. Who can take up the next responsibility? Who can take up the next mantle? And Jesus did that wonderfully. Right. He chose the 12. We knew they are going to take it up. And he says to them also, all of you will be seated, you know, in heaven. All of you will be there. I will remember all of you. Revelation says there were 12 pillars in there on the 12 apostles name. But Judas is not there in that, but there are 12. The other one chosen was in the book when the disciples chose the new apostle. But they were remembered. Right. So raise up godly people within the church. Let your life be an example to them. Right. Supervise the other staff of the congregation to keep the ministry in a common direction, aligned with the vision. Right. Supervise. All of us as pastors must supervise. Don't feel that. Okay. If I'm supervising, will they say I'm being controlling? No. There will be times you have to put your hand down. You have to say things the way it is. Right. Ministry is no more. I mean, it's not about, you know, just saying, okay, okay to everything. No. There are times you have to, and there are times you continue to show grace and grace and mercy. But there are times you have to bring correction. You have to do it. Right. Supervise the congregation, see whether they're all in line with the vision of the church, provide spiritual direction, oversee the development of the members and to ensure financial time and talent support for the church and the ministry. This is very important again, ensuring that, you know, financial things that are happening within the church are used wisely. Time management within the church, your personal time management, time management in terms of the team, everything is helping and benefiting the church. Be responsible for Christian counseling or you can also refer people to Christian counselors. Now, like for example, we have, as pastors, you know, people come up to us and they ask us, you know, can you help me in this? But there are certain areas they need, you know, additional professional counseling. Right. And that's when, as pastors, so in APC we have a team of professional counselors, and we call it chrysalis counseling where, you know, members, people not only from our church, but from other churches also they can come and be counseled professionally by professional counselors with biblical insights. Right. So that is very powerful. Now, we can only go to a certain point. Right. So for example, if somebody is in depression, we can meet them, we can pray for them, we can do two or three times. But then we know that this person needs professional counseling over time. So we just lead them towards the right person who can counsel them. Be responsible, sorry, last one, conduct services, weddings and funerals. Now, this is a very important thing. Again, it's a practical thing, but it's important. Pastors, we will have to be able to conduct weddings, funerals, and other kinds of events, house warming, you know, house dedications, baby dedications, all kinds of things they call us to. So we must be willing to, you know, just be there and be there for the church, be there for the congregation. Right. So we'll come to a close. What we'll do is next week, we'll look at the pastor, the restoration of the pastor and the early church, and we'll bring the course to a close next week. And probably November 1st week, I will put up your final assessment as well. And yeah, any questions? Any thoughts, any questions before we close? All right, so let's close in prayer. Rosalind, can you please close in prayer? Anybody, anybody can close in prayer. Isaac. Yes, pastor. Thank you, Isaac. Yes, Lord, we want to thank you for this wonderful session shared by our pastor. We want to thank you, Lord, and we want to ask that you continue to shower him with inspiration and foresight. We want to thank you for the class. We want to thank you for all of us who are attending the class. We benefited so much from these lectures. Father, let it be part of us. And let us be implementers. And let us be an impact to others. We want to thank you for the ministry. We want to thank you for ABC. We want to thank you. We want to glorify your name. Father, let your name be honored. Let your name be glorified. Let us be the salt and the light. This and all other masses who ask in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much, pastor. Thank you. Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, everyone, for joining. I'll see you next week for our last class. Have a great week ahead and take some time to maybe complete your assessments as well. God bless.