 Right. Welcome. Welcome to those who joined. Right. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer before we start the class. Father, we thank you for this time, Lord, and even as we prepare and learn, pray God that you will reveal your heart, your plans, your purposes for our lives. Thank you for your word. Thank you for teaching us, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. So last year, two days back, we did the spiritual dynamics. We looked at the natural dynamics of the church. We looked at the spiritual dynamics as well as the church. Now, let's go to chapter seven, which is urban church planting. And we look at how few aspects on how churches were started in the book of Acts, the urban church. And then we'll get into chapter eight, which is church planting or the core of the topic that we are going to cover. How to get started. So let's go with chapter seven first. Now, the commission was given to an Acts chapter one verse eight. It says, but you will receive power to be a witness where the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea's, Mary and the ends of the earth. So God is saying, I'm going to fill you with the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses to start churches, ministries all across the world. Now, let's look at Acts chapter two. Now, we know most of this, we know the story, but in Acts chapter one, we see that the 120 were praying, seeking God. Acts chapter two was the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon the 120. And we see the whole story there. We know the story. Peter addresses the crowd in Acts chapter two. And let's just read Acts two and verse 41. Now, Peter has preached all through from Acts chapter two was 14 onwards. He has brought out the whole gospel. He's shared. Okay. This is what happened. This is Jesus. You have persecuted you put him into you have killed him, but God raised him from the dead. Now, he seated at the right hand of the Father and he's calling all of us to repent forgiveness of sins and turn our lives to him. And after this entire message, chapter two, it was 41, those who accepted this message were baptized and about 3000 were added to their number that day. Right. So this was the first church plant. Of course, the word church, at least here came much later. But if you see here, it says those who accepted this message were baptized. 300 3000 were added to their number. So later on, we see that the church of Jerusalem in Jerusalem began to grow because we see in the same chapter was 47 47, which is praising God and enjoying the favor of all people. And the Lord added to their number daily, those who are being saved. So we see that the early church, the gospel was shared. People were added into the church. And as we go on, we'll see many, many passages on how God added people into the church. People were minister to people were evangelized. They reached out the disciples. They followed the same model that the Lord Jesus had established. They said, go, reach, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers and do these miracles because I'm sending you my name. Right. And then let's get to Acts chapter eight. Now, Acts chapter eight also is very interesting. Now, let me give you, we can't read the entire chapter, but let me just give you a little bit of a background here. The church in Jerusalem is being persecuted, right? So you've got about 3000 and more people because more people were added. So more than 3000 people in the church, the church is being persecuted. The Romans, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Jews themselves, the Gentiles, so they would be persecuted on every side. So what happened? They were scattered out to different places. And when they were scattered out, Philip went into Samaria. If we read Acts chapter four, eight was four. Those who had been scattered reached the word. There ever they went was five. Philip went to a city in Samaria and proclaimed Christ there. And when the crowds heard Philip and saw the miraculous signs he did, they all paid close attention to what he said, right? Which shrieks evil spirits came out of many and many paralytics and cripples were hidden. So there was great joy in that city. So it is most likely that after the ministry of Philip, Philip was also called the evangelist later on. It is most likely that the church community was established in that place. Let's go now to Acts 13. Acts 13. Now, because of this persecution, what's happening is some of them went into Samaria. Some of them went to Judea and some of them went to Antioch. Now, this is not the Roman Antioch, but this is the Episcidian Antioch, right? Antioch in Antioch and there was a church that had already been started there. So the Jews or the Christians, the believers in Jerusalem got to know that the church in Antioch is growing. So they said, okay, we need to send somebody there. So Peter and the other disciples send Barnabas there. And if you read, let's go to Acts 13. No, let's go to Acts 12 towards the end was 24. But the word of God continued to increase and spread when Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission. They returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John and also Mark. Now, this is again the ministry that started in Antioch. Yes, the ministry that started in Antioch, Paul and Barnabas, they went and they ministered, built the church. And we also see that this church was already established in the free. They had prophets, they had evangelists, they had the 5-fold ministry almost already functioning in the church. Paul and Barnabas go there, built the church. I'm just going quickly because we can't explain the whole thing. These are places where how churches were planted. Acts 17 was 124. Now, this we all know. Acts 17, Paul is in his second missionary journey. He's going into Thessalonica and let's read 1 to 4. Acts 17, 1 to 4. Would anyone like to read? Acts 17 was 1 to 4. Yes, would anyone like to read? Acts 17, 1 to 4. Acts 17, 1 to 4. Now, when they had passed through Amaphos and Paul, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as this custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths, reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom I preached to you is the Christ. And some of them were persuaded under great multitude of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women joined Paul and Silas. Yeah, so we see here that in Thessalonica, Paul goes, he reaches, verse 4 says, some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent Jews, prominent women. Now, we see here again a launch of a church, a group of people. So the same way, if you look at Beria, if you look, go down that chapter, you go to Athens. Athens was a wonderful way because in Acts 17, Athens, what happened, if you go towards the end, verse 32 onwards, it says, we know the story at Athens, right? He goes, he walks around, he sees and there are statues saying to an unknown God, Paul begins to preach about this unknown God. He gets invited to preach at the Aeropagus at the Council. And towards the end of his entire message was 32 and 33, Acts 17, 32 and 23. When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, others sinned. We want to hear you again on this subject. At that Paul left the Council, verse 34, a few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysus, a member of the Aeropagus, also a woman named Demaris and a number of others. Now, it does not explicitly say that a church was planted, but it is most likely that this was a church plot at Athens. In the same way, in Corinth, we see Paul left to Corinth. Again, he preaches there and people believe that the church was established. So, we see all through in the Book of Acts, we see that churches were being planted. And now, as far as we know, the ones that are only documented, but I'm sure there would have been many more churches planted. There would have been people who came, heard the message of Paul or even others, other believers who preached, they went out and shared the gospel. They would have planted churches and the ministry really were brought. But we see a church planting happen in small ways. We see the power of the gospel just by two or three people ministering. Many people came to know Christ and we see that all through the Book of Acts. If we go to chapter 19, we see Paul in Ephesus. Paul is just preaching and he drives out demons from people. The church has started in Ephesus. He goes on to chapter 20, Macedonia. We know that there's a church in Macedonia. Macedonia is a Roman colony and then Greece. So, we see that everywhere Paul went, the church is planted. Now, it's not that he's not written letters to every church. Hence, we don't know how many church, but it is obvious that he has planted many, many more other churches as well. Let's go to Acts chapter 24. Let's go to Acts 24 and Acts 24, 24 and 25. Let's read that. Acts 24 and 25. Seven days later, Felix came with his wife, Priscilla, who was a Jewess. He went. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul discussed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, that's enough for now. You may leave and I find it convenient. I will send for you. At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bride. So he went. He sent for him frequently and talked to him. So here again, the tribe and Felix. So some of them say that out of this tribe, right? A few believers came out from this entire experience. We go on verse 26 and 24 and 25 again. At this point, Festus interrupted Paul's defense. He says, you are out of your mind, Paul. He shouted, your great learning is driving you insane. 25, I'm not insane. Most excellent Festus. Paul replied, what I'm saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things and I can speak freely to him. I'm convinced that none of this has escaped his notice because it was not done in a corner. Now, if you look at this, the whole encounter at the feedlings. If you later on, many years later, if you see in the book of Romans, towards the end of his letter, the book of Romans, maybe digressing a little bit, but just trying to make us understand this better. If you go to us, the letter of Romans. Now this is the letter to the Romans, believers who were in Rome. Paul is writing and he says, he says in a place, sorry, we can find that verse. But he says, greet those in Caesar's palace. I don't know what's going on here, but he says, greet those in Caesar's palace. So there were believers who were in Caesar's palace, working in Caesar's palace. So we see the impact of the great applause of Paul. He was able to, whenever he went speaking of people's lives, start communities, start churches, and he did it in a very simple way. He depended on the gospel, he depended on the power of the gospel, but he also did things practically with wisdom and spiritual. He looked at both the spiritual aspect and the practical aspect. So let's get into this next chapter, the practical aspects of church planting. Church planting requires a lot of personal preparation. Now this personal preparation, we'll talk about it in chapter 24. But look, let's look at it, getting started when we talk about church planting. Now, it is very important to form a team, to start a church planting core team. Now, I know that God may have given you the vision, you want to start the ministry and you got us put it into your heart. Yes, that can be true. You have the vision, you're burning with this desire. Right. Thank you, Daphina, you put the words there yet. So you're burning with this desire to plant a church, plant a ministry. But remember that ministry is not a one person's job. God does not work alone. Genesis 1, what did God say? Let us make man. Jesus too. He chose two other disciples. Then he chose 72 others. He said, go out and teams. So we see that God always works as a team. So God may use you as an individual to be a pioneer. But as a pioneer, you must have a team, right? Look at all the everything that we read in the book of Acts. God gave the vision to Paul. But wherever he went, he went with a team. He had a team of people. He had Timothy, he had Titus, he had Philemon, he had Titicus, he had Luke. So he had people of John Mark, none of us. So he had people wherever he went, there was a team of people. And how would we form these teams? Let's look at a few things. One, have a good and healthy relationship with each other. The people whom you choose in your church planting team is very, very critical. Now again, this must be done prayerfully, wisely. So that goes into personal preparation of praying and seeking God and asking guidance. But once you're forming a team, ensure that you have good, healthy relationship with each other. You need to trust each other. There should be support, there should be no kind of competition among each other. That is very important. In some way, if you feel that there is no trust, there's no support, or you feel that the vision is going to separate ways, stuck, halt what you're doing, regroup. It's better to turn off a fire when it's just a spark than to let the spark become a big fire and then try to turn it off. Now, especially when it comes to church planting quality as a pioneer, you and I may have to make decisions. And those decisions could be very important decisions. It may not be pleasing to everyone, but you've got to keep the vision of the church, the vision of the ministry in your heart at all times. That is number one priority to have a good and healthy relationship. Number two is to be united theologically. That is one heart, one mind. So imagine this, you have five people in a church planting team. All five of us, all five of them must be of the same mindset. Now picture this, three of them believe in healing, two of them don't believe in healing, and five of them are going and starting a church plant. What will happen? Church will start because God will do it right. We can start the church. Church will become 10 people, 20 people, 30 people. Then you'll say, as a leader, you will say, okay, we're going to have prayer and healing service. The other three people will say, hey, healing is after apostle Paul, no more healing. What will you do? And they're part of the team. They've helped you from zero, from scratch. They've helped you to reach out, to evangelize, to get the hall, to get the music system, to get the audio, to do everything in the church. They've helped you from the beginning. And they say, hey, I didn't know you didn't believe in healing. What's happened? Division. So good relationship, united in theology. Right, because that is very, very important. One heart, one, all of them on the same page. Three, you're able to compliment each other's gifts and skills. Right, that is ministering the word, worship, prayer, pastoral care, evangelism, administration. Now, when you start, when we started church or ministry, for example, there are five people as a team, you have started the church, right? And you have this core team in the church. Maybe there are 20 people in church. So you know, okay, maybe one of them can sing well. Another person, you'll be able to, you know, lead in prayer, the other person can minister the word. Another person can, you know, form teams and evangelize. That's their gift. And then administration, very important. Keeping the accounts, making sure that the church is functioning right. So all these different gifts that God places must be able to compliment each other. Nowhere in the core team should one person feel, hey, I am the person who's preaching, so I'm better than all of these. Or this is more important than the others. You know, every aspect of a pioneering stage is important. Every aspect. It could even be the aspect of setting up the stage in the church or setting up the chairs. Even that is equally important to us preachers. Right. So able to compliment each other. There is no competition. Each other's gifts and talents are used together to build God's kingdom. Right. Four. All are committed to the common vision of the church plant. That's all five of them. Right. Are committed to the common vision. So of course, when you start a church, you know, you'll have a vision. You'll have a mission. You'll have all that paper. And very important is to declare and to let people know what is your vision? What is your mission? And now, you know, we have websites. So it's very easy. They can go up to the website, read about the, you know, vision, mission, values, all of that belief system, they can read all of that. But when it comes to the pioneering stage, the church planting stage, have a common vision for the church. Right. Why? Because if you have two or three visions, then, you know, it's divided. Picture this view. The person, the pioneer is saying, one day we will be able to launch, you know, or have 500 people in our church and we will have a Bible college. We'll have this. Imagine another person in the same team says, I, instead of 500 people, maybe he's thinking, okay, I want to have 10 churches. 50 churches with 50 people each. Now, the vision is the same, but it's different. If you get what I'm saying, the main vision is to build a church to up to 500 people and serve the city. Actually, you've got another person saying, no, I want 10 different churches in 10 different places and we'll serve the city. So you see, there's dual visions. Maybe both visions are good, but there are two visions there. It's not going to help. We should be committed to a common vision. One vision, one goal. This is just examples. Then the leader of the church planning team is clearly identified and all the other members support the leader. So the leader is clearly identified. So for example, you've got five. One person has maybe two friends have started to plan together to start or three friends. You need to have one leader among them. Now, choosing that leader, you need to do it in a very wise way. You need to, you know, three of us have come together have these common vision, common goals, common ideas. But there has to be one person who can lead the show. Now, lead doesn't mean to dictate those, but to just oversee, to have things in order. So a church planting core team is very important. Now, we also look at the roles and responsibilities later on. We look at roles, responsibilities of church planning core team. Let's look at this, preparing from a distance. Now, for example, God is calling you to start a church, maybe in the same city or in a different city. And God has probably placed something, a place in your heart. What must we do? As a church planting as a pioneer, we must prepare well. We looked at the preparation stage, right? We must prepare well in advance, gather information, survey the city. Right? If you look at what we did last class, we looked at all those practical aspects, we looked at all the spiritual aspects. So we got to know all of this, preparing well, right? Our homework is done well. Understand the city from a distance, their natural spiritual dynamics. Pray and think and write down, analyze, discuss, brainstorm ideas, strategies on how you feel you're going to launch the ministry. So get together, brainstorm, come up with ideas, develop a contact list. Now, for example, if you know people, you're in a city and you know people in that city, you know, begin to develop a contact list. It's not like you're taking people's information and using it for your benefit. But what you can do is, hey, you can put the word out and say, hey, you know, we are planning to start. And why don't you, you know, why don't you try and come? This is a Sunday. We're going to launch a ministry. We're going to launch a church this coming Sunday. Why don't you try and come? Over through that, people will give you contact numbers. First-time visitors may come. So you establish a contact list. So one of the things we do at APC is we have first-time visitors data all the way back from 2000, you know, much before that, I think 2008, 2009 onwards. We have all the first-time visitors. Now it's not like we're going on calling them and talking to them. Just have the details. But we do send them our publications, our books, if there are events anywhere that they'd like to attend. We send them details. So we have a whole system in place where we, you know, keep in touch with our, with members of the church. So now it's not going to happen initially in the starting phase itself. It may take time, but you develop a contact list. Additional information of what is happening in the city. Recommend places where a church plant may be useful or connect with senior pastors of the city. That's again, very important. So what you can do is, you know, if you're planning a church plant, find out some of the good churches in and around that city. Go meet with the senior pastors. Try and talk to them. You know, pastor, I'm planning to start a church. This is what I want to do. You know, you can just ask them for advice. Now they may be in ministry for the last 15, 20 years. So they know the city. They know what works, what may not work. So you go, you talk to them. You share, right? Share your heart with them. And now the response for this, right? Not everyone will say, okay, good job. Go ahead and start. Some of them will say, you know, don't do this. So you don't have to worry about that. But whenever you get some good feedback, right? Apply it. Use it. I remember when we, when we went to the city of Mangalore, I went to a senior pastor of a very good church, English speaking church, went to his house, met with him, spoke to him. And he was good, right? He was encouraging me saying, okay, you know, Mangalore is a difficult place. You have to stay here. You have to spend a lot of time. You have to be patient. You can't expect church to grow to happen over like one or two years. So he gave me a background of the city. They were saying, you know, Canada, the regional languages like Canada and the other languages, the local languages, those churches grow very fast. You know, he gave me a feel of, you know, what is the culture of the people? You know, they don't like to wake up too early in the morning. So they like a later service. Evenings, they want to be free. So they don't like or they don't prefer an evening service. So he gave me a heads up, right? And of course he prayed for me, prayed that we would do well. So you can also do that, right? It's only that the church was already started here, but when I went, I was new there. So if you are planning to start a church, go meet with senior pastors, talk to them, provide support. But here's the thing. If there are people who are already part of a local church in the city, very important, do not ask them to leave their church and come join your church. Do not ask them to leave the other church and come join the core planting team. Now it may sound interesting. For example, if I'm starting a church and I have three people with me, I'm looking for one more person to join the core planting team. Do not go to another church. Speak to some people and say, hey, I'm going to find you in the church. Would you like to come? That would be the wrong thing to do, right? Let them serve where they are. So when you're starting, start well. Start in an honorable way as well, right? Then relocating to be on site, right? So for example, you're in another place. You want to come and start a church. You have to plan well in advance, right? How will you go about it? Survey the phase on site. Then there's a preparation phase. Be open to revise and update your plan. So in this relocating phase, during this relocating phase, make sure you're able to have enough funds, have enough finances with you. Make sure that you're being able to provide for your family if you're already married with children. You should be able to do all of that right now. Prepare a survey, prepare a plan. Don't just go in blindly and say, this is where I will start a church. Have a survey. Think about what you're doing. The Lord Jesus, when He did His ministry, He planned it out. When He went from place to place, He planned it out. The Apostle Paul did the same. It was all planned out. So while you're on site, plan. Then you plan for finances, personal finances. Now, for example, you want to start a church. If we have to start a church, we need money. Money is needed. We cannot say, no, I don't have money. Finances is definitely weird. One, we need to open the trust. Two, you need to be able to get a place on lease or rental. Three, you need equipment. At least speakers and mics. So equipment, you will need. You'll need chairs. You'll need accessories for the church. Things in the church. So finances are required. Now, if you look at the Apostle Paul, we know that he worked. The Apostle Paul and his team worked, earned money, looked after their own needs and went about doing their ministry at least in three cities. In Corinth, Ephesus and Thessalonica. They worked. The great Apostle Paul, the visionary, the man who saw Jesus, who has done these great miracles, who's called to the Gentiles. The great Apostle Paul worked as a dent maker. Later on, we see that in the book of Acts, he says he worked, paid a rent for his house and he ministered to people. So personal finances. There may be a time when God will call you to launch a church or launch a ministry. It doesn't mean you have to quit your job and go. Now, the mindset here, especially in India, they had this whole understanding of secular and full-time ministry. Now, this is a very hard stone to break because it's still prevailed in our nation. The people think, okay, if you're working in the corporate, this is a secular job. But if you're working in the church, this full-time ministry. There's nothing like that. There is no full-time ministry. Whether you're in the corporate sector, whether you're in the church, you're in full-time ministry automatically. You may choose to work. Many, many, many people, especially in the north of India, towns and villages, they call up, they say, we're going through so much trouble. We don't have enough finances for our life, for looking after my family, kids have to go to school. I said, what do you do? So what do you do throughout the week? Monday to Friday? If anybody calls for house prayer, we go. What about the other times? We don't do anything. We sit and pray at home. So many times, nine out of 10 times, I tell them, why don't you work? And nine out of 10 times, the response is, but God has called me for full-time ministry. Now, it's not wrong to work. It's not wrong to support yourself. There will come a time when the church is growing, when you have maybe 100, 200 people in the church, you know that your presence is there. You know it's needed. You know that you have to be around, so you can work with the church. And we'll talk about that as well later on. So you can continue to work professionally and have other leaders serve in the church planting, or the church in the church. So for example, if you look at APC pastor was working, the church was already functioning. He already had staff. We had the Bible college, we had staff for the pastors. We had already a pastor team with the locations as well, church locations. The pastor kept working. So there's nothing wrong with that. And be open to that idea. Then you need finances for church block, as I said, initially, until the church becomes self-sustaining, you need it. Now, when a church is starting, you have 10 people in the church, they're not going to get much in an offering. But you need to pay the rent. You need to pay the electric bills. You need to look after, you have enough funds for the family. We cannot expect what is being given as an offering to be used for everything. We cannot expect that. Until the church is self-sustaining, we must be able to manage our finances. You can choose to do the church plant without any support and becoming a self-sustaining church, but to become a self-sustaining church, it takes time. Think about it. Pray about it. Understand. See if God is leading you towards that. But especially in the starting initial phase, be wise. Prepare well. I remember we had started a Bible study group many, many years ago. And I was working in the corporate sector. And in the evenings, we would have this Bible study group. So we used to meet at a house and eventually that Bible study suddenly grew. So we had 10, then 20, eventually it started reaching up to 50, 60 people. So I decided, okay, let's hire a place, a hall, right? And we'd use the hall every, for the entire month. I would hire it so we can use it how many ever times we want for the month. So I remember we got a place, a small hall, maybe we could seat about 80 people. So we hired this hall. Now, I was just thinking, if I was not working, how would I hire the hall? We couldn't. Now the people are just simple people. They are also working. But we needed a place. So first thing I did is, I paid off the rent for the entire year. My entire year I paid for 11 months. I paid the lease and the rent. I bought chairs. I bought a small, you know, you get these small box speakers. They're talking about 2008 or 2009. During that time. Yeah, 2008 I guess. Two small box speakers. Got them kept it and bought a few cables. And every month I would add things into that place. I got a nice table. Got some books stand to keep some books. So I was able to, you know, just make it look nice. Added a stage after some time. And then eventually, you know, a church plant happened and handed it over to another person to look after the church. And the church is doing well right now. So without the finances, you won't be able to do it. So what you need eventually is God to lead us in what we are doing. We need to think, be wise, ask God to lead us in every step. Then even as you're planning, planning for other personal needs are also important. So needs for the family, workplace, schooling for children. All of this is important. That's why I remember when I was working and we did this small church plant, I knew, I was living with my parents, but I knew that I had to support them. I knew that I had to be honorable and so I would give them a certain amount and say, okay, this is for the house, this is and they would say, no, it's okay, you can use it for the church, but you're doing your bit. You're making sure that your, you know, your family needs are met and now that I married the children, I must make sure that I'm able to support them at their personal needs, right? Then you look at planning for legal, administrative and regulatory matters. Now, this is again very important. Two options, option number one, especially now, before you start a church, you can have it registered as a legal trust. It should be formed as a legal entity. Now, during, you know, early 2000s, what they used to do is start a church and then eventually when it reaches about 50, then they would go and get it registered. But right now, the church before even starting must be formed and registered as a religious trust. Very, very important. And I've shared many examples where, you know, especially pastors in persecuted areas, you know, they say, you know, they arrested me, they've taken me to the police station. They're asking me questions. Can you please help? And then there's a lawyer there. And the lawyer says, okay, give me the documents of your church. I will go and do a counter. I will counter this attack. No, I don't have documents. So where do you meet? We meet in one fall, but we are just a village in the village's church. There's no registration. There's no trust. There's no legal entity. So what happens? They could not even, you know, counter an approach. And the pastors and the believers are still stuck in jail. Right? Or at some point, there's some financial, you know, accounting is not done in the right way. People have been taken to court for that. Right? So have a registered, register the trust, very simple process, get a lawyer, pay a certain amount, send them with an offer and saying, this is my vision, mission, goal, everything. They will get it done in 10 days. You can also specify, you know, you want the trust to be for the entire nation. So anywhere in India or whichever nation you're in, you can start how many of our churches here. And under that trust, there's so much you can do. You can start schools, colleges, children's homes, anything. Right? So this, having a legal entity is very important. To having an administrative system, keeping accounts, right? What is the money that has come in, money that has gone out, equipment that has come in, equipment gone out. Now in the initial phase, in terms of administration, it may not be much work, right? Because we may be just 20, 30 people, but as the church grows, 50, 60, 100, 120, 150, 200 people, administration is required. I do need to have a good administration team for looking out of finances, equipment, you know, things that you buy and disposing in the church and inventory in the church. All of this must be there. So some things that we have right now is we have an inventory. So if you go to inventory at ebcwo.org, you can find all the details by the IT team looks after that. Everything that we have in the church is an inventory. So if I want something, I'll say, is this available in the inventory? Can I get, for example, I want a speaker. Is this available? It's available. You know, I can request for it and get it. Everything is put in order, right? And then finally, regulatory matters in filing of taxes, income tax for, we know that the church is, the religious trust is, does not pay tax, but filing of professional taxes. If you've got staff in the church, government regulations, following government regulations. Now, all of these matters must be done very carefully, right? Have, again, I'm talking about as the church grows, right? But even if you have two, three people, get guidance from other organizations, get guidance from legal entities, and you know, you can hire them to do your accounting for your religious trust as well. So be aware of these matters. Plan and be transparent with your church members. What you do initially in a church plan will last to the end, right? So one of the things that we have in APC is from 2002, right? We have the incoming offerings of each Sunday, 2002, right? So this is amazing, and we also have everything on the website, all our details, everything, the regulatory, the legal matters, administrative, everything is on our website. So our church members can, you know, always go ahead and read it. So being transparent as well. So now, all of this, we learned over time, right? We incorporated it over time, but now that we are studying this, you can incorporate it right from the beginning to avoid, you know, mistakes that we may have made, right? Or not mistakes, but avoid confusions and troubles and, you know, if you just start all of this from stage one, when your church grows, you will see that there's order, there's discipline, everything will be in an organized manner. When something, when it's organized, God is glorified. Right? So we stop here, and next week we look at this survey phase, how to survey a city and how to launch out a ministry. Right? All right. Let's just close in prayer. Father, we thank you for this time. Thank you for teaching us. And we pray Lord that whatever you've put in our hearts, maybe some of us here to launch and to pioneer a ministry, a church. Lord, I pray that you will give us the wisdom and you'll help us to do things in the right way and most importantly, Lord, to be led by your Holy Spirit. Thank you. Thank you for what is ahead for each one of us, Lord. Pray a blessing over each and every student, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen, amen. Thank you so much for joining. Have a great week ahead. I'll see you next week. God bless.