Urban Church Planting | Lecture 4 : BC309-UCP-20260820

All right, welcome back. So, we must get a heart for God's s God's heart for our city. Let's learn to see people the way God sees them. We must be moved with compassion for people in our city. And we must pray for our city, right? When was the last time you were moved with compassion for your city? When was the last time you prayed for your city? Go back, spend some time We're not saying you know stop everything else just keep praying for your cities. No, no, no. So maybe in your prayers you're praying 30 minutes step you know keep aside 5 minutes 10 minutes pray for your city. Maybe even you know you may be traveling somewhere in your city and you're and you know okay this is a you know kind of an area where there are certain bondages or demonic strongholds there. Take a moment to pray. Say God coming against that in the name of Jesus. Right. Um get may your light shine in those places through the word, through your presence. May your glory fall on that place. All you're doing is you're inviting the presence of God to make a difference in that place. God may use you. God may use somebody else, but you are doing the work that God has called you to do. Right? Because your heart is moved with compassion. Okay. The Bible closes with a picture of a holy city, the new Jerusalem whose builder and maker is God and uh uh coming to be on the new earth. Now, we won't go too much into this because this in Revelations 21, we see that uh the new Jerusalem, the new city uh is established by God himself and Jesus himself uh will be the light to these cities to the city. The city is a place where God dwells with man. If this is an indicator of God's desire, then if we right to state that cities are a place where God dwells with his people. Look at what picture we're looking at here. In the end, in the book of Revelations, Revelations 21, it's the end of all things. All judgment is over. The new heavens and the new earth is gone. But there will be this celestial body called the new new Jerusalem. What's interesting is Jesus calls it a city. And he says in revelations that my presence or I Jesus himself will be the light in that city and his presence will dwell with all of us as believers. Right? We will be there with glorified bodies. What does it teach us? It shows us God's heart that even now we may not be in Jerusalem or that heavenly city but whichever city we are in God's heart is to dwell among his people. So remember this the vision may be very big the burden may be very big but the God who is with you is bigger than the things that we see around us. He's able to do he's able to make a change. All he needs is you and me. All he needs is for us to make an impact. He needs our availability. Right? Something that we are as a church we are burdened for is the cities of North India. We always have a burden for them. Why do you think as a church we are doing our best to make an impact there? like maybe with resources, maybe with our material, with teaching, uh we send teams out there to why? Because we know that when we go there and of course we know God's presence is already there, but with that burden that we go, we want to make an impact. God's presence is there just as as much as he's here in our city, right? It's there also. It's just that they need more more than you know sometimes I always say this when we go out on missions we come back you know more than we teach we come back learning so much from them right so this is something that we can pray start praying about if you haven't prayed about your city or even you can break it down pray for your you know couple of lanes your community if you're in a village pray for your village you know town, pray for your town and then slowly pray for your city and then as the burden comes over you can start praying for your nation. Eventually what you start off in a village can make an impact into a town into a city into a nation. All these great missionaries that we read about, they never went and sat in cities. Almost every missionary went to the villages first. Almost every missionary went to villages, smaller places. Look at Jesus's example. He didn't go to the big cities initially. He went to the smaller places, right? Have you ever wondered why didn't Jesus just go to Rome and minister there and do a big make a big impact? He didn't. He was just there in those small cities. He knew God's presence will be able to spread everywhere. Right? Okay. So if you are God has put it in your heart to start a church, plant a church, wonderful. First get a heart for for his city, get a heart for people, get a burden for more. Say, God, put that burden in me. You can pray that God put a burden on me. Life seems so simple. Life seems so easy. God, put a burden. And whatever burden he puts, it's it's a it's a burden that's easy to carry. Amen. Say God. Okay. He may put a burden for you know maybe a certain thing in the city. Example prostitution against prostitution. Go and minister. Maybe another place child abuse. Maybe another place it could be you know uh drug addiction and youth. You never know what God puts in your heart. But if he puts it be a good steward of it. Okay. So let's move to chapter five. Very very important chapters. Chapter five chapter six. uh important chapters right let's look at the natural dynamics of urban cities now every city has certain dynamics and what do you what do you mean dynamics dynamics means certain way of functioning right because different cities have different flavors and different uh you know ways in which they you know over time culture has come into place there's so much so many differences you know I remember this one time we were uh we had a long travel right we went I think it was Vonasi but we had a layover and all of that and we got on at Vonasi and um I told the person who came to pick us up the pastor he said can you stop for tea somewhere I just want some tea right and this I said, "Yeah, yeah, sure." We stopped and we had tea and the tea was, you know, it was it is good. But it was so sweet. I thought I was eating sweet. So I said to them, "Can you make tea like how they make in Bangalore or normal tea? It's so sweet." Okay. Then he said, "No, no, no. This is how we have tea. Nice. you eat and after the tea they giving you sweets. I'm thinking to myself, see, first of all, this is sweet. They're giving me sweet. What am I going to do with all this, right? And then we reached home, reached the hotel room. It was somebody's home, but it was a retreat center of course. And reached there, they came with tea again. So I said, I said, "No, I don't want this tea." So no, you have to drink. So I had about five six glasses of sugar tea and then I asked them why do you put so much sugar they said no it's not sugar it's jaggery right and you know there so much so the whole time I was like I want to go back to Bangalore to have my my tea you know the cultures are so different now in everything that they eat this potato right there's I went to Nagaland they gave you chilies They say breakfast. They came with one bun and some you know beautiful right nice breakfast with two chilies. Said how do you eat this? You eat the bun eat the chili. I said thank you. Oh that's that's what they do right. First time I went to Kohima which is inam. We reached it was December. It was very cold. Very very cold. Okay, we reached uh 5:00 a.m. Somebody's knocking on the door. What? You come with noodles and soup and all. So, breakfast. So, what's the time? 5:00 a.m. So, why you come 5:00 a.m. for breakfast? That's that's what they do. 5:00 a.m. is breakfast. 11:30 is lunch. 3:30, 4:00 is dinner. I said, I can't follow this time table. 5:00 is my prayer time. Right? But they said, you not you missed that. no food. Simple as that. Right? So it was it it's a totally cultural change. And here's the thing, each city have certain things, right? I'm sure you have when you came to Bangalore, you would have thought what is this Bangalore? Why are these people like this? Right? That's because we are here. So for us, this is good for you that is good. So the point is there are different dynamics that we live on, right? Different kind, different ways. You know, look at ministry, right? When you go to North India, boys sit separately, girls sit separately. Here we don't care. It just doesn't matter. It's it's just a cultural difference right now. We don't disrespect or you know women cover their hair especially when you go up in traditional churches here in Bangalore as well but also in especially in North India they have this certain things. Now we don't dis we don't do it but doesn't mean that you know we are disrespecting God and we don't disrespect them right cities today are much larger more complex during Bible times u so it's very important for us to do our homework with the tools that God has given us so what kind of homework you can do how many of you are going to plant a Okay. Which city or town or village? Anything doesn't matter. Yeah. Which is here. Which one? >> Sultanpur. Where is that? >> No. You tell me the the state >> Uttar Pradesh. U Sultanpur. Uttar Pradesh. That's where you're going to plant a church. Now let's take this example. Akash Akash is going to okay Sri Rajkumar says Jammu and Khper Shashi says Ninal Uttar Khan very good okay good very good now let's take this example of Akash who's going to start >> church in Sultanpur >> Uttar Pradesh okay remind me okay Sultanpur now what must he do okay we're going to look at now this is a city with a lot of maybe there's persecution it's not easy but what are some of the things that I must keep in mind before I plan to plant a church first now in a day and age we have social media go to Google read about Sultanpur now since you are in the city in that place you know but it's also important for you to read you need to understand okay tell me you know for example So how did the city come into being? Pastor, we don't need to know all that. All I know is Jesus died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. That's true. Jesus died. But the point is also we need to know some background of where where you're going, what kind of ministry you're doing, what is the history of the city, who who started it, why is it when was it established, right? Why is this important? Because you're preparing yourself to know about you know if you want to know about God you you have to read you have to understand the word right God we know oh God is a creator but we need to understand who he is right what kind of God his character his his his working everything is there in this word so I have to read it to understand right someone will come and say to you hey you know you said God will do like this you know where he has nothing's happened in my life then you can say hey wait God is a God who takes you through seasons that's the God of the Bible he prepares you he takes you through preparation time just because you prayed doesn't mean next day you'll get what you want God doesn't always work that way see in the Bible how he worked that's his character that's his nature right even in the difficult you know even when you prayers are not answered he's working he knows how to answer prayers look at the Bible he's not doing it only in your life. He's done it in all our lives. Look at people from the scriptures. So you understand God because you read about him. Same way what is the history of the city? What is the you know the civic administration political environment in that city right now? I do know that certain cities in North India there's no persecution and they're freely doing ministry. For example, I was just speaking to one of our outreach pastors and he was he's an indor and he was saying no no no problem here pastor you come we can do ministry freely. I was surprised said what place are you in? He said this we can do no problem we are in the village we can do city we can't do village we can do nobody will come say anything you do full day conference 2 days conference 10 days conference healing preaching do whatever you want no problem will happen right so we must also understand the political environment and what what is happening in that city what is the economy of the city right Meaning how is the city doing? Is there growth? Now if you look at it, many villages are becoming cities now, towns at least and cities, right? So for example, there can be a small village. 10 years back it was a small village. You finished 3 years Bible college. You go there say where is my house? Yes or no? Suddenly you say hey my house was here. I can't find my house now. What's happened? Change. Things have changed. connectivity, railway connectivity, uh transport, right? So many things have changed over a couple of years, right? So, uh the economy has increased, things have changed, people are traveling, people are coming, business is growing, right? I remember you know the first time I went to Kohima in Nagaland uh in 2012, nothing was there. It was like a mountain. It's a mountain, right? Kohima is a mountain. Beautiful sprawling mountains, right? No network, right? A very cold place, beautiful place. One house here, one house there. Recently, we were I think it was 2023. We were traveling to Kohima for a conference and I'm looking and the driver saying that's Kohima. I'm seeing it's full of houses everywhere. Said that's Kohima. What happened to it? So much of changes and then when we reach the city I'm seeing all Biharis are there and you know uh people from south India are there I'm seeing people talk Canada there I said what's happening here everything has changed I went to a shop they're talking Canada they're talking Telugu it was never there in Kohima right things have changed now is it good I don't know but then things are changing right now before when first time when I went no network now everything is that highspeed Wi-Fi to everything right what's happened 10 years quick changes the economy the economy of that that state itself has changed right so we you try to understand what's happening in your city right what are the demographics age distribution that is what kind of people what kind of language what kind of cultural back age people. Uh is it more of families, right? Is it more of families are uh what are children children and schools? What are the demographics there? Right? Then socioeconomic issues, education, what is the education? When you look at a city like Bangalore, nine out of 10 schools, private schools are English medium. Nine out of 10. Right? That's why every person in Bangalore will know good English. They may be fools. They don't know anything in life. They don't know how to follow traffic rules. But they'll speak very good English. They may be people with nothing inside. You know, they don't know how to talk. They don't know how to, you know, behave themselves. Whatever. They'll be very good in English. Why? Because they learned English. Most of them, nine out of 10 are English speaking. So what kind of education are people going? Now imagine you know you go to uh Sultanpur Vanasi well Uttar Pradesh and I say okay I'm going to start an English church there I can right God is able to do that but I'm not using wisdom and discernment now out of 10 people nine people don't know English I go there and I start you know God is a god from you Genesis to Revelation I start preaching end times prophecy and all I start preaching Old Testament survey I start preaching what will happen to them by one week they leave the church and go I don't know what he's saying something he's saying full of passion he's saying but I don't know what he's saying yes or no those people are you know some possessed people will come and sit you can't be reading end times there Yes or no? Right? You study end times for those possessed people. They'll sit and listen to you. That's all they'll do. They need deliverance. So you got to pray for deliverance. They need healings and miracles and all of those things there. Everything is different, right? What are the major industries? What are industrial hubs there? What are the what about women employment? what is what does the city say about what does the city think about that right I don't know about north India now I'm sure things are more open uh especially even in south India there was a lot of uh discrimination for women but I'm sure now things are opening up right something that we notice is even in ministry nowadays in north India they're respecting women pastors right they're they're people are saying okay it's okay women can be leaders women can be pastors right and uh that's a wonderful That's a big move in the mindset of people you know in in ministry. Uh but again what is what is the unemployment rate? What is the uh prison system? Accident rates homeless people often so much uh now these things we must read about get a basic understanding of the city. This is something we have to do right basic. Okay. Then even as you have this understanding you can envision what your ministry wants to do right. So for example in APC we always knew that we want to enter colleges and schools to do ministry and to minister to the youth. We don't want to wait for them to become 18 19 go through problems and then help them solve the problems. No no let's go to the root. Let's try to enter schools. And we had a couple of we had one of our church members. This is in 2008. Uh he had he's he's he still has it, right? He's a uh he has his own schools, two schools and uh he gave us entry into those schools and we would go into these schools and one hour or two hours a week uh share share from God's word and those days it was we could openly say Jesus and take the Bible and all of that. So we were able to sew seeds into schools, right? Uh so you can plan that way. Hey, I see that my city has a lot of maybe uh sports is something or schools is something. Okay, how can I enter here? Right? Or I'm seeing that there's a lot of idolatry in my city, right? So how can I make an impact here? What is it that I can do to help people understand that there is a living God and uh how do I how what what must what steps I must take planning right that's our responsibility why is it important to understand natural dynamics of the city when planning to do a church plant or start a ministry can you tell me why do you think it's important to learn about the city before you start a ministry or a church plant in that city why do you think it's important. Any thoughts? Is it important? First of all, it's important. Okay. Why do you feel it's important? Speak on in the >> so we can discern what is happening in the village. >> Okay. We can discern what is happening. Okay. Okay. What else? Very good. What else? Those online if you want to share you can feel free unmute and share Raj you said Jammu and Kashmir. Why is it important to know about Jammu and Kashmir? Yes. Go ahead. >> So we can strategize how to minister to them. >> Very good. Discern strategize. Very good words. Yes. What else? analyze which all areas we can work >> and uh how to promote gospel across to that region. >> Very important. I like what you said first. Look at the place where you want to work. A city is big or a town is big. You need you need the right place also to minister, right? A church plant, right place. Okay, good. What else? very important things. >> Yes sir. >> Sorry. >> Uh what I feel is when we know about our city, we will know what we are fighting against. >> Sometimes there are territorial spirits and we need to we will we will come to know what we are fighting against in the spiritual realm. >> Yes. Very good. you know what you're up against, right? So why should we know that? So that of course this comes in the spiritual dynamics. We'll talk a little bit on that. Uh but yes, to know what you're up against, right? For example, you're in a city every 3 days or every every one week you're getting a news that you know somebody's committing suicide. You know it's a demonic thing. That's a okay. Okay. Anyways, that we'll talk about in the spiritual dynamics, right? Uh but in the natural natural dynamics, why is it important? Think about culture, right? What do what can you say about culture? You're in a city. Is it important to know the culture of the people, right? So that you can minister to them effectively, right? what what kind of uh you know certain cities have different kinds of people with different cultures right look at the city of Bangalore uh we we are so diverse right so maybe a person who speaks Canada has a different kind of a culture person who speaks Tamil or Hindi and uh these different languages are different groups different cultures they have different understandings right uh so how can I effectively minister to them right uh even even Even if you look at for example, right, we're not putting any uh religion down. But for example, the Catholics, right? They have this thing of uh early morning 5:00 a.m. they go for prayer. They go to the chapel and they pray. Good thing it's a cultural thing. Whether they do whether you know others do it or not, my dad, my father did it. I'm doing it. I will teach my children also to do it. But it's a cultural thing. getting up 5:00 a.m. I think it's two days a week or something. They do it and you commend them for that, right? Getting up, going, praying, spending time in God's presence. So, what else do you think can be can make an impact, right? Why why should we know about example the government or the political bodies? Why why should we know about them? Come on, think out of the box. you guys are going to start, right? I said, "No, right. What kind of government is working? What are the Now, when you start a church, are you just going to start off? You need to have papers. You need to have documents. You need to have a lawyer to set up your, you know, your trust, your trust account. Um, uh, set up like a you know nonprofit organization. You need to do these things. So, you need to know what is happening in the political field as well. I can't just say I want to start." No, especially now in the season that we are living in, we have to be very careful and very wise how we plant a church, right? The government is not going to say, "Okay, start." No, they're going to ask you questions. They're going to ask you, "Why are you doing this? Why why do you want to start this kind of church in this place? Is there what is the reason? Are you getting funding from another country?" All kinds of things will be there. You need to understand the law at least the basic law of that city. Right? Then here are just a few points here. This will help us get a feel for the city number one. Right? So you understand okay now when you guys came to Bangalore initially you may have been so restless right and the things that you seen around may have you may have felt you know so uh what do you call may not have been at peace something may have why are people like this or why is it so crowded why is it so noisy uh but eventually you get a feel for the city like you understand okay this is how life is Right? Let me give you this example to tell you in the same state how two cities can be very different. Now I'm I'm from Bangalore. I went to Mangalore and stayed for 4 years. In Bangalore you wake up at 6:00 a.m. Anywhere on the road you'll get tea and breakfast. You'll get right by 600 6:30 you you'll have. And I went to Mangalore. I woke up and I'm going to church. Nobody's on the road. So where are everyone? I thought it was like a government strike or some bund or something and I called up the office. I said is it a bun there? He said no everything is fine. Then I realized 9:30 10:00 slowly shops are opening. So what happened to these people? They don't believe in breakfast. They don't believe in tea or what and they don't come out. Evenings by 7:30 8 they're already packing their bag. I'm talking about business. They're packing the bag to go home. By 8 8:30 the streets look like it's 1:00 in the night. So what's wrong with this place? Now I'm used to Bangalore. 10:00 we'll be deciding where to go eat in the night. Seems just 350 kilometers away. Completely different to do ministry. And I realized it much later. Bangalore good Mangalore good but ministry is completely different you cannot do what you've done here do it in Mangalore it's not going to work there there's a different way to do it there imagine there is same state different city right so you get a feel for the city and then this will help you pray for the city and develop a heart for the city this will allow God to place specific areas of needs. You know, when you understand or you're maybe doing research and you're reading about the city, God will place something in your heart. Pray for this. Pray for the youth. I want you to minister to the youth or pray for families. I'm seeing that families are breaking off. Divorce rates are very high. Pray for young people who are going through depression and suicide. I'm going to he'll put that in your heart. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. Even as we are preparing in the natural, don't despise your natural preparation. In the natural, God can bring the spiritual. You understand, right? You're prep you're reading, you're maybe reading about something which is not even spiritual. But is God in it? Yes, he can speak to you. He can say, you know, you're reading about your city and then he can say, I want you to plant the church in this area. Right? something you're doing something in the natural but God is bringing in his supernatural work through that right so God can put those things areas of needs in your heart and this will also be important to develop strategies to minister in the city here's the key you have to develop the strategy don't wait for God may give you direction he'll give you signposts do this, but he's not going to build a whole strategy and give it to you. What did he tell Neahmiah? Build the walls, fix the gates. He put the burden in him. What did Nehemiah do? He made the plan. He decided what he has to do. He got the people together. He said, "Okay, we will start off from this side of the wall. We'll build it like this." While building it, people came and said, "Even if a fox jumps over it, it will break and fall." It didn't discourage him. He kept building the wall. The second time they came, they were nervous. The Bible says it. The enemies came and saw the wall is being built. It's getting stronger. Now, they're not saying fox will jump over and all. Why? Because it's built, right? So, Nehemiah had a wonderful strategy. What he did was he he said okay those in the north side of the wall who live that side you go and build after you work those on the south side you go and build you go to work come back and then go and build the wall. So it was not like these people were traveling all the way this side to build the wall. So he used strategy, brilliant strategy. You build that side, you build that side. We will stay in the center. As you are building, there will be people on guard on top, right? And they're looking if enemies are coming. So that on guard people were 24 hours. You finish day shift, night shift, people will come and they're watching. Any problem, the same people will be ready to fight because the wall has to be built, right? So brilliant strategy. 52 days he built that wall. 52 days done wall was built gate. Who came up with a strategy? Am I the burden? God. God will give you a burden for your city. You have to come up with a strategy. Don't sit with that burden and say, "God, I'm fasting and praying. 40 days is over you after in 40 days you met Moses on the mountain. Why you not meeting me?" Right? Don't do all those prayers. You pray, do the natural and then he will begin to work. Step out right now. God will also give you the wisdom when it comes to all these legal things that you have to do, right? Especially now uh when it comes to church planting. There are a lot of legalities involved, right? You'll need a lawyer, you'll need the right people, you'll need people within your trust uh or the NGO that you're opening the you'll need trustees. You'll need committee eventually. You'll get to all that. But you have to set these things in place. Listen, don't do anything which is not you know always especially ministry do everything legally and I know of people pastors who are going through a lot of problems now because they didn't even open a trust for their organization. Now the persecution came they were you know they put a police complaint after the police complaint went in the police said okay give your details we will file an FIR what details give your church details show us your documentation no documents God told me the documents are in my heart this is the you know we can go to the police and say this is my documents police will say take your documents and go inside the prison No FIR, you have to have the legal things, right? So, it's it may sound like a joke, but it's really happening where churches don't have a trust. They can't file a police complaint. They have no grounds. No, I started because it's a spiritual thing. No, it's not. It's a spiritual thing. But we're living in a world we have to follow legalities, right? Look at what we everyone went and saw the land in uh Devan Ali right that we so many legal things so many legal things are right okay we have to convert the land we have to do this we have to show the right papers so many things why do you think we we didn't get the land and then start building meaning no there are legalities make everything right then start building right being wise we have to be wise in this In ministry, we have to be wise, right? So, get a feel for your city. Get a feel for what God is doing. Firstly, pray for your city. Have a burden. If you've got that burden, if God is, you know, pushing you towards doing something towards for that burden, start preparing. And as you prepare in the natural, God will put things in your heart. Make a note of it, write it down, pray over it. And then comes next week we will look at spiritual dynamics. Now you've done the natural work. Now enemy is sitting and waiting. Okay, let him start the church. Right? If and he's going to do all he can to stop the church. He's going to break you, try to break you, try to uh you know make you discouraged. He's going to bring problems that are going to be spiritual things that are happening around the city that can discourage you. But listen, we have a great encouragement. Jesus himself said, "I will build my church. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Right? So, next class we're going to look at spiritual dynamics and how you and I must be spiritually very very strong to fight this fight of faith. Right? Any questions before we close? Everyone with me? You able to understand? Right? I'm taking it a little bit slow in these first uh areas because this is the foundation. You get this right. All the other things will happen, right? Leadership, starting the church, worship team, ushering team, all those things, all those things will happen on its own. But this is the main thing, right? Get a heart from God, get a burden from God. If God is putting you there. Okay. Sometimes I'll just say this and I'll close. Sometimes um sometimes um God may put a burden. You may be in one city but God may put a burden for you in another city. Right? Now that's a whole different strategy we'll have to use. Right? So later on we will look at the different phases. You know there's a launch phase, survey phase, building phase. Uh we look at different phases in church planting, right? But don't be alarmed. Hey, what is this? I'm from Bangalore. God is telling me to go to another city and start a church there. What am I going to do? No. Start, right? Start preparing mentally preparing naturally preparing. And God in his wisdom has his ways of how he's going to take you to that place. Right? Any questions? Any thoughts? Okay, let's just uh say a quick word of prayer and close. Father, we just thank you so much for your word, oh God. And Lord, even as we have looked at different aspects on church planting and Lord, we just pray Lord that you will give each one of us a burden in our hearts. Oh God, a burden to a burning desire to do something, make an impact for your kingdom, oh God. So whether the burden is small or big, Lord, we pray that we will be obedient to that voice. Obedient. Lord, knowing that with the burden comes a cost. But Lord, that cost is a price that we are willing to pay because you are there with us. Your grace will sustain us, oh God. Lord, we pray that each one of us, even as we plan and prepare and and Lord, you know what you have in store for us, that you will, God, give us the wisdom, the strength that we need to fulfill your plan and your purpose in our lives. Help us to be obedient to the leading of your Holy Spirit. And Lord, to know that you're always with us in this journey. We thank you. Bless all the students. Lord, even as we continue to learn on various courses, Lord, you minister to each of their hearts. May their lives continue to be a blessing to many people in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. God bless you all. I'll see you next week. >> Amen. Thank you, sir. Yes. >> Thank you, sir. >> God bless you.