Urban Church Planting | Lecture 9 : BC309-UCP-20260917

All right everyone, uh welcome to those joining us online. Let's pray as we begin with this session. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you once again for giving us this opportunity to come together and to study and learn from your word. And we've been talking about church planting and and Lord, we just thank you for your presence. We thank you for your wisdom, strategies, and thoughts and plans that you have birthed in each one of us. Even as we learn, oh God, we pray that we will apply these principles in our lives, in our ministries, in everything that you've called us to do. God, we we commit these lectures into your hands. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Okay. So, last class um I wasn't there. So uh it is the week before that we did chapter 8 we looked at um church planting how to get started and very importantly we spoke about a core team right having a core team so um what I want you to understand is that sometimes when you start off you're starting alone but look to build a core team right and God will bring people and you will know okay I I can connect with them. I can get together. But even remember when you join when you have a core team, you are still the leader because imagine you have three or four people and all four of them are making decisions. No, you are the visionary. If you are planting the church, you have to execute, you have to share the vision, you have to put it across and then invite others in the core team to join along and uh build on that vision. Right? Then we looked at preparing from a distance. uh if that's something that you have to do if God is calling you for to another city or another state or even another country uh now in the seasons that we are in with we can very easily prepare from a distance right even the practical things right so for example you're going from south India to north India even to get a hall or a space for church you can do it from here right so please send me photos they'll send you okay this everything is online. It can be done. You can prepare from a distance. Uh and then uh very importantly we looked at finances for the church plant. Now don't start something and then stop it in between because you know you didn't prepare well. So prepare financially for your church plan. Okay. If I have to plan a church, these are the things I need to have in place. This is if you're unmarried, it's fine, right? You may have a little lower kind of a budget on what you need to have. But if you're married and you have married with children, then you need to prepare for your finances. Do not say, "The Lord shall supply all my needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus." That's true. Remember, the practical and the spiritual always go together. Classic example. God told Elijah it'll rain. What did Elijah do? He went and prayed. Okay. But it's God's will. No. Still he prayed. So very important. Don't start something in a hurry because what happens? No, we become excited. It's good. You get passionate about starting a church. All of that. But don't let wisdom get out of the door and make all your decisions by emotion. Sometimes you go to a church, you sit on and you look at the, you know, the stage and the screens and the people and the ministry and we our emotions are on a high. Hey, I want to do this. And the mistake we may make is next month quit our job, go plant a church, try to work out things on your own. No. Prepare for finances, right? Put things in place. Be diligent to the vision. Very important. Nurture and protect your vision. You have to nurture it. Right? You have it in your mind. Okay? Don't just treat it loosely. And what does Jesus say? When you in the book of Matthew he says when you are building a tower you will first sit you will make note you will count the cost what it's involved and then start lest you start and you don't have the resources you don't have the people you don't have the finances and you can't even finish the tower what is the principle Jesus is implying here prepare well before you start anything Okay. So, finances for the church plant, finances for yourself also. Okay. Don't wake up one morning and say today Lord what you did in Exodus do it now. Open the heavens and let mana come fall into the my house. God will say no mana, no KFC, nothing is going to come. Go and get a job. [laughter] No mana and all. God will tell you go to the later chapters in Joshua he'll say read that what once they went into the promised land what did God do you work and you eat I will bless there's a difference right everyone understanding this right and and prepare for personal needs very important lastly we talked about was planning for legal administrative and uh regulatory matters right legal matters now especially in our nation I'm sure it's it's a law in other nations as well where we you know we have to have we have to be a legal entity as a church. Now you can start off for example you start off in a small you know small setup in a in a house uh but as you take up a new space very important that you have a legal entity a trust in place uh now what I would suggest is even before you start the church you have everything in place nothing wrong to do it right have the document ready have a lawyer say this is what I want to do this is the thing I'm going to start churches Bible college this is going going to be in uh India or this whatever nation you're in uh and the this is the vision have everything ready don't go meet the lawyer and say lawyer ask you what what do you want you tell me what do you want what what I should do the lawyer will say go back find out what you want and come back because you need to be prepared okay this this is in this state I will start this will be my home church all across India u this is what I the trust will show everything for example in APC we have a trust the trust is it's in Bangalore main office Bangalore but it's an all India trust right all India not overseas all India trust so anywhere in India we can plant churches we can have Bible colleges uh because it's there in the trust in the deed you know it says uh we can we are an ed we also provide education uh through biblical biblical education. So that's there conferences everything is mentioned right so anywhere in India we can do it right and for example somebody like one of you may say okay I want to start APC for example you go you start you'll be part of APC right so you're you don't have to open a trust separate trust you're part of APC right it's just that you'll have to do a little bit of uh documentation that's it right so that's why the trust is important right trust in God but also trust religious trust. You should have it ready with you. Okay, then let's get into the survey phase. Chapter nine, the survey phase. Now remember we talked about survey and uh we talked talked about it very briefly. What is the survey? What do you mean by the word survey? What do you what do you what do you gather from the word survey? >> Okay. What else? For example, let's look at the city of Bangalore. Let's do a survey of how many colleges are there in uh North Bangalore. Right? That can be a survey. That means what you're you're you're going online you're checking how many colleges in North Bang. So there are a few things you have to do. You have to break it down right. North Bangalore first you see how big is North Bangalore. Okay this this this portion is north bank everything is available on that. Okay this portion is not north. In North Bangalore how many colleges? Okay it'll say okay 250 colleges. In these 250 colleges how many are English-sp speakaking colleges? It'll cut out 100 colleges. In these 100 English-speaking colleges, how many are Christian colleges? 50. In these 50 Christian colleges, what is the age group or what is what is it? Is it PUC or even degree or masters? What is the general course that's going on that is running in these calls? What are you doing? You're doing a survey. You're trying to find out. You're not just doing an open survey. How many colleges in uh Bangalore? No. But you're going deep. You're checking what all you need to do. That's called a survey, right? Then for example, Bangalore, right? How many uh people are from the age of 15 to 25? Okay. Maybe 1 million people. Okay. In this 1 million people, how many people use average? How many people use Instagram? More than 1 million. It'll show one will have two phones. [laughter] Okay? So, it'll give you a you're getting a survey. Now, it may not be exactly in numbers, but you're getting an idea. Everyone with me? Right? You're getting an idea. So now if you're starting a church plan you know okay North Bangalore I have 50 English colleges that I can reach out to okay then you do another survey for example okay this is this I did for west of Bangalore APC west is Malaysam there's a place that's a very difficult place okay uh you it's very difficult to do ministry there uh so What what are the what are the colleges in West Bangalore? How many are English speaking? And mostly it's all regional languages in West Bangalore, right? How many? You'll find you what are you doing? You're getting a survey. Okay. Then you're also seeing demographics like uh how many of them are working professionals, right? Uh IT working professionals. How many of them are more into day-to-day jobs? Right? So that's called a survey. You're trying to find out what's happening around that place. Okay? Now, for example, Paul and his team at Philippi took time to know the city. Acts chapter 16. Let's go there. Acts 16 11-15. 11-15. Yes, one of you can read that please. Act 16 11-15. From there we travel and we stay there. The Lord opened her. Yeah. >> Yeah. So we see here Paul goes to Philippi. He does something here. He says verse 12, "From there he traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and a leading city in the district of Macedonia. And on the Sabbath, we went outside the city gate to the river where we expected to find a place of prayer." Meaning they went to certain places trying to find places of prayer. Okay. Where where are people? what are they doing? Where is a maybe a synagogue or places where people get together for prayer? They went to to search. They they looked out for it. So remember Paul and his team didn't just sit around do nothing. We see the same thing after Philippi Acts 17. He goes to Thessalonica. In Thessalonica, he almost starts a riot. in Ber he begins to uh you know speak to people and there in Berri they uh uh you know they they they are they try to uh catch Paul and try to arrest him but they they so the teammates say Paul you go to Athenans we'll meet you and in Athens he does the same thing remember we studied on this right he goes to Athens and he goes to the marketplace and he's doing a survey he's looking around and then when he got the opportunity to speak he says Men of an I see that you are very religious. I see everywhere there are gods and there are idols and there are so many you know you are very spiritual in your con in your quest for the knowledge of God. So what did Paul do? He did a survey. He tried to understand the people there. Okay. So both places Paul did that. Now let's look at what we must do when it comes to a survey phase. Select the launch area meaning where you will do the church plant. Think of this. There are two I know aircrafts for example. Okay. And you and you talk to both the pilots. One of the pilots say you ask the pilot where's the destination? He says we're going to Singapore. And you ask the other pilot where's the destination? I don't know. We're going somewhere. But where will you go? Which one will you go in? Will you go in the one where you know the destination or will you go in the one where the pilot says, "I don't know where we're going." Sorry. >> Yeah. How many of you say I'll go in the one where I don't know the destination? You'll be flying around there suddenly the fuel will get over gone. Always you want to know the destination. The same way when you start first thing identify the area where you want to launch the church plant. Now for example if you decide in your hometown in your city now that should be quick for you to go identify a place. Okay, this is the place. You need not start immediately, but you're identifying the place. Everyone with me? Right. So, identify the place. This is the place. This is the location. This area is where I will start my church. Remember I said to you when we started Delate right in Mangalore. I knew we have to start somewhere here. I didn't want inside narrow roads, dark roads because I knew many reasons girls will come. Girls can't walk back in the night, right? And they're young and there are young boys as well. I don't want them to be walking 1 kilometer in dark roads to get to the main road. No, it has to be on the main road. It has to be where there are people moving, right? So, identify your launch area. Okay. Two, you may be able to identify this area before you come on site or often when you're on site as you survey the city. God will direct you to the area where you are to start. Okay? So notice this. You can identify the area either from uh you know when you are not there on campsite or on the site. God will direct you. God will lead you to the right place. So what does it teach us? We must be people who plan, execute everything done in a prayerful manner. Because the Holy Spirit is going to guide us. He's going to guide our steps. He's going to guide our decisions. He's going to give us the wisdom what to speak, what not to speak. Yes or no? Right? Now remember when you go talk to say for example you're leasing or you're renting a place you're going to talk to the owner right now the owner is not a Christian right now don't go there and say I want a hall only that is Christian that'll be foolishness that's what it'll be but now you must understand hey if I'm speaking to a person from another faith how do I speak what should I say that's the wisdom of God right you need that wisdom okay how to put a cross. Okay, you know I remember I was talking to the owner from remember I told you that I said to him see for sure nights there will not be prayers so don't worry no sound don't worry mostly the place will be used on Monday and Friday sorry Sunday Monday Wednesday and Friday these are the days I gave him all the details Sundays it'll be used at this time um and Monday Wednesday it'll be used at this time but in between if there are any other programs we may have we'll make sure that the volume is not very high that we don't disturb anyone else uh everything was discussed every single thing on paper said okay after 11 months this is the um you know renewal of the agreement this will be the hike in the rental agreement everything was discussed why because you need the wisdom of God to make these decisions Okay, the goal is of course to impact the city. So from this launch area, you will eventually reach out to the city perhaps even have multiple locations. So let's take APC for example. Okay, when pastor came back, he knew that it's going to be Bangalore. He came back all the way from US, came back to Bangalore and I remember you know listening and talking to him. He said first he came in I think in November of 2000. November of 2000 the year 2000 November. November um December came he of course before that he used to come do evangelistic meetings and all that and go back but December came he he used that as an opportunity to reach out right okay reach out to people do like you know Christmas concert this and that by January the survey was being done where to start the church so they looked out for many halls many you know hall you know small 50-seater hall they didn't Right? And you know suddenly it came to him start where you are. Start where you are. So since he had come from the US he was staying with uh his dad in a in a house in uh in North Bangalore right he was staying in with his dad because they hadn't looked out for a house yet. So start where you are. So immediately February anyone know the date February 18 2001 was a Sunday before that he gave pamphlets new church started new church all people's church you know went out g postcards posted it to many houses all of that started in the house 12 people were there right so sometimes god will ask you this you start where you are but the vision was something much bigger. What you see now is after many years, right? Slowly we came out of that place we went to Patilen which was another small place. From Patelsen we went to another small hall CWC. From CWC we went to Bridgeta Convent from Reetta Convent we went to St. Joseph Boy High School. Then from boy high school St. Joseph's good sheeperd convent then St. Joseph's College of Law. So you see so many movements but all those movements were in the heart of the city right and from there we started locations north south east and west right so the goal is to impact the city but you start where you are nothing wrong if anybody tells you don't start uh you know starting in the house is not correct you tell them ABC started in the house I'll tell you nine out of 10 churches would have started that way. very rarely you'll find a church like they took a hall first Sunday only 100 people will come very rare that is if it's there good right now I think with social media it may happen but those days it wasn't like that right you take a take a small space you start small you know there would hardly be any leaders like what pastor said today no few leaders few people in the church how do you know whether they can be the good leaders see if they're willing to serve good leaders are good followers. Very simple, right? With the little that you have, are they willing to do the work? Okay, so we'll talk about that also later. Be sensitive to what God is already doing in the city. Do not do anything that would adversely affect other churches or church Christian ministries already uh working in the city. Right? Be sensitive to what God is doing in the city. uh probably or preferably pick an area that does not already have a church like the one uh you would be planting right so for example there's a church half a kilometer away don't take that hall now you may think God if I don't take this hall I'll never get a hall anywhere else no don't take it what will happen is it will become like a you know competition Now if that church is a Hindi church and you are starting an English church then I think it's fine. Okay. Otherwise don't start because what will happen is you you know this pastor will say hey why you're starting here suddenly the church from the the people from other church will say I like this church because there's the worship team is good or the pastor is talking about something different. No no no we don't want to cause any effect to the other ministries. Remember we are all serving one God. We are building one kingdom. So be very wise in this. Remember I shared once I went to a church in Andra [snorts] and in that church uh I was ministering and this pastor came up to me and something was very something was bothering me as I was speaking to him. I said I started asking questions to him right when did you start the church? how did you start the church and all this and one of the main prayer requests of this pastor was pray that my church will grow to 200 300 people said okay >> every time he would say that so I asked him how when did you start this church tell me something about how you started ministry and how did you start this church so he started sharing he said I used to go to a church where you know he he also told me the church was the next lane just the next lane that church. He was so active in that church. He would be the first person to go to church, open the gates, clean the church, set up the mics. One person all in all in the church. Did everything in the church. After everyone goes, he will arrange the chairs back, close the church, clean it, close it, go back. He did that for many years, right? And what happened was something happened between the pastor and him where you know he was not given an opportunity. He I'm not really sure what happened but there became a disagreement and this boy said I've served you so many years you're not even you know honoring me you're not doing you're not even so it became a dispute. So he decided I will start a church and I'll make sure my church is better than your church. Okay. Now he's been trained for many years. So he started just parallelly maybe two streets across and the church grew also because he was a hardworking young man. He knew how to preach. He knew how to you know do the administrative sides of the church. He had learned over the years. So he started growing. So he's he's telling me this. So, so then I asked him, is that why you want 200 people in church? He said, yes, I want to prove that even I can do what he is doing, right? Because he's he's not talking from his heart. He's talking from his hurt. He's hurt with what happened. Right? So many years of service, he's telling me, "Pastor, you don't know. You know, I used to carry water can speakers on my shoulders and I gave my heart and soul for that church. And I was betrayed by the church, right? And he decided this is what then I told him see no matter what you started your church said ask for forgiveness. Go ask the Lord for forgiveness. Go to that pastor tell him I forgive you. Pray together and come back and you'll see your ministry you you'll do ministry without any burden in your heart. You'll do it with freedom. whether people come or don't come, God will bless your ministry. It'll bear fruit. And I actually forced him to do that, right? Uh I told him, "Take a week, fast and pray." And he did it. And he called me. He said, "Okay, I'm going to do it." He went, he asked the Lord for forgiveness. He went back to that pastor. He said, "This is I want to ask you for forgiveness." And no, it was like Jacob and Esau meeting each other. They hugged each other. they were and now you know the ministry is going so well so much so that both are doing ministry together right both churches get together serving in that city uh in Andra beautiful right so and also his church started growing right >> really big and they had to and the pastor helped him to get a bigger hall uh you know it was it's nice so always remember when you are planning a church make sure that you're not disrupting other ministries And when you do it, do ministry, do it with the right heart. Okay? Meet with the pastors of existing leaders, existing churches and organizations. See if you can meet with them, talk to them, and u share your vision. When I say share your vision, it's not like you're sharing your whole thing. Just let them know, give them an overview of what you want to do. Hey, I want to I'm I'm going to plant a church here. Um and if they have any learning that they want to share with you, take it. If they if they try to intimidate you or tell you discourage you just don't listen. I mean in the sense don't let it disturb your heart. The vision is bigger than the calling. Right? The vision is bigger than the per the person. Right? So just continue dispel any kind of competitions sheep stealing. Avoid all of that. Right? There are enough people to minister to. Forget all the sheep stealing stuff. Okay? Now I want to be uh clear on this. There will be times people will leave another church and come to your church. Okay, maybe many reasons. Number one could be church hurt. Two is maybe the word is not being teached much or maybe it could be a language barrier or it could be uh distance, right? It could be timing, right? Whatever it is, right? uh um so for example at APC East with the location that we are in we have a very strong children's church team okay so if you come to APC east you'll find 60 to 70 children running around buzzing right and because of the children the parents also come right children say no I can't miss children's church right and they all come together right and the churches growing. So the point is um ensure that you know there will be there will be people who come from different for different reasons and ensure that you're able to teach the word. uh if people are coming and saying okay I want to be part of your church tell them see it'll be good to go tell inform your church pastors and one thing that we do here in APC is we tell them take time take 2 months or 3 months see if this is where God wants you to be right don't immediately come for membership class take your time make the right decision u and then you'll come right but we always tell them try to go and inform your other church pastor Okay, lastly, survey your launch area. Understand your specific launch area for a reasonable uh distance from your launch area. Identify points of interest, schools, colleges, malls, pubs, coffee shops, NOS's, tech parks, places where you can evangelize, uh places where you could meet with those uh people who are seeking new believers, right? So wherever whichever place you take and look for a good place to also a reasonable distance you look at different opportunities ministry opportunities within that area. Everyone with me? >> Okay. [snorts] Now if for example you have decided to plant a church in a certain place I would suggest you first look at what are the opportunities around. If I start here what are the opportunities around? What are the colleges? What are the maybe ID parks or offices and schools or how what can I do to reach out these people? How far is it for them to church? Right? Uh you must also consider timing. You have to consider many things. Right? So the point is [snorts] in church planting we have to plan well. Always envision your ministry ahead. Everyone know what's envision right? Envision means to see what it would look like 5 years down the line. or 10 years down the line, right? Envision it. Don't see the now and make immediate decisions. Right? So, you can also say, okay, I'll take this place. These are the schools. These are the colleges. These are the places of ministry. Now, envision, plan out, write down what you're going to do to reach out to those places. Right? Um example, you're in a house church. You're in a house. There are 15 people in the church. You've started. Okay? Say, say it's four Sundays in 15 people in church right now. You can't be happy in that. You have to be able to go reach out to people, right? So, first thing I would personally do is take those 15 people say, "Hey, on the day of leave when you whenever you you have a holiday, let's make teams and reach out to places." Now the background work you should have already done. These are the schools. These are the colleges. These are the places right? So for example I have a document where I've put APC I put East Bangalore and in East Bangalore I put down all the colleges in East Bangalore which is about 8 to 10 kilometers away from church. Then what I've done I put down all the corporate offices. Now where there is corporate offices right it I it parks it U people there immediately you can look at PGs why people come from different places outside of Bangalore to come and work. So, I've got a whole list of paying guest accommodations, right? All about nine between 8 to 10 kilometers, right? Not more than that. Okay. Then I've got apartments. Then I've got uh places of interest like malls, uh coffee shops where we can reach out to a lot of malls. I've got that list. So what I do is every now and then I um we make teams in church and I encourage them to go to these places. So recently I'll share this uh this is recently when I say recently it was about 4 months back we had worship evening in church right ABCE. So we did some outreaches. One of the colleges we went to was a nursing college. I didn't go but the teams went and uh uh it was a nursing college and some of them had invited some African students right and on the worship evening day only these African students came right about six African students and they came they they were there for the whole uh worship evening. We got their details. We talked to them and um out of those six three of them are very regular to church. Okay. Very regular to church. And uh slowly they started serving in the church. They joined the media team. Then we gave them opportunities to they of course they joined the youth team and they were serving in the youth team as well. Now slowly we're giving them opportunity to do declaration. They are strong believers, right? They're believers from another. But they were so happy. They said, "If you didn't come and give us the invite, we would have never found this church, right? And even now they come and one of them is joining Bible college for the e-learning course, right? She's just joined." Do you see what happens? You never know what happens, right? So sometimes we may feel hey outreaches nowadays it doesn't work everything is social media yes but there's also this whole aspect of reaching out going out and evangelizing very important okay you understand this now these three girls these three students two two girls and a boy um they said there's a whole batch of new students coming in we've already told them about church let's pray that they all come so there are about five Africans, right? Said, "Okay, let them come." And if they come, they're here for 3 and a half years to four years. It's a good way to minister to them, right? And to just make an impact in their lives. They go back to their hometowns. They'll be able to, you know, apply everything that they have learned. But you see what's happening here. This was just a simple worship evening an outreach done and it so now when you do a survey you can understand okay this is an English- speakaking college so I can go here now you'll also find these regional colleges and you can try it but don't waste too much time there right try to focus on what is your target English now when you go back to your hometowns right maybe Hindi right look at If it's Hindi churches, okay, where should I go? Where is what kind of young people do I want to reach out to, right? Uh so you you you need to strategize that everyone you getting what I'm saying, right? All these plans you have to do as a leader. Don't expect others to do. You have to do it. Okay? Survey the your launch area. understand your specific launch area, places where you could evangelize, places where you can meet those seeking new believers. Okay. Um, any questions? Any questions? When it comes to survey area, everyone understood what's a survey, right? One thing that you can do is, you know, just go online, go to Google, type in give me a survey. Now that we have even chat GPT and AI, it'll give you everything. [clears throat] It'll give you everything. You what takes one [snorts] month to do, you can do it in 2 three hours, right? Go to chat GBT say I want to start an English church in this place, right? And this or I want to start a church. What documents do I need? It'll give you everything. I want to start uh a church in this place. Example, I want to start in Kotonur. Please show me what are the different colleges, English-speaking colleges. Please show me where I can reach out to people and also show me where do young people hang out during their time, during their free time. Show me hubs where uh you know evangelism could be helpful. everything it'll show you. So it's not like those days it's very easy but you must take the effort to do it with me. Yeah. So very important survey identify survey identify. Now for example you have surveyed a place you may get three places and you're saying god there are three places three different places where I feel I can start. Now you need to choose one right you can't have three right you need to choose one so then take your time prayerfully decide right see the pros and cons write it down if I take this place okay will it be something that's that people will come to okay will it be too far for ministry uh for for these you know these evangelistic uh uh places where I can reach about or is there good convenient transport system right I'll give you this example then we'll take a break when we when we had APC East we had it in a hotel called Keys Hotel okay and it was a nice place it's a hotel right at AC hall about a 150 seater nice place right we were there for a long time co hit people went home after co that hotel was taken over by another company and So when we came back they were very happily willing to give it to us. So they gave us that hall but the problem was the AC was not working. So then we bought fans you know big fans. I think some of it are here those big standing fans but because of those tempered glass in the hotel the air was very hot. Right now when we restarted APC East in 2022 we were about 40 to 50 people. Right. uh and the fans sound was very loud and you know slowly the hotel people started saying you know uh you can't meet here they for the children's church we had a different hall a small room they would say you can't meet there you have to go outside which is near the parking space and we didn't like that because cars can come in and go out anytime and it was disruptive so eventually we made the decision not to continue church there it was a hard decision it was August 2022 July 2022 native. So then we began to look out for places and I remember I saw some very nice halls 200 250 seater hall full ceiling fan everything done up [snorts] everything looks nice stage you can do a nice stage and uh uh nothing you just have to bring your equipment and start [snorts] but one problem no car parking nice place very nice hall they said they'll give you do car parking. So then we thought to ourselves, see all is good. 250 people can come and sit. Where will the people park the car? I we know in church there are a lot of people if there are 10 families, 10 cars for example, right? Where will they park the car? It'll be very disruptive for them. It will be very difficult for them. Some of them will come with, you know, with babies. They need a stroller. You want wheelchair access? Oh, so I said no. We said no. But the hall is very good. You understand what's happening here? So I have to look at other things. In another place we went, the hall is very nice. He said even on Sunday, I'll give you the lift. You can use the lift up. I'll put it on. No problem. Right. And then he said, "I will talk to the residents around and give you car parking in this entire road." Something didn't sit well with me. I said, "You will talk, but they should listen." No, you'll be snoring on Sunday morning in your house and we'll come and park cars here. They will come and start shouting. They'll say, "Why are you parking cars here? I can't say my owner let this is not." But they'll say, "This is not your owner's road." What will I say? I can't say anything. No. Can I say anything? I can't say the Lord is the creator of the earth and he has made this road. He'll say good take it out before I call the cops. Right. So it was a beautiful hall. Beautiful hall. Very nicely done up. AC AC hall ceiling fans nothing you had to do. Everything was set up. And finally we found a hall which was about 6 kilometers away from keys hotel. So you have to go further out. Okay. Now when we went there I remember the first thing that came to my heart was this is our place. I just knew it. Now there were questions in my heart. I was thinking 5 kilometers away. That's one. Will people come? Right. two is it's a little interior uh and I don't there was not many things around like one apartment was there a few apartments will people come uh but I knew in my heart this is the place because they gave us a big hall big hall for children's church and maybe 100 car park said this this is where we want to be but the thing was many people started going to central this is because it's too far right. So they started so when we went into this 200 250 odd seater hall we were around 50 people 45 to 50 people right but you envision you look ahead Lord one day this hall should become full right so we began so then now I'm not worried about car parking I'm not worried about children's church hall everything is set there's a good hall everything so slowly started getting equipment, started getting volunteers, people started joining, young people joined. I started telling them, hey, we need hands for sound and setup team. Do you think you can come? And people started coming. Uh families started coming, right? Then I realized, hey, from that place where we are in east, there's so if you go ahead, there's so much available in terms of it parks and apartments. So a lot of so my heart was at ease. So now on a given on a Sunday we had a we have about 60 cars. Every time I look at that car parking I say thank you Lord I made the right decision. Right decision really. Because what happens is sometimes one a family will come he's in the setup team or he's volunteering. They'll come in one car. Wife and children will come another car. You need the car parking. Then children's church. Now we are 60 people in children's church. Right. So we have 60 odd children u and we needed that hall so good right and so now in the main church we are about 160 170 people right adults if all of them come together right it's good we did it good we didn't take a hasty decision that time right so now even if we are you know even now recently I was talking to them I was telling them see our cars are becoming more we need more car park so he said don't worry sir we'll empty that other back side we'll give you a place to park there. So that's also sorted. Right? So till we reach 250 regularly, no problem. We can continue services there. Right? So that's how you plan ahead. Right? You see, you make the right decision by the discerning of the Holy Spirit also. Okay? Take a break. We'll come back. We'll get into chapter 10.