All right. Good afternoon, everyone. We're going to get started now. My name is Megan Lowry. I am a manager of media relations at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Thank you for joining us today for a webinar on the report that was just released this morning titled, Enhancing Coordination and Collaboration Across the Land Grant System. You can now download a copy of the report and other supporting materials at www.nap.edu. And we're also going to chat that link out to you during the webinar. And a recording of this session will be available in the coming weeks on the National Academies website. For those of you who are not familiar with the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, we are private non-profit institutions that provide independent objective analysis and advice to the U.S. to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, technology, and medicine. For each requested study, panel members are chosen for their expertise and experience, and they serve pro bono to carry out the study's statement of task. The reports that result from the study represent the consensus view of the entire committee and must undergo external peer review, as did this report. Before I introduce a few members of the committee that are joining us today, I'll just go over a few quick reminders. Please note that this webinar is scheduled to last one hour, so we'll start off with a presentation from the committee. And then afterwards, we'll open it up to any questions you may have. To ask a question, just click the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen, and you can submit a question at any time during the presentation. So now I'll introduce the members of the committee who are joining us today. We have Katherine Bohr, Chair of the Committee and Dean of Cornell University Graduate School, Karen Plout, Dean of Agriculture and Professor of Animal Sciences at Purdue University, and Steve Ianni, Land Grant Director and Accreditation Liaison Officer at Bay Mills Community College. So with that, I will turn it over to Dr. Bohr. Thank you, Megan. And again, good afternoon, everyone. And thank you for tuning in to our report release webinar. First, I'd like to say a few words about the origin of this study. A congressional directive in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 called on the USDA Undersecretary for REE, which is a position that was vacant at the time, to establish a blue ribbon panel of representatives from Land Grant College and universities, including the 1890 institutions with an explicit emphasis on the legislative language and their stakeholders to examine how to better integrate and coordinate research and education across the Land Grant system and to assess their collective economic impacts. Congress provided NIFA with $300,000 for this purpose, and NIFA turned to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine for help in addressing the directive. And to that end, the academies established the Committee on Enhancing Collaboration Between Land Grant Universities and Colleges, also called the Blue Ribbon Panel, to begin this work. So next slide, please. So on this slide, you'll see a brief outline of today's presentation. I'll start with some background on the way in which the panel approached our task, which is quite important for the context for this particular report. Then I'll briefly discuss the organization of the report. Then two of the committee members, Steve Gianni from Bay Mills College and Karen Plout from Purdue University, will present the key takeaways and the recommendations from the report. Finally, I'll describe what we hope will happen to keep this important conversation going, and then we'll take questions as Megan mentioned. Next slide, please. So on this slide, you'll see a list of the members of the Blue Ribbon Panel. I won't read the list, but I'll mention that our members included leaders from 1862 and 1890s institutions, one Hispanic-serving university, and a 1994 institution. The members included a university chancellor, deans of agriculture, research directors, and a dean and associate dean for research, deans of graduate studies, directors of land grant programs, and some individuals with ties to the land grant system but outside of academia, such as the executive director of the New Mexico Beef Council, the commissioner of agriculture for Kentucky, and a former corporate science officer now a venture capitalist. Next slide, please. The Blue Ribbon Panel was given a statement of task, which you see here, and I will quickly summarize. So the statement of task pulled together an ad hoc study committee also called the Blue Ribbon Panel to identify key factors for successful outcomes of coordinated and collaborative projects between colleges and universities in the land grant system, including those historically black colleges and universities and other institutions, which address national challenges and global food security. The committee will prepare a report recommending actions to enhance the success and impact of inter-institutional activities, and specifically the panel will use case studies from multi-state research and extension activities, AFRICAP grants, and other examples to identify principles for fostering success and diverse outcomes. We'll present stakeholders with an overview of principles at a workshop. We'll use stakeholder feedback to inform a short report that recommends actions to reduce barriers to effective coordination and to foster impactful collaboration, and also the report will recommend processes that land grant schools can use to capture and share successes, outcomes, and impacts of joint projects. This charge proposed a very novel prototype for a fast-track National Academy's consensus study in which the panel was to share its initial views on the relevant issues in a workshop with stakeholders and then use the feedback from the participants at the workshop to shape its recommendations and its final report. Now this proposed approach is unlike any typical National Academy's consensus study in which the deliberations of the committee are not disclosed with others before the committee's report is developed, and in a typical study only the final consensus findings of the committee is released. As you'll see in the next slide, for a couple of reasons, the study committee didn't adhere strictly to the proposed process, but we used a little innovation of our own. So next slide, please, yes. So this is an overview of the study process which began in the conventional way with a public meeting with NIFA and USDA leaders. Later, the panel held several meetings of its own in closed sessions to try and wrap our arms around the legislative intent of the charge and to share the collective knowledge of the panel about collective activities in the land-grant system. The panel felt that simply organizing a workshop to share its ideas about how collaboration could be enhanced would likely leave out some of the voices from people that the panel wanted to hear from. So it opted instead to use an online platform to post 17 preliminary observations on collaboration in land-grant system and then to request public comment on those observations. NIFA publicized the existence of the platform. We briefed the S-COP and E-COP leaders and put out an announcement from the National Academies, and the platform was open for about three and a half weeks in April for comment. And then informed by that feedback, the committee organized several follow-on workshop sessions or many workshops that ran from May through August of 2022 after which we aim to consolidate what we learned into our report. Next slide, please. Very briefly, I'd like to share a few slides on the backgrounds of the individuals who commented on the preliminary observations that were shared. We had 78 respondents who had the option to comment on each of the 17 preliminary observations, so there were many comments. We asked individuals to indicate the type of institution with which they were associated and their location. As you can see, most of the respondents were from the 1862 institutions, but also a few from the 1890s and the 1994 Senate diversity of other organizations. Incidentally, the preliminary observations of the committee are reproduced in Appendix C of the report, and a short encapsulation of the types of comments received on each of the observations are contained in Appendix D. Next slide, please. It was optional for respondents to provide their job titles, but 53 respondents did provide them. So you can see that we had a good diversity of job types represented, at least in academia, that included faculty, administrators, and others. Next slide, please. Finally, the respondents came from institutions located across all quadrants of the country, including one from American Samoa. Next slide, please. After receiving comments on the preliminary observations, the panel decided to hold some additional webinars and mini workshops to explore the following topics. The first was the science of team science, which is the study of what researchers observe about the dynamics of collaboration. We also looked at the value of platforms such as the artificial intelligence institutes that are funded by USDA and NEPA for enabling collaboration across diverse land-grant institutions. We looked at building the culture of collaboration and trust between institutions across the land-grant system that truly featured in trust state collaborations. And finally, we examined how capacity affects the ability of an institution to be able to collaborate with others. Members of the blue ribbon panel participated in these sessions as moderators and co-panelists in these sessions and of course as discussants. These sessions are recorded and are stored on the project website. Next slide, please. So now on to the report and a bit about the structure. There are five chapters and four appendices. Briefly, we started with some history. In chapter one, we looked at examples of collaboration in chapter two and discussed why collaboration is of value in chapter three. In chapter three, we also looked at research findings regarding the nature of team dynamics and the skills and the personalities of team members that help a collaboration succeed. And the report also examines the financial realities of funding related to the capacities of 1890s and 1994 institutions to be able to partner in collaborations. In chapter four, we provide our view of some basic requirements for the success of large-scale collaboration and the committee makes seven recommendations for enhancing collaboration across the system, five of which are related to overcoming barriers and two are related to communicating impacts. In chapter five, we suggest next steps and then as you can see, there are four appendices in the report. Next slide, please. Some things that I would like to mention before we walk through those chapters are the following. And in this report, the panel took a high-level approach to set the stage for needed conversations and for continued exploration. We focused on collaboration inside the land-grant system as the charge requested, but we recognize, however, that our research systems across the United States and around the world are part of a much broader research ecosystem. We did not suggest a reinvention of the land-grant system. We did not review or rank or grade specific collaborations or collaboration categories. We did examine collaborations from the perspective of their different roles. We did explore key ingredients that are needed to position collaborations for success. And we did identify barriers to collaboration both for institutions and for individuals. And now, I would like to turn the presentation over to Steve Bionni. So, Steve, please. Thank you, Catherine. The Morrell Acts of 1862 and 1890 and the Equity and Educational Land Grant Status Act of 1994 created three institutional categories of the land-grant system, now known as the 1862s, the 1890s, which are the historically black colleges and universities, and the 1994s, which are the tribal colleges and universities. In total, 111 land-grant institutions have been established across all states and many territories. Land-grant institutions are notable for the tripartite mission of research, extension, and education. The panel found that the identity of each land-grant entity is one of an independent enterprise rather than as a member of an integrated national system. In large part, each is dedicated to serving the clientele of its home state. The panel found that agriculture and food production are complex activities. No single institution can provide all the solutions to the challenges that today's agricultural producers face, much less satisfy all the society wants and needs from the agriculture and food system. Next slide, please. The panel found that there is significant amount of collaboration happening across the land-grant system today in the form of multi-state research activities, grants, and other national and regional committees, centers of excellence, and other activities. In general, collaborations are dominated by the 1862s. The panel noted that last year for the first time, a CAP award was made to an 1890 institution to lead a collaboration that involves 1890s, 1862s, and 1994s. The panel found that multi-state projects mainly involve individuals from the 1862 institutions. Hatch funds provide capacity funding for multi-state research to the 1862s, but not the 1890s or 1994s. For example, there are 247 projects in the national information management and support system for the multi-state research projects and activities. A look at 50 projects from the southern region revealed only eight participants from 1890s and none from 1994s. These activities have value in different ways. They address subjects of local, regional, national, tribal, and sometimes global concern. They advance knowledge. Some are designed to provide practical, science-based tools for users. Others support commercial innovation, produce economic benefit, build human capacity, and facilitate communication among groups, among other things. Questions remain about the definition of or appropriate metrics for success, in part because there are different outcomes and outputs associated with collaborations. And partnering institutions also have different expectations for what they hope to accomplish through the collaboration. For example, student training versus publications. Interstate collaboration is more likely to involve a diversity of institutions. Examples include extension activities in Virginia and Alabama. In Michigan, all four land grant colleges, the 1862 and 3994s, along with 12 tribal nations and NIFA, have established a true statewide land grant system to better meet the needs of tribal nations, citizens, and organizations. This collaborative effort serves an important relationship and trust building function. In spite of the fact that there appears to be great collaborations happening, it is not clear that one could say that the land grant system is addressing the needs of the nation and global food security as a system through collaboration, especially when faculty and staff from all types of institutions are missing from the collaborations. Next slide, please. Scientific progress in food and agriculture can be enhanced by transdisciplinary conversions, systems-level thinking, and collaboration involving individuals from diverse backgrounds and experience. Convergence is an approach to problem solving that cuts across disciplinary boundaries and integrates knowledge, tools, and ways of thinking to tackle scientific and societal challenges that exist at the interfaces of multiple fields. Systems approaches go beyond the pursuit of incremental solutions such as increasing productivity by approaching them in a larger context, for example, social, economic, environmental sustainability, and resilience to the system. Diversity brings novel insights to the solution space and enables connections to a broader community of stakeholders. The field of research on team science shows that team cohesiveness, satisfaction with one's role in the collaboration, confidence that collaborators are pursuing a shared vision, etc., are associated with success and this can be proactively cultivated by teams that are self-aware. Individuals play different roles, for example, disciplinary boundary crossers, data crunchers, scientific visionaries, coordinators, etc., in collaborations. Leaders of collaborative efforts need to adapt a mindset that allows them to recognize and cultivate the mix of talents that make collaborations successful. Next slide, please. Collaboration requires financial resources for planning, for science, for management and administration, and coordination of participants. In addition to the science that must take place, funding for program management is essential to keep complex projects on task. Administrative capabilities are not strong at all institutions or aligned toward collaboration with other institutions and this needs attention. This is one of many capacity-related issues. Capacity also affects the amount of time and commitment that faculty and staff can put into a collaboration. Regardless of the institution, if faculty and staff are completely booked, wearing several hats, or otherwise over-committed, they will need ways to be released of some duties to allow them to participate meaningfully in a collaboration. The different legislative authorities for capacity funding of land-grant institutions affect the ability of its faculty and staff to participate in collaboration. Historical and, more importantly, current funding inequities impede the ability of 1890s and 1994s to collaborate. The HBCUs and TCUs have little capacity for collaborations, both in terms of the bandwidth of faculty members and staff, many of whom are actually educated at the 1862s and their administrative capacities. We have to begin to tackle these issues head-on or the status quo won't change. Public funding for agriculture research has declined in real dollars over the last decade. Yes, private funding has increased, but USDA's research suggests that those dollars don't fund the kind of research that are related to the public goods and services we need from agriculture and the food systems, social, environmental, economic, nutrition, and health research issues, for example. The point is that, relative to other fields in countries, the U.S. seems to be devaluing research at a critical time in our global history, given the challenges we are facing. So it is not just 1890s and 1994s and their capacity issues. Collaborative platforms may offer novel approaches for achieving multiple goals and overcoming barriers. The workshop on the artificial intelligence institutes were interesting because they offered a model that could accommodate partners of different kinds, all bringing data to the table and with the diversity of research interests and using it. But the platform offered all participants access to tools, computing tools, and data that they would not individually have otherwise. And also a place to find partners. So these are intriguing opportunities, especially as we think about what sorts of models are needed to address big picture issues in food and agriculture, like climate change, water, resilience, and health. And now we'll turn the presentation over to Karen. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. Next slide, please. The panel was asked to develop a framework for principles around collaborations. As the panel contemplated what was essential for large-scale collaborations, several principles rose quickly to the surface. One, support and advocacy is needed from the highest administrative levels of partner institutions. Two, as noted earlier, planning is essential, as are the financial resources necessary to enable planning among institutions. There's often insufficient time to meet, plan a collaborative activity, and sometimes that leads to last-minute requests for participation. For example, from faculty from an HVCU, just to make a proposal more competitive. Planning is also a way to articulate expectations of partners for outcomes in the metrics for evaluating outcomes. Operating resources should be adequate to support project participants, including administrative support, project coordination support, and data management support, in addition to directed funds to support research, teaching, and outreach. Number four, incentive structures are needed to enable faculty to participate in large-scale projects without compromising on other responsibilities. Number five, uniformed shared data management systems are needed that enable seamless access to information. And six, communication support is needed to inform the public, including legislators, of the outcome of their financial investments. Next slide, please. So now I'll turn to the panel's recommendations from chapter four. It is urgent that Congress take action to facilitate the participation of all land-grant colleges and universities in multi-state research and extension projects. Currently, inter-institutional collaborations of the multi-state research project do not routinely engage faculty from the full-range events institutions across the land-grant system. Different authorities guide the allocation of federal funds to 1862, 1890s, and 1994 institutions respectively, with different requirements for state matching support of federal dollars and different stipulations for the use of the funds of collaboration. Historical and current funding disparities have prevented many 1890s and 1994s from being full partners in collaboration with the 1862s. If unifying the land-grant system around common national pursuits is important, Congress should address the need to provide dedicated funding to support participation in collaborative activities. Number two, land-grant administrators should examine how to reduce the variability in committed support for faculty participation in collaborative activities. For example, some institutions use multi-state research funds to support salaries, while others may use them to support travel to participate in meetings. The panel recognizes that the Experiment Station and Extension directors have reasons for managing their funds as they do, but expectations for the level of participation in a collaborative activity need to be made clear by parties involved, along with decision making around the value of the time spent on collaboration. Three, faculty members in academic departments should reflect on how collaborative activities fit into an academic career and advocate for their reward. Academic institutions have traditions emphasizing and rewarding competitive rather than collaborative research projects. Pre-tenured faculty in particular may encounter strong disincentives for pursuing collaboration. Time has come for departments to modify evaluation criteria for promotion and tenure to ensure that achievement and team science are appropriately recognized and rewarded. Funding agencies should help faculty find partners for collaboration. To increase knowledge of where there's relevant expertise across the land-grant system, NIFA could encourage collaboration by convening information exchange or sandbox workshops. These could highlight funded research projects or new areas of research and allow investigators to share information about work they may be doing in topical areas that are of interest to other scientists in the system. NSF and NIFA fund research coordination networks that support groups of investigators to communicate and coordinate the research across disciplinary, organizational, divisional, and geographic boundaries. These could serve as models for addressing the need for investigator networks. Number five, land-grant colleges and universities should help build capacity for collaboration by introducing faculty to the science of team science. Academic institutions generally only aim to train students in their scientific disciplines, not in understanding the human behaviors that foster successful themes. There's a scientific basis for understanding these dynamics in collaboration and academics should use that knowledge to inspire more explicit thinking around team dynamics and self-awareness by leaders and participants in collaborative activity. Next slide, please. Impact. Impact can take many forms. It can catalyze behavior change. It can create commercial opportunity and many other things. But having impact is also associated with recognition and awareness of the work that contributed to these outcomes. Documenting the economic, environmental, and social and society impacts and benefits of collaborative research is important. NIFA knows this already. The shared your science workshops are helpful in getting scientists to produce socially relevant information about their work. Of course, it is not just the description of the outcomes that are important, but it also is important to get the message out to the people in the way they connect with it. The panel felt that the constituents may be more likely to recognize the impacts and benefits of collaborative activities among land-grant colleges and universities if communication strategies are tailored to their interests and levels of understanding. Communicating results to producers may need to target their specific concerns. Policymakers may have different concerns, such as the economic benefit of a project, while members of the public may care about other things such as food prices or environmental effects. The panel had two recommendations, one to NIFA, one to the land-grant system. The first is that NIFA should support a collaborative research and extension activity of social sciences and science communicators in the land-grant system to develop outreach strategies. The second is that land-grant colleges and universities should create novel messaging vehicles to reach specific outcomes, to reach specific audiences about the outcomes of collaborations. So the idea here is to take a scientific approach to communication and include efforts to understand who is getting the message and what works for different audiences and to recognize that people are bombarded by so much information that there needs to be a hook. And there is nobody more in turn tuned with how to disseminate information than the younger generation at colleges and universities. Currently, there's an award for the best multi-state project every year, but maybe we should also have a prize for the best communication of an impact of a project. With that, I'll turn back to you, Catherine. Thank you, Karen, and thank you also, Steve. And so if I could have the next slide, please. So we identified a number of next steps as a part of the process of creating this report, and I'd like to present those to you right now. And so first and extremely importantly, this report is just the beginning of an important set of conversations on these topics. We recognize that there are barriers to collaboration, and some of those are seriously not trivial to overcome. We know that funding resources are needed, and the capacity for collaboration needs to be expanded. It became clear to us throughout all of our deliberations that trust is an essential element of effective collaborations. And so trust needs to be intentionally built and maintained throughout the process. We need a growing awareness or a greater awareness of potential partners both inside and outside of the land-grant system. And finally, the community needs to think about forward-looking mechanisms and platforms for nationwide coordination and cooperation on topics of critical importance to food and agriculture. And this is the subject for a second blue ribbon panel study. And so now on to the final slide, please. And at this point, we are, as the slide says, happy to take any questions that you may have regarding this report. So thank you very much for your attention to this point. Great. Thank you so much to the committee for that presentation. As Dr. Burr said, we're going to open it up to questions at this point. So as a reminder to ask a question, just click the Q&A button at the bottom of your screen and type in your question there. Our first question today is going to be one prominent challenge in agriculture now is increasing the resiliency of our food system in a changing climate. How do you think increased collaboration and land-grant system can help us prepare U.S. agriculture for climate change or any other challenges that you think are top of mind? So I'll start with some thoughts along those lines based on the findings of the committee. And then I'll return to my fellow committee members. Among the ideas that really came to the surface very quickly is how important it is to have multiple points of view with regard to identifying problems and challenges and the creativity that comes from multiple points of view with regard to developing answers to those particular challenges. So the role of collaboration to a very great extent, one of the most critical elements is that nature of the creativity that comes from taking multiple perspectives on these big problems. And I turn to either of the other panelists for any other comments that you'd like to move. I'll add one quick one. The impact of climate and variable climate may be very different in various communities. And without that collaborative approach, we may be approaching the solution from a very limited set instead of understanding the impact on many different communities that exist around the country. I will add that the partnerships could include a better recognition of the role of historical information and knowledge in terms of combating some of today's challenges such as climate change, whether they be traditional ecological knowledge or other types of information that we can bring to the forefront more easily through collaborative efforts. I think these are really important points made by Karen and Steven. I'll add one more, which is that through collaboration we can also bring more resources to bear on these really large-scale questions in addition to the creativity and the wisdom that comes from multiple areas. Great. Thank you all so much. Our next question, I am not sure if this is something the report addresses, but perhaps you can clarify for our audience. Should the government distribute funding equally among land-grant institutions or should the funding be based on merit? So I'll start with this one too. And it's really important to say that this question falls outside of the scope of the work that we were doing. But I would like to acknowledge the importance of this question. And I would like to say that our report highlights the importance of addressing this question in a systematic and thoughtful and careful way. So a subject for future work. And I open the floor to my other panelists. Yeah, I will answer this. I think one of the other things to consider is right now agriculture is being underfunded. And Congress needs to consider a serious infusion into an area that's so important. Food security is so important to the future of our country. And across the system, and looking at this as a global system, we really need more resources to go into these big problems for agriculture at this end of the time. And I would quickly add that when we look at the funding coming into the land-grant system, oftentimes we describe them as capacity funds or competitive funds. And we need both. The challenge oftentimes is with the capacity funding creating a equitable playing field in terms of the ability of the smaller institutions to be effective and meaningful collaborators. If they do have that basic capacity to be effective and meaningful collaborators, then everyone becomes more effective in the competitive realm. Thank you, Steve. And I see we have another question that has come in, which I will read. It says, given the large aims and scale of many multi-institutional land-grant projects, for example, Africa projects, how can large impact over longer time scales best be assessed for shorter grant-specific timelines that are often required to move forward? What types of intermediate indicators of impact are key to the audiences you survey? And so thank you, Heather, for asking this question. And in fact, an issue that is in the report, it's touched on in the report, is that notion of the short-term timeframe for the competitive grants and then the opportunity for those to feed into these larger scale grants. And in fact, I would say, and perhaps Karen and Steve can expand on this a little bit further, one of the most important elements of the opportunity for collaboration is to provide a measured trajectory of progress across institutions. And that is absolutely a big goal of the type of systems thinking that was described earlier in this presentation. I think it's a really important question. And I think as we move forward and look at future resources for agriculture, NSF, for example, has some long-term funded projects that do represent those kind of efforts. And I don't know what, with a larger portfolio, when you need that, because NF is pretty limited on what they can fund, you can do some of those kind of things more long-term, where it has some short-term objectives with which scientists need, so to get some of those publications out. But it gives you that longer-term trajectory that's really, really important for these questions. So really appreciate the question. Yes. And just one more perspective, when we're talking about long-term activities and outcomes and aspirations, sometimes we need to think about other than individual grant projects and individual grant timelines. We need to think more about creating relationships and trust. And we need to think more about creating structures and systems for collaborations at different levels, rather than specifically tackling this particular grant project or another particular grant project. So that's maybe a different take on it, but one that I think is really important if we're really going to start looking at a collaborative system, be it at the state level or nationwide. Steve, I think that really adds to what I was talking about, because some of these resources are central resources where we can all work together on these projects, get that trust, continue to develop. People can have different projects, but the results then are the bigger impact of the whole group. And I really appreciate what you said, because that's really, really important. Thank you. All right. Our next question is, if HBCUs and TCUs are better included in collaboration, what are some examples of how this might improve research in the land grant system as a whole? What do we have to gain from this? So again, I'll start. But the idea being to think of the land grant institutions as a system and making sure that everyone has a place at the table so that we are taking into account multiple points of view that we are really building from, again, the creativity of those who are seeing challenges in different ways and may have different types of solutions for solving them. No one person or one entity or one institution can possibly have the answers to all of those types of questions. So again, inclusion is a critically important aspect of addressing these large-scale challenging problems. People come with many perspectives. Bringing those perspectives together is really the important to get to some of the best solutions. Also, if we have TCUs and HBCUs collaborating on projects, and we talk a lot about research, but we also have extension projects that we might be working on, right? But one thing that smaller institutions bring is access to communities, access to histories, access to knowledge that might not otherwise be easily available to a particular project. And I think that's a really important benefit when we look at the effectiveness of the system overall. Great. Thank you all. And Dr. Yanni, your mention of extension programs is a great lead into our next question, which is, how do you think improved collaboration research might impact the way that land grant systems work with communities and work with people who are actually working in agriculture, for example, through the extension services that you mentioned? So, Steve, if you'd like to start with that one, that would be great. Well, I think, you know, if the research is collaborative and involves all members of the land grant family or the land grant system, it's more likely to be impactful. It's more likely to be meaningful to the various communities, the various stakeholders whom we serve. For example, if the research collaboration involves members of the African American community or members of the various tribal nations around the country, those tribal nations, those black communities of stakeholders are much more likely to be interested in that information, because it has meaning to them that perhaps is more there's more depth to the meaning that they might derive from that particular activity. And when we talk about these smaller institutions, their linkages to the communities are so direct and drive everything that the smaller institutions do in terms of the land grant work. So, in order for the work to be meaningful to these communities, the research needs to be certainly including all aspects of these communities as well. Yeah, often the 1862s don't serve all communities. We would love to, but we don't as well. And so partnering with 1890s or tribal colleges gives us an opportunity to reach communities that we haven't reached before. Many more people are doing that. We have different programs to do that, but there's lots of opportunities to really reach much broader into the communities. Terrific. And I think we have another blue ribbon panel member raising her hand. Dina, if you would like to add to this conversation, that would be great. Hi, Catherine. Thank you. I'm Dina Chaco and Reitzel, and I serve on the panel. And I think as was stated earlier, I am the executive director of the New Mexico beef council. So I think as a stakeholder, I want to comment on this. And I think very often we think of research coming from the top pie in the sky thoughts and not from grass roots that we're looking for solutions. So I think, you know, quite often and most of the time in all of my experience with land grants, the researcher, the problems are expressed by grassroots organizations and stakeholders. And from there, it goes on up to address those solutions. So if we are not including grass roots and stakeholders in looking at this, and we're probably not solving the solutions that are coming forth from that segment and on the ground, and quite often I think the land grants are solving those issues from grassroots up. So it just has to include stakeholders and those folks that are bringing these problems to be attention of land grants. Thank you, Dina, for the points. Thank you. All right. Our next question is, but what do you hope most hoping that researchers who are actively working in the land grant system, perhaps actively working on research projects or the multi state research projects that you mentioned in your report? And what are you hoping that they take away from your report? Well, I'll start with my wish list and then turn things over to other panel members right at the very top of my wish list is the wish that our faculty will carve out enough planning time on the front end in terms of building collaborations and actually take the time to build the partnerships that they need to move forward with successful projects in a thoughtful way and to reach out across institutions with enough time to have built those collaborations really before those proposals go in for evaluation. That's probably my number one wish. And then my number two wish, which I think has been reflected in multiple comments that we made here today is that re-evaluation of the resources that are being directed toward these really critical issues in food and agriculture and across our systems that focus on publicly relevant questions. So I'll add to them, I think something that I hope they take away absolutely the planning but in their planning that they start to understand the science of team science. So going to bring in multiple partners you've got to understand the dynamics of the group because as we mentioned it's not just bringing in an HBCU or a tribal college so that they're on the grant. It's actually making sure that everybody on the team has a vital role to play understand those roles and bringing that together with the science. So it gets to Catherine's planning and then doing that in a systematic way using the science we know about team science to make sure everyone has an opportunity to be at the table and to develop then the best solutions. Very quickly adding that takeaways need to include understanding understanding of the realities of the various institutions, their maturation as institutions, their capacity both in terms of human resources and financial resources and also understanding that the HBCUs in 1994 is in particular are so connected to the communities that they serve and sometimes that's difficult for our 1862 colleagues to really understand that everything we do has to be driven by the communities that we whom we serve and the last piece is long-term relationship building really has to be at the forefront as has been mentioned numerous times here. Great thank you all. Looks like we have one more question that has come in from the audience. Often disadvantaged communities and individuals are challenged to be able to participate because of resources and day-to-day demands they have for example more difficult transportation to meetings or less flexibility to participate costs of child care etc. How can land grant collaborations that must start to engage all stakeholders structure themselves to include these stakeholders in their interests in innovative ways using technology or local representation in optimal ways does the report address this type of challenge. So the report did not explicitly address the issue of collecting feedback from a variety of communities for input into decision-making and so I just want to be explicit that that is not in the report per se however one thing we learned from the report process was it was quite valuable to for example lay out our 17 building principles there are preliminary observations and to use technology to gain input again we showed that we gathered input from around the entire U.S. all the quadrants and from America and Samoa and so there are ways in which we can help inform the community about opportunities to provide feedback and input and ways in which we can take them into consideration my opinion is that the process for the creation of this report modeled that to some extent and perhaps that model can be used for future endeavors. Great thank you well it looks like we have one more the person that just asked a question just said thank you I thought we had got another question it looks like we have addressed all the questions that our audience has for us today so I'll just pose one last one to wrap us up here is there anything else that you want people to be thinking about as they read your report over the next few weeks whether or not they are currently working in the land grant system. So my number one wish there is that that this report inspires thoughts about where we need to go we really spent our a lot of time and effort to identify challenges and principles that start the foundation for the conversations that need to happen and so we hope we hope we inspire people to be thinking about now let's start to aim for solutions. I completely agree this report it was done we had a short timeline a short report and it provides a framework. Framework is where you start if you can use this framework to move on to the next step I think that's would be a fantastic outcome for this the work of this panel. Well thank you all so much for taking these questions today I'll note again that a recording of the session will be available on the national academies website in the coming weeks so you will be able to go back and reference it there we've got lots of other materials on the report that you can look through you can download the report for free and in full at www.nap.edu so with that I'd like to thank our speakers and thank you all again for joining us today.


Ranger Bill, warrior of the woodland, struggling against extreme odds, traveling dangerous trails, showing rare courage in the face of disaster, in the air, on horseback, or in a screaming squad car. Ranger Bill, his mind alert, already smile, unswerving, loyal to his mission, and all this in exchange for the satisfaction and pride of a job well done. Boy, Naughty Pine seems to get busier every week. Look at all the people down here shopping today. Yeah, I know what you mean, pal. I have an idea that before long we'll see a lot of new stories going up around here. They'll have to, hey, look over there, across the street. Isn't that Harvey Elroy? I'm not sure, Henry. Sure looks like him. I haven't seen him since he went off to college two years ago.  I think I can find my way back to the ranger station alone. Boy, if you couldn't, we'd have a fine chief ranger. Thanks, Bill. I'll see you later on. Hey, Harv! I guess it's Harvey, all right. Well, I'd better get along to the station. So, when I saw you from across the street there, I could hardly believe my eyes. I haven't seen you for two years at least. At least that, Henry. Well, you're starting to look like a real man. Well, what about you?  If I didn't know your name was Harvey, I'd think you were Joe College himself. Say, have you got a few minutes, Henry? Sure. I have to meet Bill back at the ranger station later, but I'm free now. Good. Let's stop for a soda or something. I've been away from naughty pine for so long I'd like to hear what all's been happening. Oh, you know us. Practically a new adventure every week. And that just about brings us up to today. I didn't think I knew so much about naughty pine. Well, you're the best newspaper I've ever seen. No, what about you, Harvey? It's been so long since I saw you. I can't even remember what your major is in college. It's botany, Henry. Botany? Why, that's swell. Oh, I guess when you grow up in a place like this, you can't help but get interested in plants and the like. It's a tremendously interesting program. Program? Oh, that's what they call the whole four-year course. Oh, I can hardly wait till I get to college, Harvey. Every time I hear of things you do and learn, well, I just get all the itchier. Well, don't you get too itchy for the kicks of college, Henry. It's hard work all the way. Yeah, I know. But it's so much more interesting than all the stuff you have to learn in high school. But did you ever think that if you didn't learn all that stuff in high school, you wouldn't be able to go to college? I know. They wouldn't let you. Oh, no, no. It isn't just the law that would stop you. No? No, no. Believe me, you use almost everything you learned in high school. Well, they just figured that you know a lot of things already, so they go right on to the more detailed work. So I guess it's a good thing to learn all you can before you go to college, huh? I think so. Makes your college career a lot more fun and interesting. Say, I just thought of something. What are you doing this coming Saturday afternoon? Nothing that I know of. Why?  I sure would be swell if you could come along. You could show us some of the things we might not ordinarily see about the trees and plants and things. Boys club, huh? That's right. Some of the younger fellas in Naughty Pine get together at the school once a week. They ask me if I'd be their leader. Sounds like fun. What all do you do?  We visit all sorts of places and study lots of things that have to do with nature. It sounds like maybe I could learn something from your club. Oh, no, I doubt that. What about it though, Harve? Would you come along? Well, there'll be food. We can plan to cook lunch and supper in the woods, and then maybe you could say a few words about school and things that are meeting after supper. Meeting? That's right. One of the things we do each week is to look at the portion of the Bible and study it. We plan to save this week's study for after dinner in the woods. It kind of makes you feel closer to God. That's right. I'd forgotten.  I guess you could call it that. College will do you a lot more good than I thought. What do you mean? Well, I think you'll change a lot of your ideas about God after you've been there for a while. I suppose I will. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on it. You are? Sure. I figure the more I learn about His creation, the better an idea I'll have of what He's really like. Oh, uh-huh. Well, I'm afraid that I can't buy God at all. There's a big lack of evidence. Huh? You don't believe in God? That's right. I tossed all that over when I grew up. Henry, I'll give you a good little rule to follow, a rule that anybody who is anybody uses, and it's this. Believe anything only on the basis of how much proof there is for it. That's a pretty good rule, all right? Yes, it is. And seeing as there's very little, if any, proof for God, well, I'm afraid I just can't buy the whole idea. Hey, Henry, I didn't mean to shatter your faith just like that. Oh, you didn't, Harv. You just got me to thinking a little. Oh, good. Good.  Bill? Yeah, Henry? Can you prove that God really is? Oh, uh, been talking to Harvey Elroy, Bill? Yeah, he says that you should only believe something that has enough proof for it, or something like that. Uh-huh. That's a good rule to follow, Bill. Well, that's what I thought too, but then he said that there isn't any proof to prove God, so he doesn't believe in him. Is that what he said? Yeah. It really shook me up. I never met anybody who didn't believe in God before. I mean, I know a lot of folks who aren't Christians, but they all probably believe in God. Is what he said right, Bill? Can you prove that God really is? Well, Henry, that's one of the oldest problems in the world. You see, pal, it isn't as easy as just saying that you can or can't prove that God exists. What do you mean? Well, let me give you an example. Let's take the argument that says that because the whole universe is running in an orderly way, you know, all the planets spinning around the sun at their own speeds and seasons always coming around on time, well, almost everything you know about nature is pretty well ordered. Sure. Otherwise, we couldn't really know anything about nature. I mean, if everything was all haphazard, how could we know what would happen next? That's right, pal. Now, some of us look at this orderliness of things, and we say that it's a proof that God is running it all. We say that it shows that there is some single operator of the whole thing. And in this way, we say that this is a proof that God exists. Makes good sense to me. But what did Harve mean? Well, what he meant was just this. Still using our orderliness argument, it might not mean that God is running things. It might just mean that things are just that way, that they don't need any single person to run them. There aren't some people who take this side of it. Yeah. I guess you can say that that could be. I just never thought of that side of it before. Maybe it's a good thing that you do, pal. That way, when you meet people who are highly respected, learned people, and they believe that way, you won't be swayed. At least I'll know more of what to expect. But wait a minute. What's the matter? If all the facts that you can use to prove God might really not prove Him at all, how do you, I mean, we know there really is a God? Well, I would have been disappointed in your thinking if you hadn't thought of that, pal. And there is a rather complicated process, but I'll see if I can boil it down for you. It might not all make sense to you right now, but as you get older and study more and think more, I'm sure it'll all fall right into line. Boy, I sure hope so. What the thinking, Christian, dies is to use the kinds of proof we were just talking about to support the only real evidence of God's existence. What's that? The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our Spirit. You see, the only real assurance we have is personally from God. But that doesn't help show someone like Harv, who doesn't believe it to start with, does it? He'd probably just say I was having hallucinations. And that's pretty well where these other proofs come in. It all sounds like a big circle to me. Well, we've said an awful lot in a little time, pal. It'll take you a lot longer to work all this out for yourself. But don't worry too much. Your friend Harvey has just as big a problem with his side. He does? Sure. It takes as much, if not more, faith to believe that God doesn't exist. And it takes just as big and fanciest circle of argument to keep him out of things. He said all that, huh? That's right.  I'm a little surprised. I never saw an intelligent man who called himself a Christian. I mean, like you mean it. Well, boy, I'll tell you. What you said the other day sure had me shaky. I don't understand the whole thing yet myself, but I know that there is an answer. Well, I'll stick to my faith, as he calls it. I think there are too many reasons why belief in God is opposite to what's really good. But what do you mean? Don't you have something there in the Bible that says to believe in God no matter what? I think so. I know we're to have faith in God no matter what the circumstances. That amounts to the same thing. I think that's ridiculous. Why do you say that? I think it's pretty obvious. Look, if I believe that hitting somebody with a ball bat didn't really hurt them, and you showed me a whole hospital full of people who were hurt by ball bats. And I said, it doesn't matter because I don't believe that ball bats can hurt people. Well, you'd think I was crazy, wouldn't you? I guess so. Sure you would. Nobody in the world believes anything at all on a no matter what basis except in religion. And I think that that is crazy. Oh, you sure come back from college full of ideas, Harve. I can't answer a thing like that. But on the other hand, I sure can't toss over my whole Christian faith that easy either. These are just some of the things we kick around at school, Henry. I didn't mean to get you all bothered. I suppose you don't still want me to join you and your club on Saturday, huh? Oh, that's not so, Harve. I still think we can learn a lot from you along the lines of botany. Don't worry, Henry. I won't preach any of my anti-religious sermons to your impressionable young boys. Not all really. I think religion is good for young people. Well, when they're young, it gives them some pretty right ideas about how to act. We'll see you on Saturday then? Right. Sounds like it'll be fun. Father in heaven, I don't really know how to pray this to you. Harve has some pretty good sounding arguments against you. I never thought anything like this before. Maybe it's even a sin to think this way. But you have said to be honest and I don't think honesty could be a sin. Please show me more about yourself for two reasons. My faith is a little shaky right now and Harve needs to know the truth about you too. I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, Frankie. Now hold on tight. Here we go. Now don't trample each other to death, trying to get up there for the next ride. Hey, this really kicks, Henry. No kidding. We always have a good time, Harve.  Hey, you sure know some neat things, Mr. Alwhite. We never rode those birches before. Fellas, fellas, try not to ride any one birch too many times. They lose their spring after a while and it does real damage to the trees, huh? Boy, boy, who you ever thought you could climb up high enough to make a bend over that way? Boy, that's really keen. Hey, what happened to your hand, Frankie? Call me on nothing. Just a little splinter, I guess. Don't hurt much. Let me have a look at that. Let's see it. Boy, we better get that splinter out before it infects. It's okay, honest. Come on, Frankie. Looks to me like you'd rather have it hurt just a little than a whole lot when it's taken off. Sure. Come on, Frankie. It'll only pain for a minute. Just let me do the work. Oh, hey. Hey, is all that hurtin' gonna make it better? I know what I'm doing, Frankie. Trust me. Here we go. What is it, Frankie? Hey, look, it's an old metal trap of some kind. Boy. What do you make of this, Henry? Didn't they tell you about how traps grew in botany class? Seriously, I think this is probably one of those traps they used out here a few years ago, when there was such a plague of timber wolves. I guess they tried just about everything to get rid of them. It's not too good an idea to leave a trap like that lying around where somebody might step in it. That's right. Let's take it with us. Hey, can I carry it? I found it. Well, it isn't set, so I guess it's safe. Sure. Boy, look what I have. How's it work? I don't know. You know, Henry, when you've been away from here for a while, you sure forget about what a beautiful place this part of the country is. I didn't think you could ever forget that. I guess I thought that too when I used to live right here. But when you get away and taken up with studies and other things, you sort of forget all this. Frankie, now what? That's what I was wondering. I'm caught. I'm caught. How did you do a thing like that? I was just seeing how it worked. Please, please get off my arm. It hurts and hurts. Give me a hand there. Will you harp? It looks like he's really stuck in this thing. Let me take a look. Oh, boy, it sure hurts. It looks to me like you have to pull these two things apart and then slip the arm out this way. That's what I was thinking. But he's got his arm in there so funny. It's not so funny. Harvey, you pull those pieces apart and I'll wiggle the trap around a little. Frankie, I think you'll have to push your arm farther in. Farther in? I want to get it out. But it looks like you'll have to push it farther in to get it out all right. Doesn't seem right. Push it farther in to get it out. Henry's right, Frankie. Just trust us. We have you out of there in jig turn. Fellas. Fellas, may I have your attention for a few minutes? Henry's gotta see something. Thanks. For our Bible lesson tonight, I want to read just one verse. It's from Hebrews in the 10th chapter. Let us hold fast to profession of our faith without wavering. Now, you know that that means we should believe in God, that we should trust Christ. And it says without wavering. And you know that means no matter what. I was having a chat with a fellow about this very thing not too long ago. And he was saying that in everything else we do, we follow a different idea. In everything but religion, we only hold fast to that which seems right. And as soon as anything else comes along that makes it look wrong, we can't hold fast to it anymore. Well, if I was to say that I believe that lions were friendly animals, what would you say? I'd say you were crazy. Well, sure you would. Because you know that some lions have been very unfriendly, don't you? But what if I just kept on believing it? What if I held fast to it? You think I was crazier still? Well, not about lions, Frankie, but about God. We're supposed to believe him no matter what things look like around us. Now, that isn't very hard for you fellows because you haven't seen too much of the troubles of the world. But for my friend, this was very hard. He could see many things that looked like just the opposite of what you would expect if there was a God. And he said that to hold fast in the light of all these things was foolish. Well, right at the time, I didn't have any answer for him.  Sure. Because at least twice today, you held fast to an idea even when the way things were working looked like the exact opposite of what you wanted. I did. Sure. Remember your splinter this morning? You believed that I could make you feel better even when I had to hurt you to do it. And you did too. And then this afternoon with that trap, remember how you believed that they were going to get you out of it? Even though we were telling you to put your hand farther in? Yeah. All I want to say to you fellows right now is that a lot of times during your life, things are going to come along that just don't look like God is interested in them at all. But you might have all kinds of reasons to doubt his care. And when that happens, remember Frankie and his splinter or his trap. Things may hurt more for a while or even what seems to be backwards for you. But in the words of our verse from the Bible tonight, let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. And now we'll pray and then we'll have to break camp and head for home. Good night, Frankie. Good night. And that's the last of them. They sure are a lot of fun, but it really tires a fellow out. You can say that again. I want to stop at the soda fountain for a minute before you head for home, Henry. Sure. Henry. I guess that little talk was aimed at me. No, it wasn't hard, really. It's just that I've been puzzling over all that you said the other day. And when I finally got a few of the answers, I thought that the other fellows ought to know too.  I'm sorry, Harp. I sure didn't mean... Oh, you don't need to apologize, Henry. I know you didn't do it on purpose. It was just that, well, what you said was really good. I should have thought of things like that myself. You didn't need to. What do you mean? Well, you don't believe in God. So you don't need to work your way out of tight spots like that. I see what you mean. I just thought it was great that God arranged all those little things just to show us the answers. You think God did that? I'm sure of it. You see, Harp, lots of places in the Bible. It says that God will tell you what to say when people question your faith in him. All I can say is that I believe in him and trust him because I know him. But that doesn't convince you. I left this whole argument up to him, and I think he did pretty well with it.  Like God was really right along with us out there. I think he was. Henry, on second thought, I think I'll just go straight home tonight. Let's take a rain check on the drugstore. Well, it all sounds wonderful, pal. I can't help getting a little excited about it myself when I hear a God's definite answering of prayer. You know what I think is so great about all this, Bill? What's that, Henry? Well, I have to admit that all those things Harvey was saying about there being no reason to believe in God and things like that. Uh-huh. Well, I really was bothered by them. I probably even started to doubt a little bit, I think. I'm not surprised. But when God really arranged things out there on that hike and made just the right things happen, well, how can you doubt a thing like that? Isn't it pretty much what we were talking about a few days ago, pal? The only real assurance we have is personally from God himself. We can think up all the reasons we want, for or against, but that is only man at work. When God makes himself known, he does it in a definite positive way. I sure hope Harvey learns that about God. Well, from what you've told me, I'd say he's well on his way to learning it. Bill? Hmm? I just thought of something. Why didn't it make you upset when I started bringing up all those questions and when I told you that I might have started doubting God? Henry, when you get as old as I am, you've gone through a great many doubting times. And as I think you've seen this time, if you follow through honestly, God will honor your truthfulness than even more a thrilling assurance of himself. He sure did that this time. God is real, Henry. He's all in all a great God of gods. If he can't stand up to a few little arguments, then he isn't God, but he can and he does. Well, see you next week for more adventure with Ranger Bill was produced in the radio studios of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago.


All right, good morning everyone. Welcome to another session. Let's just begin this time with the word of prayer. Charles, can you lead us in prayer, please? Go ahead, Kennedy.  I say that it is something hard to call in our lives, Father, it is change of father, for your own and for the Father's power of your Father Jehovah. I pray and thank you, Father Jehovah.  I pray that the night may not be so bright, amen. Amen, amen. Amen. Thank you, Kennedy, for leading us in prayer. OK, before we go ahead. Hi, Jim! So let's just look at what we did. Yes, Charles. I think your network is a bit low. Your voice is breaking. Yes, we'll begin with the class gels and request you to pray. It's alright. Kennedy has prayed. So let's pick up from where we stopped yesterday. Yesterday we came to a close of chapter 7. We looked at the glory of God. We looked at how the glory of God brings so many things into our midst, the power of God, the presence, the goodness of God. And we looked at the example of Moses where he had the encounter with God himself. And then last class we looked at understanding the manifestations of the presence of God. So what we've studied in the Holy Spirit class. The Holy Spirit is like fire. His presence is like rain, like light. And His presence brings goodness, mercy. And His presence is like a voice. His presence causes signs and wonders. And so even as we are praying for revival and we are praying for an outpouring, a move of God among us, we learn that it's very important not to judge people or not to condemn or critique people for the way that they are manifesting the presence of God in their life because we learn that God is able to touch not only our spirit but also our soul and our body. And so we must be open to what the Holy Spirit is doing. And even as we are open, we must remember that we should not manufacture our own kind of ideologies. And sometimes God may minister to us in a different way compared to the others. So we should not judge people saying, okay, maybe this is how it is or this is how the Holy Spirit is. No, God can work in his own way. So these are just practical things, practical points that as a church, we must be aware of this. Now the reason we are talking about this is because it should not be that we're praying for revival, God is manifesting himself in different ways. And just because of our differences, there should not be a hindrance to the move of God. So we wrapped up on chapter 7. Let's pick up chapter 8. Now a few of this, maybe a few points may be repeated, but we want to learn in this chapter about the pursuit of revival. We are praying for revival, but we also have to pursue for revival. Pursue is to strain on, to take it to continue till you see it come to pass. So we learned last class and last chapter that revival is a move of God and we cannot manufacture it, but what we can do is prepare for it and pray for revival. And so in this chapter, we want to just provide some tips and some ways to help us, you know, press in for revival, to help us press in for the move of God. So let's look at a few points here. First one, pursuing after God, pursuing the Lord Jesus Christ, pursuing His presence.  So Jeremiah, God is talking to the prophet Jeremiah and he's telling the Israelites. Now remember that Jerusalem is on the brink of another siege from the Babylonians. They are on the brink of disaster, right? And God is reminding the people that through the prophet Jeremiah that if you seek me and you search for me with all your heart, you will find me, right? So it's so true. Even as we have seen throughout history, you know, people who have engaged in prayer have earnestly seeked God and earnestly they have prayed and searched for God during their times of difficulties and we saw that God answered them. The glory of God fell upon them. God ministered to them. So remember that even as we pursue God, it's not that God is holding Himself back.  He's not that He's making Himself inaccessible. It's not that way. But He looks for those who are searching for Him, who are earnestly seeking Him. And when we do that, He's a God who answers and He's a God who will reveal His presence, His glory in our midst. So very important, pursue Him in prayer, pursue Him in worship, pursue the works of the Holy Spirit, pursue the anointing of the Holy Spirit, right? Now, as we are all in ministry, one of the very, very important points in life, especially in ministry, we must remember that I always keep telling this verse to myself, Zechariah 4-6. It's not by might, it's not by power, but it's by the Holy Spirit. So our ministry, our life should be birthed out of this pursuit that we have for God, a pursuit of His presence, right? So it should be that, in a way that every day we wake up, we say, God, speak to me today in your own special way. Maybe yesterday God spoke to us in this way, this way God speak to us in a different way, maybe through the word or through worship or even as I go about doing my studies or as I'm preparing and maybe I'm at home just doing the household chores, speak to me, Lord. If we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, right? So we are to pursue God, pursue Him to, you know, the word pursue is to run and catch, right? To run after, right? You can get a picture of, you know, maybe a wrong example, but it makes sense. You see, if a thief or a robber is running away, you know, from the police and the police are after Him, right? What are they doing? They are after Him, you know, you may have seen these high-speed pursuits that happen, where they probably they have robbed something, taken the car and then they've dashed on to the highway and they're in hot pursuit, meaning the police are just after Him. There's nothing else on their mind. They're not thinking about what's there for lunch, what's there for dinner or they're not thinking about their family, nothing. Their mind is focused to get this person. It's a pursuit after Him. Maybe, sorry, maybe a wrong analogy, but just trying to bring that picture that we are to be in pursuit after God, day after day. One of the best examples is 1 Kings chapter 18. Now Elijah, God has called Elijah and, yes Charles, do you want to say something? Okay, so the best example, a good example is Elijah, where God is speaking, called Elijah. There's King Ahab and Jezebel who have completely destroyed the nation of Israel. They have brought in idol worship, immorality and now Elijah is there and it hasn't rained for about three years now. God has stopped the rain on the people.  And now the nation of Israel is going through a major calamity. God stopped the rain for three years and now Elijah is there and it's so wonderful.  What does he do there? He's pursuing after God. He's praying and he's saying, God, let this nation be restored. Restore your people. Let this not be the end. Let this not be something that King Ahab and Jezebel are building on your land.   We know the story. They go up to the Mount Carmel and Elijah alone versus 800 prophets of Baal and Asherod and the God that answers by fire is a true and the living God and God answered him. Then he goes back to the mountain and he knew that if we pursue God, now that their hearts are changed. If we pursue God, God will answer our prayers and he will open up the heavens and bring rain. So what did he do? He went back to the mountain and he began to pray. Now Elijah knew that God is going to do it. He knew that God is going to open up the heavens because people have turned away from their sin. They've repented. But here's something interesting Elijah did. He went back. He knelt down and he prayed. Elijah didn't say, okay, I won 800 against one, me alone and I won. And so that was a wonderful victory. So let's go home, let's rest, take a break, relax. Now he went back and he said, now we've got to pray for rain. Pray that God blesses his people. And so he begins to pray. We know the story. It's about six times he sends his servant, go and check if the rain has come. And then the seventh time they saw the hand, you know, the cloud in the size of a fist. So what are we getting at? Even in our greatest victories, pursue God. Even in our greatest failures, pursue God. That pursuit for God should never stop. We may have seen the wonderful miracles in our life. We may have not seen it yet and we're praying for it. Continue to pursue God. That's what Elijah did. He saw the great victories, right? But he knew that there requires, there needs to be prayer. Picture this. What if Elijah went back? He said, okay, I've done my part. Right now, let somebody else pray for rain. I've done my part. Maybe they wouldn't have been rained still because God is seeking those who pursue after him. He answers those who are hungry for him.  Even in our old age or young age, no matter what our age is, our pursuit should be constantly for God. Second one, stir up yourself and lay a hold of God. Paul writes to Timothy. He says, stir up, fan into flame, a passion for his name. So basically he's telling Timothy, Timothy, even as you do ministry, even as you go ahead and look at the different aspects of the church and Ephesus, your posturing this church, many people, the church is growing, as you keep doing ministry, there may be a time when you may get drained out, you may get tired. Here's the thing. Timothy, fan into flame, a passion for his name. Stir up. Ask the Spirit of God to stir up and fan into flame, the passion for his name. Let's read this. Isaiah chapter 62 verse 1 to 7. It's in your notes, page 93. Isaiah 62, 1 to 7. Yes, can one of us please read that? Isaiah 62 verses 1 to 7. Isaiah 62, 1 to 7. For Zion's sake, I will not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and as salvation as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness and all things your glory. You should be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name. You will also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be termed forsaken. No shall your land any more be termed desolate. But you shall be called Hepheba and your land Bula. For the Lord delights in you and your land shall be married.  I have set watchmen on your walls for Jerusalem. They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who made mention of the Lord do not keep silent and give him no rest till he establishes and till he makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Christopher. So, let's paint a picture now. Here, the prophet Isaiah is talking to the Israelites and he's telling them, now be passionate about God even though you are in captivity. It looks like nothing's going right your way. Don't lose that passion for God. Don't lose the whole, don't lose that knowing of who God is. And so, he's encouraging the Israelites and he's telling them so many verses. He says, you shall no longer be termed forsaken. Your land should not be desolate. You should be called Hepheba. Your land Bula. The Lord delights in you. Your land should be married. You will rejoice as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride. And so, he's telling them, do not be at rest.  Now, we know that in Isaiah chapter 60, he says, he's telling them, hey, the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Though darkness has covered the earth, dark, thick darkness, the sky, the Lord has risen upon you. And so, Isaiah, he's bringing that whole feeling of passion for God into the hearts of people. He knew that just probably a year later, the Assyrians, sorry, the Babylonians are going to come and attack Israel and they're going to be taken into captivity. He knew it. But what is he saying? He's saying, nevertheless, nevertheless, we will see Zion restored. We will see our nation being restored. So, what is Isaiah doing? It's so powerful. He knows what's going to happen next. He knows that, you know, there's going to be a siege. The Babylonians are going to come. They're going to overpower, overthrow the nation of Israel. He knows it. But he's looking beyond that. And he's saying, hey, even if they come and they overpower, we are in captivity. This is the promise of the Lord, right, that he will, you know, he will never leave us. We will rejoice. He will bring joy in our midst. He will establish us in all of this. So, what is, what is Isaiah doing? He is reminding the people that it is, even through the difficulties, even through what is ahead, the challenges that are ahead, even though there's going to be difficulties ahead, take hold of God. Stir up your heart. Remember who God is. Remember what he has done for the nation of Israel. Remember that we were in captivity. Remember the way he has blessed us. Remember that the things that we're going through is not because of God, but it's because of we have sinned against God. And that is why we're going through this. But yet through our sin, God is compassionate. He's gracious. He will hear our prayers. So, it's so powerful, right? Isaiah is encouraging the believe, the Jews, the Israelites, don't go dry in your heart. Don't go dry in your spirit. Stir up your heart so that God can, you know, reveal his glory into our midst, right? Now picture this. Imagine the, you know, how Isaiah would be feeling. Maybe when God spoke to him, he would have said, God, but you know, in a year or so, the Babylonians are going to come. They're going to destroy us. They're going to take us into captivity. How can I declare this prophecy? But Isaiah doesn't do that. He says, no. The bigger picture is God has called us. And so we are to stir up our hearts for the things of God. Take a hold of him, right? I like that verse. Take hold of who God is, right? Maybe some of us in our lives, we're going through different challenges.  I'll give you this other example in Genesis 32. It's a wonderful story. You should read the story of Jacob. It's such a powerful story. Born with the name Jacob, a deceiver and he was true to his name at a young age. He deceived his own father. He deceived Esau. His father asked him, what is your name? He says, my name is Esau and he takes the blessings from his father. And then many years later, Jacob is running away from Esau, right? Now, God is still blessed Esau, but Jacob is running away. And now, his earthly father asks him the same question. What is, sorry, his heavenly father asks him the same question, which is, what is your name? This time he says, my name is Jacob. Genesis 32, you know, he wrestles with God. What does he say? He said, God, I am not going to let you go until you bless me. Was Jacob blessed already? Yes, he was. He was just fearful that, you know, Esau is going to come and kill him. That's all he was fearful of. But he was already blessed. God blessed him, right? Later on, we see that he had thousands of servants and hundreds of camels and orcs and land and he was blessed. What is he saying there?  He took hold of who God is. Yes, God, I made a mistake. I said something wrong.  Your name shall be called Israel. And out of that, out of you shall come, shall carry forward the descendants of Abraham. It's such a powerful thing. Jacob did not go and, you know, just say, okay, I'm done. You know, Esau is anyway coming after me.   He didn't say that. He took hold of who God is. He said, God, I know who you are. I want you to bless me. Bless me that I may be used. And so we as believers can take hold of who God is. Take hold of who he is. Hold on to him. You know, yesterday we were having our family prayers and we were very tired and said, okay, anyways, we have to, you know, we have this habit, we have to pray before we sleep. And so got the kids around. We got to pray. And we just sort of, okay, you know, half an hour, we'll just sing a few songs, read the word, and we usually wrap up in an hour. And so yesterday we, you know, we just began to pray while singing songs and we read the word. And the moment we began to pray, there was this, you know, I was preparing for this also. And there was a sense of, no, take hold of God in our heart, in my heart especially. I said, okay, God, I'll take hold of you. Well, don't let you go. Because there's so much that's happening around in this world. And we will be so lost without you. And so this whole sense of, you know, dependence on God, wanting to know him, wanting to pursue him. And, you know, we realized that we just kept praying and praying and praying. And, you know, we spent a couple of hours just being there in God's presence, just drawing from him. And it's a wonderful time. It went way past midnight, but it was a time where we felt so refreshed in our spirit, because we pursue after him.  Sometimes we may get bored reading the Bible, or we may get bored listening to the same old gospel songs. Stir up your heart. Don't give up. When you read the word, say, God, stir my heart that the Holy Spirit will minister to me, even as I read this word. Don't let, you know, especially when things get monotonous, you get that feeling. Shake it off. Say, God, stir me, stir my spirit. Fan into flame. A passion for your name. Third one, the heart condition for revival praying. The first one we saw is pursuing him. Second one is to stir up yourself, take hold of God. Third one, heart condition for revival praying. We know that reformation is aligning to truth, removing what is wrong. That's what Martin Luther did in his 95 thesis. Revival begins with personal transformation. I remember this. Revival begins with me first. So if we look at all the revivals that happen, it was because the person who prayed for revival, it started with that person in their heart, in their minds. They felt, hey, God, there's so much that I have to do. There's so much, so many things that I have to change. So revival starts off within us. And then when it starts within us, it begins to spread to the others. Revival begins with us. Sometimes we may think, okay, maybe because of this, maybe because of that, we're not seeing a move of God, or maybe that is not right. This is not right. Maybe we're not praying the right prayer points, or maybe we haven't spent enough time. Yes, all that is a part of it. But remember, revival begins with us. And our pouring of God begins from us. So for example, you're in the church, you're maybe a ministry leader, you're maybe even a pastor, or an evangelist, whatever God has called you to be. That feeling of revival, that outpouring, the move of God begins when we, ourselves, are first desperate and our heart condition is right before God. Remember in the Old Testament, David, if you read through the whole story of how Saul became king and how he, God called him, Saul's story also is kind of one, it is, you know, God tells Saul, Samuel, go and anoint Saul. And there's a verse there which says that in Saul's heart, he himself thought he was no good. Right? And Samuel reminds him of that. Things were going good in the nation of Israel. He was, he was a good king. Initially, he won many battles. But somewhere in between, his heart was not right.  But Saul disobeyed. He, he brought animals and he said, oh, this is for the slaughter to offer to our God. And then Samuel comes to profit and he says, obedience is better than sacrifice. And, you know, at that moment, his Saul's heart itself was not, you know, it was not in line with God's heart. Our heart condition is very important. Why did, why did God love David so much?  God despised it. He said, you know, sexual, morality, I will despise it. I hate it. I reject it even through Exodus, Exodus and numbers. When the Israelites came out, they were, you know, the whole event where they had put their tents and they were camping in a place and, you know, the Israelites were taking Moabite and Canaanite women and engaging with them.  He cannot accept sexual immorality. But sure, David has committed that heinous crime. Why didn't he do anything to David? It's not that God was showing favoritism, but David prayed this way. He says, God, search my heart. I always, I always tell people, the first time I read that, I thought to myself, this is a dangerous prayer. Imagine we are praying, God, search my heart. Now, if we give God the option to search our heart and he's going to dig deep into our heart and he will know what we think about others. He will know what's happening in our deepest secrets of our heart. Sometimes we don't want anyone to know. It's good. We'll just keep it to ourselves. But here, David says, God, search my heart. He was a man. Even though he sinned, he was, his heart was right before God. His heart was, God, I have sinned. I deserve whatever punishment you give me. And he went and he prayed and he wept. And then we see that he lost his son. He again wept, but he stood back and he said, okay, God, even through these challenges, even through these difficulties, even through my failures, I want my heart to be aligned with you. So, God loved that. It's a very important lesson that we can learn. As we do ministry, let our heart be true to God. It may be a small ministry, maybe a big ministry. It's the heart that matters. He searches our heart. He knows our heart. Remember the Lord Jesus, even when he's ministering in the Book of John, he's ministering to his disciples and the thousands of people who are coming. What did Jesus say in the Book of John? It's very clear. He says he knew their heart. He knew what they were thinking. He knew every heart that they were thinking in their heart. He knew that they didn't believe he's the Messiah. That was not something new for him. Jesus knew it, yet he was compassionate. So, our heart needs to be right before God. Revival starts from inside. Remember Peter? Jesus died. He resurrected. He's gone. And Peter says, oh, I don't think I want to do this. I just go back to my other job, go back to fishing. And all of a sudden, after the Lord Jesus met with him, the resurrected Jesus, and Jesus gives him the commission, you lead the church, take care of my sheep. There was a revival inside his own heart. His heart condition changed. All this while, he was in guilt. Oh, I betrayed him. I denied him. By that moment, when God, the Lord Jesus, gave him that commission, his heart was changed. His heart was restored back. This is first love for the Lord Jesus. And we see that later on, he stood there in front of the people in Jerusalem, in front of the temple, and he preached his first sermon, leading 3,000 people added into the church. It was his heart. There was a revival inside. His heart condition changed. Everything changed. And so, when we are pursuing him, when we are pursuing for intimacy with God, we are to check our heart. Check our motives. Is our motives right? Now, here are few of the heart conditions that we must maintain. Now, we know that our heart condition is very important. So, how should our heart be when we are praying for revival? First and very, very, very important is a heart that is humble. The Lord, the word the Scripture says, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to those who are humble. He opposes the proud. The moment we are proud, the word there is opposes. He doesn't reject the proud, but he opposes that. He is not for it. A humble heart is willing to accept the responsibility for wrongdoing, for failures. A humble heart is willing to surrender and yield to God's will. Right? Now, for example, God may tell us, okay, I want you to go and minister to these people, these people, or I want you to go to this city or that city, another city, and do a work there. If we are not humble in our hearts, we may not accept that. You may say, God, no, I want to be here. This is where I was born. This is where I brought up. So, I will do the ministry here itself.  No, but since our heart was not humbled before God, we have not obeyed what God wanted us to do. He has not rejected us yet because of our pride, there will be a hindrance to a move of God in our midst. A humble heart is a heart that surrenders to His will. Right? So, a humility. Now, many people look at humility and say, you know, to be meek and the Lord Jesus was humble, but He was also, He also walked in authority. Right? So, it doesn't mean being humble is just to, you know, agree to everything what people say. No, we humble. Now, heart, I mean, our heart is humbled before God, but we also do what God has called us to do in authority and dominion and power and strength. Humility is the most powerful tool that we can use. Right? A humble heart is always dependent on God and not on our personal efforts. Right? So, even as we're praying for revival, we're not saying, oh, I prayed six hours a day. That's why revival, that's why I see an outpouring of God. No. Thank God, it is because of you. It is because of your presence. It is because of your spirit. It's not about us. Right? God has given us gifts and talents. Some of us can preach, some can lead worship, some are good teachers of the world, some are scholars, good apologetics, some write songs, come up with melody to the songs and God has given all of us different tools, but we are to be humble before God and say, God, it's not about me. It's not about what I have achieved, but it's about you in my life. The moment we humble ourselves, especially when we look around nowadays, it's a sad thing when we see Christendom especially. We see these great men of God and there's so much of, not all of them, not putting a umbrella and saying, all of them are that way, but we see that it's so pompous and so, it looks more like a show. And sometimes it's important to remember that this whole ministry it's not about us. The focus sometimes turns towards us, but our ministry, humble heart, leads people to Jesus. One of the greatest example is John the Baptist. Wonderful example, powerfully used by God. He's got his disciples there. He's raised up leaders. Everyone is saying, oh, John the Baptist, wonderful man, John the Baptist. Oh, he's going and baptizing people and no one can go against him. He's got some people around him. Now, when he sees Jesus, what does he say? Behold, the Son of Man takes away the Son of the world. And then what does he tell his disciples? His disciples ask him, hey, John, now what's happening? They're all saying about this man Jesus. He's got more followers than you. What is John the Baptist say? It's not me. He is the Messiah. You go to him. Was John the Baptist not worried about his fan following and his disciples? He was not. It didn't worry him a bit.  John the Baptist was willing to just let go of everything. He says, don't follow me. I am pointing to him. Please go to him. Go to the Messiah. And it showed that he was such a humble man. But was he walking in authority? Yes. Moses too, humble man, walked in authority. So as believers, we have to have that balance. The moment we don't humble ourselves, we saw the example of King Saul. He thought, you know, King Saul, he himself knew. Samuel reminds him and says, King Saul, there was a time when you thought very low about your own self. But God took you and from nowhere, you are nobody. You are nothing. You were just a little boy who's working around here in the land of Kish. You don't deserve to be on paper. You don't deserve to be the king of Israel. But God took you because you knew nothing and you were a humble man. Right? God tells Samuel says that. He says, there was a time when you looked at yourself as a very small person. You were very humble before. So God took you and made you the king of Israel.  Now you think that you have done the greatest thing. And so God rejects him asking. So remember that even as we do ministry, our beginnings are small. It's humble. Even as we grow big, stay humble. The more we stay humble, they say, God, it's about you. Right?   Why are you? But I realized that, you know, it's better to just keep quiet. It's okay to, you know, there are times we have to keep quiet. There are times we have to speak up. Many a times I just kept quiet and I said, okay, God, you leave, you do it. You have called me. It's your ministry. If I've done something wrong, forgive me. But if it's not something that I've done wrong, you look after this. You solve this whole problem. Many a times because of being silent and because of just letting go, they themselves have come and said, you know, Pastor, you know, I was upset. I shouldn't have said this. This is something wrong I did. Please forgive me and all of that. And we just go back to forgive them, continue the ministry. What would have happened if, you know, I had said, no, actually, this is what happened. He did this. He did that. It should have just gotten worse. Right? So learn to walk in humility. Second Chronicle 714 says, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. If my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves, the moment we humble ourselves is only when we will be able to repent of our sins. Right? If we don't humble ourselves, we will not be willing to repent for our sins, but we will justify the wrong that we did. Right? God calls us to humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways. Right? And then when we seek Him, He will answer our prayers. He promises to hear us. He promises to forgive our sins. He promises to heal our land. Right? So we will stop here. We'll pick up from the second point again from next week. And right. Yes. Thank you for the comments here from Rupa. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Manohar. He must increase. I must decrease. Very true. Right. So we'll wrap up here. Any thoughts? Any questions? Anything you'd like to add? So I'm looking at our notes. We have another chapter after this. So we'll probably need about four more classes, and then we may be able to finish our portions. Just a gentle reminder that our midterm semester as exams has been posted on the Classwork tab. Please go ahead and finish that, complete it, and post it back in the Classwork tab so we can mark you for the same. Okay. Right. Shall we close in prayer? Any thoughts? Anyone have any questions? If not, we can close in prayer. Yes. Go ahead, Rupa. Yes. Rupa, we can't hear you. I don't know if it's only me. Your voice is very low, and I think she's trying something. Anybody else has any thoughts? Any questions about your test exams? Okay. I think we're running out of time too. So shall we just close and pray? Maybe, Mrs. Rupa, maybe we can take your question next week. Sorry about this because I think we don't have time. So let's just close in prayer. Yes. Could one of us please lead us in prayer? Maybe, Mr. Manohar, can you please lead us? Closing prayer, please. Well, Father, we thank you, Lord, for this morning. Thank you, Lord, for teaching us about the revival and what we have to prepare ourselves for the revival, Father. Lord, help us, Father, for granted this humble heart before you, Lord. Lord, we may desire your presence more and more, and humble ourselves, Father, in all our Lord, whatever we achieve in your kingdom, Father, we may give glory unto you, Lord, unto you and you alone, so that as John Baptist said, you must increase and I must decrease. Lord, help us, Lord, that this may be our motto in the ministry, Lord. We may give all glory unto you who got very humble ourselves.  You prepare us, Lord. Lord, give us direction to our life and you teach us and instruct us in the right way, whom to speak, how to do the ministry, and how to humble ourselves more and more. Thank you, Lord, for the wonderful teaching we have received this day. Lord, this teaching we have received, Lord. It may remain in us throughout our whole life, Father. Lord, being steadfast, being firm on this, on this truth, Lord, on this truth of humility, Lord, we may do the ministry in this world, so that our ministry will be pleasing unto you. Lord, when you see what we do for you, Lord, it may please your heart.  Lord, help us, every one of us, to minister thus in our lives and to glorify our name. And you are Him alone, whatever we do in this world. And we may greatly be used, Father, for bringing many people into Thy kingdom. We thank you for hearing us. Bless the pastor, Lord. Lord, use your mighty in the ministry. Grant him more and more power, so that powerfully he may do their ministry in this world for which you have called him. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Mr. Manohar. Thank you, everyone. Have a wonderful week ahead. We will meet next week. God bless you. God bless.