Josh Hunt's blog

If you study writing, you will learn about two good (and opposite) ways of writing. The same ways can be applied to teaching. Article style: don't bury the lead. Good articles are written like an inverted pyramid, so that the most important things are first. If you only read the first two paragraphs, you get the gist. If you want more detail, keep reading. It is a good way to teach. Novel style. A good novel has a twist; it has a surprise ending. You keep this surprise buried. This too is a good way to teach. Test: which style is this article? Clearly the first. If you don't read any more, you get that there are two good and opposite ways to teach. Good communicators lean in one direction or the other, they don't try to do both. It you want more information, keep reading. What is the big idea? My life was forever marked by listening to the fine preaching of my friend Sam Shaw. He was my pastor for five years and is one of ...

It occurred to me several years ago that we know how to grow a church. If you don't know how, I could recommend a dozen or so books. Read them, and you will know how to grow a church. It is a well-documented, well-researched body of knowledge. We know how to grow a church. What we need to know more about is how to grow a group of churches--how to grow an Association, how to grow a State Convention, and how to grow a denomination. The sad reality is that many growing churches are growing while all the other churches in their area are declining, so that the area is not becoming any more Christian. I have a vague memory that I read a George Barna statistic that said there is not one single county in the United States where the percentage of the population that is church-going Christians is increasing. Not one. That is a problem. We know how to grow a church. What we desperately need to figure out is how to reach a people. Most growing ch...

I was profoundly aware of two things I didn't get while I was in seminary. (Of course, it is the things you don't know you don't know that will get you, but that is another topic.) One of them was eschatology. I was determined in my early years after graduating to close the gap doing some serious self-study into the topic. I had one serious limitation: I didn't have a particular bias going in. I can honestly say I was able to look at all the views in an even-handed way. I listened carefully to the arguments made by all sides with an open mind. It you really want to come to a conviction about eschatology, I suggest you do the opposite: decide early what you believe and only read people who agree with you. ;-) Here is an overview of the major views of the end times. Amillennialism This was the belief held by most of my seminary professors. (I graduated Southwestern in 1983.) Here is a description from http://en.wikipedia.org ...

I normally try to fill these articles with helpful information about how to teach and grow a class. This week, I'd like to invite you to consider that subscribing all your teachers to the Lesson Vault is the best $200 you will spend toward that goal. When you consider the amount of money your church spends on literature and other resources for you Sunday School, I know of no better place you could spend $200 than on the Lesson Vault. The Lesson Vault is your access to hundreds of online lessons. Three new lessons are added per week that correspond with three of Lifeway's outlines. I call theses lessons Good Questions and they have groups talking. If I were a Minister of Ed today, I would do what I did when I was on staff: I had these lessons printed every week and delivered to my teachers. The Sunday School tripled in ten years. Here are six benefits of getting an annual, church-wide subscription to The Lesson Vault. The Lesson Vault...

What a time to be alive! There is such great content out there. Such great resources, great curriculum, great Bible Studies, videos, books, web sites. Speaking of which, check out my new site at www.sundayschool.ning.com Last week I provided an overview of a great new resource called Regroup. If you missed that article, see www.joshunt.com/mail220.htm Townsend, Cloud and Donahue taught five marks of great groups: Care Safety Authenticity Grow Help As important as these are, I don't think they are the complete picture. Below are five more marks of great groups: This list assumes these groups are what could be called Basic Christian Communities. That is, they are microcosms of the church. They are basic Sunday School classes or home groups. There is nothing wrong with a group targeted toward some particular purpose like evangelism. But, all of us need to be in a Basic Christian Community--a micro-church. I...

What a time to be alive! I am constantly amazed at the number and quality of resources for churches. From training resources, to outreach resources, to music resources, to books to curriculum. Whatever our reasons for not taking our world for God, lack of quality resources is not one of them. I just ran across a great new resource that I thought you might like to know about. It is called Re-Group and is produced by Townsend and Cloud (authors of the best-selling book, Boundaries, as well as many others) and Bill Donahue (the small group guru for Willowcreek, and author of many books). This is a great resource for any group. If I were a Minister of Education today, I would ask every one of my groups about going through this training. Re-Group is made up of two DVDs. DVD #1 features four sessions that train your group on how to do group. This is not small group leader training; this is small group group training. This piece trains the group...

Success in life is about habits. If you are having to remember to do the things that lead to success, you are probably not doing them. You have to find a way to put them on auto pilot. You have to make them part of the culture. You have to make them a tradition. You have to make them a habit. One of the best habits your group can get into is the habit of Vision Day once a quarter. I recommend you do it on the first day of every quarter. On the day you get your new literature, make that Vision Day. Vision Day is about Re-casting the vision I can summarize the vision for your class in five words: make disciples of all nations. Anything less is disobedience to Jesus' command. It was the vision of Jesus' original small group and it is should be your vision as well. Right here we find the problem in many groups. They don't have the right vision, or, they don't have any vision. The vision of many groups is to have a group. That ...

I consider the daily quiet time to be the fundamental discipline of the Christian life. I have no concept of what it means to live the Christian life except that we start our day with the Bible on our lap.  Not that there would not be exceptions, but the normal thing to do on a normal day is to start the day with the Bible on our lap. I was taught the importance of the quiet time in High School. This message was reinforced in college and seminary days. I worked some with the Navigators who are real big in creating people who are disciplined in their daily life in terms of spending time alone with God. In my early days as a Minister of Education I used the Navigators 2:7 Series to teach people discipleship. I was shocked to discover how common it is that people are very active in church but do not start the day with the Bible on their lap. Lifeway's MasterLife Series is a similar product to the Navigators 2:7 Series. 2:7 Series: ...

One of the many smart things Rick Warren has said is that people don't remember paragraphs; they remember slogans. They don't remember sermons or lessons or books. They remember sayings: Give me liberty or give me death. The truth will set you free. People don't care what you know until they know that you care. Only one life will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last. Here are a few of my favorites: You must come to love the Christian life or you will never come to live the Christian life. If you can get them to the party, you couldn't keep them from class. Teach a half-way decent lesson each and every week, nothing less will do. Community must proceed content. People are not looking for a friendly church; they are looking for friends. People matter to God. Give Friday nights to Jesus. Love at its best is a little bit boring. It is pedestrian, earthy, stuff...

I am blessed and cursed with the profound conviction that it really is possible for groups to double every two years or less. Something I ponder regularly is why it is not happening routinely. Why isn't it happening all the time? More importantly, how can doubling groups be a widespread movement in your church? How can we join God in what God is doing in a worldwide movement of doubling groups? I picked up a book recently that casts a floodlight of understanding on this subject. It is called Influencer. We introduced it last week, but let's review the six principles of influencers, and apply them to influencing Sunday School teachers to double and to use hospitality as a means to growth. Again, here are the six principles of influence: Personal motivation: He must believe he can change He must believe he wants to change (it is in his self-interest to change) Social motivation: He must be led by leaders that mode...