Josh Hunt's blog

Good Questions that have groups talking are different from most lessons you have seen. Here are a few reasons why. Discussion based rather than lecture based Our tag line is, "Good questions have groups talking" and that is the goal of every lesson. Look at one of the sample lessons and you can see this difference right away. Put these lessons into the hands of all your teachers and watch your classes transform from lecture-based groups to discussion based groups. Each lesson consists of 20 or so ready-to-use questions that get groups talking. Why is this important? Jesus taught that we are changed by what comes out of us. Until we confess the truth--not just hear it--we are not changed by it. See this article for more details. Commentary quoted from world-class writers Most curriculum has an inherent flaw. They can often get past it, but it cripples nearly every series made. Here is how it works. A committee gets together and decides o a text and topic. ...

Many of you know I started pastoring a small church in the country about 45 minutes north of Las Cruces about 6 months ago. I wanted to provide an update on how things are going. I asked for advice when I started this. I talked to two pastors. One said, "New broom sweeps clean. Make something happen. Get some things going. Create some momentum. Make a splash." Another guys said, "Take it slow and easy." I went with the second guy’s advice. I got a Sunday School report at our quarterly business meeting the other day. The first business meeting Sunday School was 18. Six months later we are at 24. The way I think of it, this is a 33% increase in six months. We started our first new class this past Sunday. We have a major outreach event planned for the first of the year. (It is not really official just yet, but if you would like to take a peek, see www.joshhunt.com/mail317.htm ) You might be surprised to hear I don't k...

I love being a Christian, don't you? I love spending time with God--just me and God--in the mornings. I love walking with God through the day. I love relying on God's wisdom from the Bible. I love the comfort that comes during difficult days--and there will be difficult days. I love the sense of meaning and purpose that following God gives me--the feeling that I am part of a Cause that is bigger than I am. I love being a Christian, don't you? If we do all love being a Christian, why doesn't the message of Christ naturally and unavoidably spread? Why the coaxing of people to share their faith? Why evangelism strategies and programs? You would think that if we all love it, we would just naturally tell and they would naturally want to hear about good news. People love to talk about things they love. They love to talk about their new PS 3 (My son camped out 2 nights at Target to get one) or their latest...

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 you can touch and feel. It is Diet Co...

We grow in Christ as we come to Christ. We must believe. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Romans 10:10 (NIV) We enter into a relationship with Christ through believing and we grow by faith. We must surrender to Christ as Lord If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. John 15:10 (NIV) There is no salvation without surrendering to Christ as Lord. We grow in Christ as we embrace the fact that He is Lord and I am not. He is God and I am not. He is Master; I am servant. We must repent Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Acts 3:19 (NIV) Repentance means to turn around. We turn around once in an experience known as salvation. We spend the rest of our lives turning more and more toward H...

Here is a fun one. I asked teachers to guess how many people in your group would say, “My best friends attend this group.” Again rapidly growing groups were more than twice as likely (105%) to be in the top tier—having 5 or more best friends attending their group. What do we learn from this? Rapidly growing classes are groups of tightly-knit best friends. It also puts to rest the myth that non-growing groups are relationally closer. People sometimes fear outreach because they think it will disrupt existing friendships. The opposite is true. Relationships are better in growing groups.

I asked how many members’ phone numbers the teacher has programmed into his or cell phone. My suspicion was this. The growing groups would likely have more phone numbers programmed into their cell phone because they contact their group on a regular basis. They have made it easy on themselves to call members and say, “Let’s go get a pizza!” Turns out, my suspicion was right. Rapidly growing classes were more than twice as likely (112%) to have 10 or more class members’ phone numbers programmed into their cells. It would be interesting to ask about how many potential members’ phone numbers the teacher has as well as to ask about email address, Facebook friends and so forth. Based on this data alone, it is not hard to guess. Note: this is not based on a scientifically randomized survey. Rather it is based on a survey of people who volunteered to participate.

Imagine a world where growing groups was normal. Imagine a world where the normal thing for the normal group in the normal church under normal circumstances was to grow. It was not unusual or noteworthy; it was expected because that is what usually happened. Imagine in this world some group leaders sit down to have lunch and swap stories. A young guy speaks up. He has just started leading a group and is a little nervous. "How do you guys do it?" he asks the more senior leaders. "I want my group to grow but I am not sure how." "Just work the plan." A guy in his thirties says. "I have grown my group through parties. We have a party every month. I have some ladies who do a great job of putting everything together. There are some guys that do some calling for me. I try to help as well, but preparing the lesson each week keeps me busy, so I try to get as many people involved as I can." "It is real simple," says a lady in the group. "We ...

Good Questions are sticky for one simple reason. People learn more from what they say than from what they hear. This is very easy to test for yourself. Next time you are in a group ask yourself a simple question when you are finished with class. What do I remember from today's discussion? If you participated in the discussion at all you probably remember far more of what you said than from what you heard. If we can lead people through a series of Good Questions to say the truth, they will remember the truth. I heard of a Barna study recently that revealed most people can't remember the main idea of a sermon 2 hours after they hear it. Barna didn't say this but I will bet there is one exception. The preacher. The preacher will remember what he said because we all remember far more of what we say than what we hear. Jesus employed questions a number of times. One example is when he asked the disciples, "Who do the people say that I am?" It is not like he didn't k...