Josh Hunt's Blog, page 269

The best groups hang out

The best small groups are those that refuse to embrace the clutter. Instead they find creative ways to make sure their souls have enough space for God and one another by prioritizing the value of “hanging out”—that is, doing nothing together. This is where discipleship happens. When we hang out, we can observe how another […]

Everyone’s welcome, nobody’s perfect, anything’s possible

At Cross Point, everyone’s welcome, nobody’s perfect, and anything’s possible. In fact, that’s become our mantra. Once you’ve made the decision that everyone actually is welcome, it opens up an interesting question for small groups. Are groups a place where everyone is welcome too? If not, where do we draw the line? We have a […]

Small Groups are Vital

Acts 2:46 tells us one of the keys that allowed the church to go from three thousand to countless millions was tribes: “And every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart.” In other words, from […]

Reaching men in small groups

We have absolutely no problems with starting women’s groups at Cross Point. Our connect events are full of tables with pink balloons signifying new women’s groups. Men’s groups, however, are a different story. A lot of guys’ first impression of groups is they will be forced to be vulnerable and quite possibly hold hands with […]

Servant leadership is not for wimps

The number-one motivation of a servant-leader is to love God and serve His people out of a heart of love. If your primary motivation is to have a prosperous, wonderful small group, then your leadership will be misguided. Your first motivation must be to love and serve Jesus, love and serve His people and love […]

Getting to know sheep

Unlike cattle, sheep require up-close-and-personal care. For instance, sheep lack the ability to regulate how much they eat. If food is out, they will eat it. And if they eat too much, they will die. In addition, they have sensitive stomachs. So a shepherd must feed them the right amount of the right food. Also, […]

Keeping introverts in small groups

Once they are connected to a group, if we are going to keep introverts beyond the first awkward meeting, our group leaders need to be trained differently. A majority of our training assumes everyone attending groups is ready to talk and begin community immediately. This is definitely not true for most introverts. Just like we […]

David Platt on Evangelism

As you find your seat, if you have a Bible, I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to Romans 3. Heather and I had the opportunity to spend a night alone this weekend apart from kids. It was the second time we’ve done that since Joshua was born about seven […]

Sunday School University

I’m sure you have had the privilege of sitting under some fantastic teachers in your Christian experience. I have too – when I was at Seminary and in churches alike. But in 1986, as a young minister, when I was tapped to teach a “young married’s class”, I found that it was a LOT harder […]

Look for disciples

Whatever the apparent gifts and abilities of people, however, we must look for those who want to move for Christ. Life is too short to expend excessive time and energy upon apathetic people. We need to minister to their needs, of course. Let them know we care, and sow Gospel seed among them. Genuine compassion […]