Josh Hunt's Blog, page 284

Teaching is not like a dump truck

Christian education has in many ways taken on some of the characteristics of the dump truck. Many classrooms and pulpits are filled each week with a teacher/preacher who has spent several hours the previous week gleaning from several commentaries and surfing the web for as much theological material as possible on the scriptures concerning this […]

Two questions to ask if your church is in decline

In taking an objective evaluation of your ministry setting perhaps two of the questions to begin with are 1) What happened leading up to the point at which decline became visible? 2) What did the organization do in the wake of this visible evidence? The answer to the first question most often has to do […]

Teaching that bears fruit

One of the great fallacies of our day is that if we study enough, gather as much information as we can and carry all that we can into the classroom or pulpit, we can teach an effective lesson. The main objection I have with this theory and common practice is that it goes against all […]

Why we must have new wineskins

There are many alarming statistics about the current reality of the church in western culture. One study of a major denomination concluded that 89% of the congregations were either plateaued or in decline. Similar realities characterize other mainline denominations. So what should we do? Do we throw our hands up in despair? Do we give […]

How hard is it to form the habit of a Quiet Time?

There is a difference between simple and easy. It is simple to get from my house in New Mexico to Jacksonville, Fl. Just hop on I-10, which runs through the south side of Las Cruces, where I live. Head east on I-10 for two days, eight hours, and fourteen minutes. Simple, but not easy. Making […]

What is the job of the small group leader?

If you are a church leader—perhaps you are a pastor, or you lead a small group—you would do well to concentrate on this point. Leading people to live Christianly comes down to this: leading people into the habit of a handful of practices. Actually, I can summarize Christian living as one habit: the habit of […]

World’s #1 Lesson Writer

Most Bible Study lessons are written by people who do something else as their primary occupation. They are pastors who write Bible Study lessons, or professors at Bible colleges that write Bible Study lessons, or housewives that write Bible Study lessons on the side. In contrast, I have devoted most of my adult life to Bible Study […]

How to develop the habits of discipleship

Now for some good news. Science has done a lot of research in recent years on how habits are formed. I wrote a whole book in this, and if you would like more information, see my book Break a Habit: Make a Habit. Here is a summary: One habit at a time. Because habits are […]

You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less, Session #4

The Habits of Discipleship

Christian living comes down making a handful of disciplines into habits. The disciplines are not Christian living—in some ways, they are the opposite of Christian living. Christian living is about walking in grace. It is about walking on purpose. It is about basking in acceptance. It is not about trying really hard to be good. […]