Josh Hunt's Blog, page 286
August 3, 2014
John Maxwell’s favorite Sunday School Teacher
My three favorite Sunday school teachers are beautiful examples of this truth. First came Katie, my second grade teacher. When I was sick and missed her class, she would come and visit me on Monday. She would ask how I was feeling and give me a five–cent trinket that was worth a million dollars to […]
July 27, 2014
The gospel and innovation
Do you want to see God do something new in your church and the lives of the people who attend your worship gatherings? Preach the gospel to them. If you’re leading an older, established congregation with a majority of believers present, it will revitalize them and refocus their priorities, reminding them of their need to […]
July 26, 2014
Doing missions at home
Missions is often the term used for going overseas for the cause of Christ—hence the word missionary. Sadly, it has led some to feel that missions is something that happens “over there,” creating a dulled sense of the needs on our doorstep. When the church is at its best, mission is not something we do; […]
July 25, 2014
Our innovative God
At the heart of what I hope to share in this book is true innovation comes from God. This is a supernatural thing—something we can’t take credit for. Thus, your understanding of salvation and the gospel become crucial here at the start. Maybe, a verse I shared earlier looked at in The Message says what […]
July 24, 2014
What is a good church?
For over fifty years, Michael Haynes served as pastor of the historic Twelfth Baptist Church in the Roxbury district of downtown Boston. Twelfth Baptist Church is a direct descendant of the First African Baptist Meeting House on Beacon Hill, founded in 1805. In 1840, a band of dissenters from the church felt led of the […]
July 23, 2014
What does innovation require?
Innovation requires a couple of things: First, we must grasp onto this concept of joining God in His mission. Henry Blackaby likes to say, “God’s activity is far greater than anything we could aspire to do for him.” (7 Truths from Experiencing God p. 1) Let this one sink in a little bit. For some […]
The imperative of change
Changing is not a suggestion. It’s imperative. It is a command. “Do not be conformed,” (Romans 12:2) is an imperative in the Greek, as it is in the English. Zodhiates paraphrases this way, “Stop being molded by the external and fleeting fashions of this age, but undergo a deep inner change by the qualitative renewing […]
July 22, 2014
Widows, orphans and evangelism
Jesus wed mission and message together seamlessly, proclaiming the kingdom that had come while healing the leper and feeding the hungry. He mandated concern for the widow and orphan, the homeless and naked, the imprisoned and hungry while speaking of the bread of life and a home in heaven. In other words, we should have […]
July 21, 2014
Is innovation the goal?
Is it wrong to want to be an innovative leader or lead an innovative church? I don’t think so, especially if your goal of being innovative is to follow where God leads. We just need to check out motives and heart here early in this journey. One of my favorite tweets is from March 8, […]
July 20, 2014
Reaching the NONES
The rise of the nones calls for not only a renewed commitment to conversion growth and a rethinking of evangelism as both process and event, but also a new understanding of strategic effectiveness. Simply put, there has been a seismic shift in outreach that few church leaders are understanding, much less pursuing. From the 1950s […]
