RÉSUMÉ: Josh Hunt
1964 Sedona Hills Parkway
Las Cruces, NM 88011
505 532 9693
josh@joshhunt.com
www.joshhunt.com
PERSONAL INFORMATION:
Birth date: December 21, 1957
Birthplace: Davao City, Philippines
Height: 6' 3"
Weight: 240
Health: Excellent
Parents: My parents are retired missionaries. They served in the Philippines with the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. My father was the pastor of First Baptist Church, Clovis, New Mexico from 1970 to 1979. Their names are Walter and Aliene Hunt. They currently reside in Lubbock, Texas.
Hobbies: Reading, writing, keyboard/synthesizer, youth soccer, youth baseball, youth basketball, golf, racquetball, tennis, snow skiing.
EDUCATION:
Seminary: 1983 - Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Ft. Worth, Texas. Master of Divinity. Emphasis in Greek.
College: 1979 - Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, Texas. BA with major in religion; minor in music.
High School: 1976 - Clovis High School, Clovis, New Mexico.
CHURCH EXPERIENCE:
FULL TIME:
Present: Baptist General Convention of Texas
CHURCH PLANTING PROMOTER
2020 Vision
PRESIDENT
2020 Vison is my own ministry whose purpose is to help Southern Baptists reach 20 million in Sunday School attendance by the year 2020 and help the church in America double during the same period of time. I support this vision by writing books, publishing Sunday School lessons that help groups double, and doing conferences.
Bright Star Fellowship
CHURCH PLANTER
1994 - 1995: Scotsdale Baptist Church (Sunday School Attendance: 300)
El Paso, Texas
INTERIM PASTOR
(Note: I was asked by the pulpit committee to be permanent pastor, but declined this particular position.)
1983 - 1994: Calvary Baptist Church
Las Cruces, New Mexico
ASSOCIATE PASTOR/MINISTER OF EDUCATION
Grew from 225 to over 500.
PART TIME:
1982: Northridge Baptist Chapel
Farmington, New Mexico
CHURCH PLANTER
(Home Mission Board appointment)
1980 - 1982: Springdale Baptist Church
Ft. Worth, Texas
MINISTER OF YOUTH
1980: California Baptist Convention
Fresno, California
EVANGELISTIC TEAM MUSIC DIRECTOR
1978 - 1979: First Baptist Church
Lockney, Texas
MINISTER OF MUSIC AND YOUTH
1977 - 1978: Calvary Baptist Church
Clovis, New Mexico
MINISTER OF MUSIC
OTHER TRAINING:
Discipleship: Navigator's 2:7 Series
(A comprehensive program for training in discipleship.)
Evangelism: Continuing Witnessing Training (C.W.T.)
(A comprehensive program for training in witnessing produced by the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.)
Evangelism Explosion
(A comprehensive program for training in witnessing that was the model on which C.W.T. was based.)
Church Growth: I am a life long learner. I have attended many conferences sponsored by the denomination and other agencies. I am an avid reader of Church Growth, business, leadership, marketing, psychology, sales, and advertising.
CONVERSION TESTIMONY:
My parents were Southern Baptist Missionaries. With this background in the home, I was able to learn at an early age what it means to be a Christian. At the age of six I came to understand that I was a sinner and would be separated from God if I died. It was at that time that I prayed to receive Christ and was baptized at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Ft. Worth, Texas.
At the age of twelve I came to a fuller understanding of what it meant to live for God and had a serious recommitment to the Lord. Through our home and church I learned the basics of having a quiet time, prayer, Bible study and witnessing. I gained some strong convictions about the importance of these disciplines - convictions that I still practice and teach today.
CALL TO MINISTRY:
I had planned on going into business until, during the final years of high school, I began to feel the gentle tug of the Spirit toward full-time Christian service. I had no clear direction at that time about the specific area of ministry I was to pursue.
I went to college and began pursuing a music degree, thinking that God would use me in music because of my interest in that field. About half way through college I began to get a definite sense that this was not where God was leading. I changed my major from music to religion, which is basically a Bible degree.
In between college and seminary, I visited my parents, who had gone back to the Philippines for ten more years of missionary service. During this time, I evaluated the idea of God's calling for my life in regards to foreign missions. On the long flight home, I felt the Lord saying to me that I would not be doing missions. I asked the Lord to allow me to make a difference in the church in America, which I felt and still feel is in desperate need of change.
I pursued a degree in theology primarily because of my love for the study of the Bible and Greek. After seminary, it seemed wise to get some practical instruction under an experienced pastor. With this in mind I came to Las Cruces to serve as Associate Pastor/Minister of Education at Calvary Baptist Church. During that time, I was able to develop a specific philosophy of ministry that is outlined in broad form in this résumé.
PHILOSOPHY OF MINISTRY:
Principle #1: Quality is more important than quantity. This is the most important test of Christian ministry: "Can I point to men and women who are living the Christian life now who were not doing so two years ago?" A church should see people deepening in their faith, becoming better adept at using their gifts, stronger in prayer, better husbands and wives, more knowledgeable of the Word, and so forth. These things are hard to measure, but should be evaluated subjectively, never-the-less. My understanding of what it means to live the Christian life is described in the unpublished book Enjoying God.
Principle #2: Principle #1 is only half the answer. Our ministry should result in measurable, graphable church growth.
The basic engine for accomplishing both of these objectives (deeper spiritual life and broader ministry) is the small group. This is the basically the Sunday School class, although I have worked with some home groups. Most of what it means to be a church happens in the small group. Most of the ministry--encouraging one another, serving one another, admonishing one another, teaching one another, loving one another, and so forth happens primarily in a small group. I evaluate my success primarily on the basis of Sunday School attendance.
Groups can double every two years or less if they are properly organized and functioning. The slogan I use is: "You Can Double your class in two years or less by inviting every member and every prospect to every fellowship every month." Every member should seek to use their gift to grow their group. Some of the roles I encourage in every group are:
class president teacher
inreach outreach
fellowships prayer
hospitality
This plan is detailed in the unpublished book You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less.
As these growing groups get together, they will need larger and larger facilities in order to meet corporately for worship. I believe the multi-congregation approach is the most practical way of meeting this need. By this I mean offering multiple services at various times. In addition to being more efficient, it is also more effective in that enables us to offer worship services in more than one style. During my ministry at Calvary we grew to five weekend services: two contemporary, one traditional, one blended and one country.
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS:
Let It Grow! A book on the multi-congregation approach released in 1993 by Baker Book.
You Can Double Your Class In Two Years or Less! (Group, 1997)
Disciplemaking Teachers. (Group, 1998)
ARTICLES:
You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less, A series of four articles published by the Baptist Sunday School Board that appeared in all three adult Sunday School Curriculum beginning in the Fall of 1995.
Ministry by Multiple Congregations, Leadership Magazine, Fall 1991
Growing Through Multiple Congregations, Growing Churches Magazine, Fall 1992
20/20 Vision: A Challenge to Southern Baptists, Growing Churches Magazine, January, 1993.
Making Multiple Congregations Work, Church Growth Today, Vol. 7, No. 5. 1992.
WEBPAGE:
I manage a home page on the World Wide Web. This page recently received an award for "Best of the Christians Web 1997 & 1998." On this page I write and post weekly Sunday School lesson helps for the Life and Work, Explore the Bible, and Family Bible Series. A licencing contract with the Baptist Sunday School Board for using their curriculum outline is pending. In addition, I provide church growth articles as well as articles on communication and Christian growth. Some of these I have authored, while others are written by others. I am currently serving about 1500 visitors per week using this web page. The Internet address is www.joshhunt.com
OUTSIDE SPEAKING
I have done a considerable amount of outside speaking on Church Growth. This includes conferences in Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, Tucson, Ohio, New York, Washington D.C., El Paso, Atlanta and Denver. I currently accept 10 - 12 invitations a year to speak on Church Growth.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT SCOTSDALE:
Growth. The church had been in a four year decline. The decline stopped and the church was growing at a rate of 5% per year when I left.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AT CALVARY:
Sunday School: Increased in attendance from 217 in 1983 to 516 in 1994. Overall growth rate has been about 10% for eleven years. We started three additional services and three additional Sunday Schools while I was at Calvary, including a Saturday night worship service and Sunday School.
Baptisms: Baptisms increased from approximately 20 in 1983 to 45 in 1993.
Budget: The budget increased from $230,000 to $610,000 in since 1983.
Building: I served on the building committee that led the church to build a 12,000 square foot multi-purpose building.
Discipleship: We implemented a creative Discipleship Training program. We offered such courses as the Spiritual Gifts, Navigators 2:7 Series, Master Design, Parenting by Grace, Marriage Communication, Assimilating New Members, Leading Children in Conversion, Newlywed/Nearlywed, Focus on the Family, Understanding Your Preschooler, The Baptist Way, Understanding Baptist Beliefs, Love is a Decision, Music 101, Leading Little Platoons, PrayerLife, The Cults, The Pursuit of Holiness, Financial Management, Experiencing God, Networking, Making Peace With Your Past, Search for Significance, A Hunger for Healing, An Introduction to the Bible, The Seven Laws of the Learner, The Seven Laws of the Teacher, False Assumptions, Disciplemaking Teachers, and The Mind of Christ.
Preaching Experience: During my eleven-year tenure at Calvary, I preached regularly, in addition to my experience each week at Scotsdale. My preaching style is practical and positive.
References
Reverend Lance Witt
Pastor
Calvary Baptist Church
1800 South Locust
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001
(575) 522-7900
Mrs. Delores Mills
Sunday School Teacher
Calvary Baptist Church
2135 Martha
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001
(575) 524-0059
Dr. Frank Zamora
Pastor
First Baptist Church
106 S. Miranda
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88005
(575) 524-3691
Dr. John Vaughan
Professor of Church Growth
Southwest Baptist College
1601 South Springfield
Bolivar, Missouri 65613
(417) 326-1773
Mrs. Darla Hapgood
Sunday School Teacher/ Church Secretary
Calvary Baptist Church
1635 Mariposa
Las Cruces, New Mexico 88001
(575) 523-1696
Roddy McKenzie
Chairman, Pastor Search Committee
Scotsdale Baptist Church
10508 Candlewood
El Paso, Texas 79925-4357
(915) 568-6990