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Josh Hunt
Key Dates
The following is a list of dates I have open
for scheduling conferences. All these dates and
locations receive the travel discount.
Alabama
January 21
January 24
March 6
March 8
March 12
March 15
August 23
Arizona
March 27
March 29
Arkansas:
January 3
January 5
August 9
Florida:
January 9
January 11
January 21
January 24
February 6
Georgia
January 21
January 24
March 8
March 12
March 15
August 21
August 23
Kentucky
March 12
March 15
Louisiana
January 19
August 9
August 13, 15, 2010
Mississippi
March 8
March 12
March 15
Missouri
January 3
January 5
North
Carolina
February 20
February 22
February 26
March 1
April 29
May 1
Oklahoma
January 3
January 5
January 16
March 1
March 3
August 15
August 18
South
Carolina
February 22
April 29
May 1
August 23
Virginia
February 26
March 1
April 29
May 1
Tennessee
March 8
March 12
March 15
Texas
January 16
January 19
February 9
August 7
August 9
August 15
August 18
The new lessons are
AWESOME! The creative elements add a whole
new dimension to both the prep and class
time and I can't wait to use them.
Thanks for all you do to
minister to teachers. You're making an
eternal difference.
Blessings!
Cathy Baker
Good Questions just got a WHOLE lot
better
I would estimate that I have written more
small group/ Sunday School lessons than anyone
else alive. I currently write four new lessons a
week, and, although it has not always been four
lessons a week, I have been writing lessons for
20 years. They are about to get a whole lot
better.
Improvement #1:
My lessons have historically consisted of 20
- 25 ready-to-use questions. A teacher with good
people skills, group skills, and Christian
maturity could walk into class, read the
questions and create a pretty good discussion
about a biblical topic. What I didn't provide
was a lot of answers. That is about to change.
I have recently purchased two or three
thousand dollars (retail) worth of commentaries
(in electronic format so they are searchable
with WordSearch and Bible Explorer). This is in
addition to the commentaries I already had. I
will be taking short excerpts from some of the
best of the best of these and inserting them in
the form of footnotes to the teachers in my
lessons. You are not going to get just questions
any more; you are going to get answers--answers
from some of the best biblical commentators who
have ever written.
This change will start with lessons dated
after October 1.
Improvement #2
I asked my wife to review one of the
new-format lessons. She like the added
content--she is a real Bible Student herself.
But, she had a suggestion that is really going
to make these lessons sing.
Missy suggested I include a creative element
in every lesson. These could be a movie clip, a
compelling story, or something you can touch and
feel. Of course, teachers can use these or not
according to their comfort level. But, here is
an example.
In an upcoming lesson from Romans about how
the law tempts us to break the law, I asked the
teacher to put up "wet paint" signs on all the
walls of the class room. I am betting that if
the teacher watches carefully, someone will
check to see if the paint is really wet. The law
tempts us to break it.
This change will take place after October 15.
If you would like to see an example of these
new lesson, point your browser
http://www.joshhunt.com/ThisIBelieve.htm I
will pull these lessons out of
The
Lesson Vault so you can see an example for
free.
These lessons correspond with three of
Lifeway's outlines:
- Family Bible Series
- Explore the Bible
- Masterworks (My personal favorite, and
what consider to be the best literature
every written.
Lessons are available to churches at a VERY
affordable rate-- $200 per church per year for
all your teachers to have access to all the
lessons. For details, see
www.joshhunt.com/vault.htm
Learn to Double Online:
www.joshhunt.com/DoubleOnline.htm
Teach your group to double:
www.joshhunt.com/DoubleLessons.htm
Conferences Available:
Several conferences are
available to train your teachers. See details at
http://www.joshhunt.com/overview.htm
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Three Sunday Schools or Two?
"We have really grown. We added a second Sunday School and
service; now we are going to add a third, just to accommodate the
growth."
"Uh. . . remind me we need to have a conversation about that."
I have had this conversation many times and I always find it a
bit tedious to try to explain. It just doesn't feel like it should be
true. In fact, it feels like it CAN'T be true. Let me take a shot at
it with you.
First, this is only helpful information if you are thinking of
going to three services. If not, hit delete. Life is too short.
Second, I was in multiple services for years and had a book
published before I realized this. I remember the night. I was
visiting my friend Bill and his church was considering going to
three. The more we talked about it, the more something just didn't
feel right to me. I was up late into the night; I couldn't sleep
trying to solve this little mathematical puzzle. Suddenly the light
came on.
Let's assume that Sunday School space and worship space is more
or less equal, and, that demand is more or less equal. We could use
any number in this example; let's use the number 500. Assume we have
a 500 seat auditorium and space for 500 in Sunday school. Now, let's
put one piece in the puzzle at a time.
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
A |
|
| 9.45 |
|
500 |
| 11.00 |
B |
|
Now, what I want you to see is that the total of A plus B cannot
be greater than 500. You might have 200 in the early Sunday School
and 300 in the later one, or the other way around, or 250 in each,
but the total is constrained by the number of people who go to
worship so it can't be greater than 500. Let's imagine it looks like
this:
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
200 |
|
| 9.45 |
|
500 |
| 11.00 |
300 |
|
The opposite is also true:
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
|
A |
| 9.45 |
500 |
|
| 11.00 |
|
B |
Again, A + B cannot be greater than 500. It could be as it is
below, or some other numbers, but the total can't be greater than
500. In this case, the number in worship is constrained by the
number in Sunday School.
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
|
200 |
| 9.45 |
500 |
|
| 11.00 |
|
300 |
So, put it together:
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
200 |
200 |
| 9.45 |
500 |
500 |
| 11.00 |
300 |
300 |
Total it up
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 8.30 |
200 |
200 |
| 9.45 |
500 |
500 |
| 11.00 |
300 |
300 |
| Total |
1000 |
1000 |
Now, let's imagine you only do two and two. What does
that look like?
| |
Sunday School |
Worship |
| 9.45 |
500 |
500 |
| 11.00 |
500 |
500 |
| Total |
1000 |
1000 |
Bottom line: three Sunday Schools provides zero more seats than
two. I have done the math many times and it comes out the same every
time.
There are, of course, other issues: like, Sunday School and
worship may not be balanced, or space might not be balanced, or you
might want to provide the convenience of another worship time, or
the alternative of another worship style. But if you are thinking of
providing three Sunday School to provide more seats, keep thinking.
A few other thoughts about multiples.
- Two services and two Sunday Schools does not get you twice
as many seats as one, for reasons below.
- You use the same preschool space both hours. If you fill the
building during both hours, you will have to allocate more space
for preschool
- You will never get the services/ Sunday Schools completely
balanced. If you have ever heard of the 80% rule, it is more
like 60% when you have multiples. You are always constrained by
whatever space is full, and it doesn't help that there are empty
seats when people don't want to come.
- Parking and hallways will get really crowded in multiples.
- The youth hardly ever divide. Sometimes I see where Mid High
are at one hour and Sr. High at the other hour, but rarely
do I see half the youth group at one hour and the other half at
the other.
- Growing churches are always in multiples. There is not
enough money to pay for everyone to all be together if the
church is growing.
- Law of the pickle jar: you can only squeeze ten pickles in a
ten pickle jar, even if you pray about it.
A thoughtful response from Tim Smith of the Georgia Baptist
Convention:
Josh
Good article. One thought, in
working with many churches through this process it has been our
experience that the youth as well as all age groups must be equally
divided among the hours of
Sunday School. Putting the youth in one hour is a short term
solution that causes many problems in the long run. The biggest
problem occurs soon after going to one hour for youth, the adult
classes that have parents of teens are forced into one hour. If an
adult class that works to reach a family with teenagers finally has
their prospect attend, they are shocked to learn that their is
nothing for their teen at the hour they wish to attend. The next
biggest problem occurs when the 5th or 6th graders, depending on the
structure of the church's ministry to children and youth, are
promoted out of the children's ministry into the youth. If they
have been attending in the hour where there are no youth, the family
is forced to switch hours. This leads to the final problem and that
is without a complete age graded Sunday School at both hours, the
church ends up become old in one hour and young in another. The
main reason that youth do not want to do is that they feel it splits
the group. Any growth will naturally cause this to happen. The
youth minister usually does not want to do it because of the strain
of leadership enlistment. In the long run it is better for the
entire church that the youth as well as all age groups achieve at
least a 70-30% spilt and it is ideal to get a 60-40. This includes
all age groups within the adults. Many senior adults will want to
attend one hour but it is critical that they too have classes at
both hours. If the church is going to duals for a short time
period, this is not as critical. Just some thoughts I wanted to
share with you.
Tim S. Smith, Team Coordinator &
Consultant
Sunday School/Open Group Ministries
Georgia Baptist Convention
6405 Sugarloaf Parkway
Duluth, GA 30097-4092
770.936.5287
1.800.746.4422 ext. 287
FAX:
770.452.6580
E-mail:
tsmith@gabaptist.org
Website:
ssog.gabaptist.org
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