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You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less

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Would you like to energize your teachers, revitalize your organization and realize exponential growth in your Sunday School? Have you ever thought about releasing a TIGER in all your classes? That is exactly what Josh Hunt suggests you do in his new book: You Can Double Your Class in Two Years or Less. "Tiger" is an acrostic for: Teach a halfway decent lesson each and every week--nothing less will do. Invite every member and every prospect to every fellowship every month. Give Friday nights to Jesus. Encourage the group to ministry. Reproduce new groups. Though Josh has experience as a Pastor, Minister of Education, and a Church Growth Consultant, he wrote this book from his rich experience as a Sunday School Teacher. It is written to people on the front lines of ministry by a person who ministers on the front lines. This book will help teachers become reachers. It stresses the importance of developing and maintaining relationships in the small group ministry. "People are not looking for a friendly Church," Josh writes, "they are looking for friends." Classes stop growing when they stop being "friends" with new people and settle with being "friendly." Josh moves the reader away from an emphasis on formulas and growth charts to people, where it belongs. This fresh emphasis works! I used these principles to grow a class from five to twenty in six months. Pick up this book and learn a no-holds-barred, tired-and-true, Biblical approach to teach/reach people for Jesus Christ. Go ahead, "grab the tiger by the tail," you'll be glad you did!

I happened upon this book at a book fair and enjoyed it tremendously. I think it has much to offer adult Sunday school classes who are truly wanted their class -- and their church-- to grow. When the recommendations the book covers are put into action, results follow quickly.

The book focuses on both how Sunday school lessons should be prepared and presented to appeal to adults and how fellowship and interaction can be achieved to make present members but especially newcomers feel at home and part of the group. Ideas are given about how to reach prospective members.

I have purchased one of these books for every adult teacher in our church. It has been true to its name in every class that has put its concepts to work.

The reality for most Sunday School teachers is that virtually all of the time that we give to our ministry is either lesson preparation or actually teaching the lesson. If we really want Sunday School to be a ministry, then "teaching" has to be more than a one-hour job done once a week. This books reminds us of that. It also reminds us that leading a small group can and should be fun. It involves ministry and fellowship and huge doses of love. We have to be intentional about all of these. Growing a Sunday School is not rocket science, but it does take work. If you are an education director and want to lead your teachers through this book, then I encourage you to download the lessons that Josh has made available on his website that correspond with the book.
Josh is an excellent communicator and has a very creative way of presenting some very basic and practical truths. He is an equally impressive speaker, and I would encourage you to schedule him for a conference if at all possible.

I have read, "You Can Double Your Class in Two years or less" and have had Josh Hunt present this material in person. The challenge we face in growing our Sunday School is not the message it is getting people into a gathering where they are ready to hear the message.

Josh's book provides the tools to meet that challenge. He tells us how to reach them, teach them, and keep them.

Our Sunday Classes that have put these tools to work have experienced numerical and spiritual growth.

Why wouldn't you want more people to know about God's love? Every church needs a plan for reaching more people with the good news! Josh has put together tried and true principles that can help you reach people better--not through programs, but through relationships! Most churches have some kind of small groups, yet after the group leaders are recruited they are left to fly by the seat of their pants. Give them a plan for reaching people better. Josh's admonition to "teach a halfway decent lesson" is not to minimize the quality of the class, but to encourage people who are not fabulous teachers to go ahead and make a difference in the Kingdom of Heaven by reaching people through friendship and love. This book needs to be read and used more!

I differ very strongly with Brian Thornton on his review of this book. No one, including Josh, is encouraging mediocrity. But Josh is saying that a teacher can still have a class double in two years or less, even without being an exceptionally gifted teacher. He doesn't have to be a great biblical scholar. Certainly, the skill and knowledge of the teacher will make the class better, but not necessarily bigger. I've sat in some great lessons where the teacher did an exceptional job of delivering an in depth exegesis of the passage to the three of us in the room. Josh has a higher goal than that. He wants the truth of the gospel applied to as many people as possible. He wants teachers to learn how to develop a class into an outreach team that models the message of love effectively. His book Disciple-making Teachers tells more about teaching methods, but this one is about having a room filled with people who really want to be there and who will most likely be back next week for more. Let's face it, many Bible scholars are also social failures.

I am utterly shocked that a book targeted to Sunday School/Bible Study teachers would downplay the importance of teaching to the extent this one has, and in its place stress the importance of presentation, style, parties, socials, fellowships, and even gatherings where the point is to go through the entire evening without bringing up your faith to potential prospects for your class. Teachers should not be told that it is okay to only be "halfway decent" every week. In my personal opinion, the bar for anyone who would presume to be a teacher should be set much higher, as they will incur a stricter judgment (James 3:1). This is not something to be taken lightly, and the level of seriousness concerning what is taught - not just how it is taught - should not be trivialized for the sake of numerical growth. An excellent teacher - one who sets the bar extremely high on his teaching (well above halfway decent) - can still implement some of the suggestions put forth in this book and experience growth in his class.

Another interesting observation I came away with was how this writer does not hold to a very high view of God's sovereignty. Some of the comments about how people become Christians make it clear that this author sees salvation ultimately in the hands of man, and not ultimately as a monergistic work of a sovereign God. When one holds that man is the determining factor in his salvation, then he will be willing to do virtually anything to achieve a desired result.

Hunt also quotes several times from Rick Warren, and once from Robert Schuller. These two work closely together. Schuller has been quoted as saying that the worst thing a Christian could ever do is to show an ubeliever that he/she is a fallen creation in need of repentance and a Savior. Instead, he says that we should just fulfill needs, and people will come, that the gospel isn't really all that important.

Anyway, here are some quotes from the book. To God alone be the glory.

"I advise my teachers to select their own literature if they choose...I have found that teachers are far more motivated to teach what they want to teach than they are to teach what I want them to teach. In addition, each group can choose its target audience. Its members can invite whomever they want. I encourage free, open competition for visitors." - p.17

"And halfway decent lessons can be 'sold' with good social gatherings and outreach. But they have to be at least halfway decent." - p.31

"One reason we have small groups is so the universal message of the gospel can be personalized to the individual. Your job is to take the cloth and tailor it to fit the individual." - p.37

"Robert Schuller wrote our best formula for success: 'Find a need and fill it.' If you want to be successful as a teacher, concentrate on meeting needs." - p.49

"One of his [Donald McGavran] key insights was that most of the barriers to the gospel are not theological; they are social." - p.63

"When we love people and spend time with them, they become much more open to hearing about the gospel. We can do this at fellowships or parties, but we need people with the gift of party to help us with the evangelistic and disciple-making process." - p.63

"The key to fulfilling the Great Commission is to cross the social barrier before we try to cross the theological barrier...non-Christians will consider Christianity if we become their friends. People are more likely to become Christians if they don't have to cross racial, linguistic, or social barriers to do so." - p.64

"One of the basic principles of church growth is that we should concentrate our efforts on receptive people...All things being equal, it is wiser to concentrate on these [receptive] people than on those who have not experienced a change. It makes good sense to focus most of our efforts on the reachable." - p.81

"Do whatever it takes to produce the desired results." - p.83

"One day I suggested to my wife, Sharon, that we invite a couple who had visited the church to join us the next Friday. We did, and we had a good time in the process. During the entire evening, we never said a word about church, Sunday School, the Bible, or anything else remotely religious." - p.94

"I used to think that new Christians need a good deal of content so they can be 'rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith...and overflowing with thankfulness.' I thought we should teach new Christians how to have assurance of salvation, victory over sin, and power in prayer. We thought we needed to help them discover how to use their spiritual gifts, have quiet time, study the Bible, memorize Scripture, and spend a day in prayer. All these things are important, and we should probably be doing better than we are at teaching them. But I now contend that there is something more important than all of them." - p.98

"If you assimilate people into a group, they will learn the content (assuming, of course, the teacher is doing a halfway decent job each and every week)." - p.99