• Are you a minister on a small staff (or even flying solo) trying to coordinate about a dozen ministries, including your adult Bible classes, and you feel overwhelmed?
• Are you an elder, deacon, or other ministry leader in charge of adult education who has your own full-time job and a ton of responsibilities?
• Have your Bible classes suffered the past couple of years and you’re not sure how long this ministry can survive at your congregation?
• Do you use the same teachers over and over, and you’d like to equip some new people?

I’ve spent time with churches and private schools across the country. (See a list here.) Check out some of the options below, and if you’d like to discuss ways we can work together, contact me so we can talk through some options.

Teacher Workshops

“Your workshop was very good. I enjoy getting to hear ideas from people on creative ways to teach the material. I lead the Middle School boys connect group, and it is a challenge most Sundays to be creative so that they learn the material and can relate to it.”

Clay Dye, Church of Christ at Cedar Lane, Tullahoma, TN

“It was a great blessing to have Josh in for a seminar with the Westhill church. We had already been using his excellent, biblical curriculum in many of our adult Bible classes for a while, and his seminar helped our teachers and leaders consider the dynamics of what makes for good classes with greater impact. What he shared, and the way he engaged us in conversation and helped us think through how we could put it to work, continues to pay dividends for us.”

Clyde Slimp, Preaching Minister, Westhill Church of Christ, Cleburne, TX

“I learned a lot from what you modeled in your workshop. The format kept things moving and was clearly understandable. I also picked up some good individual reminders to make our online and hybrid teaching more effective.”

David Shipley, Youth Minister, 151st St. Church of Christ, Olathe, KS

For teachers and church members, covering some of the following topics:

1. Why Even Teach at All? Biblical Foundations for Bible teachers
2. Aiming Well: Planning a lesson (and lesson series) with specific goals in mind
3. Tough Crowd: Engaging all kinds of learnings (including teaching styles and learning activities)
4. The Marks of Good Questions: Crafting and leading good discussions
5. From Text to Lesson: Putting everything together to write a lesson plan
6. Digital teaching: Practical tips for incorporating technology into your teaching

These sessions can be adapted for an online/hybrid format. Additionally, these are available in a learn-on-your own format here.

Lesson Series Coaching and Event

“Josh is one of a handful of teachers I’ve experienced who lived up to, and in his case surpassed, my expectations. Josh not only provided the curriculum on the book of Deuteronomy for the Prestoncrest Church of Christ, he worked with our teachers and personally kicked off the series to a combined group on a Sunday morning. What is remarkable to me is that Josh masterfully increased our awareness of how beautiful and relevant the book of Deuteronomy is to believers today. All of our 16 Bible classes will host this series over the course of the year. Josh has helped us by providing not only a solid Bible series, he has helped us raise the value of our teaching ministry.  Through Josh’s personal engagement with our teachers and providing excellent curriculum, Josh has helped to energize our members and equip and encourage our teachers.“

Robert Stolte, Adult Education & Pastoral Care Minister, Prestoncrest Church of Christ, Dallas, TX

Would you like to reinvigorate your Bible classes by doing a specific series? I enjoy coming and doing some combination of a workshop for your teachers on the lesson material plus a kickoff session for some or all of your adult classes.

• Pick a lesson series I have written (see list here)
• I can provide an advance video introducing the series that your teachers can watch on-demand before the event.
• At the live event: I’ll lead a workshop with teachers, where we talk about the material and walk through lessons together.
• I can teach a combined adult class as an introduction and kickoff event for the series.

Small Group Leader Workshop

My ministry role also includes leadership of our small groups ministry. If you’d like some help equipping and encouraging some new or existing small group leaders, I can help with that too! I offer a ½ day workshop for prospective and current small group leaders

• Session 1: Why Bother With Small Groups?
  • Principles from scripture and group dynamics that remind leaders of the important roles small groups play in faith development, discipleship, relationship building, and evangelism
• Session 2: Making the Most of Your Time Together
  • Key components of group meetings, including hospitality, conversational dynamics, selecting and leading studies, and more.
• Session 3: Groups that Last
  • Nuts and bolts of planning and leading a group to ensure that all members are participating equally in the responsibilities (hosting, leading, communicating) of the group.

Consultation with Ministry Leaders

If an event isn’t right for you at the moment, but you’d like to talk over some ideas related to adult education, small groups, or ministry leadership/church strategy in general, I offer tailored conversations for church and ministry leaders.

• Evaluating current curriculum, classroom usage, volunteer usage, and learning outcomes and then presenting recommendations
• Discussing books like Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful with leaders and members and charting a course for long-term curriculum.
• Discussing how various “formative” ministries (e.g., worship, adult ed., outreach/missions, students, etc.) could be better coordinated so that the overall curriculum (i.e., not just what is taught in a classroom) ties together.

“Josh’s conversations with our team helped us to better focus the long term goals and approach of our Christian Formation Team. We appreciated his insights, creativity, and conversational style.”

Jeff Kryder, Senior Minister, McKnight Crossings Church of Christ, St. Louis, MO

And for church leadership in general:

• Discussing vision and mission in focused sessions
• Assessing organization, process, and communication
• Presenting current church trends from respected research organizations and considering the implications for a church’s context

“Josh was outstanding in leading our church leadership through a discovery process to sharpen our focus and define our vision. His thoughtful questions, exercises and unassuming nature, made for speedy credibility. The weekend moved faster than expected and resulted in a vision process we could use for years to come.”

James Waugh, Lead Minister, Lakehoma Church of Christ, Mustang, OK

From Insight to Impact: Congregational Learning Labs

A few of my fellow ministry staff members from Memorial Road have traveled around to various cities to conduct learning labs in the areas of guest hospitality, congregational evangelism, and adult education planning. These three tracks run simultaneously, usually on a weeknight, for two hours. The first hour features a presentation by a Memorial Road ministry staff member. After a break, participants return for a facilitated round table exercise (with others from their congregation) that will help them begin to apply the content from the first session to their particular church context. Click here for more information.