The How People Change course by Paul Tripp and Tim Lane has proven to be a an effective way of training individuals in some biblical counselling basics. Some churches encourage everyone to do it and a few make it required training for ministry leaders. However, there has been some feedback that it can be challenging to run and that retention rates can be low. This has not been my experience on multiple occasions across various backgrounds and age groups. I hope that what follows will demonstrate why that might be, and suggest helpful ways to attract people and keep them engaged with it.

Along with suitable gifts for leading a small group, a good understanding of the content from some foundational training units (such as from PTC’s NCBC, CCEF, or Westminster) can be particularly helpful for those running an HPC course.

The HPC Study Guide contains twelve lessons. Two hours with a small break is typically about right to cover a lesson in the way outlined below. Most lessons cover two Bible passages in some detail - less than 100 minutes would be inadequate in most cases.

Obviously, twelve consecutive weeks can be a big, even intense, commitment for busy people who may not have the time and energy, nor want to lose contact with their regular small group to make room for HPC. If illness intrudes into a family for a few weeks, a large portion of the course is missed, leading to reduced learning or even dropping out. And for those who do manage to stick at it, twelve straight weeks is probably too short for many people to do much with the ‘personal growth project’ that is core to the learning and real growth process of the HPC course. The project cannot be commenced until several lessons in, which leaves only a few weeks to work on it in a twelve-consecutive-week model – including finding someone to talk and pray with about it. If life circumstances interrupt in the few weeks potentially available for the personal growth project, the learning experience may not happen at all.

The tried and tested suggestion here is to space these lessons out over a year.* One example would be to meet every 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of a month, starting late February and breaking for public and school holidays – and postponing when winter viruses have half the group sick - running until the whole course is complete somewhere around October. Done this way, I have found dropout rates to be negligible beyond the introductory session (see below). And the review sections at the start of each lesson seem more appropriate and helpful when there have been a few weeks between lessons, rather than just one.

In the original HPC format, the Study Guide contained a large amount of written lesson content that was read and discussed together during group time. That is how I started using HPC after doing a facilitators’ training day at a CCEF conference, and it worked well. Everyone seemed able to pay attention, follow well, and avoid going off on tangents.

The revised format includes additional video content and small-group discussion questions, while relocating most of the lesson content to the ‘homework’ section. This may have been intended to shorten the study time to fit a briefer adult Sunday school timeslot and increase group discussion. My feeling was to retain a two-hour group time so that there is adequate time for significant learning. Actually learning and appreciating the concepts lesson by lesson is key to participants wanting to return to subsequent sessions. If people don’t catch on in a brief lesson they may not come back. I’m not sure that people will do a lot of homework reading on top of the personal questions homework that is still assigned (as per the original format). There is just too much to do at home if people are to learn the content well, and only a week to do it in a back-to-back format. It is not at all surprising, then, to hear that dropout rates have been high in some places.  I also prefer that some group discussions follow significant amounts of direct teaching time (as found in the original ‘lesson content’) rather than precede it so that the lesson content will help guide the discussions, hopefully keeping them more focused and constructive. Finally, adequate time is needed for groups to form well and engage in well-facilitated discussion so that people feel understood and cared for, creating a mutually encouraging climate and reducing the likelihood of someone not wanting to return to the group. HPC addresses personal matters that some people may not have spoken of in their usual connect/growth group and I feel that this takes time to do well. (To clarify here, participants are not required to speak of the issue(s) that led them to come along.)

So, I have continued to use a two-hour group time to work through what was once the original lesson content by reading from the homework section and using its group questions. If a lesson is missed, the basic content can be caught up by reading. Reading aloud the well-written material from the (now) homework session takes some pressure off the HPC leader (less preparation and less concentration), saving attention for the demands of facilitating good group discussion that involves personal or sensitive issues. Reading still allows for planned and spontaneous clarifications, expansions, and individual comments on the reading as it proceeds, so it does not feel boring, predictable or rote. And if the group has an issue with the content and raises it, they are generally challenging the authors of the study guide rather than the leader or another group member, which can make the process smoother and more open.

I offer people access to the video content for use at home if they wish on the assumption that watching a video is easier for some people than a lot of reading, and that it would be better to use face to face group time to read and talk together and enjoy a break over supper than to watch videos – especially in an era where face to face interactions are under challenge. I omit many of the group discussion questions in the current lesson content section, as there are enough (and perhaps better) questions in the lesson review and in the ‘homework section’ that we read and work through together.

Finally, one local variation I have found helpful is an additional introductory session, which brings the total number of sessions to thirteen. Rather than make it more challenging to run HPC, this helps group members and the facilitator get to know each other and orient themselves to issues surrounding change, before considering Lane and Tripp’s ‘gospel gap’ and ‘ministry gap’ concepts, which make a compelling and memorable case for the need for a course like HPC. People seem to enjoy this introductory session, and it seems to help form a stable group that is interested and committed to helping each other learn and grow throughout the year. The following summarises one approach to an introductory session:

                Prayer

                What do you hope to learn? Why are you here?

                Do we need to change? In what ways?

                Can we change?

                How does the culture say we change?

What about the Bible?

What have you/others tried?

The gospel gap and ministry gap concepts, found in the book version, are contextualised and applied for individuals and their current and past church experiences. In this way, the list of ‘gap-fillers’ expands significantly and remains current and relevant, which may be important given that HPC was developed in   some Northeast USA church cultures in the mid-2000s.

* An alternative way to schedule HPC over five sessions that has also had a good retention rate in an Australian context can provide an alternative where it may be difficult to get people together on twelve occasions throughout the year. Note that the reduction in available lesson time will need to be managed well.

One intensive Saturday (9am-5pm)

·         Introductory chapters (lessons 1-4) broken up with reflection time to answer the questions and morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea to build rapport

Four Sunday afternoons (2-5pm)

·         Heat (lessons 5&6)

·         Thorns (lessons 7&8)

·         Cross (lessons 9&10)

·         Fruit (lessons 11-12)