Author: Jesse
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The Most Misunderstood Concept about God
Read More: The Most Misunderstood Concept about GodGrace. I often ask groups of children when I teach them, “Will you go to heaven if you’re a good kid?” And I usually get the same resounding “yes!” from the crowd. Many adults in the Church would answer the same way. This is a big problem in the Church today, and it starts in…
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Why It Helps for Children’s Church to Be Fun
Read More: Why It Helps for Children’s Church to Be FunLet me be clear: The message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not need a circus of pizazz to penetrate the heart of a child (or anyone for that matter). The love and grace of Jesus stands fine on its own to regenerate the hearts of children. But it sure does help to present…
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Captivating the Attention of Children
Read More: Captivating the Attention of ChildrenAnyone can captivate the attention of a child – or a group of children. All it takes is a smile and a little energy in your face. And those things come from a sincere heart to connect with the child/children. It helps to be able to perform some astonishing feat like a magic trick or…
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Every Child is a Winner by McCaslin and Biehl
Read More: Every Child is a Winner by McCaslin and BiehlCaz McCaslin runs Upward Sports, a global youth sports organization that promotes Biblical values, equal play time, and ultimately, the person and work of Jesus Christ. He wrote what he considers a “parent playbook” called Every Child is a Winner (Broadman and Holman: Nashville, 2002). My family and I got to visit the main headquarters…
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Faith Like a Child
Read More: Faith Like a ChildMy wife, Sarah, broke her pinky toe last week. Then she gouged the underside of her other foot on a broken piece of wood flooring (we have an old house – and I’m fixing the problem area today). So she’s limping around, ever-so-courageously, chasing our toddler and living normal life. Our toddler, Kezzie, has clearly…
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Shamgar: The Relief Pitcher of the Bible
Read More: Shamgar: The Relief Pitcher of the BibleI just read an article over at ESPN about the relief pitchers for the Baltimore Orioles, who did a fantastic job putting down the Yankees last night in the playoffs. Brian Matusz spoke about how being a bullpen pitcher can be a “thankless job.” Yet they are some of the most key players of a…
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How to Do the Chinese Yo-Yo (aka Diabolo)
Read More: How to Do the Chinese Yo-Yo (aka Diabolo)The crowd favorite of my show is the Chinese Yo-Yo. Quite honestly, there are a lot of people out there that are way more skilled than I am at the Chinese Yo-Yo (also known as the Diabolo). But my intermediate skills at it still cast a spell over any crowd. Why? Because the object itself…
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Breakfast with Jesus
Read More: Breakfast with JesusWe can be pretty sure that Jesus wasn’t a vegetarian because he called his disciples over for a fish breakfast in one of his post-resurrection appearances. This was the original church fish fry. It doesn’t say that Jesus partook of the fish, but the meal was definitely his idea – so break out the tilapia!…
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The Engage Children’s Ministry Conference
Read More: The Engage Children’s Ministry ConferenceI was just invited to teach a workshop at The Engage Conference up in Pennsylvania in November. If you work in Children’s Ministry in any capacity (pastor, leader, volunteer, etc.), please see if you can make this great one-day conference. Its only twenty bucks! Click Here for all the info.
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Fall Festival Ideas
Read More: Fall Festival IdeasIf you’re a Children’s Pastor or leader of a community program for families, you’re probably somewhere on the spectrum of planning for your annual Fall Festival. If you haven’t started planning for one, its still not too late, but you only have about a month left, depending on when you hold it. Before I list…
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Nine Reasons Why I Love My Wife
Read More: Nine Reasons Why I Love My WifeSarah and I celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary today. When we were engaged, we somehow came up with a joke that we would be married for 60 years before one of us died. But when you do the math, that leaves us dead at 82 or 83 and I’d like to live at least 20…
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Best Juggling Equipment Vendors in North America
Read More: Best Juggling Equipment Vendors in North AmericaThis list is not exhaustive. I just want to list out some of the best places that I have found to get juggling equipment in North America. If you want to add a vendor to this list, please leave a comment! Dube Juggling Equipment – This NYC-based company has been a standard of quality juggling and…
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Free Classical Music Online
Read More: Free Classical Music OnlineI’ve recently stumbled upon a rich resource of music from dozens of great classical composers (among other styles of music). All the recordings on this site are free and in the public domain. There are no copyright restrictions either, which means these recordings can be freely used for any purpose anywhere for any reason. The…
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Another Place to Find Me
Read More: Another Place to Find MeJust found this listing site for entertainers. You should see my profile on there soon: www.LocoloboEvents.com
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Friday Video – The Upper Echelon of Juggling
Read More: Friday Video – The Upper Echelon of JugglingSince I learned how to juggle, I have been amazed at the extraordinary technical skill of a juggler named Anthony Gatto. He is a Cirque du Solei performer and holds plenty of juggling world records. He sets a bar of excellence in juggling that is both inspiring and challenging at the same time. I hope…
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Including the Children
Read More: Including the ChildrenThe battle of Jericho has been immortalized in the Judeo-Christian conscience as the epic moment when “the walls came tumblin’ down.” So why don’t we remember the dramatic battle after Jericho? It is known as the battle of Ai. Ai was a city further into the Promised Land from Jericho. Joshua tried sending a small force…
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God and Money
Read More: God and MoneyWhen I was in college, I remember having a cloud of worry parked over my psyche every single day because I knew that I was taking out a LOT of money for school and I was going to have to pay it back. And it was during college that I decided my life theme verse…
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3,470 Hours Per Year
Read More: 3,470 Hours Per Year3,470 hours. If you’re a parent, that’s about how many hours per year that your children are awake and not in school or church. Church-going kids spend anywhere from an hour to five hours a week in church or doing church-related activities. Another 50-100 hours is spent sleeping, depending on the age of the child.…
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The Princess Problem
Read More: The Princess ProblemCheck out this article written by a professor at my alma mater, Taylor University. Her name is Amy Lepine Peterson and she offers a critique of Karen Kingsbury’s children’s books about princes and princesses. Here is the link to the article: http://tinyurl.com/9nbmofh Now that you’ve read it, here’s my thought: The character of a princess in…
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Living Up to Your Name
Read More: Living Up to Your NameThis past February, Sarah, Kezzie took a trip to Europe. We flew in and out of Barcelona. When we landed, we spent the day walking (a lot) around Barcelona. People told us we had to go see Sacrada Familia, so we wandered until we found it. Apparently, this is the big attraction in Barcelona, so…
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An Archaeological Find Behind My House
Read More: An Archaeological Find Behind My HouseOn Saturday, my family and I trekked over to the city park/playground behind our house. The park is called Bill Robinson Playground. It has a ball field, some basketball courts, a sanded area with swings and play sets, and an enormous open field perpetually protected by the owl statues perched above Franklin Military Academy. The…
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Scott Joplin’s Other Great Song
Read More: Scott Joplin’s Other Great SongThe turn-of-the-century ragtime sensation Scott Joplin may be best known for his songs “The Entertainer” and “The Maple Leaf Rag,” but he produced many more pieces, my favorite being “Bethena: A Concert Waltz.” He wrote this following the death of his new bride (of ten weeks) Freddie, who succumbed to pneumonia. While many of his tunes are…
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How to Be Cool in School
Read More: How to Be Cool in SchoolI love how pictures tell stories. Let me tell you about this one. The year was 1996. I was a choir-boy sophomore at Godwin High School in Henrico, Virginia. I had friends, but I wasn’t in the “cool crowd.” I was a mostly quiet kid who liked music and juggling. Then Mike Fitzpatrick (the guy…
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A Performing Legend: Victor Borge
Read More: A Performing Legend: Victor BorgeHave you ever been struck with a memory that had been lost for many years in your psyche? When I was a child, I watched many clips and shows of the great Danish comedian Victor Borge. He had escaped my memory for many years until tonight. He just came to my head and I looked…
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Popular Posts
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“Holy Fools”: Exploring the Journey of Calling for Christian Variety Performers
I am happy to announce that my PhD dissertation has been published to ProQuest, an academic database for published research. I have made the dissertation open source, which means anyone anywhere can access the full content free of charge. Here is the full dissertation: https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/holy-fools-exploring-journey-calling-christian/docview/2622316783/se-2 Please share far and wide. I am very much excited…
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The Easiest Large Group Game Ever
This is probably the easiest large group game ever invented. If you can think of an easier one, please let me know in the comments. Heads or Tails! This game of heads or tails involves EVERYONE in your large group. It is actually better the larger the group gets. There is an elimination factor to…
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Merry Christmas from the Joyners!
Greetings from our family in Richmond, Virginia! We are thankful for you, our friends and family. We are also thankful to the Lord for His gift of the love to us all this season. This past year has been a roller coaster of experiences and emotions, specifically regarding our spunky little Annie, who is now…
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Book Release! Incredibly Bad Dad Jokes
I have been writing down my original Dad jokes for several years now, but recently they dramatically increased. While the past five months of my life have been the toughest for me as a Dad (with Annie’s medical crisis), the Dad jokes actually came out in full force during this season. You see, in my…
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A Children’s Ministry Poem
From the mouths of children come questions galore about heaven and angels and Satan and more. They speak what their hearts say without holding back, so the wonder of God is something they never lack. Oh God, who are you? Who inspires the minds of little ones many, so that they may find this Jesus…