Author: Jesse
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Joshua Memory Verse
Read More: Joshua Memory VerseGod fulfills his promises EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. Be blessed with this MVOTW (memory verse of the week) for this week. #mvotwyear
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Deuteronomy Memory Verse
Read More: Deuteronomy Memory VerseJoin me in memorizing these two verses as our memory verse(s) of the week (MVOTW). This passage is also known as the Hebrew “Shema” (the word for “hear”). A beautiful declaration of the monotheistic God of Israel and the command to love Him with every ounce of our being. Follow along on Instagram @jessejoyner and…
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Numbers Memory Verse
Read More: Numbers Memory VerseThis is the blessing to Aaron and his sons that God commanded Moses to tell Aaron. One thing I love about this blessing is that following this blessing, God then tells Moses, “so they [Aaron and his sons] will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (v. 27). Wow. God shines…
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Leviticus Memory Verse
Read More: Leviticus Memory VerseThis week’s memory verse of the week (MVOTW) comes from Leviticus, the oft forgotten book of laws and regulations in the Old Testament. We can’t ignore the richness of this book, as God reminds us where we once were and how he has rescued us. He has enabled us to hold our heads high!
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Exodus Memory Verse
Read More: Exodus Memory VerseHere we are at week 2 of memorizing a verse from each book of the Bible in a year. This week’s verse comes from the Song of Moses and Miriam found in Exodus 15. They are praising God for delivering them from the hands of the Egyptian army after fleeing from them and making it…
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Genesis Memory Verse – Memorizing one verse from each book of the Bible in a year
Read More: Genesis Memory Verse – Memorizing one verse from each book of the Bible in a yearThere are 66 books in the Bible. There are 52 weeks in a year. That’s pretty close. The difference is 14. So if you can double up on fourteen of the weeks… Then, you can memorize a verse from each book of the Bible in a year. In fact, if you memorize two verses in…
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Where’s Haggai?: How to Help Kids Navigate the Bible
Read More: Where’s Haggai?: How to Help Kids Navigate the BibleIt’s on page 1,195 of course! So yeah, even most adults need the table of contents if the pastor says, “Turn to the second chapter of Haggai as we look at what this prophet says to Zerubbabel.” And if you work with kids in a church or ministry setting, you know the challenge of trying…
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First Night Virginia!
Read More: First Night Virginia!I’m happy to announce that I will be returning to perform at First Night Virginia this New Year’s Eve in Charlottesville, VA. The shows will be at 6:30pm, 9pm, and 10:15pm at the First United Methodist Church in Charlottesville, VA on December 31, 2017. I hope to see you all there! Click on the link…
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One of the easiest games that kids love
Read More: One of the easiest games that kids loveRemember Bozo the Clown’s Grand Prize Game?! If you don’t, then either you’re much younger than me or you had better things to do than watch television as a child. His bucket game was full of pomp and craziness, but the basic idea of it is extremely simple and duplicatable in any setting where you…
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Stewards of the Story
Read More: Stewards of the StoryLast night, I was working with my seven year-old daughter on a Bible verse that she is trying to memorize. The verse spoke about the “fear of God” and we had a good discussion about the definition of the word “fear” in that context. While that alone is a whole other discussion, the point I…
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What toy will be the next “fidget spinner”?
Read More: What toy will be the next “fidget spinner”?If you work with kids, then you saw the fidget spinner come and go this past summer. The popularity of this fad toy (which has actually been around for quite some time) peaked sometime in June 2017. But by July and August, it seemed that every child in North America had at least a dozen…
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Books for Christian Ministry with Children
Read More: Books for Christian Ministry with ChildrenI’d like to share some resources that have helped me over the years while working with children and families in church ministry contexts. You’ll notice one book in this list that seems out of place (the Jonestown one). I included that as a narrative about how NOT to lead families and children in ministry. It…
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Teacher Tip: The Right Question to Ask Yourself
Read More: Teacher Tip: The Right Question to Ask YourselfTeacher Tip: How can I help these kids best learn what I’m teaching? Notice I didn’t say, “How should I teach the content of my topic to these children?” There’s a big difference there. Do you see it? One is teacher-focused. The other is learner-focused. Your work as someone who teaches kids in any capacity…
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These kids ran away with the circus…
Read More: These kids ran away with the circus…I’m so proud of the first class of students of Camp Carnival RVA! This was the first circus arts camp of its kind ever in the state of Virginia. Every day for two weeks, these kids got to “run away” from home and join a variety of instructors who taught them the ins and outs…
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Teaching the Good Samaritan Story to a Modern Audience
Read More: Teaching the Good Samaritan Story to a Modern AudienceI’ve had the chance to teach the Good Samaritan story to groups of children and preteens over the past month. I adapted the Bible story from Luke’s Gospel to speak to the kids in their cultural context. In Mississippi, for example, I orchestrated a skit that had a Mississippi State Bulldog fan kneel down and…
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Fidget Spinner Bible Lesson
Read More: Fidget Spinner Bible LessonSo here’s a way to teach a Bible lesson using a fidget spinner…. What Really Lasts? Bring and show off as many of these fad toys as you can find (show pictures if you don’t have the actual toy): the hula hoop Lincoln Logs the pet rock the Rubix Cube Slinky the slap bracelet Beanie…
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Fidget Spinner and Water Bottle Flip Trick
Read More: Fidget Spinner and Water Bottle Flip TrickThe fad of 2016 meets the fad of 2017! It took me a while to finally get this combo trick, but the patience paid off….
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How Not to Lead: The Story of Jim Jones
Read More: How Not to Lead: The Story of Jim JonesI just finished a new book by Jeff Guinn and published by Simon and Schuster (2017) called The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. Before reading it, I had been aware of the general story of what happened in Guyana in 1978 and how a crazy cult leader somehow led over 900 people…
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Fun Video from Curt Nelson
Read More: Fun Video from Curt NelsonCurt Nelson has a video that shows kids eating from a bag of M&M’s, not knowing that there are skittles hidden in the bags. The reactions are fun and it makes for a good intro to a Bible lesson about how we should “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Check out the video…
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Awesome Crowd Game Ideas
Read More: Awesome Crowd Game IdeasI do a lot of large group events. I’m always on the lookout for games that are fun and easy for huge crowds. When people come together in large groups, there is a lot of potential energy that can be tapped in the form of socialization, laughter, competition, and shared human experiences. So here are…
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Three Surprising Things I’ve Learned from Juggling
Read More: Three Surprising Things I’ve Learned from JugglingJuggling is really old. Did you know that images of jugglers have been discovered on the walls of an ancient Egyptian tomb that is about 4,000 years old? Near the town of modern-day Minya, Egypt, you can visit the Beni Hasan tombs. In tomb number 15, you can see an unmistakable illustration of multiple women juggling…
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The Idea of Invitation in Worship
Read More: The Idea of Invitation in Worship“Let the little children come to me.” – Jesus of Nazareth This past Sunday was a snow day in our part of the country. Most churches closed due to weather. When my wife, daughter, and I made our way downstairs to make some breakfast together, my wife suggested that we have a family devotional time.…
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Easy Group Game: Mouthpiece Madness
Read More: Easy Group Game: Mouthpiece MadnessI got this idea from a friend of mine at Camp Orchard Hill, Derek Hodne. I did some searching online and discovered that many other people have taken this game and packaged it into various retail forms, such as Watch Ya Mouth, Speak Out, and Mouthguard Challenge. The game is simple, and you can do…
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Do you do Santa Claus?
Read More: Do you do Santa Claus?This is a common question I hear parents asking one another at Christmas time. The question comes from different perspectives and experiences that people have had with the story, tradition, and character of that jolly man, Santa. We’ve all heard stories of the proverbial thirteen year-old kid (or older) who finds out from their friends…
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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…