Author: Jesse
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Big God, Little Kids – free Bible lessons for children’s ministry
Read More: Big God, Little Kids – free Bible lessons for children’s ministryI have written a 13-lesson curriculum called “Big God, Little Kids.” It is a series of lessons built around stories of God doing big things through ordinary kids in the Bible. You are free to use it for any non-profit ministry setting such as Sunday School, Children’s Church, Vacation Bible School, or the like. I…
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First Night Virginia!
Read More: First Night Virginia!I am happy to announce that I will be performing at First Night Virginia in Charlottesville on New Year’s Eve! My shows will be at 3pm and 5:30pm, respectively. Bring the whole family and tell your friends about it too. There are lots of other activities and entertainers for the whole family. See you there! Here…
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The Thanksgiving Tree
Read More: The Thanksgiving TreeMy wife and I had a debate a few nights ago over the meaning of the Christmas Tree. What ensued was a discussion about the “why” behind traditions that we often just take for granted. She doesn’t want to do things just because “we’ve always done it that way.” She likes to know the meaning…
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Hamilton: An American Musical – Chicago Review
Read More: Hamilton: An American Musical – Chicago ReviewLast night, I had the priviledge of seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Tony-award winning musical Hamilton in it’s Chicago iteration. I have been familiar with the soundtrack for months and I will say that the opportunity to view the show live adds several dimensions to the show that will not let “Hamilfans” down. If you are not…
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Kahoot: A free and easy platform with lots of fun uses for learning
Read More: Kahoot: A free and easy platform with lots of fun uses for learningI attended a community event a few weeks ago at a local theater. Before the event started, a quiz game was running on the big screen. And anyone could join in and play if they had a personal electronic device and the game code entered into their web browser on the device. The game code…
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Cutting Down Old Trees
Read More: Cutting Down Old TreesI went on a camping trip with some friends this past weekend at a local state park. We went on a hike through the woods and at one point we came into a clearing where about five acres of large-growth pines and other trees had been bulldozed – on state park property. It was quite…
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Are the Sciences Better Than the Arts?
Read More: Are the Sciences Better Than the Arts?Mega-bank Wells Fargo recently put out an advertisement for their upcoming “Teen Day.” In it, the wording appears to suggest that the sciences are a higher calling in life than the arts. Many celebrities in the arts took to Twitter to make the case that we should not send a message to teens that makes…
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His Name Endures Forever: An Object Lesson
Read More: His Name Endures Forever: An Object LessonI’d like to share a worship response object lesson we organized at summer camp last month. It was a little risky because we had about 300 campers and it could have gotten chaotic, but the kids did great and the end result was very moving. First of all, when I say, “worship response,” I’m referring to…
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Juggling While in Motion
Read More: Juggling While in MotionLast month I successfully juggled while flying down a zip line. I had tried the feat three or four times previously and I always dropped about halfway down the line. This most recent time, though, I made it the whole way (about 100 yards). Here is the video evidence, followed by some thoughts on the…
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Scripture Memory for Kids
Read More: Scripture Memory for KidsI have an acronym for scripture memory that I use at camps: MVOTW. It stands for “Memory Verse of the Week.” You pronounce it, “muh-vah-twuh.” Kids love saying it and we put motions to the words to help us remember whatever verse we are working on. Most camps and vacation Bible schools have a theme…
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Faith Development Resources: Recommended Websites
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Recommended WebsitesCenter for Children and Theology (resource for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd) – https://cctheo.org/ Hillsong Kids (music and curriculum) – https://hillsong.com/kids/ Go Fish (music and curriculum) – http://gofishresources.com/ For HIS Kidz (speakers and entertainers for evangelistic events) – http://forhiskidz.com/ MinistryToChildren.com (free resources) – http://ministry-to-children.com/ Kidology (ministry resources) – http://kidology.org/welcome.asp Group Publishing (“big box” curriculum) –…
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Faith Development Resources: Pre-Teen
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Pre-TeenELEVEN TO TWELVE YEARS Biblezines series. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, various dates. Thomas Nelson publishers has created a series of whole-text Old and New Testaments printed in the style of a modern magazine. They call them “Biblezines.” There are different versions for different genders and age groups. There is Revolve for girls and Refuel for…
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Faith Development Resources: Late Elementary
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Late ElementaryEIGHT TO TEN YEARS Adventures in Odyssey. Produced by Focus on the Family, Adventures in Odyssey is a long-running radio program that is set in the fictional mid-American town of Odyssey. Whit is the wise elder statesman of the community who helps kids figure out solutions to life’s problems through a Christian and Biblical perspective.…
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Faith Development Resources: Early Elementary
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Early ElementaryFIVE TO SEVEN YEARS Lucado, Max, Randy Frazee, and Karen Davis Hill. Illustrated by Josee Masse. God’s messages for little ones: the story of God’s enormous love. Grand Rapids, MI: Zonderkidz, 2012. Well-known pastor and author Max Lucado leads a qualified team to present this devotional for children. With 31 devotions, the book can be…
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Faith Development Resources: Preschool
Read More: Faith Development Resources: PreschoolThis is the second list in a series of posts I am doing that list resources for ministry in both the church and home in regards to nurturing faith in children. Here we turn to the preschool age group. TWO TO FOUR YEARS Arch Books. Various authors. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House. There are…
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Faith Development Resources: Early Childhood
Read More: Faith Development Resources: Early ChildhoodINTRODUCTION Finding quality resources that help nurture the faith development of children and families can sometimes be difficult. This is the first post in a series, broken up by age-level focus, that can be of help to children, family members, and ministry leaders as they navigate the pilgrimage of the Christian faith. I will start…
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The Caterpillar and the Butterfly: Easter Activity
Read More: The Caterpillar and the Butterfly: Easter ActivityThis family or children’s ministry idea comes from Ivy Beckwith, the author of one of my assigned readings for my class at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School about ministry with children. Here is the description as I put it in my paper. I would encourage you to take this simple idea and make your own creative…
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What Cain and Jesus Share
Read More: What Cain and Jesus ShareWhat?! You’re comparing Cain, the first murderer, to Jesus? How dare you! Follow me here. I was writing a paper about ministry with children and I suddenly discovered in the Cain and Abel story something I had never seen before… You probably already knew that Cain was the first child to be born (remember, Adam and Eve…
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Fun at Eagle Church in Indiana
Read More: Fun at Eagle Church in IndianaEnjoy this short video of the machete juggling at the Upward closing ceremony for Eagle Church in Whitestown, IN! @jessejoyner juggling machetes at the Upward Awards Program 😳😁 Thanks for the incredible gospel presentation and show. You rock! #jessethejuggler #eaglechurch #upward #machetes A video posted by Eagle Church (@eagle_church) on Mar 5, 2016 at…
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The Family Prayer Corner
Read More: The Family Prayer CornerYesterday, I worked together with my five-year old daughter to set up a little prayer station in our house. My wife and I got the idea from her school, which uses a lot of hands-on activities that teach kids about spirituality. I’ve always been a little skeptical of creating ritualistic prayer spaces because I want…
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Valentine’s Day Lesson for Children’s Church
Read More: Valentine’s Day Lesson for Children’s ChurchHere is a brief presentation I gave for the kids at my church on Valentine’s Day 2016. I do some juggling in it, but if you give a similar lesson (which you are free to do, of course), just insert your own version of something impressive to demonstrate to the children instead of juggling. The…
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Four Ways to Help Kids Get Excited About the Bible
Read More: Four Ways to Help Kids Get Excited About the Bible(Picture above thanks to JaredFanning.com). Also found at http://visual.ly/top-10-most-read-books-world Here’s the file of the image: In my previous post, I shared about a large group game idea called “Super Bible Trivia.” I wanted to follow that up with a few practical tips that help us share the wonder of God’s Word with children. Here are a…
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Large Group Game: Super Bible Trivia
Read More: Large Group Game: Super Bible TriviaI’ve played a fun game with large groups of kids over the years that I call “Super Bible Trivia!” This contestant-driven stage quiz game is more of a staged drama than an actual serious quiz game. But it is set up so that the kids think it is a normal quiz game at first. Don’t worry, they’ll…
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Atlanta Tour Recap
Read More: Atlanta Tour RecapI just got back from three shows in the greater Atlanta area over the weekend. I had a wonderful time visiting three churches. At each one, I got to perform my show and share about the story of Christ. My prayer is that God’s Word will be planted in good soil in the hearts of…
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The Sheep of His Pasture
Read More: The Sheep of His PastureKnow that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Psalm 100:3, NIV
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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…