Category: Bible
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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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Why Do Churches Make The Worst Shirts?
Read More: Why Do Churches Make The Worst Shirts?Frankly, I don’t know why. But I’m posting this to see if anyone out there has the answer. I have dozens of free t-shirts from all over the country from church outreaches, camp retreats, summer camps, and other events put on by churches. I have a few that I am willing to wear in public.…
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Could You Turn Down 15 Million Bucks?
Read More: Could You Turn Down 15 Million Bucks?Delilah was a sell-out to the Philistines. Like Judas, she accepted money in exchange for betraying someone very close to her. But I recently discovered a detail that blows my mind about the story of Samson. The Philistines offered Delilah the equivalent of 15 MILLION dollars in today’s money (see the IVP OT Bible Background…
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The Bible is Rated R
Read More: The Bible is Rated RIf you’ve read the Bible, you will notice that if someone were to make an all-out accurate portrayal of it on the big screen, it would easily be rated R or worse. From the nakedness of Adam and Eve in the garden to the brutally violent crucifixion of Jesus, the Bible is one of the…
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Kids in Church: Children’s Service or Adult Service?
Read More: Kids in Church: Children’s Service or Adult Service?Think of all the “all-ages” events we go to in this life: baseball games, community festivals, museums, parks, shopping, concerts, movies, zoos, many restaurants, and volunteering in the community. Then there’s church – and in most churches, the first thing parents do when they arrive is check their kids into a parallel universe of Sunday…
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Free Puppet Show Skit for Children’s Church
Read More: Free Puppet Show Skit for Children’s ChurchThis kid-tested puppet show teaches kids how names have meanings, particularly the meaning of the name given to Jesus Christ. You may freely reproduce this skit. Just reference this website if you do…. “What’s In a Name?” (based on Matthew 1:21) by Jesse Joyner jessejoyner.com note: you may reproduce this skit freely so long as…
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Family Night Idea for Your Church: “Family Connect”
Read More: Family Night Idea for Your Church: “Family Connect”On a Sunday morning when I was the Children’s Pastor at our church, two dads of kids in our children’s ministry bumped into each other in the foyer. Now, before I go on, let me say that at the time we were a medium sized church (about 450 people), so not everybody knew everybody else.…
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Children’s Ministry Stunt Lesson: The Human Table
Read More: Children’s Ministry Stunt Lesson: The Human TableThis human stunt is a crowd favorite – and anyone can do it. Its called “The Human Table”. You could also call it “The Levitating People” or come up with your own name. It’s called a “stunt” lesson rather than an object lesson because you need 4 adults about the same size as one another…
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The Greatest Half-Birthday Ever
Read More: The Greatest Half-Birthday EverToday is my sister’s birthday (happy birthday, Rachael). But that also means it is my half-birthday, since I was born on September 27th, as I proudly announced to the kids in church this morning (I made them sing “Happy Half-Birthday” to me). They forgot the cake. This has been a wonderful day for many reasons…
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5 Prophecies Surrounding the Birth of Jesus
Read More: 5 Prophecies Surrounding the Birth of JesusThe story of Christ’s birth in Matthew contains 5 prophecies (between Matthew 1:18 and 2:23). It is easy to focus on the virgin conception as a stand-out miracle in the life of Christ (and it is), but it is also easy to overlook the miracle of multiple fulfilled prophecies surrounding the birth of Jesus. Here…
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Teaching Kids Godly Character at Home
Read More: Teaching Kids Godly Character at HomeHere is a great real-life example of a family in our church who is living out Deuteronomy 6:7 in their home (“Impress them [God’s commands] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”). Click on the…
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The Lord Gives and Roeder Takes Away
Read More: The Lord Gives and Roeder Takes AwayIn my hotel room in Columbus this weekend, I caught a glimpse of the televised trial for the murder of George Tiller, the abortion doctor from Kansas City. At the moment I was watching, Scott Roeder (the defendant who admittedly shot Tiller) was on the witness stand. Roeder attempted to justify his pulling of the…
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Knife Juggling and the Bible
Read More: Knife Juggling and the BibleTomorrow morning, the Scripture lesson for Godz Kidz at Commonwealth Chapel is going to be the same as what the adults will hear in the adult service – 2 Timothy 2:14-21. I’m going to focus in on verse 15, which says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who…
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According to What Scriptures?
Read More: According to What Scriptures?Image: “The Burial of Christ” by Gustave Dore, woodcut (19th Century) This is the season of Lent, where Christians remember the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ during the 40 days (not counting Sundays) leading up to Easter. This morning, I read the first recorded Christian creed of the resurrection, which was written by…
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Lions who Don’t Hurt Donkeys
Read More: Lions who Don’t Hurt DonkeysThis morning, I experienced a “Wow” moment after reading a story in the Bible. Here I am, 27 years old, just graduated from seminary, the son of a pastor, currently serving in ministry – and I read a Bible story about which I was totally unfamiliar. I’m in Children’s Ministry, so I am used to…
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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…