Category: Camp Ministry
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Juggling Down a Zipline
Read More: Juggling Down a ZiplineVideo evidence of my adventure juggling rocks while flying down a zipline! According to the laws of physics, the balls are flying forward WITH me as I toss and catch them. I don’t have to compensate for my forward motion. I simply juggle as if I was standing still in place. It’s actually quite amazing…
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Worship Response Stations
Read More: Worship Response StationsI recently returned from Pine Creek Camp in Gore, VA. I was the camp pastor for two weeks with several hundred preteen kids and their chaperones from Assembly of God churches around Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, D.C., and West Virginia. I speak at many camps each summer, but this one stuck out because of the format…
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Palm Sunday Lesson
Read More: Palm Sunday LessonHere is a brief activity you can use on Palm Sunday in your Children’s Church service. It is designed to be humorous and then lead into teaching the kids the real meaning of Palm Sunday. Title: “Palm Sunday” Scripture: John 12:12-15 NIV “The next day the great crowd that had come for the Feast heard…
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Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’s
Read More: Life as a Professional Juggler: FAQ’sBy God’s grace, I am living a dream. I get to do what I love and I don’t even feel like I work. But what I do is serious “work” at the same time. I get a lot of questions from people about what I do, so I thought I would try to consolidate the…
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A Retreat for the Whole Church
Read More: A Retreat for the Whole ChurchThis past weekend, I had the privilege of speaking and entertaining at a church-wide retreat at a camp in the middle of Nebraska. What I witnessed in the dynamics of this retreat was one of the most powerful forms of the church being the church I’ve seen before. And I’m not talking about how they…
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A Preteen Who Finally Heard
Read More: A Preteen Who Finally HeardI just got this note from a young lady who attended PreTeen Camp at Highland Lakes a few weeks ago. At first it sounds like a criticism, but when I kept reading it I saw it was a testimony. It is very encouraging, reminding me to just keep pressing on in proclaiming God’s Word, because…
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The Ultimate Church Van
Read More: The Ultimate Church VanFound this van at Highland Lakes Camp this week. Talk about going to camp in style. Zoinks!
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MVOTW!
Read More: MVOTW!A crazy new word has entered my vocabulary this summer – MVOTW. It stands for “Memory Verse of the Week.” I have learned that elementary kids and preteens love weird words. They also love doing silly motions to spell out or act out something. So each week at camp this summer, I have taught the…
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Paintball in a Pool
Read More: Paintball in a PoolI’m at Highland Lakes Camp in Spicewood, TX this week. They built a new pool facility and this is how they re-use their old one…as a paintball arena.
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Top 5 Games for Summer Camp
Read More: Top 5 Games for Summer CampI travel to a lot of summer camps around the country each year. I have seen with my own eyes what games kids are drawn to the most throughout their given week of camp. And they are the same games no matter where you go. Kids are kids! Here are the 5 games that I…
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The Impossible Paper Cut
Read More: The Impossible Paper CutI asked a group of elementary schoolers if they thought I could cut a hole in a regular 8.5″x11″ piece of computer paper large enough to fit 6 kids through it at the same time. We were able to do it with no problem! Are you also skeptical? Here’s how you do it…… Step 1:…
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The Easiest Large Group Game Ever
Read More: The Easiest Large Group Game EverThis 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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If You’re Happy and You Know It: Extreme Version
Read More: If You’re Happy and You Know It: Extreme VersionI call it “HAYKI.” I have used this song for years on kids and they can’t get enough of it. I have written 400 lines to the song and here they are for your use with kids groups. I just ask that you don’t sell this in any way, shape, or form. You can freely…
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Now Bring Me This!
Read More: Now Bring Me This!Here’s a game I learned from my friend Brandon Rushin. The game is called “Now Bring Me This.” Kids love it! And it’s perfect for 2 kids or over 1,000 kids (not many games can do that). So you can use it in a classroom, in a Children’s Church service, at camp, in a youth group,…
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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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4 Reasons Why You Should Go to a Summer Camp
Read More: 4 Reasons Why You Should Go to a Summer CampThe coming of Spring means summer is fast approaching. Now is the time to plan ahead (if you haven’t already) for bringing the kids in your family ministry to a summer camp. Here are 4 things I think you should know about Christian summer camps: 1. Camp is Often THE Highlight of a Kid’s Year…
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It’s As Scary As It Looks – At First
Read More: It’s As Scary As It Looks – At FirstAt first, this is very frightening. But after years of practicing the shorter unicycle, I found that once I took that first “leap of faith” onto the tall unicycle and rode it for a bit, it was just like riding the shorter one, just higher in the air. This was taken at Highland Lakes Camp…
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If You’re Happy and You Know It
Read More: If You’re Happy and You Know ItI have stumbled upon an immensely wonderful game to play with elementary age children. It works especially well with very large groups (even hundreds of kids). I play it with kids at the camps I visit in the summertime and most every kid seems to love playing it. It’s called, “If You’re Happy and You…
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I Love Camp Cedars
Read More: I Love Camp CedarsI am here in Hordville, Nebraska at Covenant Cedars Christian Camp. It is part of the Evangelical Covenant denomination, which stands for solid Christian doctrine and the authority of God’s Word. Something I really like about this denomination is its diversity on the more peripheral issues that tend to split denominations out there. Anyway, I…
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I Love Camp Dixie
Read More: I Love Camp DixieCamp Dixie is a Christian camp in Fayetteville, NC and I had the chance to speak at their “Beginner’s Camp” this past week (1st-4th graders). I had a blast at this camp. They had a theme called “Secrets of the Realm” and decked out the camp in Medieval decor. So I ran with that theme…
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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…