Category: Jesus Christ
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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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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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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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The Role of the Children’s Pastor
Read More: The Role of the Children’s PastorI’m reading a great book on ministry with children right now called Children Matter by Scottie May, Beth Posterski, Catherine Stonehouse, and Linda Cannell (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 2005). Here is a quote that made me stop in my tracks: “Our responsibility is to create an environment in which the child can learn about and enter…
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Godly Play: A Model for Ministry with Children
Read More: Godly Play: A Model for Ministry with ChildrenGodly Play is a teaching system used by many churches around the world to educate children about God, the Bible, and also invite them into the Christian narrative. Jerome Berryman developed the curriculum and he was influenced by the educational theories of Maria Montessori. I observed Godly Play in action once when I was in…
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Is Jesus Our Superhero?
Read More: Is Jesus Our Superhero?A metaphor that some people use for describing Jesus Christ is that he is our superhero. But, I feel that the metaphor (like most) breaks down here – and so much so that I am uncomfortable saying that Jesus is my superhero (and teaching kids the like). Here’s why: I believe that Jesus is beyond the…
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Super Easy Scripture Slides and Images
Read More: Super Easy Scripture Slides and ImagesI recently stumbled upon a fast and free way to make Scripture slides for Children’s Ministry (or any other ministry, for that matter) with an array of free and attractive backgrounds. And it may already be in your phone/device. It’s built into one of the popular apps out there – the free YouVersion app of the…
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The Interrobang as a Metaphor for the Hypostatic Union
Read More: The Interrobang as a Metaphor for the Hypostatic UnionIf you have no idea what that title means, that’s OK. It is actually fairly simple to explain those weird words, which I will attempt to do. The “hypostatic union” is an important theological concept to understand about the person and work of Jesus Christ. It basically says that Jesus Christ is one person, two…
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Socioeconomic Diversity in the Christmas Story
Read More: Socioeconomic Diversity in the Christmas StoryThere are two primary nativity narratives in the Gospels – the Matthew version and the Luke version. Have you ever noticed that Matthew talks about the Magi (but not the shepherds) and Luke talks about the shepherds (but not the Magi)? Matthew was writing to a mostly Jewish audience while Luke was writing with Gentiles…
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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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The Death of Jesus
Read More: The Death of JesusAccording to the Gospel of John, Jesus died before the other two men crucified next to him (John 19:33). John explains that the Jews did not want Jesus’ body hanging on the cross during the special Sabbath, which was the day following the crucifixion. So Pilate gave special permission for the bodies of the three…
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The Upward Show When My Luggage Didn’t Arrive
Read More: The Upward Show When My Luggage Didn’t ArriveIn nearly 15 years of doing shows, there have been two times where my luggage did not arrive in time for the show. The first time was on Easter weekend about five years ago. My flight was diverted (due to weather, I think) to a different city than originally planned. I rented a car and…
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Alone with Michelangelo
Read More: Alone with MichelangeloThere is a lesser known Pieta sculpture by Michelangelo in the Duomo’s Museo in Florence, Italy (also known as The Deposition or The Florentine Pieta). His famous one is the Pieta with Mary and Jesus on display in St. Peter’s Basilica in The Vatican City. The one in Florence depicts Nicodemus (whose face is a…
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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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Jerusalem IMAX Review
Read More: Jerusalem IMAX ReviewYesterday, I saw the IMAX film Jerusalem at the Fernbank Museum in Atlanta. Put out by National Geographic Entertainment, it shows both the bloody history as well as the beautiful peoples and cultures who live there today. I spent a semester living in the Old City of Jerusalem when I was in college for a…
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The Gifts of the Wise Men – Children’s Ministry Lesson
Read More: The Gifts of the Wise Men – Children’s Ministry LessonYesterday, I taught on the wise men from the Christmas story in Matthew 2. I always love teaching on this part of the Christmas story because there is so much more in the text than we usually learn from a simple nativity scene. Here are three things that might help as you assemble your lesson…
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Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten Plagues
Read More: Children’s Ministry Lesson: The Ten PlaguesI have taught Children’s Church lessons for over a decade and I think yesterday’s lesson on the ten plagues was one of my favorite lessons to ever teach. Please don’t think that I love dark and dismal things like plagues. They really are pretty negative. Biblically speaking, they were real judgements carried out on lots…
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Circus 4 Ever
Read More: Circus 4 EverI’ve got some exciting news. I have partnered with some other jugglers from the Christian Jugglers Association and we are happy to introduce to you a non-profit called Circus 4 Ever. This is an organization that exists to make an eternal impact on lives around the globe using juggling and circus arts. Our primary objectives…
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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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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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“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…