My birthday is tomorrow some some of our students and youth ministry volunteers threw a surprise party last night. Super cool!

I blog about youth ministry partly out of passion for the task, somewhat as an outlet for ideas, but mostly to somehow be a resource to other youth workers. It’s great to help others avoid some of my mistakes, alter a perspective now and then or pass along the occasional joy of something that went awesome.

Then I came across Google Analytics today. It was so cool to see that people in many parts of the world have checked in at one time or another. That was amazingly cool. It’s definitely not a pride thing. I’m just stoked that not only am I writing, but somebody out there is reading. It kind of fills my tank to keep going.

Do you have something to say in the world of youth ministry? Start a blog or send in a guest post. I’d love to have more voices speaking into the lives of other youth workers through VolunteerYouthMinistry.com.

Much appreciation,

Dennis

So I’m one of “those”. I’m sitting in line for the iPad 2. Been sitting here since 10:30 this morning. Currently it’s 2:40. Just 2 hours and 20 minutes until they release the darn thing.

The cool thing is I’m about #20 in a line of about 150 people. When I get it, I’ve got to high-tail it over to Saddleback Church in time to run The Landing tonight. I’m planning on actually using it as part of my lesson. As part of the lesson, we’re talking about planning for stuff. I’ll be asking the students what steps they would take to raise a kid. I’m getting a VGA cord to plug the iPad into the system so I can write their answers on the screen with my finger and have it show up on the screen. I hope it works. That should add some cool factor to the lesson. I’m sure I’ll be posting lots of ministry applications I find for it. Forgive me if it overtakes this blog.

Another cool thing is that I’ve seen 3 friends walk by while waiting in line. They’re all from my church. The guys around me probably think I’m famous. No, I just happen to attend church with 25,000 other people. You can’t throw a rock in Orange County without hitting somebody from my church. It’s been a cool way to let them know I go to church and spark some conversations.

All said, it’s been a great day! Oh, and another cool thing is I’m getting some reading glasses. I had my eye exam this morning then placed the order. Now I can finally read my Words With Friends score on my iPhone… now that I’ll be actually playing it on my iPad. Better late than never, I guess.

Here’s a video of The Landing.This is our new program I lead for students at Saddleback Church on Friday nights. It’s for students who need help getting over their hurts, habits and hangups.

The Landing, Week 6 – Dennis Beckner from Dennis Beckner on Vimeo.

We used the video below as a fun opener (minus the opening advertisement)

Shaun The Sheep – Life’s A Treat (Karaoke Version)
Uploaded by orchardmusic. – Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

The polling software we used was an online service called PollEverywhere.com. It’s easy to use, brilliant and gets all of your students to share without fear. So great!

I’m near the end of another hiatus from blogging. Lots has been happening and changing in my life and ministry since October. It’s all good stuff, but it’s wiped me out of the blogosphere for a while.

Here’s what’s new:

- While I’m still a volunteer youth worker at Saddleback Church, I’m also on staff overseeing a new ministry to students called The Landing. While that seems like a contradictory statement, it’s not. My position, while working directly with Students, is not on the Student Ministries team. The Landing is a program connected to our Celebrate Recovery ministry. The Landing is designed to help students work through hurts, habits and hang ups

- Because of my new ministry role, I am kind of a hybrid youth worker – both paid and volunteer. In light of that, this blog will take on a new nature. I have recruited 20+ volunteers to help me with The Landing and I’m also serving as a volunteer in the Student Ministries of Saddleback Church. Because of that, VolunteerYouthMinistry.com will have posts from both the volunteer and paid youth worker perspective

We’re launching this new program on Friday, January 7th. I’m anxious to begin sharing insights I learn about working as a leader of volunteers in addition to continuing sharing what I learn as a volunteer.

As always, if you have some insights to share, please send them to me. I’d love to post your thoughts! Click here if you have something to share.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dennis

Today I quit my adult small group Bible study. This group was a huge answer to prayer. I actually prayed over the course of a few years that God would lead me into a small group Bible study of friends where I could be accountable and grow spiritually.

Recently, however, my group of friends I meet with on Sunday night has become a small group Bible study. I also picked up an extra night of teaching High School Bible study this year.

Between work and ministry, I found myself out 6 days a week 13 hours a day doing great stuff and I was starting to feel it. My life was becoming noticeably unhealthy. I knew I didn’t have the energy to keep up.

Quitting was a hard thing to do. It took a couple of weeks to finally decide to do it. One second after I did, I felt instant relief.

Minutes after I sent the e-mail to my group, I got the nicest reply from the leader encouraging and supporting my decision. He’s also a good friend so that was especially meaningful.

Is there anything you need to set aside? Don’t be a hero and wear yourself out. People will understand.

This morning I start my first day working for the Celebrate Recovery Ministry at Saddleback Church. Although I will have many duties, the one I’m most excited about is overseeing a new program for students staring in January called The Landing.

I will still be volunteering with the High School Ministry of Saddleback Church so this blog will continue to chug along like normal. I will, however, probably have a lot more insights about youth ministry to share from what I learn along the way. This is a very exciting opportunity for me.

One difference you may see from time to time is a disclaimer such as this:

Disclaimer: While I work at Saddleback Church, this blog is neither endorsed nor representative of Saddleback Church. The ideas and opinions shared on this blog are purely my own.

I’ve had some schedule conflicts with my small group students and prospective students for the upcoming year of small groups. Some can only meet on Tuesdays and some can only meet on Wednesdays. Being the problem solver that I am, I signed up to teach both nights. I think I’m going to love it, but I also see some issues this can cause. Either way, this should make for some great blog material throughout the school year.

A few weeks ago we went to a taping of Let’s Make A Deal. A friend of mine (Jonathan Telles) won over $7,000 in prizes. Today the show aired. Here’s a picture I took of my TV while watching the show. I’m the toothpaste, my friend visiting from Germany is the banana and my friends who invited me to go to the show are the husband and wife. The husband, Jonathan, is the one who won the prizes