Today I scheduled my first event to meet with volunteer youth workers. I’m looking forward to meeting with youth ministry leaders in Riverside, California later this month. The goal of this particular ministry is to highlight the benefits of lasting for the long-haul in youth ministry. I can testify from personal experience that the longer [...]

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In the November/December issue of Group Magazine, Rick Lawrence has an article on page 10 about how we damage students by saving them from mistakes and making decisions for them. On this topic, the article reads,
The handicap is real: If kids can’t decide which pasta to pick [A subject addressed earlier in the article], how [...]

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Thanks to the growing readership of this blog, I’m starting to get requests to train volunteer youth workers. While it’s an enormous honor to be asked, it also means I need to write some training sessions. I’ve got 16 year’s worth of youth ministry experience and conferences up in my head, and tons of material [...]

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What do you do with the kid who’s different? The boy who wears eye makeup and has black fingernails, the girl who goes through five shades of hair color every two weeks, the bookworm amidst athletic kids, the student who makes offbeat comments that leave everyone scratching their heads… the list can get long in [...]

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- God shapes our ministries through memories
- Ministry disasters become lasting good memories
- God works through us to build a legacy for the next generation
- Philippians 2 “…At the name of Jesus, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”
- Paul encourages passion
- Authentic passion always looks a little irrational
- Paul is showing us [...]

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I’m developing some training for youth ministry volunteers. I’d love your input about what topics you could use some training on as a volunteer or for your volunteers.
1. Dealing with conflict
2. Teaching strategically
3. Counseling wisely
4. Owning your ministry
5. Loving your students
6. Building your team (recruiting volunteers)
7. Renewing your faith
8. Dealing with discouragement
9. Encouraging the [...]

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I’m heading out to Chicago for the Simply Youth Ministry Conference on Thursday. Watch VolunteerYouthMinistry.com for summaries of what’s going on. There’s some good stuff coming this week!
Also, if you’re on Twitter, watch for the #SYMC2010 hashtag.
You can also follow me on Twitter. My Twitter name is dbeckner

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We have a big problem in our high school ministry. More students than our leaders can handle want to be in small groups. While I love the desire or our students, it kills me to know that there is such a great need going unmet. I’m going to do my best to do something about [...]

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There are a lot of notes in this post. To view them, click “read more” below

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My friend Chris Harkins is posting summaries of the Youth Worker Track on his blog. If you would like those notes, go there to check them out.

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