Dennis Beckner
Dennis Beckner is a volunteer youth worker who trains volunteer youth workers. From 1999 to 2020 he was a leader at Saddleback Church’s Student Ministry. He is the author of Volunteer Youth Ministry, A Roadmap For Effective Leadership, and owns VolunteerYouthMinistry.com. Graduated from Point Loma Nazarene College in 1994, BA Religion
Repetition and caring builds positive memories. In their adult years, I want my Life Group students to look back on good times they had in high school and remember Life Group. One of the positive memories I create each year...
We at VYM stacked hands on our vision today. It’s all about the conversation of the community and we want you to be part of it. As a group of volunteers, we’ve benefitted from sharing with each other what we’ve...
Each week parents are sending desserts with their boys to Life Group. I got to where I couldn’t remember if somebody said they were bringing it. I always had a box cookie mix I could make in a pinch, but...
Saw this post over at Cory Lebovitz’s Blog about building a great volunteer youth ministry team. He’s got some tips that all youth ministries would do well to implement. I’m going to post a small snippet below. Head over to...
Yesterday we “welcomed” our newest High School Ministry team member at Saddleback Church. Makes me glad I’m a volunteer, not a staff member....
Last week I saw a post on Facebook that jarred me pretty good. A friend of mine posted a photo of a bald tire with a caption about his dad. The caption read something like, “5 years ago today my...
Welcome to the new, expanded and improved website. Super thankful for our new webmaster Nathan for his incredible talent and many hours making this happen. We’re still not done! Here are some things we still have in the pipeline: 1....
We’re making massive changes and expansions to VolunteerYouthMinistry.com. You’re getting a sneak peak at some great stuff that won’t be announced publicly for a few weeks. Between now and then, as we make the upgrades, please pardon the things that...
This idea came out of a conversation at our Life Group Christmas party a couple of weeks ago. When a parent dropped her son off, she commented that the parents don’t know who each other are. As I was reflecting...