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Dennis

VolunteerYouthMinistry.com has moved to a new location. To catch up on the latest tips, videos, free resources and conference information click here

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VolunteerYouthMinistry.com Has Moved

As of October 2, 2009, new posts will not appear here for VolunteerYouthMinistry.com. The URL is now pointing to a new server. If you have links to VolunteerYouthMinistry.com via dbeckner.wordpress.com, please update them.

Click here to see the latest posts.

Thanks for visiting!

Dennis

Moving To A New Server

VolunteerYouthMinistry.com may disappear for a little while tonight. I’m in the process of moving to a new server. Hopefully it will only be offline for a little while.

Great things are ahead.

Thanks for visiting VolunteerYouthMinistry.com,

Dennis

Teaching Jr Highers

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I saw this post over on Kurt Johnston’s blog. He’s got a lot of great stuff on his blog. Click here to check it out.

Teaching 101….part one.

Here is a short list of what I believe to be fundamental when teaching/speaking to junior highers:

- The first minute is the most important minute
- It doesn’t need to be long to be good
- If it’s going to be long it needs to be good
- Junior Highers like to laugh
- Junior Highers like stories
- Be authentic
- Be relevant to THEIR world
- When possible, include active learning ingredients. Students learn more when they experience it.
- Offer specific application steps
- The last minute is also the most important minute

This Made My Day

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We had our first night of small group tonight. When I got home, I had this note on my Facebook page. I’ll put this in the trophy case. It’s important to celebrate the tokens of appreciation our students shoot our way.

Book Review: 99 Thoughts for Youth Workers by Josh Griffin

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My friend Josh Griffin just came out with his first book 99 Thoughts for Youth Workers. I read though this book and have some very good things to say about it. It didn’t hurt that he wrote the nice inscription (below) inside the book. I think a better title for this book is The Best Of MoreThanDodgeball.com. Josh has pulled the best from his blog and put them into a pocket-size book of essential nuggets of wisdom for youth ministry. I highly recommend grabbing this book. At $4.99 per copy, it’s even a great gift book for youth ministry leaders. It would be a great way to say “Thank you”, “I believe in you”, “Happy birthday” or “Merry Christmas”. Of course, don’t forget to include a $5.00 Starbucks giftcard so they can enjoy a tasty beverage as they read it.

Small Group Leader Training

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I’ve been asked to share some tips for small group leaders this week in our training meeting. I only have 3 or 4 minutes. Since it’s directed toward rookie leaders,

I thought I’d share 2 helpful thoughts about leading a small group. One is for the leader’s sanity and longevity. The other is for bonding the group in a safe close-knit environment.

1. For your sake: Thinking through age-appropriate behavior will save you a lot of anguish and you can use it to help you plan your lesson
– Think through what to expect from your group based on their gender and age
– What will the energy level and attention span be?
– How can you use that to their advantage while teaching?

2. For your students’ sake: Define the culture of your group and actively pursue it.
– This is our group
– What’s said in the group stays in the group
– We will have fun, but not at each other’s expense
– When it’s time to start the Bible study, we’ll do it without a lot of messing around and everybody will participate