What Matters Most: When NO Is Better Than YES
By Doug Fields
5/5
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About this ebook
Doug Fields
Doug Fields has been a leader in youth ministry for over 30 years. In addition to being a youth pastor at two churches for 11 and 20 years, Doug is the founder of Simply Youth Ministry, the co-founder of Downloadyouthministry.com, the author of more than 50 books, and is currently working with Youth Specialties & Azusa Pacific University (HomeWord’s Center for Youth/Family). More information about Doug is available at www.dougfields.com.
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Reviews for What Matters Most
2 ratings1 review
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Best reminder not only for the youth group but for every volunteer out there.
Book preview
What Matters Most - Doug Fields
ZONDERVAN
What Matters Most
Copyright © 2006 by Doug Fields
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 978-0-310-83494-6
Youth Specialties products, 300 South Pierce Street, El Cajon, CA 92020, are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Avenue Southeast, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.
ISBN-10: 0-310-27327-7
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-27327-1
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other (except for brief quotations in printed reviews)—without the prior permission of the publisher.
Web site addresses listed in this book were current at the time of publication. Please contact Youth Specialties via e-mail (YS@YouthSpecialties.com) to report URLs that are no longer operational and provide replacement URLs if available.
Creative Team: Dave Urbanski, Ty Mattson, Laura Gross, Janie Wilkerson, Heather Haggerty, and Mark Novelli
Cover design by Ty Mattson
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Please note that footnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my friend Matt McGill, who has served me faithfully as a coworker and friend for many years and helped me discover what matters most.
I also want to dedicate this book to my youth ministry friends (known and unknown) who serve God so faithfully and struggle with pace, balance, and busyness. I know you can win the battle—this book is a friendly letter to cheer you on
!
Thanks to my friends who read this manuscript and offered me both advice and encouragement. It’s so good to have people in my life like you—thanks Duffy Robbins, Marv Penner, Rick Lawrence, Jim Burns, Buddy Owens, Brian Bird, Jeff Brazil, Lance Witt, and Jana Sarti.
I do very few things of worth that my family isn’t somehow connected to, and they are the ones who have helped me really see what matters most. Cathy, Torie, Cody, and Cassie—you have ignited this message within me to help others discover what I’ve been looking for. Thanks for living life so well and being so much fun that I can’t ever stop thinking about how much I love you.
CONTENTS
01 I Had No Idea…
02 …Saying No Would Be So Difficult
03 My Long Journey from Yes to No
04 The Ministry Crash & Burn: Why It Happens
05 Avoiding a Personal Crash & Burn
06 There Must Be a Better Way!
07 Take Action…Because You Can
About the Publisher