With 30 years of experience in ministry, Doug Fields is currently the teaching pastor at Saddleback Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, where he has been on staff since 1992. For more than a decade he was involved wiht student ministries at the 20,000-plus member church.

Doug has authored or co-authored more than 40 books. His highly-acclaimed book Purpose Driven Youth Ministry has helped shape the course of youth ministry world-wide. Other bestselling books he has authored include Help! I'm a Student Leader and Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry.

In addition to his responsibilities at the church, Doug is the founder of the multi-staffed online resource center Simply Youth Ministry, which provides a variety of curricula, podcasts, articles, and forums for youth workers. The site has sold in excess of 600,000 commercially-published books, tapes, and videos over the last seven years.

With a passion for training youth workers, Doug is a member of the Youth Specialties National Resource Seminar team. He speaks at Youth Specialties events around the country.

Doug earned an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a BA from Vanguard University. Prior to his work at Saddleback, Doug served at Mariners Church in Newport Beach, California for 11 years.

Doug and his wife, Cathy, have three children and live in Southern California.