Explaining YWAM
How to understand a ministry that doesn't fit the mold
Have you ever tried to describe YWAM to someone who knows
nothing about us? I’m sure you know how challenging it can be. You can
give the
statistics: YWAM was founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960; we are over
16,000
staff based in nearly 1200 locations in more than 170 countries around
the
world; we train nearly 15,000 students a year in our residential
courses around
the world. (These are the latest figures from our survey in August of
this
year!)
But that doesn’t really say what YWAM is.
You might explain
Loren’s original vision of waves of young people breaking on the shores
of all
the continents until the whole world was covered. You could mention our
Mark
16:15 mandate, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to
everyone, everywhere!”
If you have explained all that and then
give your listener a
chance for questions, they will probably reveal that they haven’t begun
to
understand us. They are likely to ask some or all of the following.
“Where is
your headquarters?
How do you manage to pay all those people?
What denomination
are you?
How does this help young people prepare for a real job?
How do you
hire your staff?
Who tells you where to go on your mission?
How much is your
global budget?”
Yes, most people find it hard to
understand how we work. In
fact, lots of YWAMers themselves find it hard to understand! But there
is a
good reason for that. Loren and Darlene did not set out to build an
organization. They fixed their eyes on that picture of young people
covering
the whole earth with the gospel and did not get side-tracked with the
usual
bureaucracy. Of course, they had to register as a non-profit
organization in California
(where they lived at the time). And, in due course, we had to start
other
corporate bodies in different countries and states in order to operate
within
the laws of the land. But we have always been aware of the danger of
just
becoming an organization
Lots of organizations start like we did,
but end up being
institutionalized. For the most part, we have avoided that trap, but we
will
have to be wise if we are to continue to do so.
In 1995 God gave of us one of the keys. We
were in a period
of big change and were seeking God about the way forward. Up to that
time, our
senior international leadership was a small group: the International Council.
Then, for a few years we worked with a larger group of about 14, the Executive
Committee. We started implementing an organizational structure
that was similar
to what some companies use. It was called a matrix structure and was a
pretty
complicated way of describing how our various ministries related to
each other.
Starting from an organizational way of thinking, we were trying to work
out how
we could have lots of different ministries without tension between
them.
As I look back, I remember all of us being
a little uneasy
about looking to the business world for examples of how to organize
ourselves -
that was especially true for Loren, who has such a strong ability to
think
about long-term implications. But we didn’t know where else to look
because
there were so few precedents for what we were trying to do. As we
prayed about
the way forward, the Lord spoke a simple word to us: “You are a family of
ministries.” In the years since then, that word has taken on
more and more
helpful meaning for us.
Now our senior leadership body is the Global Leadership Team
with about 50 members from all over the world. The GLT has both
geographical
leaders and those who represent specialist ministries. Until recently
we have
called those specialist ministries “transnationals”, but at this last
GLT
meeting in August we began to use more descriptive terms, “Global
Networks and
Global Ministries” (I will say more about what these are later on).
Because we have leaders with
responsibility for specific
territories (base leaders, national leaders, regional etc.) and also
the Global
Networks and Ministries, we are vulnerable to conflict. But, like a
family, we
hold together because we have so much in common and are committed to
each
other. We may occasionally have tensions and frustrations, but we
belong
together and so we commit to work things out until we are in harmony
again.
Because we are a family, we do not
invest too much
importance in titles or positions. And we don’t resolve conflict by the
most
senior leader dictating the outcome. We want to find solutions through
our
friendships and commitments to stay in good relationships
with each other -
like a healthy family should.
This is the way we want it to be, but it
is not always so.
Sometimes we have been troubled by disunity. Sometimes the disunity
arises
because a leader with geographical responsibility and authority does
not make
room for other YWAM ministries to start in their area. Sometimes it is
because
some new team or ministry comes into a part of the world and does not
bother to
get in touch with the existing ministries there.
These problems can get pretty complicated.
The geographical
leader may feel that the new team is risking the security of existing
ministries. Or they may feel that the new team is being culturally
insensitive
and is damaging relationships with key people in their part of the
world. In
other cases, the new team may feel that the existing leader and
ministries are
being controlling. Then the accusations and counter-accusations really
begin to
fly.
At that point, we are tempted to sort the
problem out like
an organization. We could just say that the geographical leader has
final
authority and let him or her decide. Or we could decide that the
geographical
leader was being territorial and blocking the growth of new ministries
and then
fire him! But we are not an
organization. We are a family.
So we re-commit to strengthening our
relationships and then
get together to work out the issues. Sometimes, those involved cannot
come to
resolution so we need some wise help. Over the past year, we have asked
each
regional leader to invite some mature staff members to serve in that
role if
and when required.
Of course, good attitudes of humility and
service will prevent
those tensions arising in the first place. So, the GLT want to remind
every
team to contact the YWAMers
who already live and work in the part of the world
you are planning to go to. Submit
to them and honor
them. Seek
their advice.
We also want every geographical leader to
know that part of
their responsibility is to serve
new ministries coming into their area. They
should avoid making lots of rules for the new pioneers. You should make
it easy
for them and make them feel welcome!
We know the leader wants to develop trust
with newcomers and
some have made that into a policy. For example, some parts of the world
have
made a rule: “If you want to work in our part of the world, you must
first live
and work on the base of the leader for (sometimes one, two or even
three)
years.” We are sympathetic with the goal of that rule, but such a rule
can also
hinder the building of good relationships rather than helping. There
should be
no such rule.
We know that we are called to mobilize
tens of thousands of
young people, and sorting out issues like this one is important. When
our
relationships are strong and make it easy to work together, more people
will
offer themselves to God for service in missions and more will stay
after their
first experience.
One of the ways we expect to grow is
through the development
of new ministries. In Team3, we are excited about all the possibilities
for
growth that lie just ahead. Iain Muir is taking the lead to look after
our
geographical leaders as existing bases and teams seek to grow and
pioneer into
new Omega Zones. John Dawson is looking after the other ministries and
nurturing new ones as they emerge. These are the ones we used to call
“Transnational Ministries”.
As I briefly mentioned above, we decided
to change the name
of those ministries. The new names are Global Networks and Global Ministries. I
think I can best illustrate what they are and how they usually emerge
by
focusing on King’s Kids and Frontier Missions.
KKI
first emerged as a local ministry in Kona when the Lord
spoke to Dale Kauffman, telling him to not go on the Olympic outreach
that
year, 1976, but to work with the children on the base. What happened
that
summer was so wonderful and life-changing for the kids that it began to
multiply around the world. King’s Kids developed their own distinct
leadership
structure with KKI bases, national directors and, generally, a
structure
similar to the rest of YWAM but within YWAM. That is what we would call
a
Global Ministry and there is room for lots of them.
Frontier
Missions began with a prophetic teaching from Don
Richardson in 1977. He presented us with a huge challenge, saying that
if we
were going to be a serious mission, we must begin to focus on
church-planting
and unreached people. That word became a directional word for many YWAM
leaders. Jim Stier was one of them and over the years, he gave a lead
to those
with a similar calling. This group of people didn’t develop such a
strong
organizational structure, but created a network by which they
encouraged each
other, shared resources and developed recruitment and training. So that
is more
of a Global Network. There is room for lots more of those too!
In our recent GLT meetings, as we prayed
and worshipped we
were deeply grateful that God has given us a precious gift of unity. He
has
also called us to a new era of major pioneering and growth. We are
convinced
that we can hold both of those priorities together.
All we have to do is learn more and more
how to be a
fast-growing, global family!
In His Peace,
C. Lynn Green
