| Founders | Loren Cunningham |
|---|---|
| Type | Evangelical Missions Agency |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Staff | *John Dawson, International President *Iain Muir, International Director *Lynn Green, International Chairman |
| Area served | 171 Countries |
| Employees | 16,000 volunteers |
| Slogan | To know God and to make Him known |
| Website | www.ywam.org |
Youth With A Mission (YWAM, generally pronounced as "why-wam") is an international, inter-denominational, non-profit Christian missionary organization. Founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960 to "know God and to make Him known," YWAM now has operations in over 160 countries.[1][2]
Youth With A Mission has been active since 1960.[3][4] Originally using the model of sending youth on short-term trips to foreign locations, YWAM has expanded its day to day operations to Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe and The Americas. In the nearly 50 years since its inception, YWAM's activities have expanded from youth-focused short term trips to include educational training, church planting, business as mission, and relief and development services. Today, YWAM involves people of every age group.[5]
YWAM is now comprised of people from over 150 countries and a large number of Christian denominations, with over half of the organization's staff coming from "non-western" countries.[6] YWAM currently has over 16,000 full-time volunteer workers in nearly 1,100 operating locations in 171 nations and trains 25,000 short-term missions volunteers annually.[7] Along with the positive experiences and positive impact which have been attributed to YWAM, the organization has been the subject of controversy and criticism.
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Youth With A Mission was conceived by Loren Cunningham who claims that in 1956, as a 20-year-old college student traveling in the Bahamas, he had a vision of waves breaking over the Earth which became young people taking the news of Jesus into all the nations of the world. He envisioned an organization that would send young people out after high school to the mission field (short term or long term) and would welcome Christians of all denominations.[8][9]
The YWAM website states that Cunningham had a desire to teach others what he had learned from his parents about hearing God's voice. This led to the establishment of schools. In December 1960, the name Youth With A Mission was decided on. The small YWAM staff printed out 180 announcements about their mission and sent them to pastors. The result was that YWAM sent two men in their early twenties to Liberia to build a road through the jungle to a leper colony. This was the organization's first official mission trip.[10]
By 1963, Cunningham had married Darlene Scratch. By this time, the new mission had 20 volunteers stationed in various nations, and the Cunninghams were planning the mission's first "Summer of Service". Later in the year, YWAM teams were being sent to West Indies, Samoa, Hawaii, Mexico, and Central America. By 1966, there were 10 full-time YWAM staff including the Cunninghams and hundreds of summer short-term volunteers. That year YWAM ministries also began in New Zealand and Tonga.[10][11]
In 1967, Cunningham began to work on his vision for the first school. It was to be the School of Evangelism in Lausanne, Switzerland, which was held from December 1969 to the middle of 1970 with 36 students. The students' lodging and classes took place in a newly renovated and leased hotel in Lausanne. By the end of the year, YWAM purchased the hotel and made Lausanne its first permanent location.[12][13]
YWAM's website states that later in the decade, another YWAM school began that would become the foundation for YWAM's many training programs. By 1974, the School of Evangelism was being offered in New Jersey as well as Lausanne. With a focus on biblical foundations and character development as well as missions, much of the material from this course is now taught in the present day Discipleship Training School (DTS).[13] A format of three months of lectures followed by two or three months of outreach is still used in most Discipleship Training Schools today.[9][13]
By 1970, YWAM had a total of 40 full-time staff.[13] That year, 1000 volunteer YWAM staff headed to Munich, Germany, to prepare an outreach for the 1972 Summer Olympics. This was the first of many YWAM Olympic outreaches.[12]
The University of the Nations online magazine has stated that Cunningham met scientist and professor Howard V. Malmstadt at a conference in 1974. They started giving educational seminars together, and Cunningham asked Malmstadt to help expand the training arm of the mission. In 1977 YWAM purchased the Pacific Empress Hotel in Kona, Hawaii, and began renovations to turn it into the campus for what was initially called the Pacific and Asia Christian University—the forerunner of University of the Nations.[14] In 1978, YWAM began Shining Lights, an outreach to prostitutes in Amsterdam.[15]
By 1979, YWAM's Mercy Ships ministry was launched with the commissioning of the ship "Anastasis" (the Greek word for Resurrection).[16][17]
YWAM sources state that at the end of the 1980s, YWAM changed the name of its university to University of the Nations (U of N). The concept of a YWAM university that would encompass training programs in hundreds of YWAM locations was developed by Cunningham and Malmstadt.[14][18] When communist regimes in Eastern Europe began to fall in the early 1990s, Youth With A Mission began outreaches to countries there, including Albania.[19] Other efforts in this decade include a school for the disabled in Mongolia.[20]
By 2000, YWAM had over 11,000 staff from over 130 countries and had become almost 50 percent non-Western.[6] Reflecting this diversity, in 1999, New Zealander Frank Naea, who has Samoan and Māori parentage, was chosen to become YWAM's first non-white president in 2000, replacing Jim Stier, who was to continue as international director of evangelism and frontier missions and national director for Brazil.[21] In 2000, YWAM developed a new role of Executive Chairman, which Jim Stier stepped into, and made the presidency a three-year rotating position.[6] By 2006, YWAM had joined the International Orality Network (ION), a multi-agency outreach effort to "the world's non-literate masses", employing verbal and dramatic means to introduce the Gospel to populations which do not read.[22]
A gunman, identified as a former YWAM student Matthew Murray,[23] shot four staff members at the missionary training center near Denver in the early morning hours on December 9, 2007, killing two, after being told he couldn't stay the night.[24] Murray stated on an anti-Pentecostal website that he had been removed from the Arvada youth mission program because of his introversion. After the initial shootings, he used the same website to warn of more to come.[25][26]
Twelve hours later Murray arrived at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, armed with five guns and 1,000 rounds of ammunition,[23] killing two others and wounding three more before shooting himself in the head with the same gun he used at YWAM, after being shot in the leg by a woman who volunteered as a church security guard.[27][28]
After the shooting, YWAM's School of Writing director Janice Rogers noted that YWAM had been the victim of violent offenders before, including homicides and other violent acts, although this is the first act of aggression against the mission on US soil, according to Mrs Rogers. Rogers stated that there are "two predominant reasons YWAM'ers have been killed; robbery or crime, or spiritual resistance to the Gospel".[29]
Youth With A Mission's Dean Sherman also released two podcast messages in response to the shootings.
YWAM leaders characterize the organization as a “family of ministries” rather than a structured, hierarchical entity.[30] YWAM's website says that each of YWAM’s 1000+ operating centers is responsible for determining which training programs it will conduct, the character and destination of its outreaches, personnel recruitment, financial sustainment, and ministerial priorities.[31] YWAM states they have no international administrative headquarters.[31]
YWAM sources cite the following characteristic as common to all operating locations: A) The pre-requisite of the Discipleship Training School. B) The mandate to "know God and make Him known". C) A threefold ministry of: evangelism, mercy ministry and training/discipleship. D) A shared statement of faith, vision and values.[31]
Accountability and leadership are maintained through a system of regional, national and international oversight. The Global Leadership Team (GLT), which consists of approximately 45 leaders from around the world, is considered the authoritative body of leadership for YWAM International. In addition to Loren Cunningham’s influential role as Founder, the GLT elects an international Chairperson, and an international President to provide overall leadership and representation to the organization.[30]
According to its Statement of Faith Youth With A Mission “affirms the Bible as the authoritative word of God and, with the Holy Spirit's inspiration, the absolute reference point for every aspect of life and ministry.”[32] YWAM teachers and leaders emphasize the following conduct in response to what they understand to be God’s initiative of salvation toward humanity: A) Worship: A calling to praise and worship God alone. B) Holiness: A calling to lead holy and righteous lives that exemplify the nature and character of God. C) Witness: A calling to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with those who do not know Him. D) Prayer: A calling to engage in intercessory prayer for the people and causes on God's heart, including standing against evil in every form. E) Fellowship: A calling to commit to the Church in both its local nurturing expression and its mobile multiplying expression.[33]
Discussing YWAM strategy with the Christian Post, Lynn Green has stated that YWAM missions "would be seen as indigenous". The perception, he claimed, combined with the intensive six-month training program, 'ties everyone together' so as to promote cooperation in working toward national goals.[9]
YWAM leaders assert that “the unique family characteristics of YWAM—our ‘DNA’”[33] are represented in a document titled, "The Foundational Values of Youth With A Mission." According to this document, “These shared beliefs and values are the guiding principles for both the past and future growth of our mission ... They are values we hold in high regard which determine who we are, how we live and how we make decisions.”[33] In February of 2004, the Global Leadership Team released a revised statement of YWAM’s Foundational Values. A summary of these is as follows:
1) Know God, 2) Make God Known, 3) Hear God's Voice, 4) Practice Worship and Intercessory Prayer, 5) Be Visionary, 6) Champion Young People, 7) Be Broad-Structured and Decentralized, 8) Be International and Interdenominational, 9) Have a Biblical Worldview 10) Function in Teams, 11) Exhibit Servant Leadership, 12) Do First, Then Teach, 13) Be Relationship-Oriented, 14) Value The Individual, 15) Value Families 16) Rely on Relationship-based Support, 17) Practice Hospitality[33]
Sara Diamond, citing an interview with Gary North, states that YWAM "sees its role as an on-the-ground combat force against liberation theology."[34] Lynn Green, speaking on behalf of YWAM, disagreed that post-modernism is detrimental to youth, because of its oppositions to scientific materialism.[9]
The purpose of YWAM training programs is to raise up men and women who will "disciple nations and transform cultures". A central concept to YWAM teaching is the notion of societal "spheres of influence", such as education, government, arts and entertainment, media and communication, business and commerce, family, and church.[35][36] YWAM aims to train and equip Christians to become influential within these spheres.[37]
The various training schools of YWAM are organized under the structure of The University of the Nations (U of N).[9] The U of N offers modular courses[9] and is unaccredited.[38] Most schools in the U of N system have a three month lecture phase which is then followed by a two-to-three month field assignment.[9]
The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is YWAM's entry level training. DTSs are run in YWAM centers around the world with the purpose of teaching students about God and His purposes for humankind. The DTS encourages personal intellectual and spiritual growth and seeks to help graduates find their place serving God in the world. It also provides a foundation for students to continue their education through the U of N. The DTS generally lasts 5-6 months and consists of a 3 month lecture/study phase followed by a 2-3 month evangelistic/service outreach.[39]
Many centers run DTSs that emphasise certain parts of the world or specific ministry strategies which help students use their skills and talents in world missions. Examples of specialized DTSs are the Mercy Ministry DTS run by YWAM in Melbourne, Australia, and a Surfers DTS hosted in Perth, Australia. Information about specialized DTSs and other schools are published each year in the Go Manual, a listing of worldwide training and ministry opportunities with YWAM.[40] DTS, like some other phases of YWAM's operation, sometimes relies on music and dance to help convey vision and purpose.[41]
DTSs are operated according to the guidelines of the YWAM International DTS Centre,[42] which was established to maintain and enhance excellence in DTS programs worldwide in accordance with the DTS purpose and curriculum guidelines set by the International Leadership of Youth With A Mission and the U of N.
The three strands of ministry that the organization emphasizes are Evangelism, Training, and Mercy ministries.
Sports camps, drama presentations, musical events, along with other creative and performing arts are the avenues through which volunteers and staff share their Christian faith.[43]
YWAM also engages in church planting, in coordination with churches from various denominations, or alone when working among "unreached people groups" who do not have churches among them.
Youth With A Mission has been active in evangelism at the Olympic Games since 1972.
Other notable evangelism ministries include:
The practical and physical needs of the global community are met by YWAM through Mercy Ministries International. Its humanitarian efforts along with partners reach an estimated 3,000,000+ people annually and is increasing in its aims to be serving 100 million of the world's poor by 2020. YWAM has a mission out of San Diego which builds homes for families in Mexico. Two homes in 2006 were built at a total cost of $30,000. According to Sean Lambert, chief executive officer and president of YWAM San Diego/Baja, teams participating with his base have built 2,084 homes for needy families since 1991.[64][65] YWAM has a mission working with villagers in Uganda to provide relief for HIV/AIDS. They have established orphanages and are ensuring children are educated. British singer Soroti visited there in 2007.[66][67]
Living Waters Church arranged for YWAM to renovate the home of Evelyn and Herschell Hartman in Sulphur, Louisiana after Hurricane Rita.[80] Flooding in Pakistan in 2007 in the Sindh province prompted a reaction by twenty Muslim, Christian, and Hindu volunteers led by YWAM Pakistan chairman Zafar Francis. They were assisted by an appeal by YWAM London's relief office. They were able to distribute food for a month to 3,000 of the 150,000 homeless survivors there.[81]
Hurricane Katrina flooded all eleven of YWAM New Orleans' buildings. Personnel were evacuated to YWAM bases in Baton Rouge and Tyler, Texas, where volunteers in their MercyWorks relief arm prepared to take food, "baby items" and water to victims once access was granted to relief workers by the National Guard.[82] Earlier that year, YWAM lodgings in Phuket, Thailand were destroyed by tsunami.[83] In May 2006, Jules Gardner was caught in anti-foreign riots overtook Kabul, Afghanistan in May 2006. Violence there left eight people dead and 107 injured.[84]
Despite its historical and value emphasis on young people, YWAM involves people of all ages. However, there is still a core emphasis on youth ministry. While YWAM has many programs focusing on youth ministry, within the larger organization it has developed two transnational ministries for youth: Mission Adventures (MA), and King's Kids International (KKI). YWAM holds an annual spring event offering free dentistry to children in Lindale, TX. The ministry is first come, first served; while thousands are given free treatment, thousands more are turned away, sometimes coming from many states away.[85]
YWAM Missionary Lee Isaac Chung's film Muryangabo (Liberation Day) earned Une Certain Regard at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Chung cast two street kids whom he found through YWAM's soccer-outreach program as the stars of a film that dealt with the moral and emotional repercussions of the Rwandan Genocide.[86]
Youth With A Mission is a global mission with links and partnerships internationally. International Chairman Lynn Green recently reported that YWAM representatives often sit "on boards of other commissions" and organizations.[9]
YWAM also works closely in with various missions and churches, as well as independent missionaries across the globe. One notable working relationship is the OneStory Project[87] which is a partnership between YWAM, Campus Crusade for Christ, the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, Trans World Radio, and Wycliffe Bible Translators as well as other Great Commission-focused organizations, churches and individuals.[88] United Bible Societies has also worked closely with YWAM as a missions partner.[57] YWAM joined with the Evangelical Alliance and John C. Maxwell to design the training program for the Global Pastors Network's Million Leaders Mandate.[89] YWAM and Christian Direction work together to pray for Muslims during Ramadan.[90] YWAM Pittsburgh has been involved in ecumenical local efforts to revive Epiphany School through teaching young people "Christian principles" and exposing them to dance and the arts.[91]
YWAM partners with:
YWAM is a member of:
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Along with positive experiences within YWAM,[98][99][43] there have also been allegations by former members that a few YWAM leaders with authoritarian personalities have intimidated subordinates and traumatized those deemed to be "rebellious."[100][101][102][103] Some of the political involvements of its founders and members have also been examined by the media.[103][12][104][105][106][107] It is also claimed by Christian apologists that YWAM has taught some controversial doctrines.[108][109][110]
In 1983, Zondervan published "Unholy Devotion - Why Cults Lure Christians," (later renamed, "By Hook or by Crook: How Cults Lure Christians"). Author Harold Busséll stated, "While living in Europe, my wife and I were involved with an Evangelical youth mission based in Switzerland. We were with the group only six weeks, but it was almost seven years before I had overcome the psychological damage caused by their cult-like control and spiritualization....Questioning a leader was considered an act of rebellion against God and His chain of command." Busséll later confirmed in an interview this organization was Youth With A Mission.[100]
In 1999, Lion Publishing reprinted Uniting Church of Australia's Dave Andrews' account of his YWAM excommunication in his book, Christi-Anarchy. Andrews was excommunicated in 1984 by Youth With A Mission's International Council.[101][111] The reasoning, according to Andrews, was that "I was a rebel and, as an unrepentant rebel, would be summarily excommunicated," and that "it 'was what the Lord told' them to do."[111] Andrews described the aftermath as devastating: "I became suicidal because all the significant people I turned to denounced me, no one else would speak to me, and the people who had promised to protect me ended up having psychological breakdowns. One guy was taken away to an asylum."[101]
In 1986, the Cultic Studies Journal published Laurie Jacobson's account of her experiences within YWAM. In it Jacobson depicts a Discipleship Training School program of eisegesis and social engineering designed to inculcate attitudes and obtain conformity to the group's ways.[102][112] In 1989, James and Cindi Croker left YWAM to start a Canadian Arts Council-funded dance troupe in Toronto, Motus O. Says James Croker, "YWAM taught us how to fail." Croker continued to value the sense of community that YWAM instilled, instituting communal living among his company.[113] In 1990, researcher Rick Ross, retained by a family in Long Island, New York, published an evaluation of YWAM, refusing to recommend them. Ross' research not only included an interview with the YWAM leaders but also was founded on information obtained from Christian Research Institute, the pre-Scientology Cult Awareness Network, the book Spiritual Warfare by Sara Diamond, and further mention of YWAM in Charisma Magazine. In the report he cited their failure on the basis of Robert J. Lifton's eight criteria for recognizing thought reform and mind control.[103]
The Wellington New Zealand Star-Times also examined politician Bernie Ogilvy's connection to the organization during this time period. In the report, Ogilvy confirmed that the group has been called a "cult" by overseas sceptics but said that impression had been corrected. The Star-Times reported that YWAM made enough money to buy up to 12 Auckland houses and that Ogilvy at one point lived in a large house with a swimming pool as the National Director. Ogilvy stated that the houses were all sold and the money given away.[114] James B. Jordan, however, persisted in calling YWAM a cult as late as April 1994.[110]
In the wake of the 2007 shootings, Fox News asked Rick Ross to clarify his position. "Youth With A Mission is not a cult," stated Ross, but acknowledged that he receives complaints about the group on a monthly basis and that brainwashing, financial dependence, and a lack of financial transparency are recurring themes in the more "serious complaints."[24]
Journalist Frederick Clarkson published an account alleging that Loren Cunningham supported a 1982 coup by Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala, an account which is also corroborated in Sara Diamond's book Spiritual Warfare.[103][104]
YWAM has also been described as having "sought to gain influence within the Republican party."[105][106] On October 14, 2005, Youth With A Mission donated $10 million dollars to train youth for Rod Parsley's Restoration Ohio project which worked on behalf of socially conservative Republicans and included goals to register 400,000 voters and to evangelize one million Ohioans.[115][116]
Bernie Ogilvy, former national director of YWAM in New Zealand, Larry Baldock, 20-year worker with YWAM,[117] and other evangelical Christians entered the New Zealand Parliament in 2002 representing the United Future New Zealand party. Ogilvy, Baldock and Frank Naea, former International President of YWAM, are on the Board of The Kiwi Party and are standing for the party in the 2008 New Zealand Parliamentary election. Simonne Dyer, former CEO of the ship Anastasis, is another candidate for the party.[118]
Evangelical theologians Alan Gomes and E. Calvin Beisner claim that certain unorthodox doctrines were taught at some YWAM locations from the 1970s until the 1990s.[108][109]
see also: Controversy and Christian missionaries
As of 2008, David Clark, director of Youth With A Mission in Minneapolis, acknowledges these concerns with a rebuttal in two main points. "People have been hurt," stated Clark which he attributes to the freedom of the leadership of each base combined with the actions of a few "bad apples" who haven't adhered to core principles. Clark addressed the theological concerns by citing Youth With A Mission's acceptance of the National Association of Evangelicals Statement of Faith. He noted that many YWAM critics are "radical individuals who do not appreciate theological diversity" and "hard-core Calvinists", while claiming the ecumenical spirit within the organization embraces Calvinists.[119]