| Founder(s) | Loren Cunningham |
|---|---|
| Type | Evangelical Missions Agency |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Key people |
|
| Area served | 180 Countries |
| Employees | 16,049 volunteers |
| Motto | To know God and to make Him known |
| Website | www.ywam.org |
Youth With A Mission (YWAM, generally pronounced as "y-wam") is an international, inter-denominational, non-profit Christian missionary organization. Founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960, YWAM's stated purpose is to "know God and to make Him known".[1] [2]
In the 50 years since its inception, YWAM's activities have expanded from youth-focused short term evangelistic missionary journeys to include educational training, church planting, business as mission, and relief and development services. Today, YWAM involves people of every age group.[3]
YWAM now includes 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.[4] YWAM currently has over 16,049 full-time volunteer workers in over 1,000 operating locations in 180 nations[5] and trains 25,000 short-term missions volunteers annually.[6][7]
Youth With A Mission was conceived by Loren Cunningham who tells how in 1956, while a 20-year-old student in the Assemblies of God College, he was traveling in the Bahamas when he had a vision of waves breaking over the Earth. He says when he looked closer the waves appeared to become young people taking the news of Jesus into all the nations of the world. He envisioned a movement that would send young people out after high school to gain a sense of purpose when going to college, and would welcome Christians of all denominations.[8][9]
In late 1960, the name Youth with a Mission was chosen and the small group embarked on their first project, a vocational mission trip. 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]
Loren Cunningham married Darlene Scratch in 1963. 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]
The School of Evangelism was formed in 1974 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]
By 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.[4] 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.[4] 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]
YWAM leaders characterize the organization as a “family of ministries” rather than a structured, hierarchical entity.[23] YWAM's website describes how 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.[24] YWAM has no official international administrative headquarters.[24]
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.[24]
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.[23]
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.”[25] 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.[26]
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's values are spelled out in a document titled, The Foundational Values of Youth With A Mission. Officially, “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.”[26] In February 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[26]
The three types of ministry that Youth with a Mission 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.[27]
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.
YWAM Campaigns is the campaign evangelistic arm for Youth With A Mission globally. The YWAM Campaigns arm DBA the Impact World Tour.
The Impact World Tour bring message of the Gospels into the 21st century.
Youth With A Mission has been active in evangelism at the Olympic Games since 1972.[28]
Other notable evangelism ministries include:
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.[49][50] YWAM aims to train and equip Christians to become influential within these spheres.[51]
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.[52] 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.[53]
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 Emerge DTS run by YWAM Wollongong, Australia, Mercy Ministry DTS run by YWAM in Melbourne, Australia, Justice focused DTS run by YWAM Wiler, Switzerland, Celtic Way DTS run by YWAM Scotland 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.[54] DTS, like some other phases of YWAM's operation, sometimes relies on music and dance to help convey vision and purpose.[55]
DTSs are operated according to the guidelines of the YWAM International DTS Centre,[56] 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 Principles in Child and Youth Ministry (PCYM) is YWAM's secondary level training and requires a DTS training.
The School of Biblical Studies (SBS) is one of YWAM's many bible training programs. Other Bible training programs offered by YWAM include the School of the Bible (SOTB), Bible School for the Nations (BSN) and School of Biblical Foundations (SBF). SBS was founded by Ron and Judy Smith in September 1981 in Kona, Hawaii. The program is a nine month course that uses the inductive method to study all 66 books of the bible. SBS worldwide has now conducted about 500 schools in the last twenty-five years and have trained somewhere between 7,000 and 10,000 students. [57] SOTB is an 11 month course that includes a 9 month lecture phase and a 6 week outreach. SOTB uses many methods to study through the entire Bible, including Inductive method (historical-grammatical approach), word studies, topical studies, key charts, and literary analysis among others. Other topics include effectively communicating the Bible, leadership, cross-cultural communicating and teaching skills, understanding worldviews, church history, and Biblical principles of government, education and economics.
Titus Project is one of the field assignments for graduates of any SBS. It includes a 3 week teacher training time that focuses on the basics of preparing and presenting the Bible in the most effective way.
YWAM works to help meet the practical and physical needs of the global community through its many relief and development initiatives, collectively known as Mercy Ministries International. Its humanitarian efforts, along with countless global 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's various 'mercy ministries' are spread throughout most of the locations that YWAM missionaries live and work, and range in scope from serving the poor through local feeding programs to international disaster relief teams that work in places of great need, such as the 2004 Tsunami[58] and the 2010 Haiti earthquake.[59][60]
Marine Reach, the maritime arm of YWAM's Mercy Ministries, uses ships to bring physical and spiritual healing to the poor and needy. YWAM ships have provided vitally important surgeries, dental care, medical supplies, food, seeds, construction materials, development projects, training, and their message to the port cities of the world.[61]
Mercy Ships was the original ship-based relief ministry of YWAM, and Marine Reach grew from the foundations laid by Mercy Ships vision and expansive ministry. Mercy Ships was founded by YWAM missionaries Don and Deyon Stephens in 1978 and operated as a well-known ministry of YWAM for over 25 years.[16] Mercy Ships is now operationally distinct from YWAM, although YWAM and Mercy Ships continue to partner and share staff and resources on a regular basis.[62]
Youth With A Mission teams internationally are involved in many relief and development ministries. Some of these ministries are under the purview of Mercy Ministries International, while many operate autonomously as simple ways of serving a local community. One of the more widely-noted mercy-focused ministries is ARMS (Australian Relief & Mercy Services Ltd). ARMS is the Mercy Ministry arm of Youth With A Mission, Australia, it also uses the branding 'Australian Mercy'. ARMS is a registered Christian development and aid organization that cares for the poor and needy both within Australia and overseas. ARMS works in nations such as East Timor, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, India, Zambia, Vietnam and China. It provides medical support to communities as well as disaster relief teams that serve in natural disasters and war zones. It also supports preschools and orphanages in poor communities, runs primary health care programs, and is also involved in building and construction, water and agricultural projects. In recent years ARMS has launched the Buzz Off campaign against malaria and the Donna McDermid memorial fund which addresses gender injustice and sexual abuse in the developing world. [63]
In 2009 ARMS launched the Donna McDermid memorial fund a funding initiative to help address gender injustice issues and sexual abuse in the developing world. The fund seeks to raise the profile of issues such as, bride burning, female genital mutilation, child brides, breast ironing, sexual abuse, sex trafficking. [64]
Various YWAM ministries took part in relief efforts in Louisiana and surrounding states after Hurricane Katrina and Rita.[65]
Youth With A Mission was also involved in disaster relief and grief counseling after the 2004 Tsunami. Tsunami relief by YWAM staff took place in India, Thailand, and Indonesia in both the immediate aftermath of the Tsunami and is reported to still continue in some areas.[58][66]
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.[67]
Additionally, the ARMS ministry RescueNet has sent medical and SAR interventions teams to Iraq in 2003,[68] Philippines in 2004, Pakistan in 2006, Samoa 2009, Indonesia 2009 and Haiti 2010.<http://rescuenet.org.au/?p=75>FOM-Apr 05</ref>[69] ARMS has also sent intervention medical teams to East Timor in 2006.[70][71]
In Uganda, YWAM is working with villagers to provide relief for HIV/AIDS. They have established orphanages and are ensuring children are educated. British singer, Lemar visited the project in Soroti in 2007.[72][73]
In 2007, ARMS announced a new ministry focus - an international campaign against Malaria called Buzz Off.[74] The campaign is aimed at empowering smaller NGOs and ministries working in Malaria endemic nations to tackle the problem of Malaria at the local level. In from 2009 - 2010 Buzz Off fed resources into Burmese Internally Displaced People camps providing LLIN mosquito nets into IDP areas through already established health networks. Some funding organizations in Australia are getting behind the work that Buzz Off is doing with the IDPs.[75]
YWAM San Diego is actively involved in building homes for families in Mexico through its Homes of Hope ministry. According to Sean Lambert, president of YWAM San Diego/Baja, teams participating with his base have built 2,084 homes for needy families since 1991.[76][77] Teams purchase the housing materials and, optionally, furniture. These teams then travel to Tijuana or Ensenada, Mexico to build the house with YWAM staff overseeing the project.[78]
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.[79] Earlier that year, YWAM lodgings in Phuket, Thailand were destroyed by the tsunami of 26 December 2004.[80] In May 2006, Jules was caught in anti-foreign riots overtook Kabul, Afghanistan in May 2006. Violence there left eight people dead and 107 injured.
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 three transnational ministries for youth: Mission Adventures (MA), King's Kids International (KKI) and Youth Street. 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.[81]
YWAM Missionary Lee Isaac Chung's film Muryangabo (Liberation Day) earned Un 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.[82]
David Loren Cunningham, son of the group's founders, recently produced a controversial film titled Hakani: A Survivor's Story, which contains a depiction of infanticide among Amazonian tribes of Brazil. The film gave new vigor to the debate on human rights regarding indigenous people.[83]
Create International, a media ministry of Youth With A Mission, has produced documentary and evangelistic films for over 50 of the world's least reached people groups. These films are free for all Christian workers to utilize in their evangelism and church planting efforts among unreached peoples. These films can be downloaded on their website at http://www.indigitech.net Create International has initiated a campaign called the, "20/20 Vision" which plans to create partnerships with local churches, media professionals, and other mission agencies "To produce and distribute an indigenous evangelistic audio-visual tool for every one of the Least Evangelized Mega Peoples by the year 2020, so that all can clearly see and understand the gospel message and embrace it as their own". http://www.global2020vision.com
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[84] 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.[85] United Bible Societies has also worked closely with YWAM as a missions partner.[41] YWAM joined with the Evangelical Alliance and John C. Maxwell to design the training program for the Global Pastors Network's Million Leaders Mandate.[86] YWAM and Christian Direction work together to pray for Muslims during Ramadan.[87] 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.[88]
YWAM partners with:
YWAM is a member of:
A gunman, identified as a former YWAM student Matthew Murray,[95] shot four staff members at the missionary training center near Denver in the early morning hours on December 9, 2007, killing two, after being refused access to the training center's facilities.[96]
Afterwards, 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".[97]
Youth With A Mission's Dean Sherman also released two podcast messages in response to the shootings.
Youth with A Mission officially has no political affiliations or working relationships. However, the YWAM website acknowledges that "Individual YWAM staff and students come from a wide variety of political backgrounds and affiliations." [98]
Some of the most notable political affiliations of individual YWAM staff is in New Zealand. Bernie Ogilvy, a former national director of YWAM in New Zealand, Larry Baldock, a former YWAM staffer,[99] 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.[100]
Sara Diamond's 1989 book Spiritual Warfare includes an account alleging that Loren Cunningham supported a 1982 coup by Efraín Ríos Montt in Guatemala, by drawing connections from an alleged meeting between an unnamed Rios Montt aide and a group of Christian representatives that may have included YWAM's founder, Loren Cunningham.[101] Diamond also accused YWAM of having "sought to gain influence within the Republican party."
In 2005, Americans United for Separation of Church and State accused Youth With A Mission of offering to donate $10 million dollars to train youth. It is unclear how this would benefit Rod Parsley's Restoration Ohio project, however American's United suggests it would contribute to politically conservative goals as well as towards evangelizing Ohioans.[102]
In 2009, YWAM was linked to property used for hosting Bible studies, prayer meetings, and as boarding facilities for members of the US Congress. [103]
YWAM's founder Loren Cunningham, along with Bill Bright of Campus Crusade developed a strategy in 1975 for influencing what they felt were seven main segments or spheres of society and culture. One of these segments included fighting a spiritual "battle" to "take back", or redeem, the "mountain of government."[104] Although the idea behind this teaching is to influence government through spiritual means, it has been the cause for some concern in the blogosphere.[105]
There have been allegations by former members that a few YWAM leaders with authoritarian personalities have intimidated volunteers and reprimanded those acting in opposition to the organization's vision and values.[106][107][108][109] Some of the political involvements of its founders and members have also been examined by the media.[12][101][109][110][111][112] It is also claimed by Christian apologists that YWAM has taught some controversial doctrines.[113][114][115]
In 1990, cult investigator Rick Ross published an evaluation of Youth with a Mission, that cited both positive and negative aspects of YWAM. Ross concluded that he did not "recommend Youth With A Mission" or its programs.[109] After the 2007 shootings, Ross told the Fox News Network that he continued to receive occasional "serious complaints" about Youth With A Mission, but he believed it is "not a cult" ."[96]
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.[113][114]
YWAM's previous endorsements of Moral Government Theology (Arminian view of the Atonement) and teaching on Spiritual mapping has been controversial as well.
Sara Diamond, citing an interview with Gary North, also claimed that YWAM "sees its role as an on-the-ground combat force against liberation theology."[116] Lynn Green, speaking on behalf of YWAM, disagreed that post-modernism is detrimental to youth, because of its oppositions to scientific materialism.[9]
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.[117]