OCTOBER, 2006 LEADERSHIP LETTER
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