Dear Friends, UofN Staff,
At the encouragement of several UofN leaders, I will be sending out a quarterly letter to all UofN staff (at least to the ones we could find e-mail addresses for).
At the Workshop in Brazil, some discussions with Dean Sherman alerted me once again to one of the areas of our YWAM thinking that is well and truly split. It has to do with our ongoing debate about which is more important, "being" over that of "doing"...
I was first made aware of how far this had gotten out of hand when a staff member told me a few years ago, "Jesus never told us to do, but to be". I reminded this person of the Great Commission, given to us five times, and thought by the silence that followed that the point had been made.
But Dean told me the behind-the-scenes story of what happened during one of the last evenings of the Workshop, when David Hamilton began giving a powerful message out of the first verses of Isaiah 42, entitled "God will shout!" Dean was emcee of that evening, so people with impressions of receiving a word were sent to him. When a mighty thunderstorm broke out, several people came up to Dean and told him that this was a sign that the Lord wanted us to stop the message and seek Him. It was even stated that we were missing God . . .
Which sounds very spiritual.
However, Dean was not at all convinced that the Lord wanted to stop the message, but he conveyed the impressions to David. After listening, David also felt that he should continue the message.
I was talking to Gary and Marie Weems, leaders in the IHOP ministry (the prayer-chain group in Kansas City who intercede faithfully for YWAM, and one of the groups through whom the message of "Intimacy with God" is coming to YWAM). The day after David's thunderstorm message, Marie related that she received Ps. 98 just before the message; so both she and Gary said they felt it was a confirmation that David's message was a clear word of the Lord to us; and it would have been totally wrong to interrupt it!
Unfortunately, some within our mission are putting what IHOP does and what YWAM does in opposition. But here the "intimacy people" didn't think that having a program and a planned message meant that the Holy Spirit wasn't there . . . Gary also assured me that IHOP has always done outreach, and completely supports YWAM in its efforts to reach the omega zones, the spheres of society, etc.
I am particularly sensitive to the idea that whatever is spontaneous must be spiritual, and whatever is planned and structured probably isn't. Not only is this pure postmodernism, its source in modern times is the writing of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the divergent Genevan and the original Romantic. When leaders are insisting that a thunderstorm must be a sign that God wants to speak, and that the anointed message from the Word of God cannot be what God wanted for the evening, I am struck by just how much our thinking is "conformed to this world". It reminds me of John 12.28-9.
Friends, we in YWAM certainly need a greater level of intimacy with the Lord. But we always will, and that's one of the reasons that in Heaven, time stands still. Also, there is a dimension of intimacy that comes when we work with the Lord to advance His Kingdom.
What brings joy to Heaven? One sinner repenting (Luke 15.7). What brings pleasure to the Lord? When we have faith (Heb. 11.6). How do we know that we love God? When we obey Him and do His will (I John 5.3 is one of about 20 verses in John's writings that link obedience with love).
Symptoms of a problem in this area:
When people think they can judge another's level of intimacy with God
When we are told that we shouldn't send teams out until they reach another level of intimacy.
When people's ideal of Christian community does not include outreach
I find no evidence in Scripture that Jesus ever opposed intimacy with the Father and doing His will (see for example John 4.34, 5.17 and 14.12). But there is much evidence that the Church, and YWAM, has put into separate and opposing categories things which God never intended to be in opposition. David Bosch has documented this trend in his crucial book Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (see the chapter on the effects of the Enlightenment on missions).
If we think we have to decide between the importance of Word or Spirit, preaching or mercy works, lecture phase or outreach phase, worship times or work duties, frontier missions or training ministries, intimacy with God or reaching the lost, being or doing (and on and on . . .) we have already fallen into one of the traps we have been warned about (II Cor. 10.4-6). The enemy of our souls has indeed raised up fortresses of the mind which block the true knowledge of God, and change our ways of thinking into outright disobedience. One of the most effective is the sacred-secular split.
Friends, let us make the deliverance of our thinking from this trap one of our foremost priorities. This would mean restructuring our schools, ministries, outreaches, and bases. And restructuring our thoughts and words first of all!
We could start by dropping the argument between being and doing. Jesus lived out both; and He wants us to live like He did.
Yours for the goal of Biblical Christian thinking,
Tom Bloomer
PS if Dean Sherman is coming soon to a location near you, ask him to speak on this topic….and fasten your seatbelt.
If you would like to receive communication such as this from Tom Bloomer on a quarterly (or perhaps monthly) basis, please send an email to the following office of the International Dean or Centre Director of the College/Centre (most closely associated with your field of training) confirming your desire to receive this communication:
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