YWAM's Anointing & Appointing for DTS's
by Loren Cunningham
These comments by Loren Cunningham were recorded during a question and answer time on May 13, 1994. He was asked whether a church-based or other non-YWAM discipleship training programme can qualify as an equivalent to the YWAM DTS, therefore fulfilling the DTS requirement for individuals desiring to become YWAM staff or attend YWAM schools.
Psa 139:13-15 says that gifts and callings begin within the mother's womb and Rom 11:29 says that they are "without repentance," which means that they never change. This is true for individuals, but I believe it is also true for groups.
In Exo 40:15, the Bible says that your "anointing qualifies you." This scripture talks specifically about the priestly anointing, but identifies the fact that anointing from God is what qualifies any ministry. They were gifted and called to be priests. We in Youth With A Mission are also gifted and called to specific areas, one of which is to conduct Discipleship Training Schools. 1Co 12 says that it is God who sets ministries into the church (universal) and equips those ministries with gifting. YWAM is one of those ministries.
God does not anoint what He does not appoint. This saying is almost a cliché within YWAM – it is part of our ethos. God calls YWAM to give birth to certain things and He anoints us in those categories. Our spiritual genetic code in YWAM – the genetic code formed in the womb of our creation – is different from all other genetic codes. It's not necessarily better, it is just a different design for a specific calling and purpose in God's kingdom.
For example, there is a Christian training institute in the United States which was inspired by the YWAM DTS/SOE. The founder came to the first schools we held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1969-71 and he said, "You know, we have got to have this in North America. Would you help me start this kind of training programme?" I replied, "Of course I will help you." And for their first five years of existence, without exception, I spent a week or two teaching at that training center as they developed their courses. But then they took on their own genetic code and their programme and courses changed and followed their own calling and anointing. Part of YWAM’s genes are still there, but that ministry has a totally different personality and calling than YWAM.
Years ago, John Dawson observed that for about a three-year time period, it is possible for a local mega-church to run a well-attended discipleship training programme, because they have a large local constituency to draw from. I know of one mega-church which did this several years ago. They thought, "We have so many people who want to go to a DTS ... we'll just have a YWAMers run a school in our church." A former YWAMers who was a part of their fellowship started a DTS-type discipleship programme within their local church. The congregation was large enough that they could draw the participants from their church body for the first three years. However, as time went on and the leadership was passed on to someone else, they began a national recruiting programme for their school because they had run out of participants from their own congregation. They actually created a parallel programme – a sodality/mission alongside a modality/local church. It still had some of the original genes from YWAM, but it was not a YWAM appointed and anointed school, nor did God want it to be. This is not a negative, it is simply genetics -- the way things work out spiritually and physically.
I believe it would be good if we could do in other categories what we have done through Kings Kids International. There are YWAM Kings Kids programme, and then there is the Go-Network, which encourages local churches to start their own teams. As long as they are connected, they are a part of the global Kings Kids network. Some of them very quickly become disconnected – and that's fine. Some of them never have been connected – they just look at the Kings Kids model and do something similar – and that is fine. We want to encourage every ministry that is advancing God's purposes, but we need to recognize that they have a different origin and anointing than YWAM – a different genetic code.
We need to design ways to give away what God has given to us, sharing our curriculum, qualifications, standards, etc. And there may be a way to keep them connected with YWAM if they want to be connected, through special programme designed for that purpose. But the inheritance factor – the line through which the genetic code comes – is determined by who is the anointed and appointed authority over the school.
Over the years, I have been approached on several occasions about having a "YWAM DTS" in a church. In these cases, I always endeavor to discern their true desires. These are questions I must ask: 1) "Are you wanting to provide the facilities and wanting us to provide a YWAM leader to run the school and have the six-month school be accountable to YWAM?" or 2) "Are you saying that you want to use our curriculum, programme, vision, ideas and have our blessing and you will run it?" Often the suggestion is offered "We have a former YWAMers who is part of our congregation, and he will run it." But the spiritual anointing issue is, "Should YWAM (the sodality) run the school or the local church (the modality)?" It is a question of who is the true authority over the school.
YWAM has an anointing and appointing from God to run DTSs. You can't duplicate or replicate the experience without God's call, or you will get an Ishmael instead of an Isaac. In this case, I don't mean that Ishmael is a bad outcome – but he would not have the Abraham/Sarah genetic code. The authority for the Discipleship Training School is the code that God has given to YWAM, and we are not to sell our birthright.
In the scenario above, it not only involves anointing and appointing, but also apostolic succession, modality/sodality issues and others. The pastor might say, "We must not have an outside authority in charge of the school." The mission could say the same: "We must retain the authority to prepare people to become staff for our particular anointing and calling as YWAM." There are issues beyond the surface that include the spiritual genes and the spiritual glue that hold YWAM together, as well as the preparation of University of the Nations students for their U of N experience. There are many aspects of a YWAM DTS – the live-learn concept, the exposure to YWAM's values such as being visionary, international and interdenominational – that cannot be experienced in the same way in a local church context, and we cannot compromise our birthright.
The majority of YWAMers as well as prayer and financial support come from a broad spread of smaller sized churches. However, I recognize that this can be a delicate issue, because the church which wants to conduct a DTS is often a larger church, and a strong YWAM supporting church which sends many young people into missions each year.
We want to affirm church discipleship programme, not drop a guillotine on them! For example, we could offer several levels of networking from which they could choose: A) offer YWAM resources, including teaching videos, materials, etc., B) help them pattern their school after a DTS, to be led by a former YWAMers or someone who comes from the church to attend a DTS, or C) provide an actual YWAM DTS led by a YWAMers with the church offering facilities. This programme could also be held at a Bible school or on a college campus.
We need to encourage the local church in their discipleship efforts by setting
up these kinds of specific programme or network ideas. But we also need to
clearly identify that such discipleship programme as example A or B above
are our "give away" programme – they will not qualify the participants
to come into YWAM or University of the Nations. The DTS Centre is presently
working on a proposal to help local churches which desire to hold these types
of training programme.