YWAM Canada- An Elder's Musings

In the Nanning Covenant signed in China in 2002, YWAM set the direction for some of the current leadership issues we are facing today.   Further reflecting on the process of Commending New Ministries on how this will be done rests in the inter-relationship between commending bodies (oplocs and/or Elders), commended-sent ones*, and receiving communities.   At the end of the day, the commending ministry needs to be empowered to send; the commended ministry needs to have the authority of being sent; and the domain of receiving a new ministry needs to honored and respected .   If we can achieve this, YWAM will have moved into a missiological stance of win/win/win, which has great potential to unlock new strategies to reach new Omega Zones. Therefore, commending needs to be done in such a manner that there is ·         Discernment on the Word of the Lord-Jerusalem Council; Paul to Macedonia ·         Empowerment in an impartational manner (laying on of hands) to the sent ones-P

One of the topics discussed at the YWAM Western North America Area Elder’s Gathering in Kansas City this past summer had to do with the governance issue of starting new ministries in the Western North America Area.   In the past we had a document that outlined the procedure which involved being sent out (apostolic sending-“sent ones”) by a recognized YWAM Ministry to a District, and to a National or Regional council for approval.  This process was recognized historically as a new ministry being approved by 2 levels of governance authority “above” the new operating location (oploc).   Now with the governance aspect of such a process being terminated, the starting of new ministries is not being addressed by any current policies or procedures.   This paper is not an attempt to propose a new policy, rather a discussion paper to raise the issue so that ultimately any new YWAM ministry, started in a new location, is at least linked back to their YWAM roots, YWAM in our Area (WNA ACT