YWAM Canada- An Elder's Musings

With the most rudimentary of strategies and by dint of much effort by an eclectic mix of people my wife and I were part of a missionary church plant among urban First Nations people in Thunder Bay, Ontario in the late 1970s on into the 1980s. In hindsight we really planted 3 successive churches-one on top of the other-since the migrant population ebbed and flowed between the challenges of living in the urban world, and family relationships back at people's home reserve communities. One of the classic dilemmas for a white missionary in such a setting is knowing how to work-your-way-out-of-a-job, since the ideal of having a native leader seemed to be an important component to what constituted a successful cross-cultural church plant. I think now I would be much more pragmatic about whether the ethnicity of leaders mattered that much, but at the time this seemed to be relevant. So, in that context my wife and I along with our family of 2 kids took a sabbatical and went to a Y...

The sub-title for Signs of Emergence by Kester Brewin hints at a unique approach to understanding church in our current rapidly changing culture. Brewin sub-titles his central thesis as "A Vision for Church That Is Organic/ Networked/ Decentralized/ Bottom-up/ Communal/ Flexible {Always Evolving}." This is a fresh perspective and contributes positively to some of the world-wide discussion of what is dubbed the "emergent church movement/discussion/debate." The inherent problem with labeling is to prejudice a work before it has been thoughtfully engaged. There is a tendency in using "emergent" and "church" in the same sentence for those who are convince this is an important discussion of Christian relevance to jump on the band wagon and declare this work to be an important step forward. It is equally problematic for those who line up opposing the notion of church as emerging to be naysayers and dismiss the work prematurely. It is precisely ...

This past summer I have been reading a book called Theory U-Leading from the Future as it Emerges by Otto Scharmer. On the one hand this has been a fascinating probe into the realities of spiritual perceptions. I have taken some of his insights and used them to good advantage in teaching. I will use one of his diagrams in a Christianized version later in this blog to highlight the process of changing one's thinking. However, the other part of this book has been extremely frustrating. The source of this frustration is that I believe Scharmer has "insight extraordinaire" for what we would call "walking in the spirit wisdom". The reason this is frustrating is that there is no claim on Scharmer's part to having received much input from Christian sources, rather his spirituality is decidedly post-modern, a blend of reflective and meditative practices from a wide variety of sources, none overtly Christian (and none explicitly anti-Christian). So, the end...

March 2007 Last week I spent a very stimulating week at the YWAM North American Council Meetings at the Leadership Learning Center in Richmond, Virginia. These meetings had an unexpected spin to them, since Jim Stier, the YWAM Americas Field Director, was present to facilitate some major dialoging regarding the values we aspire to as a sodality in North America. The bulk of this letter will focus on the process we went through and a very insightful early morning trip to the Airport. What Does a YWAM Base Leader Need to Do? Early Sunday morning Dmitri from the Richmond base picked us up to shuttle the “early-birds” to the airport. During the course of our ride Dmitri (originally from Belarus) asked me for the 3 most important things a YWAM base leader needs to know to survive some of the rigors of YWAM community leading. I surprised myself with three clearly articulated insights and I ha...

Following is a record of the recent teachings we have conducted in 2005 and are willing to serve the Kingdom in either seminar or retreat formats in the coming year, 2006: 1. “The Cross- God's Infinite Centre of Grace and Mercy” (I am pleased that this is now a required part of the new DTS Curriculum. I see this as a core foundation of evangelical/charismatic theology and personal Christian growth in an experiential context). 2. “Lessons from the Fractal Edge of the Kingdom” ( An overview of Church History including the origin of the Bible, Creeds, Fathers, Saints, Characters and Missionaries). 3. “Seeing the Invisible- Mystical Theology and the History of Art" - a catalytic overview of mystical theology and modern praxis to shape creative expressions as art and witness. 4. “Starting Now to Finish Well” (The quest for Christian character, models of change and adaptation, seeking wisdom and character transforma...

A number of years ago someone mentioned to me that I had a grace-based approach to ministry. I took that as a sincere compliment only to find out later that the intent was more a criticism than praise. My critic's perception was that I was “too soft on sin” and consequently, the sinner had no fear of the Lord and lived out their own-way-ness (pride) in an unchecked manner. I understand the problem. Recently, I had someone very close to me apologize for some very ungodly actions and attitudes. What would I do? Would I forgive unreservedly as Christ has done for me, or would I let the person squirm a bit as I “contemplated” my response. I ended up forgiving and pronouncing blessing, but I did walk away with the sense that justice had not been done. (At least from my perspective). Especially, since the sin-in-question was willful and repeated over a long period of time. How would my forgiveness affect any real change? Or is it my for...

North of 70 in Norway

What Do You Mean When You Say You Live By “Faith-Support”? Over the years one of the issues that keeps on reoccurring with most of our family, friends, and even our supporting churches is the question of what it means to live by “faith support”. My father-in-law has never been able to figure this out. Recently, he asked me again when I would get a “real job”? Of course he means a job that pays a set hourly wage and is much more predictable in terms of income. It doesn’t communicate at all for me to say I do work on the average 50 hours a week on Youth With A Mission related issues. And when I explain that YWAM doesn’t pay me to do this, but in effect I pay myself to do it, my very real job with very real challenges seems all the more incomprehensible. So, how did this system come about? And is it working for us? The faith-support mission system is a product from the era of missions called the modern missions movement (less than 200 ...