YWAM Canada- An Elder's Musings

Leadership Letter #8 Leadership and Vision I am asked quite regularly, What is YWAM Canada’s vision, or more broadly What is YWAM’s vision?  Frankly, this is a question I cringe to hear.  I usually answer the question fairly broadly with the hope there is enough substance in the answer that it satisfies the inquirer’s question.  I cringe because the question seems to me to come loaded with Christian presuppositions.  After all, people without a vision tend to perish.  (Proverbs 28:19a)  And after all God tends to speak to leaders.  So, iff he has not spoken to me convincingly about broad geographic vision, or national vision, or international vision then perhaps I am  not really a leader.  Or, if I answer with what I believe God has shown us about Canadian national leadership, perhaps it lacks the pizzazz of prophetic fervor, or enough current buzz words of the unending flux of current theological fads.   How could a “Meat and P...

Seminars suitable for DTS/SOE/SOFM modular learning: The Cross of Christ -A holistic overview of Jesus’ Ministry and the implications of Salvation for Believers. The Kingdom of God -The foundation of a Kingdom theology opens us to be always growing, learning and changing in the context of God’s love for us and the world. The Book of Acts -The story of Acts as both history of the early church and the basis for modern/postmodern missions strategy. Hearing the Voice of God -Exploration of spiritual disciplines to tune heart and ears to hear what the Lord is always communicating. Emergent Leadership -Leading in a postmodern world through influence, decentralization, creativity  and diversity. System Thinking for Faith Communities -Exploring the patterns of behavior in communities using systems archetypes and crafting creative alternatives of response to better reflect the creativity of the Spirit. The Nature and Character of God - a theological quest to reflect on Trinit...

Dear Canadian YWAMers, During the last GLT in Kona, Hawaii, there were several monumental decisions made as YWAM evolves in structure and governance for the next 50 years of our history. Pete Iliyn, sensing this shift in organizational energy entitled the last NALC, “Year One”, signifying a movement into the next fifty years with a new energy based on the values of the past. So, some of this shift entails the Global Leadership Team reformatting to become the Global Leadership Forum (GLF); and the previous “Team 3 Plus” model of governance relinquishing their corporate titles to serve as an international eldering body. This further “flattening of the YWAM structure” and an embracing of more Biblical language to describe leadership in such a large international mission is unprecedented in scope and implications. If any of you are interested in studying organizations, YWAMs’ growth and continual restructuring is an example of an organization seeking to be Spirit-led and ho...

I often chuckle when occasionally the old-fashioned hymn is sung that has the following phrase, “Here I raise my Ebenezer, Hitherto I’ve come by faith”. I wonder if anyone is asking, “What’s an Ebenezer?” The term is a Hebrew name, meaning a “stone of help’, a memorial stone signifying an event of God helping Israel. I hope all who carefully read the following blog would see it as a memorial stone to the Lord signifying a snapshot at a-point-in-time in terms of reflecting on ministry and the future. Hopefully, the heart of this paper is written under the advice of St. James when he encouraged future planning to be linked with humility of heart when he advises, “If the Lord wishes, and we are alive, we will do such and such.” Life-long learning has been one of my reoccurring themes in leadership development. Not only is this good for mental agility, but since there is so much change currently in our culture, survival itself needs a high degree of adaptability. I rece...

In August we had our biennial YWAM Canadian staff gathering In Pinawa, Manitoba. Considering that this location is roughly mid-Canada points to the challenges we face as a nation as we drive the 30+ hours from either East or West to Rendezvous in the tradition of Canada's early fur traders. This was our sixth such gathering and in many respects we are starting to see the fruit of networking and connecting both as friends and YWAM Co-workers from coast to coast to coast. A treat for us this year was to have Baxter Kruger ( http://www.perichoresis.org/ ) both give glory to God as he beautified the triune relationship of Father, Son and Spirit, and how God in Love meets us in our "I –am-nots…" The revelation that Jesus presented of God as His Father was such a radical departure from traditional Jewish thinking. The very nature of Christian discipleship was rooted in the profound understanding that God is Abba, Father, and that the incarnate Son is both Lord and Christ ...

St. Barnabas Learning Community is the ministry name for multiple initiatives that bridge the Mission and Missional Worlds, the Emergent and Ancient Movements, Leadership Conversations linked with Servant-hood Expressions of Action and Trinitarian Theology in a Creational Context. As a YWAM Location it is at once the Western Canada District Office, the Teaching Ministry of Paul Martinson, A Location to Gather for Counselling, Spiritual Direction and Retreats, as well as a covering for "The Heart Connections Counselling Model Institute" . For further information and blog articles see www.paulmartinson.blogspot.com .  

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 ...