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 ·       ...

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 i...

For this week I want to tackle some of the Pioneering Questions that emphasize both calling and vision. The Vision questions include: How do you create vison in a large team context?   How do you form a team around a vision?   If one has a   good idea, how do you find the funding to pursue the idea?   Does vision morph over time?   Is vision and passion the same? To begin to answer some of these questions requires defining what is meant by a vision.   Usually in the Christian context, we use the word vision when we are initiating something and it is linked to God’s approval/ His Word/His Will.     Vision is not normally used to describe normal Christian behavior; rather vision is more applied to pioneering something, although it need not be an innovation.   I would not say that I have vision to care for the poor and the needy, since all Christian are admonished to somehow be involved with that specific activity.   However, I...

This is question from Pinawa Rendezvous that did not make the published list, but since it showed up on my desk this morning, I might as well start blogging with this question: How does YWAM foresee that teaching on Pioneering will actually make a difference in new pioneering efforts?   Is there any way to help staff or students commit to long-term goals as a beneficial strategy for pioneering new works? In YWAM the term “pioneering” is used in several ways depending on the context.   The first definition would involve starting a YWAM ministry in a location where YWAM has never been, going to where YWAM is NOT.   This would mean starting a ministry in one of the Omega zones where there is no YWAM presence such as pioneering a new location to run a DTS.   So, what is being pioneered is a new location, not so much a new program. There might be some variations on this theme of starting something new as when Frontier Ministries might use pioneering to mean engag...