Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about North Africa.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
“Jesus is God. It is the truth. I believe!” was the voice message left by a local North African last month. This simple declaration of faith is evidence of the deep workings of the Holy Spirit in North Africa. Seeing North African friends come to a saving faith in Jesus is often a long, hard fought battle entailing years of fellowship, food, storytelling, evangelism, Bible reading, and desperate prayer before the Lord! It is no small victory for the Kingdom of God when one believes. Please join us this month in prayer for the people of North Africa.
In 1991, the YWAM North Africa Regional Center was established in Southern Spain as a strategic springboard to North Africa. Predominantly Muslim, with little Gospel influence, the North Africa region includes Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia.
YWAM’s North Africa Regional Center runs a DTS and a secondary frontier school called Foundations In Intercultural Studies (FIS), as well as, offering hospitality and member care for long term workers in the region. The team is focused on sending new workers and teams into the region where there are over 130,000,000 unreached peoples.
Isaiah 60:1a – Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of November to pray for North Africa with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, November 8. If you only have a few moments to pray, please pray for more workers to come to North Africa bringing the glory of the Lord with them and pray for the hastened work of the Holy Spirit in North Africa.
(Please note: All North African nations are very sensitive and have security risks. Careful attention is needed to communicate about YWAM’s work there. Please be aware that stories, news, or prayer requests from the region should not be posted online or shared in public settings, including churches and YWAM meetings that may be recorded.)
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Prepare to Pray:
Ahead of your prayer time, please weigh out 250 grams of uncooked short-grain white rice. If you were to count them, this will be approximately 10,000 individual grains. Place the rice in a dish or container. Add to your white rice 20 uncooked brown lentils or grains of black wild rice, that can be visibly distinguished from the rest of the rice. (See the picture in the letter at ywampodcast.net/prayer.)
As you prepare to pray, allow participants to run their fingers through the grains in the dish. Invite them to consider that across North Africa, evangelical believers find themselves comprising no more than 0.2% of the population. Imagine how widely dispersed these believers are, how difficult it is for them to gather to support one another, and how challenging it is to establish discipling communities. At the same time, bring to mind the 98.8% of the population who may never meet a believer who can tell them the message of Jesus.
As you seek to enter into this experience – possibly of isolation, or remoteness – you are invited to bring the emotion, longing or need you identify into your time of prayer. May your prayers bring with them the gift of identification with and empathy for the people of this region.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Pray for North Africa:
North Africa needs workers for the harvest! Pray for more workers. (Matt 9:37-38)
Pray for the peoples of North Africa to call on the name of the Lord. (Rom 10:13)
Pray that believers (local, YWAMers and other workers) will abide in Jesus so that they will bear much fruit. (John 15:4-5)
Pray for unity of YWAM teams, local believers, churches: whether expat, local, official or small house groups. (John 17:21)
Intimidation and fear are big strongholds in North Africa. Pray for our teams and believers to operate in the opposite spirit. (1 John 4:18)
Pray for believers in North Africa to stand strong when they face hard times or persecution. (Daniel 11:32b)
Pray for workers living in security-sensitive areas to find their identity, both hidden and shown, in the Lord.
Pray also for those in captivity.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
Take Action:
Read and pray through some of these challenges facing Muslims coming to Christ.
Developing a Biblical Worldview
Family and community pressures
Threat of physical harm due to decisions about Jesus
Fear of new ways of life, persecution, societal influence, loneliness
Spirituality – focusing on relationship with God instead of doing good works
Leaving behind traditions and previous ways of life
Difficulty integrating into communities of Muslim background believers
Living in countries where change of religion isn’t allowed
Emotional wounds and struggles due to low economic status or difficult backgrounds
Contact YWAM North Africa at info@gosahara.org about having a field worker speak on your DTS or School.
Take the Foundations in Intercultural Studies (FIS) Course at YWAM North Africa. Contact: gosahara.org/fis
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Photo credit: YWAM North Africa
How We Prayed:
October 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12
YWAM Kona – Darlene Cunningham’s staff rejoiced that The Invitation for October was in “perfect sequence” with the release of the updated YWAM Beliefs and Values document, with the clarified wording for Value 15.
Many prayed for YWAM Foundational Values and also requested prayer for other topics including healing and recovery without dependency on drugs and forgiveness regarding abortion through faith and repentance.
Future Topics:
December 13, 2018: Moscow
January 10, 2019: YWAM Foundational Values 13 – 15
February 14, 2019: Growth
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
In this episode of the Youth With A Mission Teaching Podcast Loren Cunningham shares with us a teaching about The Cross.
Loren Cunningham is the founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and the co-founder of the University of the Nations (U of N). He is also a leader at the YWAM, U of N Campus in Hawaii, and a member of the YWAM International Eldership.
In this teaching Loren invites us to stop at the cross and consider God’s love for us. He shares that though we don’t have to understand all the technicalities of atonement to experience salvation, it is good to understand and appreciate it more fully.
Loren describes how through the Cross, God meets the conditions of both justice and mercy. We see the horror of sin and the reformation of the sinner. We see the law upheld and the welfare of the community considered. In the cross we see the evidence of God’s incredible love for us.
More Than Conquerors
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? (Romans 8, 31-32)
Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12.
#10 – Function in Teams
#11 – Exhibit Servant Leadership
#12 – Do First, Then Teach
YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12 Photo credits (top to bottom, left to right): YWAM Whitsunday, YWAM Asheville, YWAM The King’s Lodge
YWAM’s Foundational Values have been passed along from generation to generation for over three decades. These values have stood the test of 33 years and have shaped everything – our culture, our prayer time, our growth, our leaders, our students, our curriculum, our ministries, our partnerships, our challenges and our opportunities. While other things have changed, our values have remained steady and true. Our values were developed through the prayerful introspection, deliberation, collaboration and consensus of our leaders. In 2018, The Invitation, YWAM’s global prayer day, focuses on three of our foundational values each quarter. Please pray with us! This is our fourth quarter of praying for our values and so this month’s Invitation is focused on:
Value 10: Function in teams – YWAM is called to function in teams in all aspects of ministry and leadership. We believe that a combination of complementary gifts, callings, perspectives, ministries and generations working together in unity at all levels of our mission provides wisdom and safety. Seeking God’s will and making decisions in a team context allows accountability and contributes to greater relationship, motivation, responsibility and ownership of the vision.
Value 11: Exhibit servant leadership – YWAM is called to servant leadership as a lifestyle, rather than a leadership hierarchy. A servant leader is one who honors the gifts and callings of those under his/her care and guards their rights and privileges. Just as Jesus served His disciples, we stress the importance of those with leadership responsibilities serving those whom they lead.
Value 12: Do first, then teach – YWAM is committed to doing first, then teaching. We believe that firsthand experience gives authority to our words. Godly character and a call from God are more important than an individual’s gifts, abilities and expertise.
Please join with The Invitation during the month of October to pray with us about these three values. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, October 12. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these values and pray for the Holy Spirit to move through the YWAM family globally in a continued manner as we saw at YWAM’s big family gathering, YWAM Together, which took place in early September in Thailand. As you pray and contemplate these foundational values, we would love to receive stories from you regarding how these values have shaped your ministry or your life. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.
Foundational Value 12 – Do First, Then Teach Photo credit: YWAM Samoa
Prepare to Pray:
As you gather with your group and prepare to pray, we have a fun activity for you! This is a great game to help the group connect in a fun way before getting down to prayer. Laughter and movement are helpful ways to raise the energy in the room before focusing on the prayer topics.
You might remember the childhood game, ‘Follow the Leader,’ in which a group forms a line behind the appointed leader, following her and copying exactly everything she does. If she jumps, you jump! If she skips, you skip! If she stops, you stop. Wherever she goes, you follow, trying to mimic her movements, pace, or any noises she makes. You can have different people take the role of leader for just a couple of minutes each or have more than one group with their assigned leader weaving in and out of one another in the same space.
When your game of Follow the Leader has concluded and everybody has settled down, you might take a brief moment of reflection. Have everybody reflect quietly on these questions:
If you had other people mimicking the way you live your life, what aspects of your life would you be happy to see them model? What aspects of your life would you want to hide from them, or prevent them from imitating? As you hold these things before God, what is His invitation to you, in those areas you feel are presentable as well as those you feel are not?
After a few moments of reflection and an opening prayer, you may direct your group towards the prayer points noted below.
Foundational Value 11 – Exhibit Servant Leadership Photo credit: YWAM Perth Music DTS
Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12:
Praise God for a wonderful 2018 YWAM Together event in Thailand. Praise Him for bringing our family closer together. Pray for the changes that we will make as a ministry as a result. Thank God for providing the funds and opening calendars for so many YWAMers (3,900) to be together in Thailand.
Praise God for providing wisdom to our leaders over 30 years ago in identifying and defining our Foundational Values. Pray that they will continue to guide us along the ways of God. Ask the Lord to give us wisdom as a global movement and guide us to continue to align with our foundational values as we grow and change.
Pray for YWAM locations and ministries to wait on the Holy Spirit for his leading for “where to from here.”
Thank God for the clear model that He has given us of Jesus as a servant leader. Pray for clarity about servant leadership for our Discipleship Training School (DTS) students.
Jesus had a do first, then teach strategy with his disciples. Aleck Cartwright from YWAM’s University of the Nations explains three levels of Jesus’ teaching to His disciples. Pray that all YWAM teaching will apply His model well:
Level 1 was quite formal – what we could call lectures, teaching and speaking in front of crowds of people.
Level 2 was informal, these were impromptu moments when the disciples were perhaps shooing the children away, or when a blind man is led toward him and he would ask, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Level 3 was also informal – unguarded conversation, chatting into the night about all manner of topics, meals around the table where discipleship occurred by simply watching Jesus’ humanity and divinity at tension in the most everyday occurrences as they walked and talked or joked with each other.
Pray for continued unity that results from functioning as teams, being servant leaders and wise teachings through “doing first.”
Pray for the anointing by the Holy Spirit of our YWAM leaders who are teaching people first to do and then to teach. Pray for God to humble us where we need humbling.
Pray that the joy and life that was experienced at YWAM Together 2018 would continue as we do ministry through our functioning in teams, our servant leadership and our do first, then teach teaching model.
Pray that YWAMers would mimic Jesus in every way through formal teaching and even in the mundane and everyday.
Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
John 14:12 (NIV)
Pray for effective feedback and evaluation on our teaching so that we grow in our theology and in our faith. Pray for many opportunities for us to “do” so that we can be more fruitful in our lives and as a global ministry.
YWAM Foundational Value 10 – Function in Teams Photo credits (left to right): YWAM Wylie
Take Action
Review and discuss the following Bible verses and discuss the benefits of functioning in teams:
Consider the various teams you are on and identify ways that you could improve the functioning of your team through your actions. If you do not already have one, ask the Lord to provide you with a mentor who is a good example of a servant leader. Also if you do not already have someone you are mentoring in this area, ask the Lord to show you someone you could mentor.
Ask God to reveal to you how well you are aligning with the YWAM foundational values. Consider improvements where you are weak. Asked God also to give you strength in these areas. For a list of all 18 YWAM Foundational Values: https://www.ywam.org/about-us/values/
Share stories on Facebook and send email to prayer@ywam.org regarding how YWAM foundational values have impacted your walk with Christ, your family, your ministry or other aspects of your life.
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
How We Prayed
September 2018 – Kolkata
YWAM Champagne, France prayed and sensed God saying He is going to give a new strategy for YWAM in Kolkata, India. They received a picture of the city being drawn together with unity between the poor and the rich, a new mentality about castes and a refuge for street children.
August 2018 – YWAM Together 2018
YWAM Cascades, Idaho had everyone who prayed plant a seed in a container of soil, representing a harvest field. Among other topics, they prayed that all nations would be represented and that this conference would be the start of something new like a pebble in a lake that causes ripples throughout Thailand and Asia.
YWAM Hong Kong National Office had a “knock down, drag out” intercession time. Some of the key points were that everyone attending would make divine and strategic connections and that the worship time would be flooded with the Spirit of God. Several verses from Isaiah 42 were brought to light.
Future Topics:
November 8, 2018: Muslims (North Africa)
December 13, 2018: Moscow
January 10, 2019: YWAM Foundational Values 13-15
#13 – Be relationship-Oriented
#14 – Value the Individual
#15 – Value Families
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about Kolkata, India.
Kolkata market, Victoria Memorial. Photo credit left to right: Dong Shao and Nick Miller
This month, please join the YWAM family as we pray for Kolkata, India, the world’s eleventh largest city. YWAM’s City Ministries Director, Tim Svoboda, claims Kolkata is the most captivating city in the world.
Kolkata is the capital of the state of West Bengal where there are 67 unreached and unengaged people groups, each with its own culture and beliefs. Of this population, 78% is Hindu, 20% is Muslim and less than 1% is Christian.
YWAM has had a presence in Kolkata for more than 35 years, reaching various people groups and providing an enchanting field for other YWAM locations to send their Discipleship Training School (DTS) teams. YWAM Kolkata is also part of City Ministries YWAM that is not only reaching out to the poor and needy of the cities but to the high and mighty as well. City Ministries is about reaching the entire city with the gospel. This means employing strategies that reach into every ethnic, linguistic, religious, economic and employment structure of a city like Kolkata.
Kolkata has a richness of cultural diversity, beautiful sites, and also many challenges: poverty/slum living, a caste system, political violence, economic stagnation, pollution, street children, and migration from rural areas.
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God!”
William Carey, Missionary to India (b. 1761 – d. 1834)
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of September to pray for Kolkata with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, September 13. If you only have a few moments to pray, please pray that God would usher in many workers that are called to reach the people groups of Kolkata and that the people would become hungry to hear about Jesus.
Strategic Peoples and Languages of Kolkata (2012) Source: City Ministries YWAM
Prepare to Pray:
Read this story from a YWAM team in Kolkata: Many teams wonder how they will be able to communicate when they come to Kolkata. They are finding it’s easy to get locals to translate, but sometimes those local translators aren’t Christians themselves. What some may think is a problem can become a great opportunity. One of our translators had been open with us early one day saying “There are 1,000 reasons why God cannot exist.” Throughout our mobile clinic he was translating the gospel for us and watching as miracles happened right in front of his eyes. As more people received healing, he said, “Your prayers really work!.” At the end of our ministry time, he decided to give his life to Jesus as well, and as we left, he told us “I have changed my mind, I know now that there are 10,000 reasons why God is real.”
Watch a video or two about Kolkata (each just over 3 minutes long):
Pray for qualified and well-trained missionaries to come and plant churches and to become leaders in the city.
Pray for evangelists to reach the Bengalis and for church multiplication.
Pray for short-term missionaries to come and evangelize the young people.
Pray for greater networking among churches and mission organizations.
Hindus are dedicated to the goddess of destruction and death – Kali. Pray for the revelation of Jesus’ life and power to break through the darkness.
Kolkata has a very small population of Christians. There are a very small number of churches for the population size. Pray for the Christian believers to be strong.
It is estimated that over 1 million people are living on the street and 100,000 of them are street children. Pray for the Christian organizations reaching them like Emmanuel Ministries, YWAM and others.
There are over 1.5 million people living in over 5,000 slums in the city. Pray for the gospel to spread in the slums and for ministries to reach people through mercy ministries.
Pray for Business as Mission initiatives to provide employment.
Pray for the ministries that are endeavoring to reach Muslims and for God to speak to the Muslims through dreams.
There are 11,000 sex workers in one slum alone called Sonagachi. Pray for Freeset https://freesetglobal.com/ a Christian organization reaching the women in the slum of Sonagachi.
The urban issues in Kolkata can become overwhelming. Pray that Christians will minister to both the rich and the poor in this city.
Photo credit: The Catholic Rose
Take Action:
Be inspired by four great missionaries who lived and worked in Kolkata: William Carey, Mother Teresa and Mark and Huldah Buntain:
Review various ministry models for the very complex environment in Kolkata and ask God to show you innovative approaches for your ministries:
New efforts to reach the “urbanized” youth of the city is happening through innovative business as mission efforts like 8th day café: http://8thdaycafe.com/mission/
Attend a YWAM School of Urban Missions. The next one is in Mumbai India, starting Oct 1, 2018. For more information contact: muthuindia2000@hotmail.com
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
DTS students in Kolkata Photo credit: YWAM Madison
How We Prayed:
August 2018 – YWAM Together 2018
From the YWAM Together Prayer Team: There is a growing momentum of prayer globally for YT, for Pattaya, Thailand and Asia and for this time in our history. Many have participated in the 21 Day Prayer and Fasting and The Invitation, both corporately and individually. We believe this tenderizes our hearts, prepares us to hear the Lord afresh and encounter Him as we “Come Up Here,” and “see those things that must take place” Revelation 4:1
IHOP in Kansas City prayed and they produced a daily prayer guide for their YWAM prayer which focused on YWAM Together 2018.
Future Topics:
October 11, 2018: YWAM Foundational Values 10 – 12
#10 – Function in teams
#11 – Exhibit servant leadership
#12 – Do first, then teach
November 8, 2018: Muslims (North Africa)
December 13, 2018: Moscow
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
In this episode of the Youth With A Mission Teaching Podcast Loren Cunningham shares with us a teaching about being The Spiritual Leader.
Loren Cunningham is the founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) and the co-founder of the University of the Nations (U of N). He is also a leader at the YWAM, U of N Campus in Hawaii, and a member of the YWAM International Eldership.
Loren speaks on this teaching about leadership and draws a parallel to the shepherd:
“Know well the condition of your flock and pay attention to your herds” (Prov 27: 23).
He emphasises the great responsibility of leadership and discusses the different roles that a leader must carry. He speaks of the leader’s responsibility to obey God in action, and submit to God and others, in heart.
Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Woe, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flock? “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them. “They were scattered for lack of a shepherd, and they became food for every beast of the field and were scattered. “My flock wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill; My flock was scattered over all the surface of the earth, and there was no one to search or seek for them.”’ (Ezekiel 34:1-7)
Loren Cunningham is the author of a number of books including:
Join YWAMers around the globe in praying and hearing from God as we pray for YWAM Together 2018. He is inviting you!
Photo credit: YWAM Together Prayer Team
Over the last decades, our YWAM family gatherings have always included celebration, relational connection and cross-cultural diversity. They have been significant times where God has spoken to us and shaped our lives. Many YWAM staff, volunteers, students and friends are now looking forward to attending another such event, called YWAM Together, which will be held in Thailand from September 2-8. Please join us in prayer for this gathering.
YWAM Together 2018 comes during a critical and transitional time in the history of the YWAM movement and the world. Coordinators of this gathering believe God desires to usher YWAM into a deeper level of unity with Him and each other in an “Acts 2” moment that could have a profound impact on all present and flow out to the nations.
“Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”
Revelation 4:1 (NASB)
Revelation from Jesus. As we “Come Up Here” (Revelation 4:1) we anticipate more of Jesus. We will engage in worship and prayer to hear what He has to say to us as individuals and corporately in this historic time.
From every nation (Revelation 7:9). We are expecting approximately 3,000 YWAM family members to gather, from many nations, especially from Asia. Many have never attended a YWAM gathering of this nature.
Shine Pattaya on Wednesday 5th September. We have an opportunity to shine the light of Jesus into the city of Pattaya. Imagine 3,000 delegates and local participants going to the streets, schools, prisons, and neighborhoods of this city, encountering tourists and sharing the gospel through the arts, music and sports. We will also be distributing Bibles and praying. We believe this day will impact Pattaya and Thailand.
Calling prayer warriors! We need you! Battles are won through worship, praise, thanksgiving and spirit-led intercession. Through prayer, you are planting seeds from the heart of God and His Word, deep into the heart of Pattaya, Thailand, and into YWAM for future generations.
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of August and throughout the YWAM Together event to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, August 8. If you only have a few moments to pray, please pray that God would use YWAM Together 2018 to build His kingdom and that He would break down barriers for YWAMers to attend.
. . . from many nations . . . (Revelation 7:9) Photo credit: YWAM Together 2016
Let’s Pray:
Pray that YWAMers whom God is calling to Thailand will hear and go. Pray also for provision of resources. Pray for a full complement of delegates from many nations. (Revelation 7:9). Pray for God to break down barriers for people to be able to go.
Pray that YWAM Together 2018 will catalyze an ongoing move of the Holy Spirit in Pattaya, Thailand and in the region.
Pray for strategic partnerships with local Thai believers.
Pray for protection for those coming from “sensitive”
Pray for the word of the Lord to be clear through many voices in our corporate gatherings and through Shine Pattaya.
Pray for heart preparation of all coming.
Pray that we would receive His burden and strategies afresh for YWAM and the nations (Rev. 4:1). Pray that we would be guided by the lessons in our history and propelled into our future by the Holy Spirit.
Pray for grace for all volunteers and the YWAM Together 2018 Convening Team for covering over all areas of their lives.
Pray that the Round Tables will be a feast of impartation between the cultures and the generations.
Pray that the Network Circles will lead to effective partnerships among like-minded ministries.
Photo credit: YWAM Thailand
Take Action:
Connect through prayer. We would love to hear what you sense the Lord is saying. Please share what you pray: prayer@yt2018.org and prayer@ywam.org.
Watch YWAM leader John Dawson’s video regarding YWAM Together 2018:
Commit your team to pray God’s prayers over His people from now through the end of YWAM Together 2018. Please stand in the gap for the fullness of God’s purposes to be revealed at this historic time.
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
YWAM Together 2016 in Kansas City Photo credit: YWAM Together 2016
How We Prayed
July 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9
YWAM San Francisco, California reported that they had a wonderful time praying for the YWAM foundational values 7 – 9. They also provided feedback on how to talk about value 9 and this feedback has been passed on to YWAM leadership.
One person on Facebook suggest a missions idea related to having a biblical worldview: Each time you go to a country, buy a Bible in the local language and leave it somewhere God reveals to you.
Future Topics:
September 13, 2018 Kolkata
October 11, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values (10 – 12)
#10 – Function in teams
#11 – Exhibit servant leadership
#12 – Do first, then teach
November 8, 2018 Muslims (North Africa Update)
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
Tom Bloomer shares with us about his conversion testimony and also about how we should pray for the salvation of people we care about on this episode of the YWAM Teaching Podcast at ywampodcast.net/teaching.
Tom Bloomer studied archaeology at the University of Illinois (B.A. 1972), and worked as a house painter, French translator, and ladies’ shoe salesman before marrying Cynthia. In 1983 they responded to a call from Loren Cunningham and Howard Malmstadt to help develop the University of the Nations (UofN).
A Master’s degree in Intercultural Studies from Wheaton in 1987 and years of experience in cross-cultural education proved invaluable as Tom helped coordinate, refine, and improve the different courses developing through the UofN. Tom completed a Ph.D. in Education Science at Trinity International University in 1999.
Tom Bloomer has served as the International Provost of the University of the Nations since 2001. Tom lives at one of the UofN’s mini-campuses in French-speaking Switzerland, and is committed to teaching and mentoring students and staff.
When I was in Switzerland I had the privilege of hearing Tom Bloomer speak on my communications school and he also guided our school on a tour of Geneva. Tom is an inspiring teacher, with an exciting testimony and some great stories of God’s Faithfulness.
Lots of us pray for our loved ones, often without success. Often we pray wrong without thinking seriously about it. Tom Bloomer shares with us in this podcast about some Biblical strategies of effective prayer …
You can find lots more teaching from Youth With A Mission staff and leaders on our web-site, ywampodcast.net/teaching.
Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9.
#7 – Be Broad-structured and Decentralized
#8 – Be International and Interdenominational
#9 – Have a Biblical Christian Worldview
YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 Photo credits (from left to right): YWAM Minneapolis, Minnesota; YWAM Kona, Hawaii; YWAM Adelaide, Australia
During the month of July we invite you to join YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, as we focus on three of YWAM’s Foundational Values: Be Broad-structured and Decentralised (value 7), Be International and Interdenominational (value 8), and Have a Biblical Christian Worldview (value 9). According to Lynn Green, one of YWAM’s leaders, “the (foundational) values are the word of the Lord to us. They are our best attempt at summarising what God has spoken to us over the years. These are foundational DNA words and they have shaped us.” (From video Leadership and Change, March 2018 that can be found here: https://lynngreen.blog/2018/03/28/lynn-green-i-leadership-and-eldership-session-3/.)
Being broad-structured and decentralised allows the Holy Spirit to guide diverse YWAM locations into doing what God wants them to do. According to the description of this value, YWAM is “a global family of ministries held together by shared purpose, vision, values and relationship.”
Lynn Green explains the foundation of being international and Interdenominational as “having a high regard for the whole Body of Christ and also for various Christian denominations and institutions.”
One of the ways to explain value 9 – Have a biblical Christian worldview is to emphasise loving the Lord our God with all of our mind, as well as, our heart, soul and strength. YWAM’s Lynn Green notes this distinction: “I believe YWAM is unusual in our calling to marry deep spiritual experience with the emotional dimensions that accompany spiritual experience along with in-depth exploration of the truth with our God-given intellect, which is of course created in God’s image. We should always avoid the trap of exalting the intellect over the spirit, or the spirit over the intellect: both are in God’s image.”
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of July to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, July 12. If you only have a few moments to pray we would ask you to reflect on these three values and pray for YWAMers to have a renewed sense of purpose within YWAM and to serve the Lord with all of their mind, heart, soul and strength. As you pray and contemplate these foundational values, we would love to receive stories from you regarding how these values have shaped your ministry or your life. You can email us at prayer@ywam.org.
YWAM Foundational Value Seven – Be Broad-structured and Decentralized Photo credit: YWAM Perth – Africa DTS
Prepare to Pray:
As we prepare to pray, we want to take some time to appreciate the gifts we have received from those different from ourselves. You could have these conversations in small groups, taking time to hear from one another and to reflect together. A facilitator could keep an eye on the time and move people through the following three segments, giving adequate time for each short reflection.
First, bring to mind those YWAM locations you have visited other than the one to which you are currently connected. Consider the leadership style, the community norms, the style of the worship times, etc. What did they do differently from what you are used to? In what ways did you find this challenging? In what ways did you learn and grow as a result of being in this different environment? Take a moment to thank God for the gift you received from these other YWAM locations, for the ways they blessed and enlarged you.
Next, consider your own church background. With which stream of the Church would you consider yourself to be most familiar and comfortable? In his book, Streams of Living Water, Richard Foster describes six streams, or traditions. He labels those streams contemplation, holiness, charismatic, social justice, evangelical, and incarnational or sacramental. How would you describe your church tradition? Reflect on those times when you have connected with those from another tradition to the one in which you are most comfortable. What did you learn from your friend’s way of relating to God and to his or her community of faith? Consider the blessings the people of God globally might receive from this other stream. Take a moment to thank God for the diversity within his body, the Church, and for all that we might receive from these diverse expressions.
Finally, reflect on your experiences in nations other than your home nation. As you have travelled, what has taken you by surprise about the different ways people do things? What have you found challenging about those differences? Be specific. In what ways have you felt somehow enlarged by your international experiences, as you have learned other ways of doing and being? In an attitude of celebration, join with others in your group to express thanks to God for all that you have received from those from other nations and cultures, and all the ways you have grown as a result of your interactions with other nationalities.
Remain in this posture of openness and gratitude as you move into prayer.
Foundational Value 8 – Be International and Interdenominational Photo credits (left to right, top to bottom): YWAM Perth, Australia; YWAM The King’s Lodge, England (from their album 18 values/18 weeks); YWAM Metro New York, New York
Pray for YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9:
Pray for wisdom for YWAM leaders as they communicate key messages within a broad-structured and decentralised organisation.
Praise God for how YWAM has been able to remain broad-structured and diverse, yet integrated! Praise God for how this value allows us to act on directions from the Holy Spirit.
Pray for appropriate accountability and effective implementation of YWAM ministries at the local level.
Pray for YWAM’s upcoming YWAM Together in Thailand. Pray for unity in purpose, vision and values. Pray for effective speakers, worship leaders and teachers so that participants can take back common messages to their local YWAM ministry.
Pray that the way YWAM interprets and models our foundational values is pleasing and glorifying to God.
Pray for good balance within YWAM between our global scope and our local ministries.
Pray for wisdom in relationships at the local level with denominational ministries.
Pray for Discipleship Training School (DTS) students and staff to sense the global nature of YWAM within the context of the local ministry where they have been placed.
Lisa Popping, YWAM Perth Staff says on YWAM foundational value eight: “. . . Living internationally has made my life so much more rich and exciting!”
Pray for balance of YWAM staff regarding intellectual, as well as, spiritual matters. Pray for effective use of mind, heart, soul and strength when interpreting and teaching scripture.
Praise God for the growth of our ministries and for the multitudes of people being reached across YWAM.
Pray for respect of the local culture by YWAMers from different cultures.
Pray that our DTS students would grow in their wisdom and understanding of a biblical Christian worldview.
Pray for accurate and effective communication of the Bible in all YWAM teachings.
Pray that the current generation of YWAM will pass along our values and biblical Christian worldview to successive generations of YWAMers.
Ask God to open the hearts of unbelievers so that they can see and understand God’s truths.
Pray for more students to engage with YWAM so that we have more workers in the future so that we can penetrate more deeply all the spheres of society.
YWAM Foundational Value Nine – Have a Biblical Christian Worldview Photo credits (left to right): YWAM Minneapolis, Minnesota; YWAM The King’s Lodge, England (from their album 18 values/18 weeks); YWAM Asheville, North Carolina
Take Action
Lynn Green has recently interviewed YWAM’s founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham regarding laying foundations, and leadership in YWAM. These interviews can provide you with a greater understanding of YWAM and provide you with background to further understand our foundational values. (https://lynngreen.blog/category/video/)
Review The Belief Tree written by Darlene Cunningham, David Joel Hamilton and Dawn Gauslin which is included at the end of The Invitation letter for more information on YWAM foundational values, as well as a biblical Christian worldview. Evaluate your ministry on the basis of The Belief Tree and all 18 foundational values.
Make plans now to attend YWAM Together in September in Thailand. This is a great way to hear a broader group of speakers, worship in other cultural styles and to meet other YWAMers, thus experiencing YWAM foundational values 7 and 8 quite literally. Sign up at ywamtogether.com. Encourage others to do the same.
Talk to a leader at your location to further understand the relationship between your location, YWAM leadership and other YWAM ministries. Ask them to explain the local structure and accountability for your location.
Review the scope of YWAM through YWAM.org and Facebook to understand the international aspect of YWAM. See what ministries other locations have and in what type of cultures they exist. Follow their Facebook pages to see on an ongoing basis what is being done throughout YWAM.
Plan an evening or afternoon discussion with various members of your location regarding the interdenominational aspect of YWAM. Discuss challenges with this approach, as well as, how being interdenominational has glorified God and thus, grown our mission.
Conduct an international celebration at your location. Encourage everyone to participate and to share cultural aspects of a community within which they have lived and/or ministered. Ideas include various worship styles, dress/clothing, food and others. Celebrate the international aspect of YWAM.
Share stories on Facebook and send email to prayer@ywam.org regarding how YWAM foundational values have impacted your walk with Christ, your family, your ministry or other aspects of your life.
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
YWAM Together 2018 Photo credit: YWAM
How We Prayed
June 28 – Contemplative
YWAM Madrid, Spain enthusiastically joined The Invitation and noted that they would invite the Holy Spirit to speak to them through contemplative practices.
Multiple people requested more information on contemplative prayer by contacting prayer@ywam.org.
One person on Facebook compared contemplative practices of today with the Psalms, noting also that Jesus himself would have memorized and sung from the Psalms.
Another person on Facebook noted that contemplative prayer has brought deeper union with Jesus for them, along with a deeper compassion for the world.
Future Topics:
August 9, 2018 YWAM Together
September 13, 2018 Kolkata
October 11, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values (10 – 12)
#10 – Function in teams
#11 – Exhibit servant leadership
#12 – Do first, then teach
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
The Belief Tree
by Darlene Cunningham with David Joel Hamilton and Dawn Gauslin
Jesus’ strategy to evangelize the world was to multiply Himself into His disciples, who would reproduce men and women of like vision and values, who would multiply disciples, and so on (2 Tim 2:2). The goal was and is to preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), to disciple all the nations (Matthew 28:19) and to produce fruit that will remain (John 15:16). This is the call of Youth With A Mission and University of the Nations, and should be the goal of every disciple.
How is good and lasting fruit produced? How do we reproduce in others the vision and values God has given to YWAM? It is not enough to be well organized and pass on information: we need to have ingested the foundational beliefs of the faith and the values of the Mission in order to pass them on to successive waves of learners. If this is not done, we will only copy a model and we will never be able to answer the “why” questions.
We need to know what we do believe and why, and we need to know what we do not believe and why.
The Bible uses many illustrations of trees, soil, vines, pruning, fruit, leaves and seeds to speak to us about our lives, ministry and fruitfulness. I first heard the analogy of the “Belief Tree” from Darrow Miller, of Disciple Nations Alliance, who speaks on biblical Christian worldview. He teaches that “ideas have consequences,” that there is a direct link between roots and fruit, what we believe and how we behave. I have since developed the illustration and use it as a foundation for nearly everything I teach. This simple illustration can provide a reference point, a measuring rod, for making decisions and evaluating the fruit of your ministry both individually and corporately. I trust that God will use it to bring insight and impart life to you in such a deep way that it becomes a part of your “toolbox” as well.
As you consider a tree, the soil represents our worldview. The roots represent our foundational beliefs; the trunk represents our values. The branches represent our principle-based decisions and policies. The fruit represents our actions/programs. The seeds represent the genetic code for reproducing life. And of course, the DNA of that First Seed was/is Jesus Himself, living in us! In order for there to be cycles of healthy life, the DNA must flow from the roots, through the trunk, along the branches and into the fruit. The seeds in the fruit start the process all over again.
SOIL = WORLDVIEW
One of the first things it is important to identify about ourselves and/or others is, “What is the environmental worldview that I was raised in, and what is the worldview of those I’m relating to?” Even though you may have come to Christ through the work of the cross, what is the background that has influenced your family, your culture and your thinking, even in subtle ways? This is the soil in which your “tree” grows. Is it Animistic? Hindu? Muslim? Secular humanism? This will affect the glasses through which you see everything. Much of the western world has a Judeo-Christian background, but it has declined into a worldview of secular humanism: “It’s all about me. If it feels good, do it. Truth is relative–it’s whatever I think is right for me.” Even in the way we present the gospel, it is important that we do not feed this lie. We value the individual, but we don’t worship the individual! It’s all about Jesus!
Often the errors in the worldview in which we have been raised need to be transformed to align with a biblical Christian worldview, which then forms the tap root of our beliefs. Four foundational truths of Christianity, identified by Dr. Francis Schaeffer, which must be included in our beliefs are:
1) God is infinite and personal. He is absolutely limitless and cannot be measured; He is uncreated and has no beginning or ending. And He is a personal/relational being with an intellect, will and emotions. Only the God of the Bible is both infinite and personal.
2) Men and women are finite and personal. We are made in God’s image as personal beings (with intellect, will and emotions), created for relationship with Him and others. But we are finite. We have a beginning point and definable limits.
3) Truth is constant and knowable. Truth doesn’t change; it is absolute. And we can know truth (“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” John 8:32).
4) We are responsible for our choices. The consequences of our good/right/wise decisions lead to rewards and life; the consequences of our bad/wrong/sinful decisions lead to punishment and death.
ROOTS = BELIEFS
The roots of the tree are our basic beliefs, which must grow out of the truth of God’s Word or our tree can’t bear good fruit. All of our beliefs must be rooted in the Scripture.
Other elements of our basic root system include things like believing the truth about God’s nature (the essence of who He is: all powerful, all knowing, all present, etc.) and His character (how He chooses to express His nature: He is loving, kind, just, holy, merciful, etc.). Of course, we could spend volumes and eternity describing these foundational roots, because there is no end to the vastness and wonderfulness of our great God! But these are some of the most basic things we must learn from the Word and teach to those we disciple, in order to develop deep roots that can nourish their lives and influence every decision.
All of our YWAM Discipleship Training Schools should spend a major amount of time teaching and wrestling with the root system of our basic beliefs. The curriculum defined by the International DTS Centre and approved by the YWAM Global Leadership Forum gives excellent guidelines to follow in building strong roots (www.ywamdtscentre.com).
When we truly know God, when we learn how to hear His voice through time spent in relationship with Him, when we understand that because He loves us, His will is always the highest and best for us, for others, for Himself and for the universe, we will spend far less time in the syndrome of “I should have, could have, would have.” We are more settled in knowing that His will is always good and His grace is always sufficient.
TRUNK = VALUES
In Youth With A Mission, we place a strong emphasis on our Foundational Values. I am the one who began the process of identifying and writing down these values so that we could pass them on to successive generations of YWAMers for continued fruitfulness. I have come to realize that the values on their own presuppose that everyone has the same worldview and foundational belief system, which they do not. That is why, in recent years, I’ve begun teaching the “Belief Tree,” because our values grow out of and clarify our underlying beliefs. Just as a tree doesn’t begin with the trunk at ground level, our values are not the starting point. The starting point for producing fruit that remains is first the seed of Jesus planted in our lives, aligning our worldview with a biblical Christian worldview, and then the root system revealed throughout the Bible: who is God?…who is man?…what is truth? etc. For example, Foundational Value #14 states: “YWAM is called to value each individual.” Why? Because God is a personal God, who created mankind in His image, as personal beings, so that we could live together with Him in a relationship of love. We are to value what God values.
BRANCHES = PRINCIPLE-BASED DECISIONS/POLICIES
The limbs of the tree represent the principles by why we make decisions, whether personal or corporate. Again, our decisions must grow out of and reflect our values or they lack strength. Jill Garrett, who introduced the Strengthsfinder assessment tool to YWAM, uses the architectural definition of the word “integrity” to illustrate the need for consistency between our purpose, vision, beliefs, values, principles and practices. All must be in line with each other and with the Word of the Lord in order for the structure to be sound and have integrity.
Have you ever been in a situation where a policy (i.e., a corporate decision) was implemented that just didn’t set right? Usually, it is because it is not consistent with what we say we value. Our principles and practices should be born out of our beliefs and values. They should be the seamless extension of them. When a practice is established, there should be a response in our spirits that says, “Well, of course! If we believe and value this, then the automatic fruit of our decisions should be that!”
Let me give you a really practical example. There was a situation once at a campus where I was the operations director. While I was away on a trip one time, an experienced older person was put in charge of the transportation department. When I returned home from my trip, I discovered that a new policy had been established regarding drivers of YWAM vehicles: no one under 25 years of age was allowed to drive the YWAM vans. I thought “Oh, we must have changed insurance companies, and they have set this rigid requirement.” So I set out to find the reason for this new rule, because it seemed very restrictive. When I asked, “Why do we have this new restriction? Has the government made a new rule? Or have we changed insurance companies?” I discovered that it was neither. The transportation manager was of the opinion that young people tended to be more careless and irresponsible than older drivers and decided to set the age limit higher!
God called us to be YOUTH With A Mission! Our sixth Foundational Values states: “YWAM is called to champion young people.” We can’t challenge young men and women to go into difficult and dangerous places, and possibly even lay down their lives for the Gospel, and then tell them we don’t trust them to drive the vans! It would be okay to have a requirement for all potential drivers to pass a driver’s test based on skills, but it is not okay to have an automatic judgment that “youth are irresponsible.”
Think about it: if decisions have been enacted at your campus or in your school that do not reflect who God is, or what He has called us to value, then guess which things needs to change! I am constantly in this evaluation process myself, and have faithful friends who challenge me with questions like: “Darlene, how does this or that decision reflect the justice of God and our call to be international?” God has called us as a Mission to a season of realignment. We need to be diligent to see that there is consistency between our beliefs, values, principles/decisions and actions/programs. This needs to be continuously evaluated.
We have made a policy, a corporate leadership decision, in the University of the Nations that we are required to have at least three hours of intercessory prayer per week in all of our courses. Why? If this is just a “rule” which is disconnected from our values and beliefs, then prayer can become a totally lifeless dead work. Buddhists pray. Hindus pray. Muslims pray five times a day! But they are not praying to the true God. Because of our root belief that God is both personal and infinite, we value prayer as the avenue of two-way communication with this God who hears and cares and has the power to act. Not only that, but He designed us to be co-creators with Him through prayer. He chooses to involve us in releasing His will “on earth as it is in heaven” through praying the things on His heart. It will transform our prayer lives when we really grasp this and make ourselves available to hear from God like we believe He wants to create with us in prayer!
FRUIT = ACTIONS/PROGRAMS
The fruit is the outward expression of the life of the tree. On an individual basis, it is our actions and behavior. On a corporate level, it is our programs and practices. In a healthy tree, the roots draw in life, giving nourishment that flows through the trunk and the branches resulting in the production of good fruit. That’s what we want for our lives and our ministries: good fruit that remains.
The amazing thing about fruit is, it has seeds inside! The seeds carry the DNA—the essential genetic data that will reproduce future generations of healthy, fruitful trees. Every successive season, there is new fruit, and though each fruit is unique, it carries the same DNA and will reproduce the same kind of tree as the one that it came from. You’ve probably heard it asked, “You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but can you count the number of apples in a seed?”
Programs like the Discipleship Training School are “fruits” of our ministry tree that should reflect our beliefs, values and principles. Every DTS around the world can and should look different from the others–just as every apple is an apple but each one is unique–because the people God brings will be different and the needs will be different. We must continuously evaluate our methods and models as well to be sure that they support the new life and growth. God wants to give a fresh infusion of His Spirit and creativity into each school, but they should all carry the DNA, the genetic code, of a DTS and of YWAM.
Oftentimes people look at a program such as the DTS and want to replicate it. But it doesn’t work when it is disconnected from the YWAM “tree” from which it grew. Another ministry or a church may draw elements from a YWAM DTS, or run a similar discipleship program which may be very effective. Though the basic Bible beliefs are be similar, the values for every organization are different, and their programs should grow out of and reflect the unique characteristics of the things God has called them to embrace.
As mentioned earlier, integrity is when our worldview, beliefs, values, decisions and actions flow seamlessly, with no disconnect. Our actions and behavior should clearly align with what we say we believe. When this isn’t happening, there a break in the flow.
Here is another personal story that illustrates this point so clearly. As is our custom, one night Loren and I were hosting a large group of YWAMers for a meal at our home. Afterward, a number of people offered to help me clean up. One young leader, holding an armload of aluminum soda cans, asked “Darlene, do you recycle?” I replied, “I believe in it, but I don’t do it.” When I heard the words come out of my mouth, I was so shocked that I gasped out loud. I had been teaching on the Belief Tree to that very group of people! I asked the helper, “Did you hear what I just said? I said that I BELIEVE it, but I don’t DO it!” It’s true that in Hawaii, recycling is not required by law, and they don’t make it easy to accomplish, as recycle systems are not in place. But I went out the next day and bought recycle bins for aluminum cans, plastic bottles and glass and I have recycled from that day to this.
My friend and co-worker, David Hamilton, has added another dimension to this Belief Tree teaching which will help you in using this as a very practical tool in your life:
WORLDVIEW = what is REAL
This is our un-thought-through presuppositions about reality. It’s what we generally accept or believe from our environment or the way we were raised, without questioning.
BELIEFS = what is TRUE
You may ask, “But aren’t what is real and what is true the same?” Yes, if there is integrity; but if there is not integrity, what seems real to us and what is actually true may be very different. (Remember the foundational truths of Christianity outlined above: there is absolute truth, and it is constant and knowable.)
For example, in Africa some tribal people are animistic, so what is REAL for them is that they believe spirits exist in different forms of nature – rocks, the sea, lions, etc. According to their worldview, if you get sick it’s because someone has put a curse on you. When an animist becomes a Christian and believes that Jesus is the Son of God, they believe this is TRUE. When they become sick, they know Jesus can heal them because He is powerful. But if they pray to Jesus and don’t get well, they often quickly revert to the reality that they have known, which is that sickness is caused by evil spirits. So they may go back to the witch doctor to remove the curse.
This syncretism (mixture of opposing belief systems) works against integrity. Every culture and every individual has issues of syncretism. Identifying and ridding ourselves of it occurs as we mature in integrity.
VALUES = what is GOOD
Isn’t truth good? Yes, it should also be considered good. Why is this different? When you embrace something as good, it’s something you do because you like it. You find it desirable or beneficial. There is some internal delight.
When you read through the 18 YWAM values, you might read one and think “I’ve got to achieve this” or “I need to work on this one.” This is an indicator that you see this as a principle or truth that is right, but you have not yet learned to really love it. As long as it’s something external that you have to live up to, rather than something internal that you delight in, then it has not yet become a personal value.
PRINCIPLE-BASED DECISIONS/POLICIES = what we think is RIGHT
Once you have embraced something true and attributed value to it, it will lead to right decisions and policies. Just living by the rules and doing what is right is not discipleship! What we want to see as a result of true discipleship is internal government. This is one of the most important things in the world, to be self-governed, have self-morality, and lead ourselves based on God’s principles, not on external boundaries.
ACTIONS/PROGRAMS = what is WISE
If all these others things are aligned, our behavior/actions will be wise.
We need to learn to make decisions that bring harmony between what is real and true and right and good and wise. Only then are we are walking in integrity! How do we discover whether there is seamless integrity or disconnections? By asking questions.
There are two questions that will lead you to insights at every level of the Belief Tree:
“WHY?” This is a discovery question that leads us to foundations/presuppositions.
Let’s look again at the example about young people not being allowed to drive YWAM vehicles, and use the question “Why?” to lead us from the action back down to the presuppositional worldview.
ACTION: young people can’t drive YWAM vans.
Why? Because of a faulty POLICY.
Why was the policy wrong? Because it did not reflect that we VALUE young people.
Why should we value young people?
Because our BELIEF about God, based on His Word, tells us that He values young people: Jeremiah, Mary, Timothy, David, Samuel, Daniel, Joseph…all of the disciples. Our Biblical Christian worldview tells us that we are made in the image of God from birth, not just from the age of 25!
When you get down to the “belief” part, you should always have a “God said in His word” upon which to base your belief.
It is so important to ask the WHY question. You cannot get understanding and make wise decisions without this. When people don’t understand beliefs and values, they just copy a model, and the life soon goes out of it. It becomes dead works.
You can also do the opposite, move from the roots to the fruit, by asking the question:
“SO WHAT?” This question leads us to understand implications/applications.
WORLDVIEW – we are made in image of creator God.
So what? We BELIEVE we can co-create with Him.
So what? We VALUE prayer as a good thing; it changes things!
So what? We make PRINCIPLE-BASED DECISIONS: I will give up whatever it takes to have time for prayer: sleep, food, social activities.
So what? My ACTIONS/BEHAVIOR line up: I establish a lifestyle of prayer.
The reason a lot of Christians fail is because they go straight from understanding something to be TRUE to doing something because it is RIGHT. They skip the step of VALUE and it becoming GOOD/delightful. It’s not hard for me to do what I embrace as good and delightful. But if I only try to do something because I know it is RIGHT, I will fail much more easily.
As you keep asking the Holy Spirit to examine your life and reveal any place where there is a lack of integrity, you can invite God to transform your mind and thinking so that you will grow in maturity and greater likeness to Christ!
Summary:
We must know WHY we believe WHAT we believe. Our practices and programs should be a reflection of our beliefs, values and principle-based decisions. We should be able to give an answer when asked, “Why do you do what you do, the way you do it?” It is an opportunity to share our beliefs, values and principles. And if we don’t have an answer or we don’t know why, it is an opportunity to seek answers and make sure that our actions and the fruit of our lives and ministries are a true reflection of Jesus.
I love the story of one family—a husband, wife and two teenage kids—who came to do a DTS at YWAM/UofN Kona and heard me teach on the Belief Tree. They were fairly new Christians and the husband was a successful businessman. I’m sure he had sat through many courses on decision-making, but the Spirit of God had a profound impact on him and the whole family through understanding the Belief Tree. It gave them a simple yet practical framework for making decisions and evaluating whether their lives were in alignment with their beliefs. When they returned home after DTS, the family spent most of a two-week vacation to Ireland working on their family Belief Tree, defining their beliefs, values, principles and actions. They drew it on a large piece of poster board, and upon returning home, they hung it on the kitchen wall. It is there, in the busiest room of the house, that they gather to make family decisions, evaluate where they have come from and where they’re going. It is there that they also have that occasional discussion regarding outward behavior that may or may not match what they say they believe–not only the children’s behavior, but the parents have invited the children to hold them accountable to live what they say they believe. What a wonderful and simple yet profound tool for checking the integrity of our lives and ministries!
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Scriptures for additional meditation/study:
Psalm 1:1-3, Colossians 2:6-7, Matthew 7:15-23, Matthew 13:1-9, Jeremiah 17:7-8, Isaiah 61:3,11, John 15:1-17, Colossians 2 & 3, Romans 11:16.
Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about Contemplative Prayer.
Photo credit: YWAM Berlin
In this edition of The Invitation, we invite you to consider what we can learn from the contemplative tradition of the global Church, and why contemplative practices might be a helpful balance to our busy, activity-oriented lives.
Steve Cochrane, one of YWAM’s leaders, spoke of his own journey into contemplative practices. “In the past decade, I’ve been on a more focused pilgrimage to listen to what Spirit is saying from a diversity of those that have walked the road before in deeper devotion to Christ.” As Steve says, the work of “friends from the past” teaches us to sink down into the presence of God in the midst of our active lives.
Over recent years, a significant number of us in the YWAM family have, like Steve, been growing more familiar with contemplative practices. This is a helpful development for us, who are so used to active, outward-focused expressions of faith. Our desire “To know God and make God known” emphasizes the way we are to give attention to both our inner life of knowing God and our outward expression of making Him known. Indeed, contemplation is really about maintaining in all our activities a listening attitude toward God. This helps us live out YWAM’s shared value of hearing the voice of God, and helps us to expand that experience beyond our community meetings and prayer times.
Since around the third century the people of God have been engaging in practices that we now call Contemplative. To be contemplative is simply to develop a prayerful attentiveness to God—this attitude of listening—as we go about our busy, not-so-quiet lives. These prayerful practices help us to take note of how we’re doing on the inside and to develop an ongoing conversation with God no matter what is going on around us. In this way, our moods, our feelings of resistance or engagement, and our responses to our surroundings can all become prompts that direct us to God and enable us to listen to Him and discern His loving action in our lives.
A few of these contemplative practices involve: breath prayers, which consist of praying a short phrase with your in- and your out-breath; lectio devina, which is a meditative way of reading short passages of scripture; and silent prayer such as Centering Prayer.
As a mission, we are focused on the process of discipleship. And yet the process of transformation is still more mysterious than we’d like to admit! The truth is that it is God Himself who changes us to become Christ-like. Our part is simply to arrange our lives so that our motivating desires become more and more aligned with Him.
So these contemplative practices can benefit you, whether you are a Discipleship Training School (DTS) leader, working hard to create an environment in which your trainees can meet with God; or a worship leader, seeking to draw up living water from the well of your inner life of faith; or a community development project leader, daily facing the needs of those around you and desiring to put the Gospel of the Kingdom into practice. To do all the diverse activities we do, without running dry and instead experiencing fullness, we must cultivate a rich inner life with God by the Spirit.
Ephesians 3:17-19 says:I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of June to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, June 14. If you only have a few moments to pray, ask the Lord to convict each of our students and workers to experience God in deeper ways through contemplative methods.
Prepare to Pray:
Once your group has gathered for prayer, consider playing a song such as Christ be all Around Me by All Sons & Daughters which you can find linked to in the letter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmge-ycIkoo. Give people time to settle into this time with the Lord.
Introduce the theme of contemplative prayer and developing new ways of listening to God. To do this you might read aloud the scriptures below, or choose others that come to mind.
Explain that Breath Prayers are one way we can cultivate an awareness of God and a listening heart through our daily activities. Lead people through steps 1 to 3 of the Explore a Contemplative Practice as outlined below. Do this by giving people time individually and in silence, prompting them gently to move from one step to the others after a few minutes with each instruction.
After completing the third step, give people time in twos or threes to share their Breath Prayer and their image. When they have done this, encourage them to continue with steps 4 and 5 in their own time. You might consider checking in with people at your next staff gathering to ask how their practice is helping them.
Explore a Contemplative Practice (Written by Tonya Stanfield.):
Write: What spiritual truth do you want to become a part of you? Write this truth in the form of a Breath Prayer, a simple, short phrase that can be expressed in one inhale and exhale. (Examples: “I am alive… in you, Jesus.” Or, “You sustain me… with your love.”)
Imagine: What mental picture do you want to hold in your imagination as you practice your breath prayer? You could call this image your Wordless Prayer. (Examples: The Trinity or God’s loving gaze, etc.)
Practice: Spend a few minutes praying your Breath Prayer as you inhale and exhale while you hold your Wordless Prayer in your imagination. Do not rush. Feel the fullness of your breath. Give it your full awareness.
Commit: Breath Prayer is a transformative tool if practiced until it becomes a near-effortless, bodily rhythm. At first, the hardest part is simply to remember to do it, but you’ll know it’s taking root in your soul when you discover you’re growing in self-awareness and God-awareness.
Redeem A Routine: What’s one routine you perform every day that’s in need of redeeming? Maybe you know your chosen routine right away, or maybe you want to spend a few days paying attention to your attitudes and emotions as you go about them. Consider praying your breath prayer at these times in particular. (Examples: Getting your kids ready for school. Walking into the office. Waking up to social media.)
Photo credits: YWAM Los Angeles, California USA
Let’s Pray:
Pray for YWAM to deepen our experience of listening to God:
Acknowledge before God our tendency to get busy and distracted in ways that make it hard to listen well. Thank Him for His faithfulness in continuing to draw our hearts to Him.
Pray for your own team, for another team that works in your area, and for YWAMers in at least one other country. Ask God to help our people to cultivate daily practices of listening to Him as part of our life in community.
Pray that as God works with us to deepen our own experience of listening to Him, we would become those who cause others to grow in their desire for intimacy with God.
Reflect on the busy pace of life in many parts of the world, the way people are often too busy to be aware of their own inner life and longing for peace. Ask God to be at work in the busyness and noise of our modern world, to draw people to Himself, the true source of peace.
Take Action:
Want to discover more about the role of the contemplative in your walk of faith? Turn to Dr. Curt Thompson’s book, Anatomy of Soul, for a more thorough explanation of how developing a contemplative rhythm helps to support spiritual vitality and psychological health.
Consider downloading the app called Centering Prayer and use it to cultivate a regular moment of silent prayer in your day.
Consider adding one or two retreat-style days to your regular team times. Contact us for recommendations of people who could advise or facilitate your time.
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Photo credit: YWAM Amsterdam
How We Prayed
May 2018 – Refugees
One person cited Isaiah 56:1-8 and asked Father God to call, draw and establish these refugees in His house and to bring them to His holy mountain.
These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer . . . Isaiah 56:7
One person prayed that God’s invitation to an eternal home would be accepted and also praise God for covering refugees with His loving kindness to draw them to him.
Future Topics:
July 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 (Be Broad-structured and Decentralized, Be International and Interdenominational, Have a Biblical Christian Worldview)
August 9, 2018 YWAM Together
September 13, 2018 Kolkata
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
Thank you for joining us this month as we take up “The Invitation” and join together with thousands of YWAMers from around the world as we pray and hear from God about Refugees.
Caring for Children in the Middle East Photo credit: YWAM Refugee Circle
It has been almost three years since the “refugee crisis” was brought to the attention of the world. Hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, came like a flood from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe, fleeing war, drought, terrorism and pain. Many Christians responded compassionately, with thousands of people volunteering across Europe to serve the refugees that had left everything behind. Many YWAM workers got involved through serving on the shores of Europe, along the migration route and in destination nations like Germany and Sweden. On the island of Lesvos alone, more than 1,000 YWAMers served in the camp with a combined effort of approximately 20,000 days of work!
While the number of volunteers has decreased, displaced people are still coming and volunteers are still needed to meet practical needs and build relationships with the people in the camps. In most locations, however, refugees no longer live in camps and host nations are faced with the challenge of integrating thousands into their society. Additionally, the media attention has decreased but this does not mean that there are no more refugees or that less people are fleeing. Syria is in its eighth year of conflict. Iraq is struggling for clarity and unity. Afghanistan is still unstable. Meanwhile, refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey, Greece and other nations keep receiving new arrivals. The numbers are not insignificant and there are countless stories to be told.
While the attention has shifted away from this situation, it is wonderful to know that our God never forgets His creation and His promises. In the midst of this turmoil there are countless stories about how He is reaching out to His lost children:
In Northern Iraq entire families of displaced people became followers of Jesus Christ, as they encountered His all sufficient grace in the midst of loss.
In Germany, Muslims asked for Bibles in search of the Truth.
In Sweden the displaced gather in Bible study groups.
Across Europe, thousands are being baptized.
God is meeting these people in dreams and visions, through the love and compassion of Christians and through His Word. And He is inviting us to partner with Him in this opportunity to reach men, women and children from “closed nations” with the gospel! Let us not miss out on seeing His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Deuteronomy 10:17 – 19 – “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
Please join with YWAM’s global prayer day, called The Invitation, during the month of May to pray with us. You are particularly invited to pray during our prayer day, May the 10th. If you only have a few moments to pray, position yourself in hopeful anticipation and pray that refugees will come to know the heart of God.
Additionally, we invite you to join in the 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World May 15 – June 14. Download a prayer guide from www.pray30days.org, tell your friends and help your church, your small group and your family participate in this movement.
Refugee Camp in Malawi Photo credit: YWAM Potch, South Africa
Prepare to Pray:
Consider taking into the prayer time a bag with a few roughly packed items, a sleeping bag, or perhaps a blanket.
Read aloud from Ezekiel 12,4-6 that says, “During the daytime, while they watch, bring out your belongings packed for exile. Then in the evening, while they are watching, go out like those who go into exile. While they watch, dig through the wall and take your belongings out through it. Put them on your shoulder as they are watching and carry them out at dusk. Cover your face so that you cannot see the land, for I have made you a sign.”
Allow yourself or your group some time to engage your imagination in the plight of the refugee. Place yourself, in your imagination, along the different stages of a refugee’s journey.
After months of trying everything in order to remain in your city, in your home -months of battling every day to ensure safety and provision for your family – you finally decide to risk everything to journey to a foreign land. You pack only what you can carry, leaving several family members behind, not knowing whether you will ever see them again. You give all you have to pay for a dangerous transit, encountering on the way more horrors than you ever imagined. You arrive at your initial destination, carrying grief and pain in your heart, trying to come to terms with squalid housing, limited opportunities and queuing for every necessity. More than this, you feel your displacement keenly, wondering where you belong and what your identity is in the midst of the chaos of the refugee camp. All this brings a longing to your heart, causes you to question the meaning and purpose of your life and whether anything you’ve believed is strong enough to provide an anchor for your sorrowing heart. You hardly dare believe there is anything worth hoping for in this place of disappointment and hardship.
As you seek to identify with this experience, what feelings do you become aware of? How would you describe your needs, physical, emotional and spiritual? What longings are in your heart? Now ask yourself how Father God might feel towards such a person? How might He desire to show His loving kindness and mercy to them?
Hold these feelings, thoughts and imaginations in your heart and mind as you go into prayer, allowing them to become part of your intercession.
Refugees Coming Ashore Photo credit: YWAM Southlands, Melbourne, Australia
Pray for refugees:
Pray for the gospel to go forth among refugees and for their lives to be restored spiritually, physically and emotionally.
Pray for discipleship among refugees and displaced people.
Pray for peace in the Middle East. Pray for sources of conflict to dissolve and safety and wholeness to be restored so families can live and thrive in their homes. In particular, pray for stability in Syria and for the plight of the displaced people in that country. Pray for peace to come so rebuilding can occur.
Pray for peace in the refugee camps. Refugees live in constant uncertainty, never knowing how long they will be in one place and where they will go next. On the island of Lesvos, for example, some people have been detained for 1.5 years, without knowing if they will ever be allowed access to mainland Europe. The Zaatari camp in Jordan houses 80,000 people. Northern Iraq has around 24 camps of refugees and internally displaced people. Without jobs and good future prospects, residents of these camps, especially young people, get easily bored and frustrated.
The majority of refugees do not live in camps. Pray for their safety and livelihood, so they are able to build a life for their families in whichever location they are living.
Pray for the long-term workers in the Middle East and in Europe who continually pour out to serve refugees. Pray for perseverance, hope, courage and joy.
Pray for more workers to come. Pray they won’t be held back by fear, finances or doubt and come in humility with great vision and love for the people they serve.
Pray for longevity and commitment beyond the “refugee crisis.” The ultimate goal is not to see people settled in safety, the goal is to see people and nations transformed and discipled! Many YWAM leaders believe it is time to transition from “relief and short-term” efforts to “development/long-term investment/transformation” efforts for ministering to refugees. Pray for effective transition.
Pray for local citizens to show hospitality to the foreigners in their cities (Hebrews 13:2).
Pray for God to firmly plant the lost people and that he would give them a heart to know him (Jeremiah 24:6-7).
Pray for courage and guidance for YWAMers who attended the Refugee Circle Gathering last month in Athens. Pray that all would obey God’s calling and direction.
Praise God for the doors that he has opened in areas that in the past have been closed to the gospel!
Praise God for the 1,000+ YWAM volunteers who have worked in the camp in Lesvos, Greece. Pray for continued release of committed volunteers in Lesvos, as well as for provision of clothes, diapers and other resources.
Pray for YWAM locations in Germany, for solid relationships with refugees and migrants, for wisdom regarding political conflict and for churches and other groups to effectively disciple.
Pray for stability in Northern Iraq and for workers to respond to the call to go to this area.
Pray for the Lord to provide funds needed to do His work for refugees.
Photo credit: YWAM International Refugee Response Circle
Take Action:
Keep praying for the refugees in your nation and worldwide. Hope against hope (Romans 8:18-21).
Volunteer. Come and spend three weeks or more serving refugees in camps or their new homes. (More information at ywamrefugeecircle.com.)
Commit to long-term investment in the Middle East to see these nations restored in truth and righteousness and to prevent further displacement. Seek the Lord to understand what long-term investment He desires of you.
Participate in a YWAM School of Frontier Missions, School of Evangelism or another of YWAM’s second-level training programs that can equip you. (More information at uofn.edu)
Donate. Support the YWAM Refugee Circle or different YWAM locations serving refugees (see ywamrefugeecircle.com) or consider supporting individuals or families working in the field.
Love your neighbor. Ask God to show you the refugee or migrant communities in your neighborhood and how you can come alongside them. Befriend them, assist them in practical ways, share the gospel with them, read the Bible with them, pray for them. Through their lives, their families and nations will be affected as well.
Go to twitter.com; search for #praywithywam and tweet about your prayer time/post a picture. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
Send an email to prayer@ywam.org letting us know how you prayed and what God revealed to you.
Praying for YWAM Foundational Values #4-6 in April Photo credit: YWAM San Jose, Costa Rica
How We Prayed
April 2018 – YWAM Foundational Values 4 – 6
YWAM San Jose, Costa Rica noted they had an awesome time of prayer and that students saw visions from God after they prayed through the value of being visionary.
Future Topics:
June 14, 2018 Contemplative
July 12, 2018 YWAM Foundational Values 7 – 9 (Be Broad-structured and Decentralized, Be International and Interdenominational, Have a Biblical Christian Worldview)
August 9, 2018 YWAM Together
Don’t Miss The Invitation:
Sign up for prayer updates. Go to ywam.org, find the “Stay Connected” box on the home page, put in your email address and click “Sign Up.”
Download prayer updates in a specific language. Go to ywam.org/theinvitation. (Currently available in Spanish, Portuguese, French, Indonesian, Korean or request other languages.)
Join the conversation about how God is leading in these prayer times. Comment on the Facebook page on the second Thursday at facebook.com/youthwithamission or on Twitter @ywam, hashtag #praywithywam. You can also post a photo on Instagram and use the same hashtag, #praywithywam.
You can now listen to The Invitation as a podcast. To sign up or listen to past episodes, go to: ywampodcast.net/prayer.
If you sense God giving you a word or a direction for YWAM’s prayer, please contact us: prayer@ywam.org.
In this episode of the Youth With A Mission Teaching Podcast Loren Cunningham shares with us a teaching about The Cross.
Loren Cunningham is the author of a number of books including:
