- International YWAMer

The IY asked father and son YWAMers, Lynn and Michael Green, to comment on the responses we received to our question : What does YWAM need to do in the next 50 years to be more effective at knowing God and making Him known?

Lynn Green is currently YWAM’s International Chairman.  Lynn has been a YWAMer since Loren Cunningham found him in a post office in Lausanne, where he was trying to make his way to an early School of Evangelism in 1969.  Lynn met his wife, Marti, there and they have served with YWAM ever since.

Michael was born to Lynn and Marti in 1972 while they were pioneering YWAM ministries in England. He grew up in YWAM and joined YWAM as staff after completing a DTS in 1991 with his wife, Jessica and their kids.

Both Lynn and Michael are currently based at YWAM Harpenden, in England.

Lynn Green’s Comments…

What a great question we have been asked and what encouraging responses!

In my opinion, many of the respondents address exactly the focus YWAM should have as we enter our next 50 years.  How does that make you feel?  Do you feel that you are already overworked, doing the best you possibly can and the last thing you need is a list of new things to focus on?  Does such a list remind you of the things you are not doing as well as you should, and that becomes a temptation to give up trying?

I know what that is like.  I know how it feels to work long days with all the energy I have and yet to come the end of the day and wonder if anything has really been accomplished. In fact, not many years ago at the YWAM campus where I live, it felt to me like more and more work was producing less and less fruit.  We had began to face the real possibility of having to start selling off bits of our property and reducing our budget to fit a shrinking income.  At that point, various friends, board members and other leaders had all kinds of ideas of what we needed to do – better publicity, better fund-raising strategies, etc – and yet I felt that I, and all who were working with me, were doing everything we possibly could and we had no capacity to do anything more.

Often times we have to come to the end of ourselves before God shows us a pathway forward. During our darkest season here the Lord sent us more than one person with the same message: focus on renewing our intimacy with Him and ask for personal spiritual survival.

As that became our focus, it seemed to me the first response from the Holy Spirit was conviction of sin. We went through and continued to be in a season of repentance, where we became more deeply convinced than ever that bearing fruit in this ministry is “not by might and not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord”.

Now several years later, as I look at this list of subjects we need to focus on to be more effective in the next fifty years, I can say that God is already doing many of those things amongst us.

We are not working harder, in fact, it often seems that life is a bit more peaceful then it used to be.  So I concluded that at the end of this list of ideas that we ought to do them all, but the only way we can is to press in to know God, increase our intimacy with Him and He will make a way for us to do all things well.  Constant spiritual renewal is at the heart of success for the next fifty years.

Michael Green’s Comments…

“So what exactly do you do in YWAM?” is a question I often get asked and the longer I’ve been in YWAM (and it’s only been 3 years) the harder I find it is to give a coherent answer.  Coming from a business background, I’ve been a fan of the Hedgehog Concept – you simplify a complex world into a single organising idea, a basic principle or concept that unifies and guides everything. So called because in the case of the hedgehog, it can defend itself by rolling into a tight ball, leaving a ball of spikes to confound its attackers.

In my time as a consultant, I’ve advised business leaders to find their Hedgehog Concept, and I’ve tried to do that in the businesses that I’ve been involved with.  So it’s only natural that as I look at that amazing list of things that we as YWAM need to do, I look for our Hedgehog concept.  Quite clearly, we should focus on cities, DTS quality, communication, long-term ministries, ending extreme poverty, reaching the unreached, worship, intercession, leadership training, community. . . And how are we to do all of this?  Through focusing on intimacy, loving God with all our minds, taking risks, listening to God, pursuing excellence, being good neighbours, having a deeper heart revelation . . .!

One thing is clear, YWAM does not have a Hedgehog Concept. And on reflection, nor do I believe that we should have one.  We haven’t given ourselves to an organisation where a small group of leaders decide what we should be doing and allocate resources according to some great master strategy.  Instead, we are each driven by the passion and calling that God has put on our lives.  As a result, we have phenomenal diversity and richness within YWAM.  We have people giving their lives to see modern day slavery ended, others who live in remote tribes diligently learning the language to translate the Bible, still others dedicated to developing innovative ways of feeding the poor, and everything in-between.

At the same time, we walk in tremendous unity as we align ourselves under the Holy Spirit and in relationship with each other and the elders of the mission. Every time I have the privilege to be at an international gathering of YWAMers, I’m always struck by the mutual love and unity.  Yes, we have our differences in theology, approach, and as the above list makes clear, focus.  But we are in a very real sense, family.

So let’s each keep challenging ourselves to do what God has laid on our hearts to make YWAM more effective in knowing God and making Him known.  At the same time let us also love our fellow YWAMers by valuing the things that God has laid on their hearts.  It is that bond of relationship and love that prevents us from being merely a collection of ministries sharing a common logo.