Lynn Green

Category: Current Events

  • Local Churches and Missions Agencies: Competitors or Partners?

    Local Churches and Missions Agencies: Competitors or Partners?

    Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    One of my sons and his wife attend a very good local church, one that has provided a spiritual home for this former YWAMer, a place to grow and exercise their spiritual gifts and to find friendship with like-minded Christians.  I am delighted with the church they have found and recently attended, along with other members of my family, a very good Sunday meeting there.

    But his loyalty was tested a bit by a recent article in the magazine that is produced by the network that his church belongs to.  In it, an author made an argument for all mission agencies and other “para-church organizations” to close down because they are a hindrance to the health of the Church.  That old argument gets re-cycled every few years and I will come back to it later in this article.

    Not long after that I spoke with a friend of mine who told me about a book that was recently co-authored by a YWAM leader in which he apparently says that he sees no reason why he or other YWAM staff and students should attend church.  I haven’t managed to get a copy of the book yet, so I won’t comment on the book itself, but the subject clearly needs to be addressed because that is a violation of one of the foundational values of YWAM.

    I am not surprised that this tension between local churches and mission agencies continues to surface from time to time, because the healthy cooperation of local church and global mission is a major threat to the kingdom of darkness.  So, I think it is important to lay a foundation of Biblical and historical thinking for the existence of these two major branches of the Church and why their partnership is so important and has such potential for power.

    Any discussion on this subject must begin with an attempt to define what church is.  This undertaking is fraught with pitfalls and ambushes because no subject has created more division in the history of Christianity.  Nevertheless, here is my attempt! 

    “The Church is people obeying Jesus together.” 

    My friend, Roger Forster, Bible scholar, teacher and apostolic leader gave me that definition many years ago and I have not heard anyone improve on it. 

    Our tendency, however, is to add conditions and especially organizational or structural prescriptions to that definition—and  that is when we begin to take sides and argue with each another.  When you stop to think about it, many denominations are founded upon some prescription about how the Church is meant to be organized.  Should it have elders or just pastors and deacons? Should it have bishops, archbishops and synods or is each local church sovereign? 

    Should local churches be governed by all-male leadership teams, or can women exercise governmental authority?  Should the entire congregation participate in important decisions or should the elders or pastor make those decisions?  Is the pastor subject to the elders or the elders subject to the pastor?  The list of issues is probably endless and periodically another movement emerges with a “new revelation” about how church should be organized or structured.  They usually think, by implication, that all other expressions of the Church are, at best, second rate.

    There is a reason why we have so many different opinions on this subject.  Jesus specified almost nothing about how the Church should be organized.  Then, when we read the narrative about how the disciples went about “doing Church”, there aren’t many instructions.  We read the stories in the book of Acts and then the letters to the churches, but we don’t get very many commandments about how to organize the Church. 

    I think there is a very important reason for that:  The Church is about people obeying Jesus together, not about how it is organized.  All organization is para-church.  (Para means alongside, so para-church means something that works alongside church.) I believe God meant the Church to be adaptable to all cultures and all stages of social development so He designed great flexibility into how the Church can be structured.  In some settings, vast congregations can be very fruitful with their large buildings and complex staff and management structures.  At other times, small groups meeting in homes, linked together by traveling pastors or teachers have been the most effective structure.

    Any time people try to do anything together, some organizational structure is required.  But the nature of that structure is not the essence of the Church.  People obeying Jesus together is the essence of the Church.  Structure is simply meant to serve the Church’s purposes.  In fact, structure is always at its best when it is pragmatic and flexible.  When we get hung up on structural prescriptions, history suggests that the structures become idolatrous and hinder the growth and maturity of God’s people and more often than not, become a source of division in the Church.

    To state it even more clearly, you are in the Church and I am in the Church, not because I go to a particular kind of organization.  We are being Church when we obey Jesus together.  We cannot be so arrogant as to say that one kind of structure is “better church” than another because of the way it is organized.  It is “good church” when it helps people come to faith in Christ, grow into maturity and express the life of Christ to the world.  Organizational structures that help achieve that end are good.  Organizational structures that hinder that end should be changed. 

    We might picture it like this:  The way we organize a group of believers can be compared to the scaffolding set up around a building in need of repair.  The scaffolding enables us to strengthen and renew the building where ever it is required but the scaffolding is not the building.

    Having said all that, though, the world-wide Body of Christ down through history has been expressed in two broad streams that have quite different organizational structures.  Their structures are different because their purposes are different.  We probably see them most clearly in the scriptures in Acts 13 when the Holy Spirit instructs the prophets and teachers at the church in Antioch to “set apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”

    From that time on they traveled as a team—sometimes a large team and sometimes a small team—preaching the Good News, establishing churches, strengthening them but working within a team structure rather than the organization of any one local church.  They were often temporarily within a local church as they built it up, but then they moved on in their team.

    Some would say that they remained submitted to the leadership of the church at Antioch, but there is scant evidence for that given the fact that Paul returned to that city and church only twice over the next 20 years and any leadership communication to and from the church in Antioch would have been almost impossible

    From New Testament times, God’s people have been found within two broad streams, local churches and trans-local organizations such as evangelistic associations, mission agencies, aid agencies etc.  In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox expressions of the Church, parishes and orders have existed from the fourth century.  It is important to note that the protestant reformation did not have a significant trans-local (or extensive) expression for the first 200 years.  During that time, it did not grow beyond the geographical confines of Europe.  Then, with the advent of denominational mission agencies and then interdenominational agencies, protestant Christianity has grown dramatically around the world.  Today, many very large local churches, sometimes called mega-churches, are initiating missions efforts from their own congregations.  Like Youth with a Mission four or five decades ago, they are new, have great potential and will learn a lot.  YWAM and other agencies should welcome this development and offer partnership where ever we might be of assistance.

    Toward the end of the 19th century, a dynamic spiritual renewal movement emerged and became know as the Brethren.  Like many other renewal movements, they emphasized certain organizational characteristics (lay leadership, plural eldership and local church sovereignty) and taught that the only valid organizational expression of the Church was local churches of their particular type.  Although their movement is not numerically strong in the 21st century their ideas about the structural nature of the Church have been widely influential.  As a result, many Christians today have been taught that only local churches are Biblically legitimate and that all other organizational expressions of the Church should be disbanded.

    Although this view claims a Biblical rationale, any effort to find prescriptions for Church organization in the Bible will quickly cast doubt on the validity of any and all expressions of the Church today.  Although it is fair to say that the Bible does not describe anything like today’s missionary societies, neither does it describe the existence of many different local churches within a given town or city; nor does it describe denominational structures, or networks of churches, or Bible training colleges, or even church buildings…the list goes on.

    I will summarize all this by saying that the Church today, as throughout history, has a very wide range of organizational expressions, but they fall into two very broad categories:  those whose aim is to work out the Christian faith locally and those who aim to spread the Good News to new places around the world.  Given that these two broad streams exist, the important thing is how they serve one another.

    The Church is always at its best when the local churches send their best to take the Good News to what the Apostle Paul referred to as the “regions beyond”, and when the extensive expressions of the Church focus on establishing and strengthening local churches.  This partnership is the one that God has chosen to change the entire world!

    So that is why it is important that YWAMers and any other members of Christian organizations should be active members of local churches.  Even though their travel schedules and other ministry obligations might limit their participation, they should demonstrate a sacrificial commitment to the health of their local church.  Their faith should be expressed in the place where they live through a local body of believers.  And that sacrificial service should, hopefully, make it easier for local church leaders to see the importance of sending those who are called out from their church to world mission.

    YWAMers have no reason to be unsettled by those who question the validity YWAM.  But we also have no excuse to not be committed to a local body of Christians!

    Lynn Green.

  • Great Matters

    Great Matters

    Photo by Olav Ahrens Røtne on Unsplash

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    From time to time, very important issues will arise in relation to beliefs, vision, values, covenants or relationships.  Most of these can be fielded by elders within an Area.  (NOTE that there will usually be more elders within an area than just those who are currently on the ACT.)  We already have a wide range of very good leadership teaching and resources available online and will continue to make them more readily available and easier to find.  These videos, papers and podcasts will help elders cope with matters as they arise.

    If an issue is likely to have wide-spread impact, or if it is not being addressed well within an ACT, then it could become a matter for leadership attention at a more international level.  We might call those “great matters”; similar to what Moses referred to when he distributed authority to leaders of tribes, but told them to bring to him any “difficult issues”.

    Who deals with such matters and who can an ACT call upon, or who intervenes if the ACT is not acting responsibly? In this sort of circumstance, more mature elders can be called upon or can take the initiative to call the ACT to account.  We have not done away with authority or accountability in our restructuring!  Before we go further with the issue of intervention, perhaps we could make a few comments to clarify how authority works beyond the local level or the ACTs.

    What we have done away with is positions and titles that make hierarchy organisational and more likely to be ridged.  That is why we have begun to use the term “elder”.  But that does not mean we have done away with authority beyond the local.  In fact, no one can do away with hierarchy and Jesus certainly did not dispense with the idea.  You will recall that when a couple of his disciples were arguing about who was the greatest, he didn’t say, “none of you will be greater than the other”; he said “if you wish to be greatest you must be servant of all”.

    It is a simple fact that some people have a lot more influence than others.  That is hierarchy.  As long as that influence is exercised from a servant heart, we all welcome it.  In fact, to try to do away with it is to do away with human nature and that can only be done with tyranny. Hierarchy exists because we respect and listen to some people more than others.  Therefore, we have elders who are able to act in leadership roles at every level from teams to global issues.

    When an Area Circle Team or other leadership group feels they have insufficient “social capital” or authority to deal with an issue they can appeal to elders with more social capital, wisdom and authority.  If it is truly a global issue, it might go to someone in the Founders Circle.  (See the paper, Who and What is the Founders Circle.)  At that point, it is not really the Founders Circle who deal with it, but rather one or more members of the FC acting as elders and supported by prayer from the others in the FC.

    So, although the Lord has led us quite clearly to push responsibility and authority out to Area Circle Teams and local leadership, that does not mean there is no authority beyond the local or ACTs.

    In the highly unlikely event that the person or group in error still does not respond, then the name of YWAM can be withdrawn from the offending person or body.  The name and trademarks of YWAM are held by the original California Corporation.  The board of that corporation is comprised of about 7 senior YWAM leaders, some of whom are currently on the FC and some are not.

    Occasionally an issue arises when one of our values is being eroded or violated; or there may be a strong sense the God wants us to add a new value.   When such an issue arises it is likely to have wide repercussions so some current members or two of the Founders Circle should be asked to help.  Again the Founders Circle would pray for them and support them. 

  • Financial Integrity for YWAM Leaders

    Financial Integrity for YWAM Leaders

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

     

    In the summer of 1973, I found myself in a most uncomfortable position—in more ways than one.  I was lying on my face in the gravel of the garden of a Japanese youth hostel, wondering what passers by were thinking.  I was not alone.  There were about 60 other YWAMers with me who comprised most of the YWAM leaders at the time. Loren Cunningham and Joy Dawson were leading the session in which God had spoken to us about “robbing Him.”  The scripture that had been burned into our hearts was Malachi 3:9:

    “You are under a curse, the whole nation of you, because you are robbing me.”  

    God was specifically dealing with us about misusing designated funds.  He saw it as robbery, and we knew we were in big trouble! 

    Every person there repented of at least one specific financial transgression and we spent several uncomfortable hours in deep conviction.  At the end of the afternoon the heaviness of conviction was replaced with the joy of forgiveness and cleansing.  We had all learned a lesson we would never forget.

    In my case, I had to repent of sloppy accounting that led to wrong decisions.  A few months earlier an anonymous donor gave us a gift designated for buying a mini-bus.  The gift was generous, but not enough to buy the vehicle so we put it in our bank account and prayed that God would provide further so we could make the purchase.  The weeks had rolled by and we ran out of money for food and rent and, because we had not set that money aside, it was spent.  I was vaguely aware that we were in danger of doing that, but our accounts were not up-to-date, and I did not know when we began to spend the money that should have been set aside.  Though I was not the accountant, as the leader I was responsible for our financial decisions.

    That was a long time ago and there have been many other lessons learned since then.  Sometimes I forget that God had to use hard and dramatic circumstances to teach me this and other lessons.  I can begin to assume that every YWAMer who makes financial decisions will somehow understand the important principles of integrity in money matters.  But in recent months, God has sent us a clear word of conviction that we have fallen short of what we perceive to be God’s standard for financial integrity.

    Much could be written on this subject, but I want to concentrate in this article on a few of the most important subjects for YWAM leaders.

    The first one is related to my opening story – keeping good, clear accounts. When Loren and Darlene first sent my wife, Marti, and me out to lead a team they only gave us a few instructions, but one was, “Keep clear, thorough accounts! Marti [who had been Loren’s secretary] can do that, but as soon as possible you should put someone else in charge of accounting. You need to keep yourself from any accusations and if your wife oversees the accounts, you won’t be safe enough.” We were careful to do that.

    GOOD ACCOUNTS

    Keeping a good, up-to-date set of accounts in YWAM is a walk of faith. You have to ask God and believe that He will send you people who can do that. This is the responsibility of the leader and of high priority.

    I know the consequences of not having a bookkeeper. Likewise, I know what happens when the bookkeeper you do have is not competent. Under either of these circumstances you don’t have the information you need to make good decisions and that leads to poor stewardship and even “robbing God” by misusing money.

    Sometimes YWAM bases do not have an accountant and so they hire someone to keep the books for them. In my opinion this is an acceptable course of action and often necessary when the base/campus is large and the accounts are complex. 

    PROTECTION FOR LEADERS

    Many of the best financial practices are designed to provide protection against accusation and temptation. Both are issues worthy of serious thought.

    For example, it is wise for a leader to set in place procedures that prevent him or her from making solo financial decisions. I make it a point to a have a person of good character and strong personality present for any non-routine financial decisions I make. That person has access to all accounts and is familiar with the overall picture, so they are able to be a check and balance for me. It is sometimes frustrating to be convinced that some expenditure is important only to find that you cannot convince the person to approve of it with you. If this situation arises you might even need someone else to act as a third decision maker in this process. Even if it is inconvenient to include others, we still need to avoid making major financial decisions on our own.

    When I first joined YWAM in the late 60s and early 70s if I had to attend a leadership team meeting or had to travel with an outreach team the cost of that came from my own support. After the first few years, as the costs were steadily rising, and the need for travel increased, all of us in a leadership role were struggling financially. We talked and prayed together and decided with much caution that, where possible, “obligatory travel” would be met by the bases we had established, usually through tithes or other giving.

    However, once you start that procedure it becomes very difficult to know where to draw the line. If I, as the senior leader, have those expenses met what happens when there are three or four – or even 15 or 20 – people on the base who have “obligatory travel” expenses. There are no easy answers, and any policy about this will need to be reviewed and changed on occasion. That process of review will need to be open and transparent.

    TRANSPARENCY

    Transparency is an important guiding value when it comes to financial stewardship. I find it useful from time-to-time to ask myself the following question: “Have I made any financial decisions that I would not want staff, students [or supporters where applicable] to know about?” I should always be able to answer that question with a resounding NO. That means I have no “special accounts” that I benefit from or that are used solely at my discretion.

    It is also wise for a leader or team of leaders to have regular meetings where the finances of the base or team are explained to the staff, where questions and discussion are encouraged. If this doesn’t seem like a good idea to you, I suggest you ask yourself why.

    PUBLIC AND LEGAL ACCOUNTABILITY

    In most countries YWAM has to be registered as a non-profit or a charitable non-governmental organisation. Those countries that provide for such registration will have regulations that require independent, annual audits for any such organization with substantial income. Even if you are not able to incorporate in that way [because of being in a restrictive country for example] or if your income is below the amount where an audit us required it is still wise to have an independent review done by someone with financial abilities. Every YWAM operating location should be able to point to someone of good reputation and financial skill and reasonable independence to vouch for the truthfulness and accuracy of the accounts.

    RESPONDING TO ACCUSATION

    Finally, if anyone does happen to accuse a YWAM leader of mishandling money, that leader should not have to defend themselves. He or she should be supported by their leader and the person or company that performed the audit or review. Of course, a leader can only appeal to others to defend them if they have been open about the finances and made the accounts available to others’ input. YWAM leaders should never find themselves in a position where they are under accusation over financial matters and have no one to defend them.

    If, after an accusation has been examined, that process confirms that a leader has misused finances, it must be taken very seriously.  The leaders of that leader must immediately act to right that which is wrong, make restitution where necessary and restore that leader to full fellowship with the body of Christ. 

    In a recent prophetic word given to us, lack of financial integrity was listed as one of the main reasons that God has not kept His full anointing on Youth with a Mission. If we are going to come back to a place of authority and powerful anointing then we must realign ourselves to His ways in every part of YWAM, especially among leadership.

    I would urge you to give careful thought to the principles I’ve outlined above, evaluate how your base or team is doing and if you are responsible to other leaders sit down and talk this through with them.  Let us all come back to a place of financial transparency and integrity.

    Thank you for reading.

    In His Peace,

    Lynn Green.

  • Guidance, Suffering and Death

    Guidance, Suffering and Death

    **This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**

    On a recent global day of prayer, I had to get a visa from the Consulate for India in London.  I was so sorry to miss prayer with our community at Highfield Oval but found a quiet garden along the bank of the River Thames in central London. 

    As I walked and prayed, I thought about those YWAMers who have died over the years and the fact that more will lay down their lives in days to come.  I also began to grapple with thoughts that are hard to put into words, but I suspect others have similar thoughts. 

    How should we view suffering and death in YWAM?  Is there a basis for thinking this is the price we pay for taking the gospel to the nations?  Are those who have died martyrs for the gospel?  Or are some of them just tragic accidents?

    Many of our deaths have been due to traffic accidents and others have been from the most common fatal illnesses.  As I walked and prayed in the garden, I came upon a memorial to William Tyndale and this is what it says:

    WILLIAM TYNDALE

    FIRST TRANSLATER OF THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO ENGLISH FROM THE GREEK.  BORN A.D. 1484, DIED A MARTYR AT VILVORDE IN BELGIUM A.D. 1536.

    “THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET AND A LIGHT TO MY PATH” – “THE ENTRANCE OF THY WORDS GIVETH LIFE”   PSALM CXIX 105,130

    “AND THIS IS THE REWARD THAT GOD HATH GIVEN TO US, ETERNAL LIFE.”  I JOHN V 11.

    THE LAST WORDS OF WILLIAM TYNDALE WERE, “LORD OPEN THE KING OF ENGLAND’S EYES.”   WITHIN A YEAR AFTERWARDS A BIBLE WAS PLACED IN EVERY PARISH CHURCH BY THE KING’S COMMAND.

    Tyndale is reconised as one of the great martyrs in Christian history, but I wondered if his contemporaries thought that way?  How did his family feel?  The idea of having the scriptures available in the common language was scandalous at that time and heavily apposed by the clergy throughout Europe.  In 1536 he was convicted of heresy, strangled and his body burned.

    With 500 years of hindsight, we have no doubt that he was a martyr.  But what about the so-called accident or the fatal illness contracted on the mission field?  After grappling with this in prayer and thought, I am convinced that all whose lives comes to a premature end while they are in the course of obeying Jesus as missionaries can be considered to have given their lives for the sake of the gospel.

    As YWAM leaders we need to dig into this question still further.  What do we think about those who might have taken unnecessary risks?  For example, the person who ventures into the surf knowing they can’t swim very well, or the one who takes a mode of transportation that is known to be extremely dangerous, or the one who is habitually a dangerous driver.  When a YWAMer or any Christian worker loses their life under that sort of circumstance it is particularly difficult.  We have a responsibility to do all we can to protect our workers from unnecessary risk and yet it is so easy to become fearful and over controlling in our efforts to protect our staff and especially our students. 

    Many years ago, I was in Cyprus when I received a phone call saying that a newly married Swedish couple who were students on our DTS had been kidnapped in Dagestan.  When I heard that news, I was both fearful and angry.  To me, it was indefensible that any YWAM leader would allow DTS students to go on outreach in a country about which it was said, “the largest single source of foreign currency is ransoms from kidnappings”. 

    When I phoned leaders who were nearer the situation I began to learn a remarkable story about a young couple who had been interceding for Dagestan for many years, and whose parents and home Church had sent them to the DTS with the expectation that they would go to Dagestan, and were themselves convinced that whatever happened to them in that country, they had gone there in direct obedience to God. 

    As it turned out they spent several months in captivity but were remarkably strengthen by the power of the Holy Spirit and have a powerful testimony to tell.  What I felt was an unacceptable risk was, in reality, detailed obedience to God’s leading. 

    That story illustrates the only solution to our dilemma.  We must be obedient servants.  As we go into all the world to preach the gospel there will be more illness and more lives will be laid down.  We are praying for more protective cover from heaven and we are not encouraging anyone to take risks just for the sake of adventure.  But we will not shrink back from the challenging parts of the world.  Those who are walking in obedience and lay down their lives are following in the steps of the generations of martyrs. 

    As we consider this subject it provokes us not only to pray for more protective cover from heaven, but also that we might become more sensitive to God’s voice.  One of YWAM’s cornerstone teachings is that God speaks, and His people hear His voice.  It was no accident that the Lord led Loren to write the first YWAM book on that subject, “Is that really you, God?”.  Sometimes, though, we get so focused on strategies, travel advisories from various embassies and foreign offices, the cost of tickets and other practical issues that we squeeze out God’s voice and replace it with our own thinking.  God has deeply convicted me of that over the past couple of years and I am on a journey to increase my sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

    It has been like retracing my first couple of years with YWAM except I have to do it at a deeper level with more repentance and brokenness.  I realize that I have let my experience and wisdom replace God’s voice in far too many of my decisions.  Of course, it is obvious that no matter how much I learn or how much I study the word of God and understand His ways I will never have a fraction of God’s insight and knowledge.  So, it always makes sense to listen to Him and “lean not to my own understanding”. 

    I was much more determined to hear from God when I was just starting in service overseas because I constantly felt out of my depth, had no experience and often no one else to turn to for counsel, but with experienced wise counselors and an increasing knowledge of God’s word I became more self-reliant.  Now I have to repent of that pride very regularly and break old habits that are deeply entrenched.

    There is another reason why I have strayed away from the simple path of hearing and obeying.  All of us know that the word of the Lord is not nearly as clear to us as it seems to be to some of the Biblical characters, who recorded extensive dialog with God.  It is easy to make mistakes about what God is saying and that forces us to walk in deep humility.  Of course, our pride doesn’t like that, so soon we stop asking God and begin to believe that He does not speak as clearly as He used to speak to His people.  Or perhaps we think for some reason that He doesn’t speak clearly to me. 

    I used to have all kinds of reasons why I thought God did not speak as clearly to me as He does to some people.  In the end I see all those as a system of unbelief, so I have found myself repenting almost daily of unbelief as well as pride. 

    I am happy to report that I am hearing God more clearly then I’ve heard for many years and our various leadership gathering are increasingly dependant upon listening to God together and taking seriously each person’s understanding of what God is saying. 

    I am convinced that throughout YWAM we need to return to this cornerstone of God’s ways.  Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice and they follow me”.

    So, to sum up I believe we will see more protection and authority in the battle to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.  As we have prayed and continue to increase our prayer cover, we will become more effective and less vulnerable.  But there will still be suffering and there will still be martyrs in the course of the gospel.  However, as we return to our deep commitment to listen and obey, we can share in the comfort as the apostle Peter wrote to the early Church in the midst of its suffering, 

    “Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right”.   1 Peter 4:19 (NASB)

    Lynn Green.