Lynn Green

Category: Current Events

  • Report from Cambodia

    Report from Cambodia

     

     

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

     

    I am astonished at the growing pace at which Holy Spirit is working!

    Marti and I are flying back from Bangkok and we have run out of words to describe the impact of the two events in which  we participated.  First we went to Battambang, Cambodia where nearly 200 younger leaders in YWAM had gathered. It is just an informal, relational network in YWAM but it Is growing at a rapid rate.  They call themselves the Malachi network, relating to that passage, right at the end of the Old Testament, where it is prophesied that the hearts of the young will be turned to the parents and vice versa.

    Their purpose is to draw all they can from the first generation of YWAM leaders and to deepen their friendships with one another.  They can see that one of the strengths of our generation is the friendships that have thrived and deepened over the years.  We have rarely felt so appreciated and honoured. It was almost embarrassing at times.

    ©Carlinha de Paula

    Many things stood out to us during the three days we spent there.  (Along with Darlene Cunningham, John Dawson and other older leaders, we contributed for a few days and then left them to get on with their priorities.)  At times we would just look at each other and say, “Can you believe this?”  That usually happened when the crowd was worshipping in several languages and we watched Mongolians, Burmese, Vietnamese, Nepalese, Indians, Sri Lankans, Ugandans, Lebanese, Europeans—and the list could go on and on.  We were also amazed as we looked around the campus.  A small team of Americans and Europeans went there just over ten years ago and during their short-term outreach God called them to Cambodia.  When they returned a couple of months later, they immersed themselves in the language and culture.  Before long, they were leading Cambodians to Jesus.

    You may recall the horrific images from the “killing fields” of Cambodia, when the ruthless Communist dictator, Pol Pot, killed a third of the population of the nation.  One of the results is that it is the youngest nation, age-wise, in the world.  A high percentage of  the older generation was killed.  Another result is amazing openness to God’s story, culminating in Jesus.  This young team of westerners grew quickly with beautifully redeemed Cambodians.  As a result of one miracle after another, they now have a large piece of property in the second largest city and have built the first 30% of a YWAM/University of the Nations training campus for hundreds.  We have searched for a better word, but “astonishing” is the best we can do.  They are doing everything with a level of excellence that inspired us to do better.

    For three days we worshipped together, spoke at length to the attentive audience, ate together, answered questions and gave advice on difficulties they were facing until we were hoarse.  Then we got into a van with Darlene C. and David Hamilton and made the six-hour journey to Jomtien, Thailand.  The Ambassador City Conference Centre has the best, most affordable facilities we have found anywhere in the world.  Our  problem—we “maxed it out”.  Though they have more accommodation, their auditorium could only seat a little over 3500 but we had more than 3900 registered and people who had not registered continued to come.  Some had to watch the online “live-stream”, but we managed to squeeze almost everyone into the auditorium. 

    The first night began with an outstanding YWAM Thailand worship band and traditional Thai music, dances and costumes.  It was all very beautiful, graceful and elegant and demonstrated a bit of what the Christian faith looks like in Thai culture.  For those of us who are immersed in Western Christian cultural expressions, it was a reminder that we have so much richness to discover in the other redeemed cultures.

    I will write more about the Thai gathering in a day or two, but for now, will just say that “astonishing” continued to appear in one conversation after another.

    Lynn Green.

  • Faith and Finances – Session 2

    Faith and Finances – Session 2

     

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

    Faith and Finances – Session 2
    (Generosity + Communicate)

    Marti and I struggled with financial pressure and almost no support for over 10 years.  We prayed about it a lot and then God began to show us a few important principles.  Were we really givers at heart, or did we always expect to receive?  Were we fully aware of where and how our money was spent?  Were we making it possible for people to feel that they were part of our team?

     

  • Finances and Faith – Session 1

    Finances and Faith – Session 1

     

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

    (Breaking through in Faith)

    Does God really provide, or do we just get good at fund-raising?

  • The Revolutionary Changes in YWAM Leadership

    The Revolutionary Changes in YWAM Leadership

     

     

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

     

    A few years ago I spoke with a very experienced Christian consultant.  When I explained the changes we were beginning to implement, she said it was probably to revolutionary and we were not likely to survive the chaos.  We have survived and thrived because it was God’s idea and God’s time.  But we are still explaining the implications of moving away from organizational thinking.  So, here is another important subject:

    Has YWAM done away with Hierarchy?

    Is there any real leadership beyond local level in YWAM? I have spoken to quite a few people who have the impression that we have done away with all leadership and accountability beyond the local. What they often say is that “there is no hierarchy in YWAM”, but is it true?

    What we have done away with is positions and titles that tend to make hierarchy organisational and often rather ridgid.  But that does not mean we have done away with hierarchy.  In fact, human beings cannot do away with hierarchy.  Jesus certainly did not dispense with the idea. You will recall that when a couple of his disciples were arguing who is 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.  So what does that mean?

    It’s about influence

    When we think about it, some people have a lot more influence than others.  That is hierarchy; we might call it “social capital”.  Since there is hierarchy, based upon influence, or social capital, we must ask how the power of that influence can be used so it is not damaging.  Again, Jesus made that clear—when it is exercised from a servant-heart, we all welcome it.

    The attempts to deny the existence of hierarchy or efforts to do away with it usually come from people who have been hurt by other people with more influence or power than they have, or perhaps they are just envious. But to try to do away with it is to do away with human nature and that can only be done with imposing more power and that is tyranny.

    Influence is given, not demanded

    Hierarchy exists because we respect and listen to some people more than others. But why is that?

    Again, if we stop to think about it, some people have more influence than others, especially in our circles within the body of Christ, because they exhibit Christ-like character; because they are humble and trustworthy; because they demonstrate wisdom and because they have God-given gifts which equip them to lead.

    Hierarchy cannot be eradicated

    To be very practical, I would guess that everybody in YWAM would tend to pay more attention to Loren Cunningham than anyone else.  That is only right.  We pay close attention to what he says because of the fruit of his life and because he has consistently been prophetic in his major public statements.

    Since hierarchy exists, we have to ask how we can recognize it without it becoming ridged and potentially damaging.  The damage often occurs when a title or position extends more power to an individual than they actually have or deserve in the eyes of others.  That is exactly what we are trying to avoid.

    Keeping it friendly and appropriate

    We have done this partly by moving away from organisational titles and positions to eldership (beyond the local level).   “Elder” should not designate a position or title; rather it is recognition of social capital as described above.  The extent of that social capital will vary from one elder to another. A person who is, in effect, an elder in a team is a person who is more mature than the others and people listen to her or him more readily.  But the person who is an Elder in that team is often not an elder in a wider context.  So eldership is situational and we should recognize that.

    Everybody should acknowledge those people in their lives whom they trust, who have wisdom and authority and to whom they look for counsel.  Each of us should also relate to those who can correct us and call us to account if and when needed.

    Who are your elders?

    So, to summarize:  YWAM has not done away with leadership, authority and accountability.  Rather, we have turned away from the common tendency to add organizational power via titles and positions.  Elders/leaders still exist by virtue of the “social capital” that arises from who they are.  We will continue to urge all who lead in YWAM to do so from a servant heart.

    We will also urge every YWAMer to submit to God-ordained authority in their lives.  We can only live healthy, Christ-centered lives when we have heart connections with many others in the Body of Christ and that includes elders.  Each and every person and leadership team should be able to identify their elders.

    I hope we agree that servant-hearted hierarchy is a very good thing!

    Lynn Green.