Lynn Green

Category: Religion / Church

  • The Poison of Feeling Superior

    The Poison of Feeling Superior

    DON’T DRINK THE POISON

    (OF FEELING SUPERIOR)

    When I was chairman of YWAM (back in the days when we had international titles) I was drawn into an uncomfortable conversation.  An influential leader was trying to get more recognition for the work he was doing. At that point, we had a process for recognising International Networks; that recognition carried some kudos and might enable the group to spread more.  Several of us in leadership were uneasy about this request, so I was asked to meet with the leader in question.

    He already had a dozen or more YWAM locations who were prepared, according to him, to be part of the network, so I asked him what they had in common.  His answer suggested that they were more professional than other YWAM locations, more strategic in their thinking, and more able to relate to “megachurches”.

    His answer was troubling.  As the conversation continued, I learned that he was travelling widely, speaking to YWAM ministry locations, explaining how much more strategic he was than the rest of YWAM. After a couple of days of his teaching, he would extend an invitation for them to join him.  In other words, he “created an itch, so he could then scratch it!”

    After more than an hour together I attempted to summarise what I was hearing from him.  I said something like, “So you are aiming to create a new network by identifying those who are good at doing what YWAM is called to do, and then inviting them to join your network.  Right?”

    As you would guess, we did not extend the recognition he sought.

    That was a long time ago but some of the questions that conversation raised still come up from time to time.  Why are we human beings drawn to what makes us feel superior?  Racism can do that; nationalism can do that; religions can do that; exclusive clubs can do that; an expensive house or car can do that; cults can do that.  What is it?

    Some of us are old enough to remember the Jonestown tragedy.  A man named Jim Jones, developed a cult that was based on an exclusive understanding of Christianity, and thousands joined.  He fed them a vision of utopia and many of his core followers moved with him to Guyana where they set about building a perfect community.  But it didn’t go well.  After several setbacks, Jones could see that they would not succeed.  Tragically and astonishingly, he convinced more than 900 people to embrace “revolutionary suicide” and they drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide.  They all died.

    Movements that convey a feeling of belonging and superiority have thrived as long as there have been people. If we don’t find our secure identity in Christ, as sons and daughters of God, we are vulnerable to false identities.  And there are countless false identities.  None are more dangerous than feelings of superiority based on religion, ethnicity, tribal identity, or nationality.  As I write there are two major, bloody wars raging and both are a mix of religious and national/ethnic superiority.  Once they are seeded, the thoughts and feelings of superiority can continue to develop until people who are not of “our group” are of less value.  If the process continues, it becomes the root whose fruit is genocide.

    Cults arise within the Christian faith by offering a sense of belonging, and usually superiority.  Time Magazine ran its famous cover story on the Jesus People in 1971.  One of the enduring images was of new group, The Children of God, picketing a large church in Southern California.  They held placards saying that the church and its members were apostates.   It’s common for cult members to think that the entire Church is apostate, except for them.  As you probably know, The Children of God went on to become a notorious international cult, damaging countless young people.

    Another example:

    Marti and I were visiting her family in the early 1980s where there was a YWAM base in her hometown.  One of the young staff members kindly picked us up at the nearest airport and drove us to her parents’ house.  On the way he talked excitedly about how the staff at the base had met some people with the key to revival.  They were all away at a training week in a neighbouring state, but he had stayed back for a day to drive us.  We were grateful but became more and more concerned as he talked.  When he expressed his doubt that other Christians were really “saved”, we were deeply concerned.

    Over the next couple of years, that group of YWAMers isolated themselves from YWAM and the local Christians. They left YWAM and then took legal, but unethical steps to keep the property that had been donated to YWAM.

    The revival never happened, and, after some years, it all come to nothing.

    Many cult-like groups begin with genuine moves of God. The excitement of experiencing God’s Presence usually leads to a new depth of commitment that provokes them to question whether they had a real faith before that.  Even the great Charles Grandison Finney had such a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit that he wondered if he had really known the Lord previously.  And that was years into his powerful revival ministry!  Deep spiritual experience can also easily lead us to doubt the faith of other Christians.

    Not long after I returned to my hometown after attending a YWAM School of Evangelism, Loren Cunningham asked me to accompany him to some meetings in the Mid-West of the USA.  As it turned out, I was with him for about a week and then he asked me to take a meeting for him in a small farming town while he went to a church in Chicago.  That Sunday meeting in a little Pentecostal church led to three weeks of revival.  Around 300 young people were wonderfully and very joyfully born again.  When I returned to my large home church, I though they would share my excitement when I told the story.  Our church had a tradition of people “sharing testimonies” at the start of the weekly prayer meeting and I told my exciting story to about 150 people who showed not the slightest interest.

    I was very tempted to conclude that they were not saved at all.  In fact, I think I did for a while.

    Surly one of the most difficult of all the commandments Jesus made is:

    Don’t Judge!

    Any time we are comparing our group with other groups, or our experience with others’ experience, we are probably judging.

    Just one more story:

    There was a time when the charismatic movement was growing dramatically and new, independent churches were springing up all over the world, but mostly in the more developed nations.  A group of very influential leaders made commitments to one another.  They announced that they had made life-long covenants.  They were all superb public speakers and had been preaching and teaching in churches for years.  They were in great demand and very busy.

    After making their covenant, they clarified that they were changing the focus of their ministry, and they invited church leaders and their churches to come under the authority of this group of men.  Some of those who joined them over the next several years were my friends.  Through them, I met other leaders my age or younger who were amazingly gifted and anointed by the Holy Spirit.  They invited me to join them in this new, large, and fast-growing global movement.  I liked these people a lot and it was a great honour!

    They could see that I was struggling to work out what to do.  Marti and I were praying and thinking it over every day.  Some of our other very talented YWAM leaders in England had already joined that movement.  These were our friends!  Some of the more senior leaders flew to England and met with me.  They said, “We understand how you feel, Lynn.  Your trusted relationships are in the ‘old wineskin’ but you see the need for the ‘new wineskin’.”

    We eventually decided to stay with YWAM, where our longest and deepest relationships were.  It was a tough decision, but we felt that was what God was saying to us.

    A couple of months later, I was allowed to listen to a set of confidential recordings from a gathering of just over one hundred of the most senior leaders of this movement.  It was obvious that the meetings were very exciting for all who were there.  The top leaders were talking about how they were the “great, end-times, move of God”, as prophesied in the Bible.

    I was very disturbed as I listened to the recordings, and a Biblical principle came immediately to mind, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  I do not want God to be my opponent!

    The entire movement crumbled within a couple of years.  It was astonishing!  How could a movement with such talent and vitality die so fast?  It illustrated the great danger of thinking I am superior to others, or my group is better than that group.

    It seems to me that a superiority complex might as well be opening the door to our hearts, then putting out the welcome mat for a spirit of deception.  On the other hand, humility is the lock on the door to deception.

    OH GOD, HELP ME TO WALK IN HUMILITY, NEVER JUDGING OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST AND NEVER USING THE POISONOUS LANGUAGE OF SUPERIORITY!

    Amen.

  • The Big Question: YWAM Succession

    The Big Question: YWAM Succession

    March 2023 – Lynn Green

     

    Dear YWAM,

    There were many tears at the Founders’ Circle meeting earlier this month at Loren and Darlene Cunninghams’ home, as we met for the first face-to-face gathering in more than three years. Loren had just undergone extensive health scans and tests and the results reached them as the FC began. (The Founders’ Circle is a group of about 15 mature YWAM leaders invited by Loren and Dar to take responsibility with them for guarding the vision and values of YWAM and to exercise eldership for this movement, especially in the area of prayer.)

    The reports from the specialist came in two parts. The first one gave us notice that the results were not good news. With the second report came the doctors’ verdict: Loren’s condition was cancer that had spread throughout his body, and it would be terminal.

    Loren’s focus as he shared with the FC during those days was on delivering his primary message, which has been developing for most of his life, but has accelerated over the last 20 years. With unexpected energy and clarity, he spoke about the importance of translating the Scriptures orally for every person on earth, in their mother tongue. We were all deeply convinced that this is our God-given task, along with thousands of current YWAMers and tens of thousands to come. Loren was encouraged to know that we embraced the spirit of what he was saying and will pass it on. After his extensive input over the space of three days, Darlene asked him if he was satisfied. He replied with a big smile and affirmation.

    But although the FC received his message and made commitments to do it, OUR central focus was on the implications of the news from the doctors.  We couldn’t avoid it.

    We surrounded Loren and Darlene with prayer and tears. Paul Dangtoumda, leader of YWAM Port Harcourt, Nigeria, wept and prayed, “The doctors have given their verdict, but that is not God’s verdict. We will believe what God says.”

    The medical team said that Loren’s cancer “has not presented as a classical case.”  What they explained is that when cancer is discovered in the lungs, it usually moves very fast but, in this case, it is moving more slowly.  We thanked God for that good news and prayed that Loren will have every day on earth that God has ordained. This was not a faithless time; it was a faith-filled time, because God has always been faithful.

    Of course, we all knew that the day of Loren’s departure would eventually come; it does for everyone. And what a glorious hope and promise eternity with Jesus contains! Loren often revels in proclaiming “Heaven is for real!”

    But this sobering cancer diagnosis provoked us to examine the more immediate personal implications.  Grieving and a sense of impending loss are appropriate – and when the time comes, we must take time as a global family to grieve and honour this amazing man that God has privileged us to follow.

    But what comes next for YWAM?

    For the past several years, I have often been asked, “Does YWAM have a succession plan for when Loren is no longer with us?” When Darlene wrote on March 1st about Loren’s cancer diagnosis; that letter raised the succession question in many more conversations around the world.

    My purpose in writing this letter is to answer that question.

    The answer has been in plain sight for the past 60+ years but we almost always wear cultural blinders that prevent us from seeing YWAM leadership plans for a future without Loren.

    The fact is, the days without Loren are coming.  Are we ready? I maintain that Loren himself started preparing us for this from the start of YWAM in 1960, when he had a clear word from God that “YWAM is to be decentralized.” Then the entire mission began preparing from the early 1970s. I was there in 1972 when the amazing Munich Olympics outreach finished and about 100 YWAMers gathered for the biggest staff gathering ever up to that point in time. The main purpose of that meeting was for Loren to announce the membership of the [1]International Council. He made it clear that he had never intended to lead YWAM alone or sit at the top of an organizational hierarchy.  He initially appointed five others to join him as an eldership for YWAM as it rapidly became a global, multicultural movement.

    That group grew, changed, grew some more and consistently gathered at different locations globally to provide wise eldership for the movement. Loren was the obvious “senior among equals,” but the other members and many other leaders grew in wisdom and impact across the nations.  We eventually developed a [2]Global Leadership Team with an executive group.

    But that somehow didn’t seem right.  We were following the model of almost every other mission and denomination, but our sense of family and unity suffered. The usual hierarchical approach didn’t seem to fit us.

    In 2002 and 2003, we started a journey back to the decentralized way we saw ourselves 40 years earlier. Loren went on an eleven-day fasting and prayer retreat and then joined the GLT gathering in Nanning, China. There he presented a teaching on Spiritual Eldership that became known as the “Tripod Message.”  You can remind yourself of what he taught by going to https://ywam.org/for-ywamers/spiritual-eldership

    We are meant to exercise leadership within a BODY model. Look at Ephesians 4 or, Romans 12, or 1 Corinthians 12, or reread Acts 15 to see how the early leaders of the Church resolved difficult issues and provided secure leadership.

    As we review the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we see that some foundational leaders were martyred in the early years, but the Church continued to grow dramatically. Some have suggested that Peter was the senior leader of the early Church, but an attentive reading of the early story demonstrates otherwise. The apostles, then the Jerusalem elders and prophets and deacons led as a body.

    Leadership in the body metaphor results in different leaders leading at different times, according to their gifts and callings and the need of the moment. When an evangelist with boldness was needed, Peter was the leader of the moment. When a very sensitive issue with huge implications arose, James took the lead. He had the ability to process the issue in such a way that everyone had a chance to make their position known; then he allowed Peter to speak, followed by Paul and Barnabas. No further discussion was allowed; James simply stated the decision of the gathering of leaders, then prescribed a wise process of implementation. His leadership averted a huge crisis in the young Church and Peter’s preaching was the catalyst for thousands of conversions.

    I could go on, but I want to apply this to YWAM at the point when we are faced with developments that prompt us to consider YWAM without Loren.

    I first want to say that Loren’s passing will have a personal impact on me, and upon every individual YWAMer, that we cannot predict. His intervention at several decisive points in my life has been crucial. I can only say that if Loren Cunningham had not come into my life, my life trajectory would have been completely different and much less fruitful, rich, and satisfying. Probably all of us can echo the same.

    Some have asked, “Who will be the global visionary?” My response is another question, “Must we have one?” Loren has left enough vision for several more generations! But if we do need one (or more) global visionaries, God will raise them up!  We cannot appoint such a person, but if the hand of God rests on one or more people to point the way ahead for the entire mission, we will discern that and recognize them.

    YWAM will be well led if we have a good BODY of leaders who love one another and guard the oneness that Jesus has created for us.  This most recent meeting of the Founders’ Circle was marked by easy harmony and oneness.  Let’s pray for that oneness at every point of leadership in the mission!

    Most of us spend most of our lives in hierarchical leadership structures. Most families are hierarchical, as are schools, universities, jobs, clubs and civil organisations, government at every level, as well as most churches and denominations. It is no surprise that we struggle to understand a body approach to leadership. This way of looking at it is not perfect because everything we do in this fallen world has weaknesses. But I believe we will lead better and follow better as we aim for body life in all aspects of what we do.

    Do we have a plan for succession?  Yes!  It’s the way God has directed from the beginning.

    [1] 1972 The first International Council members were: Loren Cunningham, Leland Paris, Don Stephens, Wally Wenge and Jim Rogers; later added Floyd McClung, Kalafi Moala, Lynn Green and Jim Dawson. (Source: YWAM Founders’ Timeline.)

    [2] 1995 At the International Council/International Executive Committee meeting in Einigen, Switzerland, YWAM formed a new Global Leadership Team (GLT), broadening its structure to incorporate more non-westerners, women and young leaders. Jim Stier was chosen as the YWAM International President, receiving that role from Loren, and Loren Cunningham became the International Chairman. (Source: YWAM Founders’ Timeline.)

    [i]  “[In 1972]…the International Council (IC) was the recognized global eldership of the mission. Since that time the senior circle of global elders has functioned under several different names. First it was the International Council (IC). It was later called the Global Leadership Team (GLT) and then was known as the Global Leadership Forum (GLF). This body was disbanded in Singapore 2014 in order to put in place a flatter, movement framework at the trans-local level in the place of what was becoming an increasingly hierarchical organizational structure. Now there are many circles of spiritual eldership around the mission – many of them known as Area Circle Teams (ACTs). A senior group of elders has been convened by Loren and Darlene Cunningham and is known as the Founders’ Circle (FC).

    Throughout these many decades, a primary role of the body of global spiritual elders (whether the IC, GLT, GLF or FC) has been to confirm, steward and safeguard the foundational documents of the mission. Though the FC does not have the governmental oversight of earlier leadership frameworks, it does carry this role of protecting and clarifying our foundational documents.” Source: Historical Note at the end of “The Youth With A Mission Statement of Purpose, Core Beliefs and Foundational Values” (January 2022).

    the International Council (IC). It was later called the Global Leadership Team (GLT) and then was known as the Global Leadership Forum (GLF). This body was disbanded in Singapore 2014 in order to put in place a flatter, movement framework at the trans-local level in the place of what was becoming an increasingly hierarchical organizational structure. Now there are many circles of spiritual eldership around the mission – many of them known as Area Circle Teams (ACTs). A senior group of elders has been convened by Loren and Darlene Cunningham and is known as the Founders’ Circle (FC).

    Throughout these many decades, a primary role of the body of global spiritual elders (whether the IC, GLT, GLF or FC) has been to confirm, steward and safeguard the foundational documents of the mission. Though the FC does not have the governmental oversight of earlier leadership frameworks, it does carry this role of protecting and clarifying our foundational documents.” Source: Historical Note at the end of “The Youth With A Mission Statement of Purpose, Core Beliefs and Foundational Values” (January 2022).

  • Does YWAM have a “core business”?

    Does YWAM have a “core business”?

    I had a very pleasant surprise this week.  Having been away for a couple of weeks, I walked into the back of our Chapel for our Monday morning community meeting, and it was packed out.  As I made my way along the side, I could see that the vast majority were young people around the age of twenty.  This is the first time since the pandemic struck that we have been nearing a full house.  Two of our DTSs were with us: one will go on outreach soon; the other was just back.

    Community helps us grow

    As good as that was, our purpose is not just to have a full house.  We are committed to helping people become ever-growing disciples of Jesus.  There is no doubt that living and learning in a community setting gives a great boost to growing in character and in the spirit.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer realised that eighty years ago and trained his ordinands in community.  Monasteries and other Christian orders discovered the same truth again and again through century after century in Christian history. 

      In our family

    One of our granddaughters who is twenty-one has been living with us off and on for the last couple of years.  Pre-Covid she went to a DTS in Kona, Hawaii.  She arrived with no Christian faith, but the Holy Spirit turned her upside down in the first few weeks! Now she has had a deep, intimate relationship with Jesus.  We were amazed at the change in her when she returned home after six months away. But it took more than a six-month DTS.

    Her plans to carry on with more training were delayed by the pandemic, and during the delay some signs of the old instabilities, which had been part of her teen years, arose again.  She had wanted to do a Bible core course in Norway but began to waver.  Marti and I prayed and encouraged her, and with the first upturn in travel she attended the Norwegian course where she became grounded in the Scriptures.  That has been a deep spiritual experience for her, and a growing knowledge of the Scriptures has transformed her into a zealous, wise, focussed disciple of Jesus, and a committed carrier of the Gospel.  She now knows she is called to China.

    Joy in our family—it’s our core business

    With the joy that she brought back into our home (we also have a sixteen-year-old grandson living with us), and the experience of the full house in the Chapel, I reflected on the idea of our “core business”.  Business consultants will always exhort business leaders to keep their eye on the core business because it’s easy to get distracted and put our energies into other activities.  But if the core business dies, it all dies.

    Our vision is the completion of the Great Commission.  But our core business is expressed in 2 Timothy 2:2, which is multiplication.  We aim to make disciples, who make disciples, who make disciples….

    The power of multiplication

    It’s now 53 years since the first YWAM residential training course in Lausanne Switzerland which Marti and I had the privilege of attending in 1969.  There are now millions of people who have participated, or who have been impacted by those who have done so.  Some have gone on to become full-time missionaries in the classical sense, and most others are ambassadors for the Kingdom of God in the whole range of human endeavours.  What a privilege to be focussed on our core business!

  • Disciples Who Make Disciples Makers

    Disciples Who Make Disciples Makers

    Photo by Dominik Leiner 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.**

     

    I was on a Zoom call with Loren Cunningham a couple of days ago and he said he would sent me a copy of a very important comment Tom Hallas had made recently in a letter to Elisabeth Cochrane.  He felt it was an accurate, prophetic insight into God’s purposes for YWAM.  Here is what Tom wrote.

    I have always felt that the primary calling and anointing that God had endowed us with was to make disciples who would be disciple makers.

    Transformation starts internally and works out.

    There are many models of excellent practice right across the planet, many of which are designed and managed by agents of darkness. Striving for excellence on our own strength is useless.

    We are conversionist missionaries; we hold fast to the idea that the whole Cosmos is under the power of the evil one and that the primary service that we offer is a pathway out of darkness into His glorious light.

    For us, the warfare factor should be a top priority—knowing that the Son of Man was made manifest to destroy the works of the devil.

    We are coming into a new era where our primary tool for survival will not be the arrival at human excellence but sustained spiritual warfare. 

    Blessings, Tom Hallas

    I read this just before going to a prayer meeting.  We had set aside the whole night, if needed, so we would not be limited by a timeframe.   In the end, it was from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.  It was a wonderful, productive, exciting, deep few hours in God’s presence and it served to underline what Tom has written.  We engaged in the spiritual warfare of listening to the Holy Spirit and praying the prayers he gave us.  We asked him to search our hearts and we put things right with him and others.  These are the weapons God has given us and as we teach others, who teach others, the world is changed.  (2 Timothy 2:2)