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

Dear Fellow YWAMer,

There was a great sense of life and joy when we gathered in Singapore. Afterward, the group that convened the event had the privilege of reflecting on what God said during those days. As we waited on Him, we felt that we should confirm some of what God spoke to us at this event, and the message that follows is part of that process of confirmation. Others from the convening group will also write to you.

Field-based conveners were recognized and commissioned in Singapore. Each of them was given the responsibility for convening the family in their part of the world for the next year. The purpose of such events would be to trust the Holy Spirit to manifest the presence of Jesus as we experienced in Singapore, to energize a new faith and momentum to go where we are not, to strengthen and deepen our unity and to identify and recognize the new initiatives and emerging leaders in our midst. The leaders of thematic ministries (for example, Mercy Ministries and Create International) will also continue to convene those ministries with the same purposes, as led by the Holy Spirit.

These conveners (one per Field) were commissioned to add two or three others to work as team alongside them to seek God and then obey His word to convene in the right time and place with the faith that God will work right across the mission with the same emphases we experienced here in Singapore.

These small teams are elders and spiritual leaders; they don’t aim to govern with organizational authority, but to be fathers and mothers of the family who lead primarily by drawing the family together in God’s presence. Inevitably, problems will arise in our family and obviously the problems will fall somewhere in the responsibility of these Field conveners. But their mandate is not to engage with all the problems, but to identify which elder or elders has/have the best relationship with the people caught up in the problem and to commission them in prayer to do their best to resolve the issues, as led by the Holy Spirit.

We have dissolved the various groups that used to exercise organizational authority, such as regional leadership teams and the former Global Leadership Forum, because we know how easy it is to fall back into the habits of our previous meetings. After one year, we will meet with the field and thematic conveners to seek God about the way forward. We know we must move toward where we are not. So, in the densely populated parts of the world, we will have many new clusters of Omega Zones; we will refer to the teams that champion these clusters of Omega Zones as Area Circle Teams (ACTs).

We do recognize that local YWAM entities are legally incorporated institutions (where such entities are allowed by law). Even in these situations, the legal responsibilities and titles are just a very small part of the essence of spiritual leadership. On a day-to-day basis, servant-hearted, plural leadership is always our goal. No single individual has the “final word.” In all matters of leadership, we are committed to the same principle that we see in operation in the story of the First Jerusalem Council, where they were seeking the solution that “seemed good to them and to the Holy Spirit.”

May the Lord continue to increase His presence upon us to unify us in His love more and more and to make us ever more fruitful!

Lynn Green