YWAM Canada News

August 2011

During the December 2010 GLT meetings in Kona, Hawaii, several monumental decisions were made as YWAM evolves in structure and governance for the next 50 years. Pete Iliyn entitled the last NALC, "Year One", signifying a movement into the next fifty years with a new energy based on the values of the past.

So, the Global Leadership Team has reformatting to become the Global Leadership Forum (GLF).

The members of “Team 3 Plus” have relinquished corporate titles to serve as an international eldering body. This “flattening of the YWAM structure” and an embracing of more Biblical language to describe leadership in such a large international mission is unprecedented in scope and implications. I am sure there will be continual refinement to some of these governing decisions over the next several years.

The history this shift evolved from the “Tripod Message” that Loren gave in Nanning, China, which envisioned YWAM structure grounded on three legs of a tripod. The three legs are Spiritual Eldership Oversight, Freedom in the Spirit for all YWAMers, and Relationship-based Leadership being the glue that holds YWAM together.

As the CLT we had Frank Naea, the then outgoing YWAM President, meet with us in Ottawa immediately after the Nanning GLT. Frank helped us reformat our national leadership along the lines of the Tripod message. As YWAM Canada we have had the past years to work through the implications of what is becoming the norm in YWAM.

Here are a few more implications:

* The Global Eldership includes Loren and Darlene Cunningham, John Dawson, Lynn Green, Iain Muir, Jim Stier, and Tom Hallas. They will assemble for priestly intercession and relational, spiritual oversight to YWAM Internationally.

* There may be other councils of elders recognized internationally, but none are at this point in time.

* The Global Leadership Forum will meet to continue the eldering ministry of priestly intercession and the inter-relatedness of the YWAM as a global ministry. There will be very few policy initiatives from this level. Policies will be contextualized more locally and at grassroots levels.

* Every two years there will be a Global Leadership Gathering (GLG).

* The CLT has functioned in Canada as a council of elders, and in the Western Canada District we have recognized “District Elders”.

* All YWAM directors are requested to drop the title of “director” and begin to use “leader” in its place. (In Canada “Director” is a legitimate title for a charitable society board member, so there are areas of legal and financial/fiduciary matters where the director title is appropriate, but in the context of YWAM ministries the use of leader is the new norm).

If you want to explore the theology of these changes, please check out my blog for more insights. www.paulmartinson.blogspot.com

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North American Cities Conference in Montreal, April 23 - 27, 2012

Theme: Moving Beyond the Sacred-Secular Divide: The Challenge of Postchristendom

Jeff Fountain, founder of the UofN Schumann Center for European Studies and previous director for YWAM Europe, will be our keynote speaker. Workshops are now being lined up. It will be held in the conference and exhibition hall of l'Église St-Jean Baptiste, Montreal's 3rd largest Catholic Cathedral. The priest is a good christian friend and so pleased to host us. The church is located in the heart of the Plateau Mont-Royal, in the heart of the cultural district of Montreal.

It would be awesome to see a great Canadian turnout at this event so please do consider coming.

Check here for more info