Is DTS Right for Me — Ebook

What is YWAM?

YWAM (Youth With A Mission) is a global, interdenominational Christian missionary organization founded in 1960 by Loren Cunningham and his wife Darlene. YWAM operates in over 180 countries with more than 1,100 locations and 18,000 full-time staff, focusing on evangelism, training, and mercy ministries like feeding programs.

YWAM began with a vision. In June of 1956, Loren Cunningham, a 20-year-old American student visiting the Bahamas, saw a vision of waves of young people reaching the whole world. This vision became reality when he founded Youth With A Mission in 1960. As the name of the group shows, YWAM's focus has been on young people.

We are living in a time when young people play important roles in society. But in the early 1960s, young people were largely ignored by both society and the church. YWAM was revolutionary in releasing young people into mission and allowing them to take the initiative for God.

Values of YWAM

YWAM is not a structure but a culture. There is not much visible structure to control YWAMers, but YWAM works because people in YWAM agree on a certain culture. The best way to understand this culture is to read YWAM's Core Beliefs and Foundational Values, which you can easily find online.

Instead of going through all of them, I'll highlight a few key values.

Be Visionary

YWAMers are visionary. They don't just repeat what they've been doing but always come up with new ideas. That's why this group that started as a bunch of young people sharing the gospel has spread into almost every country in the world, doing many different things. For example, when Dale Kauffman wanted to mobilize and release children into mission, King's Kids was born. When Loren Cunningham and Howard Malmstadt received a vision for a university within YWAM, University of the Nations (UofN) was born. When YWAMers in Herrnhut, Germany, wanted to combine the DTS with arts, the Marriage of the Arts (MOTA) DTS was born. Whoever receives a vision from God can turn it into reality in YWAM because YWAM is a visionary organization.

Be Decentralized

There is no headquarters of YWAM. Even though people often think there is a YWAM headquarters in Kona, this isn't true. In Kona, Hawaii, there is a large UofN campus where many people are trained, but they don't make decisions for other locations. Most decisions are made by each base, and sometimes bases in the same country decide on national issues together. This means decisions are made by people who are affected by them rather than by leaders far away, so they tend to fit reality better.

Be International and Interdenominational

YWAM is an international organization with people from all over the world. Typically, a YWAM base includes both locals and foreigners. Being part of YWAM helped me a lot because I’m from South Korea, a very homogeneous country. Koreans are used to being mostly with other Koreans, but through YWAM, I’ve experienced life in an international community.

YWAM is also interdenominational. There is no one denomination that every YWAMer has to accept. Each person is free to follow their own denominational tradition.

Exhibit Servant Leadership

In YWAM, being a leader means serving others. In many other organizations, leaders enjoy special privileges, but in YWAM, leaders are just YWAMers playing the role of a leader. They do not insist on being treated better than others and often participate in base activities like cooking or cleaning like anyone else.

Practice Dependence on God

In YWAM, no one is paid a salary, which means each person is responsible for raising support. Of course, many young YWAMers struggle to raise enough support for their lives and mission, but through that struggle, we learn to depend on God for his provision. Often, the reason Christians cannot reach the vision God gave them is that they rely on their own human means. They do things only within their capacity. But if you are trained to trust God, you can do many things beyond your level. That's the experience of many YWAMers.

YWAM and the Church

YWAM is not a church. Even though some YWAMers are involved with church planting, most YWAMers attend a local church on Sunday. We respect local churches and work with them instead of competing with them. YWAM and the church play different roles in the kingdom of God: YWAM is involved with ministries that require more flexibility, like frontier missions, while the church is involved with ministries that require more regularity. Missionaries don't do things the church fails to do; they do different kinds of things because they have a different calling.

Ministries of YWAM

There are three key areas of ministry in YWAM: evangelism, training, and mercy ministry. They correspond to the ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Bible: "And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people" (Matthew 4:23). YWAM shares the gospel with those who don't know Jesus, we teach those who know Jesus, and we help those who are in need. If you are a Christian with a heart to serve God, you can always find something to do in YWAM.