My YWAM Experience
YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission. It is a missionary organisation founded by Loren Cunningham. YWAM's motto is to "know God and to make Him known".
‘To know God and to make Him known’; this is an excellent and wonderful motto, yet YWAM fails to achieve it. For how can we know God apart from His word, and apart from our Lord Jesus Christ? YWAM says that their lecture phase is equivalent to two years worth of Sunday services. For quantity this is true. What about content? Two Sundays in any gospel church would be infinitely better than their ‘two years worth’ because they did not preach the gospel. Beware of Christ-less Christianity; it is no Christianity at all. Even those who confess and profess Christ outwardly may be dead inwardly. How much then should we run from teachers who clearly ignore the Sovereign Lord? YWAM is man centred. Any non-Christian that found themselves in YWAM would think that Christianity is all about man and what man can do. The non-Christian would think that Christianity is just like every other religion; a works religion.
In YWAM’s ‘two years worth’ lecture phase Jesus was discussed twice. The first time no one would have known that the speaker calls himself a Christian. He said no more than the world says about Jesus; it was like a BBC documentary. Whereas the second speaker made jokes about Jesus, and one would have thought that the speaker was adoptionist.
So if YWAM fails to know God and make Him known, what should its motto be? If YWAM does not preach Christ, what does it preach? They preach themselves; they aim for students to know YWAM and make YWAM known. Students must know the history of YWAM, the values of YWAM, the attractive courses YWAM has to offer. Students must know how to talk about YWAM. They must know “YWAM has an apostolic anointing that your church doesn’t”. They must know that “If God doesn’t say otherwise, what is stopping you from coming back to YWAM?” This is a manipulative abuse of power. The extensive time for which students are building relationships, isolated in YWAM, and are dependent on YWAM, could lead to the potential for individuals to become somewhat institutionalised.
My experience of YWAM is that it not only has poor theology but poor methodology (which then negatively affects theology and practice). Poor methodology was both demonstrated in lectures, and preached in lectures. Speakers did not open up the Bible (there was no expository preaching). Thus they did not demonstrate that God has given His word to teach us how to live and what to believe about Him. Instead, speakers spoke on their own authority, told anecdotes, read poems, showed films, twisted and stretched scripture to fit their own purposes, etc. All this whilst simultaneously preaching ‘Don’t think, just believe’, ‘We know because we know’. Furthermore, an early speaker seemed to assert that the Bible is unclear. YWAM’s methodology leads to it being thrown about on the waves of modernism, existentialism, mysticism etc, and not only produces unbiblical beliefs but also causes unbiblical and superstitious practices.
A large portion of YWAM’s teaching appears to be founded upon modern psychology and focuses highly upon introspection. Consequently, this presents psychology, to the youth, as the solution to their problems.
YWAM claims to be non-denominational. Though they may accept a person of any denomination to do the course, they are very happy to preach their Latter Rain / New Apostolic Reformation beliefs.
‘To know God and to make Him known’; this is an excellent and wonderful motto, yet YWAM fails to achieve it. For how can we know God apart from His word, and apart from our Lord Jesus Christ? YWAM says that their lecture phase is equivalent to two years worth of Sunday services. For quantity this is true. What about content? Two Sundays in any gospel church would be infinitely better than their ‘two years worth’ because they did not preach the gospel. Beware of Christ-less Christianity; it is no Christianity at all. Even those who confess and profess Christ outwardly may be dead inwardly. How much then should we run from teachers who clearly ignore the Sovereign Lord? YWAM is man centred. Any non-Christian that found themselves in YWAM would think that Christianity is all about man and what man can do. The non-Christian would think that Christianity is just like every other religion; a works religion.
In YWAM’s ‘two years worth’ lecture phase Jesus was discussed twice. The first time no one would have known that the speaker calls himself a Christian. He said no more than the world says about Jesus; it was like a BBC documentary. Whereas the second speaker made jokes about Jesus, and one would have thought that the speaker was adoptionist.
So if YWAM fails to know God and make Him known, what should its motto be? If YWAM does not preach Christ, what does it preach? They preach themselves; they aim for students to know YWAM and make YWAM known. Students must know the history of YWAM, the values of YWAM, the attractive courses YWAM has to offer. Students must know how to talk about YWAM. They must know “YWAM has an apostolic anointing that your church doesn’t”. They must know that “If God doesn’t say otherwise, what is stopping you from coming back to YWAM?” This is a manipulative abuse of power. The extensive time for which students are building relationships, isolated in YWAM, and are dependent on YWAM, could lead to the potential for individuals to become somewhat institutionalised.
My experience of YWAM is that it not only has poor theology but poor methodology (which then negatively affects theology and practice). Poor methodology was both demonstrated in lectures, and preached in lectures. Speakers did not open up the Bible (there was no expository preaching). Thus they did not demonstrate that God has given His word to teach us how to live and what to believe about Him. Instead, speakers spoke on their own authority, told anecdotes, read poems, showed films, twisted and stretched scripture to fit their own purposes, etc. All this whilst simultaneously preaching ‘Don’t think, just believe’, ‘We know because we know’. Furthermore, an early speaker seemed to assert that the Bible is unclear. YWAM’s methodology leads to it being thrown about on the waves of modernism, existentialism, mysticism etc, and not only produces unbiblical beliefs but also causes unbiblical and superstitious practices.
A large portion of YWAM’s teaching appears to be founded upon modern psychology and focuses highly upon introspection. Consequently, this presents psychology, to the youth, as the solution to their problems.
YWAM claims to be non-denominational. Though they may accept a person of any denomination to do the course, they are very happy to preach their Latter Rain / New Apostolic Reformation beliefs.
Just One Experience
Some may say that my experience was just one experience at one "base" (school). They are trying to argue that my experience was an isolated event. However, I want to argue that the problems that I witnessed are systemic. My argument is threefold:
1) The speakers, that I heard, were not only from one specific base, but from bases all over the UK and various parts of the world.
2) Although YWAM bases are able to be independent of each other, there is of course a top-down structure within YWAM. The values of YWAM, its core teaching, and so on, all stem from its founder and leader, Loren Cunningham. Bad root = bad fruits. If you want to investigate to see if there is a systemic problem with YWAM the simplest thing to do is to see what its leader teaches. Loren Cunningham has written several books. His main book that explains YWAM, it's history, and core value is 'Is that really you God? Hearing God's voice'. See "Useful links" for book review.
3) My final point is that there are many other testimonies that show the worrying state of YWAM.
1) The speakers, that I heard, were not only from one specific base, but from bases all over the UK and various parts of the world.
2) Although YWAM bases are able to be independent of each other, there is of course a top-down structure within YWAM. The values of YWAM, its core teaching, and so on, all stem from its founder and leader, Loren Cunningham. Bad root = bad fruits. If you want to investigate to see if there is a systemic problem with YWAM the simplest thing to do is to see what its leader teaches. Loren Cunningham has written several books. His main book that explains YWAM, it's history, and core value is 'Is that really you God? Hearing God's voice'. See "Useful links" for book review.
3) My final point is that there are many other testimonies that show the worrying state of YWAM.