The focus on the Pacific and Asia over the next two years has real potential to make a big impact on the 10/40 Window. Let’s do it with all of our heart from all over the world! I invite you and I challenge you to be a part.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient if we would just mandate involvement in reaching the unreached of Asia during this time?
On the surface it might seem so, but the fact is that we would pay a terrible price. We will never be able to re-deploy our mission force by decree from a central office somewhere unless we first change the whole nature of what we are.
As I’ve been reading some books about new discoveries in science, I’ve come across fractals. Initially, this was through a talk Winkey Pratney gave to the GLT, and I have followed this up with some reading. In nature, fractals are very common. These are structures like snowflakes, clouds, or ferns. All snowflakes look like each other, but no two are exactly the same. You can recognize a fern as a fern, whether you’re looking at the whole plant, a single branch, or a tiny little sub-branch.
What does "fern-ness" consist of? It turns out that you can express it in a precise and fairly simple mathematical formula. All ferns follow a pattern. They are clearly ferns, but no two bits are exactly the same.
I think YWAM is meant to be more a multiplication of fractals than a traditional organization.
Traditional western organizations are built according to the Newtonian world view. The model is the universe. It is seen as a giant, impersonal machine. Western institutions and forms of organization have come out of this basic approach.
It has never really fit YWAM. I think this is because God has wanted to do something different, something more organic, something closer to the true nature of things.
You can visit a YWAM base in Africa or South America, or Thailand, or India. You might not speak the language. You might not even see any physical item you have seen on any other YWAM base, or hear any music you have heard before. You will, however, immediately recognize that you are in a YWAM setting. What is it?
There’s something at the core of things which defines "YWAM-ness." I believe it consists of our values and principles.
In order to grow into something better, and this must be done or we grow stagnant and die, we must start at and strengthen the key values and principles at the root.
We must flood our mission with the values that lead to the unreached being a priority. If we can do this, the battle is won and practical results far beyond our normal expectation will result. People will go because they are convinced they must. They will be zealous, loving, and enthusiastic. Multiplication will take place simultaneously all over the world with all kinds of ministry expressions. We will release a dynamic life force which will be impossible to stop.
If we can’t do the job on the level of values and principles, nothing else will do much good. YWAM can look a lot like chaos, where each one does what is right in his or her own eyes. At the core there is order, though. There is someone bigger than ourselves directing this whole thing. I believe that we will get even better results through being faithful to our nature and working within that framework.
Even as I sit here writing I’m aware that God is calling individuals, bases, and ministries from all over the world to be in Sydney and to go from Sydney up through the Asian region. They are responding not because an international office has ordered it, but because they habitually respond to the Lord in obedience. It’s our way. It honors God. It works.
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