YWAM
Youth With A Mission is an international movement of Christians from many denominations dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world. Also known as YWAM (pronounced “WYE-wam”), our calling is to know God and to make Him known. Back when we began in 1960, our main focus was to get youth into short-term mission work and to give them opportunities to reach out in Jesus’ name. Today, we still focus on youth, and we also involve people of almost every age (even many people who choose to spend their “retirement” in active service). Our many ministries fit into three main categories: evangelism, training and mercy ministry. We are currently operating in more than 1000 locations in over 149 countries, with a staff of nearly 16,000.
YWAM Explained
Youth With A Mission (YWAM) encompasses thousands of people and hundreds of ministries in almost every country of the world. In every case, our passion is to know God and to make Him known.
We are a mixture of people from all over the world, from 149 countries in fact. In many of our locations, people from a wide variety of nations serve side by side. We come from numerous different Christian denominations and speak hundreds of languages. Nearly half of our staff come from “non-western” countries, such as Brazil, Korea, Indonesia, India and Nepal. In addition to our full-time staff, many YWAM locations host short-term outreach teams made up of individuals, youth groups, families and churches who get to participate first-hand in “making God known” through both words and actions. We send out over 25,000 short-term missionaries each year.
There are three strands of ministry weaving throughout all that YWAM does:
Evangelism
YWAMers want to share their faith effectively in ways that the audience–whether teenagers, elderly refugees, or an unreached people group–will understand. YWAM also engages in church planting among unreached people groups.
Mercy Ministry
Mercy Ministry is the “hands and feet” of making God known. YWAM helps meet some of the practical and physical needs of about 400,000 people annually. Caring for street children in South America; aiding in the recovery of drug addicts in North America and Western Europe; feeding and housing refugees and women in need in Africa and Asia, and operating ships that declare the good news practically and verbally, are just some of the ways in which helping hands are extended.
Training and Discipleship
Training and Discipleship aim to better equip Christians to serve others in everything from agriculture and health care, to drug rehabilitation and biblical counseling. Through YWAM’s University of the Nations (UofN), missionaries can study in specialized areas such as science and technology, linguistics, the humanities, and Christian ministry. Most YWAM schools combine classroom teaching with relationship-centered discipleship and practical service.
The Discipleship Training School (DTS) is a requirement for applying as YWAM staff, and serves as a prerequisite to all other training programs.
Each year some 10,000 students attend a UofN school at one of the 250 different locations.
AWAKENING LEADERSHIP TRACK
The leadership development track is an open ended, one-year minimum training track designed to produce the following outcomes:
- Raise up priests before the Lord who have learned to prioritize His presence, live for His glory, and be led by His Spirit through a lifestyle of corporate and individual worship and intercession centered around the Word of God.
- Create mature and effective leaders who walk in great integrity and godly character that could staff a DTS, lead outreaches and pioneer schools in any setting and circumstance.
- Release evangelists, preachers, teachers and worship leaders who could effectively teach and impart into any setting with great anointing and profound impact.
- Train community builders and pioneers who are effective in creating, discipling and multiplying missional communities centered around the presence of the Lord.
The track may include any of the following types of seasonal responsibilities:
Prayer room staff
Ministry into the town of Kona
Backbone roles of serving the campus
Staffing DTS
Staffing Circuit Rider schools
Doing another type of training school
Leading outreaches
Participating with another pioneer community
Teaching in schools
Ministry trips
We provide the following types of discipleship and training:
Small group discipleship
One-on-one discipleship
Being a part of ministry teams in schools and in the community
Lifestyle of worship and prayer
Reading and writing assignments
Teaching and preaching class
Retreats
The keys to the leadership track are:
-Flexibility
-Zero entitlement
-Ravenous Hunger
-Self-motivation
-Teachable hearts
-Gratitude
-An unoffendable heart
-Boldness
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