What do you guys think of YWAM if someone wants some kind of biblical schooling?(but doesn't want to do years in a seminary or bible college :-D )
But seriously...what do you know about YWAM??
YWAM is a great way to get a taste for missions. It's usually best for someone who's just out of highschool -it can be a life changing spiritual event. It's not so much a school as it's throwing into the midst of serving the poor and needy -which can be a hundred times more powerful than going to seminary if your heart is in the right place.
I don't know how it is for someone post college, I haven't really heard about many people doing it post college, I've heard about guys and gals doing it as a year break from college.
Lorren Cunningham the founder is an awesome guy and was a mentor for Keith Green. Ywamers as they're called come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Some of them get ragged on for being spiritually immature, and some of them are some of the most solid people i've ever met.
If you're post college and thinking about missions there are tons of organizations looking for people to teach and serve overseas. I strongly suggest Operation Mobilization, Mission to Unreached Peoples... in fact you can find out about more organizations at mnnonline.com or intercristo.com.
Besides YWAM you might also want to consider:
http://www.gfa.org/roadtoreality
I applied for this year long internship and was rejected based on my student loan debt... I would have dropped everything for a chance to do this internship -GFA is awesome.
To tell you the truth...every Ywamer I ever met has been on fire for the Lord. I think that's what attracted me to it.
I applied for this year long internship and was rejected based on my student loan debt
aww man...same thing might happen to me but I'm glad they do that.
Wow, I'm glad I'm not the only one -I kind of felt they rejected me for some other reason and just used that as the easy let down answer ~_~ Jk
A friend of mine (post college) just got back from Isreal through YWAM. I havent had a chance to talk in detail about his trip, but his sister says he has really changed since he left, he stops and prays for her. He's been on fire since I've met him and that definitly hasnt changed. The pictures I've seen while he was over there looks like he had a great time in worship and service.
Not all YWAM bases are created equal.
I have friends that are part of YWAM in CT. and I would never be part of it. One of my friends daughters went to the training school in HI, did missions in India and said it was not a good experience.
I worked for a brief time with YWAM in Afghanistan. All I can say is if I were to go back to Afghanistan I would want to go on my own.
From "my" experience it seem YWAM, like many ministries, had a great beginning and has veered from their Godly beginnings.
An internship with GFA would be great. I live about a mile from their home office and sometimes go to their prayer meetings. They are a real blessing.
It's good for you to seek councile and advice but also be sure to take this to prayer and be led by God Himself.
This would be good for you to listen to:
God's Man (Paul Washer):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2833923807228387128&hl=en
For short term missions & Bible training, personally YWAM is very good.
When I got born again, I told God that I want a Bible training. I told Him to choose because if I choose I may not get the right school for me. Very clearly, God led me to YWAM, Australia.
I took two courses with YWAM for 1 1/2 years; short term mission in India.
Discipleship Training School (DTS) is the first course to be taken for all who wants to join YWAM. Three months lecture & three months mission.
School of Biblical Studies - inductive Bible study from Genesis through Revelation. One year divided into three terms. You may not take the three terms. This Bible course is more on training students to think & allow the Bible & Holy Spirit to interpret the Bible rather than presenting all the views & comments of Bible scholars wherein your head is full of commentaries from scholar.
They have a lot of short courses like evangelism, intercession, missions, media & arts, etc. They also have degree courses.
After my YWAM training, I went back to secular job. After seeking God for my desire to be a missionary, He gave me a go signal to join Worldwide Evangelization for Christ (WEC - founded by CT Studd) though I had a training with YWAM. Why join WEC not YWAM? Because this is God's leading. I emptied my mind & heart as to how to start my missionary life. He knows where will I fit best for He created & designed me. He knows where to use the gifts He has given me.
What's my point? [b]Let God choose for you, it's the perfect thing to do. I wont recommend any schools to you. You seek God and ask Him to lead you to the right school for your training.
Bless you,
Roman
YWAM does a lot of good ministry, and for that I commend them. Personally, I would not be involved in it because it is an extremely ecumenical organization. They are "unequally yoked together" with very liberal denominations, Charismatic denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. What fellowship does light have with dark? None.
Thats just my two cents worth. I dont pass judgement on anyone who wants to work with YWAM, and certainly some good has come from their efforts. But that never is an excuse for disobedience to the Word of God.
There are plenty of mission organizations that are not ecumenical, and should anyone desire my opinion... I would recommend them over YWAM.
Krispy
Hey Santana,
Check out "Fire School of Ministry".
I've never been there but I like the preaching of the two founders.
You can go here and listen to a few clips of Michael Brown and Bob Gladstone preaching.
http://fireonthealtar.com/fire/fire.html
Be sure to listen to the clips.
Avoid YWAM, I grew up on a YWAM base here in Australia, but today I would have nothing to do with them. While out on the streets once we met a YWAM DTS team, which was out evangelising. But they were all catholics and pushed 'works'.
When we challenged them on working with those who have different theology, they replied "There is truth everywhere, we just got to look for it, and then agree with that."
Avoid YWAM, I grew up on a YWAM base here in Australia, but today I would have nothing to do with them. While out on the streets once we met a YWAM DTS team, which was out evangelising. But they were all catholics and pushed 'works'.
Thank you... that confirms what I said.
Krispy
YWAM has thousands and thousands of kids yearly... because you didn't like what two of them had to say don't dismiss the whole organization.
Ian... I trust that you were referring to Willo, and not me. I think if you read my previous post you will see that I did not dismiss the organization. I merely stated what I see as a serious flaw, and legitimately so.
Krispy
Willo wrote:
Avoid YWAM, I grew up on a YWAM base here in Australia, but today I would have nothing to do with them. While out on the streets once we met a YWAM DTS team, which was out evangelising. But they were all catholics and pushed 'works'.When we challenged them on working with those who have different theology, they replied "There is truth everywhere, we just got to look for it, and then agree with that."
Not all of YWAM is "bad." My friend, whom I pray with every week concerning revival, came out of YWAM and still has a desire to get back with YWAM. It was through YWAM that God gave him a burning passion to see revival take place.
sscott wrote:
Hey Santana,Check out "Fire School of Ministry".
I've never been there but I like the preaching of the two founders.
You can go here and listen to a few clips of Michael Brown and Bob Gladstone preaching.
http://fireonthealtar.com/fire/fire.html
Be sure to listen to the clips.
My aunt and Uncle attended the church that this started from. I personally have concerns about this ministry and the leadership. My family was invited down at the excited request of my relatives, so we decided to check it out. Some of what they said was good, but the ministry felt superficial and nearly dead. When they did an altar call, for something I can't remember now, I decided to go up (partly due to the urge of my relatives). So, I got up there and they began to lay hands on me and were actually expecting me to fall because of the presence of the Lord (I'd always been somewhat of a skeptic of this - not saying that it can't happen, but some fall over for drama's sake, not the presence of the Holy Spirit). Well, I didn;t fall, so they moved on to someone else, but then they came back to me, prayed again, and asked that satan remove himself from me that I would not resist His presence. I still didn't fall. So they moved on again, only to come back. This time, I decided to make sure that me knees weren't locked, in case it was an unwillingness on my part to truly fall over because of the Holy Spirit. (My knees hadn't really been locked before, but I was trying to make certian this time, because I didn't want to miss out. They prayed more strongly that the devil would take his grasp off me and I still didn't fall over.
Now let me mention that this whole time they were touching my head, but barely.
So, they moved on again once they could see that I wasn't falling over, and then came back to me for the fourth and final time. They prayed more strongly this time, that satan would leave and that the Holy Spirit would come in and take over. However, this time they decided to shove my head back very forcibly (because they can't look bad if someone's not falling over, ya know). In fact they shoved my head so forcibly that it just tilted my head way back, almost whiplash style. Well, I was losing my balance at this point, but not because of the Holy Spirit, so I recovered my balance before falling over, and that's when they decided to give up on me.
It's because of this experience and the feeling of the whole service kind of being superficial, that I've become learyof this whole ministry and the fire-school.
P.S. My younger brother decided to attend this school, really didn't like the first semester, but thought his heart might be hard, so decided to go again and finish out the year.
He came back reporting that it was so superficial and that they had all kinds of weird and crazy rules.
So, there you have it - My experience with Michael Brown and Bob Gladstone
He came back reporting that it was so superficial and that they had all kinds of weird and crazy rules.So, there you have it - My experience with Michael Brown and Bob Gladstone
That's why I was careful to say I had not been there. I had a similar experience with Bethany College of Missions in MN. I thought it would be a great school because the founder T.A Hegre was a friend of Leonard Ravenhill...he mentions him in one of his books and forwards. I took a trip up there a few years ago to check it out and was very disappointed.
I had another similar experinece with Steve Hill. I heard a sermon of his that was really good and then found out his church was about 20 min from my house. I went to check it out and again was disappointed. Benny Hinn books for sale and the service seemed "showie" (if that's a word).
I had another similar experinece with Steve Hill. I heard a sermon of his that was really good and then found out his church was about 20 min from my house. I went to check it out and again was disappointed. Benny Hinn books for sale and the service seemed "showie" (if that's a word).
Is this the same Steve Hill of the Brownsville "revival" fame? If so, you would do well to stay away from him. (as if the Benny Hinn books werent enough of a sign...)
Krispy
KrispyKrittr wrote:
Is this the same Steve Hill of the Brownsville "revival" fame? If so, you would do well to stay away from him. (as if the Benny Hinn books werent enough of a sign...)Krispy
Yup, same guy. That is actually when I went... during their "revival."
Is this the same Steve Hill of the Brownsville "revival" fame? If so, you would do well to stay away from him. (as if the Benny Hinn books werent enough of a sign...)Krispy
Absolutely, I agree. I wasn't very familiar with Steve Hill. I had just heard one sermon and then went to visit his church. Haven't been back.
It's amazing how pervasive and wide spread this wof stuff has become. How can church leadership be so clueless?
Back in the mid 80's several college age kids (my age at the time) went on YWAM DTS trips. They all came back with incredible zeal for God and great testimonies of the things He had been doing. I remember reading a book about the vision and attainment of their mercy ship 'The Anastasis'. It's a great story. It stirred my heart so that I sought to get involved, but was prevented as God had other plans. The Anastasis actually turned out to be the connection my wife and I had at our first meeting. She had been on board the ship and hosted a couple of gals for some short term shore leave.
Over the years I have lost track of this minstry and am saddened a bit by the news of its decline. I know at one time they were vibrant and powerfully used of God in both the mission field as well as in the hearts of many young christians. If I'm not mistaken, the video of Keith Green titled "Devotion or Devotions" found here at SI is from a YWAM DTS.
It is my sincere hope that the bad reports of some of the activities in YWAM does not mean the whole thing has been corrupted. I had some less than pleasant experiences at two seperate Baptist churches when I was a young christian, but this by no means colors all Baptist churches. To paint with such a broad brush is quite unfair. Let's hope the same is true for YWAM.
If anyone knows about the recent ministry of the mercy ships I'd love to get an update.
In His Love,
Doug
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