Is That Really the Gospel, YWAM?

For the past two millennia, the church has wrestled with the questions of how she should best grow in her faith and what exactly it is she’s called to do in the world. People from ascetic hermits to monastic orders to parachurch organizations have attempted to answer these most basic questions concerning the Christian life.

For the past fifty years, one of the world’s largest missions agencies, Youth With a Mission (YWAM), has also attempted to answer these questions. Founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960, YWAM currently works in over 1,100 locations in 180 countries with a staff of 18,000. They are “dedicated to serving Jesus throughout the world” (what are we called to do?) and “united in a common purpose to know God and to make Him known” (how are we to grow in our faith?).1

YWAM’s service to the vulnerable and disadvantaged throughout the world is commendable. As a Christian organization, it is proper to remember the poor and suffering and to remember that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for our Savior. However, precisely because YWAM is a Christian organization, it would be helpful for us to examine their teaching in the light of the word of God (Acts 17:11). This article intends to highlight a few of the theological and even practical concerns of YWAM and its teaching. While we are grateful for the laudable zeal the organization has for the glory of Christ, the ease with which YWAM’s problematic understanding of Scripture and the gospel has infiltrated the churches—some of which claim to be confessionally Reformed—is troubling.

Practical Concerns

Although individual experiences of YWAMers (their official title) vary greatly, it is the authors’ experience that those who finish a YWAM mission seem to struggle with identity issues and a lack of purpose once they leave the intense subculture of the group. While on a mission, YWAMers viewed themselves as “storm troopers for God”; but once they were home, nothing could compare with the heightened emotional experience they had while serving the Lord in “combat.” The transition from battling demons and casting out evil spirits to pounding nails, sitting in a college class room, or cleaning your house is difficult if being a Christian is first and foremost about what you are doing—working for God. Can you truly obey the Great Commission to “go” in ordinary life?

It appears that many ex-YWAMers don’t believe they are doing enough; thus they struggle with guilt, their identity as Christians, and their sense of purpose. This is possibly because YWAM’s founder, Loren Cunningham, provides a somewhat confused definition of the gospel. In his book Is That Really You, God? Hearing the Voice of God, he wrote:

That night, there in the church with the storm battering the island, I realized that many of us were in danger of not stressing properly one major part of the Gospel message. Jesus told us there were two important things to do. One was to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength—teaching people to do that is evangelism. The other command was to love our neighbors as ourselves—to take care of people, as much as in our power to do. These were the two sides of the same Gospel: loving God and loving our neighbor. The two should be almost indistinguishable—so linked that it would be hard to tell them apart.2

This is later reiterated: “I could now imagine hundreds of thousands going out, until every continent was covered by people bringing the twin-natured message of the Gospel: Love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.”3 It’s easy to see how Cunningham’s fervor for sharing the gospel perhaps caused him (as it has others) to rush carelessly past what precisely the gospel is. Like many who are eager to bring the light of Christ to the nations, the desire to save the lost can overcome the biblical truth that accurately articulates what the lost are being saved from and the means God uses to effectually call his own.

Theological Concerns

Law/Gospel Distinction

According to Cunningham, the mission of YWAM is to spread Jesus’ message to “love God and love neighbor.” This is certainly worthy of being proclaimed broadly—even among Christians—but a problem arises when that message is proclaimed as the gospel, when it is in fact a summary of God’s perfect law. One of the most important distinctions in the Bible is the distinction between the law and the gospel. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul writes that the law is the ministry of death and condemnation, and it is powerless to deliver sinners from the guilt and bondage of sin (2 Cor. 3:7–14).

This confusion and conflation of the law and the gospel means that those who think the gospel is “loving God and neighbor” are never assured of their salvation because they don’t think they have loved enough. This very basic understanding was at the heart of the Reformation: Martin Luther and many after him came to understand that the righteousness that saves us is not a righteousness we need to (or can) earn; instead, we are saved by a righteousness God gives us through faith in Christ (Rom. 1:16–17; 4:4–5; 5:19; 2 Cor. 5:21).

Compare Loren Cunningham’s “the twin-natured message of the Gospel: Love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself” to that of Paul’s:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you… that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Cor. 15:1, 3b–4; emphasis added)

Paul states here that the gospel is something Christ did in history (he died, was buried, was raised, and subsequently appeared to many). There is nothing in Paul’s definition of the gospel that we need to act on. This is why the gospel is truly “good news”—we don’t have to do anything to be right with God. Christ has accomplished it all. We accept this with faith and a believing heart, which too is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8). Zacharias Ursinus summarizes this beautifully:

The law is called the Decalogue4, and the gospel is the doctrine concerning Christ the Mediator, and the free remission of sins through faith. . . . The law prescribes and enjoins what is to be done, and forbids what ought to be avoided; while the gospel announces the free remission of sins, through and for the sake of Christ.5

Sola Scriptura: Scripture Alone

The title of Cunningham’s book, Is That Really You, God?, suggests that its topic is hearing God and determining if it is really him speaking to “hearing” individuals. In fact, the final pages of the book are titled “Twelve Points to Remember: Hearing the Voice of God.” These serve as a summary of the many principles and practices Cunningham used during his life that were foundational to the formation and mission of YWAM. He states, “Jesus always checked with his Father and so should we. Hearing the voice of the heavenly Father is a basic right of every child of God. In this book, we have tried to describe a few of the many ways of fine-tuning this experience.”6 YWAM shared their values at a recent pastors’ luncheon:

YWAM is committed to creating with God through listening to him, praying his prayers and obeying his commands in matters great and small. We are dependent upon hearing his voice as individuals, together in team contexts and in larger corporate gatherings as an integral part of our process for decision making.7

Following this lunch, a young lady of our church, who previously served in YWAM before coming to understand confessional Christianity, was told, “You can read your Bible, but more importantly you need to hear the voice of God every day.”

While it is excellent for an organization to seek, and conform themselves to, God’s will, a scriptural understanding of how and where God reveals himself is necessary in order to do this well. To seek God’s voice in any other way undermines the sufficiency and authority of God’s word (his revealed word—the Bible). One of the five solas of the Reformation is sola scriptura, “Scripture alone.” This means that God speaks to us and guides us through his revealed word and through the preaching of it. For everyday living and decision-making, he gives us wisdom to put into practice what he has revealed in his word. We don’t need extrabiblical guidelines or procedures to listen for “the still small voice.”

Ecclesiology: The Doctrine of the Church

Even though Loren Cunningham began the YWAM movement while he was a minister in the Assemblies of God, he ended up leaving that denomination because the leaders above him did not share his vision.8 We see this in the ninth of his “Twelve Principles” to hear God’s voice:

Opposition of man is sometimes guidance from God. In our own story, we recognized much later that what seemed like blockage from our denomination was, in fact, God leading us to a broader scope of ministry. The important lesson here, again, is yieldedness [sic] to the Lord. Rebellion is never of God, but sometimes he asks you to step away from your elders in a way that is not rebellion but part of his plan. Trust that he will show your heart the difference.9

Cunningham gives three Scripture proofs for this guidance principle: two of them (Dan. 6:6–23; Acts 4:18–21) are in relation to God’s people being required to sin against the Lord and follow the commands of men. The other Scripture reference used is Acts 21:10–14 when Agabus prophesies that Paul will be bound in Jerusalem, which causes many of those around Paul to oppose him and discourage him from moving forward—which he ignores. The problem with using this text as a proof-text is that (1) Paul was an apostle, and (2) he was not opposed by ordained local church leaders. YWAM’s guidance to “step away from your elders” is in direct conflict with God’s word, which clearly says:

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb. 13:17)

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1 Pet. 5:5)

Counseling young people to go against the wise counsel of the leaders God has placed over them in favor of the counsel of parachurch leaders undermines the authority of the local church. In many respects, the youth (those who particularly need wise guidance from their fathers and mothers in the faith) are called upon to provide the vision for YWAM:

YWAM is called to champion youth. We believe God has gifted and called young people to spearhead vision and ministry. We are committed to value them, trust them, train them, support them, make space for them and release them.10

With such freedom and authority given to those with so little training and accountability, it’s little wonder that ex-YWAMers are sometimes hostile to the oversight and authority exercised within the local church.

Living Ordinary Lives

There is an underlying current in American evangelicalism—one to which YWAM’s theological distortions have contributed—that in order to be true Christians, we must be “radical Christians.” There is certainly a place for relinquishing the comforts of privilege and familiarity for the sake of serving the oppressed and suffering. Christ said that if we do not take up our cross and follow him, we are not worthy of him, and we are admonished to go and make disciples of all nations. But taking up our cross is not always selling all our possessions and giving the proceeds to the poor, and making disciples of all nations doesn’t always necessitate a six-month stint in a developing country. Sometimes it’s as simple and as ordinary as sharing what we have with someone in need, or catechizing our rambunctious children when it would be easier to watch Netflix.

The idea that Christians needed to address the material and social problems in the world in order to change the world is precisely what Cunningham envisioned as waves of young people crashing onto the shores of all the continents of the globe, going from house to house, preaching the gospel, and caring for people.11

God has given us his revealed word, which has been breathed out by him; it is suitable for teaching, reproof, and correction (2 Tim. 3:16). It is in this light that we looked into YWAM. While their zeal and fervor are commendable, their fundamental teachings and core methods conflict with (and in some cases, are directly opposed to) what God has clearly revealed.

God has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church (Matt. 16:18) and that he will build up his body into a royal priesthood and a holy nation called out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Pet 2:9). God certainly can use his children—including young people—in profound ways for the advancement of his kingdom, and he has done so for two thousand years through the church. But we must distinguish between the way God has promised us in his word and the ways he is able (if he is willing) to use us to accomplish his purposes.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith—to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Rom. 16:25–27)

Mark Stromberg, preaching pastor, and Mark Vander Pol, pastor of congregational life, serve the United Reformed Church of Lynden in Lynden, Washington.