Structure
YWAM leaders characterize the organization as a “family of ministries” rather than a structured, hierarchical entity. YWAM's website describes how each of YWAM’s 1000+ operating centers is responsible for determining which training programs it will conduct, the character and destination of its outreaches, personnel recruitment, financial sustainment, and ministerial priorities.
YWAM sources cite the following characteristic as common to all operating locations: A) The pre-requisite of the Discipleship Training School. B) The mandate to "know God and make Him known". C) A threefold ministry of: evangelism, mercy ministry and training/discipleship. D) A shared statement of faith, vision and values.
Accountability and leadership are maintained through a system of regional, national and international oversight. Even though YWAM lacks centralized legal structure, through its emphasis on tightly knit relationships based on the YWAM DNA and the devotion to the founders, the demand for conformity and control is often done through heart commitment to the person and the values of the founders. The Global Leadership Forum (GLF), which consists of approximately 45 leaders from around the world, is considered the eldership body for YWAM International.
Read more about this topic: Australian Relief & Mercy Services
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Slumism is the pent-up anger of people living on the outside of affluence. Slumism is decay of structure and deterioration of the human spirit. Slumism is a virus which spreads through the body politic. As other “isms,” it breeds disorder and demagoguery and hate.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)
“The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in its totality, in its structure: posterity discovers it in the stones with which he built and with which other structures are subsequently built that are frequently better—and so, in the fact that that structure can be demolished and yet still possess value as material.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The structure was designed by an old sea captain who believed that the world would end in a flood. He built a home in the traditional shape of the Ark, inverted, with the roof forming the hull of the proposed vessel. The builder expected that the deluge would cause the house to topple and then reverse itself, floating away on its roof until it should land on some new Ararat.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)