DTS Lecture Phase - Oxford, New Zealand

These videos clips are from a YWAM lecture phase in New Zealand. The speaker is Graham Cooke and I think his words sum up a lot about what we are about in YWAM.

This is called, “Decisions that Define Us”

We have decided, that teaching the Gospel
without demonstrating it is not enough

Good preaching, good doctrine,
being good people is not enough

We’ve decided that having a good
church club is not enough

Good fellowship – it’s not enough

Just being a member of that club
is not enough

We’ve decided that having good bible
studies is good, but not good enough.

That just making it to heaven
is not our goal

And that knowing about God without
truly knowing and experiencing God

is meaningless.

We’ve decided that having good programs
is not enough,

That change without transformation
is intolerable

And that staying the same
is not an option.

We’ve decided that gifting
without character is futile

We’ve decided that singing songs
without worshipping is hollow

And having meetings without
God showing up is pointless

We’ve decided that having faith
without works is not enough

And having works without love
is not acceptable

That our function comes out
of our relationship

1) with the Father and
2) with each other.

We have decided that reading
about the book of Acts

without living the book of Acts
is unthinkable.

We’ve decided that
confident faith is good,

bold faith is better.

We’ve decided that hearing about the
Holy Spirit without experiencing Him

is silly.

That believing in His presence without
seeing it manifested in signs and wonders

is hypocrisy.

That believing in healing without
seeing people healed is absurd.

and that believing in deliverance
without people being delivered

is absolutely ridiculous.

We’ve decided to be Holy Spirit filled,
Holy Spirit led, and Holy Spirit empowered

Anything less doesn’t work for us.

We have decided to be the ones
telling the stories of God’s power,

not the ones hearing about them.

We have decided that living saved,
but not supernatural,

is living below our privilege
and short of what Christ died for.

We have decided that we’re a battleship,
not a cruise ship

An army,
not an audience

Special forces,
not spectators

Missionaries,
not club members.

We have decided to value
both pioneers and settlers

Pioneers to expand our territory
and settlers to build on those territories

But we are not squatters –

People who take up space others have
fought for without improving it.

We have decided to be infectious
instead of innocuous

Contagious instead of quarantined

Deadly instead of benign.

We have decided to be radical lovers
and outrageous givers

We have decided that we’re a
mission station, not a museum

Therefore,

we honor the past,

but we don’t live in it.

We live in the present
with our eyes on the future

We see past events, success and failures
as stepping stones, not stop signs

We pursue learning
in order to be transformed,

not learning in order to know.

We are people of engagement,
not observation

We focus on what could be,
not on what is or has been

We are not limited to the
4 walls of this building

Our influence is not
restricted by location

Not even the nations are ‘out of bounds’

We are more concerned about
how many we send out into the world,

Than how many we convince
to come into the building.

This building is meant to be filled,
and it will be

But it will not be the measure
of who we are,

or the measure of our effectiveness

We raise up world-changers,
not tour-guides

We train commandos,
not committees

We are people of our destiny,
not our history

We have decided that it’s better to fail
while reaching for the impossible

that God has planned for us
than succeed in settling for less

We have decided that nothing short of
"His kingdom come, and His will be done

in our world as it is in heaven"
will satisfy

We have decided: we will not be satisfied

until our world freaks out, and cries out:

“those who have turned the world upside
down have come here too” (Acts 17:6)

These are some of the decisions
that define who we are as a community

and how we live our lives.

These decisions are not destinations
but rather journeys

Journeys along an ancient path,

We’ve not found some new way,

but rather rediscovered the path
as old as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

The same path followed by Moses,
Joshua, Caleb, Paul, John, and Peter

A path followed by
the first century church

A church that revolutionized the culture
of the 1st century and beyond.

It’s a path that will impact
the world we live in today

It’s a path of bold faith

Believing that what God says
is really true and acting on it

It’s a path of outrageous generosity

Giving our life away in order to
demonstrate his kingdom

It’s a path of radical love

Loving God with everything in us
and our neighbor as ourselves

It’s a path of liberty,
freedom and healing

On this path,

you will find significance,
purpose and destiny

It’s a path less traveled, however

It’s not a path only available
to a select few

But to whosoever will may come

It’s for people of every
nation, tribe and tongue

For those in any occupation or vocation.

No matter where you are
on your life journey,

there’s room on this path for you.