Value the individual — YWAM Value #14

I have one more teaching I’m doing from the book Values Matter by Darlene Cunningham. This is Value #14 of our YWAM (Youth With a Mission) values. These values can be used for any team or organization and can help you best utilize the people you have.

YWAM is called to value the individual. We believe in equal opportunity and justice for all. Created in the image of God, people of all nationalities, ages, and functions have distinctive contributions and callings. We are committed to honoring God-given leadership and ministry gifts in both men and women.

We are all made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). He created and knew us before we were born. He made us with unique giftings and personalities, each with a purpose in mind. But as a training ground for young people in missions, YWAM may need to help them discover those things in themselves and call them out. Normally, as young people, they don’t yet know or understand their potential or calling. Like Darlene did, we should ask God to help us see them with His eyes, observe them, and ask many questions; then we can place them in positions that grow them and strengthen the giftings God has given them.

It is important to use the people God brings you and ask why He brought them—not just place them anywhere. Darlene told a story of a man named Doug McClure, a professional cellist. He came to Loren (her husband and the founder of YWAM) saying he felt God had sent him there. He had played before important people, but YWAM had no practical need for him. Still, because God sent him, they took him on. He became a teacher to children whose parents were killed for their faith, to refugees from the Middle East in Germany, and to people in Hawaii. They were called Symphony of Hope.

It should not matter your age, whether you are male or female, or your culture. YWAM was built to give justice and equal opportunities to all. We should strengthen each other because of our differences, honoring and celebrating the cultures represented among us. We also believe women have equal value to men and can be gifted and used in leadership roles. Darlene also made it clear that “part of equal opportunity and justice means we extend ourselves to allow all to have access to what they need.”

Acts 10:34–35
Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.”

Leviticus 19:13–16
“‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. “‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord. “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord.”

Loren Cunningham put in place The Christian Magna Carta:

Everyone has the right to:

• Hear and understand the gospel
• Have the Bible available in his or her own language
• Have a Christian fellowship nearby to meet regularly for worship, biblical teaching, and fellowship with the body of Christ
• Have a biblical Christian education available for their children
• Have the necessities of life: food, water, clothing, shelter, and healthcare
• Lead a productive life of fulfillment spiritually, mentally, socially, emotionally, and physically

Darlene notes that YWAM teaches its schools in many languages and strives to get the Bible into every language on earth.

Though YWAM is geared toward young people, we also need the older generations. Darlene wrote, “God designed us to function as a multi-generational family, so that our young people have models and mentors to learn from.” That way they can learn about marriage and family from a healthy, godly foundation, and receive wisdom for life skills or their relationship with God in ways they may never have learned otherwise.

Psalm 139:13–16

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

So each individual has value because of their God-given identity as those created in His image, with characteristics and talents that reflect Him; that value was worth His own life, bringing us into right relationship with Him and making us one family in Him. Let us be the body of Christ, using our gifts to teach and equip one another, working together in unity under the Head, which is Christ (Ephesians 4:15–16), advancing the Kingdom of God for His glory alone.

Do you live in community? What does that look like for you? Is it your family, friends, church, or workplace? Are there ways you can implement these things in your own life and community? Do you look beyond your own needs? Do you truly see and value others as God’s image bearers? Or do you only think through your own perspective, never stopping to ask what someone means by what they do, or what their intentions or perspectives are?

Your mind might be opened or enlightened simply by asking how someone was raised or why they do things the way they do. Believe me, God is growing my perspective all the time, even just through the roommates He has blessed me with. It is amazing what you can learn if you refrain from being offended and ask curious questions out of love and a willingness to learn. Tell us about your experiences and the things you’ve learned that amazed you from people you’ve encountered. I would love to hear your stories.