2014 Singapore Covenant Renewal
From August 27 to September 3, 2014, nearly 400 YWAMers gathered in Singapore as a family from 65 plus nations. Because God has acted in our midst, we want to respond to him and therefore
TOGETHER WE SAY:
Jesus, we declare our longing to walk intentionally and continuously in your presence – both individually and corporately. Father, we affirm that you are our greatest good. Like Moses we will go wherever you want to lead us as long as you, Holy Spirit, personally go with us, for it is your presence that we most cherish (Ex 33:15-16). As we do your bidding, we commit to do your work your way and never take your presence for granted. We will guard ourselves against inappropriate familiarity with your presence, for we do not want to touch the ark like Uzzah (2 Sa 6:1-8). Rather we want to walk in the fear of the Lord. We want more than a brief, passing visitation from you, God, therefore we invite you to always dwell in our midst.
Father, we celebrate the identity you have given us as a multi-cultural and multi-generational global family. We recognize that YWAM exists because you have graciously spoken to us and included us in your purposes. Our family story began when you met with Loren in the Bahamas in June 1956 and has continued to this very day. We acknowledge and affirm that because of your initiative, the vision of the waves has destiny-defining, covenantal implications for us. We remember the testimony of this encounter. Loren said, “Suddenly I was looking at a map of the world, only the map was alive and moving! I could see all the continents, and waves were crashing onto their shores. Each wave went onto a continent, then receded, then came up further until it covered the continent completely. The waves become young people–kids my age and even younger–covering all the continents of the globe. They were talking to people on street corners and outside bars. They were going from house to house and preaching the Gospel. They came from everywhere and went everywhere, caring for people. Then just as suddenly as it had come the scene was gone.”
We note that there are two key elements to this covenantal vision:
First of all, it was about youth, something unheard of in missions practice at that time. Therefore we recommit ourselves afresh to champion young people and to do all that we can to deregulate missions, so that all may be included in God’s kingdom purposes. We affirm our unqualified commitment to obey you, God, as you lead us to birth fresh, entrepreneurial initiatives in the Spirit in order to accomplish Great Commission goals. We will eagerly pioneer new things in new ways and encourage others to do the same as we listen to you, obey you and co-create with you those transformational activities which minister to the needs of the least, the last and the lost.
Secondly, it was about waves. It is about recurring and ever-expanding waves, each one building on that which had gone before. These waves came from every continent and went to every continent. All were involved; all were impacted. Therefore we commit ourselves to the alls and everys of the Great Commission. We commit ourselves to go where we are not, including all people, using every God-inspired strategy to reach each and every person on earth with the proclamation, God, of your truth and the demonstration of your love.
- Holy Spirit, we acknowledge your presence in our journey and your kind leading over these many decades. Often we have not done things as we ought, but you, God, have always been gracious and faithful towards us. At different points in our family story, we remembered the covenantal vision you gave us and realized we had fallen short of your purposes for us. At times we repented and sought your face, and renewed our commitment to you and your purposes for us as a tribe within the family of God. On several of those occasions, we wrote documents which served us as covenant renewals with you, affirming your original design for our family, reminding ourselves of how you called us both to missional innovation and to the alls and everys of the Great Commission. We affirm these covenant renewal documents in our story:
• the Manila Covenant from 1988
• the Red Sea Covenant from 1992
• the Nanning Covenant from 2002
• the Jubilee Covenant from 2010
To the degree that these four covenant renewal documents have helped us unpack and re-engage with the main themes of the vision of the waves, they have served us well as a mission. The first three documents were corporate in nature; the last one was more personal in its purpose.
It has been twelve years since our last corporate covenant renewal. At the time of the writing of the Nanning Covenant, we recognized that we had drifted from your original purpose for us and from the values you gave us. Instead of functioning faithfully as a family within our missional domain we had put on “Saul’s armor” of organizational hierarchy modelled after government and business paradigms rather than simply obeying the words you had given us.
In Nanning, Loren’s “Tripod Message” affirmed that to be fruitful as an apostolic missionary movement we needed to emphasize three things:
- the individual’s freedom in the Spirit to hear and obey God in a co-creative way
- the role of spiritual eldership committed to advancing God’s missional purposes
- healthy, loving relationships
all under your Lordship, Jesus, and guided by your word.
Since that time we have been on a journey of realignment with you, God, and your ways. In these past dozen years, you have taught us many things. Some of the salient words you have given us have been documented in our “Signpost Messages” so that we as a people can pass them on faithfully to the next generations.
You have taught us that eldership is not about guarding organizational positions, but about enthroning you as our one king. It is about circles of elders convening the family for events and converging together around the word of the Lord. It is your presence among us and your word to us that gives leadership over us. We remind ourselves that “the government will rest” on your shoulders (Isa 9:6) and therefore we are to build “altars of stone, not towers of bricks” (Gen 11). We do this as we seek to minister to you, Lord, waiting on you in an unhurried and humble way, listening to you together, cultivating a heart of unity and moving in a spirit of adoption. We belong to you, God, and to one another in this family.
• God, we embrace our call to evangelism and training and mercy ministries. We recognize that these are not disjointed activities but are an integrated call which fulfils your heart for your people. We acknowledge that the goal of this call is to do all that we can in obedience to you, God, to see both individuals redeemed and societies transformed. This goal is set before us in Mark 16:15 and Matthew 28:18-20 and is reflected in our embrace of the Christian Magna Carta and the Seven Spheres of Society.
We affirm that the scope of our call is nothing less than that which was reflected in the original covenantal vision of the waves: the alls and everys of the Great Commission. Therefore, we continue to embrace the challenge of the 4k framework and seek to pioneer where we are not.
Finally, we recognize that we are most truly who you want us to be, Lord, when we intentionally care, connect, serve and build.
Therefore, God, as the YWAM family we renew our covenant commitment with you, our heavenly Father, and ask you to work in us by the redemptive work of you Son and the powerful indwelling of your Spirit. Help us to be all you want us to be and do all you want us to do. We will continue to declare our longing for you and celebrate who you have called us to be. As we acknowledge your presence with us through all our journey, we embrace your call upon our lives. May you, Lord, be glorified and may your kingdom come. Amen.
