JEM France

YWAM France Vision

After a time of reflection and discussion, (4 years after the draft of the "Vision of YWAM France: Calling, Objectives, Strategies"), the national leadership team suggests the following :

- to specify our calling further in order not to go beyond the limits that God has set for us, according to 2 Cor.10:13-16, ie actions motivated by the apostolic and prophetic vocation that prompts us to constantly explore new geographical, cultural and social territory (Rom. 15:20)
- to stress 3 of our objectives that appear to be a priority
- to underscore the current reality of our movement, while maintaining its calling.

This proposition does not alter the outline of the text of 1995 and should allow each one to better understand the "national vision" and to express more clearly his or her commitment, as well as being able to evaluate the progress of our mission towards its objectives.

Suggested text:

- CALLING -

- Challenged by the Word of God, that commands us to preach the Gospel to all of creation and to make disciples of all nations (Mark 16:15; Matt.28:19-20),

- Aware of our specific calling and its limits (Eph.4:11-13; 2 Co.10:13-16, Rom. 15:20) :

We are committed to work with the whole Body of Christ to see a profound reformation of the values of our society, so that it can find again its God-given destiny in the concert of nations.

We believe that this reform is happening each time the principles of the Kingdom of God are lived out by a Christian community in the different areas of society such as the family, the church, the education system, the economy, the government, the arts, communication, etc ...

We equally want to extend our action to carrying the Gospel of the Kingdom to those ethnic groups that have not yet been evangelized, particularly those in French speaking countries, knowing that the Gospel has to be communicated in a contextualized way, so that God's plan for each culture remains unchanged.

- OBJECTIVES / STRATEGIES -

During the first years of this new century, Youth With A Mission France will pursue therefore the following 3 objectives:

1) Mobilising and training of youth

2) Developing pioneer ministries

3) Redeeming the French speaking cultures

1) Mobilising and training youth

Evangelism is necessary, we don't want to stop there however, but go further by challenging and training a generation that will fully take up its role as "salt and light" (Matth. 5:13-14) in the different spheres that influence our society. We realize that our actions need to respond more and more to the expectations and needs of the young generation and its culture. These actions will be:

- evangelism (summer campaigns, Impact World Tour, camps, etc)
- actions and networks of "Fabricants de Joie" (King's Kids) (weekends, training and work camps, evangelism tours...)
- discipleship training (Discipleship Training Schools, Church based DTS)
- University of the Nations schools that will help develop other activities in our midst
- leadership training (seminars, mentoring, etc)

2) Pioneer Ministries

We believe that God has raised up Youth With A Mission to be a movement of pioneer and prophetic ministries. Our priority is therefore to initiate new actions and welcome personal initiatives that are in line with the calling of Youth With A Mission. In order to continue to see breakthroughs into "new territory" (geographically, culturally and socially) we will then entrust these new actions to those who are called to develop them. Here are the tools we will use:

- planting of living communities, adapted to the given context
- multiplication of ministries of listening and support in the big cities (Alternatives+, Torrents de vie, etc)
- mobilisation for missions ("Mission Nights", adoption of unreached people groups, etc)
- training for pioneer ministries (School of Frontier Missions, School of Church Planting, etc)
- support of community development projects

3) Redemption of cultures

We believe that each people group is called to a specific destiny, to fulfill a specific purpose and therefore want to see the values of the Kingdom of God be released and influence primarily the cultures that shape the French speaking world, so that they rediscover this sense of destiny. In order to do that, we will develop the following actions:

- developing an action network in the cities (specific seminars, forums, think tanks, etc)
- training (Principles of Cultural Redemption School, festivals, etc)
- creating (teams working on the redemption of cultural expressions, etc)
- supporting activities linked with YWAM France (publishings, artistic actions, economic actions, etc)

Notes:

- 1 - Training is a necessary element, but is not an aim in itself. Training is a tool that permits reaching set objectives. It serves all the elements that make up our calling. Workers are equipped to work for the spreading of the Kingdom of God in each sphere of society and in missions.

- 2 - Working in the "influence spheres" of society is not opposed to "missions work" in less evangelised countries: some are called to open doors, others to go through them and start building. We all need each other.

- 3 - In His time, God raises up "spearhead" ministries in different areas that correspond to the objectives that we pursue. We want to cooperate with these ministries, being aware that the Holy Spirit encourages initiatives for brotherly covenants within the Church, which are a true blessing for the nations.

- 4 - Generally and historically speaking, the geographical space where we invest ourselves in are the French speaking world and some other areas of the world (Kamchatka, Albania, etc).

The felt priorities for the next years are as follows:

The less evangelized regions of France (Brittany, Centre, Corsica, the Basque country, etc)
The Mediterranean Bassin
The large cities
The unreached ethnic groups in the French speaking world
The French speaking islands

(this list is neither exhaustive nor exclusive)

JEM France is a ministry of YWAM international