One of the things that I believe is important for us in YWAM is to tell our stories. Scripture is full of references about the power of our testimony and the power of our witness, but I think that too many of us don’t tell our story, and don’t make use of the tools that are out there to “declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me” (Dan. 4:2).

In todays world of easy publishing and communication (for those of us in developed nations) it is easier than ever to tell others about what God is doing in and through us. This is something that we really need to be doing…

Why Tell Our Story?

First off we need to realise that it isn’t our story that we are to be telling, it’s God’s story. We tell our story not to bring glory to ourselves, but to bring glory to God and to point to Him. Our stories must bring glory to God, even when, like Job, we might be going through a hard time.

So why should we tell our stories as Christians and as Missionaries?

1. Point other people to God and His faithfulness and love
2. Encourage others in their faith and walk with God
3. Mobilise others to action by telling how God is using you

There is plenty written on the web about the first two items, but for our purposes I want to focus on #3, mobilising others…

Use Your Story to Mobilise Others

You are probably going to get sick of me talking about mobilising others, but for me this is the journey that God is taking me down at the moment…

I don’t know about you, but I am encouraged and challenged reading about how other people are living out their faith and the call that God has on their lives. Books like “Is That Really You God” by Loren Cunningham and “A Retrospect” by J. Hudson Taylor get me excited about the possibility that God has a plan and purpose for me, and that God can make a difference through my obedience to Him. God has used others, and their story encourages me:

• Have you ever stopped to think that the story of your life journey with God can encourage others to seek God and follow Him to the ends of the earth?
• If you aren’t telling your story how will people know that they can partner or join with you in ministry?
• If you aren’t telling your story then who is?

Tell Your Story and Stories From Your Ministry

I’m not just talking about your personal stories, but also about stories from your ministry. I need both. I want to connect to you personally, and also to your ministry and the ministry centre you work with.

If I visit your ministry web-site I want to see what God is doing and read the stories and testimonies. I will connect to the people in the stories a lot easier than I will connect with a “brand” or “ministry concept”.

The stories is how you will excite me to want to be a part of the work God has you doing. Without the stories you will appear faceless and hollow, a corporate entity, not a living, breathing part of the body of Christ. The stories bring life and energy to your ministry, and encourage me to think about becoming a part of it.

So please, tell me your story…

Is There a Biblical Basis for Sharing Your Story?

To finish, here are a few scriptures encouraging us to tell our stories…

"And they overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death." (Revelation 12:11)

"But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:8)

"I thought it good to declare the signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me." (Daniel 4:2)

"Oh, give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!" (1 Chronicles 16:8)

"For we cannot but speak of the things we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20)

But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:  (1 Peter 3:15)

Recently I have been really challenged with what my actual role and job is in YWAM. Two article that I have read recently have challenged me a lot about what I do:

• Missions Misunderstood: YWAM Radio
• The Long View: How we choose and what Mobilizers can do about it

Up until reading the YWAM Radio article, which is a review of the YWAM Podcast, I had thought of myself as a purveyor of information and news. I used the podcast and my seldom updated YWAM News site tell others about what is happening around YWAM. What I have realized though is that telling people what is happening is only a subset of what I should actually be doing.

I need to mobilise people

The thing that God wants me to be doing here isn’t just to tell people about what’s happening, but it’s to mobilise people into action and into making a difference. Sharing testimonies about what God is doing around the mission is important, but that is only a part of what God wants me to do with the tools that He’s provided. He wants to use these stories and testimonies to encourage others into action.

Like Ernset Goodman says in his article, “People don’t connect with news, they connect with people.”. As I look at what that means it will be a change in how the news is presented and what news is selected for the YWAM Podcast. It will also mean more work as I will try to connect more with the people in the field to present their story, much like I did with the interview with Phil Cunningham about Steps of Justice on episode 34 of the YWAM Podcast.

What is mobilising?

For people who are “mobilisers” Justin Long’s blog The Long View is a great read. There are some terrific articles on his site and many of them challenge my own thoughts on what it means to be a mobiliser.

His article about How we Choose looks at how we can get out among the people to help them make the right decision about where God wants them to serve. Rather than trying to fit someone into our mould, like a round peg in a square hole, we would help them find the place that God has for them.

As broad as Youth With A Mission’s ministries are, it is not for everyone (despite what some in the mission would probably say). At the same time we as ministry leaders should stop looking at how we can shove people into places that we want filled. Instead we should be looking at how we can release our staff and students into what God has designed them to do. If we continue to shove people into our own mould it might fill in a temporary need, but in the long run it will hurt them and us.

Now what?

Now that I’ve had my view of my role in YWAM challenged a bit I need to refocus on where and how I spend my time and energy. It’s something I need to continue to pray into and see where and how God leads …

Image supplied by FreeFoto.com

I’ve had a few people ask me lately what my Podcast Recording set-up looks like, so here is a photo of it, with a description below …

The computer is the laptop that we raised money for at the beginning of this year (2010). Some of the other things are a set of Sony Headphones , a second 21.5″ monitor, a Blue Microphones Snowball USB Microphone (White), with Shockmount and and external keyboard and mouse.

I use a program called PodProducer as my soundboard to play the extra audio in the podcast, it isn’t fully compatible with Windows 7 so I can’t use it for recording, but I can use it for playback. For the actual recording I use a program called Krisal Audio Engine because it’s free and allows simultaneous multi-track recording. To write my show notes I use Google Docs, because it allows me to collaborate with the rest of my YWAM team, and also allows me to share the notes with a guest host when I have one.

Here is a screen shot of what it looks like when I’m recording the podcast.

From left to right what’s on my screen are:

• Running script of news stories
• Current story I’m talking about
• Soundboard with audio from stories
• Multi-track recording software

There are some limitations with the existing set-up, like the fact that I can not record external audio and a Skype conversation at the same time. To do this would require a significant investment in new sound equipment including an external mixer, a new microphone and an external digital audio recorder. As we continue to develop the podcast and the audience grows we’ll be looking into this more, but for the moment this set-up is serving us well.