YWAM’s School of (Worldly) Music in (Compromised)Missions

School of Music in Missions (SOMM) is  a discipleship based training school that trains musicians in the areas of Christian character, contemporary Christian music, music performance, missions, and other topics as well. The SOMM should not be the first step into music ministry, but could be the “next” step for those who desire to use their musical gifts in missions. (YWAM Perth)

I did the SOMM in India. We had students with amazing talents and skills to perform. They were seriously dedicated and hardcore musicians. Their inspiration? Secular music! We were constantly encouraged to listen to secular musicians and “learn” from them. We were brainwashed into believing that there’s no difference between secular and Christian music. (Contemporary christian music is inspired by secular artists.) This is true since CCM is an offshoot of secular music. Students were encouraged to “be themselves”, which meant they could get tattooed, piercings etc. It was pure worldliness in Christian clothing. Me being naive and undiscerned, got pulled in with all that. God was only approached to meet our agenda.

YWAM celebrates “Christian” rock. They used to hold a rock concert where CHRISTIANS would act like pagan worshippers banging their heads (I stand guilty) and the singer ripping out this throat while the guitarists would go on screeching. It was madness! (You’d be called names if you spoke evil of it…) And after the event everyone will be “feeling so good letting it out”! I wish I could go back and stand against this compromise. YWAM has intentionally overlooked the serious consequences of bridging the sacred and the secular. It is a mind-controlling organization, convincing anyone that it is unbiblical to distinguish the sacred from the secular.

YWAM’s Obsession with New Age Creativity

“Whatever you do is creative; not just singing, playing or dancing, even just listening to someone teach is creative.”

That statement is put up as a status by one of my contacts, a YWAMer, on Facebook. This teaching on ‘creativity in everything was taught at one of the training schools of YWAM. I read all the comments that followed; basically they were all about how wonderful the speaker, who taught creativity, was. The speaker, Sue, commented too, stating how she loved all the “sue-isms” that were on the Facebook wall. (No glory to God, she was happy she was being praised!) Many YWAMers and otherwise are completely unaware of this. It takes the Holy Ghost to reveal the deception.

There is a tremendous obsession with creativity in today’s world. Everything needs to be “creative”; anything “old” has no place in the minds of this generation. So what’s wrong with YWAM’s infatuation with creativity? Leaving that aside for now, let’s turn to the New Age spirituality and what it has to do with creativity. The New Age beliefs are based on creativity. Everything should be creative, just like what is being taught at YWAM, a Christian mission. This organization solely moves by strategies and creativity. If it’s a local outreach, the team would sit and think of a strategy to “win” souls to Christ. (The main purpose of YWAM is establishing a Utopia-like community. It aims to build a world based on ‘christian principles’ .) During intercessory prayers, people ask God for strategies and creativity to bring “His” will about. This approach is taken out of the New Age spirituality. In an interview, Dr. Adair was asked questions on creativity; he is highly regarded by the New Age spiritualists; I can testify his answers are not far from what YWAM teaches although they tend to back up these teachings with random Bible verses. And believe me, they are excellent at convincing anyone who lacks discernment (this is one of the reasons why christian youth is the prime target). I do not say that Dr. Adair’s philosophy does not work, but who is his inspiration? If the spiritualists use his books to counsel their clients, should it not ring bells in the mind of a follower of Christ? Study the page from which the quote below is extracted. Notice the page is filled with New Age spirituality: yoga, meditation, psychic, auras, theosophy etc. And this kind of New Age teaching is rampant in Christian churches and global missions. It’s really all about self-gratification disguised as ‘doing God’s will’.

“Creative thinking always involves this sort of team work. A parting word of encouragement, the worst unconscious assumption you can make is that you are not a creative thinker. You may, of course, be right, but you will never know until you put into practice the principles I have outlined in The Art of Creative Thinking. The trouble is that we don’t know ourselves very well in some respects and we tend to be poor judges of our own creative potential. So experiment, have fun, and give yourself a few surprises.” – Dr. Adair

Where is the dependence on the Holy Spirit or His leading? Crying out to God to help a man-made agenda is a waste of time. Might as well bake some cookies. I’ve done that myself, sitting and praying with other YWAMers asking God to give us strategy to bring “His will” (when in fact it’s what the leaders have thought about). The Spirit does not need human intervention to fulfill the purposes of God; all He needs is a person, humbled before God, ready to look like a fool for the sake of his God.A typical argument would go like this: ‘if we don’t use creativity how will we attract people “to God”? Since when is attracting people to God in our hands? Regardless of the culture, God’s word is to be preached as it is. The Gospel message is not to be camouflaged to attract more people; it is the work of the Holy Spirit and strategies and creativeness is not what He wants. Christians today are so distracted by spreading their gospels in a way pleasing to the world that they have forgotten to first live God’s Gospel. The Lord isn’t a least bit concerned with our creativity and amazing strategies. So clearly, it is our fallen nature we are trying to please. Being creative does bring about our agenda, but that is always antagonist to God’s purpose. Ask yourself: if you are not creative with the Gospel, does that make you feel stressed and guilty? I’m certain the answer is a resounding ‘yes’!

The whole art of creativity is demonic (not creativity per se; it’s the obsession with it – thinking that’s the only way), and must not be entertained by genuine believers! It’s dangerous as it takes the focus off God and on to our imaginations and our flesh. I have witnessed how obsessed University of Nations (YWAM)  is with ideas, strategies and creativity. Anything that is uncreative misses the mark and needs to be improved on, just to get people’s attention. Their worship is creative, their intercession is creative, teaching has to be creative, outreaches are creative etc. Even the native Americans emphasise the important of creativity in their worship and lifestyle, so do the Hindus, the Muslims and all other religions. Who is YWAM trying to impress? All the countless number of training courses are based primarily on creativity, whether it’s Creative Leadership Development, Creative DTS, or any course. They’re all about strategies and ideas.  

 

I’m not advertising a boring life; but I am saying that a Christ-centred mind will not focus too much on strategies and creativity! Study the life of the characters who followed God in the Bible. Were their lives boring even though they did not have an infatuation with creativity and strategies?