#286 - Does YWAM need a new wine skins?

Lynn Green returns to Jesus's wineskin parable (Luke 5, 37) to ask a pointed question: does YWAM need new structural wineskins for the moves of God happening now? Drawing on stories spanning fifty years — a 1970 Iowa revival with no church to catch it, unreached Papua New Guinea and Amazon tribes, West London street kids, and the rise and painful fracture of the shepherding movement — he argues new moves of God almost always need new containers, but warns against two specific temptations: planting YWAM's own churches, and paying staff outside the mission's values.

Chapters:

▶️ (00:00:00) — What the Parable Actually Means
Lynn unpacks Luke 5, 37's wine-and-wineskins image using his own home-brewing mishap for illustration, then explains the underlying principle: fermenting new wine (a genuine move of God) will always burst rigid old wineskins (established structures), while Jesus's added line — "no one who's tasted the old wants the new" — explains the natural generational resistance that follows.

▶️ (00:08:23) — New Moves Need New Containers: Case Studies

A tour of moments where existing structures couldn't hold what God was doing — a 1970 youth revival in a small Iowa town with no church built to receive 300 new believers, waves of West African and Caribbean immigration reshaping British church demographics, refugee ministries born from the Vietnamese boat-people crisis, and Don Richardson's unreached Papua New Guinea and Amazon tribes building entirely indigenous wineskins for their new faith.

▶️ (00:24:10) — Lessons from YWAM's Own Church-Planting Attempts

Lynn recounts YWAM's own history of trying (and largely failing) to plant churches directly, alongside the more painful story of the 1970s–80s charismatic renewal and shepherding movement — which began as an interdenominational "stay and be salt and light" renewal but eventually hardened into its own hierarchical denomination, fracturing trust when it did.

▶️ (00:32:01) — Where YWAM Draws the Line Today

Closing principles for staying flexible without losing YWAM's identity: the mission actively lets fruitful ministries become independent "new wineskins" when that's their calling, but holds firm on two boundaries — not planting its own churches, and not paying full-time workers outside its values — while staying alert to when a new structure is a genuine new wineskin versus a "Trojan horse."

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** This is a personal podcast and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth with A Mission.**


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