Hi everyone! This is Marie Freemyers writing. I’m a staff member here at YWAM North Idaho and I serve as the director of our Communications Ministry so I'll be sharing with you in this post about what this ministry looks like here: our values, vision, and day-to-day life. I hope that it provides you with a better understanding of this ministry and how it functions to serve the greater vision God has given to our YWAM North Idaho family.
Firstly, as a general overview, this ministry serves to be both a source of reliable and excellent information regarding YWAM-NI’s ministry, while also functioning as a tool to carry out our vision among our viewers. In other words, we desire for our platforms to 1) share information about our ministry and 2) be actively involved in doing such ministry. Additionally, all that we present to the public should fully embody our calling, vision, and values that I’ll speak to more below. Most importantly, everything that we do should be done as worship unto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for the glory, honor, and reverence of His name among the nations.
Crucial YWAM Values
As YWAM-NI, we are committed to holding to all YWAM values. In the Communications Ministry though, five values require increased attention. We have prayerfully chosen these because we believe they are typically those values which are most at risk of being compromised on media platforms. The Lord has highlighted these values as requiring intentional stewardship on our part so that we will preserve these values in our ministry.
Make God Known: YWAM is called to make God known throughout the whole world. As the
Communications Ministry at YWAM-NI, it is our aim to continually fulfill this value through
sharing the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ. All that we do should point towards the gospel,
which Christ has commissioned us to share with all nations.
Hear God’s Voice: YWAM is committed to creating with God through listening to Him, and
obeying His commands in matters great and small. As the Communications Ministry at YWAM
North Idaho, we are entirely dependent upon hearing His voice as individuals and as a team. This is the most important part of our process for decision making and creating.
Communicate with Integrity: YWAM affirms that everything exists because God communicates. Therefore, we commit to truthful, accurate, timely and relevant communication. As a communications team, we believe that good communication in this ministry will reflect the heart of God, improve the excellence of our ministry, and most effectively invite others to participate in the ministry calling.
Be Relationship-Oriented: YWAM is dedicated to being relationship-oriented. We desire to be
united through lives of holiness, mutual support, transparency, humility, and open
communication. Therefore, as the YWAM-NI Communications Ministry, we commit to reflecting this value on all media platforms by choosing relationship-driven decision-making and seeking intimacy with one another and those we seek to connect with via our media platforms.
Have a Biblical Christian Worldview: YWAM is called to a biblical Christian worldview. We
seek to honor God with all that we do by equipping and mobilizing men and women of God to
take roles of service and influence in every arena of society. As the Communications Ministry at
YWAM-NI, we will strive for sound Biblical understanding and will conduct our ministry
accordingly. We will strive to remove any other worldview's influence on our ministry.
YWAM-NI’s Unique Core Values Applied to the Communications Ministry
Intimacy: We will prioritize intimacy with the Lord by seeking His presence and abiding
in Him as we complete the tasks He sets before us. We will submit ourselves to the Holy
Spirit’s leading in all decision making and tasks. We will strive for intimacy with team
members as well as our viewers. We will see viewers as people we are building
relationship with, not merely as likes nor as just financial support, etc.
Sacrifice: We commit to doing anything and everything needed for obedience to God in
this ministry for the purpose of spreading of His global worship: both in our own hearts
and around the world. We believe that all values and vision in this ministry will require
sacrifice and we see this as both our duty and joy to complete. We’ll sacrifice our time,
energy, preferences and personal desires all for the sake of pleasing our Savior. We will
also sacrifice prosperity and success within the ministry in order to be faithful to the
calling and our Lord if need be.
Focus: We will steward the Communications Ministry by pursuing quality and
effectiveness above quantity. We will not be satisfied with what might be considered
good, but rather we will strive towards and focus our attention on what is best. We will
keep our efforts aligned with the vision statement created for the Communications
Ministry and YWAM North Idaho.
YWAM NI Core Pillars Applied to the Communications Ministry
Simplicity: We aim for a structure that promotes unhindered ministry to and for
Thailand, as well as locally. We desire for this ministry to facilitate frequent fellowship,
with one another and with God. We do not want to over-complicate the Communications ministry with endless posts and content, but seek to simply present who we are, what we do, and why we do it.
Discipleship: We aim to use the Communications Ministry as a tool to open ourselves to
God and our family in Christ so that we may become mature in our faith and grow in
Christ-likeness through the giftings of the entire church body.
Mobilization: We strive to inspire, challenge, equip, and send our viewers to the ends of
the earth for the purpose of global worship. Our content should foster mobilization and be a tool to spread awareness about the Great Imbalance.
Day-to-Day Ministry
Since the Communications Team established the vision and primary purpose, we have created a schedule which reflects our goals as a ministry. Day-to-day ministry these days looks like sticking to this posting schedule and meeting quarterly to discuss coming needs that will fall under the Communication Team’s responsibility, like preparing flyers for our fall DTS in 2021. Currently, our posting schedule includes topics such as:
weekly Community Night Gathering
YWAM North Idaho’s values
ministry updates
Thailand, our focus nation
Our Internship and Discipleship Training School
Mobilization
Conclusion
Getting to serve as the leader of this ministry is a great privilege and I hope it will continue to be a blessing and serve to advance the Kingdom of God in Coeur d’Alene, Thailand and wherever else our online community might go!
Sincerely,
Marie Freemyers (YWAM NI Staff and Leader of the Communications Ministry)