YWAM leaders gather in Chiang Mai to refocus on holiness, the unreached, and the next generation

Published on: October 10, 2026

Chiang Mai, Thailand — More than 1,200 YWAM leaders from 90 nations gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in September for the Global Leadership Gathering. The gathering centred on the worldwide movement’s original calling to pioneer new areas and expressions of mission, as well as the conditions leaders believe are necessary for fruitful ministry.

*”This is what I felt from the Lord for you. This is who you really are,” Phil Manginelli said and shared a photo he had taken at Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem.*

A call to holiness and integrity

This year, Youth With A Mission’s (YWAM) Global Leadership Gathering (GLG) began with a strong call to holiness and integrity. At a time when the character failures of some Christian leaders have caused widespread grief, the call for purity rang strongly throughout the gathering.

“We need our character to match our call. Otherwise we will lose our assignment and often take others down as well,” a leader from the Middle East said.

*“First love will not be defined by emotion but a softness of heart and a willingness to repent,” guest speaker Phil Manginelli reminded.*

Both guest speakers, Allen Hood, the founder of Excellencies of Christ, and Phil Manginelli, the lead pastor of The Square Church in Atlanta, United States, focused strongly on holiness and making Jesus the centre.

Manginelli acknowledged that YWAM is going through a significant transition. Loren Cunningham died soon after the previous Global Leadership Gathering in 2023. Together with his wife, Darlene Cunningham, he founded YWAM in 1960.

In order to flourish in this time of transition, Manginelli challenged YWAMers to reclaim their first love and the fear of God, which he said required each other.

“We can become caricature missionaries without first love. And we need a revival of the fear of God.”

“The hidden motivations of our hearts will be put on display one day,” Phil Manginelli said. “We must repent of the false security of self-reliance. We must function out of calling and not of significance.”

Manginelli stressed that YWAM’s future is moulded by holiness, which requires radical repentance. Along the same lines, Allen Hood reflected on his experiences with the sexual misconduct allegations of a previous leader he had served with.

“Do you know how wealthy you are that your founder ended well and built a legacy, a foundation for the next generation?” Hood said and warned of the danger of seeing oneself as the answer.

The sessions concluded with personal and collective repentance. Senior international leaders acknowledged that they had not always taken allegations of poor leadership as seriously as they should have, and committed to strengthening safeguarding protocols for the future.

*Extra time was given for repentance both among the audience and from the stage as humility was emphasized individually and corporately.*

New structures for leadership transition

Loren Cunningham’s original vision of waves of young people moving across continents with the message of Jesus’ love continues to direct YWAM. During the event, a map showing the unreached people groups and where YWAM is currently not working revealed that many of the remaining places are not easy to reach.

“You can do hard things! We are called to be doormats; Jesus is the door,” said a leader working in a predominantly Muslim country.

To empower this kind of pioneering mission, YWAM has been developing new leadership structures over the past 20 years, following its move away from top-down leadership to allow the movement to grow.

*Garth Gustafson introduced the new team of Global Elders. This is a rotational role to strengthen the YWAM values.*

At the gathering, a Global Eldership group was introduced, comprising 41 elders from 24 nations and representing different generations. This now replaces what was called the Founders’ Circle, which gave guidance to the movement together with the founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham.

The Global Eldership guides the movement together with the Area Circle Teams (ACTs) which were launched in 2014 as part of YWAM’s move toward a flatter, more decentralized leadership structure.

While the Global Eldership’s role is to strengthen and encourage the values of the movement, the 74 Area Circle Teams provide hands-on eldership in designated geographic areas. The two structures are designed to complement each other and help YWAM pioneer in new areas.

One of the Global Eldership members, Garth Gustafson, explained how the Global Eldership serves the Area Circle Teams, particularly when responding to sensitive issues. If local leadership is unable to resolve a situation, a Global Eldership member will help, based on which elder has an existing relationship with the people involved.

A new generation of leadership at the University of the Nations

YWAM’s University of the Nations (UofN) is also moving through an important generational transition. A new UofN Provost’s Team and President’s Team are now operational, strengthening the University’s global leadership for the next season.

The new Presidents’ Team provides global visionary leadership for the University of the Nations’ worldwide network of campuses and programmes. The team consists of Faby Ruesga, Garth Gustafson, Edwin Fillies, Giacomo Coghi, and SunAwh Park.

“God has called us to be an influence in all of his world and in every category of life. So our vision is to see people transformed and to continue to equip them in ways that they can follow the call of God in whatever part of the society God has called them,” said Markus Steffen, President Emeritus of the University of the Nations.

Steffen, together with former President’s Team members, Maureen Menard and David Hamilton, were acknowledged and honored for their years of leadership and significant contribution to the development of the University of the Nations.

*The GLG participants prayed for and gave towards the devastation caused by the recent flash flood in Nepal.*

Serving in every category of life

GLG event coordinator, a member of the University of the Nations’ Presidents’ Team and International Dean of the College of Arts, Faby Ruesga, challenged YWAM to step into the spheres of society in order to influence the broken systems of the world. That’s what happened to her after she and her husband opened their home for orphans.

“When we serve the least it takes us to the heart of God. He will position YWAM in places of influence if we choose humility,” Ruesga reminded.

YWAM Ships takes healthcare, training and practical assistance to remote communities, using boats to reach places that are difficult to access by land or air. According to Marty Emmett, Managing Director of YWAM Ships Aotearoa (New Zealand) also has an ambassadorial role for YWAM in the spheres of society. In both Fiji and the Philippines, for example, medical outreach and community development have created goodwill with high government officials.

A team of three lawyers created the Center of Law and Advocacy to serve with the United Nations. YWAM has permanent Special Consultative Status with the United Nations.

“YWAM has a place here because we understand the nations and God’s heart for them,” said Evelyn Santos, one of the lawyers.

Faby Ruesga pointed out that collaboration with the global Christian community—with leaders in every sphere of influence and with those on the margins—has never been more essential.

Partnerships with movements like World Without Orphans, whose team invited the audience to see the world through God’s eyes, especially the vulnerable child, can help YWAM to go deeper into acts of mercy and compassion.

“If I want to speak in rooms of power, I have to be able to listen to the sounds of pain,” Ruesga said. “God wants us to be in places of influence because we care for the least. And working together with other movements enables us to make a greater impact in the lives of the most vulnerable.”

During the afternoons, 34 strategy forums discussed a wide variety of topics including social media for mission by Uriah Lyford and team. The social media team in Cambodia reaches more than 20 million people every month and is launching a School of Social Media to empower young people to use social media as a mission field.

Oral Bible translation reaches new language communities

One of the new pioneering initiatives YWAM has taken in recent years is oral Bible translation, designed specifically for oral-preference and low-literacy communities.

In the last twelve months alone, YWAM teams have translated 30 full Bibles, while another 308 languages are currently being translated. This makes YWAM the number six Bible translation group in the world, according to Paul Childers, leader of the Oral Mother Tongue Bible Translation Project.

The typical translation teams have three members who know both the trade language, which already has a Bible translation, and the target language. One reads the Bible sentence by sentence in the trade language, the second records the translation into the target language, and the third checks it. The translation is then sent to the community for checking. After corrections are made, it is distributed through audio devices.

*Oral mother tongue translation projects are already transforming the lives of both the translators’ and those receiving the Bible in their own language.*

In Nigeria, teams have translated 26 full Bibles. According to Paul Dangtoumda, National Convenor of YWAM Nigeria and a leader in YWAM’s Oral Mother Tongue Bible translation work in Nigeria, it takes three months to translate the New Testament and nine months to translate the full Bible. The translators include doctors, tribal chiefs, and professors who stay at YWAM campuses and sleep in bunk beds.

According to Paul Childers, there will be a major focus on oral Bible translation in India and South America in the coming year.

To see which languages still need the Bible and to pray for oral Bible translation, visit prayomt.org.

Collaboration multiplies impact

Humility individually and corporately was a strong emphasis at the event. Purposeful collaboration with the church worldwide is a consequential expression of corporate humility.

“YWAM is a small part of a much bigger church,” said Mark Anderson, another Global Eldership member who has built global collaboration events that have brought together tens of thousands of Christian leaders from almost every country of the world.

“To the degree that we pursue relationships to collaborate, to that degree we will grow our own impact.”

“You will have a small impact if you work alone, and a bigger impact if you work with somebody else. You’ll have even a greater impact if you work with many others toward common outcomes,” Mark Anderson said.

This kind of collective impact is especially crucial, Anderson says, in reaching the youngest generation. There are around 2.3 billion children and teenagers under 18 worldwide—nearly one in three people on the planet.

“If we’re going to reach this generation we will have to work with the rest of the body of Christ, under the leadership of Jesus,” Anderson emphasized.

*The special meal in the final evening gave an opportunity for table parties to share their takeaways from the event and to encourage each other individually.*

A season of new growth, faith and dreaming

When COVID-19 began closing borders, Tom Bloomer, Provost Emeritus of the University of the Nations, gave YWAM a prophetic message that a seven-year season of pruning had begun.

“Campuses have closed down, and there are empty beds. The pruning has indeed happened. But Tom said that after pruning there would be new growth and I believe this is the word for us now,” said Andreas Nordli, National Leader of YWAM Norway, pointing out that it has been six and a half years since the original message.

“It’s time to tell stories about the future! A story of the future can change societies,” Nordli said, adding that he believes even Europe can become a major missionary-sending continent again.

“Now, young people are unashamed of the gospel. In the past few years in Europe, 160,000 people came to The Send events which center around missions,” Nordli said.

Doing new things requires faith. Speaking about faith, Phil Manginelli claimed that the biggest cause for unbelief is taking offence at God.

“Suffering is part of the journey and faith requires an emptying. God values being wanted,” he said and encouraged attendants to deal with their offences at God in order to find the Jesus who walks with his people even in the midst of pruning.

Josh Cole, a Global Eldership member, reminded the gathering that YWAM only needs to be like a moon. The moon has no light in itself. It only reflects the light of the sun.

“We don’t have any light of our own. Our only light is Jesus. What if the greatest light is still ahead of us?” Cole asked.