#290 - Is this Really Revival? part 3
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Continuing the series, Lynn Green tackles why genuine revivals so often fizzle out quickly. He revisits his Eagle Grove story with a new detail — a tense theological interrogation by local ministers that nearly shut it down — before drawing a striking parallel between revival's "afterburner" intensity and the sustained "cruise altitude" of ongoing holiness that must follow. He closes with a candid personal account of drifting into counterfeit, "soulish" prophecy in the pursuit of spiritual power, warning that emotional intensity can easily be mistaken for the Holy Spirit's genuine work. ...
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#289 - Is this Really Revival? part 2
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Continuing the series, Lynn Green revisits YWAM's founding season with a key correction from Darlene Cunningham: the real theme of those early revivals wasn't revival itself, but the revelation of God's nature and character — the true common thread from Jonathan Edwards through Charles Finney to the Hebrides. He shares a striking eyewitness letter about a 1973 youth revival, traces the hidden intercessors (Peggy and Christine Smith, Mabel White, Joy Dawson) behind history's great awakenings, and closes by previewing next week's topic: why revival so often provokes opposition from church...
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#288 - Is this Really Revival? part 1
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Lynn Green traces YWAM's own origin story back to a 1969 New Zealand conference where a young Loren Cunningham crossed paths with revivalist Duncan Campbell — asking whether today's "quiet revival" buzz meets the historic bar for the word. Along the way he recounts YWAM's earliest days in Switzerland, months of sustained intercession for revival, and his own vivid, first-hand account of a three-week youth revival breaking out in a small Iowa town in 1970 — sparked, he later learned, by the decades of hidden prayer of one bedridden intercessor. Chapters: ▶️ (00:00:00) — Origins:...
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#287 - False Prophets and False Prophecies
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Lynn Green shares decades of personal reflection — framed explicitly as his own musings, not doctrine — on why prophetic ministry keeps producing scandal. Working from the Old Testament story of Balaam, a childhood memory of his father's warning about a famous healing evangelist, and his own uncomfortable brush with a "soulish" prophetic gifting, he explores how reputation, fame, and power create predictable temptations toward arrogance and sexual sin, and why Christlikeness — not spectacle — is the real test of a genuine prophetic voice. Chapters: ▶️ (00:00:00) — A Father's...
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#286 - Does YWAM need a new wine skins?
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
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: ▶️...
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#285 - Raise Your Game
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Fresh out of a board meeting, Lynn Green revisits a prophetic word he received years ago — "raise your game" — and connects it to Amos 3:7's claim that God reveals His plans to His servants before He acts. Looking at YWAM's recent season of "pruning" (good ministries maturing and moving elsewhere), current record growth at Harpenden, and the rising public profile that comes with increased fruitfulness, Lynn makes the case for building in accountability now, before the glare of publicity and the amplifying power of social media test it. Chapters: ▶️ (00:00:) — The Word:...
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#284 - Domains and Transformation of Nations
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Continuing his transformation series, Lynn Green gets more systematic about the difference between "spheres of influence" (family, religion, education, economics, government, media, celebration) and "domains of authority" (individual, family, religious, government) — arguing that history's worst tyrannies always start by merging religious and governmental authority. He traces this pattern through Lenin, Mao, and North Korea's Kim dynasty, credits the 1973 Lausanne Congress as the turning point for evangelical engagement with society, and closes with a close look at how parental authority is...
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#283 - Can Christians, and should Christians, engage with all spheres of society for the purpose of transformation?
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Lynn Green continues his series on transformation with a direct answer: yes, Christians should engage every sphere of society — but never by seizing governmental power or merging church and state. He walks through the seven spheres of influence (family, religion, education, economics, government, media, celebration) and which carry real coercive authority versus mere influence, draws on the Reformation, Wilberforce, and the founding of America as historical case studies, and lays out how YWAM's University of the Nations approach aims to influence culture through trained, values-driven people...
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#282 - Thinking about how the gospel can transform Nations?
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
On Good Friday, Lynn Green opens a new series asking whether the gospel can genuinely transform whole societies — not through imposed religion or state power, but through enough people living Christlike lives to shift a culture's default toward trust and integrity. Using stories from a mentor in London's financial district and the biblical language of salt, light, and yeast, he introduces theologian David Hamilton's four domains of authority, setting up a deeper look in Part 2 at where Christian leadership's authority legitimately ends. 00:00 — A Culture That Kept Its Word Good Friday...
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#281 - Is YWAM really a faith Mission?
Thoughts from a Resident Alien
Lynn Green tackles a question he says he'd happily debate: does YWAM still live out its founding conviction as a "faith mission" — taking Matthew 6's call not to worry about money literally? He traces the movement's roots in Hudson Taylor and George Müller-style faith, a formative moment where Loren Cunningham repented of pride around fundraising, and his own family's decades of tight, faith-stretching finances in England — before laying out three practical disciplines God led him and Marty to adopt, and making the case for giving as an act of trust rather than a transaction. Chapters:...
info_outlineFresh off the first meeting of YWAM's new Global Eldership Circle, Lynn Green tackles a hard question head-on: why do so many high-profile spiritual leaders end up failing? Drawing on a firsthand account from a former International House of Prayer leader, and looking at well-known cases (Willow Creek, Mars Hill, and others), he traces the pattern back to concentrated authority, unhealthy power differentials, and what he calls the "tripod of temptation" — money, sex, and power — making the case for plural, accountable eldership as the biblical safeguard.
Chapters:
- 00:00 – Intro: back from Kona and the Founders Circle meeting
- 01:44 – Expanding to a nearly 40-person Global Eldership Circle
- 03:44 – Why plural leadership matters, and why one-leader models struggle
- 05:19 – Today's question: why do high-profile leaders fail?
- 05:54 – The weakness of hierarchies: pushing problems upward
- 06:32 – Influence-based authority vs. transactional authority
- 07:38 – Allen Hood's account of the IHOP leadership collapse
- 08:58 – How IHOP was built around one man's charisma
- 10:50 – The allegations and investigation findings
- 11:45 – Other well-known cases: Willow Creek and Mars Hill
- 13:10 – 1 Peter 5 and John 10: what elders are actually called to
- 14:22 – Old Testament kings as a cautionary pattern
- 14:39 – Why God resisted a single-leader hierarchy for Israel
- 16:32 – How YWAM's plural eldership model works in Harpenden
- 18:02 – Lauren Cunningham's early accountability structures
- 19:09 – Why concentrated authority creates outsized temptation
- 19:51 – The Epstein files as an example of power differential exploited
- 20:43 – "Who was I to say anything?" — why people stay silent
- 22:06 – Why hierarchies form in the first place
- 23:24 – Vulnerability in early-stage, small pioneering teams
- 24:23 – Hierarchy, culture, and honor killings as an extreme example
- 25:30 – Cultural norms shaping how much power leaders are given
- 26:20 – Plurality as a limit on the abuse of power
- 26:56 – The limits of "accountability" alone
- 27:28 – Why leaders shouldn't hold financial authority over those they lead
- 28:35 – Why Lynn opposes tithing to leaders directly
- 29:08 – The "tripod of temptation": money, sex, and power
- 30:59 – Why persecuted, non-hierarchical churches see less leadership failure
- 32:10 – Closing: choosing openness and accountability voluntarily
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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.**