U of N School Leader's Accountability

"STANDING IN THE GAP" by Tom Bloomer

A school leader in the University of the Nations is at the center of a web of relationships. The potential for furthering the Kingdom is tremendous, because so many lives can be touched and influenced.

The focus of a school leader can be narrowed down to the students, and further narrowed to the students during the lecture phase, and even further down, to the time the students spend in the classroom. The intense nature of YWAM schools tends to encourage this narrowing of focus.

But school leaders should make the effort to widen their scope of concern to take in all the relationships that are potentially affected by any given school. The benefits can be enormous.

Another way to express this potential is that the school leader is accountable is several directions. Since accountability is foundational to discipleship and leadership growth, the school leader joyfully embraces accountability. To whom, then, is the school leader accountable?

  1. First of all, to God (Exo 20:2-3).
  2. Secondly, to the students. They have committed to us for a full-time, intensive, community-based training experience, and we commit to them (Jam 3:1).
  3. To parents. Particularly for our younger students, parents want to know if they can entrust their young people into our care.
  4. Next, to the local base leadership and community. Schools are not to be ends in themselves, but should be firmly rooted in a base, and in a city or community, with its churches, outreaches, past heritage, and present opportunities.
  5. To YWAM and the U of N. We are part of a "family of ministries," and in any family there are blessings, plus obligations and responsibilities.
  6. Finally, to the lost. A lost and hurting world is waiting for the treasures we have to offer. We are accountable to them. A new convert from a Siberian tribe asked the Norwegian YWAMers who had brought the Gospel, "When did your people first hear this message?" They replied that it had been a thousand years. He was astonished and angry. "I am very grateful that you have brought this message. But why did my people have to wait a thousand years for it?" There are several thousand more people groups which are still waiting...

The school leader stands "in the gap" between students, the base, YWAM and the U of N, parents, churches with their pastors, the community, the lost ... and the Lord. The potential for advancing the Kingdom in all these lives and spheres is enormous. When the Lord gives responsibility, He gives the grace to fulfill it.