What Is The Ywam Dts (discipleship Training School)
Youth With A Mission is an international Christian missionary organisation, located in over 160 countries all over the world. The motto of YWAM is “To Know God and Make Him Known”. Youth With A Mission was founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960, and now has about 16000 full time staff in over 800 operating locations.
The YWAM DTS is known all over the world as a training course in Christian Discipleship, and an entry to joining [Youth With A Mission|YWAM] as a staff [trainee|intern|member], or long term staff.
The YWAM DTS is usually 5-6 months long but some YWAM locations extend this, sometimes 9, 10 or 12 months long to include various ministry opportunities as well as the core training course. The Discipleship Training School (DTS) has 12 weeks of lectures, and 2-3 months of practical outreach, usually overseas.
The “lecture phase” of a YWAM DTS is kind of misnamed. Yes, there is a speaker who will speak on a topic for a teaching week, but these weeks are usually life-changing, and affect your heart and spirit as well as solid head knowledge. Often there will be worship times, prayer and intercession times, ministry times to receive prayer, as well as small groups of 6-8 students and staff to discuss the teaching further.
The YWAM DTS curriculum contains the following: encountering God, seeing life from God's perspective, recognising Jesus as Lord, becoming more like Jesus, do the works of Jesus, orientate to YWAM. These are, of course, broad topics, and each YWAM location and YWAM DTS will cover these topics in slightly different ways.
Sometimes during a Discipleship Training School there will be local outreach opportunities, which give the students a chance to put into practice the teaching they are learning and to share the love of Jesus.
During the Discipleship Training School students usually live in community together, with 2 or more students sharing a room. Depending on the location this can also be more of a dormitory style, with bunk beds. If you are considering applying to be a student on a YWAM DTS you might want to ask some of these practical questions when communicating with the YWAM DTS registrar. Please note that YWAM is a Christian organisation and although healthy relationships are encouraged, the priority of putting God first is emphasised, and dating students or staff during the course is discouraged. The DTS often includes some relationship teaching, which can be really helpful in all areas of life, and has helped many people, bringing healing to past hurts in relationships. The DTS isn't a counselling centre, however, and sometimes deep hurts require professional counselling.
Life on a YWAM DTS can be a lot of fun. Lifelong friends can be made, and experiences of other cultures, both at the YWAM base as well as abroad on outreach, are so valuable. The wealth of riches found when people from different cultures come together is priceless. There's not many places you will find where you can meet and befriend people from all over the world, but often a YWAM base will have a number of continents represented amongst the staff and students. Students may never have left their home country before coming on a Discipleship Training School, but learning from each other, eating food and hearing stories, travelling together, late night chats and games, worshipping and praying – so many different aspects of life are shared.
Going on outreach is a key component of the Discipleship Training School. Travelling together with other students and staff to reach out with the love of Jesus, showing compassion, evangelism, arts and drama, sports, music, evangelism – there are many different aspects of outreach which could be involved in the YWAM DTS. Building projects and serving in practical ways, performing or preaching on the streets, ministering in churches, praying for the sick, helping the homeless – the DTS can take many forms, but it always involves caring and loving people, serving and being the hands and feet of Jesus to a hurting world. Putting into practice the teaching learnt in the classroom is a great way for the teaching to become part of your life, not just something in your head.
The YWAM DTS can look a bit different depending on the focus of the YWAM base you are attending. Each location has it's own feel and different leaders. In the same way that each church will be different so it can be with Youth With A Mission. When deciding which YWAM base to go to for a Discipleship Training School it can be helpful to have a personal recommendation from [someone you know|a friend]. Of course, God can lead you to a place, but don't forget to be in communication with your church leaders, youth leader, parents and friends when thinking about a big decision like travelling to another area or another country to join YWAM and to take a YWAM DTS.
YWAM Scotland runs the YWAM DTS at the Seamill training base, Stanely House, and also the Operation Year (a 10 month YWAM DTS ) in Edinburgh. Each school has its own flavour and you should look carefully at each one before deciding where to go. Hopefully this short article has been helpful and maybe we'll see you in Scotland on your DTS!
