Loren Duane Cunningham (June 30, 1935 – October 6, 2023) was an American missionary who was the founder of the international

Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort to carry on evangelism, in the name of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries. Sometimes individuals are sent and a ...

ary organization

Youth With A Mission Youth With A Mission (typically shortened YWAM, generally pronounced ) is an interdenominational Christian mission organization with a focus on missionary work and training for Christian missions. Founded by American missionary Loren Cunningha ...

(YWAM) and the

University of the Nations The University of the Nations (U of N) is an unaccredited Christian university. The University of the Nations operates under the umbrella organization of the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) network. History The institution was founded in 1978 as Pac ...

. Cunningham founded YWAM in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1960 with his wife, Darlene Cunningham, at the age of 24. They resided in

Kona, Hawaii Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is most commonly referred to simply as Kona (a name it shares with the district to which it belongs), but also as Kona To ...

, and were members of the YWAM Global Leadership Team. __TOC__

Early life

Loren Cunningham was born on June 30, 1935, in the oil boom town of

Taft, California Taft (formerly Moron, Moro, and Siding Number Two) is a city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Taft is located west-southwest of Bakersfield, California, Bakersfield, at an ...

Ministry

Youth With A Mission

While travelling in

the Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

in 1956 as part of a

gospel quartet The term Gospel quartet refers to several different traditions of harmony singing. Its origins are varied, including 4-part hymn singing, shape note singing, barbershop quartets, jubilee songs, spirituals, and other Gospel songs. Gospel quartets ...

, Cunningham claimed to have experienced a

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

. In this vision, he described waves on the shorelines of the continents on a world map, eventually growing bigger and bigger, covering the landmass. He claimed that the waves in this vision changed to young people covering the continents, talking to people about their faith. This vision would inspire the beginning of Youth With A Mission four years later as a movement providing

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

opportunities for Christian youth after high school, regardless of their denomination. Cunningham and his wife continued to have influence on the leadership of YWAM International, holding the title of Founders of the Mission. They were members of the YWAM Global Leadership Team and advisers to the Team 3 leadership of YWAM International.

University of Nations

In 1978, Cunnigham co-founded the University of the Nations in

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Kailua-Kona is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is most commonly referred to simply as Kona (a name it shares wit ...

, with

Howard Malmstadt Howard Vincent Malmstadt, Ph.D., (February 17, 1922, in Marinette, Wisconsin – July 7, 2003, in Hawaii), Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and co-founder of the University of the Nations, widely ...

Seven Mountain Mandate

Along with fellow evangelist

Bill Bright William R. Bright (October 19, 1921 – July 19, 2003) was an American Evangelism, evangelist. In 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles, he founded Campus Crusade for Christ as a ministry for university students. In 1952 he wrote ...

(founder of

Campus Crusade for Christ Cru (until 2011 known as Campus Crusade for Christ—informally "Campus Crusade" or simply "Crusade"—or CCC) is an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization. It was founded in 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles by ...

) and theologian

Francis Schaeffer Francis August Schaeffer (January 30, 1912 – May 15, 1984) was an American evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He co-founded the L'Abri community in Switzerland with his wife Edith Schaeffer, , a prolific auth ...

, in 1975 Cunningham was one of the founders of what would later be termed the

Seven Mountain Mandate The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M, 7MM, or Seven Mountains Dominionism, is a dominionist conservative Christian movement within evangelical Christianity, particularly independent Charismatic groups. It holds that there ...

. The idea would later go on to be popularized by Bethel Church pastor Bill Johnson and Lance Wallnau, among others. The concept centers around Christians taking dominion of seven societal

spheres of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military, or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal a ...

: "family, religion, education, media, art, economics, and government."

Death

Cunningham died on October 6, 2023, at the age of 88, at his home in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

Bibliography

* * (first published under the title ''Winning God's Way'') * * *

References

External links

University of the Nations International homepage
* Recordings of Loren teaching can be downloaded from the YWAM Podcast site a
http://ywampodcast.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cunningham, Loren 1935 births 2023 deaths 20th-century evangelicals 21st-century evangelicals American evangelicals Christians from California Evangelical missionaries People from Maricopa, California University High School (Los Angeles) alumni