# Loren Cunningham **Summary.** Loren Cunningham (1935–2023) was an American missionary and the founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), one of the largest interdenominational mission organizations. He is often credited as an early articulator of the "seven spheres" or "seven mountains" idea that later shaped the Seven Mountain Mandate. ## Profile - **YWAM.** Cunningham founded Youth With A Mission in 1960 to mobilize young Christians for short- and long-term mission work worldwide. - **Seven spheres.** He is commonly associated with a 1975 account in which he and Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade for Christ) each described a list of society's main spheres of influence, such as family, religion, education, media, and government. This framing is frequently named as a source of the later "seven mountains" language. ## Why it matters in this wiki The wiki traces the development of the [[Seven Mountain Mandate]], a concept later carried into New Apostolic Reformation and dominionist activism. Cunningham's earlier "seven spheres" framing is part of that history. His own use of the idea and its later political application are not identical, and the wiki treats the connection as historical lineage rather than shared intent. ## Related - [[Seven Mountain Mandate]]