It became part of another missionary movement based on missionary boards from established denominations.

Christianity says of SVM: “The Student Volunteer Movement lacked a sophisticated missiology and was overly dependent on the optimism and idealism of a passing era.” Sound familiar?

Everything in UBF works IF EVERYONE keeps optimism and idealism–but it is so highly susceptible to abuse and to the accompanying cynicism.

Found at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/bytopic/missionsworldchristianity/mobilizinggenerations.html?start=2

Note: American, western and postmodern culture are much more cynical than previous centuries, yet they are much more capable of many things. Perhaps if someone had the right vision, she/he could find a way to relate to the cynics and make a beautiful work of God.

1) love God [Dt 6:5],
2) love others (including enemies, yikes!) [Lev 19:18], and
3) love Scripture [Ps 119:97] as my contemplative daily reflection of loving intimacy with God {not bibliolatry}.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27

Of course simple outward change with no inner love of Christ makes us like the Pharassies. Jesus observed special days and instituted sacraments. I am no scholar but there is a difference between what we as a person are suppose to do and what the church as an organization is suppose to do. Although, admittedly, I am lacking in proper instruction for the latter.

My first reaction is that I would question this goal: “He said that the goal is to bring Jesus to every corner of the world, but many barriers make this hard. – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/03/09/my-first-few-days-in-chicago/#comment-17210

Is the goal of the church to “bring Jesus” somewhere? Are we carrying a statue of Buddha around? Are we travelling with the Tent of Meeting?

I think the goal of the church is to die. With Jesus inside us, we are motivated to stand for justice, to seek out the marginalized, to befriend the poor.

Did Jesus leave His ministry to his disciples? I think we need to examine this more closely. In a sense He entrusted the ministry to them but He did not give up His authority. He did give them a certain authority but He is still Lord and King, and alive. Sometime it seems to me that the church acts as if Jesus is still dead and that the church is our King. Why do church leaders not realize Jesus disarmed them? Jesus did not come to arm the leaders as supervisors for communities. It is and always has been His ministry. But of course this requires more nuances and deep thought.

You raise some good questions that should be discussed regarding strategy. What would a non-strategic ministry look like? The question of “what would it look like” in general is very helpful to me. Too often we claim we already know what ministry or family should look like, and then go about doing that.

This is related to vision-casting. I’ve grown to dislike vision-casting very much. I think the organic approach is far healthier and much more enjoyable. In the end, it is the organic methods and thinking that blossom into something lasting. ubf is setup for failure one day because it is built on vision-casting approaches and strategies to accomplish goals that are too vague and uninspiring. So they have to resort to Goebbels-like speeches (like JL’s latest campus mission speech).

So as a principle, I think casting a vision and developing strategies to accomplish that vision are deeply harmful and divisive for the church as well as other organization

“Jesus doesn’t seem strategic. In fact, he employs seemingly poor strategy. He angers those in power and spends time with prostitutes, soldiers, Samaritans, tax collectors, fishermen.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/03/09/my-first-few-days-in-chicago/#comment-17209

Now this sparks an entirely new discussion. Regardless of whether Jesus was strategic or not, means little to me as to how we should act individually or as part of a community. So what if Jesus had a strategy or not? He is God. We are not :) So many things now I realize were bound by KOPAHN theology that should not have been bound. What KOPAHN really aims to do is to make you into a god-shepherd. It teaches you to imitate Jesus exactly. This disrespects your conscience and who Jesus is and the work of the Holy Spirit among a community of people.

But if I look at Jesus Himself, I do see a strategy in a sense. But his goal of that strategy was very different that most churches or organizations. Jesus’ goal was to die. Most groups want to grow.

John the baptist had a good goal: Jesus must become greater, I must become less. John just wanted to get out of the way so people could see the Messiah.

Just some rambling thoughts… these questions are worth more comments and cut to the heart of a lot issues ubf has never dealt with.

I think this all goes back to Paul’s instructions. He said that some are called to be teachers, others prophets, etc. Church’s cannot expect all to be missionaries, or all to be teachers (because it is not their gift). So most ministries usually sponsor a missionary family. Sometimes UBF leaders have been in UBF so long they don’t even know that this happens and concludes that other churches don’t make missionaries. Churches I have been in pay for their members who want to become “bible teachers” (read: pastors) to go to seminary.

I am not sure that answers your question. But I think the word strategy comes with a cold single minded connotation. Jesus was part of God’s redemptive plan. His mission was to save mankind, and his strategy was to set up his Church to reach all people.

Thanks for sharing your debrief of Friday night. I wasn’t there, but I asked a couple people about it. Some said the first couple speakers weren’t very relevant and not very interesting. But the testimony sharers were good. I thought it was strange that it was mostly older people speaking. I think it would be more helpful if it had been a night initiated by younger people too, like a multi-generational effort.

So your top 10 traits shown in that part of the article above are:

1. Orderliness 100%
2. Modesty 99%
3. Uncompromising 99%
4. Activity level 98%
5. Sympathy 96%
6. Trust 93%
7. Self-enhancement 93%
8. Achievement striving 91%
9. Agreeableness 90%
10. Susceptible to stress 90%

Big 5
Openness
31%
Adventurousness
30%
Artistic interests
15%
Emotionality
62%
Imagination
4%
Intellect
28%
Authority-challenging
69%
Conscientiousness
71%
Achievement striving
91%
Cautiousness
56%
Dutifulness
75%
Orderliness
100%
Self-discipline
68%
Self-efficacy
73%
Extraversion
27%
Activity level
98%
Assertiveness
89%
Cheerfulness
21%
Excitement-seeking
20%
Outgoing
28%
Gregariousness
32%
Agreeableness
90%
Altruism
56%
Cooperation
59%
Modesty
99%
Uncompromising
99%
Sympathy
96%
Trust
93%
Emotional range
87%
Fiery
87%
Prone to worry
82%
Melancholy
55%
Immoderation
45%
Self-consciousness
56%
Susceptible to stress
90%
Needs
Challenge
20%
Closeness
77%
Curiosity
33%
Excitement
35%
Harmony
65%
Ideal
39%
Liberty
85%
Love
83%
Practicality
35%
Self-expression
62%
Stability
60%
Structure
69%
Values
Conservation
2%
Openness to change
85%
Hedonism
32%
Self-enhancement
93%
Self-transcendence
81%

http://watson-um-demo.mybluemix.net/?reset=true

“In the next article I will talk about the last few speakers. I was more than a little surprised (and inspired) by their testimonies. I also caught up to someone on Joe Schafer’s recent letter, so I will include that next time too.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/03/09/my-first-few-days-in-chicago/#comment-17107

I think our readers would be very interested in hearing about such things. From what I know, the later speakers did indeed share shocking, honest and genuine narratives. This might be part of the breakthrough we are starting to see.

We try to keep one article per day, so go ahead and publish what you want. Also, I fixed your picture by adding it to our library and added some paragraph formatting to may this a bit more readable.

I was never able to confirm that Barry was sent by the SVM. I suppose she was.

I would suggest reading more details about SVM. ubf rarely shares the facts that give the full picture. They tend to only share what glorifies them.

SVM on Wikipedia

“As problems accumulated, Movement leaders called for radical changes. In a December 1923 John L. Childs questioned the value of the Movement, pointing to ways in which the missionary situation had evolved past it. He suggested elimination of the declaration card on the grounds that “modern missionary activity has become so complex that merely to decide to become a foreign missionary is a step of doubtful value in determining what one shall do with his life.”

“The 1966 dissolution of the Student Volunteer Movement in its guise as the National Student Christian Federation’s Commission on World Mission was the logical outcome of an increasingly prevalent theory of mission in liberal American Protestantism, one which stressed the worldwide ecumenical cooperation of the Church rather than focusing on frontier missions of the Western Church to the non-Western world.”

In regard to SVM, ubf should indeed follow their example absolutely. After 80 years, SVM shut down and was dissolved. ubf knows this. Check out slide 3 of this “Fishing and outreach 101 by ubf”:

ubf fishing 101
priestlynation: copy of other official teaching material

In regard to CRU and IVF, ubf is insignificant in comparision, even after 54 years. CRU used to be called “Campus Crusade”. But they were criticized for some wrongdoing and repented. They rebooted their ministry and made sure to avoid any hint of wrongdoing, renaming themselves “CRU”. My local church has CRU missionaries. I can tell you that after the superficial words like “campus ministry” and “students”, the comparisions between CRU and ubf are invalid. We should be talkinga about contrasts.

CRU has $255,323,000 USD in assets and 5,300 growing ministries worldwide, with 2,088 of those being in the U.S.
ECFA: CRU report
CRU website

IVF has $59,058,000 USD in assets and 40,299 core students and faculty with 949 chapters on 616 campuses.
ECFA: IVF report
IVF website

The ubf store of $13 million USD in assets is small compared to these valid ministries. This is laughable because we were always encouraged to avoid contact with IVF and Campus Crusade (CRU) because they were so “ungodly, unspiritual, nominal” Christians.

Forests, your statement is absolutely true. But as many know, many commenters here (I shall not name names, but you know who you are), were at one time regarded highly in ubf as “mature Christian leaders and disciples.” But the moment they began asking questions or making constructive criticisms, critiques and suggestions, they suddenly were no longer “matue.” Instead, they were gossiped about as being “immature, childish, proud, relativistic, worldly, abandoning mission” and what have you.

So it is rather amazing to me how some so called “mature Christians” in UBF who have been Christians for several decades suddenly became regarded as “immature” virtually overnight. This is just so interesting to my observation.

There are lots of similarities between UBF and the Student Volunteer Movement. In fact, you could say that

SVM + Confucianism + Abusive practices = UBF

SVM started out strong but within a few decades it petered out. I wrote about the SVM a few years ago.

http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/03/10/word-spirit-gospel-and-mission-part-9/#more-2380

I understand the desire by Mark, Kevin and others to talk about Cru, IV, and other campus ministries in the hope that UBF can one day be regarded as a peer. But UBF has a dark history that none of those groups have. Until UBF acknowledges its history of abuse and deals with it decisively, it will always be regarded as a fringe group, and for good reason.