Anyway, it’s their codeword for re-education in UBFism.

Of late, I’ve thought and taught that one of the happiest and most fulfilling and satisfying life is to invest and genuinely celebrate in the success of OTHERS.

I’m sorry to say that some (not all) in UBF primarily celebrate the success of their own ministry and sphere of influence, and especially their own ethnicity and their own culture, but not those of other ethnicities and cultures. It’s actually rather sad and depressing.

JJ seems to be deluded. He thinks he is still the General Director. He thinks it is his duty to carry on the legacy of Lee and promote UBFism. And he calls it “preaching the gospel”.

http://www.ubf.org/world-mission-news/asia/dr-john-jun%E2%80%99s-cme-philippines

It is the one simple reason why so many who are faithful to UBF categorically reject UBFriends without a second thought. They also believe what others tell them about UBFriends (UBF bashing, etc) without ever bothering to ever verify it for themselves.

People can no longer be controlled, mostly due to the internet and the social reforms that have taken place. As mrkimmathclass lamented, we cannot control people so easily as in the past.

* Some missionaries are more concerned about being “on top” than about building life long friendships and relationships.

* Some older leaders are primarily interested in being obeyed and submitted to than in having differing opinions being equitably discussed.

* Some missionaries are unable to genuinely respect and submit to an indigenous person or a younger person as a leader.

* Some older leaders are virtually and practically unable to welcome any initiative coming from a younger person.

* Some leaders are only interested in projects and people who are subordinate to them, but have little interest for what others have done and are doing apart from them.

Maybe all of the above points are saying the same thing: Many people are done with UBF because some UBF leaders absolutely need to be in unquestioning control over others and over the ministry.

“There always was a segregation, but now it appears more blatant in Canada at least. – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/08/26/why-so-many-are-done-with-ubf/#comment-19124

In my experience, the segregation came and went but we always were separated by gender. Even on Sunday, married couples would rarely sit together.

We always segregated, but in numerous ways. Don’t be fooled: there is always a Korean-only meeting every week, whether you know about it or not.

Some groupings we experimented with:

– Fellowship leaders/women missionaries/students
– Those with no sheep/those with 1 sheep/those with 2 or more sheep
– shepherd candidates/young mothers of prayer/everyone else
– messengers/women leaders/everyone else
– everyone by fellowship (this was always done on Sunday after services, rarely any other time)

The current LA director told me that one of the main considerations of him being chosen as the director was to consider the missionaries. For some reason, they would only listen to the next, most senior Korean missionary among them–certainly not any American shepherd. Outrageous, right? But when you poll the missionaries in the chapter, many were in agreement with this. Though I will say that many were not and did not know that it was for this reason the current director had been chosen.

In Germany, we had a yearly so called “shepherds’ conference” in the early 1990s. And yes, every “German shepherd” was accompanied by a “Korean watchdog” (pun intended). I liked the conference because it was one of the few occasions where we could have some fellowship with Germans from other chapters. Of course not much, since we were kept busy with writing and sharing sogams. But even that was probably too much for them, they stopped having these conferences after some years. In general, UBF does not promote friendships in the horizontal layers of their hierarchical pyramid, they focus on the vertical shepherd/sheep relationships.

Good question, gc. I think the answer is that we have been indoctrinated to believe that humbleness and obedience and compliance and subserviency and suffering and never criticizing or questioning spiritual authorities is good and spiritual, and we really wanted to be good and spiritual.

By the way, this very problem already happened in the first churches:

“In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that!” (Paul in 2 Cor 11:20-21a)

Why did these people tolerate such abuse? I guess for the same reasons as we did: A false understanding of humility, and indoctrination and intimidation through the claimed authority of the “super-apostles”.

I am not participating, so I cannot even report on it. But, the above is what I have heard about. It has become in itself a caricature of the gospel Jesus preached. For me, after several years in Korea, it just resembles a secular Korean social culture that demonstrates how many real situations are handled with the presence of non-Koreans.

When I heard about the arrangements I told a Korean leader in UBF that “I am not a foreigner in this country, but I am a foreigner in UBF.”

What was the rationale for stratifying by age and ethnicity? Did they also stratify by sex?

1) Senior Korean Missionaries
2) Young/Junior Korean Missionaries
3) What I call – Everyone else

If I am incorrect about this data before and after the fact, I hope someone can educate me. But, this basically sums up my several years in Korea as an English teacher – Korean teachers sit separately from Foreign(er) teachers…

So, I suppose the older attendees can get nothing from the younger – when in fact this whole gathering has been designed to influence and encourage the introduction to many young 1st year freshmen. Moreover, I suppose that a superiority has arisen because the Koreans so humbly and sacrificially left their home country and the North American’s have not. I suppose everyone else cannot relate to the experience and many aspects of what it means to be a cult carrying Korean who is out of their so-called comfort zone and yet benefitting from the system and opportunities that North America has to offer them.

Anyway, it is my rant for the moment, but I ask the question to any present members who are not Korean – Why do you still remain in a so-called church that has no hesitation to ostracize you in your own country? You have a choice to go here and there. Why have we allowed ourselves to be reduced, humiliated, undermined, abused and so on … in a church that clearly marginalizes us? We are in our own country of origin and yet we are compelled to attend a church gathering that shames us in a non-biblical manner through cultural standards that have clearly defined that (church) dogma, ritual, theology and grounds for social relations as well as many other areas of our lives and also basic areas of faith and understanding of our creator.

But those people were not his audience.

His message was delivered to UBF insiders.

So he is preaching vitriol against outsiders to those on the inside.

Why would he do this?

There is only one logical answer.

The implicit message to his audience is this: “If ever you decide to leave, this is how you will be denounced and demonized.”

Their unfortunate error is simply that they think that such verses no longer ever applies to them, since they have been leaders in the church for 2, 3, 4 decades, and that they have already overcome such sins a long time ago. It simply shows that Scripture no longer speaks to their own soul. But the way Scripture is used by some of them is primarily to teach and train others, to correct and rebuke others, but not themselves (cf. Rom 2:21).

They have little idea or hardly ever address sins that are so common in the church among Christians and Christian leaders: jealousy, envy, slander, gossip, one-upmanship, playing politics, not being transparent or entirely honest, etc.

The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.

source

He does not realize how much he himself loves the world: he loves his title, seniority, Korean GD status, position of authority perhaps even more than worldly people who love money.

Because of his own blindness and denial, he is unable to address such self-evident sins that are common to man both in and outside the church.

Thus, he can only come across to others as self-righteous, sanctimonious, elitist, superior and condescending, all of which are anti-Christ, anti-church and anti-gospel.

…and he is a “top leader” in UBF, which means that he is basically untouchable and unaccountable. Also, no one close to him will ever dare to tell him the truth that others are able to see so clearly.

Instead of saying that’s just a bunch of cr__, I’ll just say that’s cu__! It works better for my blood pressure. :)

Ruth Tucker wrote a book about Christians who walked away from their churches and their faith. She dispels many of the myths about them. I believe her observations also apply to people who walked away from UBFism and UBF.

“They are angry and rebellious.” False. They experience a great deal of sorrow and pain, but most are not angry.

“We can give them good arguments and convince them to come back.” False. These people thought through their decisions very carefully. They left in a state of knowledge, not ignorance.

“The left because they wanted to freely commit sin.” False. After they leave, their lifestyle often becomes holier.

“They were never deeply committed to begin with.” False. They were among the most devout and committed members.

So my official list of redeemed ubf chapters stands at 7:

1) Westloop (Chicago USA): Rhoel
2) Penn State (Penn. USA): JoeS
3) Valenzuela City (Philippines): Jimmon
4) Antipolo (Philippines) Dr. John
5) Calaocan City (Philippines) Jonathan
6) University Belt (Philippines) Timothy
7) Bulacan (Philippines) Eddie

1) Valenzuela City (original chapter): Jimmon.
2) Antipolo: Dr. John.
3) Calaocan City, University of the East: Jonathan.
4) University Belt: Timothy.
5) Bulacan: Eddie.

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets. source

“If you grow a healthy tree, you’ll pick healthy fruit. If you grow a diseased tree, you’ll pick worm-eaten fruit. The fruit tells you about the tree.

You have minds like a snake pit! How do you suppose what you say is worth anything when you are so foul-minded? It’s your heart, not the dictionary, that gives meaning to your words. A good person produces good deeds and words season after season. An evil person is a blight on the orchard. Let me tell you something: Every one of these careless words is going to come back to haunt you. There will be a time of Reckoning. Words are powerful; take them seriously. Words can be your salvation. Words can also be your damnation.” (source

Even after decades of being so-called “missionaries” in the U.S. some of them have not learned much about humility or contextualization.

My second response is, “Oops–for over 20 years from 1980 to the early 2000s–I myself gave those exact reasons as to why people left UBF!!”

“This is the picture of the crisis that our church community confronts today. Nowadays, people love themselves and money. They love pleasure more than God. The waves of sin flow into the church community and infect our souls.”

“Co-workers who were once great in their faith fall into the temptations of sin. Some become tempters to knock down the faith of others. Those who once stood firm on the gospel faith and were once a good influence for their faith are rather influenced by sin and the value system of the world.”

“Many are losing their identity as a royal priesthood and a holy nation… They are not the ones who serve God with sincere faith, but those who live hypocritical and superficial lives before people… Their folly will be clear to everyone… Paul clearly warns Timothy to turn away from them.”

Terrible Times lecture from UBF 50th Anniversary

Free copy of the 50th Anniversary UBF blue book