What I Learned from Tangled
I hope to participate in the upcoming ubfriends book club. But in the meantime, maybe we can also have a movie club. The movie Tangled was the most significant movie that helped me make sense of my shepherd/sheep relationship at ubf. Here are my thoughts on the movie that visualizes one part of my life extremely well.
What is your gospel?
Someone astutely pointed out here in the latest blitzkrieg of comments that one key issue between many of those who criticize ubf and many of those who promote ubf is the view of the gospel. Over the years, ubfriends has discussed the gospel quite a lot, and yet such articles about the gospel tend to generate very few comments. Should we not have a clear understanding of the gospel if we claim to be a Christian? I say yes.
Two Things I Want To Say to Every Sheep
Once you join UBF bible study, two words will forever be seared into your mind: shepherd and sheep. Everything at UBF depends on this fundamental relationship. The UBF Heritage Slogans, known as the “spiritual legacy” of the UBF founders Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry, depends on the shepherd-sheep relationship in order to propagate the UBF ideology to successive generations. If you had the chance, what would you say to all UBF sheep right now? Here is what I would say.
Why I Say UBF is a Cult
As promised, here is my third installment in my three part article series. I am well aware of the provocative title in this third article. This is intentional because as a non-Korean UBF shepherd for over 20 years, I found only two ways to share my perspectives with Korean missionaries at UBF and to raise issues and pains of conscience with them. Those two ways are to 1) use the cult label and 2) leave, or threaten to leave, UBF. Here is my attempt to comprehensively and concisely share my thoughts on this subject.
Why I Love Westloop UBF!
I was prompted yesterday by Ben’s comment to share how much I love the church at Westloop UBF.
What just happened here?
Let’s cut to the chase. Let’s all take a step back and process what just happened here on ubfriends and at ubf the past several weeks. The main event that just happened in ubf is the election of the new General Director. In the past, the GD was just chosen by a few leaders, I mean “by God”. But now ubf has instituted a voting process. Not surprisingly, this vote has impacted our ubfriends virtual community. Here are the facts that I am aware of. Of course I am biased, so if you see something I don’t, please chime in an clarify in the comments. In order to correctly process Alan’s (aw) comments to me, we need to take a look at the context of that comment. That context begins with the recent election of the new ubf General Director.
After at least 10 years of thousands of hours of private conversations between Joe and many UBF leaders in Chicago and around the world, the President of UBF reaches out to Joe. This is what happened as far as I can tell.
Inspired to Love the Church by a Gay Christian
In April 2012 I was baptized by full immersion at our local Christian church. It was a wonderful and godly experience. The pastor’s words “You are free from the teachings of one man” still give me much peace and joy. Since then however, I have not returned to church, except for a couple special events. For me, baptism was an end, not a beginning. Baptism was the death of all the undue religious influence on my life. Today I would like to share with our readers a glimpse into my journey back to the church.
The Work of Satan in Mexico
In light of the public prayer topic for our ubfriends in Mexico, I would like to share some news so that you can pray more clearly about the situation. The recent public prayer topic was announced this way on ubf.org: “Pray for M. Timothy, Mexico and his sock factory closed since last 3 weeks. Now he earnestly requests our sincere prayers that by next Tuesday (Feb. 24), he may submit all the necessary documents the labor department required after doing what they requested in the factory, and the factory may be allowed to reopen!”
Excerpts from the Penguin Narratives
[Drawing of penguins by my daughter, Anna] At one point in my life, I thought I had Christianity all figured out. I felt the twinge of pride as I “kept the faith” while people around me seemed to abandon their mission from God. I did everything I could to “present myself to God as one approved”. I went to Russia as a short-term missionary. I amassed over fifteen thousand hours of bible reading. I missed only three Sunday services in twenty four years. And then it all fell apart. The fabric of my faith unraveled. The spirit of my mission decomposed. And the walls of our community collapsed.
Turning Pressure into Beauty
Pressure. It builds, it mounts and then it explodes. And it is the one reason my fellow outlaw preacher, John O’Keefe, claims as the primary reason people are leaving church. His recent article is excellent: The One Reason People are Leaving Church. I think that pressure is also at the heart of why people (even leaders) have been leaving ubf and continue to contact me for help. Can the church turn that pressure into something beautiful? For many local churches as well as the ubf organization, the answer may determine whether they survive this generation.
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