It’s because our leaders are stupid. They never asked God for counsel, and so nothing worked right. The people are scattered all over.

God’s Message came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherd-leaders of Israel. Yes, prophesy! Tell those shepherds, ‘God, the Master, says: Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren’t shepherds supposed to feed sheep? You drink the milk, you make clothes from the wool, you roast the lambs, but you don’t feed the sheep. You don’t build up the weak ones, don’t heal the sick, don’t doctor the injured, don’t go after the strays, don’t look for the lost. You bully and badger them. And now they’re scattered every which way because there was no shepherd—scattered and easy pickings for wolves and coyotes. Scattered—my sheep!—exposed and vulnerable across mountains and hills. My sheep scattered all over the world, and no one out looking for them!

Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!” God’s Decree. “So here is what I, God, Israel’s God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: ‘You’ve scattered my sheep. You’ve driven them off. You haven’t kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I’m keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behavior. I’ll take over and gather what’s left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I’ve driven them. I’ll bring them back where they belong, and they’ll recover and flourish. I’ll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them. They won’t live in fear or panic anymore. All the lost sheep rounded up!’ God’s Decree.

Quit your worship charades. I can’t stand your trivial religious games: Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings— meetings, meetings, meetings—I can’t stand one more! Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them! You’ve worn me out!

I’m sick of your religion, religion, religion, while you go right on sinning. When you put on your next prayer-performance, I’ll be looking the other way. No matter how long or loud or often you pray, I’ll not be listening.

And do you know why? Because you’ve been tearing people to pieces, and your hands are bloody. Go home and wash up. Clean up your act. Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings so I don’t have to look at them any longer.

Say no to wrong. Learn to do good. Work for justice. Help the down-and-out. Stand up for the homeless. Go to bat for the defenseless.

Well, think again, you idiots, fools—how long before you get smart? Do you think Ear-Maker doesn’t hear, Eye-Shaper doesn’t see? Do you think the trainer of nations doesn’t correct, the teacher of Adam doesn’t know? God knows, all right— knows your stupidity, sees your shallowness.

Watch out for the religion scholars. They love to walk around in academic gowns, preening in the radiance of public flattery, basking in prominent positions, sitting at the head table at every church function. And all the time they are exploiting the weak and helpless. The longer their prayers, the worse they get. But they’ll pay for it in the end.

Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air; common sense tells you it’s a stupid way to live.

I’m after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.

And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true. Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you religion scholars, you Pharisees! Frauds! Your lives are roadblocks to God’s kingdom. You refuse to enter, and won’t let anyone else in either.

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You go halfway around the world to make a convert, but once you get him you make him into a replica of yourselves, double-damned.

You’re hopeless! What arrogant stupidity! You say, ‘If someone makes a promise with his fingers crossed, that’s nothing; but if he swears with his hand on the Bible, that’s serious.’ What ignorance! Does the leather on the Bible carry more weight than the skin on your hands? And what about this piece of trivia: ‘If you shake hands on a promise, that’s nothing; but if you raise your hand that God is your witness, that’s serious’? What ridiculous hairsplitting! What difference does it make whether you shake hands or raise hands? A promise is a promise. What difference does it make if you make your promise inside or outside a house of worship? A promise is a promise. God is present, watching and holding you to account regardless.

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You burnish the surface of your cups and bowls so they sparkle in the sun, while the insides are maggoty with your greed and gluttony. Stupid Pharisee! Scour the insides, and then the gleaming surface will mean something.

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You’re like manicured grave plots, grass clipped and the flowers bright, but six feet down it’s all rotting bones and worm-eaten flesh. People look at you and think you’re saints, but beneath the skin you’re total frauds.

You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You build granite tombs for your prophets and marble monuments for your saints. And you say that if you had lived in the days of your ancestors, no blood would have been on your hands. You protest too much! You’re cut from the same cloth as those murderers, and daily add to the death count.

Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse.

You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation.

Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’

Ok I feel better now.

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=jeremiah%2010:21&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ezekiel%2034:2%20&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?earch=Jeremiah%2023:1%20&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%201:13-14&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+94:8&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2012:38-40&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+11:29&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hosea+6:4&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%205:33-37&version=MSG

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew%2023&version=MSG

Defining Spiritual Abuse

“abuse” means multiple things, but the definition from Merriam-Webster that fits is this: improper or excessive use or treatment, as in drug abuse. “spiritual” means relating to the spirit and more specifically the bible in this case. So “spiritual abuse” in my mind is: An improper and/or excessive use of the bible as treatment for the problems of a person.

Discover your primary Values

What do we value? Our value system will determine a lot about how much control someone can have in our life. And the value system of the church you are in will determine how much leeway there is for spiritual abuse to happen. In the ubf context, the “spiritual abuse” is expressed through authoritative control. The Hasaan BITE model explains the four areas where the control is exhibited, usually involving bible verses: behavior, information, thoughts and emotions.

The prime values of ubf are typically expressed as loyalty, obedience, submission and mission (which is ambition often). More specifically, I’ve identified the following values of many ubf directors:

• Etiquette – Learn the proper ubf rituals and learn to speak the ubf language.
• Filial piety – Respect and obey your shepherd and be thankful to your new spiritual family for your entire life.
• Benevolence – Be gracious always to all people with no negative words.
• Loyalty – Be loyal to your leadership.
• Nobility – Be the best and elite soldiers of Christianity.

These values are then bound to bible verses and used to conform ubf members to an ideal standard called “shepherd”. Non-conformance to this identity or to those values is dealt with through special training to bring people back inline.

Be cautious of a “New identity”

Our new pastor explained that while the “shepherd” concept in ubf is perhaps one expression of Christian identity, it is not your specific Christian identity. The spiritual abuse in ubf is most easily seen by realizing that the ubf ideology is meant to instill one specific Christian identity on all people, ignoring what God may have uniquely designed for that person.

Respect personal boundaries

From Dr. Henry Cloud, I also learned that one way to identify this invisible abuse is to realize personal boundaries. Our emotions tell us when those personal boundaries have been intruded upon. Anger, for one, tells me that something contradictory to my idea of justice has been violated. Whether I am right or wrong about that would need to be investigated, but at least I can start to identify the contradiction.

What is your definition of “spiritual abuse”?

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 3:20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Yet ubf directors deem it necessary to SKIP some of the most critical teachings that would be most helpful to their staff. Instead, they continue to emphasize that your ONLY calling is to be a bible teacher. The titles of the two 1 John lectures say it all.

“Our Fellowship” (or UBF IS GREAT)

The staff conference lectures starting tomorrow will proclaim yet again the importance of OUR FELLOWSHIP, how ubf is the BEST WAYS of eternal life coming directly from God and established eons ago as God’s ways. Probably ubf will claim that Adam had 1:1 with Eve :)

“He will Forgive us” (or FORGET THE PAST)

The staff conference lectures will also attempt to re-enforce the forgiveness of God. The focus will actually be on “forgetting” rather than “forgiving”. The idea emphasized yet again will be that God forgave ubf all their sins in the past, so we should not talk about the sins of the past any more, because they are not sins anymore. The line of thought goes like this: Any abuse or criticism against ubf should be fogotten because Jesus “paid it all” on the cross.

The real titles ought to be something like “GOD IS LIGHT” and “LET’S CONFESS OUR SINS”.

Why in the world would you study 1 John 1 and SKIP the best parts? Why would you skip verses 5, 6 and 10!?!

1 John 1 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

That is what the upcoming ubf staff conference will be doing.

My Version of the Program

Here is what I hear from the staff conference program:

1. Since the beginning of time our UBF fellowship, which we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears, has been God’s witness of the work of God. We want everyone to have fellowship with us and participate in God’s best ways for eternal life, which are UBF ways. Oh and by the way, notice how the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in 1 John 1:3, so see, it is proper to have a gnostic/binary view of God. Our fellowship in UBF is only with the Father and the Son. You don’t need to listen to the Holy Spirit. We are the directors of your life.
2. By doing UBF work, you will be filled with the fullness of God.
3. Even though we ignore the suffering and questions of sheep, former members and anyone who is critical of us, God will still forgive us.
4. None of that matters though. Just keep decreeing, obeying and teaching the bible as God’s marine soldiers like Ezra did.

UBF directors don’t speak directly. They speak indirectly via Bible lectures. If you speak up or ask a question about a taboo topic, expect to be mentioned in the next Sunday message. Of course the wording is always subtle enough that an outsider wouldn’t think twice about it.

In the 2013 New Year’s lecture from the UBF General Director, he answers my two questions about what I see are the two biggest problems of UBF.

Source: http://www.ubf.org/node/1505

1. Will the UBF General Director admit that the UBF shepherding has created an environment where many kinds of abuse have happened? The answer is no. In UBF, God only keeps smiling down on UBF shepherds, apparently so pleased with their beautiful ministry. Yes, he admits some (many actually) have left UBF, but he only mentions how thankful all people will be to UBF shepherds. And he has the gall to say such people were “sent” by UBF.

>>> NOTE TO STUDENTS: When a UBF shepherd invites you to a one hour Bible study on campus, that shepherd is expecting you to be grateful to him/her not only for the rest of your life, but for all eternity, according to the 2013 new year lecture:

“What is the inmost heart of God? It is to seek and to save the lost. World mission is God’s heart-beat. Think about God’s sorrow when Christians do little to rescue the perishing people. Think about how God is pleased and comforted when he sees us diligently inviting students and teaching them the gospel. Our one-to-one Bible study is a very powerful tool of evangelism. Therefore most of those who studied in UBF become Christians. When Bible students leave, shepherds are sorrowful. But there are cheers of the angels in heaven on behalf of our shepherds. The Lord will say, “Well done, my faithful servants. You added many members to the family of God.” When we enter the kingdom of God, we will be surprised at so many people coming to us to say “Thank you! Thank you!” Who will they be? They are those who met Christ through UBF Bible studies and all of those who were saved through their ministries. When we serve God’s purpose with a big perspective, we can joyfully serve one-to-one ministry. As we do so, God will raise more disciples who will keep the beauty of our ministries and serve God’s purpose for his whole church.”

2. Will the UBF General Director put an end to the lording-over, absolute authority structure setup in UBF? The answer is no. In UBF, God is so pleased with a military-style leadership. Apparently UBF is the best of the best Christians, fighting like marines.

>>> NOTE TO STUDENTS: UBF is indeed a military-like organization, though it may not appear that way at first. Ask too many questions and you’ll end up with a form of dead-dog training, soldier style. Try going to another church and you’ll be lambasted with taunts of acting like Satan. Reject a marriage by faith arrangement…well I wouldn’t want to find that out:

“In the church, each member has its unique role and position within the whole as God assigned. What is our role as an organization in God’s church? We are Jesus’ disciples who are committed to world campus mission. If we compare the whole church to a military, we are the marines that engage in the battle at the frontlines. We diligently go to campuses to invite students, nourish them with the words of God, and send most of them to local churches, though we don’t like the last part. If we see our ministries from an investment-profit concept, we are not doing a good business. But if we see our ministries from God’s point of view, we are doing a beautiful ministry.”

Yes.

Yes.

The Bible teachers demanded “Give glory to God.” The man replied by telling his story of encountering Jesus.

John 9:1-41, The Message

9 ^1-2 Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked, “Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?”

^3-5 Jesus said, “You’re asking the wrong question. You’re looking for someone to blame. There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do. We need to be energetically at work for the One who sent me here, working while the sun shines. When night falls, the workday is over. For as long as I am in the world, there is plenty of light. I am the world’s Light.”

^6-7 He said this and then spit in the dust, made a clay paste with the saliva, rubbed the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and said, “Go, wash at the Pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “Sent”). The man went and washed—and saw.

⁸ Soon the town was buzzing. His relatives and those who year after year had seen him as a blind man begging were saying, “Why, isn’t this the man we knew, who sat here and begged?”

⁹ Others said, “It’s him all right!”

But others objected, “It’s not the same man at all. It just looks like him.”

He said, “It’s me, the very one.”

¹⁰ They said, “How did your eyes get opened?”

¹¹ “A man named Jesus made a paste and rubbed it on my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ I did what he said. When I washed, I saw.”

¹² “So where is he?”

“I don’t know.”

^13-15 They marched the man to the Pharisees. This day when Jesus made the paste and healed his blindness was the Sabbath. The Pharisees grilled him again on how he had come to see. He said, “He put a clay paste on my eyes, and I washed, and now I see.”

¹⁶ Some of the Pharisees said, “Obviously, this man can’t be from God. He doesn’t keep the Sabbath.”

Others countered, “How can a bad man do miraculous, God-revealing things like this?” There was a split in their ranks.

¹⁷ They came back at the blind man, “You’re the expert. He opened your eyes. What do you say about him?”

He said, “He is a prophet.”

^18-19 The Jews didn’t believe it, didn’t believe the man was blind to begin with. So they called the parents of the man now bright-eyed with sight. They asked them, “Is this your son, the one you say was born blind? So how is it that he now sees?”

^20-23 His parents said, “We know he is our son, and we know he was born blind. But we don’t know how he came to see—haven’t a clue about who opened his eyes. Why don’t you ask him? He’s a grown man and can speak for himself.” (His parents were talking like this because they were intimidated by the Jewish leaders, who had already decided that anyone who took a stand that this was the Messiah would be kicked out of the meeting place. That’s why his parents said, “Ask him. He’s a grown man.”)

²⁴ They called the man back a second time—the man who had been blind—and told him, “Give credit to God. We know this man is an impostor.”

²⁵ He replied, “I know nothing about that one way or the other. But I know one thing for sure: I was blind . . . I now see.”

²⁶ They said, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”

²⁷ “I’ve told you over and over and you haven’t listened. Why do you want to hear it again? Are you so eager to become his disciples?”

^28-29 With that they jumped all over him. “You might be a disciple of that man, but we’re disciples of Moses. We know for sure that God spoke to Moses, but we have no idea where this man even comes from.”

^30-33 The man replied, “This is amazing! You claim to know nothing about him, but the fact is, he opened my eyes! It’s well known that God isn’t at the beck and call of sinners, but listens carefully to anyone who lives in reverence and does his will. That someone opened the eyes of a man born blind has never been heard of—ever. If this man didn’t come from God, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

³⁴ They said, “You’re nothing but dirt! How dare you take that tone with us!” Then they threw him out in the street.

³⁵ Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and went and found him. He asked him, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

³⁶ The man said, “Point him out to me, sir, so that I can believe in him.”

³⁷ Jesus said, “You’re looking right at him. Don’t you recognize my voice?”

³⁸ “Master, I believe,” the man said, and worshiped him.

³⁹ Jesus then said, “I came into the world to bring everything into the clear light of day, making all the distinctions clear, so that those who have never seen will see, and those who have made a great pretense of seeing will be exposed as blind.”

⁴⁰ Some Pharisees overheard him and said, “Does that mean you’re calling us blind?”

⁴¹ Jesus said, “If you were really blind, you would be blameless, but since you claim to see everything so well, you’re accountable for every fault and failure.”

Catholic Church Apologizes to Galileo

After a 13 year investigation, the Pope finally apologized to Galileo.

Moving formally to rectify a wrong, Pope John Paul II acknowledged in a speech today that the Roman Catholic Church had erred in condemning Galileo 359 years ago for asserting that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Incorrect Application of the Bible

The Pope further explains that the Catholic theologians incorrectly applied the Bible.

John Paul said the theologians who condemned Galileo did not recognize the formal distinction between the Bible and its interpretation.

This led them unduly to transpose into the realm of the doctrine of the faith, a question which in fact pertained to scientific investigation.

Might we not wait 359 years for such apologies?

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/01/world/vatican-science-panel-told-by-pope-galileo-was-right.html

The movement was fraught with problems. Some of those problems, displayed in several pseudo-Christian organizations that grew out of the movement, have been discussed openly for many years. Most notable in this discussion is Ron Enroth’s book, Churches That Abuse.

The face of the failed Shepherding Movement was Bob Mumford, who became a sort of poster-boy of the movement. In 1989, Mr. Mumford offered a public apology to those hurt by the movement’s teachings and practices.

In his formal statement of repentance Mumford said:

Accountability, personal training under the guidance of another, and effective pastoral care are needed biblical concepts. True spiritual maturity will require that they be preserved. These biblical realities must also carry the limits indicated by the New Testament. However, to my personal pain and chagrin, these particular emphases very easily lent themselves to an unhealthy submission resulting in perverse and unbiblical obedience to human leaders. Many of these abuses occurred within the sphere of my own responsibility.

The movement began to disintegrate in 1986 when its magazine, New Wine, folded due to steady loss of revenue. In the latter years of the 1980s Baxter, Basham, and Mumford officially “released” their disciples from their previous pyramidal authority structure-Prince had already severed his formal ties with the others in 1983.

Yet even with Mumford’s public statement of apology-and in spite of Buckingham’s obituary of the “discipleship era”-the abuse of discipleship and spiritual authority continues unabated by other men (and women) in other churches and movements. (source)

University Bible Fellowship is one of those organizations who continue the abuse of discipleship and spiritual authority through aberrant teachings.

Here are some excerpts from another blog that describe two main reasons why the original Shepherding Movement failed in the United States. The descriptions below also describe why UBF continues to be labeled as a cult by eight organizations. As of 2012, UBF has not addressed these issues adequately and continues to teach covering theology.

“Most of the Christian church doesn’t believe in covering theology. It appeared on the scene in North America about 40 years ago through something called the shepherding movement.  That movement was completely discredited and some of the leaders have publicly repented of their involvement.”

Reason 1 – They replaced Jesus as master.

“In this context, a group of older, more experienced charismatic ministers came together to bring a corrective. The occasion of their meeting was a moral failure of a ministry in Fort Lauderdale, FL. Believing themselves to be equally vulnerable to moral failure apart from better accountability they mutually submitted themselves to one another. When this happened, they described themselves as having a supernatural experience binding their ministries together for life. Initially the group was made of Derek Prince, Don Basham, Bob Mumford, and Charles Simpson. Eventually, former Branham campaign manager Ern Baxter was added to the group, and they became known as “The Fort Lauderdale Five.”

“The five very talented men immediately began to teach on authority, submission and discipleship. Although there were a number of important doctrines, the central doctrine—the one that reshaped the church—was that every person must be submitted to another person (Shepherd/Pastor/Discipler), and that all of your major life decisions should be submitted to this person. Effectively, if unintentionally, this put the individual in the position of having two masters– Jesus and a personal shepherd. With time the personal shepherd gains more power, as Jesus gets less. And in time, this creates a system where those who have unquestioning obedience to man are promoted. All kinds of ungodly things came in through these doors. Several books have been written detailing the kinds of abuse suffered as a result. The scary thing about the whole system is that it started out with the intent of promoting accountability, and eventually enslaved people.”

Reason 2 – They made their shepherd/sheep relationships permanent

“The second dangerous doctrine had to do with “Covenant” relationships or “Spiritual Family.” If being absolutely submitted to another person was an imprisonment, then the covenant relationship was the iron padlock on the door. The idea here is that when you enter into these discipleship relationships, they are permanent, and more broadly that your association with a specific group of believers is permanent. You were in a “Covenant” and if you left the relationship or the fellowship group, you were breaking a covenant. This quickly becomes a very dangerous situation: no matter how terrible your experience becomes with a group or person, you can not leave, and if you do, you believe that you’ve broken a covenant with God, so to get right with God you’d have to go back to the abuse! You slowly become enmeshed with the other members of the group and separated from the outside world. Your “spiritual family” becomes more important than your natural family or other believers you’ve had relationship with. You slowly become more and more isolated and more and more dependent upon the group or leader. At a certain point if your leaders do not check the pattern, it becomes a full fledged cult. Normally, however this pattern is held in tension with Biblical expectations so these groups rarely become true cults, while still exhibiting cult-like features. Scary.”

Result – The fruit of absolute obedience to human authority

“After a couple of years, the fruit of these doctrines became obvious to those outside of the movement such as Jack Hayford, Pat Robertson, Demos Sharkarian and others, and they confronted the “Five” in the infamous “Shootout at the Curtis Hotel,” in 1975. The result was that the Five issued an “apology” which did not really represent repentance on their part. They rejected the excesses of some who had followed their teachings to their logical conclusions, without accepting that the doctrines they were teaching had been the direct cause.  Their persistence created a split in the charismatic movement between those who accepted the authority teaching, and those who did not.”

“This split is still evident today but under different names. No one dares be associated with the “Shepherding Movement” by name because it was so discredited.  But many still believe in the basic principles to some degree or another, and find support in classic authors such as Watchman Nee. The “Prophetic” stream of the church became the branch of the church that did not accept authority teachings, and the “Apostolic” branch became that which did. The tragedy is that the basic observations of the Five were correct (i.e. need for discipleship, accountability) but their solution of hierarchical personal submission was not. Therefore the “prophetic” stream still tends to reflect the lack of authority that the rebellious hippies brought into the church through the Jesus Movement. Chaos in the meeting is welcomed and even praised as spiritual, and generally everyone does their own thing, hears from God totally in isolation, etc. On the other hand, those with the Shepherding heritage value “order” over all else. While they speak in tongues and claim to be charismatic, often in practice, the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy are not welcomed, because order is valued over the moving of the Spirit.  Or prophecy can only come through an established authority in the church hierarchy.”

Jesus is Lord

“In summary, the Shepherds were right right to raise the issue of authority, but they were wrong about submission to other men. Christ is Lord of all, and each should be in submission to Him by the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  Because we need order and peace, we should submit to those who lead ministries over us just like we would to our bosses at work.  But this is far different from owing them allegiance in our personal or spiritual lives. And when we come to the place where following them violates our conscience, it’s time to move on.”

(source)

Set Me Free

Sing Your Freedom

Do I Stand Alone?

I think it is long overdue for people to ask these questions of their church leaders. Would your church leaders say these things? Have they ever said such things?

To guard myself against what I did and learned the past 25 years, I took John 3:30 as a personal verse to hold onto: “He must become greater; I must become less.” Ironically, this is Eric’s concluding verse on this subject.

1. Test Everything I say against the Bible!
2. Go! Get out of here! You have a job to do!
3. Your spiritual life can thrive without me!
4. Truth is not exclusive to our little group!
5. Let God direct your giving. Give to the work He asks you to give to – even if it’s not here.
6. I’m not perfect! But, Jesus IS!
7. I don’t deserve special treatment!
8. Jesus forgives thoroughly and completely! And I choose to do the same!
9. Don’t be quick to judge the motives of others!
10. The only message that counts is Jesus and Him Crucified!

1. I would rather hear this song at church than most hymns.

2. I hear the gospel in these songs by Pink, Eminem and Bon Jovi more than in a lot of preaching.

3. My favorite rum is Kraken, my favorite vodka is Tito’s, my favorite beer is Sam Adams Boston Ale and my favorite wine is any kind of merlot.

I agree with this post from 2007:

“UBF is the kind of organization that sucks your life away. You don’t associate with anyone outside of it, and once you become serious about it, you actually move into a church dormitory and spend all of your time doing free work for the church: recruitment, maintenance, cooking, etc. Christianity is only a tertiary concern. Surely nobody can be surprised that religion, which encourages a mindset of blind devotion and taking things on faith, would lead people right into the hands of exploitative cultists.”

http://www.cydeweys.com/blog/2007/06/29/religious-cult-preying-on-vulnerable-lonely-college-students/

Here is the report:

“Through this program, the second gens renewed their identities as second gen UBF missionaries and learned what they should inherit and cherish during their lifetime and what they should hand down to the next generation.”

http://www.ubf.org/node/1237

However, I am very, very, very glad that we no longer have to worry about such pressure and guilt and fear as parents! I pray for the Spirit to work in the hearts of these young people and set them free from the chains of “UBF heritage”.

A Servant of Christ Jesus (1-7)

Romans 1 begins with a humble reminder of identity. Before lifting his hand to conduct one of the most intense and beautiful symphonies of Christian truth ever composed, Paul remembers his identity. He is a servant. A servant of Christ Jesus.

Furthermore, Paul remembers his calling– called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.  He recalls briefly all that has happened in God’s redemptive history– the promises given of old, the messages of the prophets and the Holy Scriptures, the kingship of David and most importantly, Jesus Himself. Jesus through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. Jesus is our Lord. His grace, His love, His calling, His peace and His Lordship is what we are called to embrace. In any issue, we are to share God’s good news.

As we approach any issue confronting the Church, I call for us to pause and remember our identity and our calling. Who is in charge here? Christ Jesus is in charge. Whose purpose are we called to? Our purpose belongs to Christ Jesus. How are we to treat other people? We see them as loved by God, especially the saints.

I Thank My God (8-13)

Why did God inspire Paul to write the Epistle to the Romans? There are many reasons to be sure, but first Paul says he writes because he is thankful. “I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.” (8) Gratitude for their faith. Paul kept gratitude in his heart as he was about to unleash a letter that begins with the wrath of God. Paul was thankful for the Roman Christians and longed to see them to be mutually encouraged. As we dialogue about various issues, should we not be thankful and seek to be mutually encouraged?

The Righteous Will Live By Faith (14-17)

Paul declares that he is not ashamed of the gospel. He had no problem discussing issues and praying with and for Greeks, non-Greeks, wise, foolish- and the Romans. I think it is highly interesting that Paul does not mention “Romans” in verse 14, but says “non-Greeks”, which is like calling Americans “non-British” :) I think Paul wants those who hear his letter to the Romans to cast aside all pride and humbly listen to what God has to say through his letter.

Paul is not ashamed of the gospel of grace, for such good news reveals a righteousness from God, that can only be received by faith from the beginning to the end of our journey. In fact, faith will be the life of the righteous.

Just before his thunderous overture that is Romans, Paul quietly sets down the premise of the entire letter, a premise that God gave to Habakkuk long ago:

“The righteous will live by faith.”

Do we understand that? Paul’s reason for writing Romans is to demonstrate the truth of this statement. Paul’s writing begins with some inviting, pleasing music and then draws quiet, perhaps with a single flute calling us to humbly bow before Jesus our King and to cleanse our hearts to receive what good news God would have for us.

First of all, understand that “To be a disciple-maker” is a UBFism. It is a phrase that means “live as a UBF loyalist every week and reproduce that obedience in someone else, preferably a college student.” The answer to this question, is no, I do not believe I am called to be a UBF disciple-maker.

However, I don’t believe the person asking this question meant it as a UBFism. No one else on the planet defines “be a disciple-maker” like UBF does. I believe that the person asked sincerely, and honestly based on Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations” as in Matthew 28:16-20:

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Here is my answer: No.

I do not believe I am called to be a disciple-maker as my personal task. In fact, I contend that no person ever was given the task of making disciples. What? Someone will say, what about the verse you just quoted? Bear with me and I will explain.

To whom was the command “to go” given? It was given to the Eleven. It was given collectively and publicly; it was given at least once when only the Eleven were gathered; it was given other times when other disciples besides the Eleven would have heard the command. At least one time when Jesus gave this command, it was on the mountain, according to Matthew.

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.  17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. — Matthew 28:16-17

And “make disciples” is not mentioned by Luke. But even Luke’s words in Luke 24:46-49 were given to “the Eleven and those with them, assembled together.” (Luke 24:33-34).

Therefore, I contend that Jesus’ command to make disciples is primarily a community command, not to be understood as a personal mission, but as a community mission. I believe God will give various gifts to individuals and then wants to use those individual believers for a collective purpose, in addition to their personal purpose from God:

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.  28 And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.  29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?  30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues ? Do all interpret?  31 But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way. — 1 Corinthians 12:27-31

What is our witness to the world as a community of believers? I believe that one person is not called to the task of making disciples. That is something we are directed to do together. The old saying fits well then: “It takes a village to raise a child.” I contend that “It takes the body of Christ to raise a disciple.”

Clearly, God gave the “go and make disciples” command corporately, so that the whole body of Christ would be a witness. God uses the community of believers to make disciples, as we see all throughout the book of Acts.

No amount of human effort or ambition will ever make even one disciple of Jesus. Only by the Holy Spirit will anyone believe (1 Corinthians 12:3). I believe this community witness to the gospel is something sorely lacking in Western Christianity. And it is something wonderful that I believe Korean Christianity can contribute to the body of Christ.

Is there, then, any personal calling related to making disciples? Yes! The best example of the personal direction Jesus gave is found in John 21: “Feed my sheep.” This command was indeed given personally to Peter, and in a private session.  Only some of the Eleven were present when Jesus said “Feed my sheep”. John records that in fact only seven were on that boat fishing that day (John 21:1-3). And it is likely, by observing the sequence of events in John 21, that only Peter heard all of Jesus’ words, though some others must have heard something of what Jesus said.

“Feed my sheep” was in direct relation to Jesus’ words earlier to Peter in regard to denying Jesus three times. This breakfast on the beach after a night of failure was an intensely personal moment between Jesus and Peter.

The command “Feed my sheep” is not equivalent to “go and make disciples”. The commands are different, they were given in different contexts, and they were given to different audiences for different reasons. Personally, Jesus’ direction is to take care of His lambs. Each believer does have a task of showing love to fellow human beings. When I understand “feed my sheep” without the UBFism “feed my sheep”, I see things quite clearly.

The command “go and make disciples” then refers to the work of the Holy Spirit among the body of indwelt believers who are feeding Jesus’ sheep.

The command “feed my sheep” then refers to the personal direction each believer has, that is to obey Jesus’ new command to “love one another”.

We learn to love; God makes disciples among us. There is but one Overseer and Shepherd of our souls (1 Peter 2:25).

I have gotten to know four ordained pastors lately, all of whom show evidence of being indwelt with the Holy Spirit, and all of whom have demonstrated a vibrant faith and love for God’s word and for people. All of them approach “making disciples” as the Lord’s work, something our Lord does. By watching them, I have learned that we are mere facilitators of our Lord’s work. We are important partners with Christ in this evangelistic work, but we are not called to individually “make disciples”.

What happens if we do enforce an individual disciple-making effort? The logical conclusion is that we then make disciples of ourselves, disciples of our program, disciples of our church or disciples of our philosophy. No matter how noble our starting intentions are, an individual view of disciple-making inevitably leads to propagating an ideology that we desperately want others to conform to. And we end up like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time: we necessarily redefine our neighbor as “God’s people” or only as “those nearby”. We end up loving ourselves.

Thoughts, concerns, questions?

I also came to realize that Confucian thought had become a barrier that hindered my writing of messages, testimonies, etc. I could never quite grasp the meaning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Where did I pick up Confucian ideas in America? Certainly such thoughts came from a Korean version of Confucianism, perhaps mixed in with Taoism and Buddhism. Today I would like to delve into this a little deeper. This is a big topic, and one to which I expect to give more thought. In the future, I plan to examine the 12-point UBF spiritual heritage in light of these Confucius teachings. At first glance, the heritage lines up well with Confucius ideas.

Example: The Lens of Li and Junzi

The main ideas of Confucianism are (as I understand them from my research)… etiquette (li), parental piety (hsiao), humanity (ren), loyalty (chung) and nobility (junzi).

For many years, these ideas were the lens through which I viewed Scripture. When I wrote a message or testimony, the content was judged as “good” or “bad” based on how clearly these ideas were presented. So my worldview was shaped by these things.

Now all of this was unspoken and implicit. Never was I told explicitly: “Write a Confucian message!” But these unspoken values became woven into the fabric of my faith.

Here is an example from one of my messages I wrote on John chapter 3.

John 3:1-3  1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council.  2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  3 In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

My concluding paragraph about verses 1 through 3 was this:

Now consider Jesus’ words, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”. This is very controversial.  At the same time here is the greatness of Jesus. In the presence of Christ, all the worldly greatness is gone. People face this reality check, “Who am I?  Do I see the kingdom of God? Do I experience God? What is my future?”  These words of Jesus make me to think about myself.  Have I been born a new?  Do I see the kingdom of God?  Like Nicodemus I have devoted myself to Bible study. I have tried to live an honorable life with the best I can. I have now become a man of modest accomplishment in this world. If Jesus were here today, would I come to him?  What would I do if Jesus says to me, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”.  This is true with you.  What would be your response as you hear from Jesus, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”?

Oh how I missed SO many chances to share the good news of Jesus! Instead, I labored to keep proper etiquette, to respect the “spiritual order” of parental piety, and to live a loyal, human and noble life!

How did the Confucian ideas affect what I wrote in the paragraph above? Let me explain.

Etiquette:  The teaching called “li” is about “the proper way”. This is a belief that includes ritual, propriety and etiquette. It includes a set of rules for interaction with others. Knowing and finding your role in a system is important. In UBF, I learned the “rules of engagement” for a messenger (and also for testimony writing). The first rule is to accept the thoughts of your shepherd (leader).  The words above? Those are not mine. They were dictated to me, given to me as the words I should present as my thoughts. Because I looked at my life through the lens of “li”… I accepted this as normal.

Nobility:  The teaching called “junzi” is about righteousness, honesty and trustworthiness. A junzi is a nobleman. It was a term used by Confucius to describe his ideal human. UBF trained me to be a “junzi” man. So I became devoted to Bible study, and to whatever activity was presented to me. I tried to live a noble, honest life. Because I also viewed life through the lens of “junzi”, I made the words above my own, and defended them as being my true feelings and thoughts.

The proper lens: Grace

Although there are theological differences among the Christian greats, I have found a common theme. They all looked at Scripture through the lens of grace.  The grace of God is the last word of the Bible; the lasting impression God would leave with mankind.

And not only was grace the lens that the ancient greats used, it is the lens through which modern Christians use:

“In the New Testament, ‘grace’ is a word of central importance – the keyword, in fact, of Christianity. The thought of grace is the key that unlocks the New Testament; and it is the only key that does so. However well we may know the New Testament, we cannot get inside its meaning till we know something of what grace is.”  — J.I.Packer
http://www.fbccs.org/resources/papers/grace.asp

When I see Scripture from the viewpoint of grace, I see a marvelous fabric of love, hope, faith, joy, peace, goodness, righteousness, holiness and justice! The grace of God melts away all other worldly ideas and restores Jesus as my Lord and King!

It is rare to find external comments about UBF. Usually we read only the self-published reports by UBF or the bitter rants of former members. Here are some comments that should be seen as a mirror, reflecting back to UBF people.

First, the viewpoint of  a student being fished on campus:

“I was walking back from the library toward my dorm room this afternoon when a young lady started talking to me about the Bible. It was one of those high-pressure sells, and this girl had a stack of flyers with “Bible Study Appointment’ sign-up on it so that she could take down people’s names, phone #’s, cell phone #’s, emails, and time commitments (!).

Although I believe in reserving judgment till enough information is in, there was no doubt that this was a very bad start. This young lady basically wanted to take complete strangers and sign them up for one-on-one ‘Bible Study Sessions’ without giving almost any information about her group at all. Although I don’t know exactly what this church teaches, its public behavior shows all the signs of being a manipulative group. Someone who is trying to spread ideas openly will follow a method of giving out information about his cause openly. Someone who is trying to bring people under their control will give little or no information about himself or his organization, but will seek, as quickly as possible, time commitments and personal information from intended targets.

That’s not to say the young lady passing out flyers is predatory by nature. More likely she’s part of a group that operates in a manner that is at least somewhat predatory, aggressively indoctrinating new members to do the same.  So let’s review the red flags.  But there is no doubt that trying to take something from strangers, whether money, time, or information;  is always a swindle of some sort unless something like information or a genuine service is given in return.”

http://fontwords.com/2010/04/01/test-the-spirits-united-bible-fellowship-church

Second, the viewpoint of a non-UBF church member:

If you’ve known no other church besides Gracepoint Fellowship Church, you probably don’t even notice the oddity of it.

Why does Gracepoint give out these titles? After I’ve given much thought to it, and from my own experience from having served as “staff,” I’ve come to the conclusion that again, it’s for the sake of Pastor Ed Kang and his wife Kelly having control over the whole church. As I’ve mentioned before, they idolize Excellence, Efficiency, and Efficacy.

To be fair, first of all, this staff thing started from Becky, who appeared to have adopted it from her affiliation with University Bible Fellowship [UBF], which practiced the “Shepherding Movement”.

http://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2010/06/staff-titles-and-their-effect-of.html

Third, the viewpoint of a Korean sociology professor:

Since 2008, I have conducted an in-depth case study of the University Bible Fellowship (UBF), supported by the Louisville Institute. It has more than 1,400 missionaries, making it the second-largest missionary-sending organization in South Korea — and about 42 percent of them are working in the United States.

These missionaries are here not just to seek converts in the Korean community. Their primary target: white American college students.

My overriding research question was this: How do Korean missionaries convince Americans, especially young white Americans, to hear the gospel through them and to build diverse congregations with them?

Here’s how one Korean missionary answered that:

“In my effort to not cause cultural alienation to Americans, … I curled my hair, I changed my glasses, practiced my tongue (to make it more amendable to speaking English), wore American-style clothing, … didn’t eat kimchi (a traditional Korean vegetable dish that has a pungent garlic smell), … didn’t teach my children Korean, didn’t speak Korean, … stopped all relationships with Koreans.”

That answer — reflective of the Korean missionaries in the United States evangelizing white Americans — is fascinating because it’s such a sociological aberration.

http://www.faithandleadership.com/content/rebecca-y-kim-acts-sacrifice

Fourth, the viewpoint of a former UBF Bible student:

I just heard a seminar on the faults of the organization. They talked about Confucianism’s influence on them, which I haven’t noticed, but more importantly, they reminded me of things that slipped by me without me even noticing.

When I joined the organization, I went meekly along with the flow, so I never experienced the physical abuse I’ve heard about coming from the UBF. I guess abuse was part of the “training” to be UBF “shepherds.” Also, being socially maladroit, I also missed out on their “arranged marriages.”

http://akktri.livejournal.com/254869.html

The 1976 allegations are extremely serious and must be analyzed. Even a secular organization should be prompted to investigate such allegations and make public statements (or at least internal findings and actions). It is unfathomable to me now, to think that an organization that claims to be Christian and obedient to the Word of God would dismiss all the 1976 allegations outright. And it is further astounding to consider that I have heard several leaders in UBF say that such allegations are some sort of “badge of honor” or “persecution that proves UBF is God’s ministry.”

But back to the analysis at hand. Objectively speaking, it does not matter whether I or anyone else believes that the 1976 allegations are true or false. What matters is logic. What matters is that the allegations were made by Koreans 36 years ago.  In tonight’s reflection, I will use the five allegations from 1976 as a basis to discern the state of UBF over the past 24 years of my involvement as a shepherd, a leader and a Director.

If any of the 1976 claims are false, then we should see no evidence of their claims in the past 24 years.  If any of the 1976 claims are true, then we would hope to see evidence that the abuses ended in my 24 years. In fact, one would expect that the 11 years from 1976 (reform movement) to 1987 (when I joined UBF) would have been more than sufficient time to correct such abuses. So logically, during my time in UBF, I should not have seen any evidence of the abuses.

One fact to note is that the allegations cannot be dismissed as just “Korean culture”. Why? The reason is because Koreans started the reform movement in 1976. Also, the same abuses have been reported around the world in a consistent manner: Hong Kong, India, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, America and Germany have been most vocal in these matters. Unfortunately, and to my shame, America (the land of freedom) is one of the last countries to become vocal about the abuses in UBF.

Here is my analysis:

Did UBF change the past 24 years? If UBF did change, how did it change? Did UBF get better or worse after the 1976 reform movement? How effective and valid were the 1976 suggestions for ministry direction?

1976 Allegation #1 – Offering Abuses

Misappropriation of offering money

CLAIM: The 1976 claim was that the $20,000 dollars offered for Bangladesh was not fully offered to Bangladesh. The offering money was raised by students selling wedding rings, textbooks and even donating blood for money. The UBF members in Korea took this offering seriously. The money should have been handled, then, with utmost care. The claim is that only $1,000 (from a different offering) was actually sent to Bangladesh and that the $20,000 sacrifice was used to buy the Kwan-Ak building (UBF center) in 1975.

FACTS: Indeed, the main ubf.org website in 2012 now claims to have sent $1,100 to Bangladesh: “In 1971, we sent $1,100 to Bangladesh refugees after the flood in that country. In 1976, $11,000 was sent to World Vision and the Christian Charity Institution in Bangladesh. In 1985, $22,000 was sent to Mexican refugees after the earthquake.” And in fact, Kwan-Ak was pioneered in 1975.

COMMENT: Do you see how infuriated you would feel in this situation? In 1976, the Koreans who made these claims were excommunicated by UBF. Yet, now UBF uses the misappropriation of offering as a “statement of glory” to show how sacrificial they are!

Concealment of an accounting book in UBF headquarters

CLAIM: The 1976 claim was that Samuel Lee and a small number of people were the only people who could see the UBF accounting book. There was no external audit and no financial accountability. Nobody knew how the offerings were actually used.

FACTS: In 2002, Samuel Lee died in a fire in Chicago, Illinois. It was only then that UBF started to consider financial accountability.  In October 8, 2007, UBF joined the ECFA as part of the bid to be reinstated into the NAE. It was then revealed that UBF (at least the American headquarters) has nearly $13 million.

COMMENT: Some chapters outside Chicago kept, and continue to keep, detailed offering records. But only a select few leaders are privy to such information. Even with the ECFA information, many questions need to be raised. How will the $13 million be spent? Does the ECFA accounting reflect UBF worldwide or just America? Is the Korean UBF offering separate? How did UBF avoid a major, multi-million dollar fine from the IRS in America in 2007?

Obscure expenses and expenditures

CLAIM: The 1976 claims were that Samuel Lee did a lot of obscure spending of money, such as buying a lot of real estate without discussion, spending more than his salary of $100, and bribing Korean religious leaders who were criticizing him.

FACTS: I simply don’t have any facts here. Some would say it doesn’t matter what Samuel Lee did because he is now dead. It matters tremendously however, because his influence was everything up until 2002.

COMMENTS: The 1976 letter has an intriguing comment: “You show us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10).”

2012 Allegation #1 – Offering Abuses

Lack of financial accountability in satellite and international chapters

I claim that the 1976 allegations of offering abuse exist in 2012. Although the Chicago UBF headquarters has taken steps toward financial accountability by joining the ECFA and avoiding a large IRS fine, the satellite UBF chapters remain unaccountable. Each UBF staff conference has a morning “financial” session, quickly thrown together and often not in the program. Offering accountability is still left to a small number of people, who try to do a good job, but simply cannot enforce any valid accountability in satellite chapters. Chapters outside Chicago UBF in the USA are left to their own accounting methods, although they are asked to submit a form (yes a single form) to the UBF headquarters on a yearly basis. The typical non-profit accountability methods are not employed in UBF in the US. And who knows what the accounting is like in other countries and especially in Korea?

Obscure expenses and expenditures

In spite of the ECFA membership, obscure expenses still exist. Random and odd expenses have routinely occurred in my experience the past 24 years.  Often, the various UBF committees do not even know exactly where some satellite chapters are! It took many years for my contact information to become correct in the UBF daily bread booklet, even though we’ve had the same address since 2006. I repeatedly gave the same contact info every staff conference since then. Examples of obscure expenses: A UBF director calls the chapter bookkeeper at 4:30 am in the morning demanding cash. A UBF director is offered something called “UBF insurance” for things like car accidents. A student gets a parking ticket while on a UBF conference trip, and UBF pays for the ticket. When proper accounting controls are in place, people feel confident that their offering money will be used as stated. In 2012 in UBF, such confidence does not yet exist.

So today I am making my final post to this priestly nation blog. As my new tagline says, this blog is a collection of stories about my old, graceless life spent trying to be a priest. It is true that Christians are a “royal priesthood” and a “holy nation”. Yet I see no evidence to support building such a “nation” by human effort or ambition. Although I often did not believe in such nationalistic and elitist ideals, I have discovered this year that I helped facilitate and support such things.

While I do not reject the idea that I am a priest (in the sense that all believers are priests), I do reject the idea that I should help build a new, supremely pious, religious community around the world. I do not think that is what God (or Peter) had in mind when they wrote 1 Peter chapter 2.

One of the reasons I started this blog this year was to capture the topics I blog about. As you can see in the Tag Cloud of categories, I’ve written most about Bible study, news, truth, freedom and Jesus. It is rather shocking to me now that I see the word “grace” did not even become a category in my writing! A quick review of any respected Christian author or preacher will reveal that the grace of God is central to Christian faith. Yet it is missing entirely from my thoughts.

So my journey of faith takes yet another turn. For those who wonder if I will continue to speak up about issues facing UBF, rest assured that I will. God help me if I remain silent about such matters! I will keep this blog open for comments and as a permanent reminder of the events that transpired in 2011. I will also reply back to those who comment here, as well as continue my ongoing dialogues via email and Facebook. And yes, I will be participating in various internal and external projects related to explaining, examining and exposing the UBF system.

Soon I will also have a new blog where I capture my thoughts and questions on my journey of life. In the past I felt it was burdensome to write a two page testimony every week. But now I write far more than this and spend way more time in dialogues, yet I’m not burdened, but filled with peace, power and joy. 2011 was something like the movie “Monsters, Inc.” for me. I found that joy is 10 times more powerful than fear.

I want to leave my readers with some excellent sermons by two good friends (so far we have only been virtual friends; I really must visit Chicago!).

God Became Weak

Christianity is the End of Religion

God’s Love Brings About Real Change

The grace of God be with you,
Brian.

As I was reviewing the Google search terms yesterday, one term stood out. It was actually a question someone had typed into Google: How to leave UBF? This inspired me to post today’s article. I believe Scott Moreau of Wheaton College was correct in his suggestion for UBF to “publicly discuss their administration problems”. This is a nice and politically correct way of saying UBF needs open, honest and group communication.

The question of to stay or not to stay? has been discussed on another blog. In fact it is the number one discussion in terms of number of views and comments.

So here is my initiation of a public discussion of the question “How do I leave UBF?” I kick off the discussion by presenting a historical overview of how people have left in the past 50 years. This is of utmost importance because when you decide to leave UBF, you often feel like you are alone, as if no one else has left UBF. You can rest assured that many thousands of people have indeed left UBF, and continue to leave even today in 2011.

1. The deprogrammer way of leaving: In order to properly answer a question like this, it is important to understand the historical background. The fact is, people and organizations are constantly changing. And if we don’t acknowledge history, we are, of course, bound to repeat it.

UBF began in 1961, in South Korea. When Korean missionaries were first sent to America, Germany and Canada and other countries in the 1970’s, cult-watching groups immediately picked up on their practices as unusual and strange. Some have explained this as Korean culture and the clash between Eastern and Western ideals and value systems. This does go a long way in understanding UBF. Nonetheless, the first reaction to UBF was strong. Groups like CAN (Cult Awareness Network) actually kidnapped people in UBF and tried to “deprogram” them. It is unknown to me how often this happened to UBF Bible students, but I know it did happen. Thankfully, this organization went bankrupt. Almost everyone acknowledges this was the wrong approach Biblically, emotionally and psychologically, and illegally, to leaving groups like UBF.

2. The traumatic way of leaving: Although the deprogrammer approach subsided quickly, leaving UBF has historically been traumatic. There are literally hundreds of testimonies to this fact. A few have kept their Christain faith; many have shipwrecked their faith in their attempts to leave UBF. And tragically, there are reports (from Germany) that some have committed suicide after their leaving, due to the overwhelming madness of the response from UBF leaders. In my eyewitness observation and personal experience, nearly all of this trauma, pain, bitterness, anger, frustration, confusion and depression is attributed to one thing: the hard-hearted mindset of UBF leaders.

To a UBF leader, discipline and army-like devotion and loyalty are paramount. Leaving UBF is not an option and not acceptable to them. In their minds, it is not a question anyone should be asking; it is equated to losing your faith and disobeying God. The Korean ideas of shunning and shaming have traditionally been used to coerce people to stay, to come back, or to leave in silence. (In my case those tactics were used to get me to leave quietly…but as you can see that did not work.)

When you want to leave UBF, you need to understand this mindset. UBF leaders will say many nice words and may claim you can freely leave. In their actions, they will make it as difficult to leave as possible. At best, they will claim you are a “lesser Christian” and leaving the “green berets of Christianity” or going to a “luke-warm church” (if you found another church).

As Scott Moreau pointed out, these “turn-the-table” tactics, which attempt to place all the blame and fault on the person leaving, will lead to “vocal enemies” and explosive exit testimonies when shame and guilt tactics are used in America and in the West.

3. The pact of silence way of leaving: As I pointed out in a post earlier, some have left UBF with a large sum of money or other mutually beneficial terms. My good friend James Kim left this way. This might be called the “agree-to-disagree” way of leaving UBF, if the leaving happens to be amicable.

Although money may not always be involved, this “pact method” is currently the preferred way of leaving UBF by UBF leaders. Most people I know who left UBF (about 103 people from about 22 families–all from one chapter) did so with some sort of agreement to remain silent about any issues that caused them to leave. Some have had a final Sunday service or final meeting in which UBF leaders prayed with the people leaving. But then after the people leave, often the UBF director tells UBF members the person left because of one of two reasons: “They don’t like Korean culture” or “They have inter-personal problems and just can’t get along with so-and-so.”

4. The vocal/public way of leaving: This is how I describe my leaving UBF: the vocal way. All I really wanted for the past 8 years is constructive dialogue about UBF issues and past “dark side” history. My reasons for leaving explain this in more detail. Leaving this way gave me and my family time to transition into a new, healthy Christian church.

Most of the questions I raised were a means of buying time so that we could do this in a healthy way. UBF leaders constantly demanded a quick resolution, except when they took time out to form a new council. Most of the time, UBF leaders just wanted me to go away so they could get back to “serving Jesus” or “student ministry”. To them, my family’s leaving was a distraction to their work.

Reconciling quickly would have had a destructive effect on my mind and heart. So I kept the dialogue open for 4 months. This enabled me to rekindle my faith (which had become stagnant), as well as to find out who I could trust (lack of trust was a key issue). Keeping the dialogue going was difficult, but opened the door to nearly 500 email discussions, several hours of in person meetings and several phone calls. To do this required a huge investment of time, effort and money. I took over 4 full days off work (without pay), made three trips to Toledo (70 miles away) and spent many hours in prayer and reflection.

Expressing my thoughts on this blog and to some extent on ubfriends.org, helped me keep my sanity and provided psychological stability. Meeting in person with many friends helped me (and our family) to have emotional stability. Most importantly, the vocal method of leaving allowed all UBF leaders to hear my story firsthand (via emails and blogs) so that no one could turn the tables and claim I was just leaving out of “bitterness toward one leader” or out of a “dislike for Koreans”. My blog demonstrates these things are not true.

If you are considering leaving UBF, I won’t advise you either way. I only advise you to focus on facts and think for yourself. Please know that you are not alone. Understand that the burden of proof is on UBF leaders, not on you. It is not your fault. You are not required to feel guilty for leaving for any reason.

And finally, you are not required to give any reason for leaving a church other than, “I don’t want to stay.”

The question the sparked my mind today is this: “Was Jesus created or a Creator?” From a Scripture standpoint, it is impossible to conclude that Jesus is a created being. Jesus is God who incarnated into a human body, but Jesus is Lord of Lords and has existed throughout eternity.

I thought that if something is not true, why bother asking the question? Shouldn’t we be preaching the truth? Through the ensuing discussions however, I realized this question was asked in order to discover the truth, not to dictate truth. Then I instantly realized that the thousands of questions I had asked (in making hundreds of Bible study question sheets) were asked with the intention of dictating truth. I realized today that after doing this for many years, I had ended up dictating ideals and opinions. I started out with the good intention of telling the truth to others, but ended up binding their lives to a system of pious actions. I had lost the joy of discovery and investigative learning!

So I wonder, why do you ask questions? Are you telling the Bible what you want it to say? Are you telling others to follow your church’s programs?

A LinkedIn discussion reveals some really good reasons why people ask questions. When we study the Bible and preach Christ, we must take utmost care to know these things. Otherwise, we can use the sword of the Bible as a weapon.

Here is my favorite list of the purpose of questions from the LinkedIn discussion:

* To obtain an answer
* To open a dialogue
* To show interest
* To signal your presence
* To encourage someone else to express themselves
* To demonstrate knowledge
* To lead someone to think or respond in a particular way
* To obtain the corresponding action implied
* To trigger a debate
* To commence a joke

When I left UBF, I took 5 months to do it. I asked many questions and raised many issues in order to open a dialogue. And I am now embarking on a new phase of my spiritual journey toward Heaven. I am seeking the joy of discovering the truth!

Here then, is my reason for leaving UBF in 2011, after having began in 1987: I am leaving in order to promote unity in the body of Christ.

Some may say, “But your leaving caused division. You spoke so many negative words. How can you arrogantly say you want to promote unity by your leaving? You are nothing but an ungrateful fool!”

Before I explain my reasoning in detail, I cite 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 as the Scriptural basis for my decision.

“12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 (NIV)

I want to make it clear that I have made every effort (though not perfect effort) to avoid Scripture’s warnings of being deceitful, bitter, mocking or angry. I do not enjoy conflict, like the one mentioned in Proverbs 26:18-19: “18 Like a maniac shooting flaming arrows of death 19 is one who deceives their neighbor and says, ‘I was only joking!'”

I do not enjoy meaningless talk and rarely speak at all unless I am certain of what I say or write. I have not departed from the love of God, a pure heart, a good conscience nor a sincere faith, as in 1 Timothy 1:5-7: “5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”

Nor am I deserting Jesus. Nor am I giving up following Jesus, like in John 6:66-68: “66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. “67 ‘You do not want to leave too, do you?’ Jesus asked the Twelve. 68 Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.'”

I am leaving in order to advance the Apostolic unity Paul demanded in 1 Corinthians 12 and in other Scripture. In further posts I will explain the reasons why I think that my family’s leaving UBF is for the sake of unity in the body of Christ.

This is not something new that I just thought of in the past couple months. I have been contemplating these things for the past 8 years, storing them up in my heart like Mary in Luke 2:19.