Proverbs 6:5 Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

Sunday worship attendance statistics

Here are the average Sunday attendance numbers as of December 2011.

 Korea..................3,450
 North America..........2,141
 Asia.....................862
 Central/South America....686
 Europe...................598
 Africa...................419
 CIS......................390
 Oceania...................60
 Middle East...............51

 Total..................8,657

(source)

Offering numbers

Here are the offering numbers reported to the ECFA by Chicago UBF. It is not known if this is just North America, or UBF worldwide. Typically, satellite UBF chapters keep their own offering and send back a tithe to the central chapter in the US. The accounting of satellite chapters worldwide is not known. Perhaps these numbers only include the tithe sent into Chicago UBF from the satellite chapters.

It is also not known how the currency rates were converted if this indeed includes worldwide offering. The biggest unknown is how the Korean offering is accounted for.

 2008 offering............$2,469,390
 2009 offering............$2,196,557
 2010 offering............$2,073,532
 2011 offering............$2,166,924

Overall decrease of about 12%

Part of the income was marked as “other revenue”. This may be the sales of daily bread booklets and other books.

 2008 revenue............$254,030
 2009 revenue............$216,684
 2010 revenue............$184,454
 2011 revenue............$154,465

Overall decrease of about %39

(source)

Net Asset Numbers

The net total numbers actually increased from 2008 to 2011.

 2008 net assets..............$12,682,836
 2009 net assets..............$12,826,268
 2010 net assets..............$12,896,882
 2011 net assets............. $13,093,750

Overall increase of 3%

(source)

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.

The publicly available numbers are on the ECFA website. I’m not a financial expert, so I’d be curious to hear some feedback on the numbers on the ECFA website and what they mean. In any case, the “poor, manger” ministry now has some high stakes money involved in its decisions. That probably explains how a Korean director could show me a credit card with a $20,000 limit, and imply that I could have one too. I am thankful that I refused and that my offering to UBF in the past eight years was $0, except for the few conference fees and daily devotion fees (yes UBF charges for daily devotion). I hope someone puts that $12 million to good use.