Diagrams

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UBF published a rather odd looking diagram based on 1 Timothy recently. As I read through 1 Timothy and reviewed the diagram, I found the diagram to be an accurate picture of what 1 Timothy might look like.

I do not think this is the only picture, but it does depict some key teachings in the book of 1 Timothy.

This diagram troubled me greatly though. So I asked some friends to describe their reaction. I learned from their responses that the diagram looks ok as far as what a church structure should look like based on 1 Timothy (I personally would include Galatians and other Scripture though). The problem is that the diagram does not reflect the current structure of UBF. This prompted me to draw my own picture of the UBF structure (based on spending 24 years in the organization).

These two diagrams visually tell the story of what I and my friends have been saying for a long time: How does UBF get from its current structure to the structure God presents in Scripture?

Public link: UBF 1 Timothy Diagram

Local copy in case the link disappears:
ubf-1timothy-diagram

My first attempt at a UBF structure diagram:
ubf-structure-2011

3 thoughts on “Diagrams”

  1. The interesting thing to me in the UBF 1 Timothy diagram is that they have people going out the windows of the house, only to fall into the flames or onto a bomb. This is an underlying issue with UBF that does still exist: teaching that anyone outside UBF is just flaming the fire of meaningless chatter or the poison of bitter roots.

  2. Another thing that has always bothered me about the UBF structure is that they consider Korea, CIS and the Middle East to be continents. When did Korea become a continent? And is this just South Korea?

    http://www.ubf.org/content/upcoming-events

    3. 2012 Continental Director’s Conferences

    Korea (Seoul), December 5-7, 2011
    Middle East (Qatar), December 15-17, 2011
    Oceania missionaries conference, December 20-22, 2011
    Europe (Sarajevo, Serbia), December 29-31, 2011
    CIS (Almaty, Kazakhstan), January 6-8, 2012
    Asia (Manila, Philippines), January 12-14, 2012
    Latin America (St. Paulo, Brazil), January 26-28, 2012
    North America (Chicago, USA), February 23-25, 2012

    The 7 actual Continents:

    North America
    South America
    Antartica
    Africa
    Europe
    Asia
    Australia/Oceana

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continent

  3. And since I’m living in Detroit and much more aware of this issue…why is Africa NOT listed as a continent? It is listed separately, but so is the middle east. Yet, the middle east IS listed as a continent.

    If only I had a tape recorder each time I heard a racist remark from Korean missionaries over the years. One missionary freely and repeatedly used the N word to describe an African mission report. When we told him it was wrong to use that word in a public meeting (or anywhere else for that matter) he spent several minutes explaining the meaning of that word…