No, I’m not making this up. “Glorify me” was actually the prayer topic given to all Toledo UBF members at last years Spring conference. I was there. I heard reports that a similar prayer topic was given this year (Love God, Love your neighbor…but oh most of all love yourself). Last year, I reported how UBF directors praise God but ignore division. About six months later, nothing has been done by Toledo UBF to address the division.
In fact, you would think there are no problems whatsoever in the “great lakes region” UBF…It’s all so wonderful and happy!
The “great lakes” UBF ignores the pain and division that has happened and simply prepares yet another Bible conference.
The prayer topic? “Establish me forever!” With a loose understanding of the Old Testament idea of graciousness, the directors put themselves back in the center of power and authority, claiming “God’s grace through David”, from 2 Kings study.
The report says “This precious time promoted personal dialogue and steps toward greater relational connections among the committee members.” Really… such great relational connections… perhaps we could get a diagram of that :)
After an exodus of leaders, the director puts himself back in the center of power and authority, and starts all over with even one new student. They usually quote from Moses or David, such as 2 Kings 8:19. They dwell in an Old Testament idea of graciousness, but know almost nothing of the grace of God, which is Jesus.
Instead of a ministry of reconciliation, UBF directors are trained to imagine that their directorship will survive forever, as if they are connected to David and Moses and Abraham by direct lineage (i.e. one-to-one all the way from Abraham.)
The UBF directors then live in a fantasy world. They begin preparing the next Bible conference just the way they always did for the past 50 years, no matter how bad the relationships are in their ministry. The directors claim there is no time for dialogue.
Leaders who served for 20 or even 30 years, giving everything to the ministry simply receive a letter and are then shunned. Such leaders are not divisive people; just people who dearly love Jesus and want to discuss better ways to bring the gospel to people. Such leaders who left are not sectarians; they are simply fed up and disgusted with the hidden abuses and the cover-up of immoral activity.
What the UBF director wants is power and control. Anything that disrupts such power is seen as evil. Anyone who criticizes or even questions such authority is deemed to have an evil spirit.
It’s no wonder 7 cult watching organizations have volumes on this ministry.
I know how you feel. I felt the same when the voice of the majority of UBF chapters in Germany was ignored and then they were finally expelled in 2001. And the core UBF just continued as if nothing had happened, as if they had been just infected by a virus. These UBF chapter leaders and missionaries in Germany had been in UBF for decades and they left their home country for the sake of UBF, but for UBF they were just “leadership material” that has become worn out and defective. Sarah Barry, the director at that time, said in 2002 she just deleted emails from reformers without even reading them. She didn’t answer the letter with serious questions from ex members either. In UBF the solution to all problems is easy: Expel the problematic sheep or even coworkers, find new ones and start all over. This gives you another 20 or 30 years until people raise their voices again. UBF is full of people who don’t know and don’t care what the generations before them went through.
Chris, after reviewing the reform side of the UBF history, I predict the next wave of leaders (young and old) leaving UBF will be sometime in 2019. The time in between the exodus of leaders is getting shorter. So I don’t think we will have to wait 20 or 30 years. In fact, I’m not convinced the 2011 movement will end anytime soon.