This week, an anonymous person commented here and asked for my thoughts on the rogue chapters in UBF. Instead of just replying in the comments, I decided to make my thoughts into today’s post.
I have several thoughts on the rogue chapters. First of all, this is not a new trend. It is called pioneering in UBF. Up to now, a large percentage, if not almost all, pioneering events in UBF happened because of self-induced strife, division or trouble of some kind (not real persecution, but in-fighting). For example, way back in 1990, James Kim’s family went to Houston in the midst of Godfather-like turmoil.
In my observation, many of the satellite UBF chapters around the world are “doing their own thing” while keeping face with UBF officially. This does not mean all UBF chapters are just rebellions waiting to happen; just that many of them started out with strife of some sort. Some UBF directors have the idea that they are blessing their chapter members by protecting them from other UBF members. Each chapter director seems to find his own way to implement the UBF idealogy in a “better” way.
I was surprised to hear this direction from an older Korean UBF missionary, who had been pioneering many years on his own. When I shared my struggles with him, he told me the best direction is to do what he has been doing for decades: form your own chapter and do what you want! That’s when I realized something significant: As a UBF director, I had no accountability to anyone. As long as I did not infringe on some other UBF director’s territory, I was free!
This sounded awesome at first. But then I realized a key problem with the current UBF authority structure. As a director I did indeed have freedom to do what I wanted, but I also had absolute power and authority. The only requirements from UBF headquarters was to send in offering & attendance numbers, to send in an annual work report and to be present at at least one staff conference per year. I didn’t even have to write “sogams”, just a work report. I realized that I could setup a Muslim training camp or an athiest think-tank in my chapter, and call it “UBF”. As long as I was good enough at playing the game, I could be my own man. This is ironic since UBF historically teaches you that no one is “their own man”.
After realizing how many rogue chapters are out there, and realizing that “going rogue” was my best chance at staying in UBF, I became fearful. I feared having too much power with no accountability. Is that a Christian way of leadership, I wondered? Soon after these things, and after many phone/email conversations, I resigned as director of Detroit UBF. I did not want to be part of such an unBiblical model of leadership. Such a model, in my observation, causes undue sectarianism and destroys the unity our Lord prayed for.
Another question is this. Ok, I can do what I want. But what do I want? :)
I’m pretty sure you know, but this happens with larger chapters as well.
@David: Yes, good question! I think, as a leader, that it is healthy to ask such questions in a leadership structure with accountability. There are too many examples of directors who spend 10 or 20 years trying to figure out what they want. And there are a few examples of directors who know exactly what they want, and will stop at nothing to get it. And more importantly, I think a leader should be asking “what do my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ want?”
@anon: Yes, I know examples where even the larger chapters are “rogue” :) There are even some chapter directors in UBF who I would point to and say, follow their example, as there are some directors who have begun to re-plant their chapters. The elephant-in-the-room question though is this: how will mainline UBF treat them?
I think the majority have no real issues and respect and support each other. I also get the impression that some of them have a “agree to disagree” or “let’s leave them be for now” attitude towards it.
But one chapter I have in mind has a very laissez-faire attitude towards its members (which is very unlike the UBF stereotype we’ve all come to know), and as a result it’s gained a reputation for being “weak” or “ineffective.”
Yes, anon, “agree to disagree” was a term a heard a LOT in a LOT of leader’s meetings. The Korean equivalent is to “maintain chi”.
I feel kinda bad posting some of this. I’m not senior staff, so most of my information is composed of rumors and hearsay…
anon, feel free to post whatever you want here. Your insight and opinions matter. I’m not seeking to “define the truth”, but to understand, to document, and to spark dialogue.
I was born and raised in California, but I am living in South Korea. I’ve been living in South Korea since 2003
Hello gyopo, and welcome. Feel free to share any thoughts you may have here. I think your insight from being in South Korea could be quite helpful.
briank, thank you for the welcome
I have a question – and if you and other people have time to respond, I would really be grateful for any answers or comments.
Many Korean/Korean-American churches and para-church ministries seem to focus on 3 main things: 1) rebuke and scold members….members rarely hear about God’s grace or the love of God. 2) strongly encourage or demand that members become actively involved in the church or the ministry…only active members are sincere Christians. 3) respect the ministry leader or leaders.
Many times, the rebuking and scolding in Korean churches/ministries become personal attacks on an individual or personal attacks on a few “lazy, uncommitted members”
Are my observations of Korean churches/ministries accurate?
The 3 characteristics are not present in ALL Korean churches or in ALL Korean ministries. My intention is not to make generalizations.
The Korean churches/ministries in which these 3 characteristics are present…are these churches/ministries unBiblical?
I’m so confused. Maybe I have an unbiblical view of what the Church is supposed to be.
Quite a few Korean churches/ministries and quite a few Korean pastors seem to be spiritually abusive.
Does anyone have any thoughts or comments?
Hi gyopo:
Here are my comments on some of your thoughts:
“1) rebuke and scold members….members rarely hear about God’s grace or the love of God. 2) strongly encourage or demand that members become actively involved in the church or the ministry…only active members are sincere Christians. 3) respect the ministry leader or leaders.”
>>> Did you attend UBF bible studies? You just described the top 3 problems of UBF ministry exactly. Although I do not think it is wise to make generalizations, the fabric of Korean Christianity seems to be extremely consistent.
“Many times, the rebuking and scolding in Korean churches/ministries become personal attacks on an individual or personal attacks on a few “lazy, uncommitted members”
>>> Wow, if I had a dime for everytime I heard someone called “lazy” during my 24 years in UBF! One change that happened in UBF the past 20 years is that the rebuking that used to be open and public, is often hidden and private now. I don’t know which is better, but I preferred the open rebukes; at least other people knew what was said.
“Are my observations of Korean churches/ministries accurate?”
>>> I cannot speak for all Korean Christian churches, but your blog and your thoughts above are EXACTLY descriptive of UBF, as if I myself had written them (I am a 43 year old American in Detroit). Someone on Facebook sent me a message saying how thankful he was that I was speaking up. He is an American who was involved with a Korean Christian group (not UBF). He described that churches leadership almost the same as you did above.
“I’m so confused. Maybe I have an unbiblical view of what the Church is supposed to be.”
>>> You may be confused :) But your views of church (as per your blog) are not unbiblical and are very close, if not the same, as many Western Christian churches. I agree mostly with your thoughts on how church should be.
>>> This raises an important question: What role does work (deeds) have in the Christian church? We need to be careful here. I am not against morals (I think we need morality). I am not against authority (I think we need established authorities). And I agree with the book of James: Faith without deeds is dead.
So what’s the difference between these Korean Christians and Christians? You pointed it out already: grace. The Korean Christians I know have developed a “Christianized confucianism”. It sounds really good, but amounts to human ambition and sense of accomplishment. It degenerates into elitism, sectarianism and manipulation.
I flee from UBF because I cannot support such things. The grace of God does invoke good works/deeds from us. But UBF teaches a “hamster wheel” of grace producing work, which produces more grace, etc. until the grace is all gone. The Bible teaches that grace is one way. Grace flows through us to produce work prompted by love and inspired by hope. But we then need to keep going back to grace; grace is our resting point; our center. My other blog explains more: http://www.knet6.com/grace
Those are my thoughts! I welcome further dialogue. I am seeking to learn, not to teach primarily. So I am willing to be corrected or challenged.
I think Brians observations are correct. But given that chapter leaders have so much freedom, I wonder how similar UBF chapters and members are, how chapter leaders behave similarly, even in little details, mannerisms. Some compare UBF chapters with franchise firms like McDonalds in that regard. Most of all we see the same kind of problems reported from UBF chapters in all continents. How can this be explained?
Maybe many chapter leaders believe that UBF has a kind of “mystery sauce” (namely all these mannerisms, practices and teachings of Samuel Lee) that makes a chapter successful and form the “spirit” of UBF, so they just use that sauce more or less abundantly in the hope this will make them great and successful leaders.
But these observations also explain why there are differences in the degree of abuse. Some chapters are more relaxed and healthy, some other chapters extreme. And it seems anonymous is right, those relaxed chapters are considered weak and ineffective, while leaders of the strict and more abusive chapters like Bonn in Germany are praised and promoted.
Chris, just to clarify my thinking further: In the USA, the UBF heritage has been codified to 12 points (one-to-one, spiritual order, etc.) In the past, those were unspoken rules, now they are documented. As long as a director supports those 12 points, and does not show disloyalty toward them, then (and only then), is the director free to do their own thing.
Of course there are also various levels of “rogueness”, especially these days, but in the past decades, the directors basically operated according to the principle I explained above. Because of the clearly defined UBF heritage, all UBF chapters have a franchise feel. At the same time, when you satisfy the heritage, each chapter kind of takes on their own look-and-feel.
And the key problem is not the heritage itself (even though some of the heritage is a problem). The key problem is that there are so many directors and leaders working so hard to uphold and pass on this heritage. They care far more about passing on this heritage than preaching the gospel of God’s grace. That was also the fundamental problem the Jews wrestled with.
Re: Did you attend UBF bible studies? You just described the top 3 problems of UBF ministry exactly. Although I do not think it is wise to make generalizations, the fabric of Korean Christianity seems to be extremely consistent.
>> briank, thank you so much for your detailed reply. Although I have never attended UBF Bible studies and although I have never been involved in UBF, my experiences in two churches opened my eyes to the reality of Christian Confucianism, just as you described – the “hamster wheel” of grace producing work, which produces more grace, etc. until the grace is all gone.”
My first experience of emotional and spiritual abuse occurred when I attended Berkland Baptist Church as a high school student. There is an abusive, rebuking culture/atmosphere at Berkland Baptist Church. One of the Berkland pastors who led the junior high and high school ministry was(is?) a very narcissistic pastor.
My second experience of emotional/spiritual abuse occurred recently at the church that I currently attend here in South Korea. The pastor of my current church has the habit of saying things without thinking about how his words will affect the listener.