Here is my review of the second part of the UBF leadership presentation “Hardcore Contents of 1:1”.
The first half of this presentation tells us that UBF 1:1 is God’s way and is necessary in order to pass on the UBF legacy to future generations.
(see Hardcore 1:1 – Part 1 for the actual UBF presentation)
The second half of the presentation gives us motivation to participate in 1:1. So the entire presentations comes down to: “God said do UBF 1:1, now go do it!”
This part 2 of my review covers section 5:
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26) 7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31) 4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39) 7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44) 4 slides
Slide 20
The “Advantages & Potential” section begins with two questions: “What are the advantages of 1:1 bible study compared to other ways of studying or teaching the bible?” and “What potential does 1:1 bible study have?”
Slide 21
Instead of presenting any other way of bible study, the next slide immediately tells us some supposed advantages of 1:1. While there are some advantages of a one-to-one approach to bible study, those reasons are not listed in the presentation. The six advantages given are rather weak and lamely thought out. Here they are:
“You can focus to help one person.” This can also be done in a group setting and is not unique to UBF 1:1.
“It’s a personal encounter.” Such personal encounters can happen in a group setting. Isn’t the point of study to encounter God?
“EVERYONE can do 1:1.” Well, not everyone can do UBF 1:1 for very long. But most people can do group study just as well. Why is EVERYONE required to do this? Are all teachers? Are all shepherds?
“You can do 1:1 with EVERYONE.” Not sure what this means…some people are not open to such a relationship.
“You can do 1:1 EVERYWHERE.” The last time I checked, group study can also be done in most places.
“1:1 brings the church to the people.” This is an extremely troubling statement. It reveals to me a very skewed theological thought. Aren’t people themselves the church? What is it we are bringing to people in the case of 1:1?
Slide 22
Now we get into some wild statements. Slide 22 changes gears without shifting and tells us: “1:1 has the potential to raise global leaders!” Six pictures are presented. Who are they? Did they go through UBF 1:1? Are they proponents of 1:1? Are they indeed global leaders? If so, were they raised through UBF 1:1?
Slide 23
Now we switch back to advantages… Not only is “raising global leaders” a potential of UBF 1:1, it is an advantage of UBF 1:1.
Slide 24 – LINEAR GROWTH!
Again, we jump back to Potential… “1:1 has the potential to double our ministry!” Ah now we get to the infamous “double ministry” line. UBF leaders always talk about double ministry, usually based on Elisha’s request to Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. Slide 24 presents a pyramid that is supposed to show linear growth of everybody raising one student: somehow 1 person raises 10, after 1 year we still have 10, then after 10 years we are supposed to have 100 bible students. Indeed, this is linear growth.
The problem? The “linear growth” model assumes 100% success. Every year, every UBF shepherd successfully raises 1 bible student, and that bible student sucessfully remains in UBF for the rest of his/her life (or in this model for 10 years).
This “linear growth” model is full of built-in failure points. First, the success rate is not 100%. Second, not every person is called by God to teach the Bible. Third, most UBF bible students leave within 1 year of study. Many leave after 10 years, so the likelihood of all 100 bible students remaining is rather low.
Zero Success Rate
How many UBF chapters have patterned this “linear growth model”? My claim is that ZERO chapters have done this. No one in UBF over the past 50 years has successfully met the goals of “linear growth”. Zero. None. Nada. It is a failed approach.
Slide 25 – EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!
UBF clearly is not satisfied with “linear growth”. They want “exponential growth”. Their ideal is not that everyone raise just 1 student, but that everyone should raise 2 students. And even 2 is a low standard– many in UBF say you must raise 12 students or even 120!
The amount of guilt, self-loathing and emotional punishment created by these concepts is astronomical.
Slide 25 claims that after 10 years UBF should not only have 100 students, but should really have 1,024… if all those shepherds just weren’t so lazy… And after just 20 years UBF should have 1,040,000 students.
Nothing Strange?
This is the classic “penny a day” problem. Ever hear of the worker who agreed to work for a penny a day in service to a king? The only request is that his pay double every day. After a couple weeks, the king’s entire treasury did not have enough money to pay him!
Such ludicrous bullshit is behind the “UBF 1:1” paradigm. It just won’t work. The math doesn’t add up. People are getting hurt. Slide 26 says it all… and I share this with tears of repentance for believing such lies:
