“The gospel never changes. But the nature of the missionary organization and the specific details of the work must carefully adapt to the new realities, otherwise the ministry becomes a museum, a monument to its own past. The UBF leader might say, “That will never happen to us! We are special. We are better.” But that is sheer hubris. We are not intrinsically better than any of the other denominations and organizations that started out well, were blessed by God for a time, and soon fizzled out.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2011/01/19/may-god-make-america-a-kingdom-of-priests-and-a-holy-nation/#sthash.tiLrI5On.dpuf

You make an interesting point about Korean language. I would tend to agree, that the conceptual understanding of KOPHN (to use a UBFism :) is beyond the boundaries of any particular nation. 

There is some truth here, in that, all believers do indeed have a priestly duty. It is clear however, that such duty is not uniform among all believers. Our duties will be vastly different, depending on what role God has for us in His kingdom.

So therein lie the two problems I have with KOPHN in UBF. UBF teaches KOPHN as a unanimous, identical duty for every believer, as if every believer is to be a teacher and to have the same expression of faith. 

And secondly, it is HIS kingdom. The blatant disregard for respecting the Spirit’s work in His kingdom is more and more clear to me.

And as for covenant theology… I’ll just say that, in my observance, such theology is an attempt to resolve the perceived tension between works and grace.

UBF, along with most Christians in our generation, seem trapped in an endless looop: Which comes first, the works or the grace? And so we build many walls of hostility instead of uniting under one Lord.

God already answered this question by nailing the written code to the cross. Grace comes first, second, third, and last. When we don’t understand that, we end up with an upside-down gospel which is really no gospel at all. And then KOPHN becomes a millstone that we are tethered to like donkeys grinding wheat.

The “kingdom priests and a holy nation” mantra is something that should be analyzed and critiqued. But before anyone can analyze, we must document clearly. I started to do this today with the heritage, which is the heart of UBF teaching, stemming from this holy nation phrase.

Feel free to keep commenting. It is good for all of us to hear your viewpoints and especially your stories about your transition. 

By the way, for anyone considering leaving UBF or speaking up about problems, you don’t have to worry..everything in UBF is “fine and wonderful and so joyful” (http://www.priestlynation.com/archives/496#more-496). There is so much collaboration and wonderful fellowship now…

treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’

These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

I believe God says, anyone can be my children but the children in Israel will stand out before others, but with

condition.  God has given a condition, If Israel obey God and fully keep God’s covenant, then out of all the nations

that obey and keep God’s covenant, Israel will still be God’s treasured possession more than other nations. For God

Israel will be a Holy Nation, a Kingdom of Priests. Israel will be higher than any nations if and only if they fully

keep God’s covenant. God hope Israel to spiritually lead us all. The important key to this discussion is God’s

Covenant made to Abraham.

Christians are not the chosen ones. Christians are the gentiles. God choose Israel, due to His covenant to Abraham.

Jesus came for the sinners, the gentiles and those who have never heard about God. This is the reason Jesus made a big

change after His death and Resurection. Mankind use his death and ascending to Heaven as a very significant event (

B.C. and A.D.). It has a big impact to the world, enough to reach even to the littlest corner of the world. Not

because you carry the name Christians, you are the saved ones, or the chosen ones. Only those appointed by God, are

the chosen ones. We who believe in Jesus, (not by being Christians) as the way to God are welcome by God, and those

who believed in God directly to God are also welcomed by God. Jesus did not divert everything to Himself. He came to

earth to show us how to live and how to enter Heaven. Every man must live like Him, follow his footsteps. His way of

believing in God is the only way. He showed us the way how. This is Jesus message to us, “Their is Heaven that God The

Father has prepeared for us, I will show you the way to get there, follow everything I do”. He said his way of living

here on earth is the only way everyone can live here on earth to be able to enter the Kingdom of God.

I decided to stay in UBF even though I virtually fully agree with your comments. But I also fully understand and even support those who cannot stay in UBF for those reasons.

I empathize with you that what you described is unbearable and intolerable, even unbiblical, yet to be fair the leader’s in UBF are Christians, who intend well, and who love Jesus. But as you might be hinting at, we might be over-emphacizing our agenda of world campus mission and our UBF tradition more than Christ and the glory of God.

I believe that many issues raised on UBFriends will begin to be addressed in the coming years. Hopefully, if we change by God’s grace and become more Christ-centered, you may consider returning.

Again, I am personally sorry for your negative experience in UBF even though I likely do not personally know you. But God is your God, and God led you to UBF to realize the “good and bad side” of Christians and the church and Christianity to enrich your own Christian life experience with Christ.

thanks to all for being more open minded now.

As for your question about alternative ways of meditating on Scripture, I must prepare a sermon each week for my church, and so I spend alot of time reading commentaries. Some that have helped me the best are the Pillar Commentary set, the New International Commentary on the OT and NT, The Bible Speaks Today Commentary set, and the Crossway Classic Commentary series, and the Life Application Commentary set to name a few…I have been preaching through Matthew, so I have about 10 different Matthew Commentaries ranging from more technical to more application based, each help in their own way.

I have also grown alot in my Christian walk from listening (and reading) the sermons of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. In my humble opinion, he was one of the greatest preachers since the Apostolic era.

Just to share my own experience, writing testimonies in the chapter I’m associated with (Waterloo, Canada) generally isn’t like what you described. There is a lot of freedom in whether people want to make use of the message manuscript or not, and it isn’t a place to compete with others but to personally wrestle with the word in prayer, to internalize the word of God and be encouraged by it, and to bring our struggles to God in a real and thoughtful way, seeking his answer. We don’t even share our testimonies all that often with each other – sometimes just between two friends or once in a while in a small group setting. I’m not saying every time someone does this it works out in some kind of ideal way – it’s easy to become habitual and superficial about it, to do it just for the sake of getting it done, and to write thinking of what others will think about it. I guess a lot of spiritual practices have the potential to degenerate in these ways.

Even so, I was just wondering about your experience… when you and others wrote in the way you’re describing, were you being serious or were you joking around? I think I’ve heard people in the ministry saying things like that before (whether in testimonies or in other contexts), but I usually understood them to be just joking around and having a bit of fun with each other. I think it would definitely be disturbing if it was being said seriously. And even if it was joking around, it seems to me like there are much more fruitful ways of meditating on the word of God.

I’m also interested to know – have you found positive alternative ways of meditating on Scripture other than say listening to a sermon or thinking through a passage in a group study? I mean for the sake of personal devotion with God in a kind of discipleship context where we’re seeking to put Jesus’ words into practice? I think the basic idea of going deep in the word and opening up to its applicability to one’s life is a good idea, but I don’t think writing testimonies works for everyone, and I would like to be able to make more of a repertoire of methods available to people who are interested in pursuing God more deeply.

I was always encouraged to spit out, pretty much verbatim, the lines and structure of the sunday message, with a little bit of personal failings sprinkled in. In addition, I was also encouraged to add toward the end, some way in which I could be a better shepherd, feed more 1 to 1’s, or be altogether better than another shepherd (whom I would then name).

I can say in all honesty, I was reading through some old testimonies that I kept in a big binder recently, and they made me sick to my stomach. They were chock full of pride and competition and legalistic moralism. I decided to keep them instead of burning them outright in my garbage can to remind me how it is very easy to be self deceived. But here is the funny thing, no one EVER confronted me about it, not ever, and instead, the more I showed a competitive and prideful spirit toward the other testimony sharers on friday nights the higher on the totem pole I rose. There used to be a guy named Chris (name changed) who was around my age and status in the ministry, and I remember saying in my testimony in front of all of the Chicago UBF leaders “someday I want to defeat Chris in every way, in Bible knowlege, and in 1 to 1’s, until I share my testimony last on fridays.” Everyone laughed and clapped…ugh. I know that I am not alone in the way that I did my testimony. I just hope that things have changed since I left, because otherwise, I think that testimony sharing in UBF is intrinsically wrong.

When I wrote disparagingly about “our style” of Bible study I realize that some people cringed. I broke the unwritten commandment that one should never hint anything negative about our ministry, at least not in public. I could have done the safe/humble/acceptable thing, which would be to say “my style” of Bible study, thus taking full responsibility for it and saying it was just my own personal problem. But that would have been disingenuous. I am, for better or worse, largely a product of UBF; this ministry has been the single biggest influence on how I approach the Bible. Not everyone in UBF is alike. Not everyone will have the same problems that I had, or have them to the same degree. But I have been around long enough to see that there are indeed some common elements to the ways that we do things. There are good habits and bad habits that have spread throughout the community. And some of the bad habits that I picked up were hindering my spiritual growth. Whatever bad habits I acquired, it is ultimately my fault that I acquired them. But I did pick them up in our community, and I spread them to others, and the community reinforced (or at least did not discourage) them. So with those caveats, I stand by my words and say that it was “our style” of Bible study.

So what was it about “our style” of Bible study that was hindering my growth? It’s hard to put into words, but I will try. Before that, let me say that it was *not* simply the disciplines of daily bread and testimony writing. Those are, after all, just methods. As such, there is nothing intrinsic to them that will cause us to grow spiritually or to hinder our growth. It is the underlying beliefs, attitudes, character and habits of the persons who use those methods that will ultimately determine whether they are helpful or counterproductive.

One big problem is that my Bible study had become self-focused and moralistic. This attitude was described very well by Ben Toh in his recent article on Counterfeit Gods. I saw the Bible as a book of principles. I approached every passage with the intent of finding and extracting the right principles and then applying them to my life. The point of every Bible study became, “What am I supposed to do?” In every passage, I tried to find
* the tasks God was directing me to do
* the sins I was supposed to repent of
* the bad habits I was supposed to avoid
* the promises I was supposed to claim and believe
and so on.

Over time, this reduced my Christian life to a to-do list. That list became so long that I could never, ever fulfill it. I constantly felt like an utter failure, because I was never living up to the standards and expectations that I had set for myself and that the UBF culture had set for me. (In case you haven’t noticed, we maintain a climate of very high expectations.) So I did what I had been implicitly taught to do, what others had taught me to do: Keep Choong-Shim. Maintain soldier spirit. Keep up appearances as an exemplary servant of God at all costs. I hid my weaknesses in order to save face, so that I wouldn’t become a “bad influence” on others.

As I treated the Bible so mechanically and hid my weaknesses so effectively, my soul withered; prayer became useless and my personal relationship with God almost nonexistent. But as long as I continued to say the right things in my Bible studies, testimonies and messages — i.e., as long as my words were sufficiently UBF-ish, upholding the group mission, identity and ethos — leaders continued to praise me, and no one seemed to mind or even notice that I was adrift. We put so much emphasis on mission and so little on friendship, relational honesty and intimacy that no one bothered to call me out or even saw that I had any problem whatsoever. No one, that is, except my wife, who saw what was going on and was greatly concerned.

To summarize, I would say that the negative aspect of “our style” of Bible study — which again, is not found everywhere in UBF to the same degree — involves a relentless, unquestioning reinforcement of the group’s identity and mission, a moralistic and self-focused approach to Bible passages (as opposed to gospel focus, as Ben Toh described), and a personal projection of faux strength and commitment (“soldier spirit”) which easily masks superficiality and hypocrisy.

For me, the keys to coming out from this difficulty were
* opening myself up to Christian influences in the greater
body of Christ by reading articles and books and by
making friends with committed Christians outside of UBF
* becoming honest and revealing my weaknesses
* allowing myself to express doubts and ask tough questions
about the Bible — the kinds of things that raise eyebrows and
make people uncomfortable in most UBF group Bible
studies, because they are considered too volatile,
controversial or off-topic
* taking time off from my habitual Bible study to read, think,
contemplate and pray, and just to be with God, and to be
with God’s people (Ironically, by taking time away from the
Bible to read, meditate and pray, my Bible study was greatly
refreshed.)
* stop beating myself up over the fact that I never pray enough,
never study the Bible enough, never work hard enough,
and am always falling short of
my and others’ standards and expectations
* take seriously what the Bible says about the person and work of
the Holy Spirit

If you haven’t done so, you can read the “Stuck at the Wall” series of articles that I posted several months ago on UBFriends that explains more about this.

Thanks again for asking. Sorry about the length of this reply! God bless you.

I hope you’ll forgive me for going off on yet another tangent. In an earlier response you stated, “For my first ten years in this ministry, our style of Bible study helped me to grow. But after twenty years, I was no longer learning from it. After 25 years, it was actually making me worse.” I wonder if you might be willing to share how you overcame this?
I believe spiritual undernourishment is something we all experience at different times. Everyone seems to agree that it is most important for us to go back to the Bible. While other sources may be useful and edifying to us, only God’s living word can actually feed and satiate our souls. Having said that, I see it as an area of need in our ministry to help our members, especially our younger members, learn HOW to study God’s word so that we can be filled, so that we can let it startle and amaze us, so that we don’t end up merely regurgitating what we’ve once learned, and so that we don’t end up feeling starved, dry and frustrated. There are several practices followed in UBF that are intended, I believe, to feed us, e.g. testimony writing and daily bread. Yet even amidst these activities we can find ourselves very dry. It’s easy then to blame the practices or the church. And while I think the church does bear a responsibility, it is the personal responsibility I would like to address. Instead of looking to another person or church to fill me, I need to really go back to the bible and I need to know how to do that. I am not saying that seeking out other people or churches is a bad thing and I am also not suggesting self-sufficiency. Rather, I am saying that we need to be independent. And our ministry needs to help our members get there. Perhaps I am just stating the obvious here since our ministry focuses so much on raising bible teachers and missionaries. But honestly, I still see it as a need. At the very least, it is my need and prayer, so I’d appreciate hearing what you have to say about it. “Give a man a fish…”
Thank you!

i absolutely agree with everyone here that we are called to love people who left UBF as our brothers and sisters in the Lord and continuously be friends with them. I love this online forum of ubfriends because it seems to offer an atmosphere of mutual respect, irrespective of one’s own church background. I love the fact that UBF members, non-UBF members and former members can talk here, exchange ideas, befriend each other etc… This is wonderful.

As for your decision i trust that you have thoroughly prayed about it and that you are following to the best of your knowledge the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So wherever God may be leading you, i hope that you will be blessed and can be a blessing.

There is one thing i want to say in defense of UBF. And this may not apply to you at all so don’t take anything personal here. From my own experience i felt that many Americans do not take church membership that seriously and there seems to be a a lot of church hopping. (Germans do not seem to be any different in that regard). I heard one non-UBF pastor complaining about it, saying they do not want to belong and commit themselves to any flock. They say: “today i feel like belonging to this flock. Tomorrow i want to go there. i’m such a free person…” And then he said that wolves have a nick-name for these kind of ‘sheep’: “Lunch!”

I like the fact that UBF does take church membership seriously. In this regard, it is good that UBF is counter-cultural. I think it is very necessary because only then can there be submission to eldership, responsibility, accounting and real growth in fellowship. I believe it is biblical to commit oneself to one expression of the body of Christ and to be faithful.

And yes, i know: UBF has again gone too far in forbidding its members to visit different worship services and calling people who left “run-aways” and so on and so forth… So striking a good balance is the key. Plus, members should always want to be members of their church and not be forced to stay…

A few things that I’ve been learning is the importance of praying for the restoration of Israel! I’m very new to this but I don’t remember learning about Israel and the importance of Jesus’ second coming and how the two are related. I’m praying to learn more about this so I won’t be ignorantly working for or against something.
I’m deeply saddened to hear about Abraham’s family leaving, BUT at the same time believe that God is doing something right now in the midst of this situation. God is good all the time, amen?
Being in Korea, I decided to also not go back to UBF. I agonized over this due to the stigma of not being in UBF yet God gave me grace, peace and freedom as I made my decision. I don’t know if this means leaving UBF, but for a while I will not be part of UBF. I was terrified of going back to UBF in Korea, I was terrified of meeting people and even telling people anywhere. However, I realized most of the fears weren’t of God and had to discard them. The people I met welcomed me with so much love and it didn’t matter that I wasn’t going to UBF.
My heart is stirring up and shaken because I don’t know where this is going. Where UBF is heading. I pray that God will mightily intervene and do what He must do. I pray that we will not resist to HIS leading of his ministry and that each of us will be able to follow this leading.

To say each week KOPHN might be somewhat equivalent to pre-fixing “JUST…” to the following that some might say: obey, pray, repent, etc.” Unless it is explained, exegeted,  and applied in context, verse or passage, I think it just becomes trite, banal and hackneyed, as I had mentioned. It’s like I might understand it in my head without thinking and even agree with it, but my heart is not really moved, though it once was.

How do we refresh and  renew the prayer or prayer topic, until we are empowered and energized with the Spirit of God to mount on wings like eagles (Isa 40:31)?

Of course, I know that  ALL things are possible with God…it is possible for Him to him to turn all people into frogs if He wants, but that prayer seems so nebulus and subjective that its fulfillment could mean anything. You could say “America is a KPHN right now.” and I could say, “Only Christians are a KPHN, and every American is not a Christian so America is NOT a KPHN.” and someone else could say, “When America sends 10,000 missionaries from UBF then America will be a KPHN.”  

I guess what I mean is, what would fulfillment of THE PRAYER in the eyes of UBFers  look like? Is there a numerical threshold that would have to be reached, that we could finally say, “ahh, there are now  200 million confessing Christians in America, and 10,000 missionaries from UBF, and a Christian President,  and every state has a Christian Governor,  so NOW  America is a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation!”

What I am seeking is, first, personal understanding and, second, an informed consensus about the vision and role of UBF in the years ahead. I am grateful for this discussion and hope that more leaders will begin to join in.  

Of course, we  have different gifts and roles in the Body of Christ. Some of us may have been called to be evangelists who just go out and preach the name of Christ wherever and however, without worrying about the implications or theological underpinnings. Others may have been called to be shepherds who take care of the existing flock. Others may have been called to be managers who handle the resources. Others have been gifted as teachers or as event-planners. There is a wonderful variety in Spirit-giftedness within the church that we can celebrate and use.

And surely there must  be some among us have been called to think  through the issues  and frame the mission more carefully. As the ministry matures, our self-awareness and understanding should mature. I hope that we never think that we fully understand what God has called us to do. There is an ever-present element of surprise and mystery, because we do not know what the future holds specifically for us. But we do know that all of history is moving forward to the second coming of Christ and the unveiling of his kingdom.

Is that kingdom going to come because we successfully establish a given number of house churches and sends out a given number of missionaries? I don’t think so. Is that kingdom going to be come because we raise up a given number of leaders who go out and influence society so strongly that America (or any given nation) becomes a “holy nation”? I don’t think so.   God’s kingdom is already fully present in the person of Jesus Christ. It is still hidden from our sight in many ways. But that kingdom is present now in this location of space and time. That spiritual reality should be gradually revealed more and more through the life of the Church. Dr Lee  occasionally said, “UBF is nothing; the kingdom of God is forever.” I believe that. Not only do I believe that, I hope and pray that UBF will testify to that more and more. I do not want to be a triumphalist. A triumphalist is someone who thinks and says that the church, by its activities and efforts, is somehow going to conquer the society and the earth. I don’t think that’s going to happen. I don’t believe that the Bible says that will happen. The picture of the last days that I see (for example, in Revelation) is one of a church suffering, enduring, remaining faithful in its witness even while being persecuted. The church, in some sense, is destined to fail, just as the ministry of Jesus was an apparent failure when he was rejected and killed. The center of our faith is the cross, a symbol of rejection, humiliation, and death of self. But there is also the empty tomb, the power of the resurrected Christ, that enables us to be ever-victorious even as we are apparently failing. Can we expect UBF to grow forever without ever declining or falling short of our goals, without ever being collectively rebuked, without ever retooling or re-examining the fundamentals, without ever exposing and repairing weak and damaged and sinful parts of the foundation that are present in every human organization? I don’t think so. What I long for is a spirit of Biblically-sound realism about who we really are and what God wants to do through us.

Sending missionaries and evangelizing are very good. But if that’s what the intention is, then I believe there is a mismatch between
  * what we mean by the prayer topic,
  * what the words actually say, and
  * the contextual meaning of 1 Peter 2:9.
As I read the book of 1 Peter, it  is not apparent to me that he is talking about evangelism and sending of missionaries. The recurrent themes that I see are enduring hardship and suffering and living holy and pure lives. Although evangelism is important, that is not what I see in 1 Peter 2:9, and I don’t want to pull that verse too far out of its context. Ditto for Exodus 19:6.

Because our identity as UBF members is so heavily tied up in evangelism and sending of missionaries, I think we have zeroed in on the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 and the “world mission command” in Acts 1:8 as the defining purpose of the church, and these short  passages have become the lens through which we tend to read the  whole New Testament.   But I’m thinking that we need to do the opposite. I think we ought to be  interpreting the Great Commission and world mission command in light of rest of the New Testament. That’s what good scholarship is about. But it’s not easy, because it brings up some difficult questions. For example, it forces us to think about why the Apostle Paul never urged any of the churches to engage in mass evangelism and sending of missionaries.  Calls to the whole church to go out and try to  convert nonbelievers  are nowhere to be found in the epistles. (Have I missed something? Am I wrong?) I think that God’s purpose for the church is much more complex than to simply grow itself through replication and reproduction. That’s why I have been saying that I think we need a coherent theology of mission that is true to the whole NT and the flow of the whole Bible. It  needs to be integrated with  ecclesiology (understanding the nature of the church) and eschatology (understanding the end times). I want to gain a better understanding of what the apostles, especially Paul, Peter and John, believed about the early church and its mission. I suspect that their understanding is somewhat different from ours. And if our understanding of our own mission is going to be any different from theirs, I want to know why that’s okay and justify it from biblical and historical perspectives.

For over a decade or more in the 1990s till his passing in 2002, I heard Dr. Samuel Lee repeatedly articulate and expound and explian this prayer topic  for American to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, quoting Exo 19:6 and 1 Pet 2:9. He did so on Sun during worship service, at conferences, and at prayer meetings during the week almost without fail.

I may be wrong about this, but I believe that it was his hope and vision and prayer for America to be what she was, which was a missionary sending nation, one that had sent out over 1 million missionaries. When he explained it with spirit and passion, I remember that it was usually inspiring and moving. Because he repeatedly articulated it in multiple contexts and with interesting stories, it did not feel trite, banal, hackneyed or habitual. You were in Chicago for a few years and likely heard him too, didn’t you?

Thanks for all of you who shared heartfelt thoughts and prayer. David  L.  started with the UBF long term prayer, “May God make America a Kingdom of Priests and a Holy Nation!” The Spirit of the Lord had led to many thoughtful comments and provoking questions, including about the future direction of UBF ministry. Some of us expressed their wishes for Abraham and Jennifer to be our good friends and brother and sister even after their departure. I hope  they would continue to be friends of UBFers not only in cyber space but in real world. One thing that has bothered me so long was why  leaving UBF was regarded as something  bad.  Their leaving is sad but what makes me really sad is that they are treated as if they left Jesus. AS David said, UBF is not Christ. Last year the Lord led me to encouter some people who left UBF and are wonderfully serving the Lord in other churches. Some of them really wanted to visit their old friends in UBF and share their life and ministry freely  but sadly they were not allowed. Even some were told to leave the city to prevent “bad influence.” This really broke my heart.   Many questions arose in my heart.Can they have freedom to see their old friends?   Is leaving UBF  all bad? Is staying in  UBF forever  all good? What is UBF? Are people going to worship God denomination by denomination or church by church in heaven? Why can’t we freely associate with anyone in Christ regardless of which church we belong to? If we do not mature enough to bless those who find God’s calling else where along the way, I wonder what would happen to us even if we pray 10,000 times “May God make America (Korea or any other nation)  a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. ” We would be in danger of becoming like the Israelites who were caught in narrow view of the world and of God  and failed to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation due to their pride and close-mindness. It would be  good if UBF becomes a permanent home church for all of us. But it would be inevitalbe for some people to  receive  a different calling from God even after 10 or 20 years, for God is much bigger than our ministry.  I hope our ministry will be a place where people can be truly connected each other  in Christ whether we are inside or outside UBF.  Our final destination is  neither UBF  nor any other church but a heavenly home in our Father’s house  prepared by Christ. (Jn 14:2) Over the last few years God helped our chapter to  practice this    and many wonderful thing have happened. I hope there will be more open and free dialogue among leaders and members, more collaboration, team spirit, open mindedness in our ministry, not so much top down, authoritative directorship, old wineskin mentality. Hopefully we will all humbly  realize that  UBF is only a small member of  the body of Christ  and there are many things we don’t and can’t do but other churches  take care of.  There are a lot of rich resources out there in  other members of the body of Christ  we could benefit for our personal  development and ministry growth  . It is my prayer that Abraham N. will continue to go deeper in his fellowship with the Holy Spirit with his new found resource and serve the Lord in freedom and power with the hope of the Return of Christ.  

The reason I am recounting this, is because God forbid, the Indian brothers who decided to attend another church would be treated the same way. All of the comments on this thread seem to be supportive of those brothers and sisters, and certainly this blog site is. But I just feel burdened to make this point, if you ever  hear people slandering dear brothers and sisters in Christ just because they decide that UBF is no longer the church for them, it is your duty to admonish them and correct them. Ephesians 4:31 says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Just because someone leaves UBF that does not mean that they have “run away” from Christ. UBF is not Christ. I suggest that UBFers continue to be friends with Abraham and the others, and support them with gladness in the new roles that Christ has for them in the Kingdom.

I agree with Dr. Ben Toh, “If we in the church can’t be co-workers and friends with Abraham and the other Indian leaders who left, who are we going to be friends and co-workers with?” Amen

You said that you hoped this news would not discourage anyone. I appreciate that. But, honestly, we should be discouraged, because it is truly discouraging. The fact that our ministry, which we speak so highly of in our meetings and reports, cannot  provide a long-term home to a  wonderful family like yours should cause us to do some serious soul-searching and figure out what is going on.

Please keep reading UBFriends and keep in touch. We love you.

Like Joe, I was quite saddenned to hear about India UBF last week. I didn’t want to say anything publicly because I was  asked to keep this information in confidence, and I wanted to honor my friend’s request and trust in telling me this. But since Joe mentioned it, I am now free to also address this.

As I’ve often said to many, many  people in UBF, “The problem is not that we in UBF can’t resolve our issues or problems. Rather, the problem is that we can’t ADDRESS them in any meaningful, honest, respectful, prayerful, humble, open and transparent way.” What happened in India UBF is the tragic unfortunate outcome of the FAILURE of UBF (including and especially myself) to welcome, embrace, understand, hear, trust, and affirm  our wonderful brothers and sisters among our Indian UBF leaders, some of whom have been with UBF for 2 decades!

Surely, if a brother or sister leaves the church after 20 years of friendship and fellowship in Christ, it is a major and serious indictment of our collective failure as a church. This has eaten me up on so many occasions, because we are one body in Christ, sealed by his blood. Yet we have hurt and wounded the very brothers and sisters we profess to love. And after that, we may say something even more hurtful, if they leave UBF. I know this quite painfully, because I have inexcusably done so, and I am saddened by how I have hurt others because of my own pride as a UBF leader.

One brother in India UBF shared with me in detail about his heart felt agony, which just broke my heart. What he went through was quite humiliating, disrespectful, culturally insensitive,  and unnecessary. But he sucked it up, took it and complied, until he couldn’t take it anymore and left after 20 years of being in India UBF. Can we humble ourselves so that we can begin to address these unfortunate situations, which surely do not please God, and grives His very heart?

If we in the church can’t be co-workers and friends with Abraham and the other Indian leaders who left, who are we going to be friends and co-workers with? Abraham, as Joe said, is a Christian who loves Jesus because of the grace of God. Yet, he left us. This is really not Abraham’s issue, but our failure as a church of the living God.

Sorry for venting without a clear plan of action, other than my appeal that we in UBF learn the heart of God who said to his people, “Come now, let us reason together” (Isa 1:18). God didn’t say to Israel, “Just listen, accept, obey, repent and keep the spiritual order.” Rather, he said, “Let’s sit down as gentleman and talk heart to heart, man to man.” I think that until and unless we begin to do this more and more in UBF, we are going to loose more and more wonderful brothers in Christ like Abraham.

Joe, i think your comment is devastating on the one hand. On the other hand, i think it is painfully honest and truthful, at least to the best of your personal knowledge. I absolutely share your concerns. My wife and i have talked these days alot about UBF especially in light of the upcoming 50th anniversary. If God lets me, i might even reach the age of becoming 81 to witness its 100th anniversary. =)

Both, Grace and i, have super-abundant reasons to be thankful to God for UBF and for everything He has done through UBF. Many of my closest and best friends are members in UBF. This is the church where we had met Christ personally and experienced his grace for the first time in our lives. Grace and i have a commitment to this church. We have NO interest in ever participating in a church split and we will not leave UBF unless we are being kicked out. Our prayer is to be faithful to the kingdom of God and we believe that UBF has played and can play a wonderful role in this regard.  This is the very reason why i am deeply concerned and burdened about the many things that are not right in UBF. And my fear is that what Abraham Nial is talking about in the context of India UBF might only be the tip of the iceberg.

The last International European conference in 2009 was a celebration of the 40th anniversary of UBF mission in Germany. According to official UBF websites, this conference was a great success. But many of the young people i have talked to would not agree with this. What many young people perceived was a glamourous show of an organization that was celebrating itself. The absence of any sort of critical self-reflection or honesty about the many mistakes in the past, the apparent lack of humility and repentance for everything that had gone wrong, the failure to provide future vision, were frustrating and disturbing. The theme was the ‘hope of God’. But i know of so many young people who felt disillusioned after the conference because we still have no clue of what the hope of God for UBF is. My last visit in Germany was disheartening in this regard as many young people i have talked to, felt that the church is stuck and miles away from what a spirit-filled church according to the blue-print of the bible ought to be like.

What should we do? i guess it is praying for UBF leadership, growing in love to Christ and our neighbors, studying and spreading the Word… … and waiting patiently?

Very thought provoking comments, and they are valuable. I have been in UBF quiet a while and there has been no other times that I seriouly agonizing  on our church than this time. I pray for God’s mercy. Among  your comments, this one touches me most,
“many of us don’t have a clue where we are headed — not organizationally, not spiritually.” We can argue on this,  but it is bacially true. I hope that we will be a new wineskin. Always heditant to write  something here (you  can guess  why)  but I am compelled to drop a few words today.

It is not my intention to stir up controversy or trouble. But unfortunately, there seems to be plenty of trouble around whether I stir it up or not.

For those of you who do not know — I just heard this myself two days ago — Indian UBF has experienced a tragic event.  Many native Indian shepherd families have decided to leave the ministry. That includes Abraham Nial, who in my estimation is an intelligent, sincere and wonderful man. Abraham’s comment reveals some of the agony of his soul. After he posted his comment, I could not let  it go unanswered; my conscience urged me to respond. I believe that UBFriends  has an important role to play in keeping alive some relationships with those who chose to leave the ministry. Even if  they never return  to UBF, they are still our brothers and sisters in Christ. (That’s what I believe. You are free to  think differently.)  

Anyway, I  was very upset by this, and that is surely evident in my recent comments.

If you think that what I wrote is not suitable for UBFriends in content, tone, or whatever, please post a comment that says so, and then I will apologize, retract, etc.     Although I am the founder of this website, I should not be its dictator. I am not above criticism, and I must subject myself to the same rules of behavior that I expect others to follow.

Please hold me accountable.

I am conflicted about this. On the one hand, I think, “What happened in India UBF should be none of my business. I don’t know all the facts. There are multiple sides to every issue, and unless I hear everyone’s side, I need to just keep quiet.” On the other hand, if it is none of our business, why do we urge one another to pray for our brothers and sisters in our ministries all over the world? To share their joys, struggles and sorrows is our business. Abraham Nial dedicated 12 years of his life to serving in this ministry, standing side by side with us. He deserves to be heard in his own words, not through the back-channels of rumor and gossip. If anyone else has differing opinions, they deserve to be heard as well. UBFriends is a place for these conversations to happen. Not just pleasant, happy conversations, but also ones that are painful, difficult and sorrowful. That’s what friends do. They talk about real issues, including the hard ones.

If you are reading this, and you have an opinion, please tell us what you think. The silence is deafening.

Dear brother Abraham: Thank you for these insightful comments. I know what you are saying, and I couldn’t agree with you more.

You mentioned your study of the book of Daniel: “To me, it was frustrating because the focus was on the person Daniel (his resolution, his prayer etc) and not on his message.”

Exactly.

For my first ten years in this ministry, our style of Bible study helped me to grow. But after twenty years, I was no longer learning from it. After 25 years, it was actually making me worse. Why? Because there were many bricks but no foundation. The bricks were the teachings on salvation and discipleship. They were the messages on familiar passages from Genesis and the gospels. In the early years of UBF, our leaders discovered some of those bricks. Those bricks were good. But then we stopped looking for more. We were content with the few bricks that we had. To us, those bricks looked so shiny, so precious. We began to squeeze every Bible passage to draw out those same bricks again and again. The bricks began to lose their shine. Once in a while we found a few more bricks, but they looked suspiciously similar to the bricks that we already had. Gradually we lost sight of the big picture, the grand story of God’s salvation work from beginning to end, and our Bible study became an collection of isolated passages, piecemeal principles, practices and slogans.

Our study became an unimaginative and tiresome struggle to fit the Bible narratives into the UBF story, rather than an exciting discovery of how our lives fit into the still-evolving Bible story.

Our ultimate reality became UBF campus mission, rather than the unfolding gospel of the kingdom of God.

Hence the approach that Abraham described. Our study of Daniel becomes, “What can I learn from Daniel about how to be a pure man of God for the sake of carrying out campus mission?” The study of 1 Samuel becomes, “What can I learn from David about principles of leadership that will help me grow to be a leader for campus mission?” The study of the gospels, of Acts, of Romans, etc. all reduces to gathering of principles that will help us to carry out the mission that is presumed to be valid but can never be questioned, clarified or adjusted.

Thoughtful disciples within UBF realized that we did not have all the answers, and to renew their faith they had to search for understanding from the outside. But leaders discouraged them from doing so. Leaders told them to stop being so complicated and just go back to what they had already been taught — the “pure” and “simple” spiritual practices of daily bread, prayer, testimony writing, fishing, and humble obedience. “Don’t look elsewhere,” they said, “everything you need is already here. There is nothing more.” That is a huge mistake. Everything we need can be found in the Bible. But to find it, we have to be willing to approach the Bible on its own terms, not on UBF’s or anyone else’s terms. To see how to do that, we need to be willing to listen to other parts of the Body of Christ. Not to uncritically accept everything that others say, but to carefully listen and learn and evaluate, and then go back to the Bible again with fresh insight. UBF is one part of the Body, not a self-sufficient whole Body. We can never be self-sufficient. Not now, not ever.

I too have found that our leaders (including myself) have been quick to criticize ideas that come from teachers and organizations outside of UBF, warning of the dangers of incorrect doctrines and bad influences. We have been quick to denounce other churches that look different from us, forgetting how hurtful it was when other Christians branded us as a cult. But are we pointing our disciples in a better direction? Have we been providing a more solid foundation? Abraham is right. Eating poisonous food is bad, but starving is no better.

This is why I am deeply troubled. When we prepare conferences, we now select passages and draw out lessons that we believe will advance our ministry of campus evangelism, our particular brands of discipleship, house churches and world mission. We have already set the agenda, and Scripture has become the tool to press forward with that agenda. We have stopped asking the big questions. We have eliminated the possibility of being startled, amazed, or shaken by the Bible and changing our lives in any radical way in response to it. We have stopped looking for fresh inspiration from the Holy Spirit. This is a recipe for non-growth.

At this 50 year mark, some have been speaking of UBF in unrealistically glowing terms. Of course, we need to be thankful for what God has done. But where is the objectivity? The actual history of our ministry has been rocky. There have been problems, controversies and divisions, and the troubles are not over. I believe the danger that we face today is not division but disintegration because many of us don’t have a clue where we are headed — not organizationally, not spiritually.

Question: How long can a missionary-sending organization last without a coherent theology of mission?

Answer: About fifty years or so, I guess. Perhaps a bit longer. But not much.

Sending out any given number of missionaries is good. But, as I suggested before, that prayer topic is not sufficient to provide clear direction for UBF, because it doesn’t say what the missionaries are supposed to do.

I dont mean to be offensive to anyone in UBF by this article. I know that some will probably be offended however, and if that is the case, I want to just say that is not my intent. Like Joe said, I think it is very important to have a coherent theology of mission, thats all.

Privately, some senior UBF leaders have  lamented that they  personally do not know what the prayer topic means, or that  their congregations  do not know what it means, or that they do understand what it means but  do not agree with it.  Your point is well taken. We ought to know, not just what we are praying for, but what we are working and striving and struggling for every day. Without a vision that is clearly articulated, understood and deeply felt, Christians lose their zeal and get burned out. Our purpose  degenerates to  surviving, writing the next message, planning the next conference, etc.

For me, the salient question is this: How long can a missionary-sending organization last without a coherent theology of mission?

At first, UBF missionaries went out by faith in simple obedience to the command of Jesus to “go and make disciples of all nations.” That pure and simple obedience was naive but beautiful. God blessed it in its time.

But  after a few decades,  some  tough questions arose. Questions such as, “What is the role of a UBF missionary  in bringing the gospel to a place like the United States, a nation that already has a strong Christian heritage and many Christian churches and institutions?”   Or, “What should UBF ministries and UBF disciples look like in diverse places like the United States, the UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, and Mongolia? Should they be replicas of the successful UBF models in Korea? Is it reasonable to expect disciples all over the world to do what Korean missionaries did, to marry as they did, to raise children as they did, to relate to the broader church and society as they did, etc.?”   These questions are serious. They are urgent. They are difficult. They strike at the very heart of what a mission organization needs, which is a coherent theology of mission.

One response to these difficult questions is to brush them aside. To paraphrase a famous movie line, the UBF leader can say, “Theology? We don’t need no stinkin’ theology!” And he can go on as he always had, trying to start UBF chapters and raise UBF disciples in the familiar mold. In brushing the questions aside, he believes he is virtuous. He believes he is preserving the pure, simple, obedient attitude of the early days when missionaries just went out “by faith.” But that attitude of those early days no longer works, because the times are now different, the situation is now different, the culture is  seriously different than it was just a few decades ago. The gospel  never changes.  But the nature of the missionary organization and the specific details of the work must  carefully adapt to the new realities, otherwise the ministry becomes a museum, a monument to its own past.   The UBF leader might say, “That will never happen to us! We are special. We are better.” But that is sheer hubris. We are not intrinsically better than any of the other denominations and organizations that started out well, were blessed by God for a time, and soon fizzled out.

What we need is a theology of mission — not an abstract, pie-in-the-sky, ivory tower idealization, but a practical, bottom-line statement of what we are trying to accomplish. And this statement should be rooted in our understanding of Scripture, a Biblical understanding of the gospel and the kingdom of God, of the doctrine of election, the nature of the Church, the work of the Holy Spirit, and an understanding of the end-times.

Quite simply, it is not enough just to say, “Our purpose is to evangelize and raise disciples.” It is not enough because that does not explain what the disciples are supposed to look like and what they are supposed to do. It is not enough to say, “We raise disciples so that they can raise more disciples.” Replication and reproduction is not the overarching goal that I see in the New Testament. It is not enought to say, “We want to plant house churches,” because, again, that begs the question of what the house churches are actually doing. It is not enough to say, “We want to transform America.” Transform it into what? A theocracy like ancient Israel? A nation whose government upholds biblical values? (Which ones?)

Like you, I do not wish to argue  about Dispensationalism or  speculate on things that the Bible  does not intend  to teach  us. The times, the dates, etc. that the Father has set by his own authority have not been revealed to the church. Jesus will return like a thief in the night, and the ones who will be most surprised are the ones who were expecting God to  obediently adhere  to the carefully worked out systems that they imposed on the Bible.

What I’m hungering for is a clearer understanding, both personally and within the UBF ministry, of the things that the Bible really does teach us about the mission of the Church in these last days. An understanding based on the experiences of the early Church in the book of Acts; based on Paul’s teaching about election in Romans 9-11; based on the mini-Apocalypse of Mark 13; based on the Upper-Room dialogues in John 13-17; based on the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes; based on Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of God; based on what Peter says about the priesthood of believers in 1 Peter 2:9. The Great Commission must be understood in the context of these passages, and in light of the overall flow of Biblical history. And it must be faithfully carried out in the context of the postmodern, post-Christian times in which we live.   Christians who charge ahead and just “go out” to preach the gospel without an adequate understanding might be able to win a few converts, but they can also make themselves irrelevant, or even  do damage to the cause of Christ, because they were operating under all kinds of cultural assumptions and implicit theologies that were unstated and unquestioned. That’s has happened repeatedly throughout history. Missionaries lost their bearings. They became cultural imperialists. They caused divisions within the church. They became culture warriors, moralistic do-gooders, political activists, revolutionaries, etc. So many errors and troubles can arise without a coherent theology of mission that is faithful to what the Bible actually teaches.