If you speak up, it is guaranteed that someone won’t like what you believe and/or will disagree with you. But if you remain silent, it is guaranteed that your beliefs will go stagnant and unchallenged.

some are UNWILLING to reveal weakness/depend on God, but your/our revelation in common humanity speaks for all (REPRESENTATIVE REVELATION)
so people can either like that, speak up alternatively, or live in ‘quiet fantasy’ (proud silence) HALLELUJAH!

And when speaking up with healthy dialogue is the proper response, silence leads to a declining ministry where people abandon your vision.

What I personally find hypocritical is that though some may be silent regarding their objections, say to UBFriends, yet they are NOT AT ALL SILENT when they speak in their “inner circles.” I don’t know about what others think, but such behavior, I personally find quite duplicitous and objectionable.

If their silence were TRULY SILENT, then no gossip and murmurings and disparaging comments through the grapevine would ever arise.

Here are my thoughts on my own silence, as a former UBF director. For many years I was silent in regard to the reform discussions. Here are my reasons:

1. Vanity. I was afraid to look in the mirror and see my true self. So I made a painting (caricature) of myself and looked at that instead. This reason has little to do with UBF. Did I know the gospel? Yes. Was I quenching and hindering the sanctification work of my God? Yes. To engage in the reform talks that came up year after year would have required me to look into a mirror and see my scary self, and I was scared to do it.

2. Pride. I was proud. Even as a quiet man, I longed to be part of something famous. I loved to be told how good I was! I didn’t want to hear even a hint of negativity about myself or my church. I imagined myself as a silent, holy warrior, battling evil forces and dissenting voices only with prayer. This is how UBF trained me to be, and my pride soaked it up like a sponge. And when I decided to break the silence in 2003, I charged onto the internet like a valiant soldier defending UBF absolutely, even working with senior leaders to take down any negative website about UBF and to make the wikipedia entry about UBF to have no negative comments.

3. Ignorance. My understanding of all things Christian was shallow. I only had superficial knowledge of the gospel, repentance, mission, faith, love, hope, and joy. So I carried a heaping, stinking pile of guilt around all the time. Jesus set me free from the cage of my self but I never opened the unlocked door! For example, I ignored the facts about how a shepherd should act. Now I look into Scripture and face the facts about my scary self. For example Ezekiel 34:1-10… verse 4 says “You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.” Christian ministry is primarily a reconciliation ministry both with God and with each other, and especially with the weak or injured or the lost. But I thought I should just be a shepherd who prayed and studied the bible and ignored my friends who disappeared from the ministry every couple years.