Indeed, yes something like that should happen. Like the city of Detroit, ubf’s future may depend on how quickly the failed empty places are dismantled.

The variables for change can be so great. Big Bear comments on the family – and with very deep personal experience. Many people leave UBF and then the need for new sheep becomes first priority. Leadership training has not really changed. Maybe in some places it has been toned down, but it has not changed. Why does the general leadership instill fear and not love? It is like an employer who has no idea how to aim/market/run their business and bullies their employees instilling a constant fear of insecurity for they may be fired. Similarly, measures often push people out for many reasons already stated by others above.

For those that remain: Can we be silent? Can we speak up? Should we just leave? Atmosphere between chapters can vary, but the general atmosphere remains the same – just look at the last article – how were serious questions answered/were they answered?

At this time we can all change how we do things, but in the general action/mandate of UBF it still has a long way to go. So, when a leader says, “I did not know that happened to you,” it is inexcusable. Whether you knew/did not know was not the primary question. The question is, “What are you going to do about it?”

Romans chapters 1-2 now make sense: sin doesn’t cause spiritual problem, spiritual problem causes sin; glorifying God (praising his almighty power) & thanking God (as source of all good) allows God’s Spirit to work in mind/heart;

over-glorifying/over-thanking man (self/other) leads to human bondage & all kinds of sin

this religious humanism must be absolutely condemned/rooted out of followers & leaders not just in ubf but where ever found; it is the core problem, the source of all sin;

glory & thanks to God alone is the solution, then Spirit will help overcome sinful addictions; trying overcome sin by willpower doesn’t work (backward approach)

well said. Until we stop and evaluate our practices, we will keep doing the same mistakes. every 4 or 5 years you will continue to see an exodus of people leaving because their “wells” have run dry.

Finding new sheep, as you said, really solves nothing, except to validate themselves while ignoring their own deep inner unresolved core issues.

This is unfortunate because God has done marvelous work in spite of such weaknesses. But the fruit has been left to spoil on the vine for the sake of finding new fruit. I don’t fault ubf directors for their evangelistic efforts to bear fruit. I fault the directors for failing to care for the fruit that did grow.

Their attitude is to teach (and impose upon) the inferior ignorant natives the Bible, which is skewed by their own cultural (mis)understanding and expression.

Often they regard contextualization (humbly understanding and embracing the indigenous culture) as compromise, relativism, and sin, which is quite unfortunate.

Yes I would agree that is at the heart of the reasons why my three issues are manifest so often.

So at least part of the solution seems obvious: become outwardly connected and self-aware, and listen, embrace and learn from the host people (i.e. be a Christian missionary).

Don’t you think your three issues can be explained in the last paragraph of my last comment that some old school UBF missionaries “just seem to be so inward focused and unwilling to listen to or embrace or learn from indigenous people, that they came across as being quite condescending and arrogant because of their overweening nationalistic and imperialistic sentiments.”

Sorry for liking the way I phrased my long sentence that I just had to copy and re-paste it! How ego-centric can you get…

I’ve never doubted this, and I’m not a conspiracy advocate: “I have always grated that most of our UBF missionaries and chapter directors do want to love Jesus and preach the gospel and raise disciples.”

My issues are:

1) is this their prime directive? Clearly no it is not Those things are probably in their top ten goals, but KOPHN is usually #1. The world-wide business network is often higher priority as well.

2) those terms have been re-defined to fit into the ubf ideology and bound with ubf heritage to create a religious system that is supposed to produce “disciple product”. The historical meaning of those Christian terms has been lost in ubf.

3) even those who do understand those terms correctly almost always apply them in spiritually abusive ways, even without knowing it.

Without disagreeing with you, I have always grated that most of our UBF missionaries and chapter directors do want to love Jesus and preach the gospel and raise disciples.

They just seem to be so inward focused and unwilling to listen to or embrace or learn from indigenous people, that they came across as being quite condescending and arrogant because of their overweening nationalistic and imperialistic sentiments.

I think many of us in ubf or those who left, can relate to the above quote since we have lived according to very similar teaching of trying to measure up.

The greatest freedom comes when we realize that this was a performance based teaching that left us completely empty, and not the true gospel. That we are not a lesser disciple when we feed less sheep or a greater disciple when we feed many more sheep. But the freedom comes when we realize that Jesus delights in us,His children regardless of performance. There is great freedom in the Grace of Jesus and the chains fall to the ground.

#8 really bothered me why UBF has to always “protect the UBF leader” as though the leader was some kind of weakling. It also shocked me when I began to experience being maligned and marginalized when I began to voice objections to “the leader,” even by some UBF leaders who have known me for over a quarter of a century. Suddenly overnight, after >25 years of commitment and loyalty to UBF, I literally went from “prince” to “pariah.” For the record, it’s a whole lot more fun living as a pariah!