“Life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society, a collegium pietatis (schools of piety), but rather where it understands itself as being a part of the one, holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively in the sufferings and struggles and promise of the whole Church. Every principle of selection and every separation connected with it…is of the greatest danger to a Christian community. …the human element always insinuates itself and robs the fellowship of its spiritual power and effectiveness for the Church, drives it into sectarianism.”- Bonhoeffer

“Kenny Zhu visited North Korea from China and captured North Korea using his Google Glass. He was allowed to wear the wearable camera as long as “everything reflects the positive side of DPRK.”

North Korea – positive side only

But many, especially Korean leaders, do try to squelch bold and creative types.

It’s been a wild life folks. I read CNN every day and this article nearly sparked PTSD reactions… but it was mild thankfully.

So anyone else remember a Korean “dear leader” upset about something not being done “right”? A dear leader who gets involved in jobs he knows nothing about but claims to know how to do it? A dear leader instilling fear in a drab room of chairs while everyone stands or sits around with sullen looks on their faces?

Those are the memories stirred up in me this morning.

“…UBF is trying to be a missions agency and a church at the same time.”

On the surface, that may appear to be what’s happening. My inside view for decades tells me something else. The “sheep” want and expect a Christian church. That force is contrary to the directors who want a ubf missions agency. Directors in ubf will only talk about Christianity or church if it supports or does not contradict their mission agency agenda. Those two forces keep going back and forth and so ubf is stuck in a cultic state.

“They have a mission and an agenda. It is campus mission through one to one Bible study and discipleship.”

Don’t be deceived. ubf directors care nothing about campus mission or bible study or discipleship in the normal meaning of those words. They do care very much about the ubf meanings of those words: campus mission means ubf activities on a college campus, bible study means submitting to a ubf shepherd for life, and discipleship means conforming to the ubf ideology as a means of preserving the ubf heritage.

A church is a place where people can find shelter and support and teachings in the word of God and mentoring. UBF has this. But a church is also a place where people can express their gifts and talents and find support for the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. This is what is lacking in the church life in UBF. Because it is trying to be a missions agency with a focused mission, leaders can not support other expressions of the work of God in the member’s lives.

They have a mission and an agenda. It is campus mission through one to one Bible study and discipleship. This may be a good mission for a missions agency but not for the entire church body.

In a way it is kind of deceptive, because people are drawn to the church and actually become a harvest field for the missions agency. People can not but feel used. UBF should separate the church from the missions agency and then these two organizations can co-operate together.

Leaders in UBF find it hard to accept dissent because everyone is answering to a higher level of the missions agency. They are seeking measurable ways to show that they are actually bearing fruit and not wasting their time. Dissent means that the leaders are not able to answer to others above and show numbers of growing leaders to support the mission of their branch of the missions agency. UBF needs to stop answering to other chapters and to leaders in other nations and trying to prove their worth with numbers. They need to stop being a church and missions agency at the same time… thoughts?

Of course the article itself and its author have nothing to do with this cult.

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Articles/Decide/decide.html

The reluctance to really address the burning issues of UBF is clearly a sign of cowardice. Pride and cowardice can coexist so very well – Kierkegaard even says “these two are really one and the same.”

“Cowardice and time always find a reason for not hurrying, for saying, ‘Not today, but tomorrow’, whereas God in heaven and the eternal say: ‘Do it today. Now is the day of salvation.’ The eternal refrain of decision is: ‘Today, today.’ But cowardice holds back, holds us up. If only cowardice would appear in all its baseness, one could recognize it for what it is and fight it immediately.”

Exactly, big bear. Recently I went through some orientation for a new job. The format was much like ubf staff conferences. I realized that ubf is in a perpetual orientation mode. In my new job, I went through orientation, now I’m doing my job. But I remember 2 decades of orientation after orientation in ubf. We always had to study John 4, for example. at major conferences.

Why is this? Clearly this is because human nature rejects conforming to cultic control. So ubf has to continually orient, and re-orient. This is called CME now (continuing missionary education) at the director level. But every conference was also a “CME”, meant to orient everyone back to the heritage. In ubf I realize I was contiually being trained, but there was never any intention of ever “entering the ring” or living my life as my self in reality. The carrot was always dangling there, just out of reach. Maybe when I’m 30…no maybe 40…no maybe 60…

Highlights of my new job training showed me some glaring holes in the ubf training. ubf needs to include basic sensitivity training (how to be sensitive to cultures other than your own), harrassment awareness training (how to identify and avoid harrassment), manipulation avoidance training (how to tell when you are being manipulated) and personal interaction training (how to be handle disagreements/differences).

In my own recent experience with UBF (2010), UBF missionaries are not open to indigenous leaders’ recommendations. My family used to serve with one other missionary family in an independent midatlantic chapter. Our ideas were not well received and at times, the director’s wife would react confrontational towards us because she felt we were overstepping our bounds. She was particularly sensitive whenever I had an opinion different from her own, and would accuse me of not being respectful of her husband’s leadership, of being a “troublemaker” and so on. As a woman, I often felt that I was being treated inferior compared to my husband who happens to have a PhD. We could have the same ideas about something, but if I expressed my opinion, I would be accused of being proud or disrespectful while my husband would at least be given some latitude. Once when we were all discussing something that we differed with the missionaries about, the director said that the issue cannot be resolved like a democracy because “then everyone will choose what they like”. Instead, he said that as the director, he would pray about it and make the ultimate decision because “a church is not like a democracy”. Those were his words. Unbelievable.

And guess what?! THOSE ARE THE TRAITS OF WORLD CLASS LEADERS! The ubf “training” to raise “world class leaders” is a sham meant to raise “world class brown-nosers”.

My “world class training” in “high quality” ubf lead me to have thoughts of suicide, to react heartlessly toward my own family and to break into a friend’s house. My training stripped me of my American identity, coerced me to act, think, speak like a Korean and to live inside my own litte fantasy world where I was the Shepherd.

sounds like Rebekah BK started out “too sincere” (with God’s true favor) & SL couldn’t handle being accidentally one-upped in religious humanism system, & so had to “eliminate the competition”;

FEARLESS (having/showing fear, but continuing on with God’s help anyway); never give up! Let’s have tee-shirts made:)

Here’s another question: is religion trying to tear down Christ seeking individuals?
(instead of struggling to redirect itself)

To say directly about your post however that any one whose actions are in accordance with natural instinct and freedom of thought betray the very basic teachings in UBF. I have been quiet for a couple of days. Why? Over the weekend I began to prepare a reflective thought about the events that led my family into it’s present situation. I am divided about submitting it or not – but one thing will be clear: It is evidence of both helpful leaders and destructive ones. I was not expecting Brian to recall this account, so I will respectively wait before I step forward.

I can simply say here that I have always moved with the wrong foot first in UBF. It had never been my intention at first, but after discovering the particularities of UBF sometimes I was and still am compelled to do so. Such behaviour and attitude is always handled with rebukes and training which serve nothing for Christ.