The first 7 points:

The wonderful bible became a binding chain.
The mission for the world became a black burden.
The beautiful campus became a dark lonely place.
The humble manger caught on fire and choked me.
The spirit of giving bled me dry.
The self-support/layman ministry made me crawl like a zombie.
The spiritual order ruled my life like a massive demon of authority.

“I write to discover what [my shepherd thinks I should have said]. I write because I don’t know what [rebuke I will receive or direction for the future I will be given] until I read what I say [to my shepherd].”

“I write to discover what I know.” “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.”

This is surely the indisputable good of testimony writing that many have likely experienced.

Yes – > “Weren’t there apostates?”
No – > “How are you sure you personally aren’t unelected?”

Most will likely say yes, they are pre-elected, but specifically and only referring to ubf ministry. Those “called” to ubf claim that such calling is irrevocable.

Those who leave go through a shunning process and are considered to be poisonous if they are vocal, and to have “lost their mission”. Those who leave are typically considered as less than animals and destined to hell. At best, they are just forgotten about.

What will they answer when asked: “Do you as a member of UBF consider yourself pre-elected?” If yes then what happens if a person leaves UBF?

I seek to understand why I gave 24 years to the heritage, why I defended it so passionately online, and why I ultimately rejected the ubf heritage absolutely.

[Note: if somene thinks this is a boring exercise, just tune back in for my summary articles after the series where I connect the dots, tie up loose ends and share some analysis of the 12 points.]

I’m almost, almost done with my PhD. Applying for jobs in the Chicago area. I think our field is similar, computational mechanics, though I think you also do CFD as well. Anyway, hope all is going well on your end too. Thanks for the encouraging words.

BTW, how is your PhD? I recall it was in civil engineering at UIC?

Also, “Our mission does not end in gathering students. God called us to be disciple-makers who raise up spiritual leaders and shepherds.” Neglecting your home and children and pouring all of your resources into campus mission all for the sake of raising more people who will perpetuate this type of dysfunctional behavior.

“I think after analyzing each of them it would be helpful try to answer this question: could the organization with this general principles/beliefs be considered as a church or not?”

Yes, after examing each of the heritage points, I think we can start to draw some conclusions, identify disconnects and expose contradictions. Maybe this will help ubf, maybe not. But I believe this excercise will help me understand what happened…

I agree with the essence of what you are saying. This is a good point joshua, especially:

“I guess I’m saying that we can learn a lot from studying the heritage points of UBF. But we can also learn a lot by examining how UBF leaders interact with each other, with other believers, with their families, and within their communities. Will the two stories be in agreement?”

I can see there is a huge descrepency between the surface claims of the ubf system and how certain people act. And there is a difference between behavior in group settings vs. those personal, behind closed doors meetings.

I am seeking to answer this question: How could a high-IQ person like me be persuaded to give 24 years of my youth to this system? How could good, faithful, intelligent people like each of us give so much to such a flawed system?

Yes there are disconnects and contradictions all over the ubf system. Yet I believe we can connect the dots and begin to understand the contradictions. I’m not satisfied with all the short, simple answers. And I cannot just “move on”. I want detailed, explicit answers.

I believe such answers and connections can begin to be uncovered by examining the 8/12 heritage points. I believe also we must find answers in order to warn new naive students who will come to ubf and see the wonderful things we saw. Remember when ubf looked so attractive? Remember when we didn’t see any problems? But as someone wise once noted, a story that is entirely positive may in fact be filled with hidden falsehood.

I guess I’m saying that we can learn a lot from studying the heritage points of UBF. But we can also learn a lot by examining how UBF leaders interact with each other, with other believers, with their families, and within their communities. Will the two stories be in agreement?

This clip of Francis Chan is relevant:

Absolutely! Even though it was just 10-12 years, as my family was contemplating leaving, we instantly thought, “If I leave, God will surely punish me.” We were terrified. We had no strength to extricate ourselves. I literally trembled sometimes. In the end, I didn’t have enough strength to make up my mind. I just prayed, “Lord, if you want us to leave, you need to be the one to bring us out, because I am too weak to do so.” I believe that God accepted my helpless prayer of distress. He orchestrated everything so that we were basically escorted out by the Holy Spirit and into a local church that understood us well and excellently met our needs in such a vulnerable and painful time.

Also, it would be a welcome relief to have an additional person to call for exubf member support… I’ve been doing that for the last couple years. People from all over have emailed me or called me to discuss their issues in recovering from the ubf system. Often I am just echoing their thoughts when I blog here.

One answer is to just tell my story, the story of how I learned, taught and practiced these 12/8 points. I do find that the 12 points collapse nicely into the 8 points, so perhaps 8 articles is better. Plus that fits nicely with the 8 doctrines of Christianity that I recently learned, which are themselves a collapsing of about 11 or 12 doctrines (which I find highly intriguing…)

So here is an outline of the “ologies” I plan to use as a guide. I do not plan to explain these fully as an ordained pastor might do. The basics of these doctrines can be understood well enough to use a guide, I think.

So I plan to begin with questions (not answers) and reflect on those questions from a ubf point of view and from a basic Christian point of view. I don’t think anyone has ever exhausted the answers to these questions. And I find that asking the questions is better than dictating my small answers.

What is Scripture? bibliology

Who is God? theology

Who is Jesus? What will happen when Jesus returns? Christology and eschatology

Who is the Holy Spirit? pneumatology

How do we connect with the seen and unseen universe? cosmology, angelology and anthropology

What is the church? ecclesiology

What is sin? hamartiology

What is salvation? soteriology

Source: My pastor friend’s Be Armed! bible study.

Yes, ubf has no official affiliation with any historical doctrine or church. They view themselves as separate from the universal church. And they intentionally do not put doctrine into words.

However, the 12 or 8 point heritage list is about as close as we get. Would you agree that the 12/8 point heritage express the ethos of ubf ministry? Is there somewhere else I should look to in order to identify the fabric of ubf doctrine?

I was given the Westminster Catechism in 1987 by my bible teacher in ubf (Ed, who btw left the ministry some years later). He told me that is what ubf’s doctrine is. But I found that almost no one else looked to that Catechism, only him and a couple people. Really ubf needs to create their own catechism.

But of course, ubf is “too busy” to stop and do such a thing…

I find this really good advice:

1. What these UBF statements might possibly mean (potential reference: http://ubf.org/node/155)

3. If a UBF heritage point does not fit into the history of the church or biblical doctrine, put forth a more adequate replacement

Thank you for pointing out that link to the ubf website. I am reading this in more detail now, and find it to be rather shocking. Look at this paragraph for example:

“In this way God gave our ministry the specific mission of raising students as spiritual leaders. A broken shepherd heart and a burning love towards students became the spirit of our ministry. Because of this we had to see ourselves as permanent students. Those who graduated from college and got a job did not think of themselves as salary men but took pride in being shepherds of students. Whether others recognized us or not, we loved students more than the president or the chancellor or professors. We believed that we owned the campus. With this sense of mission and pride of being shepherds, we dedicated our youth and possessions to God. Especially, married women spent their time more on campus than at home, more in taking care of student sheep than their own children. Those who could not graduate from college came to our ministry and accepted campus mission. Though they were older than average students, they entered the college in order to shepherd college students. Moreover, even though the rent around the university was more expensive than other places, we wanted to live near the campus and feed student sheep with the word of God.”

This idea of being a “permanent student” captures the ethos of ubf very well. If ubf had clearly documented this and spelled out the expectations as requirements, I could have made better decisions.

The next paragraphs are revealing as well:

“Maintaining the status of a permanent college student and campus shepherd is a peculiar way of life and required constant struggle. When old people kept on coming and going through the campus, they became the objects of suspicion and investigation. Some was accused of being a kind of criminal. To make matters worse, some missionaries were even put into prison, including Dr. Joseph Chung of Chicago UBF, who was imprisoned for a few days. In spite of all these hardships, we did not abandon campus mission because it was God who gave us the specific mission of campus evangelism, and this mission became our reason to live and the purpose of our lives

God did not call us to be ordinary people who does ordinary work. Among all peoples of all nations, God called us to be shepherds for students. Our mission does not end in gathering students. God called us to be disciple-makers who raise up spiritual leaders and shepherds. May God help us to keep this spiritual heritage of God’s specific calling to us as disciple-makers among college students to the end.”

here’s an idea: if hearing lies is tiring, then beat at own game by telling more lies more convincingly:) hey i’ve got a new pastime..

isn’t it exciting…someday voices of truth will win, especially when we realize there’s alot more of ‘us’ than ‘them’ (yes fear only controls us masses until we realize we are the majority so truth will prevail)

someone said hispanic kids only got into northwestern u because of race, then i say others only got in by political favor of inordinate recommendation & collective moneys improperly used for significant advantage; but the Lord will soon Reveal it all! so hold onto your seats! HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have a right to express our narrative as we really experienced it. You are free to be snarky here if it helps (and your comments here have helped me immensely so far!)

I for one cannot just walk away from ubf and go do something else yet. I need to process what happened to me for my entire adult formative years from age 18 to 42.

And you can’t deny that despite my snarkiness, there’s a grain of truth behind my explanation of the 12 points, areas we need to be careful to avoid.

So if anyone volunteers to write one of the 12 points, I certainly welcome it! Perhaps someone out there has been a silent reader but feels strongly about one of the points in particular?

There is good, bad and ugly in all twelve points, so I appreciate all input!

But I am convinced this is a prompting of the Spirit to do this project. I think it will take this whole community to end up with a helpful outcome.

I like your line of thought, David. And your comment is exactly why I started with this introductory post. I welcome any and all advice as to how to do this. And I certainly will incorporate thoughts expressed here into my articles.

I’m not aiming for a perfect review, just an honest one, true to what I experienced the heritage being used over the 24 years of my time in ubf. And I do plan to incorporate the material from a Christian pastor who taught me the bible after leaving ubf (and the one who baptized me :). I have his final seminary project material “The 8 Doctrines of the Christian Faith”. That will be my guide as well.

1. What these UBF statements might possibly mean (potential reference: http://ubf.org/node/155)
2. If any of these fit into long-standing historical norms or statements laid down by the catholic (that is, universal) church
3. If a UBF heritage point does not fit into the history of the church or biblical doctrine, put forth a more adequate replacement

Let me try my hand at the first point: ‘Back to the Bible’. I’ve never been given a good explanation of this. I’m sure if I ask ten different chapter directors for an interpretation, I’d get ten different answers. But what everyone knows is that UBF puts such a unique spin on the Bible that a statement like ‘back to the Bible’ becomes almost nonsensical.

In my mind, what I’ve interpreted this to mean is that we should highly cherish and esteem the special revelation that is God’s word. My sentiment is perhaps akin to the stance of Sola Scriptura (note: NOT Solo Scriptura; I accept general revelation as truth as well). I’m not sure if this is what UBF meant at all with the statement ‘back to the Bible’.

Note this: “The key implication of the principle is that interpretations and applications of the Scriptures do not have the same authority as the Scriptures themselves; hence, the ecclesiastical authority is viewed as subject to correction by the Scriptures, even by an individual member of the Church.” (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura). If UBF is going to move forward, people have to regard the authority of Scripture as higher than the perceived authority of their chapter director’s interpretation of Scripture.

And for the record, I did not gain my Sola Scriptura-esque attitude from UBF; I had to supplement heavily from many, many other non-UBF sources.

However, my articles will not be snarky (hopefully) nor “bashing”. The Korean review of Korean missions inspired me to analyze the 12 point heritage. I don’t plan on making any sweeping generalizations or judgmental conclusions. I aim to honestly critique the heritage and how it has been used.

I am an expert in the ubf heritage, fully qualified to share a review since I was a ubf sheep, shepherd, fellowship leader, missionary, director, pioneer and house church leader.

I plan to use the “Ben Toh method” which I call “good, bad and ugly”. Good means keep it. Bad means modify it. Ugly means stop it.

And to the ubf readers here: Surely the 12 point heritage is able to be critiqued? Or should we all just stand around and praise the heritage as God’s best ways as if nothing is wrong with them. Should we glorify the heritage as being some new secret, better than what 2,000 years of Christian history can teach us?

Anyway, if the ubf heritage is from God, then surely I will not be able to expose any kind of flaw. And if it helps you sleep at night, just consider this yet another attack by Satan before the ISBC.

2. World mission: everyone in the world should be a part of our mission. If they aren’t, they don’t really matter.

3. Campus evangelism: we couldn’t find anyone easier to dupe.

4. Manger ministry: what should be considered strange is really how it should be done. Worship with 1 person and a teddy bear? Oh, that’s just manger ministry.

5. A spirit of giving: I give to you and you remember it for the rest of your life.

6. Spiritual order: “Oh, I didn’t see you there under my foot”

7. Lay missionaries: untrained, unqualified, unaccountable ministers

8. House churches: spiritualized word for parental neglect

9. One to one Bible study: far easier to indoctrinate, interrogate, and instill fear when there’s no one else around. Also avoids any potential witnesses.

10. Disciple-making ministry: making you a disciple of UBF. Being a disciple of Jesus is optional.

11. Daily bread: sleep-deprived people are so much easier to manipulate.

12. Testimony writing and sharing: Big Brother has telescreens, UBF has testimonies.

There you go Brian, I saved you 12 whole blogs!