“You and I can be the ones who make the same mistakes if we do not watch out” – Exactly! And I think that former ubf people are experts now in discerning such mistakes and can be very helpful to churches for they know how it should not be in Christian churches and are very sensitive about abuse.

I am not surprised that an American shepherd was being abusive – that was how he was taught within the system. We have discussed the character of people before in context with the system. People are not bad, nor are they the problem – but the system itself is flawed from the beginning. If there is a cultural influence it is Korean – sorry!

How many similarities for experience can you find between UBF social culture and the comments on this blog for teachers?
http://hagwon.reliableteacher.com/
Just look something up.

For one I love Korea, Koreans and most definately my wife and family, but I am not going to sugar coat the problems. The problem is systematic. People are objects, be they American, Russian, Korean, South African, Mexican etc…..
As long as people justify their actions in the name of one sober man trying to keep unity and peace in the church how can we have a sensible discussion about this? Abuse is abuse.

We must refer to Joe’s earlier comments on Brian’s 6th article about spiritual order. It illustrates quite well how efforts to follow world mission have been stifled by such a system. Brian’s sarcasm might bother some when he says that American’s are the worst, but this is often expressed in the dominant Korean social culture of UBF. To reinforce your point however not all Koreans are alike and many do not like UBF either.

The overall, 3 year average time spent here per session is 7 mins 2 seconds.

1 United States
2 Canada
3 Russia
4 Germany
5 Ukraine
6 Philippines
7 South Korea
8 India
9 (unknown)
10 United Kingdom
11 Australia
12 France
13 Malaysia
14 South Africa
15 Singapore
16 Japan
17 Brazil
18 Belgium
19 Indonesia
20 Hong Kong

And I thought about God’s word “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”. This word teaches that God’s house should and must be open for people from all nations so that they would come and pray there. God’s house is not for the Jews only and surely not for Koreans only. I have a question, “Can you being a member of ubf see that non-Korean people are free to come to ubf centers and pray there the way they see right before the Lord?”. My personal answer is “No way!”. Ubf is not for all nations, it is for Koreans only and for those who are not against humbly feeling themselves of an under-Korean nation.

My current church is very passionate about missions. It isn’t an especially large church (~300 people), but they support a handful of families in various places around the world. But the understanding of world mission is totally different than in UBF.

In UBF, the view I observed is that we are the last hope for the world, and if we don’t go out, no one else will. We are the elite special forces specially chosen to infiltrate the whole world and bring the dark heathen students filled with secularism and post-modernism to God.

In contrast, in my current church, they recognize that we are not well equipped to evangelize and plant churches because we are outsiders, but we can equip, encourage, and support. So rather than going to “convert the heathen” they go to strengthen the local church, build relationships, help provide training, resources, and equip the saints. They view themselves as the equippers and supporters, while UBF missionaries almost viewed themselves as the saviours for the poor lost students.

I think that the distinction makes a huge difference in the attitude of the missionary and in the environment of the mission field. In UBF, world mission was viewed as being our mission, given to us from God. In my current church, it is viewed as God’s mission, one in which we participate with all believers.

About opportunities to be sent out I do remember my chapter director and shepherd and others had desire to go to certain countries and found themselves in North America instead. By default I am a missionary (I cringe when I hear the title applied to me). I would just rather be recognized as serving God in my capacity – forget the title and place of honour.

Now, for Korean readers I am not undermining a certain aspect of world mission – BUT – I must say it: We must demonstrate equal emotional response for importance based on the spreading of God’s word. Because I have always been close to Koreans (pre-ubf), I notice how if someone mentions Korea or even North Korea or especially peaceful reunification it is met with abounding applause. Please keep it controlled!!

If there is anyone who is not even thinking about the Koreas than it is okay, even fantastic and a potential great work of God.

Do not say ‘gc’ does not understand. ‘gc’ understands better than his own wife. My wife is from the south-western coast, thus there was no remembered loss in the family because of the split. But, ‘gc’ is a remnant family from Crimea-Russia. Thanks to internet and facebook I could re-connect after one hundred years and share genealogies with cousins that I have never met face to face. My own grandfather was separated from his sister and parents because of politics (they never saw each other after that) – SO – everyone has a story that can be shared that draw upon emotions.

World mission is about Jesus’ love – not only one or just a few countries.