Your comment about the soooo I found very amusing. It gave me a chuckle. :-). I know elsewhere it has been discussed about Americans speaking Kanglish. I have to say I was notorious for doing so. For the most part I’ve gotten rid of it. I remember my wife telling me on numerous occasions to stop doing it, but it was ingrained; my wife is from Japan and even she found it wierd. The funny thing is that no one deliberately told me to speak that way, I just did it. I don’t know where it came from. I mean I know, but I don’t know; if you know what I mean. :-D

But in regard to babies at conferences, I don’t like that either. Should ubf go back to abandoning children at babysitters to attend such conferences? No way, that is hardly what I am suggesting.

The deeper question is this: why do parents feel so compelled to bring young babies to such events? Is there any benefit for babies or mothers or parenting? No. It would be better to just stay home or perhaps attend a proper parenting conference. Why the guilt-trip? Why couldn’t mothers of young babies stay home and watch the live feeds? Why must they attend?

Why not let the families be free and not compelled to attend? This conference had next to nothing for such “family-centered” people. And didn’t the onsite babysitting service mimic the old way of separating mothers? Does the way this was handled at the ISBC teach anything positive about being a responsible parent?

This all goes back to the strange website announcement where families were told not to go through family registration.

But of course maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the mothers didn’t feel abandoned by their husbands who were off doing ubf stuff. Maybe the ISBC had wonderful family-centered children’s programs and amazing child-care and now ubf is fully supporting family-centered ministries. I wish more mothers would share and comment.

Would that person prefer we go back to the good ol’ days of forcing 3-month-old infants to separate from their nursing mother all of a sudden, resulting in a 24hr+ fast for the infant followed by an emergency drive of the babysitter to the conference place on the advice of a doctor, followed by many weeks of the mother being chastised for being “family centered” by nursing the infant during the conference? Is that scenario much happier for this person?

You mentioned: “There was obviously a lack of young Americans who are converts to the faith. There were middle aged missionaries and shepherds and second generation children and missionary kids. Some people may say, “Well that is because people are not ‘feeding sheep’” or “That is because America is not sending out missionaries.” But it could be more than that. We need to discover why and respond in the right way.”

There is no need to form a committee and spend 5 years studying why. Just do a 3 second internet search for “ubf cult”. Or read through and listen to the nearly 10,000 comments on this blog and 325 articles. Many of our articles summarize the problems very well. Do that and it is so very easy to see why there was a lack of young Americans there.

The same thing has been happeneing in ubf chapters around the world for several years. The 3rd reform movement, in 2001 or so, was a wake-up call for ubf directors. They ddin’t wake up. Now they are reaping the fruit of the past decade.

The problem is not the “lazy sheep” but the “controlling shepherds” who are driving the sheep away. The prophets had some amazing words for such shepherds, and I believe we are seeing the truth of those words coming true.

Will there be a senior ubf leader who listens to the cries of Jeremiah and Ezekiel?

This is evidence that the bad and ugly can and should be dug out of ubf. One of the worst bible teachings I heard taught from ubf directors was from Matthew 13:28-30. Many ubf directors can see some of the problems. But instead of working to correct the problems, they despair over Matthew 13:28-30, thinking they have to leave the “weeds” for the sake of the “wheat”. This is an utterly false teaching and has nothing to do with what Jesus was teaching there. Those who think a bad leader cannot be removed from office or that ugly practices can’t be changed based on these verses need to read all 58 verses of that chapter (and apply a little lateral thinking :)

Those in ubf who have been indwelled with the Holy Spirit need to stand up and start pulling weeds. Otherwise the wheat will be choked to death.

Ill start with the things that i believe need change. I must say that I was quite disappointed with the depth of the messages. I am not moved by overly rehearsed and trained messangers. In my opinion, It loses authenticity, and blocks the Holy Spirit from speaking through the messenger. We definitely need to get rid of the rehearsed voice ” H–e–l–l-o my name is…. and i am from…”. It is old and quite annoying. The testimonies also followed the usual pattern. Although there were a few testimonies that were authentic and there was a freedom for the spirit to move.

But I did see and experienced the Holy Spirit move in many other ways, that i havent before. The worship was awesome!!!

There was dialogue…open, honest dialogue among many people. The discussion group I attended was based on the book: Emotional Healthy Spirituality. Unfortunately one of the main leaders could not be there, but JR filled in and the Spirit worked. I believe that both leaders were genuine and JR shared his life story in a very honest and transparent way. Some of his experience brought me to tears because it reminded me of my own in many ways, and i am sure anyone who has been under the ubf system could feel the pain and relate to him.

I am glad they invited several outside guests. One of the speakers was amazing, and my spirit was just so moved by her life story.

I was thankful for all the open and transparent conversations i had. I believe I spoke the truth, and some people still have a difficult time hearing it, but i hope to do it in love and not in a loud and destructive way, like i have in the past. So the Holy Spirit was and is working in people. He is working in my own heart, He was moving at the conference. Perhaps its more of an inside out effect.

A few people came up to me and mentioned they read my posts on ubfriends. So thats a good sign that people are reading these posts and the Spirit is working through this blog.

if longterm religious don’t get it, either they can’t see the light or won’t;
if can’t, i pray they may; if won’t, i pray they repent before the Holy Spirit moves them away from the body of Christ for the health of the body

As someone who was a short-term missionary in ubf, I can say they do allow the Holy Spirit to flourish during such trips (at least for me). It was the first time I was free from the ubf bondage! I loved those 3 months in Russia! I was infused with the Holy Spirit and indwelled in an amazing way during those months in Russia.

The problem is when you come back. All that Holy Spirit energy? It is harnassed to power the ubf engine. It is sapped and drained out of you until you forget there even is a Holy Spirit. Your mind goes numb after sitting through all the meetings when you know so well how the ministry could be if you were free. In short, you return to the shackles of the ubf heritage. The Holy Spirit is not only grieved, but quenched and insulted.

It is all setup like Monsters Inc. where they harnessed the children’s energy to power the city.

I love the fact that the last 2 paragraphs are stated. I hate the fact that the last 2 paragraphs are true.

I also agree with Ben. I like the last two paragraphs :).