https://thedougout24.wordpress.com/2007/03/25/1-keep-refusing-to-the-see-the-face-of-jesus-in-everyone-that-we-meet/

“Anyway, yes I attended many messages, most in Korean and had to listen to it with translations. I don’t remember much …just know it all sounded so grand, like the most amazing things are happening in UBF. Now that I look back, whatever was so amazing did not quite register with my memory, – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/05/08/what-is-your-gospel/#comment-18455

The most dangerous thing ubf missionaries do (knowingly or unknowingly) is to ignore the genuine life narratives and self identity of people (i.e. what I call “identity snatching”). Because they even manipulate self narratives about events, a groupthink/memory manipulation phenomena occurs.

For example, I went through ubf message training. Often the personal application was dictated or coached to me. My life events were explained to me–how I felt, how I thought, etc. It seemed like harmless “help” at the time. But it is so very dangerous.

There is quite a bit of psychology research demonstrating that our human memories can be manipulated, and it is surprisingly easy to do. That is why Christian pastors go out of their way to respect personal narratives.

The conferences at ubf, especially that 50th Anniversary one, are almost always devoid of reality. They are a parade of group-glorification. Like you said, yellowblossom, something seemed to glorious, but you cannot identify what exactly. That is not your fault–the conference was designed to do implant those good memories so that whatever happens, you will remember “good things” about ubf.

If the 50th anniversary planners had listened to some leaders and included reality checks, such as admitting some of the real failures of ubf missionaries and shortcomings in their KOPAHN ideology, the experience would have been more genuine. And you would know exactly what was good and what was bad.

In the absence of knowing what is bad, we cannot get a genuine sense of what is good. That is the reality we live with in our human world.

Here are some very good references that everyone at ubf really must read and become familiar with.

“The researchers show that positive and negative false memories about a childhood experience can be indeed implanted and that, once implanted, they may have very real consequences in changing our behavior, and the way we think and feel about the experience. This is why the whole concept of recovering “forgotten” memories of your childhood is so fraught with danger. Memory is not like a video recorder, recording every moment of our lives in accurate detail. It is a murky, complex system that can be manipulated, as this research shows.”

How easily is your memory manipulated?

Manipulation techniques

Implanting false memories with the Lost in the Mall tecnique

Each of these links above describe the ubf culture I experienced. I can see it so very clearly now the farther away I am. Every chapter at ubf is of course a mixed bag. But all 30+ chapters I visited over the last nearly 30 years display almost all of these techniques. It is uncanny how different and yet how very similar all ubfland has come to be.

Anyway, yes I attended many messages, most in Korean and had to listen to it with translations. I don’t remember much …just know it all sounded so grand, like the most amazing things are happening in UBF. Now that I look back, whatever was so amazing did not quite register with my memory,

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/collegefootballmania/images/8/84/Terrible_Towel_6x_Super_Bowl.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20120511202024

A good retirement present for our guy?

Yellowblossom, I would love to hear your thoughts on that trip. I know that Americans were historically paraded around Korea as “prized catches”. I too went to Korea and was paraded around.

My experience was not so good. I was severely rebuked in Korea for not eating Korean food. Sorry, but I just cannot stomach such stuff. I was also taken to a romantic river by an older Korean couple. The Korean man tried to convince me that I should marry someone from Korea “by faith” one day. I sternly told him, reminding him that I was ALREADY married and ALREADY had TWO KIDS.

(Note: there are a mountain of messed up stories about Americans going to Korea. Never send your kids there to get “re-charged”…)

As long as ubf has a critical mass of leaders who think like DTTK (David Terrible Times Kim), it will be very difficult for the organization to reform itself, because reform will mean apologizing for the very things that DTTK et al. seem to love most.

After receiving that package, it was clear that I would never be able to return to ubf.

I was supposed to go to Korea for the 50th celebration, but for a many reasons I knew that I couldn’t. I’m glad that I didn’t go, because my conscience would have probably led me to walk out. Were you there when everyone stood up and pledged to carry out the UBF heritage and mission for the next 50 years? That pledge — which was called “UBF Mission Statement for the Next 50 years” — did not even include the name of Jesus. When I read it today, it looks like pure UBF-olotry. It completely ignores the fact that I am a postmodern North American Christian, and it declares that my true identity and life purpose is to bear the UBF legacy and impose UBF values on people for the next 50 years. No way! That pledge seems to have disappeared from the UBF website, but we have a copy here.

Later, I heard that there some young leaders in Korea (where “young” means under 60 years old) who were prepared to talk about how UBF could change and improve. But the top leaders removed those presentations so that the program would be an unending hymn of praise to the glories of UBF.

One of the earliest posts on this website was a guest article by John Armstrong. John was just getting to know UBF at that time. Near the end of his article, he warned UBF to stop obsessing over its own uniqueness.

The “holy nation” is to be a blessing to others. We are not to become a cul-de-sac where we talk to one another, learn from each other and stay close to each other without the input of the stranger and those who are part of God’s family from many corners of his kingdom. We must continue to humble ourselves before God and be reminded that we too can fall and fail. We must seek the mighty hand and heart of God for his renewing grace for each year, each month, even each day. A movement like UBF could well be a blessing to the nations for decades to come. Or it might well turn inward and promote its own distinctive insights over the good news of God’s grace for all, believing all the time that it was doing precisely what the Lord required.

If I have learned anything in six-plus decades of life and ministry, in many corners of the earth, I have learned that God desires us to never isolate ourselves from his people in order to faithfully follow him. He wants us to take what he has given to us, his love for our neighbors, to both our non-Christian neighbors and our neighbors who are brothers and sisters throughout the world. This begins in our own family, in our own community and in our own city. Who do you know and love that is really very different from you? Who do you associate with who stretches you beyond your comfort zone? Who do you share the vision of Christ’s kingdom with that is not exactly like you in the small things that we are all prone to turn into the big things because they are “our” unique contributions? UBF has a great future if it loves in this way. It has a limited future if it closes its borders to the whole people of God and promotes certain distinctive understandings of truth over the one who is Truth!

– See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2010/08/01/a-new-community-living-as-gods-people/#sthash.usvYfakA.dpuf

1. One to one bible study
2. Music ministry and benefit concert
3. Group bible study ( mothers of prayer, and campus student groups, men coworkers)
4. Fishing
5. Conferences 4 times a year
6. Message training, leader training

Now that reflect back on 50th anniversary, I do not even remember the messages. I just remember all the praise everyone received for all the gospel work they do. But what about the tearing down of lives in the name of mission? What about marriage by faith in the name of training? Is this Jesus? Really ?

HappyPinnky described the valid Christian ministry going on at his chapter. That is not cult thinking. But the things taught on these slides from 2010 and still taught in many ubf chapters in 2015, is cult thinking.

Check out slide 20 for the “profound” teaching that you should fall in love with your sheep.

Check out slide 7 for the minimum barrel teaching that ubf should be a bucket of water.

UBF Director Teaching – Fishing and Outreach

UBF Document collection on priestlynation.com

To be honest, I haven’t really interacted much with such, maybe because I’m no in those high positions and somewhat a recent convert. But I’ll let you know how it goes in future :)

There has been a plethora of healthy rebuke and criticism on this website. If you would follow your own advice to see the good things, you would clearly see it.

If you don’t want people to recommend leaving UBF, you should help UBF to make steps towards accountability. Accountability means admitting wrongdoings, listening to people who complain, and responding properly. We have not seen this, unfortunately.

I think that is a true point Brian.

I think especially with chapters in Korea. I can not fully say about that in USA, cause I don’t really know chapters that well. But I’ve met quite open minded leaders in Europe and CIS.

What I really hope is that our church does not merely follow dictates from above in ubf organization, which some have tried, but first of all seeks the council of Holy Spirit, who never disappoints and uses its cultural context to implement pertinent methods. So far, our chapter is led by commitee of native elders, and they seem good at that.

That is one if things, I loved while being with. Intervarsity Europe. All chapters are united in their study if Bible, evangelical doctrine, and students ministry, yet how they do it all depends on chapters. I hope that can be the case in ubf as well.

Among certain leaders of ubf I met, I met quite a diversity. I even was present when some senior leaders were attacking traditional issues of marriage, one to ones, and etc. And other defending them. So from what I understand, there seems to be somewhat I diversity even among senior leaders like for example Abraham Kim vs John Jun.
Even the Bible study with Abraham Kim was so different than of classical bible study we used to have.

As for me, I’m ready to serve God anywhere else, if he calls me. I never thought I would come back and serve in ubf, but somehow it happened. Well she what happens next and where a God leads me.

This is a great quote, HP. I think the same way. How do you interact with people who have authority over you and teach the opposite, that we are called to be a barrel of water?

We all and especially those in his chruch must see a bigger picture. That perhaps God is calling him for a greater mission and purpose.

As long as we don’t idolize ubf, we really should not have ill feeling towards those who choose to participate in different ministry and serve God in way he has called them.

We are not called to be a bucket but water that waters lawns.

A BIG opportunity just slipped through the fingers of ubf. For the past many days, someone from ubf might have given yellowblossom at least SOME shred of hope to stay. Instead, they proved every word we every wrote here in our 17,000+ comments.

This is a very eye-opening question! As far as I know, all of us here are GENTILES. Should we not read what Scripture says to Gentiles? I found I always assumed I was an Israelite, God’s chosen people. But I am not. I am grafted in only by the mercy of God!

I am reminded of Ecclesiastes 7:14, “When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.”

“I see two parallel lines which never meet each other.”

Just because two people’s opinions on something don’t agree doesn’t mean that one is true and the other is false or that never the twain shall meet. A real view of the ministry incorporates an intersection of both the good and bad elements of it. After all, isn’t the real world like this? I would also say that I’m not sure that you, personally, want to meet someone halfway or what have you, rather you want everyone to see things as you see them. This is in contrast to what Jesus did in his earthly ministry. In order to redeem true spirituality, he affirmed the good in Judaism (for he himself lived as an observant Jew) and he also critiqued the harmful aspects of it. Shouldn’t we do the same for UBF in order to make it healthier?

Did God kill Jesus?

I’m sure that you are a very much better and bigger man than calling and accusing others who are simply sharing their stories and their experiences.

Have you even read anything yellowblossom has been writing and saying??

“A healthy church I think is one that produces Christians who practice their faith in all aspects of life in a balanced manner. Thus to me a Christians who merely spend time studying bible but ignoring his family and neglecting them is not a good standard.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/05/08/what-is-your-gospel/#comment-18359

The context of Jesus’ preaching of the kingdom and good news is that of the Jewish Messiah. Interestingly, Jesus didn’t have to define clearly what the good news was that he preached. There seems to be a common understanding among the people of his time. Peter also hints at this when speaking in Acts 2 to the crowd. The focus on both are the Jewish king, as promised in David’s time, who was crucified and risen.

For one, learning more of the context of a promised Jewish king has been extremely helpful in reading through and understanding the Old Testament, unlocking the text more along the lines of Jesus’ words in John 5:39, 46, and Luke 24:45-47, that the scriptures are talking about Jesus (and not as parables and moral guides about me).

Secondly, it has helped in my reading of Scripture and understanding the gospel because I am not a Jew. The Law was not written for me. What then is my connection to the scriptures and law of the ancient Jewish people and to their promised king?

The second point has bothered me because I find it common that churches teach the Old Testament to Gentiles as if it were written fro them in the recent past, as if it came to them together with Jesus and the gospel when they believed. This kind of teaching sounds good for it espouses good living and morals and “pleasing God,” but it disconnects from other passages on the gospel and the Holy Spirit, such as 2 Corinthians 3:4-6. And so studying the Bible and treating it like a moral guide has, in my opinion, become an idol in the church and usurped the role of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Now, the gospel being that Jesus, the crucified and risen Messiah, is Lord, brings very different implications for a relationship with God and Christian living, so to speak, for the Jew and Gentile. So far, my understanding is what most have talked about here, which is to love one another. It’s not just an aim to love God, but to love each other as he has loved. The context of the Jewish king brings this obligation (?) to a/the community which goes beyond the standard “personal relationship/salvation” that is preached in evangelical churches today. It is as much as people as it is about God so that the two cannot be separated.

But as long as we understand that spiritual legacies is not equals to bible or being a christian there is nothing wrong.

Also as long as we don’t absolutist the statements and exclude any other ideas, it’s fine.

I think for example that one to one is a great things, but specific theologically informed guidelines on what it means to mentor must be established. Also I think that everyone who become a mentor must undergo specific course and be eligible to do so.

I currently don’t think I’m eligible to mentor one to one, so when I meet people I try to connect them to mature mentors or shepherds or ask them to join group bible study.

Are you suggesting we become Buddhists? Should we learn a mantra to get rid of negative energy and create good kharma?

Your words sound exactly like most words of advice and training I got from Korean ubf missionaries. You may have some good ideas, but they are not Christian ideas. I cannot accept such advice.

The Christian way is not to remove all negative energy and thoughts, but to face the facts of our situation and learn the way of reconciliation. This is painful and messy and includes facing negativity. It is a narrow way to be sure. But it is the way to life.

Our demographics have changed in years. Before it was mostly all students, but now they are just a quarter and majortity who come are young or middle aged professionals.
We also had cases where parents of members of their friends joined in.

I think where we are heading is that we campus ministry and bible study remains the main focus of our church, yet we are very open to how and in what ways it is done. Some people never go fishing but instead use alternative sources such as opening up an IT course to meet people,others design seminars on science and religion, since majors of our members are science background.

Yet others are fully engaged with children and children’s ministry.

I think what we are learning is that church has to eventually become diverse.

I partly envision that perhaps college ministry will be sort of a para church movement within our church which will attracted certain members and students.

But I firmly beleive that at the core of church should be bible study and practical application of it.

For example, when I continued to speak about obvious wrongs done by UBF people according to UBF teachings and expectations, the director of my old chapter asked me, “But do you agree with our core values?” He didn’t define them, but was trying to divert the discussion away from the wrongs to the supposed good intentions of campus mission and shepherding. Campus mission and the UBF shepherding model is not just an emphasis of UBF, but it is tightly bound with the practice, identity and values of UBF to the core–in my experience.

Social works were highly discouraged in my old chapter, at least if the participants were the college aged and older people. They should be out fishing, etc. You said, “But we don’t judge either of them.” In my old chapter there was a lot of judgment going around to those who weren’t so active for campus mission. They were accused of being “dream chasers” who wanted a large bank account and a big house (and these accusations came from those in fact had large bank accounts and big houses themselves).

In fact, one might ask if the ubf leaders even know where they are taking the organization. Corporately speaking, ubf has been in shambles for quite some time. All they know is to keep “loving God with all your heart” by doing the ubf heritage and seeking out new recruits. We rejected that lifestyle for our family in the end.

We discussed this here on ubfriends a while back. Just look for my “12 Things ubf taught me” series.

I would advise everyone to get the 50th Anniversary Blue Book and see if you agree with the direction ubf leaders are taking the organization.

JJ and his CME training is a worldwide effort to enforce the ubf core values, otherwise know as “spiritual legacy” and “spiritual heritage”.

They created a website to guard the ubf core values: http://history.ubfservice.com/heritage/heritage.htm

I just call it the 12 ubf cult manipulation and control slogans.

Many people are here confused with gospel and mission.

I think today we see two extremes.

On one hand we see a church that is devoid of deoctrine and concrete commission. Rather such church is all about social work and etc. I think this is one extreme.

On the other hand, we see a church that is so obsessed with mere Disicpleship, number and etc. To the point where everything else is ignored.

I think a sound church has a clear identity based on principle of bible such as Timothy’s and Titus.

A healthy church I think is one that produces Christians who practice their faith in all aspects of life in a balanced manner. Thus to me a Christians who merely spend time studying bible but ignoring his family and neglecting them is not a good standard.

I think as a chruch, the greatest blessing that we can give to this world is the gospel. Yet we also need to be light in all other ways such as charity and etc.

So far I see this in my church in terms of how we try to be light to the world and Christians,

1. We preach the gospel. Group bible studies, one to ones, occasionally, etc.
2. We provide social activities regardless of faith or motive in the name of Christ.
3. We set monthly contributions to the help of destitute and victims.
4. We strive to share our knowledge to other churches and learn from them also.
5. We pray and support for number of partner churches and ministries outside of ubf.
6. We strive to engage people with questions of life, where all people can come and have discussions on topics of life.
7. We support missionaries.
8. We work with local public schools and provide extracurricular activities such as showing a Christian movies and cartoons.
9. Seldomly, we used to visit elderly houses and invite buns for dinners.
10. We strive at least vision to become a community where each one is truly a brother and sister. I have noticed that I may know someone for long time yet I don’t really know him. So my goal and hopefully the goal of members is to truly know one another and spend time getting to know each other.

Again this list not meant to brag or justify, just mere observations and of course we have many flaws to work on that that I might reveal soon.

Your last point about unity of the church is very important to me. It has been the key factor in my faith in recent years.

Your last comment is thoughtful and well spoken. It represents the best of what has been proclaimed in UBF. And it is a good summary of what is proclaimed in the western evangelical tradition. I do not want to denigrate anything that you said. I believe that what you said is a good and necessary part of a robust gospel faith. And it is something like what I might have said a few years ago, on one of my better days.

One thing I noticed in your description is a heavy emphasis on your own salvation, your own life, your own character. I do not interpret those words to mean that you are self-centered or selfish. I take them to mean that your view of the gospel is rooted in a vision of personal salvation of individuals. The gospel certainly includes the message of personal salvation and a call to personal faith. But could you expand your statement to say something about what the gospel means for communities, societies, and the world (kosmos, as in John 3:16)? What role does the church play in your understanding of the gospel? Is the church just an environment to make individual disciples, or is it something more?

Thus I set into this world with a mission, a mission that does not merely extend to students and bible studies, which is one of the components but not the only one.

I have mission to live a life full of love and compassion towards others. Mission to be good steward of family, secular job, church and etc. Mission to proclaim the gospel to others. Mission to alight my mouth with my life. Mission to love all Christians and to foster unification of Christians of different churches, and denominations because Christ will was for us to be one. And lastly, imitate Christ in al things. These are my missions.

Our church strives for such unity among different Christians by having fellowship with different churches, going to their retreats, inviting them to enlighten us and etc.

1. I was in my sins and therefore separated from God. I was not able to rescue myself spiritually from condemnation to hell, and in this this life, I was bereft of enduring meaning and I was unable to overcome sins that devoured me on my own.

2. Because of Christs resurrection, I’m who I am today. I am at peace with God since I have accepted Christ’s sacrifice and testified that I am unable to make it on my own. Now I have guarantee of eternal life if I persist in believing in the gospel, which would entail living up to my faith because every living faith is followed by evidence of good works. Thus I beleive that I am saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is not alone. It is accompanied by evidence of good works. This is Norman Geisler in his book Catholics and Evangelicals Together. This is considered to be the standard reformation stance of faith vs works.

3. Christs resurrection brings not only spiritual salvation. But it brings salvation and resurection to all spheres of my life. In my fight against the sins of this world. In my relationships with others. In my thinking. In my academic and career life. In my character.
Not that gospel will make me rich and healthy, but that in everything and in all my difficult situations that I gave up in my former life, now, I have hope and I see the evidence that Holy Spirit is the one doing mighty transformations in all of them.

I also heard many times of people who left, are spoken ill of.

But I do remember that when several leaders left our ministry we actually did have special service dedicated to them and elders in our church blessed them with their consent.

With many of them who left, we remained in good terms and even until this day they visit us or even ask for ubf bible materials for their own churches.

Brian, I really did begin enjoying discussions here. I am sorry for being too blunt sometimes and saying things out of emotions. I already did that in the former blog.

I do hope that we can indeed engage in good discussions.

I think this was an excellent article that I still think about quite often.

I hope and pray your chapter is more mature than my old chapter. I hope they do not whisper about your spiritual condition, wondering if you are demon-possessed. I hope they don’t suddenly speak of you in the third person, past-tense, as if you are dead. I hope they don’t send you a weak apology letter 3 years from now.

Pastor Bryan asked me a shocking question the first time we had lunch. He asked, “Did they throw you a party?” I laughed out loud. I said, “Not exactly…”

But Pastor Bryan was not joking. He was serious. He said that a Christian church celebrates the service of leaders. A Christian church listens to what long-time leaders and members have to say. He reminded me that I owe ubf nothing. If anything, they should celebrate the 24 years of voluntary service and the thousands of dollars of offering we made.

“Tell me the truth! What is wrong in our ministry that people like you leave? ” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/05/08/what-is-your-gospel/#comment-18334

Yes, that is the million dollar question.

Now that yellowblossom is leaving, the leaders in her chapter are probably coming up with their own answers to that question and spreading them to try to minimize the damage. I have seen this too many times to count. How much better and healthier it would be for them to just listen to her words with an open mind and accept that yellowblossom’s version of the story reflects her actual experience in UBF.

When yellowblossom says, “I know that if I do not leave, I am not serving the gospel…the real gospel” this should lead them to question whether they really do know what it means to serve the gospel, istead of just assuming that they already know and quoting a few Bible verses to prove they are correct.

When yellowblossom says, “There is no sincere love among us, but many many rules and regulations that keep people in check,” this should lead them to question whether their community life is fueled by grace, love, and the work of the Holy Spirit, or whether it is driven by law, coercion, guilt-tripping and other forms of social manipulation.

When yellowblossom says, “There are broken people here who love Jesus, but cannot stand each other,” they should realize that this is the actual testimony of someone who lived among them for ten years and who really does know what she is talking about.

yellowblossom, if and when you hear people from your chapter coming up with their own versions of why you are leaving, it will be very painful. I hope and pray they won’t do this, but experience shows that they probably will. They may try very hard to rewrite the story of yellowblossom. But they cannot rewrite your story, because that story belongs to you.

Perhaps you have heard this quote by Anne Lamott:

““You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”

Thanks for sharing, Yellowblossom. This ubf missionary, I believe, is genuine and sincere. It is just sad that not only this missionary but likely countless other missionaries do not understand why countless genuine Christians like yourself finally decide to leave countless ubf chapters for another church.

The key important question is “Why don’t so many UBF missionaries understand why genuine Christians are leaving UBF after many years of being fully committed to UBF?” What might be even more baffling is “why don’t they understand even if you tell them the reason why you are leaving?” I have my answers but I’m wondering what your answers are.

At any rate, I find it hard to fathom that in ubf god works are always bible study and fishing. This, as far as I have seen is a unique view. In every other church I’ve been in its thitheing or alms giving.

For what it’s worth I once volunteered at a medical mission to send hospital supplies to the third world. i was gone all day. I say this, because when I mentioned to people in my chapter it barely registered.

I few months earlier I had been fishing. This was talked about for weeks.

I don’t get it.

From reading your comment I can see the missionaries experienced a lot pain, and I am sorry human beings had to experience this. Yes they were sincere and just tried to do what they believed was God’s calling. I hope the Holy Spirit comforts you at this time, and even so the sincere missionaries.

The verse you mentioned 1 Cor 4:15 is also very problematic, in which Paul wrote about himself as “father”. It is not problematic because I don’t like it, but because it directly contradicts what Jesus said in Mt 23:9 *and* also everything that Paul wrote in the chapter before, 1 Cor 3, if you interpret it superficially. By the way, several people reported that the UBF director in Bonn expected people to thank him in their testimonies by writing about the “birth-giving pains of the servant of God missionary Dr. P. C.” – in which he obviously used Gal 4:19 in a similar manner. That way they were conditioned to be eternally thankful to him. Isolated verses from the epistles were indeed sometimes (ab)used that way in UBF.

I suppose for many who have had enough of UBF the trinity could be re-arranged to fit SL-SB-Personal Shepherd or something like that. While the community of ubfriends could appear to UBFers like Ben-Joe-Brian – whatever any of that means…

In any case, I hope we can overcome misunderstandings.

I left my home chapter in 2009 spring after many years there. The chapter director’s wife called me aside one day as she knew I was leaving. She shared her experiences and sacrifices (She was among the first woman missionaries in Canada.) My heart was moved and I was full of emotion. But, I just stood my ground and coldly walked out. After a couple of weeks in another city with my family, my mom and others encouraged me to give the local chapter a try…I did and the rest is history. That being said, I am still tossing the coin after all that has happened, when in fact I return to my country or not. I am rather in UBF at this point on an understanding to my wife, because our chapter in Korea is actually not terrible, but does have elements of what we are all talking about.

Anyway, keep pushing forward and don’t look back. It is a hard, emotional decision to make, but try not to get drawn in to the emotional posturing of the missionaries and their sacrifices.

I too thought this was my mission. I was ready to go to another country as a missionary, to leave everyone I loved. My parents especially . Who moved here when I was a little girl, to America from a communist country to give us all a better life. And yet, I was about to leave them out of a calling that I received, not from Gid but from UBF members and their prayers. Specifically my shepherd, who I know meant well for me and loved me. Today is mother s day. Every mother s day I gave her a gift, a card, and a hug. I won’t ever be able to do that from today! It is heartbreaking after all she has done for me and all the heart she put into me. It hurts. But again, I know that if I do not leave, I am not serving the gospel…the real gospel. There is no sincere love among us, but many many rules and regulations that keep people in check. There are broken people here who love Jesus, but cannot stand each other. There are others who simply do not understand why so many growing bible students like me have left. One missionary , to whom I was as close as my own aunt, she asked me sincerely with tears in her eyes;”why is his happening? Tell me the truth! What is wrong in our ministry that people like you leave? ” she was heartbroken. I tried to explain all we said here on this site. But she couldn’t understand. And left. I kept sitting at the table with an unfinished coffee in my hands, deep sadness in my heart, but peace …overwhelming peace …because I knew for the first time I had a real honest conversation, not with a missionary, but with a human being who was sincerely asking me “why? What is wrong?”

One word: May God open all of our eyes to the truth

But I believe that there are quite a few who want to transition out of this way of thinking, but perhaps they are still in the minority.

I would like to clarify this for the benefit of MrKim. When I described the gospel I learned in UBF, he became upset with me. He implied that I didn’t know what I was talking about, that I hadn’t really learned from my teachers, or that I was lying or spinning the truth. I did not claim that this was his experience. I said it was my experience. He did not believe that it was possible for me to learn those things in UBF.

This is true, but it also very easy to use these letters to promote other agendas as well. For instance, 1 Cor 1 can be used to promote anti-intellectualism, because ya know Paul didn’t bother himself with using eloquent arguments or fancy words (never mind Acts 17, just pretend that chapter doesn’t exist). He just preached Jesus and the cross! A lot of what’s written in those letters can be misconstrued if not placed in their proper context.

And consider how these verses can be used:

“Even if you had ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” – 1 Cor 4:15-16

I don’t deny that UBF has co-opted the end of 1 Cor 15 to promote it’s unique work. I think that it upholds that soldier mentality that was indicative of the ministry for so long. Anyway, our study of 1 & 2 Cor was a bit underwhelming. That’s a book that really forces you to face the relational issues in your ministry, which as we all know is problematic for UBF.

By the way, in my 10 years of UBF we studied 1Cor15 every year, but we never studied any other chapter of 1Cor or 2Cor with many wonderful chapters which contain many things that contradict the UBF gospel. We also never studied Galatians, for the same reason. But every year we heard “stand firm” and “give yourself fully to the work of the Lord aka UBF”. And no, there was no misunderstanding involved. UBF was always the same as the work of the Lord and the work of the Lord was always the same as UBF.

If I need to summarize the gospel with one simple verse then it’s “God is love”. This is from 1 John 4 – another of those epistles we never studied in my 10 years of UBF. But maybe that would not even have helped, because words like “love” had been loaded and redefined in UBF, and we never thought about the deeper meaning of such words.

Ben, if you allow for some sarcasm and hyperbole, do you think my description is accurate? Were these the kinds of teachings and attitudes about the gospel that one of your Bible students might have picked up in your fellowship and in Chicago UBF during the late 1980s?

I’m busy with some work today, so I’m reading through the article in bits and pieces. But I like how the author points out that PSA may arise more from a notion of our sense of justice rather than out of a realization of who God is and how he regards sin as a relational matter as opposed to an objective one.

mrkim and HP are displaying too many cult manipulation techniques (which they probably are not even away of). They were conditioned just as I was. Their words are not new–that is how all the Korean ubf missionaries and other shepherds spoke to me. The goal is to get people to agree that they are right. And to convince me that they have the right to dictate my feelings, my thinking and my life.

No I cannot treat them in any nicer way. I’ll check back later but yet again neither of them have made no effort to respond to my honest questions.

Tim Keller, when explaining the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement to Oxford students, put it like this (I’m paraphrasing): if you break my lamp, I can either demand that you make restitution, or I can decide to forgive and forget–but even if I decide to forgive and forget, I will have to pay a cost. Either I do without the lamp, or I have to buy a new lamp. I bear a cost.

This is something on which Thomas Aquinas is very helpful, and absolutely clear: God did not need the Cross in order to forgive sin. God’s forgiveness of sin is simply the product of his merciful and sovereign desire to forgive sin. Period. – http://www.patheos.com/blogs/inebriateme/2014/11/thoughts-against-penal-substitutionary-atonement/

http://www.ubfriends.org/?s=sermon+wrath

Peter, have you seen this sermon that I delivered a couple of years ago? It summarizes a lot of what I believe about sin and the gospel.

http://www.ubfriends.org/?s=sermon+wrath

I am DOUBLE glad that I missed that “blessing” as well. The ubf echelon ought to be in jail. But of course they will just keep “preaching the gospel”.

“I have to disagree with you that they taught you that way. – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2015/05/08/what-is-your-gospel/#comment-18302

You have no right to dictate other people’s reality. If Joe says that is how he was taught, that’s how he was taught. In fact, that is essentially how I was taught. Everyone at ubf was taught nearly the same way.

Yes we all know 1 Corinthians 15. It was DRILLED into us by memorization every freaking Easter. Just memorize the gospel facts huh? That’s all there is to the gospel message?

Your words continue to demonstrate classic cult manipulation mrkim. You cannot dictate your reality onto everyone else.

Still, your idea of our gospel is very different from my idea and Bible teachers who taught me. M. Mark Yang is one of them. He never taught that way.

What I don’t understand you is this:
I am the one who gave how I think of the gospel but you insist that I have different concept of gospel because of your former experience. How do you say about this? Stereotype? or Prejudice?

Again, here, I gave my opinion as one individual not as the representative of some ubf people who gave you different impression of the Bible and gospel. And you mentioned the names above, I can say that if all the people have the same teaching with missionary Mark Yang, then, I have to disagree with you that they taught you that way.