Rest Unleashed – Narrative 3 of 3

raven-yenser-2013-bw-medium-300x246The last and longest narrative in my book, Rest Unleashed: The Raven Narratives, is my story. So far, my journey has begun with considering forgiveness and the gospel of Jesus. I found a tremendous amount of rest for my mind and heart through those narratives. The most rest however came from telling my life story from my perspective. I refused to do two things when telling my life story. One, I would not spin tall tales and would speak as much as possible without any mask or pretense. Two, I would not cut out my ubf experiences and would not see such experiences as purely negative. I titled this last narrative: “Resting in my life”.

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Rest Unleashed – Narrative 2 of 3

raven-yenser-2013-bw-red-300x246My journey continues by considering the gospel of Jesus. Narrative 2 expresses my seeking answers to one massive question: What is the gospel? I know the easy answers. I want a deeper understanding. If the gospel is so liberating, why do I feel so guilty all the time? That question spun through my mind day after day while at UBF.

 

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Rest Unleashed – Narrative 1 of 3

raven-yenser-2013-bw-blue-300x246Based on DavidW’s advice in his recent article, I decided to “blog my books” here. So I’ll present three articles for each of my two books over the next several weeks. Each article will mainly be a direct quote of some pages in the books. The theme of narrative 1 in my book Rest Unleashed: The Raven Narratives is forgiveness. Thus my journey begins with considering forgiveness. Enjoy.

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Book Review: Rest Unleashed

Rest_Unleashed_RavenI feel it necessary to explain my relationship with Mr. Brian Karcher and how I became a close friend of a man whom I’ve never met. My pastor frequently asks me how I know so many people within UBF when I have not attended conferences or have been introduced, and the answer is the same: the Internet. This is where my story with Brian begins. One day last September I searched the Wikipedia page for the contact information on the UBF chapter in Brazil. I found accusations of UBF being a cult. I was stunned. A quick Google search led me to Brian’s blog priestly>nation. I realized I could never read anyone’s thoughts, but all the concrete evidence- no dating, marriage by faith, etc. were visible through my roommate. In some cruel sense of irony, my roommate has led me farther from UBF than anything Brian has ever said. With regards to UBF, I decided to would wait it out. I would see if these words of Mr. Karcher proved true. But that’s a topic for another time. This is my relationship to UBF’s most infamous detractor.
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Back to School

stYesterday we sent off our second daughter to college. Wow, time flies so fast! My wife and I are so thankful there is no ubf chapter there :) To celebrate this back to school season, I have three gifts for you!

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Why UBF Should Read Brian’s Books and Know His Story Well

BrianI ended 2014 with The Secret of Happiness and I begin 2015 with my friend Brian Karcher.

Brian keeps UBF honest. Forests reviewed Brian’s first book and says, “I encourage everyone to buy and read Brian’s book. It contains much more than I have mentioned. I recently spoke to a UBF missionary from Chicago who said that Brian is good for UBF because he ‘keeps us honest.’” (Book Review: Rest Unleashed.) Continue reading →

Three Books for Free

brianjohnkarcher copyAs 2014 comes to a close, I want to share my three books with you that I published this year. Instead of retelling my story so much, it has been very helpful to point people to my books so they can understand me better. So I am offering all three books for free on Kindle, starting Saturday 12/27 and running through the end of the year. Here are some quotes that tell what each book is about. The title of each book below goes to the free Kindle link.

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This is My Life

brianjohnkarcher copy“It feels like we are just floating in space.” That’s how one of my friends who left UBF ministry with me described how she felt after leaving. I can relate to this statement very well. At UBF we were tethered to the “mother ship”. But now we had to navigate our own path. We started making life decisions on our own, with no checking against our UBF shepherds for “God’s will”. Some of us made these decisions like this for the first time, even though we are all adults. How do you find peace and contentment when your faith community just collapsed in epic fashion? Where do you go when you cannot find a local church where you feel comfortable attending? How do you begin trusting people again after being betrayed by church leadership? What do we do now? Here is what I’ve been doing: writing books. The 300 pages of three books tell the story of my life. My life has indeed become an open book.

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Blogging My Books

bAs someone suggested, I decided to blog some of the content of my two books online. Each book is about 100 pages, so I decided to just blog important sections of each book. If you are struggling as a UBF member to understand what is happening to your life or if you are an ex UBF member who is suddenly faced with post-traumatic stress symptoms after leaving UBF, I urge you to consider reading my books. There is a lot going on at UBF ministry that has nothing to do with Christianity or the bible.

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What next? Four books

goodnessfoundcoverFront-e1398512105828[Admin note: This article was modified on 10/26/2014 to remove one of the four books that became unpublished recently.]

Today our new Friend submitted a thoughtful, heartfelt and well-articulated article entitled “What next?” I want to share my response as an article instead of a comment because I have far too many emotions and thoughts racing through my veins. I am both excited and encouraged to read Friend’s thoughts. But I don’t want to go backward in my journey. I have asked myself that question thousands of times the past three years since resigning from UBF on July 4th, 2011. What do I do now? UBF shepherds promised to make my name great like Abraham, to train me to be a world-class leader, to learn how to be a Christian missionary and how to deeply study the bible. Those promises turned out to be a mirage for me. I have no idea and no authority to determine what is next for UBF ministry or people. What I can do is concern about what is next for me and my family. Here are my thoughts.

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