One of the UBF heritage slogans is about self-supporting methods often called “tent-making ministry”. The 2nd generation children of UBF missionaries are starting to do this “business mission” quite well. UBF is far from The Moon Unification church’s business venture explosion, but where these businesses will take the UBF organization remains unknown. But while everyone at UBF is strongly committed to bible study, the UBF business mission continues onward.
Nest41
One famous prayer topic and goal of UBF leaders was always to “raise 100,000 UBF missionaries by the year 2041”. This seems highly unlikely, but at least a few UBF 2nd gens have woven this idea into a business venture called Nest41. Note how similar the wording for their vision and mission are to the UBF heritage.
http://www.nest41.com/en/ (German company founded by UBF 2nd gens)
Princeton Honors Review
In New Jersey UBF, business mission seems to be a big part of their ministry agenda. One of the notable ventures is a tutoring program called Princeton Honors. The telephone is that of missionaries in New Jersey UBF. The address is near the NJ UBF main building. And the business is mentioned in more than one UBF report.
Some UBF missionaries are establishing world-wide business networks, for the real purpose of obtaining visas and bringing new missionaries to various places, as this 4/9/2014 report states clearly:
“We invited 23 second generation missionaries from around the world through summer camp in Honors Review and International Summer Bible Conference. We began to build up 120 disciples common house at Rutgers in March, 2013 and moved our worship place to Princeton.”
http://www.ubf.org/content/new-jersey-ubf-annual-report
Minimax Lab
The New Jersey UBF ideas seem to have moved to California (maybe some 2nd gens relocated?) and started up a company called Minimax Lab. The product seems rather clever. And they used Kickstarter well. This may be the shiny business face of UBF in the future, paving the way for a new model of “tent-making”.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/810786260/blockey-by-minimax-lab/comments?cursor=6432899