Fire is fire-it is always dangerous to some extent. Likewise, public messages such as church messages, are also dangerous by nature. Can the message be made useful, like a fireplace? If not, how much is the fire out of control? Can the fire be extinguished by water or do we need special chemicals or other materials? Does the fire destroy entire communities or cities?

The Karcher Sermon Danger Scale

To understand this scale, you can replace the word “fire” with “problem”. In my mind, the most revealing characteristic of a Bible message is how the messenger deals with problems. Those preachers who deal with problems well inspire us to be better people. Those preachers who mishandle problems pose varying levels danger to our souls.

Dealing with the problems of humanity is of course a noble endeavor. Many have tried. Those who succeed in addressing problems correctly become helpful guides on our spiritual journeys. Like a fire used for cooking or for warmth, calling out problems and presenting possible solutions are useful, helpful and healthy. The nature of this, like fire, is that the preacher can burn people and if the fire burns unchecked, entire communities can be destroyed.

I have come up with six characteristics that define each level of danger.

1. Definition: How clearly are the problems defined?
2. Purpose: Why are the problems being called out?
3. Scope: How widespread is the problem?
4. Research: What do other people have to say about the problem?
5. Strategy: What solutions are presented to resolve the problem?
6. Results: How can we know if the presented solution is working?

Low – The Fireplace Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: several details are clearly explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is explained and involves learning together
3. Scope: the problem is found in all of us, leaders included
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are examined
5. Strategy: viable solutions are presented that go beyond status quo
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is clearly painted

High – The Trashcan Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: some details are explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is explained briefly and requires individual repentance
3. Scope: the problem is found in some of us.
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are examined
5. Strategy: viable solutions are presented that go beyond status quo
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is clearly painted

Very High – The Grease Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: almost no details are explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is not explained and requires individual repentance
3. Scope: the problem is found in some of us
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are not examined
5. Strategy: workable but unknown solutions are presented
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is clearly painted

Severe – The Electrical Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: almost no details are explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is not explained and requires individual repentance
3. Scope: the problem is found in some of us
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are dismissed and disparaged
5. Strategy: vague solutions are presented and not explained
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is vaguely painted

Extreme – The Tanker Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: almost no details are explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is not explained and requires individual repentance
3. Scope: the problem is found in some of us
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are dismissed and disparaged
5. Strategy: harmful solutions are presented 
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is vaguely painted

Code Red – The Nuclear Fire

Characteristics:
1. Definition: almost no details are explained about the problem
2. Purpose: the purpose is not explained and requires individual repentance
3. Scope: the problem is found in some of us
4. Research: the viewpoints of other people are dismissed and disparaged
5. Strategy: harmful solutions are presented 
6. Results: the picture of how we will be better is not discussed or dismissed

The link for downloading an invitation to the ISBC is here:

http://www.solovedconference.org/information.htm#Media

Here is the invitation card text, with my notes in italics…

“The world we live in is full of hatred, conflict and strife.
–Yea..but the world is not so bad. This is meant to depress you a little so you’ll be more amazed when ubf becomes your savior.

What we all need is love, forgiveness and peace.
–really? You know what I need? I need justice and grace and truth.

“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16).
–obligatory bible text insert

John chapters 13-17 are Jesus’ last discourse with his disciples.
–yes but you won’t hear about the critical culmination of this discourse, John 17 because it is being skipped!

He shared with them the foremost desire of his heart: It was love.
–Yea and Jesus also said some words about God getting all glory and authority..oh wait ubf is skipping that part…

Jesus loved his disciples and commanded them to love one another and to create a love community in the world (Jn 13:34). So he sent them into the world with his message of love (Jn 20:21). Since then, Jesus has been transforming the world with God’s love.
–…through ubf right?

Jesus invites you to have a love relationship with God, to be a part of his love community, and to serve the world with God’s love.
–Sure, but this is about ubf inviting you to be part of the ubf community for the rest of your life.

Please join the 2013 International Bible Conference with brothers and sisters from over 90 nations in the worldwide community of love.
–uh..make that just the ubf community because outsiders are not welcome!

Let’s receive God’s love newly and renew Jesus’ vision to transform the world.
–this is code word for “Let’s re-commit to ubf ministry and work harder than lazy wicked Christians!

Let’s learn how to serve the world together with God’s love and vision.
–more code words for “let’s all be ubf missionaries”…but hey guess what? No one needs to attend the conference because you just learned everything that will be taught at the conference. There literally won’t be any new revelation. You just heard the summation of the 4 days.

Teaching loyalty to children and women, how it was done in the past:

1. SALVATION
UBF seems to teach their people that salvation and righteousness is by works and can be lost if the Shepherd is disobeyed. Eternal salvation also seems to depend on leadership approval and some are kept in constant doubt of theirs. There even seems to be the thought that no one outside of UBF is saved. How can anyone who knows the Bible believe any of this? Eph. 2:9 says “Not of works last any man should boast.” In John 10:28 Jesus said “Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

2. THE GREAT COMMISSION
UBF seems to believe that this is the highest command of God. Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to love one another. Additionally, the Great Commission also includes water baptism (Matthew 28:19), to which UBF gives little emphasis. How can you obey half of Jesus’s command and thumb your nose at the second part?

3. HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit seems to be given little emphasis and takes second place to UBF leadership commands (human dictates). This leaves no room for the leading of the Holy Spirit in one’s life. For example, Missionary appointments are by the organization and not dependent upon the call of God. How can anyone who knows the Scripture leave out the work of the third person of the Trinity in their life or the lives of their members? You might want to do some Biblical research on just what the role of the Holy Spirit is in our lives.

4. ORDINANCES
Jesus instituted the ordinances of Water Baptism and Communion (The Lord’s Supper). In fact, he commanded them. How can you just ignore Jesus’s commands and neither teach nor practice them except on rare occasion?

5. SHEPHERDING
Shepherding seems to be a fulcrum of UBF teaching. This practice is not taught in Scripture and leads to abuse and excessive leadership control. In fact, the originators of the shepherding movement (not UBF) have renounced it as a mistake and apologized for their part in it? Why would you want to be a part of an organization that is so caught up in this misguided practice?

6. TESTIMONIES
Testimonies are wonderful but what is the reason for asking people to share sins of which “they need to repent?” It is the Holy Spirit’s ministry to convict of sin, not man’s. Repentance is a personal action between ones self and God, not with an added “father confessor.” Why would you want to participant in an activity In which man attempts to usurp the Holy Spirit’s role?

7. DATING
Dating seems to be looked upon as sin and members are highly discouraged from having any romantic relationships. Why would you want to promote this since it’s not Biblical (read Song of Solomon and the book of Ruth)? Additionally, God made young men and women to be attracted to each other. Why would you want to take something beautiful that God made and condemn it?

8.ARRANGED MARRIAGES
Without getting into details, this is utter nonsense. We live in America, not some other country that still practices arranged marriages. Isaac and Rebekah’s arranged marriage was a special circumstance and has nothing to do with God’s direction for today. How could anyone support such a nonsensical practice that is far from Biblical?

9. DICTATORIAL TACTICS/ DOMINATION OF TIME
There’s a lot that could be said about how UBF uses guilt, authoritarianism and compulsion to control the lives of their members and gradually takes more and more of their time until UBF is the only thing that’s important. How can you sanction using these practices on young people that are trying to get an education and prepare for the future? Do you think God is pleased with this?

10. NEGLECT OF FAMILY DUTIES
UBF has a history of pressing their married members to the point where they neglect their children. There are documented cases of local authorities being notified of parental neglect by UBF parents. How could you be a part of an organization that would so dominate their members as to push them to such non-Christian actions? Do you think God is pleased with this?

11. INTERACTION WITH OTHER CHURCHES
The Bible teaches that His family should not isolate themselves from other Christians yet UBF tries to avoid contact and cooperation with other churches or ministries. You might ask yourself “is there something they are afraid of?” Do you really believe that UBFers are the only ones going to heaven?

12. EXIT STRATEGY
Just one question here: How could you feel good about being a part of an organization that uses threats, fear and intimidation to keep members from leaving. This isn’t exactly the approach the Bible teaches.

13. FINANCIALS
There seems to have been no supervision or control over finances in the past so members didn’t know anything about how much money the organization had or how it used it. How could anyone be expected to support an organization that is so secretive and is not accountable to the people that contribute? Again, not what the Bible teaches.

14. THE BLUE BOOK
Do you have a “blue book” from the 50th Anniversary Missionary/Shepherd Seminar in Korea? If so, are you comfortable with what it says and what’s going to be expected of you over the next 50 years?

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 3:20 whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 4:8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

1 John 4:16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Yet ubf directors deem it necessary to SKIP some of the most critical teachings that would be most helpful to their staff. Instead, they continue to emphasize that your ONLY calling is to be a bible teacher. The titles of the two 1 John lectures say it all.

“Our Fellowship” (or UBF IS GREAT)

The staff conference lectures starting tomorrow will proclaim yet again the importance of OUR FELLOWSHIP, how ubf is the BEST WAYS of eternal life coming directly from God and established eons ago as God’s ways. Probably ubf will claim that Adam had 1:1 with Eve :)

“He will Forgive us” (or FORGET THE PAST)

The staff conference lectures will also attempt to re-enforce the forgiveness of God. The focus will actually be on “forgetting” rather than “forgiving”. The idea emphasized yet again will be that God forgave ubf all their sins in the past, so we should not talk about the sins of the past any more, because they are not sins anymore. The line of thought goes like this: Any abuse or criticism against ubf should be fogotten because Jesus “paid it all” on the cross.

The real titles ought to be something like “GOD IS LIGHT” and “LET’S CONFESS OUR SINS”.

Why in the world would you study 1 John 1 and SKIP the best parts? Why would you skip verses 5, 6 and 10!?!

1 John 1 1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete. 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

That is what the upcoming ubf staff conference will be doing.

My Version of the Program

Here is what I hear from the staff conference program:

1. Since the beginning of time our UBF fellowship, which we have seen and heard with our own eyes and ears, has been God’s witness of the work of God. We want everyone to have fellowship with us and participate in God’s best ways for eternal life, which are UBF ways. Oh and by the way, notice how the Holy Spirit is not mentioned in 1 John 1:3, so see, it is proper to have a gnostic/binary view of God. Our fellowship in UBF is only with the Father and the Son. You don’t need to listen to the Holy Spirit. We are the directors of your life.
2. By doing UBF work, you will be filled with the fullness of God.
3. Even though we ignore the suffering and questions of sheep, former members and anyone who is critical of us, God will still forgive us.
4. None of that matters though. Just keep decreeing, obeying and teaching the bible as God’s marine soldiers like Ezra did.

Why do ubf shepherds continually rejoice at the fellowship table while “sheep” feel the pain of excessive manipulation and control of their lives?

Mark 7:28 “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

Why do ubf shepherds continue to encourage people to leave the ministry when they have problems or voice concerns?

Jeremiah 23:1-2 1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2 Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD.

Ezekiel 34:1-10 1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. 7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 10 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.

How can a person who claims to be a Christian pastor routinely mention urine and feces in his Sunday messages and Bible studies?

Here is an excerpt from a January 2013 “message” from a UBF “pastor”. How can a Christian have such a horrible, messed up view of people and life? Please pray for him. He needs help. And he needs to step away from any kind of ministry  or leadership.

“In a sense, this life is like electrical poles.  A dog watches electrical poles everywhere. All he sees is dried tall trees which never blossom and show no beauty or demonstrate little practical value –except he occasionally uses it for his urgent business on the street. In contrast, this dog thinks that at least he does some important work for his boss. So this perplexed dog wanders why people do not get rid of all these useless electrical poles. Of course, this dog does not know anything about the continuous flows of electricity through these poles. How much these poles enrich the lives of people in so many ways.  Here is a lesson for us! Without lifting out eyes up, we cannot see God.  All we see is the senseless and dry reality of this life.  We wonder why God does not remove all the seemingly visible obstacles in this life. But God is there. His power still flows into this world. Amazingly, God still shows enough of his miracles in different ways.  Through miracles we open our eyes and see God beyond dry and mundane life’s reality. “

Source: Slide 6 – UBF 2010 Seminar 102 – The Hardcore Contents of 1:1

Here is a slightly different look at the UBF hamster wheel.

Notice the importance of BS… :/

Source: Slide 8 – UBF Seminar 101 – Introduction to Fishing and Outreach

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 8, the last section:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 41 sets up the last section with two questions: What is the fruit of 1:1 bible study? What happens when we do 1:1 bible study?

I have a list of my answers to these questions… I’ll spare you that and just move on to the answers given in the next slide.

Slide 42

Here are the “fruits” of UBF 1:1….

• We become happier and more beautiful, truly satisfied
• We get to know Jesus
• We grow in Jesus’ image
• We grow to a global leader, to a servant for the world.

This is the UBF wishdream in a nutshell. The corollary is that if you don’t do these things, you are not happy, don’t get to know Jesus, you are not growing and are an ugly failure.

Slide 43

In case you missed it, the perceived outcome is listed in four bullet points.

“1:1 bible study is the way to help one person very personally”
(What the heck does that mean?)

“1:1 is the way to raise global leaders”
(Really? I wonder what global leaders have to say about that…)

“1:1 is God’s way to fulfill his salvation work”
(Oy, the binding of UBF to “God’s way” infuriates me!)

“1:1 is the way to double our ministry, to make Germany, Russia, USA, England, Portugal, Czech Republic a kingdom of priests and a holy nation!”
(I just knew KOPHN would get in here somewhere! Can anyone say “world domination”? How about 1:1 is the sure way to depression?)

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 7:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 33 introduces this section with a question: How should we practically do 1:1 bible study? This appears to me to be the “meat” of the presentation; what UBF really wants to get you to learn and accept, without much thinking.

Slide 34 – Practical Application

Four things are mentioned here: Observation, Interpretation, Application, In UBF: question sheets, testimony writing.

Apparently this is talking about a Bible study approach. I know that as a UBF insider. UBF 1:1 is all about studying the Bible with question sheets and then writing your testimony. In fact, such things are the essence of the UBF lifestyle. If you do this, you are highly praised. But you must do it faithfully every week, 52 weeks a year.

My questions: Is it possible to form “lasting friendships” and overcome fears and hesitation just by answering question sheets and writing a testimony? Maybe to a point. But this approach is fraught with failure. Relationships built this way become icy-cold, transactional acquaintances that almost always do not stand the test of time unless something else happens in the relationship.

Slide 35 asks us “What is important when you do 1:1 bible study?” Many things are presented in the next several slides:

• Gospel must be the central focus
• Present the whole picture
• Emphasize personal application of God’s word
• Be an example
• Lead people to God!
• 1:1 is a life time mission
• Do your very best!
• Know what your bible student believes
• Pray!!!
• Be a friend
• Share your strengths AND your weaknesses
• Don’t lost focus
• Help bible student to focus on God’s word
• Keep time, smile, eye contact, remember important dates
• Listen.

These are basically good ideas. But what are we trying to do through UBF 1:1? In my experience for 25 years, the goal is to create a “junzi man”, that is, a super-apostle type person (preferrably male) who can inherit the UBF heritage. In the end, UBF directors care almost nothing about the good ideas above, if only UBF heritage is preserved and passed on– that is the goal of 1:1.

Shouldn’t we be leading people to Jesus and making an environment for the Holy Spirit to make disciples of Jesus?

To see the UBF presentation that I am reviewing, please see part 1. This review covers section 6:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 28 – Setup Questions 

The motivation section begins with two questions: If 1:1 bible study is so good, why do we hesitate to do 1:1 bible study?  And why should we do 1:1 bible study in spite of all these obstacles?

These are loaded questions. Did we actually prove that 1:1 is so good? How do we know that people are hesitating to do 1:1? What obstacles are we facing?

Before we can process this material, these questions plant the following concepts: 1) UBF 1:1 is good  2) UBF members are hesitating  and 3) UBF 1:1 faces many obstacles.

Slide 29 – A list of obstacles

Six obstacles to 1:1 are presented. I added what I think is being planted by each of these “obstacles”:

• “I don’t want to die” (fear of death)
• “1:1 is too hard” (fear of complexity)
• “I’m too young” (fear of authority)
• “I’m too busy” (fear of failure)
• “That’s not my thing” (fear facing one’s true self)
• “I don’t want to be rude” (fear of offending people)

Slide 30 then asks, “How can we overcome all these obstacles?” I would ask, “Are these obstacles real? Should Christians be motivated by fear? Where is love for people in this? Why all the negative pushing? What about positive drawing and striving to please God?”

Slide 31 – Reasons to do 1:1

We are then presented with 5 reasons why we should want to do 1:1 and led to believe these would over come the six obstacles above. But are these 5 reasons even related to the 6 obstacles?

• Thankfulness for God’s grace
• Sense of obligation
• Understand God’s heart
• Practical obedience!!!!!!
• 1:1 -> deep and lasting friendships

These “motivators” don’t quite make sense. Are these valid drivers for Christian behavior? Is UBF 1:1 the main outcome of such reasons?

What is double ministry?

Well the idea is that each UBF member, chapter and region should “double” in size (or in “heart”) within a certain time period. If you’ve been in UBF for any length of time, you certainly heard this “prayer topic“. In experience and reality however, “double ministry” is a doomed-to-fail mechanism to enslave people in the UBF heritage. They keep trying, and keep failing, year after year, to double the ministry.

The problem is that UBF shepherds end up in a hopeless hamster wheel, falling prey at times to the “han syndrome” and ripping through thousands of young people in search of “the one” or “the two” who will remain “faithful” to the “true family of God”.

Quotes 

“we prayed to be spiritually inspired and be used for the double ministry in 2012″
2012 Asia Director’s Conference

“(2) To have double ministry by having 40 1:1s and 30 SWSA, 1 Abraham and 1 Sarah”
2012 Humber UBF prayer topics

“Double ministry in each chapter by the next Canadian SBC”
2011 Canadian National Summer Conference

“What did Jesus who had compassion on them do? “So he began teaching them many things.” (Mark 6:34b) We have a clear prayer topic to double our ministry by 2010. We should not do this with business minds. First of all, we must double our shepherd hearts and we must learn the compassionate heart of Jesus for the campus students. For this, we must know the clear reason why they are so pitiful and pray for them earnestly. Then God will surely give us burning shepherd hearts for them. With this shepherd heart, we must teach them the word of God. With burning shepherd hearts of Jesus, ubf shepherds and missionaries must prepare the life giving word of God and give them God’s word.”
TO DOUBLE THE WORK OF GOD by 2010 

The first half of this presentation tells us that UBF 1:1 is God’s way and is necessary in order to pass on the UBF legacy to future generations.

(see Hardcore 1:1 – Part 1 for the actual UBF presentation)

The second half of the presentation gives us motivation to participate in 1:1. So the entire presentations comes down to: “God said do UBF 1:1, now go do it!”

This part 2 of my review covers section 5:

5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Slide 20

The “Advantages & Potential” section begins with two questions: “What are the advantages of 1:1 bible study compared to other ways of studying or teaching the bible?” and “What potential does 1:1 bible study have?”

Slide 21

Instead of presenting any other way of bible study, the next slide immediately tells us some supposed advantages of 1:1. While there are some advantages of a one-to-one approach to bible study, those reasons are not listed in the presentation. The six advantages given are rather weak and lamely thought out. Here they are:

“You can focus to help one person.”   This can also be done in a group setting and is not unique to UBF 1:1.

“It’s a personal encounter.”   Such personal encounters can happen in a group setting. Isn’t the point of study to encounter God?

“EVERYONE can do 1:1.”   Well, not everyone can do UBF 1:1 for very long. But most people can do group study just as well. Why is EVERYONE required to do this? Are all teachers? Are all shepherds?

“You can do 1:1 with EVERYONE.”   Not sure what this means…some people are not open to such a relationship.

“You can do 1:1 EVERYWHERE.”   The last time I checked, group study can also be done in most places.

“1:1 brings the church to the people.”   This is an extremely troubling statement. It reveals to me a very skewed theological thought. Aren’t people themselves the church? What is it we are bringing to people in the case of 1:1?

Slide 22 

Now we get into some wild statements. Slide 22 changes gears without shifting and tells us: “1:1 has the potential to raise global leaders!” Six pictures are presented. Who are they? Did they go through UBF 1:1? Are they proponents of 1:1? Are they indeed global leaders? If so, were they raised through UBF 1:1?

Slide 23

Now we switch back to advantages… Not only is “raising global leaders” a potential of UBF 1:1, it is an advantage of UBF 1:1.

Slide 24 – LINEAR GROWTH!

Again, we jump back to Potential… “1:1 has the potential to double our ministry!” Ah now we get to the infamous “double ministry” line. UBF leaders always talk about double ministry, usually based on Elisha’s request to Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. Slide 24 presents a pyramid that is supposed to show linear growth of everybody raising one student: somehow 1 person raises 10, after 1 year we still have 10, then after 10 years we are supposed to have 100 bible students. Indeed, this is linear growth.

The problem? The “linear growth” model assumes 100% success. Every year, every UBF shepherd successfully raises 1 bible student, and that bible student sucessfully remains in UBF for the rest of his/her life (or in this model for 10 years).

This “linear growth” model is full of built-in failure points. First, the success rate is not 100%. Second, not every person is called by God to teach the Bible. Third, most UBF bible students leave within 1 year of study. Many leave after 10 years, so the likelihood of all 100 bible students remaining is rather low.

Zero Success Rate

How many UBF chapters have patterned this “linear growth model”? My claim is that ZERO chapters have done this. No one in UBF over the past 50 years has successfully met the goals of “linear growth”. Zero. None. Nada. It is a failed approach.

Slide 25 – EXPONENTIAL GROWTH!

UBF clearly is not satisfied with “linear growth”. They want “exponential growth”. Their ideal is not that everyone raise just 1 student, but that everyone should raise 2 students. And even 2 is a low standard– many in UBF say you must raise 12 students or even 120!

The amount of guilt, self-loathing and emotional punishment created by these concepts is astronomical.

Slide 25 claims that after 10 years UBF should not only have 100 students, but should really have 1,024… if all those shepherds just weren’t so lazy… And after just 20 years UBF should have 1,040,000 students.

Nothing Strange?

This is the classic “penny a day” problem. Ever hear of the worker who agreed to work for a penny a day in service to a king? The only request is that his pay double every day. After a couple weeks, the king’s entire treasury did not have enough money to pay him!

Such ludicrous bullshit is behind the “UBF 1:1” paradigm. It just won’t work. The math doesn’t add up. People are getting hurt. Slide 26 says it all… and I share this with tears of repentance for believing such lies:

NOTE: This article is part 1 of 5 articles and part of a series of reviews of official, public UBF teaching material. My series is here: Hardcore 1:1

The UBF title of the slideshow is:
“The Hardcore Contents of 1:1 Bible Study”

If I was going to mock UBF and make up a title for fun, my title would be:
“The Hardcore Contents of 1:1 Bible Study”

This presentation was given at an event that is highly regarded in UBF and intended to convince an entire “second generation” to pass on the UBF heritage.

Official Links

Here are the links published by UBF in Germany. Before reading my review, please watch these presentations. I’m not making this stuff up and it might be hard to believe unless you see for yourself.

http://www.slideshare.net/germanyubf/seminar-102-introduction-to-the-hardcore-contents-of-the-11-bible-study

http://www.europeubf.org/2010/07/leadership-forum-seminar-slides/

My Previous Post

I blogged about this material before, but only partially. On my link below you will find some of my screenshots of the UBF slideshows, in case the links above stop working.

http://www.priestlynation.com/archives/775

My Review

Slide 2 – Who am I? What do I do?

The person presenting this material is an older “second gen” (i.e. son of a UBF missionary). He tells us who his parents are and some personal details. This is how UBF almost always introduces themselves. It seems normal enough– and it is fairly normal. UBF “comes down” to a personal level before the orientation begins. The odd thing is that we immediately get distracted by the good qualities of the person giving the presentation.

Slide 3 – Key Verses

The presenter continues to focus our attention on himself by quoting his life key verses. While having life Bible verses is a good thing, I wonder why we need to know this in the presentation? How do these verses relate to the topic at hand? What is the topic at hand? Oh yea, I’m still wondering what “hardcore content” means…

Slide 4 – Outline

Still not sure what we are talking about here, but we now are given an outline of talking points. Here they are. This Part 1 of my review covers sections 1 through 4:

1. Introduction: Why? (slides 5 – 6)    2 slides
2. Definition (slides 8 – 9)      2 slides
3. Origin (slides 11 – 14)      4 slides
4. Importance (slides 16 – 18)     3 slides
5. Advantages & Potential (slides 20 – 26)    7 slides
6. Obstacles vs. Motivation (slides 28 – 31)     4 slides
7. Practical Application (slides 33 – 39)     7 slides
8. Conclusion: God’s hope! (slides 41 – 44)     4 slides

Observations about the Introduction section 1

Asking “why” before “what”.  Before we know “what” the presentation is really all about, we are asked “why”. Why do we have to think about 1:1 bible study and why is it relevant to us today? Well the assumption by the presenter is that the audience already knows what 1:1 bible study is. Perhaps that is true, but I think the audience might still be wondering about “hardcore content”. What does “hardcore” mean?

Only one purpose: propagate UBF. On slide 6 we get the one and only “why”: “to inherit the great legacy of UBF”. No other reason is given. We simply “have to know what 1:1 bible study is about”. This clearly reveals the heart and mind of UBF leaders. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a UBF director cares more passionately about anything besides passing on UBF heritage.

Observations about the Definition section 2

1:1 is defined as a permanent, spiritual relationship. On slide 9, UBF reveals here their all-important teaching that UBF is your “true family of God” and that your bible teacher is your “parent”.

Observations about the Origin section 3

1:1 is bound to God’s way to save the world. If you think there might be many ways to carry out Christian discipleship in various contexts and cultures, this presentation tells you that you are wrong. UBF 1:1 is “God’s way” and apparently there is no other way. In these slides, UBF ties UBF heritage to Moses, Jesus and Paul, as well most other important Bible figures.

UBF is the only result of Jesus, Bible and Church. Slide 14 says it all. What do you get when you mix Jesus, the Bible and Church together? Well according to this world-class slide, you get UBF, which is apparently the best of all worlds.

Observations about the Importance section 4

There are no alternatives to UBF 1:1.  I think, perhaps, we have hit the “hardcore” part of the presentation. In the form of questions, UBF teaches that UBF ways of 1:1 are the “best way of teaching the bible and serving God in our generation” and there are no alternatives to be seen.

Christian pragmatism 101. Not sure what slide 17 is about… but it certainly is the place where UBF would normally bash all other “hallelujah” Christians who aren’t worth anything because they aren’t part of the supremely disciplined UBF group.

More to come…

I have to stop here. I am so nauseated by these teachings that I have to stop for now. The presentation goes downhill fast from here.

An invitation to a 1 hour Bible study on campus equates to full obedience to the ideology in this Blue Book.

It was rather shocking to read the blue book lectures because it codifies some of the things former members have been saying for more than 30 years.

I’ve written extensively on the content of this Blue Book. Here are my blog posts about this book:

The UBF blue book

Oh and just make sure you ask for the $10.00 paperback version. It contains a very important lecture that was changed for the public to see online, filtering out some statements that UBF leaders believe but don’t want you to see.

NOTE: Here is my series of over 30 articles explaining this further: “50th Anniversary book” (i.e. Blue Book).

This new report from the Cologne UBF Fall Bible Conference reveals the sickening pattern of self-glorification that repeats over and over like a broken record. I’ve seen this pattern hundreds of times since 1987.

Two Agendas

The German Bible students want to build an altar of thanksgiving to God, which is good and pure. The UBF directors want to establish longterm UBF heritage loyalists, which is not so pure.

In preparation time, Eberhard Gross and Volker Keller were convinced that through this conference we should build an altar of thanksgiving to God. At the same time we wanted to raise two longtime Bible students as shepherds. But the messengers we first chose, were not ready. Some pioneering chapters had their own program and shepherds in Koeln were under pressure from studies and/or work. God used this to glorify himself among us through his word and his spirit.

Mystical Weather Observations

UBF directors continue to be mesmerized by weather patterns. They tend to see some specific blessing on UBF in the weather.

The environment was also beautiful: a house on a hilltop. And instead of streams of November rain, we had mostly dry weather with pleasant temperatures.

Isolation and Separation from The World

UBF directors continue to push the UBF lifestyle as “the best way”, prooftexting this hidden agenda with Bible verses and using guilt-tripping to push students into a life separated from friends and family. They usually draw on a source of pity as well, such as someone who “had no chance” up to now.

Pastor Abraham Lee had had no chance of preaching in a long time, but this time served the opening message on John 15:1-17. In this passage, Jesus taught his disciples their indispensable relationship with him, like the branches and the vine. This relationship needs active care. As the gardener cuts the branches, we, the disciples of Jesus, must separate ourselves sometimes from good and even better things in order to serve the best, i.e., doing what God wants us to do. Our lives will be meaningful, happy, and fruitful when we remain in Jesus.

Teaching Irresponsibility

UBF directors continue to teach that worldly vocation and study outside of UBF activity is bad. They teach that Jesus must be first always, and thus UBF activity must be first, instead of the Christian teaching that Jesus should be in the center of our lives.

Rene Richelshagen preached from all his heart. By the end of this month, he is supposed to turn in his bachelor paper. Still, he put priority on God’s word and both challenged and invited us through Jesus’ teaching.

Secret Sauce

I have become convinced that the “secret sauce” that makes UBF keep going year after year is the binding of UBF heritage to the Bible. The prized heritage activity is testimony writing based on a UBF message. In this way, the grace of God is exchanged for human work and human authority. To take the edge of strangeness off, testimony writing is always followed by some fun activity.

The message helped us to write our testimonies and to share them in our groups. In this way, the grace each one received was multiplied, and we can pray for each other from our hearts even after this conference. On the same afternoon, we also had much fun through games supporting team spirit.

Winners inside; Losers outside

UBF directors continue to teach that those outside UBF are “the lost”, binding UBF to Jesus and other religious people to the Pharisees. Yet the UBF directors refuse to see that they are the Pharisees who have no love for the lost. They continue to heap guilt onto Bible students, making them feel that they were “lost” before adopting the UBF lifestyle.

On Saturday night, Michael Pohl preached on John 10:1-18. Jesus taught about the Good Shepherd on the background of the Pharisees who had cast out of the synagogue a man born blind who had been healed by Jesus. The Good Shepherd does the very opposite: he gathers those who are lost. Jesus gathers the lost ones and makes them winners of life. He takes care of God‘s sheep because he loves them from his heart. And since he loves them selflessly, only for their own sake, he is even willing to lay down his own life for them. The lost ones – that doesn’t mean only losers, but also people who seem to lack nothing – just as Michael himself experienced.

Immoral Activity

UBF directors continue to allow immoral activity more boldly in order to “be relevant” or to “appease the second generation”. The sexual inneundos at UBF conferences are getting less and less subtle. A UBF lifestyle eventually leads to a numb conscience in which immoral or illegal activity is no longer shocking.

On the Sunday before, all the assembly of Koeln I had danced a “good shepherd style” (like “Gangnam Style”) right after worship service. God has truly given us many possibilities to express our joy of his calling and over the task entrusted to us.

(source)

“Greg Cocco then gave the evening message from chapter 3, entitled, “Continue in what you have learned”. He pointed out the fact that many don’t continue in what they learned because they are lovers of something else besides God. Many people will be like this in the last days. They will also have a form of godliness but deny its power. But Paul was a great example of one
 who continued in what he learned and lived a
godly life despite persecution. Paul reminded
 Timothy of the fact so as to encourage him.
 We can continue too when we go to the 
scriptures that make us wise for salvation. It 
is these scriptures and the godly lives of
 servants of God like Paul that have power to
bring people to God. Greg also made a
decision to continue in what he learned from 
his passionate and zealous shepherd
 missionary Philip who always emphasized 
inviting students to one to one Bible study and doing daily bread. Greg admitted that after
 getting married and now having his first son he mostly just sought out a comfortable life while largely ignoring what he’d been taught.”

And here:

“The final message was delivered by Daniel Tourn from chapter 4, “Preach the Word”. His main point was simply that we must take the calling personally to preach the Word, especially in view of the judgment to come and the appearing of Jesus’ kingdom. And we must always be prepared whether in season or out of season. Daniel could re-assess his view of life. He realized that he wasn’t living his life, especially the calling to preach, in view of Jesus’ judgment and appearing but rather in view of many excuses about why he was too tired or too busy to preach. He also realized that he wasn’t relying on the strength of God to do so. So very practically he renewed his commitment to daily bread for God’s strength and the outreach and one to one Bible teaching ministry in order to regularly preach.”

source: http://www.ubf.org/node/1359

This is perhaps the worst Romans 6 message ever: By No Means! However, this message does indeed capture the essence of UBF teaching. UBF shepherds and/or missionaries who helped this messenger apparently did not care about what the Bible actually says or what the gospel is. They certainly must have been salivating over this person’s obedience however.

My Critique

“There are millions of Christians. However not all of them are true witnesses of Jesus.”

This is the standard “we are better than they are” message.

Look at verse 2. May we read together. “Byno means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Paul strongly declares, “By no means!” “No!”, “Never – ever!”, “Nedda”, “Abadan”, “Hapana!”, “, Jeol dae An doe!” (Now, I have spoken to everyone in this conference for Paul!) Did you get it? Never to sin if you are a true Christian! Why? It is because we died to sin!

This is what I call the gospel of condemnation. It is the standard teaching of trying to obtain righteousness by your own strength to stop sinning. Just keep saying “Nedda” over and over…

Then, what is the problem of sinning again and again? Look at verses 8-9, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”  Here Paul’s point is that Jesus’ death for our sins is once and for all! IT IS DONE! In other words, if we still sin after confessing that Jesus died for our sins once for all, it means we are crucifying Jesus to the cross over and over.

I’ll overlook the author’s disregard for the text and lack of coherency obtained by disconnecting these verses from the book of Romans. The author’s point here is what I call the gospel of “get out of jail free”. Without realizing it, he is promoting freedom that has no consequences.

When he finds he does sin, now he must go back to the gospel of condemnation he presented earlier. In effect, he condemns himself and all his hearers.

Even if you say you are a born again Christian by confession, if you continue sinning, it means that you don’t have Jesus and his grace deep inside you. In fact, you are not born-again in a genuine sense!  You are not a true Christian!

Now the author proposes a huge dilemma. But is it the dilemma proposed by the author of Romans?

Then, how can we proactively overcome this Christian dilemma? Let’s read verses 12-13. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.” Here, we learn that when we came to confess that Jesus is our saviour, we became his instrument of righteousness not wickedness. Before we knew Christ, we were dead and powerless instruments. We lived under sin, gratifying the wicked desires of our flesh. However, with Jesus, we are given a new life and a new identity. We live to glorify God, devoting all our body and life to God’s gospel mission! Amen! According to Paul, the most proactive way to live for Christ is to offer every part of our body as instruments of righteousness. For us now, it means that we must live as powerful and active witnesses of Jesus!

What is this author’s solution to the sin dilemma? How does he reconcile what Apostle Paul calls the offense of the cross? The great secret is: Do UBF evangelism!

I was no different from the Nigerian robbers in my story. Born and brought up in a Christian family, I was a nominal Christian. When I joined UBF, I struggled hard to please missionaries and God by my human righteousness.

Yes, you must please the missionaries if you are to remain in UBF.

God blessed me to lead a fellowship and to feed several faithful sheep. However, I had developed the dreaded ‘triple S P syndrome’ – ‘a Serious Secret Spiritual Problem’.

Here it is, the great blessing of UBF bestowed upon a young person yet again. The author has also developed the habit of creating new language to hide his real feelings and situation, i.e. “triple S P syndrome”. What is that?!?

I had been involved in a relationship with a sister in the fellowship. Ignoring God’s call to purity, I got indulged with her in fornication. Due to a heavy burden of sin, I confessed the issue during one of our Bible conferences. I thought it would help me to overcome it. However, like a dog returning to its vomit, I went on committing the same sin again. Having misused the grace of God to live in sexual sin, I felt filthy and unworthy to continue serving as a shepherd.

Sinning in secret. That is how you must end up resolving the “gospel of condemnation” with the “gospel of get-out-of-jail-free”! You become a white-washed tomb. This person will be in this same boat after this message because he has failed to grasp the gospel of grace and peace that is Apostle Paul’s gospel. Romans 6 has the very life-giving words to set him free, but he misses the point completely! Instead of declaring the freedom of the gospel, he condemns himself. Yes he has new resolve to fight sin with his own will-power after this message. And yes he will have the new company of a UBF common life house. But he will find himself still on the hamster wheel of sin/repent/sin/repent.

Because of shame and guilt, I contemplated running away from the ministry.

Shame and guilt are actually why this person stays in UBF.

However, during our last Easter Bible Conference, God touched my heart deeply based on the book of Joel 2, “Return to me with all your heart!” I repented before God with tears and made a small decision of faith never to return to the same sin.

The binding of this person’s conscience is deep. His thoughts of God are deeply entwined with UBF. In his mind, if he returns to God, he must return to UBF.

When God gave me the chance to share this message, I felt I am not worthy for such a great privilege.

No, it was your UBF shepherd who gave you the great privilege.

But while I was meditating on the passage, I realized that the reason I continued sinning was because I had lost the fear of God.

No, you continued to sin (and will continue to sin) because you don’t know the grace of God or the work of the cross or the Holy Spirit.

Through this message, God gives me a new direction: Otieno, offer parts of your body to God as instruments of righteousness! I admit that I obeyed my own desires and justified my continued life in sin rather than fearing God and offering him my body for righteousness. Now, with a new understanding of God’s grace, I want to live a New Life in Christ! Amen.

No, UBF gives you the same direction.

Before I came to this conference, I was given a direction to join a common life near campus, since my staying alone actually created a good environment for me to fall into sin freely. I want to obey this direction fully so that I may be protected from free sin by proactive fellowship with other shepherds in the common life! Please pray for me that I may overcome my sin problem and grow to be a powerful and fruitful witness of Jesus. Pray for me also to establish a healthy and pure house church in God’s time! Amen!

Such blessing bestowed on you! (You must be so thankful to your UBF shepherd for blessing you…) Protected from sin by living together with other UBF people? You are actually building a secluded life separated from the world in disobedience to what Jesus would have you do.

And the pattern of raising up UBF drones continues…