Yes, the word “crisis” is used, good point. And all this crisis was BEFORE I left. I was sitting here in Detroit all by myself and didn’t hear any talk of a crisis.

I did hear some indication of problems from 7 or 8 friends who confided in me the past 8 years. But everyone else in UBF I knew just said things like “all is well” and “everything’s fine” or “we just have to get back to the Bible.” You would never have guessed there was even any problem from the way leaders around me acted.

Thank God I now know something about the crisis in India, Kiev, Mexico, Toledo, etc.

“Many are losing their identity as a royal priesthood and a holy nation.”

So, if I consider these two quotes together, they are acknowledging that there is a crisis of some sort in UBF. Even they wouldn’t use the word “crisis” lightly. It’s not a “problem” or a “difficulty”. It’s a crisis, and that’s not a small thing.

But, this crisis is apparently not going to lead to the necessary honest self-evaluation and reform. Instead, they are going to attribute the crisis to people losing their calling and mission. It’s “reform yourself first!” all over again.

Not that I’m surprised or anything.

1. The blue book I am referring to is the “2011 UBF Shepherd Missionary Seminar” collection of messages and presentations. It is entitled “spirit, ministry, vision”. Note the small “s” in spirit. This is not a typo. It is intentionally worded as “spirit” throughout the entire book. I found only a couple references to the real Spirit.

2. This book is copyrighted and only obtained by paying a subscription to UBF Press. The copyright notice in the front cover is a rather strongly worded warning that nothing can be reproduced without written permission. It does allow for “brief quotations in printed reviews”. In other words, we are only allowed to see or review this book in paper form. I see this as yet another way of controlling information. Why would any church force people to use paper in the year 2011?

3. The book is in English (thank God). But the CD is almost entirely in Korean. So I don’t understand what the speakers are presenting on the CD, except for a few English-speaking life testimonies.