Sorry, there’s a typo. I meant “Youth with a Mission Museum”, not “Youth for Christ Museum.” And no, there isn’t a Youth with a Mission Museum either. Both CCC and YWAM have been flagged in the past as having some authoritarian and controlling tendencies, not to the level that UBF has been flagged, but still… Yet, they don’t have this self-congratulating culture that builds a museum as a memorial to themselves.

BTW, guess who else has a museum.

You mentioned above ““I apologize for the hurt that our ministry has caused you”

You cannot apologize for what you did not do. But you can apologize for what you just did here on my blog. Would you apologize for saying that I am doing Satan’s work? I would appreciate that kind of apology.

“I don’t think you would have spent 24 years in this ministry if everything you were experiencing was wrong.”
>> Then you have completely misunderstood me. Yes there were good things that happened in those decades. And yes my arranged marriage is still valid. But would you eat soup with even one fly in it? No, you throw out the soup. ubf heritage needs to be thrown out because it is like “Lord of the flies”. You likely were sheltered from all this as a precious second-gen.

>> Bonhoeffer describes what happened to us in ubf, and why ubf ministries collapse every few years. This goes way beyond Korean cultural issues:

“a community that cannot bear and cannot survive such disillusionment, clinging instead to its idealized image, when that should be done away with, loses at the same time the promise of a durable Christian community. Sooner or later it is bound to collapse. Every human idealized image that is brought into the Christian community is a hindrance to genuine community and must be broken up so that genuine community can survive. Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest, and sacrificial.”
(Dietrich Bonhoeffer , Life Together and Prayerbook of the Bible, Page 35

However, I do want to respond to some of your words.

“Where is a magnificent UBF center building in Korea?”
>> I have been in Seoul. I visited several ubf “center” buildings. My first reaction was that they were magnificent. Also as I indicated above, I heard (or read) Samuel Lee say the buildings were “magnificent” and then he rebuked the Korean directors for losing “manger spirit”. But as ronwad just mentioned, perhaps this was just Lee’s typical theatrics.

“I did not mean to call you Satan”
>> Well then you probably should not say what you don’t mean. I have a difficult time respecting people don’t say what they mean and mean what they say.

“I spent my 27 years in UBF growing up in this ministry and I have not experienced an abusive leader.” …”Yes, my parents had sacrified our family for the ministry,”

>> You are a Korean second gen obviously. Do you realize how good you have things in ubf? Do you realize the blood and sweat and tears of Amiercans, Germans, Russians, Mexcians, Chinese, etc. that were shed for you to have such a good life in ubf? ubf was built on our backs and then we were discarded as if we were dung. Your Korean parents and Korean missionaries in ubf have NO intention of passing on the ubf heritage to any “native” leader. The ubf ministry belongs only to Koreans and to Korean second gens. The 50th Anniversary Blue Book says that, so did the Lee memorial service lecture this year, and so did the new ubf history dedication announcement.

>> Do you care about what happened in Toledo ubf? What about India ubf? What about Detroit ubf? What about Kiev ubf? What about Taiwan ubf? What about Kentucky ubf? What about Yekaterinburg ubf? You have things so good, but do you care that ubf offering dropped almost 30% from 2008 to 2012? Do you care that ubf attendance dropped by 17% from 2008 to 2012? Or do you think I’m just lying? Or maybe my blogs caused all of this because I’m so evil?

I think you are probably correct: “This was likely theatrics on Lee’s part”.

Does anyone see a Luther museum as a glorification of Lutheranism? No.

Does anyone see the graves of early foreign missionaries in Korea as someone’s attempt at self-glorification? No.

Is the Crystal Cathedral obscenely self-glorifying. Yes! There’s nothing uglier to me than self-glorification by alleged Christians.

A UBF Museum!? That’s not self-glorification? Of course it is. And it’s self-glorification by an organization that has a long history of elitist triumphalism and self-glorification. Where’s the Intervarsity Museum? Where’s the Campus Crusade Museum? Where’s the Youth for Christ Museum? Congratulations, UBF leaders! You’ve “pioneered” another frontier that those other second-rate campus ministries dared not venture into.

Is this how UBF members justify the yearly memorial services at Lee’s grave? By making comparisons to the Lincoln Memorial? GTFO.

BTW, the assertion that UBF centers are just simple buildings with tables, chairs, instruments and stuff is misleading. Property is not cheap, and UBF owns $millions in property all over the world.

This was likely theatrics on Lee’s part. A ubfhistoryx post might shed some light on these types of theatrics on his part:

“This July 1998 event was the UBF “world mission report” during which S. Lee supposedly rebuked the Korean UBF leaders for having too extravagant a celebration of UBF. He was apparently so upset at having such an extravagant celebration that he felt the need to have the empty seats excised from the official photo.”

I’m getting used to ubfers calling me “Satan”. Your concern is duly noted.

Speaking of truth, you mention something above that is true indeed: “To me it seems you are using a lot of it to avoid people to come to UBF.”

That is correct. I hope everyone avoids ubf. I hope ubf leaders will stand up against the abusive, cultic ways built into the ubf 12 point heritage system. I hope no more young adults in college get entangled by the false ubf ideologies. I hope no more young people get enslaved to ubf Korean masters. I hope no one else in ubf will sacrifce their families. I hope no one ever ends up in the Ohio river homeless like my friend Andrew (former Kentucky ubf director).

I am a true insider into ubf, spending 24 years there unti my wife and I closed the Detroit ubf chapter.

“Where is the $13 million ubf stash going?” The question to plant mistrust. “It is going to South Korea for magnificent “center” buildings and now a museum.” And here comes the lie. There are no “castle” centers of UBF in Korea, unless you call buildings with bible study tables, chairs, projector and probably instruments a castle.

Yes, UBF took 2nd. Gens to tombs. But it is not ancestor worshipping nor idol worshipping nor communism. That is a lie and wrong accuse. It is to teach and remember about the life of missionaries who came to Korea like Henry Appenzeller, Homer Hulbert, Horace Grant Underwood and many others. To raise concern is okay, but pls. don’t spread half truth or lies, as if that is a fact and the truth.

Thank you for making several of my points for me.

Grace and peace.

I’m not so sure about this:
“I’m sure Samuel Lee is rolling over in his expensive grave at this latest lavish display of self-glorification by UBF leaders…rolling over in delight.”

Before he died in a fire in 2002, Lee made an announcement (in a lecture maybe? or yearly letter?) where he indicated how upset he was with what Korea ubf was doing with the lavish “bible center” buildings. I remember he rebuked one specific chapter in Korea (can’t recall which one) because they were not keeping “manger ministry”.

But you do make a valid point, Lee certainly would have loved the praise and self-glorification.

I’m sure Samuel Lee is rolling over in his expensive grave at this latest lavish display of self-glorification by UBF leaders…rolling over in delight.

1 Samuel 15:1-35

15 And Samuel said to Saul, “The Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. 2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. 3 Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction[a] all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

4 So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. 5 And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. 6 Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. 7 And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves[b] and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction.

10 The word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret[c] that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.” And Samuel was angry, and he cried to the Lord all night. 12 And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, “Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal.” 13 And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, “Blessed be you to the Lord. I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” 14 And Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear?” 15 Saul said, “They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, and the rest we have devoted to destruction.” 16 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night.” And he said to him, “Speak.”

17 And Samuel said, “Though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. 18 And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, ‘Go, devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ 19 Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord?” 20 And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. 21 But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.” 22 And Samuel said,

“Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to listen than the fat of rams.
23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination,
and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,
he has also rejected you from being king.”
24 Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice. 25 Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may bow before the Lord.” 26 And Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you. For you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe, and it tore. 28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours, who is better than you. 29 And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” 30 Then he said, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may bow before the Lord your God.” 31 So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord.

32 Then Samuel said, “Bring here to me Agag the king of the Amalekites.” And Agag came to him cheerfully.[d] Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.” 33 And Samuel said, “As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women.” And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

34 Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.