My Concerns About The International Conference, part 2
Earlier Ben shared an article expressing his concerns for the upcoming UBF ISBC (International Summer Bible Conference) to be held in Pennsylvania. The article quickly became our #2 most-commented article ever. But I read almost no response regarding Ben’s concerns directly. For those who responded to Ben, thank you. Here is a second chance for people to comment about Ben’s concerns.
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Because God “Blessed” UBF, UBF is OK
Over the years I have heard this expressed by some UBF leaders: “Since God ‘blessed’ UBF, then UBF must be OK. For if God was not pleased with UBF, God would not have blessed UBF so abundantly over the last 50 years.” Are such statements and reasoning biblically sound?
My short answer is NO! This post addresses what I believe is bad Bible study, wrong Bible interpretation, and horrible theology. It is NOT what the Bible teaches. It is a butchering of Gen 50:10. It goes something like this: “Because good resulted from evil, therefore the evil is OK or not that bad. Since God allowed the evil to fulfill God’s good will and blessed people anyway, then the evil is acceptable.” Such a Bible teaching says that a good result justifies a bad means. I do not believe that the Bible ever teaches that the ends justifies the means. The Bible teaches clearly that evil is evil, even if good resulted from evil. (Read J.I Packer’s excellent short book: Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.)
Why John 17 is About the Mission of Jesus
My good friend Ben recently posted an article where he shared his concerns about the upcoming ubf summer bible conference (ISBC). Ben has become a friend who fits the “best friend” category. I am so grateful for his voice of reason and sound theology in the midst of the ubf crisis. Today I am compelled to explain my biggest concern for the conference: the lectures. All of Ben’s concerns are valid and deserve a response from ubf. But in my mind the root cause of those concerns is twisted theology. ubf theology has glaring holes in it. This ISBC highlights one of those holes like never before.
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Hello Malaysia, Ukraine and South Korea!
From time to time, as the technical admin here, I review our website statistics from Google Analytics. We may wonder who is reading this stuff. According to the stats, Malaysia, Ukraine and South Korea spend the most time here. Here are some more 2013 stats. Enjoy.
Brian Karcher is Bitter
Why is Brian Karcher so bitter? How could Ben and Joe forget God’s grace and start bashing UBF so shamelessly on a public website? Why can’t Chris and Vitaly stop posting inflammatory comments that build up no one and only tear down? And why are so many allowing Satan to gain a foothold in their hearts instead of doing something positive to bless the upcoming International Summer Bible Conference?
Language is a powerful thing. It shapes the way communities think and act. Questions like these, which are being whispered in the corners at UBF chapters all over the world, are not value-free. They are so fraught with hidden assumptions and judgments that merely asking them, one is (knowingly or not) defending the status quo and deflecting attention from very serious problems that affect everyone in the UBF community.
My Concerns About The International Conference
(My original title was “Why I Won’t Attend the International Conference.” But I was persuaded to change it to a “less hostile” title.) Let me state that my prayer is for God’s abundant and overflowing blessing upon our conference and that Christ is truly honored and exalted through the conference. Everything henceforth should be understood with this prayer in mind.
UBF’s glory. This is my predominant major concern: There is an undertow and impression that the unspoken purpose of UBF conferences is to show the greatness of UBF, of UBF missionaries and of senior UBF leaders, rather than to display and declare the greatness and glory of Christ. This is subtle, subjective and subjunctive. This can be denied because no one ever says, “Our UBF conference is to show how great UBF is, or how great Korean missionaries are.” But my contention is that UBF palpably glorifies UBF, UBF missionaries, and senior UBF leaders rather than God Himself. This is a very very very serious charge. So, if this is incorrect, then please correct me.
Not So With You
Recently I shared the conclusion of the study group my wife and I attended for about nine months. Today I am sharing about the beginning of the Emerging Journey study. The first lesson, and the foundation of the study, is rooted Jesus’ words “not so with you”. The “not so with you” theme was woven throughout the lessons and permeated our group discussions and writings. The big theme for me was that Christ-followers are distinctive. Yes Christianity has much in common with philosophies and religions, but there are some unmistakable marks of Christians. One of those is “not so with you”.
The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness, Part two
This is part two of Keller’s book “The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness” report. Freedom is so precious like diamond. It cannot be easily obtained. It requires leap of faith. It defies human logic, common sense and fixed ideas.According to Keller, there are several signs when we do not have true freedom of Self-Forgetfulness.
John Armstrong on Knowing When to Stop
As I read Brian’s last article, “It Must Come to an End,” I thought about the importance of knowing when to stop.
How many organizational leaders have gotten themselves and their followers into severe trouble because they failed to see their own limitations? Because they held on to their positions of authority for so long that they lost the ability to self-reflect? Because they failed to allow the next generation to take over in a timely manner? Because they imagined that they were the rightful owners of the organization and that it couldn’t survive without them?
Then, purely by chance, I happened to watch a video of a lecture by my friend John Armstrong. It was the fifth in a series of seven lectures on Spiritual Leadership that John presented to UBF leaders in the Chicago area.
It Must Come to an End
It must come to an end. If it doesn’t end, it won’t be healthy for any of us. That was the advice one of our pastors gave to a member of our cohort group as we concluded our nine-month “Emerging Journey” class. One of my new friends in this class was sad that the fellowship had to end. Nine months have flown by so quickly! As we finished our class last night, none of us wanted it to end. All night our pastor’s words bounced around in my head. He reminded us that it is unhealthy for a spiritual discipline or church program to go on and on without conclusion.
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