Dr. Ben, in a very practical sense, you’ve implemented much of what the pastor in the dream stated. Especially, I drew inspiration from what you’re doing when I crafted this statement for him:

“But by the authority given to me by the Chief Shepherd Jesus Christ, as a lowly under shepherd of His church, I am resigned to teaching you only about His Gospel, as explained by the whole of Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments, until the day I die.”

I like your comment that we are not the owner of UBF, but were given a privilege to serve God through UBF for a while.

By God’s help, we (old foggies) at West Loop have deliberately and intentionally given and entrusted our young(er) leaders the stewardship to take the initiative and leadership in the church. Our old(er) members have also intentionally and deliberately decided to support what our young(er) leaders want to do, and to not overrule them or impress upon them what we want or prefer or expect of them.

My greatest joy in such a (risky) venture is that young(er) people speak to me and old(er) leaders as though WL is their own church (and not under me!) and which they have full rights and authority and stewardship over. They do not have to live in fear of displeasing me, or try to figure out what I want or prefer or expect of them. They can truly and freely take the initiative and leadership as to what they wish to do according to the leading of the Spirit (Jn 3:8).

My “only job” literally is to only give them Jesus (Mt 1:21), and the gospel (Ac 20:24), and Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2), and the grace of God (1 Cor 15:10), over and over, which all fall in the marvelous realm of the mysteries of God (1 Cor 4:1).

What you said above says about as nicely as anyone can possibly say it (which I am clueless about how to do!), and it just about nails a core practical fundamental issue in all of UBF, which ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT (through the gospel and through the humility that follows) can change.

Paraphrasing PAL “’After 75 years, I wish (UBF) does not exist, but let Jesus and his grace continue through (UBF) ministry.’ I thought this is the kind of ministry attitude we all should love to cherish.” – See more at: http://www.ubfriends.org/2013/07/16/sophomoric-musings-my-dream/#comment-9280 May God bless UBF and UBFriends to continue to cherish this dream!

Anyway vision is important. I love these quotes about vision/execution I heard lately:

“All too often the best way to see a light at the end of the tunnel is to… go turn it on!” Peter G. Hold

“Vision without a plan is wishful thinking. Planning without a vision is slavery.” unknown

A lot of confusion and angst arises when, in UBF, young leaders think that they have just as much of a stake in the ministry as the older leaders do. Of course, this should be the case, but this is not what the older leaders think; young leaders should be exceedingly humble and should above all respect the fifty year heritage of the ministry. Only the Gospel can change such a mindset.

@aw. Thank you and I hope that my dream doesn’t dissolve into a mere pipe dream, but rather one that I am willing to continually (humbly and lovingly) fight for and most importantly submit to God in prayer on a regular basis. Hope that we can spend some quality time together in the near future.

@Brian. A Bug’s Life is now in my queue of movies to watch. Hopefully this blog is the beginning of the realization of your vision for we desperately need open communication like this.

Good point Joshua. And I must add we did that too :(

What is our UBF ministry attitude then? In your comment, I noticed phrases such as “our blessing” or “we will wholeheartedly support you” or “we are willing to let you have the freedom.” Let me put it in a different way. David and Christine Weed can serve our Lord’s ministry as they please and “we will bless them” and “support them.” I appreciate your BIG heart for David. My question to you is who are “we”? This is exactly why people criticize our UBF ministry at home and abroad. As long as we maintain this “we attitude,” people’s nightmare of UBF control freaks will continue to exist. A word related to “control freaks” is “disconnectedness.” And how many people today are crying for connectedness in UBF? They want to nurture honest deep relationships.

In “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,” Peter Scazzero also talks about connectedness a number of times. By the way, Peter Scazzero’s book was one of the text books used in one of my core classes in Gordon-Conwell Seminary. I read and wrote a book report about it, my wife Liz Lincoln read it, and recommended it to a number of close friends and they were blessed to read it.What can I say, like Joe, this book was personal redemption for me. We are not the owner of UBF ministry. We were given a privilege to serve God’s ministry in UBF. We all mutually own the ministry together, from top to bottom in UBF.

Recently, I went to Emmanuel Gospel Center’s (EGC) 75th year celebration in Boston’s South End. Someone asked a question- “What will be the shape of EGC after 75 years from this point on?” One of the leaders said: “After 75 years, I wish EGC does not exist, but let Jesus and his grace continue through EGC ministry.” I thought this is the kind of ministry attitude we all should love to cherish.
PAL

Thank God for his grace to us in Jesus Christ. Based on this grace and its power alone I am hopeful. It is actually exciting to make the visions he gave us a reality, even though it is not easy.

In this case we have to change the name UBF into some other name. This may be reality although I don’t know when.

1) Failure of weekly messages: Personal healing and common experiences are not addressed in the messages. The messages are used to highlight favoured verses in the passage that reinforce the UBF Campus Ministry heritage.

2) 1:1 Bible studies are used to cover point #1: If you have personal troubles it is expected that this is exclusively handled in a 1:1 setting. This results in possible covering up of accountability because conversations are private. Usually this is beneficial for confidentiality of students, but I will repeat that accountability gets thrown out the window. It is a student’s word against a senior leader.

3) The messages become 1 dimensional for many because the honeymoon period is over and the inductive approach can be done independently from UBF gatherings. You can predict how verses will be applied to campus mission and repentence for not managing to achieve the criteria and goal.

4) I could only dream that the messenger would be so humble. A call for unity among all Christian believers is needed. As for the senior leader who walked off. I rather envision the leadership and brass escorting the messenger out of the hall.

I want to keep my comment short – so, stopping here. Thanks again. Also, it is fantastic that another member has made a contribution for an article.

Ah but now they CANNOT do something they always did: control the information! Now all ubf people around the world can instantly know all about reforms and other happenings. I think some older poeple are afraid now, because as MarkM said once here “the jig is up.” Information can no longer be controlled in ubf as it was in the day of me and bigbear before the internet and before email.

@DavidW: Your dream reminds me of the dream I had awhile back, actually it was just the end of the Bug’s life movie. Back in 2011 I envisioned thousands of ubf people communicating to each other, realizing they are the ones with the power and authority.

Therefore, my dream isn’t for a figurehead to stand up and declare such a message, but for each individual local chapter director–who are really the engines driving the UBF crazy train–to be the ones who actually implement such a dream.

And on a serious note: I really really appreciate your understanding that the “food” of ubf is people. Thanks.

The part I liked best was this:

“We will not look to UBF heritage to define the Gospel; rather we will look to the Bible, church history and also the current work of many contemporary theologians and pastors who have exclusively focused on this issue.”