UBF History and Legacy by Charles Kim


lecture

UBF History and Legacy

Key verse Matt 14:16
Jesus replied, "They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat."

Introduction

I thank God for the opportunity to share the UBF history and legacy during your 30th anniversary. I am not born to be a shepherd, nor a missionary. I thank God for those who loved me, prayed for me and guided me to be who I am. In 2013 Abraham Kim, then the general director, appointed me to be the chair for the History Committee. I have developed a dedicated web site. I have advocated every church - after 30 years old - to review the past and have celebration. Your pastor Mark Yoon decided to do so. Then he asked me to give a lecture on the UBF history and legacy. My lecture has four topics: (1) My tribute to the founders, (2) History of the Christian church, (3) History of the UBF church and (4) Spiritual legacy of UBF.

1. My tribute to the founders

Knowing founders is one way to understand history. I would like to share my personal experiences with the two founders of UBF: Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry.

Samuel Lee introduced me his youngest daughter Little-Sarah in 1983. We were married in 1987. We have three children. I have so many stories to tell. Let me share two episodes. (1) When I was a freshman in the college I was late for a prayer meeting. I sat in the back. I missed a sandwich prepared before the meeting. I was tired and hungry. At the same time I felt guilty of being late. Samuel Lee came to me and I trembled. He asked me if I had eaten a sandwich. I was speechless. Then he brought a sandwich to me and encouraged me to eat. It was so delicious. It happened in 1975. I still remember it after 4 decades. (2) During the engagement with his daughter Samuel Lee trained me to be romantic. I was a nerd. He guided me to date his daughter. For example, he gave me $20.00 dollars after the Sunday service and encouraged me to take her out to a dinner. I was interested in food, but not in building a relation with her. I just wanted to get married. So my progress on building a love relation with her was slow. One day he told me, “You cannot eat an apple unless it is ripe.” At that time I did know why he said so. Now I know. My fiancée was frustrated and complained to her father. He defended me. [He has no experience in romance with other women. That is good. He is pure.] He believed in me and encouraged her to get married. It is only by God’s grace that she is my wife.

Sarah Barry became the general director after Samuel Lee passed away in Jan 8, 2002. At that time I appointed prayer servants for the worship service. I prepared prayer topics for them. Samuel Lee had asked me to read his letters and find prayer topics. He passed away and I needed a new direction. So I went to Sarah Barry, who welcomed me. I expected a couple of meetings to find the direction. On the contrary she set aside every Saturday evening for me. The primary goal was to find prayer topics from her. She used the meeting to have a personal conversation with me. She shared important decisions with me, how and why she did. She shared her struggles as well. This continued till she passed her leadership to John Jun. I have never had such a long-term commitment from any general director after her. In those days I thought that I was mature enough to communicate with Sarah Barry. Later on I realized that she was my shepherd. She leveled herself with me so that she could carry conversation and give me spiritual advice along the way as needed, not in an obvious way, but still like a rod wrapped in a cotton. The most important lesson was to pray in a difficult time.

2. History of the Christian church

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The church is not a building. The church is a community of believers. The church started when 120 disciples of Jesus gathered in the Mark’s upper room after Jesus ascended into heaven in AD 33. The church grew. The church was literally a house church at the beginning. Christians gathered at one’s house, read the Bible, shared testimonies and worshiped God. The church became a state church in AD 313 when the emperor Constantine declared the Edict of Milan. It caused massive growth. Only Christianity was the legitimate religion in the Roman Empire. Unfortunately it created enormous hierarchy with the pope at the top. Luckily all the churches were under one organization. The churches were divided in AD 1054 into two organizations: the Roman Catholic and Orthodox. Despite the division the church enjoyed prosperity. The church reached its glory around AD 1200. Every baby was born into a Christian family. People enjoyed peace and unity under God.

Sadly, corruption permeated into the church. Church leaders were only interested in maintaining the organization. They harshly treated or even executed many dissidents or Christian humanists in the name of heresy. Martin Luther launched the reformation in 1517. He founded Protestantism. He encouraged everyone to read the Bible, become a priest and teach the Bible. Unfortunately the church fragmented. Thousands of denominations spun out. One of them is the Presbyterian Church. The UBF church is rooted in the Presbyterian Church in that the two founders are from the Presbyterian Church. But our church does not belong to this denomination, but is a free church.

3. History of the UBF church

During 2018 ISBC I watched the video of the UBF history. The video condenses the last 60 years to 15 minutes. I have divided the video into seven topics. The numbers refer to the minute and second.

Please find the video from the collection of videos and watch it.

Let me recap the main story. Korea was devastated due to the war, which ended in 1953. God sent Sarah Barry to Korea in 1955. Students were in deep despair due to social injustice. God called Sarah Barry and Samuel Lee to be together in 1961 to share the gospel with the students. The campus ministry started from Gwangju, Korea. It spread to the nation by 1977. The founders moved the headquarters to Chicago, USA in 1977. It was a milestone for globalization. By 2000 our churches were planted in a hundred countries. Our church grew exponentially in short time. At the same time our church suffered from a great division in 2000. We moved on. Now we face new challenges: raising next generation leaders.

4. Spiritual legacy of UBF

Legacy is synonymous with heritage or tradition. The legacy is the byproduct of the history of any organization such as a country, a community and a denomination. Some practices disappear over time and other practices survive. Those that have survived and endured the test of the time become the legacy. Let me give an example. When church fathers made the Bible they debated whether to include the Old Testament or not. The God of the Old Testament meant the God of the Jews and the God of the Muslims. After much debate they included the Old Testament as part of the Bible. They accepted the God of the Old Testament as their God. On the other hand they dropped some practices in the Old Testament. For example, circumcision was the mark of being the child of God. The Jews practiced it for thousands of years. They still practice it to this date. The church, however, viewed it unnecessary. Animal sacrifice for atonement is another example.

Our church is not an exception. We have our own legacy. We should understand and practice them properly. What about the house church? Our missionaries started their ministry in their house. As members increased they rented or bought a bigger building and used it as a place of worship and Bible study. Literally it is no longer a house church. What about campus evangelism? We have kept it although the demography of age in our church changed. The age spans from a baby to grandma. Nonetheless we give our hearts and efforts to evangelize students on campus and raise them as Jesus’ disciples. For example Sarah Barry is over 90 years old. She needs a wheel chair to attend the service. Yet she has heart for college students and pray for them. She supports those who are dedicated to the campus ministry.

Our first legacy “back to the Bible” has a deep root. It is the legacy of the church. Let’s explore its meaning in light of the church history. After Jesus ascended into heaven the church grew leaps and bounds. The early church did mainly two things: explaining the gospel to pagans and clarifying the difference between orthodox and heresy. Over the first millennium the church established the doctrine of the Trinity: God the Father, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit are one God in three divine persons. So when we worship Jesus, we worship the Father. In essence we worship one God. This is in line with the first of the Ten Commandments. The church defined what Christians believed, the Apostle’s creed. I cannot overemphasize its importance. It is the heritage we cherish. The church defined what the Bible was. Many monks manually copied the entire Bible, the codex. It took years, but they did so out of their love for God and his word. Their zeal spread the Bible to the whole world.

At the time of the religious reformation, “back to the Bible” had special meanings. Martin Luther put the authority of the Bible above that of the pope. At the time the Pope had the title Vicarius Christi, meaning the substitute of Jesus on earth. When Martin Luther nailed 95 theses, the Pope excommunicated Luther, which implied the condemnation to death. Anyone could kill Luther, yet would be free of charge. Some nobles were eager to kill him as their service to God. When Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms in 1521, everyone including the leading scholars of the Bible requested him to recant. Luther defied, “I cannot recant unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures ...” He risked his life to put the authority of the Bible above that of the Pope. He brought forth the grace of Jesus as written in the Bible. At the time many a believer was not sure of their salvation and was terrorized at the thought of hell. The church used this fear to maintain organization. The church sold the Indulgence to build cathedrals. Luther defied it. He proclaimed Sola fide, Justification by faith alone. He held on to this and freed all under the spell of the hell.

What does it mean to us? Our two founders set a good example. Sarah Barry was interested in sharing the gospel with her friends when she was in college. She tried various activities to attract students and lead them to Christ. Her passion for college ministry continued after the graduation. After many years she grasped the importance of inductive Bible study. She observed that students did not remain in Jesus unless they were taught and convinced by the word of God. They would not grow as a disciple of Jesus. They would stay for a while due to certain activities, but they would not make a long term commitment as Jesus’ disciple. So she was determined to explore inductive Bible study and implement it in her ministry. She adopted this when she started college ministry in Gwangju, Korea.

Samuel Lee majored in philosophy before he went to the seminary. (1) He invited students to study the Bible. He taught them with his knowledge of philosophy. Gradually he changed his attitude toward the Bible study. He planted the word of God so that students might have faith and obey the word of God. For example, whenever he finished teaching one book of the gospel, he found the world mission command. So he encouraged the students to obey the world mission command. Some combined it with faith and went out as a lay missionary. (2) He delivered Sunday messages based on Bible passage. Even after delivering the message, he meditated the passage and revised it if he realized that his message did not reflect the passage. (3) He started Daily Bread. He helped his members to meditate and eat the word of God every day. He prayed that they read and know the entire Bible in three to four years through the Daily Bread. (4) He believed what he delivered. He practiced what he taught.

Our church still practices the legacy: back to the Bible. Let me share a couple of examples. (1) Sunday messenger chooses a passage from the Bible, meditates it, and writes a message. He struggles to be faithful to the passage and makes every effort to relate its meaning to the audience. He often chooses a book from the Bible and follows it from the beginning to the end. (2) When a shepherd raises a disciple of Jesus, he uses the Bible as the main tool. He teaches the Bible one on one and guide them with the word of God. (3) Sarah Barry and Mark Yang wrote a book entitled “Back to the Gospel.” This is based on 1 Corinthians. They wrote it when they grappled with all kinds of problems we faced. They searched and found a solution from the Bible. (4) Some wrote an essay to explore its meaning. This web site posts the essays on this legacy. I myself wrote a book on this. Although we practice this, we should not be complacent. We should understand its spirit, make the best of it and further develop it.

Conclusion

Our church started in 1961. In two years, she will enjoy the 60th anniversary. Your church started in 1989. We are here to celebrate your 30th anniversary. Compared to the Catholic Church with 2000 years of history, our church is still in its infancy. It continues to grow and adjust itself as needed. Yet, compared to a person’s life, UBF as a whole started as a baby, faced adolescence, passed adulthood and reached a mature age. Our founders and their disciples played their role. Jackie and Mark Yoon founded the church in Nairobi. Now it is your turn to lead and shape the church.

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