Frequently Asked Questions (Extended)

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About this page

The main UBF FAQ at /about/faq answers the most common introductory questions: who we are, what we believe, how a Bible study works, where our chapters are. This extended FAQ goes further. It addresses questions that come up about UBF's history, leadership, marriage practice, campus outreach, family relationships, and how UBF has engaged with critical writing about us over the past several decades.

We have written this page in the tone we try to use in pastoral conversation: direct, specific where we can be, and honest about concerns that carry real weight. Where critical perspectives exist — and on some of these topics they do — we engage them rather than ignore them. Where we have made mistakes, we acknowledge them plainly; where a concern reflects a particular period, source, or individual experience, we note that context. Our aim is to present the relevant facts and let you weigh the evidence for yourself.

Historical context (read this first)

UBF was founded in 1961 in Gwangju, Korea by Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry. Its first generation operated inside the cultural assumptions of mid-20th-century Korean Christianity, which were hierarchical, vocationally intense, and strongly mission-oriented. As UBF chapters opened outside Korea — in North America from the 1970s, in Europe and Latin America from the 1980s, in Africa and the CIS region later — the Korean cultural style did not always translate. Some chapters in the 1980s and 1990s operated in ways that were experienced by members as overly directive, particularly around marriage discernment, outreach intensity, and the place of family relationships.

UBF as a global organization has changed in the intervening decades. We are not the same organization that we were in 1991. Our governance, our chapter-level pastoral practice, and our self-understanding have all evolved. We are an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) since 2007. We continue to hold a standard evangelical 12-point Statement of Faith. We operate in roughly 96 countries with approximately 90 chapters today.

Several of the questions below concern events from our earlier years, and we answer them directly rather than leave them out.

Q1. Is UBF a legitimate, mainstream Christian church?

Background. Since the late 1980s, some Christian discernment organizations and some former members have characterized UBF as authoritarian, "high-demand", or spiritually unhealthy. Other observers — including the sociologist Rebecca Y. Kim (Pepperdine University, The Spirit Moves West: Korean Missionaries in America, Oxford University Press, 2015) and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability — have evaluated UBF as a legitimate evangelical organization.

UBF's response. We hold a 12-point Statement of Faith consistent with classical evangelical theology: the Trinity, the authority and inspiration of Scripture, Christ's substitutionary atonement, salvation by grace through faith, the work of the Holy Spirit, and Christ's future return. The full Statement is at ubf.org/about/statement-of-faith.

We are an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA), which requires annual financial and governance review for continued membership. We have been an ECFA member in good standing since October 2007.

We have been characterized by some former members as "high-demand" or "rigid," particularly regarding our practices in the 1980s and 1990s. While the early-generation Korean cultural style produced hierarchical patterns in some chapters, we have since the 1980s worked to translate our mission into leadership structures suited to each culture, and our chapter-level practices today reflect that work. Our commitment to one-to-one Bible study and discipleship has remained constant throughout.

An outside assessment. A. Scott Moreau — professor of missions and intercultural studies at Wheaton College Graduate School and editor of Evangelical Missions Quarterly — came to know UBF through years of personal contact and assessed it as "conservative evangelical in doctrine." He observed that UBF's Korean-rooted leadership structure can appear "overly hierarchical" to those unfamiliar with Korean culture, but concluded that within its own context it "demonstrates commitment, discipline, and integrity."

Further reading.

  • ECFA accreditation profile: ecfa.org
  • Rebecca Y. Kim, The Spirit Moves West (Oxford University Press, 2015)
  • UBF endorsements, including Prof. A. Scott Moreau's assessment: ubf.org/about/endorsements

Q2. Does UBF arrange marriages? What is "marriage by faith"?

Background. UBF practices what it calls "marriage by faith" — a discernment process in which members consider marriage prayerfully, often with the counsel of senior chapter leaders ("shepherds"). In some chapters and earlier periods, leaders' input into a marriage decision was more directive than it is now. Critics have described this as arranged marriage; UBF describes it as Christian premarital discernment within community.

UBF's response. We do practice marriage by faith, and at its heart it is straightforward: the marriage is the free choice of the two people involved. We do not assign partners. Shepherds pray with a couple and offer counsel, as they would in any major life decision, but the decision itself is the couple's own.

In the earlier generation, particularly in Korean immigrant chapters where elders' role in marriage was strong, that counsel was at times experienced as pressure. We acknowledge this, and marriage by faith as we practice it today places the decision squarely with the individuals involved.

Its form varies across our chapters with local culture, but the principle is constant: the marriage is the couple's own decision, made before God and with the prayer and counsel of their shepherds and community.

Q3. Why do UBF members approach students on campus? Is this safe?

Background. UBF is a campus ministry. Approaching university students, inviting them to one-to-one Bible study, has been its core mission since 1961. Some critical writing describes this approach as "love bombing" — intensive initial attention designed to build emotional attachment. Other major campus ministries (Cru, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the Navigators, Reformed University Fellowship) practice similar outreach.

UBF's response. Yes, our members invite students to study the Bible together. This is the historic mission of campus ministries within the Great Commission tradition, and it is shared by many Christian organizations on campuses today.

We invite openly: invitations come from our members, who identify themselves as part of UBF. We do not represent the invitation as something other than what it is.

Within the global organization we teach our members that "no" is a complete answer and that students have a right to decline, to take time, and to involve their parents. In some chapters and seasons historically, this principle was not uniformly practiced; we acknowledge that, and our current outreach guidance reflects clearer coaching on respecting a student's "no."

Practical guidance. Students considering joining a UBF Bible study — like any religious community — should:

  • Pray about it, and come with a sincere desire to seek God.
  • Take time before committing. There is no rush.
  • Talk to a parent, pastor, or trusted advisor.
  • Study the Bible earnestly for yourself, and respect those who teach you.
  • Feel free to disagree, to ask questions, and to leave at any time.
  • Maintain relationships outside the group.

This is the same guidance we would give a student considering any campus ministry.

Q4. Does UBF require members to write testimonies that leaders review?

Background. Writing personal testimonies — reflections on Scripture and personal application — is a UBF practice. In many chapters, members share testimonies in group settings. In some chapters historically, leaders read or commented on testimonies before they were shared. Critical writing by former members has alleged that testimonies were sometimes used by leadership for purposes including matchmaking and for identifying members' weaknesses.

UBF's response. Testimony reflection is a Christian discipleship practice with deep roots — in Reformed, Wesleyan, and broader Protestant traditions of spiritual journaling, lectio divina, and small-group sharing. In our practice, members write reflections after Bible study to articulate what they understood from the passage, what convicted them, and how they intend to respond.

We acknowledge that any practice involving the sharing of personal reflection with a community leader carries real risk of misuse. Where this practice has been experienced as intrusive — and in some chapters and some periods it has been — we are sorry. The principle has always been that a testimony is the writer's own; the writer chooses what to share and with whom.

Q5. Does UBF pressure members to limit contact with family or friends?

Background. Some former members have described feeling pressured to limit contact with family or friends they had before joining UBF, particularly during intense seasons of campus ministry. UBF's mission orientation can mean members spend significant time at UBF activities. Critics have argued this isolates members from outside influences.

UBF's response. We affirm biblical commitments to family. Our Statement of Faith and our historical practice affirm honoring parents and maintaining family relationships. We have never taught members to cut off family.

We acknowledge that in intense seasons of campus discipleship — particularly in first-generation Korean immigrant chapters in the 1980s and 1990s, where ministry expectations and family expectations sometimes conflicted — members' family relationships were sometimes strained. Where that happened, we did not shepherd families as we should have, and we are sincerely sorry for the hurt it caused.

Our pastoral encouragement today, across chapters, is the opposite of isolation: stay close to your family, talk with them about what you are learning, invite them to know who you are with at UBF, and weigh their counsel seriously. We also recognize that a serious faith commitment can itself unsettle a family that does not share it — this is true across Christianity, not only in UBF. Even then, our counsel is the same: honor your family, keep the conversation open, and let a changed life speak for itself.

Q6. Was UBF restricted at three universities between 1989 and 1993?

Background. Three campus restrictions — University of Winnipeg in 1989, University of Manitoba in 1991, and University of Illinois in 1993 — are referenced widely in critical writing about UBF. They appear in Wikipedia, in Christianity Today's 2015 profile, in The Martlet (University of Victoria), and elsewhere. Each followed concerns raised by students, parents, and university administrators about recruitment intensity and reports of harm from former student members.

UBF's response. Yes, the three campus restrictions from 1989-1993, more than thirty years ago, followed student and parent complaints that, on review, identified real problems specific to how those particular chapters operated at that time — problems we have spent the intervening decades restructuring our pastoral practice to prevent. The specific issues raised included outreach intensity, hierarchical pressure on students, and inadequate response from chapter leadership when concerns were raised. We do not contest that these complaints were genuine and that some students were hurt.

In the more than thirty years since, we have continued to operate at numerous universities in North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the CIS region. Our chapter network and its current locations are listed at ubf.org. Our chapters have, in the intervening decades, restructured pastoral practice in ways aimed at preventing the kinds of harm reported in the 1989–1993 episodes.

Q7. Was Samuel Lee, UBF's founder, authoritarian?

Background. Samuel Lee was UBF's founding director from 1961 until his death in January 2002. He led UBF through its founding generation with a strong vision and an exacting standard. Some former members have characterized his leadership as authoritarian. Others — including long-tenured missionaries who served alongside him — have remembered him with deep gratitude.

UBF's response. Samuel Lee was a founding leader whose vision built UBF into a missionary movement that now operates in nearly a hundred countries. He was also a Korean Christian leader of a particular generation, with a leadership style that reflected the hierarchical norms common to mid-20th-century Korean institutions and to early-stage missionary movements broadly. Our own historical account remembers him this way:

"Samuel Lee was a shepherd. He loved those around him with a shepherd's love."

— UBF history, Sarah Barry biography

Both characterizations of his leadership — visionary and overly directive — have evidence behind them. We acknowledge that some former members experienced his leadership as harmful, and we hold this in tension with the gratitude many others feel for his ministry. We do not have a rehabilitation narrative about his leadership. We hold his legacy honestly.

Further reading.

Q8. Ronald Enroth's 1992 book Churches That Abuse includes a chapter on UBF. Is it accurate?

Background. Ronald Enroth's Churches That Abuse (Zondervan, 1992) includes UBF as a case study and is the foundational academic-style citation for critical characterizations of UBF. It is referenced in Wikipedia, in counter-cult resources, and in most subsequent critical writing. Enroth interviewed several former UBF members and constructed his profile of UBF from those interviews. His broader research methodology has been critiqued by the religious-studies scholar Ruth Tucker.

UBF's response. Enroth's 1992 book reflected former-member testimony from the 1980s and very early 1990s — the period of our history with the most acknowledged problems. The accounts he reported are part of the historical record, and we do not dispute that the individuals he interviewed experienced what they described.

Two considerations are relevant for reading Enroth today:

First, the book is now more than three decades old. We are not today what we were in 1992. The three campus episodes in Question 6, our subsequent governance evolution, and the changes in chapter-level practice all post-date or coincide with Enroth's writing.

Second, Enroth's methodology has been challenged by other religious-studies scholars. As summarized in an overview of new religious movements scholarship: Ruth Tucker "critiqued Enroth's methodology, arguing that his findings were based on one-sided testimonials from unhappy former members." The same overview notes more broadly that "allegations of spiritual abuse and excessive authoritarianism have been reported, but these claims have not been universally accepted or verified."

We do not ask anyone to ignore Enroth. We ask that he be read alongside more recent scholarship — particularly Rebecca Y. Kim's The Spirit Moves West (Oxford University Press, 2015), which provides a peer-reviewed sociological treatment of UBF written 23 years later.

Q9. How does UBF respond to the categories of concern raised in former-member writings — physical, financial, spiritual, sexual, relational, psychological?

Background. This six-category framing appears repeatedly across critical writing about UBF, and prominently in long-running former-member writing.

UBF's response. This framing comes largely from one former member's account of roughly twenty years in UBF, ending around 2010. We acknowledge that experience as real to the writer, and we do not dismiss it. The account corresponds in part to the documented history of certain chapters in the 1980s–2000s — particularly around hierarchy and accountability gaps we have since structurally addressed — while other parts are specific to individual chapters or individuals and should not be generalized to UBF as a whole.

The six-category framing is, in itself, a useful self-evaluation checklist for any organization. We take each category seriously:

  • Physical and sexual harm: we treat any allegation of physical or sexual harm within a chapter with the utmost seriousness; such matters should be reported to civil authorities as well as to us.
  • Financial integrity: we are an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which requires independent financial review and governance standards.
  • Spiritual integrity: we are bound to a published Statement of Faith and to ordinary evangelical Christian theology.
  • Relational and family integrity: we affirm biblical commitments to family. Our pastoral encouragement is for members to remain close to their families, not to set those relationships aside. See also Question 5 above.
  • Psychological wellbeing: pastoral care concerns within a chapter should be raised with chapter leadership; if they cannot be resolved locally, they can be brought to UBF HQ through our contact page.

If you have a concern. If you have experienced harm within a UBF chapter — current or past — please contact UBF HQ through our contact page. We take these concerns seriously; we will listen, and we will respond.

Further reading.

Accountability and how to reach us

We are an accredited member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, which requires annual financial and governance review. We hold a published 12-point Statement of Faith, and our chapter network is publicly listed at ubf.org. This page is reviewed annually and updated as appropriate.

If you have a question or a concern about UBF that is not addressed on this page or on our main FAQ, please reach us through our contact page.

Further reading — a range of perspectives

We engage the concerns former members have raised directly, in the answers above. The sources below are balanced and scholarly references for readers who want to go deeper.

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