USA & CANADA UBF Staff Conference 2014 Report
- by WMD
- Jul 01, 2014
- 905 reads
North America UBF
July 1, 2014
Christ Has Set Us Free
North America UBF held its annual staff conference on June 26-28, at Franklin Pierce University, situated in New Hampshire, near Boston. The campus is located beside a lake with a spectacular view of Mount Monadnock. In this pastoral setting, around 160 staff members and their spouses studied the entire book of Galatians in two days. The theme of the conference was: Christ has set us free. Through Galatians study, the staff prayed to mature as Christians, build a healthy Christian community, and be free in Christ without becoming legalistic or compromising with licentiousness. In preparation, staff members answered the questions to 6 lessons, prepared a factual study of Galatians, and wrote a book summary on College Ministry in a Post-Christian Culture by Stephen Lutz.
To begin the conference, Pastor Ron Ward (Chicago) delivered an introduction to Galatians. Then, staff members began a 6-lesson marathon Bible study. For some variation, Bible study groups were divided based on chapter size for the first three Bible studies, then based on gender for the next two Bible studies, and for the last Bible study, based on divine providence (randomly). Thus, staff members had more opportunity to meet others and have fellowship.
During the plenary sessions, there were various reports on God’s work. On Thursday night, Missionary Jonathan Kang, of Koln, presented a preview of the European SBC. Next, Dr. Jim Rabchuk (WIU) shared the CIS conference prayer topics, especially to pray for unity among CIS and Ukrainian UBF coworkers. Then, Pastor Raul Sanchez, of Mexico City, shared his life testimony and an update on growing Mexican UBF leaders. Finally, new chapter directors shared their key verses: Dr. Samuel Yoo (Houston), Andrew Christopher (Montreal), Dr. Andy Stump (Waterloo, Canada), Graciela Choo (representing Dr. Joshua Choo, Louisville, Kentucky), Daniel Cheng (Tempe, Arizona), Peter Cho (New Jersey), and David Kim (Indiana). Lastly, DK (Chicago) reported on recent UBF publications.
On Friday evening, there were three regional reports by Greg Lewis (Toledo), Mark Moran (West Coast), and Pastor Abraham Lincoln (Boston/New England). On Saturday morning, there was testimony sharing, directly followed by nine regional meetings. Then, Dr. Daniel Lee (Shippensburg) gave a lecture on campus evangelism based on the Lutz’ book. He stressed the importance of remaining on the campus and not abandoning campus ministry, because university students are the future leaders of the world. Following his message, Pastor Kevin Albright (Chicago) introduced an online theology certificate program sponsored by UBF, which is free to staff members. Afterwards, Pastor Mark Vucekovich, North America UBF Coordinator, discussed the progress of the new local chapter guidelines, with a goal to be finalized this summer. Finally, Pastor Abraham Kim, UBF General Director, presented an overview of God’s work in UBF worldwide in 2013, and prayer topics for 2014. In particular, he emphasized that we may raise up spiritual leaders for the campus evangelism and for the world.
After the staff conference, some staff members toured Boston. On Sunday, they attended the Boston worship service, where Pastor Abraham Lincoln was ordained as the Boston/New England UBF coordinator.
The next North America UBF annual staff conference will be held in July 2015, in Colorado.
By Yvonne Lee
