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Date Posted: 07:26:50 12/02/04 Thu
Author: Chris
Subject: Re: The Doctrine of Testimony Sharing
In reply to: By faith, not works 's message, "Re: The Doctrine of Testimony Sharing" on 22:34:06 12/01/04 Wed

Dear PECAS, dear “by faith not works” (I will call you SolaFide, ok?) thank you very much for your testimonies ;-) No, honestly, I think such discussions make much more sense than only bashing on UBF leaders. I urge those who constantly claim that UBF critics are “full of wicked hatred” to read postings like these and explain where you can see hatred here? I want to use the opportunity again to emphasize that – with maybe one or two exceptions which always exist and have certain reasons – nobody of us hates UBF members.

I would like to confirm what PECAS had written. It was the same in our chapter, though I am living in a different continent. It is amazing how similar UBF is all around the world. Anyway, I would also agree with what SolaFide had written that there is a certain bandwith. In some chapters, the uniformity and manipulation in testimony sharing is less extreme, in some chapters (like Bonn) it is even more extreme. I have been told that Bonn UBF testimonies mainly consist in giving thanks to Peter Chang. Testimony writing and sharing has much to do with group dynamics and peer pressure. Usually the missionaries or the “Abraham of faith” sets the example in testimony sharing, and the others try to imitate him. People tend to adapt quickly to what is considered “normal” in a group, and this also applies to the style and content of testimonies. Over time, the testimonies become more and more equal to the “standard.” At a time our chapter grew a little bit, our director established a weekly sogam meeting for the new members. He told me to share my sogam every week, and he told me openly that my role would be the one of the alpha dog (“Leitwolf” in German, this was the very word he used). So it depends on the leader, the members and the group dynamics in your respective chapter, how a sogam session actually looks like. But asymptotically, you always get something that has been described by PECAS.

I would like to add some more aspects:

Our chapter leader told us that we had to add a “retrospection” at the beginning and a “resolutions” section at the end of every sogam. In the “resolutions” sections you had to make some decisions what you would like to do in the next week, based on the sogam. Of course, the resolution was always the same: Go more fishing, cowork better in UBF, come to all of the early morning sessions. In the retrospection, you basically had to write how you failed to do all of these things, like you missed one early morning session on Tuesday because you had been sleepy, or you did not go fishing on Friday, etc. And of course you had to repent of that. It was a closed of hope and failure loop every week. As such, sogam sharing was used a performance-o-meter and a means of guilt-tripping. Also, it is very difficult (psychologically impossible) to have any critical thoughts about your leader, if you have to thank him every week and have to admit every week that you failed. This pattern gets burned into your brain.

Another aspect is the artificiality of sogam sharing. Our director insisted that we had a pulpit, a pedestal, a microphone and speakers even thought the room was very small. He insisted in these “retrospection” section and other things which made testimonies very artificical. Really, all testimony sharers started their testimony, by order of the leader, with the word “Retrospection (colon) …”. I know, this may not be typical for all chapters, but the idea behind it is always the same.

Another VERY problematic aspect is the frequence of testimony sharing. EVERY week EVERY member had to share their testimony. (My wife had to share even 3 times a week: One time in front of the leader alone, one time in front of her shepherdess, one time in front of the group!). You had absolutely no time to really deal with the issues you talked about or the sins you had discovered in your life. I always thought in UBF, when testimony sharing would be less frequent, say one time a month or quarter, it would be much better. For instance, if you have 4 groups in your chapter, one could share in the first week of the month, the next one in the second week, and so on.

A third problem was that the leader NEVER shared his testimony. This was a very clear message that all members were sinners who fail every week and need to repent, but the leader was different. He did not need to confess ot others or repent. In any case, he was simply DIFFERENT from all others. The closest thing to a testimony was his speech he held every 5 years when there was another anniversary of the founding of our chapter. Then, he would usually praise the loyal members and his wife. He would say that he did not work enough or was not spiritual enough, but nothing concrete, and it sounded more like bragging than repenting.

Another aspect has already been mentioned, namely that sogams are always based on the UBF selected passage, the UBF selected key verse and the UBF message/lesson of the week, and the Bible study you already made that week. The leaders use it also as an instrument to indoctrinate people (by letting them repeat the same ideas and making them believe they were their own ideas) and a control instrument to see how far the indoctrination process has proceeded. Therefore the chapter leaders usually sit among the listeners. They need the feedback who is already indoctrinated, who is somewhat critical, who needs training etc.

It is another very problematic thing that EVERYTHING in UBF is passage based: Daily bread is based on a passage, sogam sharing is based on a passage, Bible study is based on a passage, Sunday messages are based on a passage, Conference messages are based on a passage. I don not say that passage based Bible study is bad, quite to the contrary. But if you exclusively make passage based Bible study, which is like dealing with one part of a big puzzle, and never put the pieces of the puzzle together in subject based messages and systematic theology, this is a problem. For instance, we never had a message or lesson about very important things like the Holy Spirit or church leadership in ten years of UBF. Also, the passages are selected. Some passages are repeated again and again, some less frequently, and some never. For instance, in 10 years of UBF, we never studied Galatians, although it was the favorite book of Martin Luther. Instead, we had a full cycle on 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel and several cycles on Exodus and Genesis. We also never studied 1 or 2 Corinthians except 1Cor15. It is not a well-balanced diet of the Word of God.

PS: This is actually a thread on UBF doctrines and testimony sharing has more to do with problematic UBF practices, not with doctrines. But you are right that it is a UBF doctrine that weekly testimony sharing in a certain way is a MUST.

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