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Questions of succession decided

In the following you will find some background information about the question of succession of Samuel Lee and Sarah Barry as topmost UBF leaders, as of December 2004.

First indications in August 2004

After the unexpected death of the topmost UBF leader in January 2002, the question of succession found UBF completely unprepared. Samuel Lee had always maintained a UBF where nobody had enough power to be able to challenge him, or to take over his position. Without much discussion, the remaining upper echelon leaders initially agreed to make Sarah Barry the successor until the internal infightings among the Koreans about the question of succession would be over. This infighting was mostly carried out between the factions of John Jun and Mark Yang in Korea. Other leaders like Mark Yoon in Chicago, Paul Hong in Toledo, Peter Chang in Bonn, Samuel H. Lee in Korea and not to forget the son of Samuel Lee, Samuel A. Lee, were busy staking their claims as well. It was clear from the beginning that the top leadership position occupied by the American Sarah Barry was only a makeshift solution in which she acted as a “straw woman” until a Korean would take over the leadership. The internal struggles for power nearly led to another division of UBF, but in the end, they agreed on John Jun, who had already been the leader of Korea UBF before, and thus predisposed to become the topmost leader. To satisfy the other leaders, an “International Advisory Board” of the 50 top leaders was established, who now may feel to be even more important and to have some say in UBF. More “committees” with their own chairpersons and officer positions were created. All these leaders probably hope for a well-arranged salary and a pension from the huge UBF cash fund. Many of them have already lived quite well from UBF moneys before.

After the MSU conference in 2004, this solution was officially announced without shouting it too loudly from the rooftops. Paul Hong mentions this, e.g., parenthetically in his conference report of August 2004. Here are the crucial passages from his report:

“[...] In this short report, I would like to report on how God’s kingdom comes among and through us based on Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come”. [...] Dr. John Jun gave an introductory message on Acts 1:4-8 and Mother Barry concluded with Exodus 19:5-6. [...] God’s kingdom comes through the united effort of leaders. [...] In all prior conferences, Dr. Samuel Lee orchestrated in many details. However, this conference was the result of the teamwork of leaders that Dr. Samuel prepared and worked with over the years. In her last message, Mother Barry thanked God and specifically mentioned Dr. Mark Yoon, who orchestrated all aspects of this conference. [...] As a messenger servant, my role was to support Ron Ward and Dr. John Jun and to pray for the messengers. [...] Shepherd Samuel H. Lee and I organized programs for the Missionary Conference, [...] Before and after the conference Toledo UBF welcomed 134 people who came from various chapters in the world: Chongro, Korea (12), Bonn, Germany (12), [...] God’s kingdom comes through prayerful succession of leaders. [...] Among the many aspects of ministry, succession is the most difficult. After the MSU Conference, international Advisor Board members (about 50 of them) met together and elected Dr. John Jun as the next General Director. We thank God for using Dr. Samuel Lee for laying the foundation of worldwide gospel ministry and for upholding Mother Barry in promoting the spirit of unity among leaders. Now, with Dr. John Jun, God may prepare for greater and more effective ministry for years to come. [...] God’s kingdom comes through prayerful reflection and resolution. In her last message, Mother Barry gave common prayer topics for all of us: [...] May God help us to send 100,000 missionaries to the 233 nations of the world by 2043. May he establish 10,000 Jesus-centered house churches in the nations of the world. [...]”

More background information

The newly established “International Advisory Board” had in July 2004, according to our information from insiders, the following list of members:

“Mother” Sarah Barry (current chairperson), Dr. John Jun (will become new chairman in 2006), Dr. James Suh, Dr. Abraham Joung, Dr. Samuel Choi, Dr. Paul B. Rhee, Moses Park, Jonathan Park, John Kim, Samuel H. Lee, Mark Yang, David Kim, Daniel Rhee, Moses Kim, Paul Rhee, Joshua Lee, Ok Gi Lee, Dr. Joseph Chung, Dr. James H. Kim, Daniel Yang, Isaac Choi, Dr. Augustine Sohn,. Dr. John Lee, Dr. James Joung, Dr. Ben Toh, Joseph Ahn, Dr. Samuel A. Lee, Isaac H. Kim, Dr. Mark Yoon, Dr. Paul Hong, Dr. Sam Zun, Jacob Lee, David Baik, Dr. Abraham T. Kim, Dr. Henry Park, Ron Ward, Mark Vucekovich, Teddy Hembekides, Dr. Joseph Schafer, Dr. James Rabchuk, Kaleb Hong (Heidelberg, Germany), Abraham Lee (Cologne, Germany), Dr. Peter Chang (Bonn, Germany), Volker Keller (Colgone, Germany), Walter Nett (Duesseldorf, Germany), Jimmy Lee (India), Mark K. Yoon (Kenya), Stephen Kim (Russia), Lena Park (Russia), Dr. Peter Kim (Ukraine) and Abraham Hwang (Mexico).

The chairperson of the International Advisory Board is at the same time the “General Director” and thus the topmost leader of the UBF. The General Director appoints (officially together with the board of advisors) more people with leadership positions. For example, the following “committees” with corresponding chairpersons and officers were newly established:

Assigning the responsibility for childrens education to Peter Chang from Bonn, who had been charged for child neglect and beatings in Germany, and to Little Sarah Kim, who made other negative headlines, is tantamount to mocking the victims of spiritual abuse in UBF. Apparently, the motto in these cases is to put the fox in charge of the henhouse.

In addition to these boards and committees, there is also the actual “UBF Executive Board” with four special officers, the “General Director,” the “Korea Director,” the “USA/Canada Coordinator” and the “International Coordinator.” The members of these boards in 2004 apparently were the following:

“Mother” Sarah Barry (General Director and Chairperson), Dr. John Jun (Korea Director), Dr. Joseph Chung, Dr. James H. Kim, Samuel H. Lee, David Kim, Mark Yang, Isaac H. Kim, Dr. Paul Hong, Dr. Mark Yoon (International Coordinator) und Ron Ward (USA/Canada Coordinator).

Dr. Joseph Chung had held the honorary office of the UBF “President” in the past. It is not known whether that office still exists.

Official press release in December 2004

John Jun promoted the following article about himself in a Korean newspaper. As in the past, the Korean media discuss UBF without any professional skepticism; they obviously refuse to undertake their own investigation of the UBF, just passing on the self-glorifications of UBF leaders without putting things into perspective, commenting them, or giving other background information. There is no mentioning of any problems with UBF. Information about the abuses, reform attempts, the devastating schism and other developments is completely withheld. Instead, John Jun is allowed to palm himself off as a “pastor” and to praise himself and his organization to the skies. In order to understand the following, you have to know that when he speaks about “experts” in UBF, he does not mean experts in theology, missiology or pastoral care, but he is talking about medical doctors, nurses or computer operators, who are in reality certainly not experts in those fields either. The reality in UBF is a quite different. Most Korean UBF missionaries have no theological education, nor can they utilize the foreign language, nor do they have real professional qualifications when they are sent out to the “mission field.” Many of them have to work as cleaners or in low-level jobs in Korean companies. Many are just plain unemployed. Many UBF chapter leaders do not work either, but are living entirely from the collected offering monies.

Self-abandonment for the sake of raising disciples –
Pastor John Jun new International Chairman of the UBF

(Translation of a report in the Korean “Kukmin Daily” newspaper on 12/9/2004)

John Jun, new UBF International Chairman

The leader of the Korean UBF, pastor John Jun (63), will take over the office of the International Chairman of the UBF from 2006. The UBF had called a meeting of its International Advisory Board with 50 participants, and the meeting elected pastor John Jun as a successor of missionary Sarah Barry (74) who withdraws for reasons of age.

Starting with the beginning of next year, Pastor Jun will co-work together with missionary Sarah Barry in Chicago, where the international headquarters of the UBF is located, and will take over her duties. The successor of pastor Jun will be elected in the next plenary assembly of UBF taking place in January 2005 in Korea. Pastor Jun co-worked with the late missionary Samuel Lee since beginning of 1960, and held since 1977 the position of the leader of Korea UBF, after Samuel Lee had gone to America. Pastor Jun had given up the secure life as an internist, and had decided to live for the sake of the Gospel. He added that since then, he had only followed this one way and has never regretted his serving the UBF.

Pastor Jun’s appraisal of the UBF is that it faithfully accomplishes the work of mission for Korean students and the world, contributing to the work of the worldwide church. He said that UBF awakened the consciousness for mission of the Korean church by emphasizing the sending out of Korean missionaries since the early 1960s, and by also putting this into action. He emphasized that UBF had anticipated the time of laymen missionaries who are experts, and that UBF sent out devoted experts to all corners of the world, thereby actively pioneering the realm of employed laymen missionaries. He said that currently more than 5000 leading laymen missionaries are spreading the Gospel at the campuses through one-to-one Bible study, and 1300 missionaries have been sent out to more than 80 countries.

Pastor Jun commented on his future plans, saying that he will continue to sacrifice himself for the sake of world mission, when he will have taken over the office of the International Chairman, and that he will visit and encourage the missionaries in their respective countries. He stressed that it is important that the Christians and Christian organizations in a continually changing world keep the core of their faith. He said that he will use his future life for the sake of raising disciples who devote themselves to the Lord.

Correspondent: Thae-Young Lee

Self-glorification of UBF in the Kukmin newspaper

The newspaper “Kukmin Daily,” which is pretty popular in Korea, seems to have become a favorite vehicle for self-representation and self-glorification of the UBF. Besides the article about John Jun, the newspaper also published a ten part series from and about Sarah Barry in which she is allowed to glorify UBF, Samuel Lee and most of all herself. As background information on the Kukmin newspaper one should perhaps understand that it is owned by the notorious Korean “church dignitary” Paul (David) Yonggi Cho, who leads not only the supposedly world-biggest church in Seoul, but also rules over a pretty large and highly ramified business empire, comprising, among others, a software company, a multimedia enterprise and also the “Kukmin Daily” newspaper. Kukmin is by no means a purely Christian newspaper, but has a clear focus on commercial objectives, just like his other enterprises. Without any qualms, the newspapers publish pictures with nudity, dirty articles or advices of “sex consultants” that violate every standard of Christian morality and decency, just to increase sales. Interestingly, the link to the pages with “sex counseling” is located directly on the Kukmin newspapers Internet page with the article about UBF. The newspaper reflects very well the double standard and inconsistency in Korean society and Christianity. Although Yonggi Cho is admired a lot for his “success” and the size of his church, and though his books and teachings are pretty popular among Pentecostal/charismatic and also among evangelically oriented Christians in general, nevertheless these teachings are extremely dubious and have become a justly controversial issue. To put it simply, Cho teaches a “Christianized” version of occult, shamanistic principles, just as the teachings of UBF can be regarded as a “Christianized” version of Confucianism. The teachings of Yonggi Cho have in America a certain counterpart in the kind of Pentecostal/charismatic movement that is associated with the catch phrases “Health and Wealth Gospel,” “Name it and Claim it Doctrine,” “Positive Confession Theology,” “Word of Faith Movement,” the “Toronto blessing” and names like Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin or Benny Hinn. Given this background, it is not surprising that you can hardly find any critical, theologically well-founded and professionally investigated articles about UBF in the Kukmin newspaper.

The ten-part series about UBF in the Kukmin newspaper is one of many evidences that UBF is increasingly concerned about getting positive publicity, most of all among Koreans, who are extremely receptively and thankful for all such “success stories” which are connected with Korea. It is a balm for the soul of these people who were chronically suffering from feelings of inferiority, which also played a great role also in the emergence of UBF. However, they are reluctant to verify how truthful such success stories really are. Many Koreans believe that UBF increases the honor and the glory of the Korean nation in the world, and do not realize that the cultish, authoritarian and dilettantish behavior of UBF in reality brings only dishonor and disgrace to Korea everywhere else in the world.

The director of Bonn UBF, Peter Chang, is currently trying to get publicity and reputation among the Koreans in a similar way. But he is not trying to get the publicity in the evangelistic realm, where he has little to show, but in the realm of culture, using his Bonn UBF orchestra as a platform, which, named as ISMF (“International Senfkorn Music Friends”), performs concerts at prestigious places. Likewise, he skillfully launches articles in Korean newspapers in which these concerts are praised. And Hanna Ryu, a UBF “missionary” from Mainz who is associated with Peter Chang, is distinguishing herself in the same newspapers as a gifted writer and promoter of Korean culture in Germany. Even with charity concerts and collections for charity, which almost never have been an issue in UBF before, UBF tries to get a good reputation in the public now.

Though Sarah Barry praises herself extremely in the ten-part Kukmin newspaper article mentioned above, though she takes the titles “Mother” and “Reverend” in UBF, and though she travels by plane to the UBF centers in all continents of the world, where she is adored by the UBF followers, she and the UBF members still believe that she is the epitome of humbleness and modesty in person. A Korean UBF member reported on the Internet forum that Miss Barry visited the UBF center in Seoul after a trip to the Philippines in December 2004, where all members were told to sit in a circle and everybody had to tell his or her “annual key verse.” At this occasion, one of her followers told her how she admired Sarah Barry. Miss Barry answered that she should say such things not to her, but only to Jesus. On account of this “modest” answer, the admiration of the UBF followers for Sarah Barry of course grew to the skies, and the mentioned UBF member interpreted this as a sufficient proof that every criticism of UBF and her person was inappropriate. Most UBF members are extremely naive and never question the motives of their leaders. The hypocrisy of these leaders is not perceived by the members, even though – or maybe because – it is standing like an elephant in the room. The self-glorification and the avoiding of every kind of self-criticism have accompanied UBF from the beginnings and continue to be an unmistakable hallmark of UBF.


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