News > North America

KIMNET 10th Anniversary Mission Conference

October 16-20, 2012 at Charlotte, NC, USA

WORLD CAMPUS MISSION

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19a).

I. The importance of campus mission

Campus mission orcollege student ministry is essentially a future-oriented ministry. It is because campus ministries are focused on raising young people who will be the future leaders of the church, country and the world.

In the church history, we find that the ministry among young people affected the history of world mission in a significant way throughout many continents and generations. In the Middle Ages, monasteries such as the orders of St. Augustine and St. Francis can be considered youth ministries, which played a role as salt when Christianity became corrupted after becoming the national religion.The university system was established in the early 12^th century. One of its main purposes was to raise young people as salt and light through Bible study and Christ-centered holy life.After the religious Reformation, people drew back again into unbelief and ungodliness. During this time, several young students made the Holy Club at Oxford University in 1729. Charles Wesley and John Wesley were among its leaders. Their movement for spiritual awakening and the church revival influenced England and America in the 19^th century. It even opened up the doors to the Chinese Inland Mission, which Hudson Taylor and the Cambridge Seven dedicated their lives for. Its influence continued through the Student Volunteer Movement in the United States. Having been raised during college and giving their lives as missionaries, they established the prototype and model of laymen mission.

Coming into the 20th century, campus oriented organizations such as IVF, Navigators, CCC (currently Cru), and UBF were formed. Lately, even local churches have realized the importance and necessity of campus mission and have started various forms of campus ministry. Praise God!

II. World campus mission in UBF

A. Bible Korea

UBF (University Bible Fellowship) was founded in 1961 through coworking between Rev. Samuel C. Lee and Miss Sarah Barry, a Southern Presbyterian missionary from the US.  From the onset, UBF had a motto to achieve “Bible Korea” by teaching the Bible to college students. The founders believed that teaching the Bible was the only way to help the young people who wandered in the political and social turmoil of the 1960s in Korea to become the leaders of the church, the country and the world. Through the word of God, students embraced God’s hope and vision and they went out to campuses to teach the Bible to other students. In this way, a student lay mission movement began. In the 1970s, this movement spread to the campuses in Seoul and all the provinces of Korea.

The main reason for the growth of UBF is discipleship training. Discipleship begins through a one-to-one relationship between a Bible teacher and a student. All members are trained to meditate on the word of God and apply it to their lives based on weekly Bible studies and messages. They write reflections and share them in their weekly meetings. This process of internalizing God’s word is the essence of discipleship training in UBF. In a chapter, each member belongs to a small group called a “fellowship.” Leaders are encouraged to learn leadership, cooperation, and self-denial through living together. They go out to campus to invite students to Bible study. They grow to be Bible teachers and shepherds through these activities. They are further trained to be small group leaders, messengers, and staff.

Currently the Korean UBF has 87 chapters that serve 83 campuses in 26 cities. About 100 full-time staff members serve 3,500 disciples and missionary candidates. While training students to study the Bible and obey its teachings, many Christian professors, ministers, doctors, public workers, lawyers, entrepreneurs have been raised. UBF members are devoted to inviting students to Bible studies, sacrificing their personal time. About 90% of those who studied the Bible with them go to the local churches. Several hundred thousand people have become Christians through Bible studies in UBF. Praise God who has used UBF as the front-line Christian troops of the whole church for evangelizing college students.

B. World campus mission

Back in the 1960s, the GNP in Korea was about $100. Therefore, people believed Korea was a missionary receiver not a sender. The Korean campus mission groups were too poor to send even one missionary. There were many obstacles to overcome: expensive flight tickets, passports, financial support and so on. However, the word of God is the Absolute Word of God. Whenever UBF students finished the last session of the gospel, they were taught that they should obey this command, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” absolutely, equally to other passages. They earnestly prayed for God to send them out to one of the 156 nations, taking a small globe in their pockets. During the prayer, they shouted, “World mission! Absolute obedience! Oh Lord, send me!” God heard this prayer and began to open the doors.

(1) Self-supporting laymen campus mission: Toward the end of the 1960s, God began to open the door for UBF world mission in amazing ways. God sent our missionaries to the world through various jobs. Missionaries consisted of nurses in West Germany, medical doctors in America, and employees at oversea branch offices. Typically after serving the campus mission as student leaders and layman shepherds, our lay-leaders went out as employees of Samsung, Daewoo or Hyundai, or as embassy workers, Taekwondo teachers or international grad students. In the 1980s, when these doors were closed, the new way to go out as a missionary was through Canada. Many young Ehwa Women’s University graduates went through three months of short-term training as a needle worker at Dongdaemoon Market and moved to Canada as missionaries, sacrificing their honor and bright future in Korea. Some of our male student leaders came to America by being hired at poultry factories. (Their job was to butcher chickens.) In these various ways, God has sent out 1,545 UBF lay-missionaries to 95 countries (March 27, 2012 data).

(2) Campus mission in developed countries: From the beginning of their missionary life, UBF missionaries approached native college students to share the gospel. This was an indescribably challenging task, especially in many developed countries where they served such as America and Germany. There was a huge English/German language barrier. Additionally, missionaries worked hard as fulltime workers, so they had little strength and time to serve campus mission. However, they believed the superiority of the gospel and depended on the power of God that raised Jesus from the dead. Based on this faith, God has now raised 328 UBF chapters in 95 countries and about 5,100 regular members actively serve world campus mission.  

(3) Raising native disciples and disciple-makers: God blessed the sacrificial service and one-to-one mentorship of UBF missionaries, and led many native students to repent and accept Jesus as Lord. God blessed these students to grow as native disciples, disciple-makers and even chapter directors throughout the world. Currently 418 native leaders are working with the missionaries for campus mission. The senior pastor of Chicago UBF headquarter church is Pastor Ron Ward. God raised him through one-to-one Bible study with me when I served Oregon State as a graduate student missionary.

(4) Sending native leaders as missionaries: One UBF missionary to Mexico has served college students for the last thirty years, raising them as native leaders. Among those leaders, some have been sent out as missionaries to other Latin American countries such as Peru, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic and also to the US. Indian UBF native leaders were sent as missionaries to Portugal, Nigeria, and the USA. Ukraine UBF sent native missionaries to Turkey. Similarly, America UBF has sent native leaders to about 20 countries. Currently 33 native leaders are serving campus mission as missionaries to 20 countries.

(5) Prayer topics: As we celebrate 50 years of God’s work through UBF, we have the following prayer topics: (1) One third of about 2,200 North American UBF members may be sent out as missionaries; (2) we may send out missionaries to 140 countries that are not reached by UBF; and (3) May God raise 100,000 Bible teachers and missionaries so that we may carry out the Lord’s Great Commission with the whole church before His second coming.  

III. Cooperation with other ministries

UBF campus mission set a new model of lay mission movement and showed that lay mission can be successful in reaching natives and raising them as disciples. Currently, the European or Western churches are stagnant and secularization is accelerating. It is a dark time. But I believe that God is moving the great locomotive of world mission through mission agencies, organizations and diaspora churches of the world. Now is the time for all churches to rise up and dedicate their resources to youth ministries and mobilization of laymen that is God’s frozen property and reserve force for world mission. I thank God for the work of the Holy Spirit in many local churches and mission organizations to initiate discipleship of young people and laymen for world mission. To support these efforts, UBF wants to share the experience and know-hows of the past 50 years of world campus mission with the local churches and mission agencies in the following areas: (1) Discipleship training of young people and laymen; (2) raising them as self-supporting missionaries; (3) church planting and discipleship of the natives; and (4) raising the native leaders as gospel workers and missionaries. 

*Please also see a related article - http://ubf.org/node/1401