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The Church: God’s household (Maturity and Relationships) (1 Tim 3:15-16) was the title of the 2012 UBF USA and Canada Staff Conference which was held on February 23-25, 2012 in the Intercontinental Hotel in Chicago. This was one of three suggested titles under the theme of the Church, God’s household. (2013 The church, God’s Household: “Incarnational Leadership.” 2014 The church, God’s household: “Relationship Ministry.”) Around 230 North American Staff members including 10 foreign delegates (Korea UBF director David Kim, Elijah Lee, Daniel Byun,  European and German new director Walter Nett, Honorary Europe Director Abraham K Lee, Mexican Delegate Sergio L, John and Goheun R,  Russian delegate Alexei, Sarah of C) attended this conference filling the conference hall.

Ron Ward, in his opening address, mentioned about the great significance of this conference in several aspects: It is the first North America Staff conference after the UBF 50^th anniversary with the new General Director Pastor Abraham Kim, the new North American Coordinator Mark Vucekovich, the new Korean UBF Director David Kim, the new European Director Walter Nett and many new North American chapter leaders. Pastor Ron’s message title was “Love One Another as Jesus Loved You” (Jn 13:34-35) The Church, God’s household, not only should obey Jesus’ great commission but also must obey his new command to love one another as Jesus loved us.

Andy Stumpf (Waterloo, Canada) delivered the first message entitled “The Church: God’s Household, (1 Tim 3:15-16). The church is God’s dwelling place in the world. The church is composed of individuals who confess Jesus as the Christ, who appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

The second day messengers, Terry Lopez (Downy) and Paul Sambuco (Washington) delivered their messages entitled, “How to Grow as a Good Minister of Christ Jesus.” (1 Tim 1:1-16, 4:16-16 and 6:11-12). Each delivered half of the following six points to grow as a good minister:

1.     Know Jesus’ grace and God’s calling personally.

2.     Holding onto one’s faith and a good conscience.

3.     Developing integrity in our personal, family and social life.

4.     Training ourselves to be Godly.

5.     Growing in love and purity.

6.     Being content with material things.

Among these six points, Terry L emphasized that to remember the grace of Jesus and humbling oneself are among the basic foundations to be a good minister. Paul S explained about the importance of struggling to grow as a good minister of God through his own experiences.

5 Special testimonies of foreign delegates (Walter N of Germany,  Sergio L of Mexico, Alexei B of Russia, Daniel B of Kwanak 3^rd Korea and Sarah W of C) inspired all staffs: (*reports will be posted separately)

Among the 11 new chapter directors (David Miller (Cincinnati ), Abraham Jung ( Richmond, WA) Paul Kim (Louisiana), Abraham Kim (  Pennsylvania), Samuel Yoon (Rido, Ottawa), James and Eunice Oh (Alabama),   Andrew Dellinger (Raleigh),  Peter Kim (Iowa) David Chang (Edmonton), Stephen Yang (Minneapolis), Peter Lee (Texas A & M) 6 shared their key verse testimonies while serving as presiders.                   

Dr. Camille F. Bishop, PhD gave a special lecture entitled, “Leadership succession between the generations” based on “The parable of the New Wine in New Wineskins” (Matt 9:16-17). She began by sharing her testimony to explain her lecture focusing on “Generational and cultural differences in organizational transition.”

There were 5 track sessions as follows that were well prepared:

Track 1. Conflict resolution presented by David Baik

Track 2. Emotional/Spiritual maturity by Dr. Mark Yoon

Track 3. Reaching young people by Kevin Albright

Track 4. Children’s education by Jacob Lee

Track 5. Marriage relationship by Mark Vucekovich

In this conference, we had a very deep Group Bible Study for 2 hours and a half and we also set the whole Friday evening for meditating and writing our reflections which were shared on Saturday from 7:30 a.m.

After that, we heard the shortened New Year message from Numbers 14:24 entitled, “Explore the Promised Land” by P. Abraham Kim, the new UBF General Director. (May God establish the Kingdom of God in our community through growing spiritual maturity and continue to explore the Promised Land, by obeying the Great Commission). We finished our conference with the following prayer topics:

1. North America may send out many missionaries to pioneer 140 nations with Joshua and Caleb’s faith and whole hearted obedient spirit.

2. North American chapters may raise disciples through vigorous one-to-one ministry that may reach 150% of Sunday attendants.

3. Pray for 3 African Regional Conferences that will be held in August this year.  Please attend with your coworkers to one of three conferences. International Advisory Board Committee will be held in South Africa region conference

4. Pray for August 2013 International Bible Conference at Indiana University of Pennsylvania Campus, Indiana, Pennsylvania. It has two purposes 1)To plant gospel faith and world mission vision for the young people of North America and 2)to encourage and minister to the missionaries and native leaders from the six continents. HBF and MBF conferences will be held during this Conference.

5. Pray for Pastor Mark Vucekovich, the new North America Coordinator after Pastor Ron’s 10-year service.

6. Please pray for UBF Summer Short Term Missions 2012 and apply at: http://chicagoubf.org/missions