Recently I learned that UBF has partnered with Wheaton College. Here are some details about this partnership.
Wheaton college has posted this about the program:
This certification consists of 3 courses designed to be completed in 3 semesters. The courses are Theological Foundations, Contextualization in Global Settings, and Intercultural Communications.
This is a one-way program. In other words, this is not for Wheaton students to learn from UBF; it is for UBF to learn from Wheaton. Why would UBF need to learn about theology, contextualization, and intercultural communications? Isn’t UBF the supreme authority on these subjects? Apparently, UBF leaders are admitting they do not understand these things and need help from Wheaton. This is a good thing, perhaps.
The program has a curious note at the end:
Applicants must be part of UBF to qualify. For more information or to see if you qualify please contact Ron Ward.
To join this course, you must be approved by Ron Ward. This means, UBF will only send the best and most loyal people to Wheaton. This indicates to me that this is not really such a humble exercise in learning Christianity, but a publicity stunt aimed at adding yet another layer of holy paint on the group.
UBF can get a lot of mileage out of this partnership. They can spin up so many justifications! For example, they can calm fears of parents of students caught up in UBF shepherding by saying they are approved by Wheaton College. After 60 years, it is quite sad that the group cannot use some of their 13 million dollars to create an actual missionary program for non-Koreans. Instead, they cling to UBFism and continue to seek out justifications for UBFism.