This is related to the last post about UBF international conferences.
During the preparation for the last UBF international conference in 2000, one of those Chicago UBF "supplementary worship services" was held on a weekday. The purpose of these "supplementary worship services" was to "supplement" the Chicago UBF Sunday meeting attendance numbers if the numbers on Sunday didn't meet Samuel Lee's standards. (See "Abuses related to recruiting numbers and quotas" in my personal story) These "supplementary" meetings happened quite frequently. If a Wednesday "supplementary" meeting didn't "supplement" the Sunday numbers enough, then a Thursday or Friday "supplementary" meeting would be called in addition. At these "supplementary" meetings, it was customary for Samuel Lee's "message" (sermon) performer to "rebuke" the attendants at the end of the meeting by reading Exodus 20:8-11 and lecturing them about "keeping the Sabbath holy", where "keeping the Sabbath holy" means attending a UBF Sunday meeting on Sunday. The funny thing about this is that the poor people who were practically dragged to these all-important supplementary numbers-generating meetings were usually people who weren't all that "committed" to UBF; they had done maybe a handful of Bible studies with a UBF member. Sometimes they were dragged in from the street with the promise of food after the meeting.
At the aforementioned "supplementary worship service" before the UBF international conference, Kevin A. (mentioned in a past post about UBF institutional racism) happened to be the message performer. After the mandatory lecturing of the attendants about keeping UBF's Sabbath holy, Kevin A. launched into a "rebuke" against those attendants who had still dared not to "register" for the all-important international conference. It went something like this: "Who here has not registered for the summer conference yet? Raise your hands. For those who have not registered yet, what's the matter with you!!!??? (*) [followed by some diatriabe about how all-important this conference was for the nation and for the whole world]" The absurdity and abusiveness of UBF for me was at its height during these conference preparation times.
I had the "pleasure" of being in a fellowship leadership position during a few of these international conference preparations. More on this later.
(*) I clearly remember that Kevin A.'s "what's the matter with you!!!???" was done in the usual strange Konglish accent that non-Korean members would sometimes use. The accent was firmly placed on the "you." Kevin A.'s "what's the matter with you!!!???" sort of sounded like Fred Flinstone's "Yabba-Dabba-Dooooo!" or Scooby-Doo's "Rooby-Rooby-Rooooo!"
