See part 1 here.
BBC Berkeley's daily operations were directed by Ed Kang and
Kelly Kang once Becky and Paul Kim started BBC Boston. Both churches referred
to themselves as Berkland during this time. Somewhere around 1995 or 1996,
Berkland bought a big warehouse in San Leandro and the Berkeley church started
having Sunday service and other activities at this location. They still used
the Alcatraz building too, since it was closer to campus and useful for smaller
gatherings like prayer meetings and such.
The ministries that got started or were present during this
time at Berkeley include:
- Joyland children/youth ministry
- College ministry (biggest by far)
- ImpACT which started out as an outreach summer camp and mentoring program for youth in Oakland schools
- Young Adult ministry
- International Student Ministry
The college ministry was getting quite large by this time
(1995). My estimate would be around 200-250 students all together. It was
getting increasingly hard to find a venue on campus that could fit everyone.
Thus, it was decided to split the group into three separate "zones."
They were arbitrarily named Zone A, B, and C and these zones started meeting
separately on Friday nights at the Berkeley Campus. The main event that college
students were invited to regularly were Friday night gatherings and to make it
more manageable and to increase potential for future growth, three separate
groups were created. I believe this was the precursor to what is now Koinonia,
Praxis, A2F, etc.
Side note that is important: KBSK was the original name of
the college ministry at the Berkeley Campus in the 1980's. It stood for Korean Baptist Student Koinonia. This got changed to ABSK, or Asian Baptist Student Koinonia. When BBC Boston was planted, they also called their
college ministry ABSK. I did a quick google search just now and it looks they
kept this ministry name and it's now at 18 different campuses.
An important event happened around this time. At one of the
college ministry outings by Zones to the Northern California mountains, a
college ministry "staff" member named William Lee died in a tragic
accident. He was swimming in a cold lake after a hike and passed away due to
cramps that inhibited him to swim. Some of the college students were also
swimming and tried to save him. Everyone came back from the outing abruptly and
met at the San Leandro building where they were told of this tragic news. This
event catalyzed the focus in missions in Tashkent Uzbekistan and they named
something in William Lee's honor. William Lee was held up as an example of
sacrificial love and the college students were all commissioned to live up to
his example and stand in his space that was now left vacant.
The Korean speaking Berkland church also used the San
Leandro building and sometime after the William Lee tragedy, there was a
scandal in the Korean speaking church. This church was pastored by Becky's
brother, Pastor Andy Lee. An affair occurred between Pastor Andy Lee and one of the
Korean congregation members. Not much detail was shared but this event was
important as the Korean speaking ministry ended up taking ownership/usership of
the San Leandro building. Berkland Berkeley resumed meeting at Willard Middle School.
(There was also a short stint of Sunday service held at Thousand Oaks Baptist
Church in Berkeley.) I believe Becky's brother, Pastor Andy Lee ended up moving to
Boston shortly after. Here is a useful article about what happened and a seemingly reliable account of what happened to the church in the San Leandro location on Merced Street.
After BBC Boston started, more churches got started in
various places, typically near a major college campus. Here are the ones that
got started when Berkland was still under one umbrella. This was the general
order with the year if known.
- San Jose/Silicon Valley (1993?)
- Los Angeles (1994)
- Tashkent, Uzbekistan
- Seoul, Korea
- Seattle
- Davis
- New York
The pattern was that a church got started almost every year.
A team of people would be chosen, I'm not sure how, to go and start these
churches. Sometimes, the team members would make sense, like someone got a post
doc position somewhere or a job or something but other times, it would not make
any sense. The congregation was just told that this is the church we are
planting and these are the people who are going. I felt that many did not like
their new "assignment." Also, church leaders were switched around
from time to time for no transparent reason. Folks would serve at a church
plant for 1-3 years and then abruptly be moved back to Berkeley or moved to
another BBC location.
The church also started sending missionaries to Seoul and
Tashkent Uzbekistan, more so to the latter. Short term and some longer term.
All this time, Becky was revered and spoke at many retreats
at Berkland Berkeley as a special guest. She directed large mission trips
during the summer, with over 100 students from the various Berkland churches
(mostly Berkeley and Boston since those were the two biggest). She would lead
Bible studies and give sermons that were 2-3 hours in length. She would openly
rebuke some leaders during her Bible studies and they seemed honored to be
"loved" by her in this way. Ed and Kelly Kang and most of the leaders
spoke of her highly and looked up to her, almost as one who could do no wrong.
She lived in Boston with Paul Kim and their two children but she would fly to
the Bay Area quite often and also flew to Korea and Tashkent to help plant
churches and direct the ministries starting there.
To be continued in Part 3. (Corrections and additions are
welcome. Please comment.)
April 23, 2019: Andy Lee is Becky's brother and his full name has been added.
July 23, 2019: Slight correction in the original name of the college ministry per OlderNWiser comment. (Thanks Older N Wiser!)
April 23, 2019: Andy Lee is Becky's brother and his full name has been added.
July 23, 2019: Slight correction in the original name of the college ministry per OlderNWiser comment. (Thanks Older N Wiser!)
Thank you for posting this. Ed speaking of Becky highly is an understatement. Becky was treated and demanded to be treated as a pope-like figure. P Ed's letter was correct in that regard, except Ed failed to mention that both Kelly and him demanded the same pope-like admiration. A song titled "Worthy Life" was composed at Berkland and sung doing that time to honor Becky and her husband. Ed's problem with Becky was not over this ant colony/echo chamber/Confucian/Korean system of governance as evident by how Gracepoint is run to this day, but rather he wanted to be pope and run things his way. He felt Becky's UBF tactics no longer worked and growth wasn't happening as he felt handcuffed by Becky. Around 2005, staff members were summoned by graduating class to the Avondale home of Ed and Kelly. P Ed broke the news that way by pointing to Becky's many infractions and demanded loyalty from staff members. There were a series of meetings in Irvine a year prior to the letter, where Ed tried to have the support of other Berkland pastors to rein in Becky. At the end, no other pastor broke rank to the level of signing his letter. Ed even lost his best personal friends of Andy Pak and Chris Pak eventually. We were taught relationship was something special. Members went through a course using an obscure book title Covenantal Relationship. What a farce.
ReplyDeleteWhich of Becky's UBF tactics did Ed feel were longer working?
DeleteAbolish using Korean titles such as JDSN and SMN and being less Korean in general. Update style of worship songs and dress code for sundays (jeans, t shirts, make up for girls.) These were superficial changes. The weekly reflections the staff had to submit with their list of sins continued. WRs were freely shared within the leadership and they gossip quite a bit out of "love" for the person. The rebuking sessions and obeying your leader continued of course. The undergrads don't get to see what happens under the surface.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThen why stop there? Why not renounce other abusive practices developed by UBF to gradually manipulate students into ceding control over their personal lives? Seems like a break from Becky could have been great opportunity for major reform and atonement.
DeleteThat is some irony that you mentioned above. It seems to me Pastor Ed and Kelly have just basically continued a lot of the same practices but in varying volumes. Yes, they may have removed the title but some students to an extent kiss ass to their leaders and cling on to every word to their leader says. Some older members have dropped JDSN and SMN. The Korean culture runs strong in them. The weekly reflection and prayer meetings seems like are still the same. Nothing really changed. Some of my peers and I sarcastically called it, the let's come up with who has the more egregious sin of the week and turn it so our leaders can deem us as really trying to follow God. Dont' why the idiotic leaders think Christian life is all about repentance. That's like one of the worst theologies built on nothing but fear. I don't think the rebuking was necessarily bad. I just disliked a big portion of the rebuking was just some dumbass peer who had no wisdom had to go bitch to a leader about something and it was a pointless clarification session. And yes we're in 2019 and one of my friends as staff at GP (thank God he left recently though) had to deal with it and told me a lot of this stuff has not really changed much. And term of Christ's "love" is so fake at GP some times. Don't get me there were some amazing brothers and sisters in Christ who were extremely real in how they loved but many people gave me the impression it was all a game to leverage the most salvations and how to keep you in their church. In summary, I don't think Pastor Ed did much to change anything from what it sounds like. The stuff is cyclical. I guess there are pockets of leaders who have smartened up and have learned better but the top is still built on the old crowd. Let's just say one of Pastor Ed's son attempted to rebel and challenge a lot of these things only to not really get anywhere with anything and just end up following.
DeleteWhat changes did Ed's son try to put in place?
Deletei'm old school. I went to Gracepoint when it was still called Berkland Baptist. Pastor Andy Pak was the main preacher in my first year. Then I definitely got to know pastor Ed Kang pretty well too. They both really preached the gospel. My criticisms below may be outdated so please take it with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteI have to say I learned a lot at Berkland. The gospel was preached but the way ministry was practiced did not reflect Christ. Of course, no church or individual is perfect. However, there was a deep, essential sickness in the church that was hidden from most of the congregation.
The root of the "illness" was Becky JDSN. She was essentially the HEAD of the Berkland church. I can say that she was the Berkland equivalent of the "Pope" of the catholic church. She basically controlled how all the various BK churches functioned around the country. That kind of top down type of ministry was reflected in the "leader-worshipping" that ultimately is the root of this illness. We should be worshipping Christ not our leaders. This becomes a type of "idol" worship rather than worship of Christ.
In many ways, this may lead to a superficial growth in one's spirituality that is just a shell that is supported by the leaders and the church. At BK, there was very little personal discovery and wrestling with God but rather every spiritual experience was in the context of the church at BK.
I used to have many non-Christians friends my freshman year. And I had many opportunities to share the gospel with them both overtly by sharing the message of Christ crucified, but also being a witness in the way I lived my life.
However, by my sophomore year, nearly all my friendships and relationships were replaced with BK people alone. That was not only encouraged but almost enforced. You basically spent every free moment doing Berkland events/meetings. In fact, if you spent time outside of Berkland, it was frowned upon. That kind of isolation prevents real growth and fosters unhealthy dependency. I'm not saying go out partying to strengthen your walk with God. I'm saying that it's easy to be a Christian at church, but it's harder to practice your Christianity when nobody is looking.
That's why when many people leave BK, they lose their walk with God
because their relationship with God was almost entirely based on the very human relationships between leader and follower. However, BK used to suggest that people who left Berkland were on their way to losing their relationship with God even if people were leaving to go to another fellowship.
I know BK has changed some, (not just their name to Gracepoint). I know Gracepoint is no longer a partner with the original Berkland (Becky JDSN). I hope that means that the top down type of style has been changed. Also, hopefully leaders reflect a sense of humility in their Christian character. Never once did I ever hear or felt a leader share their weakness and acknowledge that they are lacking in some way. Again, I believe this was a philosophy of ministry that was imitated all the way from the top leader down to the small group leaders.
This video here is somewhat recent.. What's Ed doing here? Is he trying to figure out how to reform the rule-based inward-looking organization that he has built? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGv9hRLc2hs
DeleteThat's not what I hear.
DeleteThis post is correct which is slightly different from your history written above. In 1991, Paul/Becky went to Boston. Berkland in Berkeley was led by Pastor Andy Pak (and his wife Grace). The next year (1992 school year), Ed Kang came back and was the leader. So for 1 year (1991-1992 school year), Andy was the head of Berkland in Berkeley (not Ed).
DeleteThank you.
DeleteThose of you college students who are looking for a church should check out Gracepoint. However, if this same type of ministry of leader-worship is being practiced then I daresay you are at risk by going to this church. The size, the food, the activities, the messages, are all good. However, in the long run, your spiritual growth may be better served elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI think one criteria that is key to Christ-like leadership is humility. I did not see a shred of that in Becky JDSN and that kind of leadership trickled down to nearly all of the staff.
Once my leader told me that Pastor Ed Kang was the spiritual cap of the church and unless he grows, nobody below can grow. Likewise, if my immediate leader is not growing then I being a follower cannot grow. That kind of top down leadership and ministry style works well in an army but not in the body of Christ.
John, I was wondering what happened back when these sorts of blogs were more common in the late 00's and early 2010's. Was there a surge in the number of people in Gracepoint leaving? Was there public discussion or were things made hush-hush early on? I know at least right now Gracepoint leaders seem to brush off the content on the blogs and reviews as extremist and don't really go into what happened in the past and why people have the criticism they do, but was there ever a point when the controversy was more out in the open?
ReplyDeleteMost of them are down for one reason or another. A few of them reported being hacked. I can't correlate the development of these blogs with another phenomenon. Things have always been hush hush when it comes to Berkland/Gracepoint. That's one of the main problems. Most of the recent comments and reviews seem to imply that things are still quite hush hush.
ReplyDeleteIf you see the staff list, you'll see that almost every single person on staff are home grown. Why is that? What sort of culture would produce this?
How do you know they are home grown? Is it that you recognize the people?
DeleteYes
DeleteHomegrown meaning former student members?
DeleteMost, if not all.
DeleteWhat happened to twisted gracepoint hosted on WordPress?
DeleteI am not sure. Anyone have info?
DeleteThe significance of that being that no one joins Gracepoint except those recruited and retained as a college student?
ReplyDeleteIt perpetuates the established isolated/bubble culture.
Deletehi John and other ex GP, Do you guys have any ways like email to contact with? I really need some help
ReplyDeleteHi unknown stranger,
ReplyDeletei complied the list of folks who were willing to be contacted. some are very old so may not be valid anymore. if you'd like to contact me, please leave your contact info in a comment and i will reach out to you.
quentin0111 at gmail dot com (former UCI a2f attendee)
parkys229 at gmail dot come (no longer in Gracepoint but believes Gracepoint is a God-driven church)
r a d I a n t j u b I l e e at gmail dot come (with no spaces left many years ago currently in Seattle)
Jaydubya2020 at gmail dot com
Truth dot seeker2100 at gmail dot com
Zacherylovesthelord at gmail dot com (former UC Riverside)
sk1nnyzebra at yahoo dot com (used to attend)
gracepoint dot reject at gmail dot com
If I listed you above and you want to be removed, just let me know.
if you're from austin, you're welcome to contact me at aeowrites at outlook . com
DeleteHi -- sorry! I somehow locked myself out of that account! ^ so won't be able to reply there. If I get it fixed/make a new one will lyk.
DeleteIt's been a while for me since my last visit to these blogs, but I'm the former operator of gracepointisdangerous.com and wrote formerberklander.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteFYI, the site went down and remained down because I was getting increasingly bogged down with DoS attacks, hacking, and other apparent attempts to bring down the site. It could have been GPers or it could have been Russian or North Korean hackers, but who really has an interest in bringing that old site down? And with such tenacity! Every day I was getting alerts, having to make adjustments, restart the server, etc. This was almost 10 years ago before AWS, Google Cloud Services, etc. became so ubiquitous and cheap. I have a life and a job so I left it alone and hoped these blogs would continue.
Anyhow, one correction on the history. You wrote: "Side note that is important: ABSK was the original name of the college ministry at the Berkeley Campus in the 1980's. It stands for Asian Baptist Student Koinonia."
Actually in the 1980s it was Korean Baptist Student Union, or KBSU. We even made jokes about it at New Student Welcome Night and called it "Keub-soo" (KBSU) in a funny video to newcomers. When I arrived on the Berkeley campus in the 90s it was KBSU. While I was a student, I remember the shift we were starting to make to be less exclusive to Koreans and expand to more Christians. Actually, for a very brief time it was KBSK, but quickly shifted to ABSK. ABSK doesn't seem like a big leap but it was for the time, and of course you can see how it progressed through the years to take out the "Baptist" part and be more palatable and inviting to new students. This is also the time when we changed Friday Night Bible Study to "The Friday Night" which was actually hard for many leaders to stomach (too progressive LOL!) but they all embraced it eventually. I was there when they went to Zones A B C. When I graduated Cal, it was ABSK.
Thank you for that correction and for having those sites up when you did.
DeleteHi OlderNWiser. Thank you for your blogs. Any plans to restart them now that it's easier?
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DeleteHi OlderNWiser, that website appears hacked/hijacked and will redirect the viewer to a virus site. Is there any way to reclaim that domain again so people do not get infected by a computer virus?
DeleteHey OlderNWiser, do you ever recall seeing a gracepointhorrorstories.com? Around mid-2010, I received an anonymous tip-off about how gracepointhorrorstories1.wordpress.com and gracepointhorrorstories2.wordpress.com were setup as mirror sites to Toxic Faith and Twisted Gracepoint that had just been hacked, corresponding to domain names (I don't know what they were) registered by someone in Alameda, CA.
Deletehow come nobody ever has anything to say about Paul Kim? What was his role?
ReplyDeleteGreat question. When I attended Berkland/Gracepoint at Berkeley, Paul Kim was almost an invisible presence. I understand he was involved with the Southern Baptist Convention at the denomination level so I'm sure that took up some of his time but I literally have no idea what he did on a day to day basis. Whenever Becky Kim was in town, which was often, she led the bible studies and gave messages. I assume Paul gave the messages on Sunday at Boston but not having been there, I don't know for sure. I rarely ever heard Ed or Kelly Kang talk about Paul Kim as a mentor or as their leader. The focus was definitely on Becky.
DeleteWill part 3 be coming soon?
ReplyDeleteIt was posted! https://gracepoint-berkeley.blogspot.com/2019/04/history-of-gracepoint-ministries.html
DeleteI attended the Boston church in the early 2010s. I left after a very public falling out with Becky (basically a shouting match in front of everyone). In hindsight, I had grown not to like the church for some time but the friendships made it difficult for me to leave. So my clean break was a blessing in disguise.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I think many share the sentiment that relationships make it very hard for people to leave Berkland/Gracepoint and also that they tolerate things for a while until it all just becomes too much.
Delete