317 thoughts on “Encouragement, Trieber Style.”

1. Wooe! That’s a doozy of a letter. Couple of points stand out…
   Re the postings on social media “alarming” him – this is the same guy that roughly equated posting sonogram pics with porn!
   Re the “get your resources/info from fundamental sources etc” – times are tough on us buy only from the company store & tout only the company line
   Perhaps their giving IS drying up so this is his way of “tightening the belt” with a justifiable out & keeping up the pretense of all is well!

2. Alas, alas! Brother Jackass brays again. 🙄

   1. The age of the internet has ended the control of silence, secrecy, and manipulation that preachers such as Trieber, Hyles, Schaap, and so many more, have or still do practice. A technological tool, used to shine a light on the darkness, exposing hypocrisy and unbiblical, dictatorial church leadership.

      Please, to such preachers I say, bray on!

3. Dear Pastor Jack [Pre]Trieber:

   Paul cites a fine example of rulemaking:

   ‘”Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”’ [Col 2:21]!

   Paul then comments about all these things:

   — Destined to perish.
   — Appearance of wisdom.
   — Self-made religion.
   — No value against fleshy indulgence.

   Paul name for ‘do not handle, do not taste, do not touch’ is ‘the elementary principles of the world’ [Col 2:20].

   Moreover, Paul himself puts to us this question:

   ‘If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “do not handle, do not taste, do not touch”’ [Col 2:20-21]?

   Remember, Pastor Jack:

   NO value against fleshy indulgence.

   Pastor Jack: my question to you is simple.

   Why think opposite to — and lead people contrary to — the clear teaching of Saint Paul?

   Christian Socialist

   1. Because its not Christianity, CS.

4. Reminds me of “hair check” days at BJU. Walking into chapel service and seeing my ears & back of neck scrutinized by other males. That was in the 1970s. Don’t know if they still do that or not. They didn’t allow interracial dating back then either.

5. So people are posting pictures of “The beach, activities (?), and casualness (??).

   Oh noes!! 😯

   1. Apparently missionaries have to ALWAYS wear the mask of hyperspirituality: “We do not have fun. We do not go to the beach. Instead we are always handing out tracts.”

      This sort of complaint puts another restriction on missionaries to not be real but to fake it, even on facebook, to always be aware that others are watching WITH DISAPPROVAL, ready and willing to judge and condemn.

      1. At the same time, the local population is watching…

         And seeing that the only Christians they know are stiff, cannot relax, do not have fun, have no sense of cutting someone slack for being young or being new to something, and are deciding they do not want to become like these crazy foreigners who speak of a God who wants them to lose their minds this way.

      2. @PW; this is the impression I’ve received from countless missionary presentations…

      3. Jesus took the disciples “to the other side” occasionally — away from the crowds. If He needed a break, what does that say about us mere mortals? (Not that he could get a break with those guys). 😀

      4. Ah, Facebook, the downfall of many a good ministry.

6. Texts Pastor Jack forgot …

   All I ask is that you please give an honest evaluation of your ministry in comparison to that of the North Valley Baptist Church.

   ‘We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, that you may have an answer for those who take pride in appearance, and not in heart’ [2Co 5:12].

   ‘We are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves; but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding’ [2Co 10:12].

   ‘For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends’ [2Co 10:18].

   ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked’ [Rev 3:17].

   Christian Socialist

   1. Those quotations are not real because they are not the KJV.

      1. Dear fellow Snob-Clones-er:

         I suspect bro. Jack didn’t think of those texts in the KJV either.

         In the spirit of Saint Matthew who wrote: ‘And whosoever wyll compell the to goo a myle goo wyth him twayne’ [Tyndale], I’ll use a translation more archaic than the good Reverend Trieber’s.

         ‘We prayse not oure selves agayne vnto you but geve you an occasion to reioyce of vs that ye maye have some what agaynst the whych reioyce in the face and not in the hert’ [2Co 5:12].

         ‘For we cannot fynde in oure hertes to make oure selves of the nombre of them or to compare oure selves to them which laude the selves neuerthelesse whill they measure the selves with them selves and compare the selves with the selves they vnderstode nought’ [2Co 10:12].

         ‘For he that prayseth him silfe is not alowed: but he whom the lorde prayseth’ [2Co 10:18].

         ‘because thou sayst thou arte riche and incresyd with goodes and haste nede of nothynge and knowest not howe thou arte wretched and miserable poore blinde and nakyd’ [Rev 3:17].

         I’m sure that clarifies everything.

         Christian Socialist

         PS: No, I didn’t graduate. I was informed by the so-called ‘Dean of Men’ [i.e., paid Snob Clones synchophant] that people who were ‘Calvinists’ either refrained from discussing their views or they left.

         ‘Fine thank-you Sir … I’m leaving.’

         1. Perfect. Jim Berg dean of men at your departure? Be thankful you didn’t waste any more time or money at an unaccredited college. Proud of you.

         2. Dear Bald Jones grad:

            When I was at Snob Clones, Jim Berg wasn’t on the scene.

            Christian Socialist

            PS: No, I won’t tell you how old I am. So don’t ask. LOL!

7. This letter makes me want to go into foreign missions, just so I can write back as follows:

   Jack, my boy, YOU CAN’T HANDLE “an honest evaluation of [my] ministry in comparison to that of the North Valley Baptist Church.”

   And as for your suggestion that I lose weight in order to earn you continued support,
   Eat me.

   1. *your* continued support, George.

   2. Dear Big Gary:

      Jack Trieber is not worthy to untangle William Carey’s jock strap.

      Christian Socialist

8. How much “support” do churches like NVBC give one of “their” missionaries? I really have absolutely no idea what it takes financially to be a missionary…although I do know that deputation is often a prolonged process.

   1. Far, far too long… too many churches give tiny amounts so that they can boast of a large number of missionaries supported.

      1. GR – What constitutes a “tiny amount”? Are we talking a few thousand a year?

         1. $25/mo tiny

         2. I don’t know that I’ve seen less than that, but $50 & $25 per month are common support amounts for smaller congregations so they can list a bunch of missionaries.

         3. Are you serious? WTF is $25/month (a whopping $300/year) going to do? I have to tip my garage attendant 3x that just to exact a minimal level of effort in not crashing my vehicles. Do missionaries have to get 200-300 churches to support them in order to have any shot at making ends meet? Call me naïve, but how can you raise a family in a third-world country with little-to-no money? Besides that, how do they get the money to fly out and back?

         4. My old church in Michigan would start with $50 a month to missionaries that did not come from our church. They would try to raise this periodically. So after some years some were getting $100. If they came from our church (either the husband or wife) they got $200 to start. For this piddly amount whenever a missionary was on furlough they were expected at some point to show up and give an account of their ministry. I often felt sorry for them having to travel all over the country during a time they ought to have been resting to give accounts to so many churches just so they could continue seeing that $50 a month. 😕

         5. So these churches expect complete and utter servitude for that kind of pittance? Treiber wants boot-lickers and he’s only kicking in a few hundred a month? And, if I read his letter correctly, he’s expecting them to kick back 10% as a “tithe”? Something is very,very wrong here…

         6. Speaking from my experience, it was used to make the missionary obligated to the group of IFB ‘like-minded’ churches. It was felt if most or all of a missionary’s support came from one church, they would be too controlled by that church.

         7. It seems to me like churches (like NVBC) want all of the control without paying all of the freight.

         8. $25 to $100 pretty standard from what I’ve seen. Some larger churches support their own for much more. I’ve heard FBC Hammond supports their own missionaries 100% (not HAC grads but church kids).

            Last I heard “deputation” (the process of traveling and raising support) can take two or more years. Really depends in connections and the how dynamic they are.

            There is actually some risk reduced in splitting the support up into such small chunks. If a church drops your support then you’ve only lost a small percentage.

         9. @Bro Bulto: I’ve seen $30-$40 a month in recent times; which is pretty small ($360-$480 a year). Some churches support missionaries at a higher amount; I have no information as to what Jack Trieber’s church does. This hasn’t changed in decades in some churches, which is a shame.

   2. Amount needed depends on country of service and number of children. Several years ago my wife and I were exploring serving in Budapest. We had no kids at the time, and still would have had to raise $4700/month. It can take forever.

      1. Why that amount?

         I suppose you would have been paying Hungarian taxes, right?

         I’m curious to know how that budget was built. I live in Germany, and I have tried to build a budget for a pastor, and I’m not sure if I was even close to the mark.

         Did you research to find out what Hungarian pastors are paid? Did you check to see if Hungarian pastors worked a full-time or part-time job in addition to their pastoral salary? I imagine it would be harder for an English-speaking missionary to find a job in Hungary (thereby pushing up the requirement for support from churches), but maybe I’m wrong on that.

         1. The amount came from the mission organization we would have been working through. I don’t have the details on the finances anymore – this was almost 10 years ago now. We ended up in Asia with a completely different organization.

         2. Comparing what local pastors make to what missionaries sent to that country make is not a fair comparison.

            When we arrived in Albania, we needed a house. Most albanians have 1 or two children and live in a 1 bedroom apartment with their children sleeping on fold-out couches in the livingroom. Also, the stove in ablania in some of these apartments is located in the bathroom. So here we come, a family of seven people, so we have to rent a house. Then there is the “you’re American so you should pay more” fee. The monthly support also had to cover tickets for eventual trips home, some missionaries have to make trips across the border a couple times a year to be allowed to stay in the country long-term (my experience in Thailand)

            So we have a house for seven people. Well, the house is pretty much empty. Our first house didn’t even have light fixtures, only bare wires hanging from the ceiling, only a pipe coming up where a toilet, or even a squatty potty should be. We had to get EVERYTHING even though we brought as much as we could from the states (which go looted and stolen later) I remember, we were so tight on money, each month, my dad would buy one of us a pillow.

            The next thing to come out of our personal finances was renting a building. Same “You’re American” fee applied. Well, this building was an old flour mill room. We cleaned it up, purchased all the chairs, my dad installed a bathroom and a baptistry on his own dime. We paid for all literature out of our budget which we distributed weekly. We purchased Bibles and gave them to the members or sold them at a very low price. We purchased song books.

            In Albania, for the sake of vanity, all women wear their shoes about two sizes too small. After our shoes were worn out (we walked everywhere) the only place we could get shoes our size was in the neighboring country, (13 hours away) or if we got lucky in a three hour trip to the capitol.

            Our support was $4000 each month and we never had enough. Most Albanians lived well above us and were a bit embarrassed for us when they came to visit. (Albania is the poorest country in Eastern Europe)

         3. Thanks. I know what you mean about the extra fees for being American.

            I may find myself in a position to try to set up a pastor’s salary again someday, and I needed to hear this kind of information. Some of these items, we experienced in Germany, too. My houses all had bare wires for the lights, and we had to install a kitchen. Germans leave the toilets, in place, though! There are enough Americans in Germany that we can usually find light fixtures and similar items for sale on the cheap, sold by people who are returning to the States.

            So many things that most Americans would never consider!

            By the way, I think $4000 per month for a pastor is pretty cheap. The last time I built a budget for a pastor’s salary in Germany, we set it at EUR 67K per year. That was in 2005.

         4. Oh, and my dad was paying a translator monthly to translate sermons as well as the New Tribes Bible stories and the wretched ABCs of Christian Growth.

   3. I know one missionary that they support gets $100/mo.

9. I heard this from a preacher over my lunch break: “If clothing makes the heart right, how cheap is the gospel? That makes tailors in charge of salvation!”

   And how many intrepretations and styles are there of “modest clothng?” We live near an Amish community. JT’s congegation is worldly compared to their dress code.

   1. Dear Preacher’s Daughter:

      Excellent! Thank you for posting this!

      Christian Socialist

      1. You’re welcome, CS. My joy! God works in mysterious ways. If only I could reveal the source. 😯

10. Bro. Ray Martinez, NVBC staff member, better head for the gym; he’s a little on the “chunky” side. 😕

    1. *Alvin*

11. This is typical of the type of crap our pastor would mail out to missionaries and former members when we moved away from Spain.

    And people wonder why I am avoiding the reunions like the plague. 🙄

12. Yes, Mr. Bro. Trieber, sir. Pleas forgive our backslidden ways. We all know that a necktie and skirt are proper attire for a canoe trip on a tributary to the Amazon. Especially if you want the man to have heatstroke and the woman to flash the locals while entering and exiting the boat.

    1. ***Please. The pleas were during deputation.

    2. Uncle Weaver,

       What? No triple-knot sportcoat? What kind of testimony does no jacket give? Don’t forget who you are representing…have you ever seen Mr Trieber without one?

       Bro Bluto

       1. George, the term is “triple-knit”.

       2. Spell check strikes again, I presume.

          I think a white linen sport coat would be spiffy. And would reflect the sun.

          1. Might be a little tough to keep clean along the river, though.
             BTW, I’ve known you a long time, and I can’t remember ever seeing you in a necktie and skirt. Maybe you should try a Utilikilt.

    3. Well, as long as they use Armor-All on the canoe, I suppose it will be okay.

13. “Men, keep your hair cut and do not wear jewelry.”

    You mean like the high school ring fundy preachers love to wear?

14. Wow. What a sweet-heart! Jackass.

15. I have seen several people reference third-world conditions. Beyond the fact that that is a dated term due to the fall of the Soviet Union, we were in an area that was not exactly poor but not rich either. We lived subject to the whims of a tyrant many Americans are unfamiliar with: The Exchange Rate. We would approach our payday with excitement and dread.
    Some months we were okay, some months we could barely afford food. It varied that much. It kind of felt like playing the lottery. Yay! We get to go to McDonald’s this month AND buy real milk!
    If you go to http://www.xe.com you can see how poorly the dollar is doing.
    I feel for people who are trying to scrape by in places like Eastern Europe where the countries are entering the Eurozone. I know the Brazilian real has increased against the dollar as well.

    1. I think third world has evolved to mean developing countries.

       1. True. Since most third-world countries were poor countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America the definition has shifted. I am just nit-picking I guess.

16. All very interesting. Two questions:

    1) Why complain? It’s this pastor’s choice as to whether to send the money. Take the king’s gold, do the king’s bidding? Does he not have a right to say, “If you want my donation, thn I expect XY&Z.”? I think he does. If you take my money I get to set the rules. Right?

    2) Some of you have mentioned being missionaries in places like Spain and Brasil. Why in the hell would you send missionaries to to Spain and Brasil? Spain has bee Christianized for going on 2000 years. Brasil since the 1500’s. what gives?

    1. You can make the case for #1 in business and/or politics. This has no place in church missions. There are some things that are within Biblically prescribed behavior that is reasonable to expect of missionaries, none of the things listed fits within that.

       Re: #2 you have a lot to learn of the fundy ways, grass hopper.

    2. For a taste of how people would consider Spain & Brazil to be in need of missions, you should check out a post from a couple weeks ago about a site stressing the desperate need for thousands more churches right here in the states in practically every county in the country (although not all).

       http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2013/08/fwotw-bsalt-org/

    3. (1) Proverbs 23:

       1 When you sit to dine with a ruler,
       note well what is before you,
       2 and put a knife to your throat
       if you are given to gluttony.
       3 Do not crave his delicacies,
       for that food is deceptive.

       (2) Spain wasn’t fully re-converted from Islam until about the same time they discovered America. But yes, your point is a good one. I think the SBC no longer sends traditional missionaries to South America, except possibly tribal areas. They may send support staff with specialized skills to help the existing Baptist associations in those countries.

    4. 1. Most IFB missionaries are not supported 100% from one church. Rather, they have numerous different churches supporting them. If EVERY church demands that the missionaries follow their own personal preferences, that is an unfair and overwhelming burden.

       Fundies like this equate essentials of the faith, like salvation through Christ alone, with nonessentials like clothing styles and types of songs they sing.

       2. Did you read his list? If he’d find churches that sing contemporary music, read John Piper, or have women attend wearing trousers unacceptable, what do you think he’d think of churches that speak in tongues, baptize infants, have female pastors, etc.?

    5. Why send IFB missionaries to Spain and Brazil? Probably because those are Roman Catholic countries, and the IFB don’t consider them to be Christians. Simple as that.

       1. The Catholic Church – the biggest proponent of sexual abuse in the history if humankind. So we have another religious fanatic on this board, just like the racist fanatic Uncle Wilver who supports the “Braves” baseball team? Why is this blog interspersed with these loony freaks?

          1. ‘Loony freak’? I BEG your pardon? I’m not RC but a number of my friends are, and of the RC folks on this forum, I have seen only decent people trying to obey God and their conscience. Your attitude towards them is not a whit better than the IFB party line. You have no right to judge them- that it’s God’s job. I think you owe all of us an apology.

          2. “Shandra” is a troll! Don’t feed the troll!

    6. #1) If I take your money and you have rules on how I am to act, that’s OK. But I am also taking RobM’s money. And pastor’s wife’s money. And others. And they have rules. But their rules are ever so slightly different than yours. And in some cases, the rules actually contradict your rules.

       #2) IFB missionaries go to places where the Gospel is desparately needed. Say Orange County California:
       http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2011/06/home-missions-to-unreached-places-like-california/
       Or the State of Maine:
       http://www.stufffundieslike.com/2013/07/missions-to-rural-maine/

       1. oh good LORD, not Orange County. We already have a Mark Driscoll copycat here. We don’t need an IFB church here too.

    7. 1) There is a difference between complaint and lament. However, the lament is not that the church will cut off support if people don’t meet expectations. It is that this man has put his own rules of personal weight, dress, etc. ahead of preaching the gospel of Christ.

       2) I have no idea. But I kind of think the traditional idea of “missionary” isn’t very relevant in our rapidly globalizing world anyway.

    8. Spain did not have religious freedom until 1978. I don’t think it is unreasonable for a non Catholic Church planter to come in and introduce another option. The Catholic Church has its own problems, doctrinally and otherwise, too.

    9. And IMHO, a gift ceases to be a gift when you put all sorts of strings attached to it. If you want to flaunt how much you give to missions, then you need not try to make the missionary your slave.

17. For several years I worked in a country where we had to cancel evening services as it was too dangerous to be out at night. That decision was made by the national church, not by the U.S. missionaries. Many of our beach “outings” were baptisms. I wonder how well Pastor Trieber knows the countries of the missionaries he is supporting?

    1. Based on my experiences in fundamentalist churches, Trieber knows only enough about those countries to decry their cultural practices as pagan and heathen and proclaim how cold-hearted they are to the gospel and how much independent, fundamental missionaries are needed.

       1. Jack Trieber is a pretty nice guy actually. He’s faithful to what he believes. Faithful to his wife no scandals do I agree with all his stuff..no..but I respect the man..and Jesus will decide what’s up when we die. In the mean time I’m not going to criticize a guy who has given his life to preach the Gospel and be used to build a church. You all better remember you’re going to give account of your idle words.

          1. And you will give an account for your religious platitudes, Barbara Gosselin.

             “Jesus will decide what’s up when we die.”

             What the hell does that even mean? He can’t decide now? We might as well not say anything because it would do any good anyway because Jesus can’t decide until we die?

             No point in criticizing the mannagawd until Jesus decides what’s up when we die and give an account for our Idle words.

             Geez, what brainless, mind numbing, man-worshipping “logic.”

             B.R.1

18. And the hunt for the staff or missionary who leaked this letter IS ON!

    😯

    1. We’ll see how effective Jack Trieber’s IT department is.

    2. I have a sneaking suspicion. 😉

       And no, I don’t know anything solid, and no, it wasn’t me. 😛

    3. Could have been a missionary who received the letter.

       1. If you knew the letter was aimed at you, why not leak it?

19. No grace. It appears to be all about appearance. Forbid you should be a fat, lazy, non-kjv, movie-going, pants (for the women)wearing, non-tie (for the men)toting, less than 10% tithing and additional not offering, not sound in the faith, uh, faithing, long haired hippy man, short-skirt wearing woman, non-hymn singing, hippy freak sort of liberal leftest antinomian non-christian…did I say hippy?… sort of heathen-type of whatever it is that is not like me sort of…I lost my train of thought.

20. Dear Pastor Trieber:

    Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’

    “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’

    Which of these men went home right with God?

    Christian Socialist

    1. I think that should be the theme passage of SFL… 😎

       1. Dear Mag:

          I have to wonder whether people don’t put this to Pastor Jack. Perhaps they don’t know of this text as it is unlikely that he would preach it.

          Christian Socialist

21. Initially I thought that Darrell had added things to this letter. Then I had the sad realization that this “letter of encouragement to our missionaries” was real.

22. I’m assuming Darrell doesn’t like Trieber or the 49ers.

    1. Sorry, I’m an Eagles fan.

       1. Like.

23. He has no idea how stupid he sounds because he’s never experienced a day in his life when someone actually questioned or opposed his highness and he was forced to listen.

    1. Isn’t that usually the case among Fundy Pastors (i.e. Hyles and Schaap)

24. I call Shenanigans since there is a topic of Trieber and not an accompanying Alvin Martinez song.

    1. Ah, so it’s you.

       You’re persistent, I’ll give you that.

       1. It took you that long to figure it out?

          1. I knew it right away too. Ugh.

    2. Wish they all could be California Girls…

       1. I wish they all could be West Coast Baptist girls. The girls at Golden State are alright but Trieber and Martinez have them on lockdown. Just something about the water at West Coast/Lancaster Baptist.

25. The West Coast Baptist Promo video, best Fundy video ever made.

26. Did anyone else notice that the word “pray” was not in there, neither did he mention actually reading that KJV at all?

    Funny, but with a few small changes, his “rules” wouldn’t be all *that* bad:

    1. Be faithful to a local church and make Sunday church a priority in your life.
    2. Give tithes and offerings from a heart of gratitude.
    3. Live a lifestyle of witnessing. Freely share God’s love with those He puts in your path.
    4. Live holy lives – separated from sin because it comes between you and God, not because of what a man says.
    5. Avoid blasphemous entertainment
    6. Men, dress in a masculine way with an emphasis on modesty.
    7. Ladies, dress in a feminine way with an emphasis on modesty.
    8. Stay sound in the faith, and do not change what you believe with changing times or for any reason other than the Lord’s clear leading.
    9. Preach God’s Word, His love, His grace, His truth, and His Gospel.
    10. Sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs. Avoid music that draws your spirit away from God.
    11. Carefully choose the best Bible translation in the language of the country where you serve. (Our church prefers the KJV and uses it exclusively.)
    12. Carefully vet all information and resources against God’s word and what you know to be true.
    13. Cultivate a personal relationship with God through personal prayer and Bible study. Allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you.

    Still don’t agree with the idea of putting a list of rules on your missionaries or forbidding them to go to the beach – ridiculous – but I thought this list was a little more reasonable. I know some of y’all will probably have some edits….I’m interested to hear what you have to say. 🙂

    1. Your rules are definitely more reasonable than Jack’s, but there’s still and emphasis on rules there, rather than the leading of the Holy Spirit, that I disagree with.

       1. Good point. I’m still on the tail end of getting out of fundydom, and 2 years at Fundy U didn’t help. I’m still trying to figure it out. 🙂

          I didn’t make this clear, but I would say that these are just the rules that I would hold myself to. Not something that I would expect — ugh, I hate that word! “You are expected to…” — anyone else to do. I would *expect* others to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their own lives!

    2. I would rather know how many folks the missionary is LOVING than how modest he and his wife is. I’d like to know if they’re dressing like the culture so they can blend into their foreign community. I’d like to know how many children have been fed instead of how many decision cards were turned in. I’d like to know how their love for others is helping to minimize the crime rate against women.

       1. All excellent points.

    3. This list is much more what I would expect from churches that claim to follow the Bible and to believe in both the priesthood of the believer and personal soul liberty. Why don’t they do this? Why must they control people so and put their own personal preferences on others?

       1. PW, I don’t know why they must do this. It grieves me too. 🙁 It’s a religion of law, not a religion of love!!!

          Would you mind telling me in what ways exactly it is “more than you would expect”? What would you say is basic, and what can go?

       2. Sorry. My sentence was unclear. I meant that your list of requirements was definitely (much) more Biblical (which I would expect a Bible-believing church to be) than the rules Trieber expects missionaries to follow.

          1. Because your list while asking for modesty and appropriateness and holiness allows for the individual believer to be led of Christ in those areas instead of one local church forcing its own man-made preferences on other believers.

          2. Oh, I read a “than” that wasn’t there. 😛 (I’ve never seen George do THAT before! 😉 ) No worries.

             And yeah, I’m really over the whole “rules” thing.

    4. How about this instead?

       *Develop a relationship of trust with a local congregation or with local believers if there truly is no church
       *Ask the local congregation what you can do for them and make plans to provide it
       *Develop friendships and working relationships with local people in your mission field
       *Learn to behave in ways that do not cause people in your mission field to stumble
       -Wear culturally modest attire (remember that standards of modesty vary widely throughout the world)
       -Learn local liturgy and hymnody
       -Progress beyond the working knowledge of the local language that you should already have; learn to read the local Bible fluently, or if possible work toward a translation if there is none as yet; learn to preach lucidly and compellingly in the local language
       -Be informed about local politics, popular culture, annual holidays, and so forth: have your eyes and ears open
       -Don’t reinvent the wheel: don’t assume that you are the first person to have a particular good idea; find out if somebody is working on it already and if so how you can help

       1. Trieber said that his “rules” were for “all Christians” so that’s what I based mine on. But for missionaries specifically, your points are excellent, and I think much more helpful than his! I definitely read carefully in case God leads me to the mission field one day. Thanks for your input!

27. Wa Hoo Weekend! Hello all. Did anyone else trip over this? “Dear Missionary Greetings from the North Valley Baptist Church! We are experiencing an incredible summer here in beautiful Northern California. God has been so good to us.” I’m struggling to express how it strikes me so here’s my best effort but first some info from Wikipedia on the Silicon Valley: “Silicon Valley has the highest average high-tech salary at $144,800.[Largely a result of the high technology sector, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita.”

    “We’re in beautiful California (no regard for the undesirable locations or living conditions the missionary may be experiencing) and it just happens to be one of the weathiest areas of the U.S. God has been so good to us (we’re so special!)(What if the missionaries aren’t feeling so blessed?) however, if you don’t shape up and conform to our rules and standards, you won’t get your allowance any longer.

    I’m a former missionary kid, too, and reading the deputation accounts have caused some flashbacks. My Dad was with the Consertative Bapt. Mission Board (1950’s) and left his family to raise the money for a domestic assignment. When we finally arrived on the mission field in Maine, the promised support didn’t show up. Dad just knew God had called him there and the effects were devastating; after we returned home he had a complete nervous breakdown which presented as the classic symptoms of a heart attack. God restored Dad to health and he went on to pastor several churches.

28. “…use only King James”

    If it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!

29. Dear Pastor Trieber:

    I attend a church that uses the lectionary system for preaching through the Bible. It just happens that the gospel text for today was Lu 13:10-17. I have a question about a point the preacher made.

    ‘When Jesus healed the woman who was doubled over for eighteen years, she praised God! But when Jesus shut up the legalists, everybody started rejoicing!’

    Why is that?

    Christian Socialist

30. This same mog came to my former church and at a building fund banquet suggested we consider taking out second mortgages to give to the building fund. We left the church quickly after that.

    1. Are you SERIOUS???? I think Dave Ramsey just had an aneurism.

31. Serious as a heart attack!

    At his many, many building fund banquets over the years, Trieber encouraged and lauded members who sold houses, cars, boats, trailers/RVs, cashed in insurance policies, etc. to keep HIS church machine rolling.

    At one of the early NVBC banquets in the 80’s, the church didn’t quite make the goal$$, was berated, given more pledge cards to fill out, until the goal was met. Nothing has changed in the 30plus years. Trieber has mastered the art of squeezing every last cent out of ‘his people’, for every project he creates in the name of Christ, and for the glory of God, of course!

32. If dropped I’m sure the $25 a month will be greatly missed.

33. So Trieber would not support a missionary who dressed like the natives and had long hair?? Oh that’s right, Trieber would drop Hudson Taylor like a hot potato

34. Man I go to a fundamentalist church I’m the weirdo that doesn’t fit in, but the pastor is not your typical fundamental pastor he preaches the truth with love and his sermons are very well studied out and Jack Trieber as well as the rest of us will stand at the judgement seat of Christ..watch what you say..you all sound like you’re children of the devil not Christians!

    1. Damning your man and the movement with faint praise, ma’am.

       You just freely admitted that typical fundy pastors don’t preach truth with love (I think they don’t preach truth at all), or even sermons that are well-studied out.

       From what I’ve seen of Trieber he’s just like all the rest, just in a different package.

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