Tag Archives: missionaries

Standards

Encouragement, Trieber Style.

317 Comments

The following letter apparently went out from “pastor” Jack Trieber to all of his supported missionaries. I’m sure if you’re trying to plant IFB churches in the strangely unconverted fields of wherever-there-are-heathens receiving a missive like this must really be a blessing to your heart.

Here it is submitted for your reading pleasure with a few annotations by yours truly.

From: Tom Apusen [redacted]
To: [redacted]
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2013 1:40 PM
Subject: Letter from Pastor Trieber

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.

For the past thirty-eight years, the North Valley Baptist Church has been faithful in its prayer and financial support of its missionaries. I can assure you that your names are being brought before our Lord on a weekly basis. By the grace of God, we look forward to continuing this relationship with you.

Oftentimes as I read newsletters from supported and prospective missionaries, I become mystified at the apparent changes in spiritual direction. Many missionaries are dropping their independent, fundamental Baptist stance and adopting the practices of a liberal crowd. I would like to remind and encourage you that, since you became a missionary with the North Valley Baptist Church, we have not changed. We still believe that Christians ought to do these things:

1. Be faithful to all services—Sunday school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and mid-week
2. Give tithes and offerings
3. Go soul-winning every week
4. Live holy lives!
o Avoid the movie theater and blasphemous entertainment.
o Men, keep your hair cut and do not wear jewelry.
o Ladies, wear modest skirts and dresses.
o Stay sound in the faith, and stand for old-time religion.
o Preach God’s Word.
o Sing songs, hymns, and spiritual songs—not contemporary or rock-and-roll music.
o Use only the King James Bible. I realize that many of you are on foreign fields and work with various
languages; but those in English–speaking countries should use only King James.
o Get information from fundamental resources, not from compromising material.

Multiple missionary comments and pictures on social media sites [ed. Big Brother is watching you!] have also been alarming to me. The beach, activities, and casualness are regularly being posted instead of ministries, baptisms, and services. God’s Word says, “Always abounding in the work of the Lord.”

I also believe that as servants of God we ought to concern ourselves with our physical condition. Recently, I saw a picture of an overweight missionary family [ed. On SFL, perhaps?]. It was very obvious that their weight would restrict them in their work of Christ. I am not suggesting that everyone must be slim and trim and weigh 100 lbs., but I do think it is very important that we eat right and keep our bodies under control so we can serve the Lord to the best of our abilities.

Please do not think I am trying to single out or dismiss any of our missionaries. We most certainly want to keep you as our missionary, and we are grateful that you are representing the King of kings on foreign fields in our stead. However, we do want to make sure our missionary offerings are being sent to missionaries who mirror the philosophies and direction of our ministry. All I ask is that you please give an honest evaluation of your ministry in comparison to that of the North Valley Baptist Church. I am not looking for “sinless perfection” or hyper-fundamentalism. Our ministry is an open book, and you can capture what we believe through our archived services online at http://www.nvbc.org/.

If, however, you find that your ministry assessment is contrary to our beliefs and objectives, we will not
immediately drop your support; we will undoubtedly wait until you are home on furlough so you can find another ministry to replace our support. It is imperative that we support missionaries who share our principles and vision for the cause of Christ.

Thank you for your consideration of this letter. God bless you, and thank you for serving the King of kings.

Your friend,

Bro. Trieber

“Your friend”? With friends like that I think I’d pretty much swear off having friends.

Outreach

Soulwinning Abroad

169 Comments

“People are so much more open to the gospel in East Botswana than they are here in the USA.”

Somehow the willingness of people to take tracts (that they can’t read), listen politely to a Romans Road presentation (that they don’t understand), and allow themselves to be coerced into saying The Prayer(TM) (that they can’t possibly grasp) translates into the idea that the rest of the world is still open to the Gospel while cold-hearted and money-minded Americans just aren’t that interested anymore. This, of course, means that money is much better spent on planting Independent Fundamental Baptist churches in Guinea-Bissau than caring for the homeless people who keep making a mess of the street in front of our church.

If you believe that the most effective evangelism is done in foreign lands by people who have little formal training, don’t understand the culture, and barely speak the language…you might be a fundamentalist.

Preachers

Commandments Concerning Titles and Honorifics

132 Comments

hyles

And concerning the etiquette of addressing pastors, missionaries, evangelists and suchlike you have no need that I write unto you for doth not nature itself show that it is a shame for a pastor not to put on airs and demand that his given name no longer be uttered by mere people in the pew? For though we may sing that we “say brother and sister ’round here” we know that it’s not quite that simple. And the honorifics of the pastor shall then be on thus wise:

It goes with almost without saying that thy pastor shalt be called “Pastor” or possibly “Pastor Smith” for as far as you are concerned “Pastor” is his first name even if he is only a hireling. But if thou shalt abide in the cleft of the rock and in that land of milk, honey, and NASCAR known as the Bible Belt thou mayest also sometimes tack “Pastor” to his first or last name if he shall allow it. For Pastor Billy-Bob doth often proclaim that he dost not care what you call him as long as you don’t call him late for a potluck. So shalt thou keep the distinction between clergy and those who only perch in the pew.

Thy missionaries and evangelists likewise shall be called “preacher” if they are there to preach, “missionary” if they are there to mission, and “brother so-and-so” if they went to a college where we don’t send our young people. And all shall know that these are among the chiefs of the sons of the prophets and worthy of love and (even more important) love offerings.

And if any such man shall have mailed in his money, and signed the book, and received a sheepskin for his dissertation on “What’s Wrong With America and How It Would Be Better If I Ran Things” then thou shalt make all haste to call him “doctor.” Likewise also if he shall have received an honorary doctorate from The Bible Stands Shcool of Theology and Small Engine Repair thou no longer address him as merely pastor for thus it is written “he who would be greatest among you, let him get his honorary doctorate right quick and hang it on his office wall.” Verily thou shalt rejoice that thy pastor yells so much better now that he has been instantly educated.

But of the address of pastors who have fallen, slid, stumbled, or done time in the pokey we have no command save that thou mention them as little as possible and never by name at all if you can help it.

Outreach

Mission Boards

41 Comments

There are approximately 8,853 Independent Fundamental Baptist mission boards in the United States. These organizations play a dual role of providing essential support and assistance to fundamentalist missionaries and giving sinecures to an army of vice presidents, and board representatives who would otherwise have to get actual jobs.

IFB mission boards actually support a wide range of missions-minded folks including the following:

Fundy missionaries actually serving on the foreign field: 406
Fundy missionaries serving in US cities that have “no gospel witness” (but more importantly do have a McDonalds): 5,284
Fundy wannabe missionaries who will spend eight years on ‘deputation’ and then take a job as a traveling salesman for a tract printing company: 14,836

Mission boards ostensibly create accountability for their missionaries while on the field, which is a rather tricky thing to do given the notion that each New Testament church is not answerable to anybody but God — including the one that the missionary just started five minutes ago. Very few people are as free to do whatever they want as a fundy missionary in his foreign church. Time would fail to tell the tales.

In addition to its other vital functions, the fundy mission board also serves as a way of identifying which ‘camp’ the missionary is in. This is very important since Hyles churches won’t support BJU missionaries and vice versa. To make sure that the missionary remains pure, the mission board does the work of setting standards on things like which English Bible translation their missionaries can use in countries that don’t even speak English and what color spouses their children can marry. Where would missionaries be without such guidance?

Go ye into all the world and raise money for missions. Somewhere, a vice president’s salary is depending on you.