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BLOG Information |
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Pastor David's Blog "Triune Life" |
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Bill Yates's Blog "From Where I Sit" |
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Pastor John's Blog "Ante Urbis Portas"Pastor John has established a "BLOG" for the church. What's a "BLOG"? "BLOG" is internet slang for "web log", a place where you can post contributions to an on-going discussion which is posted as a web page. Pastor John's BLOG is located at http://anteurbisportas.blogspot.com/.Here's Pastor John's invitation to join the discussions or start one of your own and how to do it... I have made a few necessary changes to my blog, and the chronology of last Saturday's e-mail debate (if anyone still cares). It had been brought to my attention that there were numerous spelling errors, and that I left out a few of the e-mail strings. To my knowledge all of this has been fixed, and the product now should be a faithful chronicle of the whole thing. I have also added a postscript of a sort regarding something that you all might not be aware of! [that there is a "hook." It is intended to pique your curiosity, so that you are compelled to log onto http://anteurbisportas.blogspot.com/ and read the thing all over again]. I suppose that this is as good a time as any to invite you all to participate in other (maybe more 'significant') debates on-line. As you may know, the name of my blog is ante urbis portas. This is merely the Latin way of saying "before the city gates" which is the place (historically) where the men would gather and engage in rhetoric, theological and political debate, and overall discussion of current events. David and I have discussed, and now I am revealing to you, my desire to make the blog an open forum for YOU to talk about things. Toward that end, I am herewith making it a whole lot less about me, and a whole lot more about you (collectively). It is my intention to continue "moderating" the thing, but I want you to help me make it a place where we can gather and debate, or discuss topics of interest to the congregation. We will have to make up the rules somewhat as we go, and I reserve the right to "pull the plug" if things get out of hand, but it ought to be painfully simple: This is to be considered a poetic expression of the "free marketplace of ideas". As such, you may submit what you want for publication, and I will not edit it for content. You should EXPECT that anything you post is subject to the comment (and probable) disapproval of some or all participants. This is O.K., and can be a very good thing. You are not allowed to take criticism "personally", even if the comments are (perhaps foolishly) a little "crisp" or edgy. Ad Hominim attacks will not be tolerated. No cheap shots may be taken at participants, no matter how foolish they may seem to be acting. Don't make this thing the "bully pulpit" for a hidden agenda. Don't try to gin up debate by being deliberately provocative... let's keep this thing honest, heartfelt, topical, and interesting. It is to be operated on "ontological" principle, rather than "economic" principle. By that, I mean that we are all equal here, regardless of office, gender, or age. Women and children may participate with our welcome. Think of it as a "family outing" down to the city gates. I would especially like to hear form our young people. We have been stuffing their heads full of knowledge and doctrine all these years, this may be one way we can see what has taken root! Perhaps to help make this point, I submit the cases of young Messer's Chen, and Allen in the recent Coffee and Tea Debate. How many of us will ever be able to look at them the same way again? The format: Start something (float an idea, topic, or SHORT position paper) through the regular church e-mail mass-mailing process. Invite participation, comment, disagreement, or feedback from the membership (this way we make sure that OUR church drives the debate, not someone entering from outside). As the "moderator" I (with the non-official, non-church-sanctioned, but nevertheless in self-conscious submission to my fellow elders) will "float" the idea of the topic with David and Erv. If WE think that the discussion may prove edifying on some level (reserving the right to consider satire, humor, and other things to be "edifying"), then I will move the entire stream of e-mails on the topic to date onto the Blog. From that point on, any and all reasonable submittals will be posted to the Blog. When the subject "cools" or otherwise loses its ability to hold the average reader's interest, I will post a closing statement of some sort, and terminate the discussion. Submittals should be brief (a personal challenge to me) and on-point. Please include your full name inside the text of the message (especially if you have one of those "cute" e-mail addresses... got2bme@everyoneelse.net, 2BZ2listen2U@workaholic.com, etc... you know what I mean!). This makes it easier for us all to know who is talking. Avoid the use of "emoticons" special characters (see what happened to all my Hebrew in the e-mail to Johnny?), and formatted text (bold, italic, etc.). The HTML translator on the Blog site freaks out if you feed it anything other than plain ASCII text. Use ALL CAPS FOR EMPHASIS, like when you might be tempted to use bold or underlined text. Use parentheses for subtle nuances that you might otherwise italicize, etc. Proof-reading and careful punctuation helps, since I will not be "correcting" your submittals. What you type is what I'll post, so you MIGHT want to consider running everything through Spell-check prior to sending (See what a GREAT job I do? The mind positively reels!). If you want to do this, I will change some of the "front-end" of the Blog to make it more friendly to the new endeavor. There is already a link on the site, by which you can e-mail me your input as you read the current debate(s). I will also clean up the banner to reflect the new purpose, and to invite input from outside. It is my intention to shortly move the whole thing to a Webpage format, and leave the Weblog format behind, as time and my schedule allow. I am currently in the middle of the process. I believe that this will give more flexibility to us all. But the Blog is a good starting point, and can be a lot of fun, as I hope you'll see. For now, think of it as our own little "Letters to the Editor" page. It will also get some your material out onto the internet.... so you can add THAT to your resume, which is a good thing. Let me know what you think. Pastor John SDG |
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