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PaulWest
Member



Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Agendas

Calvinism, politics and nonresistance. Has anyone else noticed an unhealthy tendency as of late to use these forums as a launching pad for personal agenda? We are very close to the Revival Conference -- it is right behind the corner, as a matter of fact -- but you sure can't tell from the topics in these forums. I think at one time yesterday I logged on and saw four different Calvinism threads and three dedicated to nonresistance propaganda and politics alone.

O brethren, it grieves my heart to log on and see the obvious. I write this post with fear, as I really hoped someone else would have stepped up by now. Dear brethren, this is not good, and I would exhort us again to gird up the loins of our minds and see what is happening in our midst. There are much weightier things to discuss than the same transient drivel that contaminates just about every other Christian forum on the internet. These topics can actually be toxic when they flow in at disproportionate rates, and they've killed many a forum on the internet. But SermonIndex is to be different and peculiar! Please, in God's Name, let us "rise up and go" (Mark 14:42) and head out to deeper, cleaner waters.

Brother Paul


_________________
Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/8 14:43Profile
BrokenOne
Member



Joined: 2007/6/7
Posts: 429
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 Re: Agendas

Amen Brother Paul. Thank you for saying this.


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Danielle

 2007/9/8 14:50Profile
crsschk
Member



Joined: 2003/6/11
Posts: 9192
Santa Clara, CA

 Re: Agendas

Rightly said and also duly noted. Attempted somewhat in a rather longwinded post towards some of it ...

Have grown weary of this combatant style 'ministry' that is being touted out and brought into this fellowship.

Quote:
SermonIndex is to be different and peculiar! Please, in God's Name, let us "rise up and go" (Mark 14:42) and head out to deeper waters.



Indeed, and once again find that displeasurable duty to have to try and moderate those who do have a penchant for causing strife and doting about with barbs and unnecessary comments, careless in words and topics, little consideration for others and indeed bringing in these agendas or missions they might be on.

If you are new and are used to other forums and these types of things are normal fare there, they do not work here. We have a mission here and that is towards edification and conduct and charity amongst others within these bounds.

Please read the disclaimer at the bottom of this post.

Thank you brother.


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Mike Balog

 2007/9/8 15:05Profile
hmmhmm
Member



Joined: 2006/1/31
Posts: 4994
Sweden

 Re: Agendas

moving on to bigger better things.....


_________________
CHRISTIAN

 2007/9/8 15:12Profile









 Re: Agendas

What I'm feeling is stymied.
I love the Scripture and doctrine section, but finding endless contentions over Calvinism vs Whatever leaves little room to discuss much else.
I appreciate that this Website carries Authors of both views and not one sided as some Sites are.
This particular debate has persisted since the beginning and how are we, the non-scholars - to force our view to either side a possibility ?

"Agenda" is a word I wouldn't use in a Christian circle though, because the word itself brings "division" - but to render it as that some may be needlessly over-zealous in one particular view, may help to bring solution without accusation and thus work more toward the desired unity that may be being sought.
Pointing out a non-balance in a fellowship type gathering is a delicate subject.
The timid may be put to fear as to what they can speak of, the sensitive may feel they are part of an "agenda" if they've posted to one of these subjects and God only knows the heart of those in His Body that post here.
To even say "excess" must be done cautiously.
I believe that when an entire section of a Board is taken over with one subject - then yes, you do have some overtly over-zealous subjects.
Thank you for the open venue to express ourselves, within sensitive and considerate levels.

 2007/9/8 15:18
PaulWest
Member



Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re:

Quote:
We have a mission here and that is towards edification and conduct and charity amongst others within these bounds.



Thanks for backing me, brother.

We don't realize it, but topics such as these generate a truckload of strife between the brethren, and the flux of such topics always seem to come into our midst privily. If unheeded, they balloon into what is currently happening in the forum. This is no accident by the enemy. The Revival Conference is coming soon, and many who are currently reading/participating in these squabbles will go to the meetings. Some of them will consequently go to the SI conference with bruised consciences, still having contention with another brother or sister from these discussions. There will be no joy at the prospect of meeting, but instead there will be chips on the shoulders.

I don't expect everyone to see this, or even agree with me, but such things are true and can be used contrary to the cause of Christ. This is a critical time when everyone needs to be of "one mind" and "speak the same" and I fear many can enter into this conference disunified...especially if the tenor of the forum remains the same up until October. Even those who choose not to participate in these divisive threads are somehow indirectly affected, as these themes seem to be present at almost any given time one logs on.

Brother Paul


_________________
Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/8 15:28Profile
PaulWest
Member



Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re:

Quote:
"Agenda" is a word I wouldn't use in a Christian circle though, because the word itself brings "division"



Whether or not the word brings division is moot; division is already here because of it. Anytime a person logs onto the forum to expressly propagate an overly controversial topic, such a believer can be said to have an "agenda" -- especially if such has been expressed multiple times to the chagrin of other believers.

(edit) Agendas don't always have to be negative, by the way.

Brother Paul ;-)


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Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/8 15:34Profile
ccchhhrrriiisss
Member



Joined: 2003/11/23
Posts: 4779


 Re:

Thanks, Brother PaulWest!

Good point! Sadly, I sometimes get caught up into a discussion when the "other side" of the agenda isn't realized, or if I feel that the facts are purposely (or inadvertantly) missing. Thanks for bringing this up!

:-)


_________________
Christopher

 2007/9/8 15:46Profile
PaulWest
Member



Joined: 2006/6/28
Posts: 3405
Dallas, Texas

 Re:

Quote:
Thanks for bringing this up!



You're welcome. I have an "agenda" too. My "agenda" is to post the products of my quiet time meditations with Jesus. If people told me that my sectarian meditations were becoming a hinderance and an instrument of separation to the Body of Christ, and I selfishly continued to post them, my "good agenda" would then become a "divisive agenda" as I now have knowledge of the uneeded division my meditations are bringing. I suppose it is true that the overly zealous believer may enter into this realm unknowingly, and this can be due to lack of wisdom and discernment. In any case, this thread was created to address such.

Brethren, we should all have agendas, but I say take special heed to your motives propelling them. Even "good" things, such as reformed theology and Biblical nonresistance, when incessantly forcefed to other believers, can become noxious.

Brother Paul


_________________
Paul Frederick West

 2007/9/8 16:00Profile
hmmhmm
Member



Joined: 2006/1/31
Posts: 4994
Sweden

 Re:

I too get "sucked in" to some threads, but i am thankful for those who flash the redlight, I just read again this sermon by T.A Sparks, and this little out take stood out to me and just spoke so much to me, and bro Paul you spoke about the conferance and so on, this just fitted to me in here so i post it here or an excerpt from it.


"Well, all this constituted this crisis of whether they were going to choose this or that, the one or the other. Go back to something earthly from the heavenly, to something tangible from the spiritual, to something temporal from the eternal, something visible from the invisible. And it is quite evident I think, in this letter before you’re through, that a division was coming about between these believers. They were dividing into two camps. That is the point of the exhortation "forsaking not the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is". Some were saying, "We’re not going on with that any further" and they were having their own meetings and their own circle and not going on, not going on in this way. A division was taking place; two companies. Here were those who had seen the heavenly calling and the heavenly vision and were going on with it; here were those who, if they had seen it, were letting it go, were drifting away from it. And what a forceful word that is! It has a nautical meaning in the original, as you know. It’s the picture of a ship approaching its moorings on the current and missing its moorings and drifting away and onto the rocks. Lest we come up to this and miss it and drift away and as Israel at Kadesh Barnea were wrecked, we should be wrecked. It’s a warning, it’s an exhortation."

[url=https://www.sermonindex.net/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=19453&forum=34]Let us go on by T.A Sparks[/url]


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CHRISTIAN

 2007/9/8 16:07Profile





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