Foru.ms - a new beginning and a fresh start (3)

[justanobserver]

wow! after reading some of the negative posts, I can only hope God doesnt give up on me and others that WILL come here seeking as some have apparently given up here.

 

[elanor]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

 

[SunMessenger]

wow! after reading some of the negative posts, I can only hope God doesnt give up on me and others that WILL come here seeking as some have apparently given up here.

Well I assure you God gives up on no one. He loves all of us each and everyone. Nice to meet you ...

Sun

 

[JimfromOhio]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

That's a different perspective.

 

[meh]

wow! after reading some of the negative posts, I can only hope God doesnt give up on me and others that WILL come here seeking as some have apparently given up here.

He's not yet given up on me and I'm the biggest mess on earth. So I doubt He'll go giving up on you or others, either

 

[3girls2dogs]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

I think they are just rotating all submissions so that we can see them to vote on them.

 

[Xpycoctomos]

I see what Elanor is saying. I agree.

This is how I see it:

No one here (including Erwin) can be factually accused of not caring about reaching non-Christians.
Many here (including Erwin) have different ideas of how to get there.
It seems that Erwin et al's idea was simply to allow more legroom here for non-Christians so they didn't feel like we were trying to pressure them into being Christian "Hey, if you're a Christian, you can be a real member" as if that were a carrot we could hang over someone's head.
So, he relaxed the rules (got rid of many/some) and changed the name.
Erwin's goal was still the same.
His method was different. It seems his thinking was "Hey, let's just make this like a regular forum where ANYONE can just come and chill... in this way, people's dignity has been protected. However, we will still keep all of the religious forums and allow people to continue to publicly state their religious convictions making this forum still primarily about religion thereby encouraging a more natural outreach. This way, though, a non-Christian can come here without feeling like he or she is coming here to a) get converted or b) argue with the Christians. If they want either of those, that's fine, it's still just as possible, but now they also feel like they can come here also to just simply... chill.

Out-reach has ALWAYS depended on the individuals here. There is nothing this forum has or is doing that has discouraged that.

Nevertheless, the grand mistake that was made was not definign what in the heck a Christian was (or rather taking that definition away). This move made no sense with the apparent vision of out-reaching. Something has been done about that and that is fantastic. I still contend that the definition given here of a Christian does not respond to common modern relativistic understandings of what a Christian is (that is, most in Western(-ized) culture believe that Christian is anything you want it to mean as long as Christ - of a figure named Jesus- is involved int he beliefs) thereby making the vision and mission a bit meaningless when it comes to Mormon's, JWs and others.

Now, that's my opinion, but I think that the Scriptures and the Early Church would agree that the definition is lacking.

John

 

[snoochface]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

Dehumanizing? That seems a little over the top to me. Witnessing to someone does not make them less human.

The new focus of the site is outreach. Erwin has said he intends for members to invite non-Christians here for fellowship and witnessing. So I can totally understand why the person who created that logo would have done so. It fits exactly with what Erwin said the focus of the new site is.

Anyway, the banners are just being rotated until the contest is over.

 

[GraceInHim]

Originally Posted by drstevej
If outreach is to be more than a wish there will need to be leadership and commitment.

Here is the result of my challenge to staff to post 5 outreach posts per day.

The outreach team has four staff members (1 supertmnod mod and 3 mods). There is no Admin.

My challenge to SR received a tame response.

So is Outreach a Credible Goal of CF>f ??? Or is this just Lip Service???

Lets' See.

Steve

Hello,
imo outreach is not just to non-christians or to preach the word and so forth.. there are many who come here which have problems in real life.. do not care where they come from or thier backgrounds, if someone is hurting, outreach should be there for them.. in fact, I invited one of my 7 sisters to join here, she joined; who does not go to church nor does she read a Bible.. she believes in Jesus and loves him dearly.. she is hurting over a recent loss and also asked another sister to join.. awaiting her joining..

I am hoping they can find someone or people on here which can comfort them alittle and they can speak about thier loss and so forth.. and it does not have to come from a Christian either.. a loving, caring person/people can chat with them..

peace

 

[Xpycoctomos]

Dehumanizing? That seems a little over the top to me. Witnessing to someone does not make them less human.

The new focus of the site is outreach. Erwin has said he intends for members to invite non-Christians here for fellowship and witnessing. So I can totally understand why the person who created that logo would have done so. It fits exactly with what Erwin said the focus of the new site is.

Anyway, the banners are just being rotated until the contest is over.

Dehumanizing? That seems a little over the top to me. Witnessing to someone does not make them less human.

I think her point is that it makes it seem that as Christians we are just interested in converting people, but not in the people themselves, there need, cares, fears, tastes, interests.

I think the concern she shares may be based off of some Churches that rejoice in numbers (or people saved) rather than in seeing that all people are God's children and rejoicing in the fact that we can tell them about this. The difference may seem subtle at first... but IMO the two could not be further apart from each other.

John

 

[SunMessenger]

Hello,
imo outreach is not just to non-christians or to preach the word and so forth.. there are many who come here which have problems in real life.. do not care where they come from or thier backgrounds, if someone is hurting, outreach should be there for them.. in fact, I invited one of my 7 sisters to join here, she joined; who does not go to church nor does she read a Bible.. she believes in Jesus and loves him dearly.. she is hurting over a recent loss and also asked another sister to join.. awaiting her joining..

I am hoping they can find someone or people on here which can comfort them alittle and they can speak about thier loss and so forth.. and it does not have to come from a Christian either.. a loving, caring person/people can chat with them..

peace

Exactly. Well Said...

Sun

 

[psalms 91]

I think her point is that it makes it seem that as Christians we are just interested in converting people, but not in the people themselves, there need, cares, fears, tastes, interests.

I think the concern she shares may be based off of some Churches that rejoice in numbers (or people saved) rather than in seeing that all people are God's children and rejoicing in the fact that we can tell them about this. The difference may seem subtle at first... but IMO the two could not be further apart from each other.

John

Here is the thing with conversion. To many that even do it just get them converted, after that you need to follow up and disciple them, teach them, and be there for them, it is not just preaching the gospel and then forgetting about them.

 

[No Swansong]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

Actually it conveys the primary responsibility of believers to witness to the lost. If we don't do this nothing else we do counts for much.

 

[pgp_protector]

The header with the 5 CF characters and the slogan "Invite non-Christians here so we can witness to them!" needs to go NOW! It's dismissive and dehumanizing! It conveys the message that we have don't really give a rip about getting to know people who aren't believers, we don't want to listen to them or learn to love them, all we want is to witness to them. I'm a Christian and I find it offensive. If I were not a Christian and came in and saw that, I'd leave instantly and never, ever return. And it would only reinforce my negative impression of Christian motives.

Erwin, many of the other logos you're using are lovely, but look at that message through the eyes of a non-believer. Please remove that header!

So is the Bible "dehumanizing" when it tells us to go forth & preach the Gospel (Witness to them ) ???

 

[elanor]

So is the Bible "dehumanizing" when it tells us to go forth & preach the Gospel (Witness to them ) ???

Okay, well, clearly I should have taken a deep breath before selecting my wording. It just hit a hot button for me. Perhaps 'objectify' would have been better.

To clarify, I believe that sharing God's love with someone is our calling. But if I'm not a believer and I walk into a church and only get the sense that they want to convert me, not know and care about me, then I don't see God's love in that. I'm made to feel like a target, and I won't return. Others here have explained it much better than I, but that's what I was getting at.

And for the record, I didn't realize the logos revolving on the forums now were the contest entries. I thought there was a slideshow somewhere, and the ones there now were Erwin's permanent choices. I just assumed if they were displaying when I entered the forum, they were the official site message. I don't keep up with everything happening in the Announcements forum, and someone new to the site would likely make the same assumption I did.

 

[TigerLily5]

All of these changes makes me believe this site is now ashamed of the Gospel.

 

[psalms 91]

Sounds like some are still not happy, come over to Christ Centered forums if you are not as many from CF went there.

 

[SunMessenger]

All of these changes makes me believe this site is now ashamed of the Gospel.

Actually there are more visible changes promoting Christians now. The main page contains Bible verses. The banners are all of Praise and agreement with Gods teachings. The framework for the rules are taken right from the ten commandments. I don't see anything like that. I see Christ all over this place even more than before.

Wishing you well always...

Sun

 

[JimfromOhio]

We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him, not to the name or format of this site. The Gospel is open to all; the most respectable sinner has no more claim on it than the worst sinner.

 

[SunMessenger]

We will all feel very much ashamed if we do not yield to Jesus the areas of our lives He has asked us to yield to Him, not to the name or format of this site. The Gospel is open to all; the most respectable sinner has no more claim on it than the worst sinner.

Well said! The Gospel is Good News. Isn't it the best news when we see new people who are seeking and listening ?
What a wonderful chance to spread all of the Gospel and the good news it contains as often as we can...

Sun