The history of this site is rather odd…..

The site owner has quite a number of websites some with an overt Christian focus, some very secular, but operating under a construct of Christian beliefs. He has been involved in 3D ministry for a few years, got a bit burned out, and lost focus. One day, he found a Christian website, while doing a little bit of research on Lazarus. His wife had been insisting he best get his ducks back in a row with God, and he thought doing a paper would be a good way to start getting those ducks in a row. That little bit of research returned him to an earlier path.

As time progressed, he noticed there were areas of online ministry which were not being served, either due to technical, financial, or in many cases political reasons. Thus, the idea was planted to do something way different.

All along, his business side kept watching domain kiters… a most dispicable practice, and upon seeing blasphemy on kiting webpages, decided it was time to declare war, and join the game. Not to kite, but to complete with the kiters, in order to keep those who are searching, (as he was years ago) on a path which brings them to God, not away from Him.

Thus, one day in Oct 2007, this domain was captured!

The intent, was then to build his site, with a release to the public in 2nd qtr 2008. Alas, God had different timing… and his engineering tendency to debug and roll out when he was ready, has been thwarted. Thus, the history, and game plan will continue to evolve. It will be an interesting process.

• Inreach-Outreach
• Some cool and insightful articles. Please note that while these articles are based upon Arminian theology, much of the information is still incredibly helpful, even to those who do not ascribe to Arminian positions or decision theology.
  • Preaching to the Choir, the 99% problem
  • X Spectrum diagnostics for Christian Outreach
  • The Gray Matrix

• arguing over doctrine
• evangelism focus
• US evangelical issues

• seeker friendly front end (I know, I know, I need to loose the Christian jargon)
• outreach by blogs, where upon once a relationship is established, small groups may become established in the forums
• evangelism through ongoing relationships, not just presentation and go
• small group discipleship
• small group prayer and fellowship
• a platform for house churches and cell groups, who may want a web presence, ie blog and forums, but may not want to develop their own site.
• Christian environment group by group defined, not site mandated, excluding public forums
• mainline soteriology, in addition to decision soteriology
• sacramental, and ordinance theology welcome

• technical issues
• staffing issues
• target audience
• reaching the audience

Bridging the gap, between 3D and the virtual world in Christian Ministry through close friendships and small groups.

Ok, so we have a Mission Statement:

Now, we need a tagline.

Private/invisible forums for focused ministry, where a public solution may prove either too distracting, or would likely be subject to interference from others not of a similar mindset. Ie, men's 5AM Bible study doesn't need to have some teenager come in, and fill up the threads the night before etc. Invite only.

Private/invisible forums for close friends, for purposes of prayer and fellowship. Invite only.

Private/invisible forums for counseling and dispute resolution. Invite only.

Private/invisible forums for small group discipleship where extraneous interruptions and or arguments may be counter productive. Invite only.

Public/visible forums for purposes of allowing others to see what a specific faith group, ministry, or church is about, all the while providing protection from others who may be in doctrinal disagreement through moderation. Invite only, although public questions may be asked by all members, only members of the private/invisible forum may answer.

Group Moderators: members of your forum who have control of the specific groups you set them over. They can add and remove members from only these specific groups.

An XML reader to pull data from members calenders if they so desire. Ideally some type of mass aggragator would be cool. We don't want members to have to re-enter data across a multitude of sites.

Private wiki's for collaboration.

Private whiteboards

As our emphasis is on private discussion amongst small groups, we need a way to foster community, and growth. My initial thought, is to do so with fun and unique features.

Dual avatar and signature configuration. A public version, where in members may select a public avatar and sig from a pre-approved list for use in the public forums. A private version, where members can upload their own graphics for private forums.

A secondary avatar based upon member generated content. Could be a scripture based lolcat, could be a doll such as a Meez, could be just a graphic the member likes.

Praise function for posts, only positive praise may be given.

Custom Christianfora pop3 email addresses when a member reaches 1000 posts.

Gift chocolate button, which allows you to gift chocolate in 3D via paypal.

eBay and amazon buttons to link to auctions, and wishlists

profile tabs and potentially in thread icons to link to offsite features, such as blogs, social network profiles, instant messenger icons etc.

A shoutbox which includes a list of members online.

A Bible verse scroller, driven by page context, but displaying entire chapters. It will not be an auto proof texter to present one sided views.

A page for freebie auctions, sort of like ebay 1.0. A fun thing to play with.

Widgets and gadjet pages

Glittermaker

A photoblog for with an onsite generator to create lolcat style devotionals, and Christ focused lolcats.

A integral feedreader, for purposes of tieing the private sites into a multitude of other forums as a way to generate discussions, and provide connections with the public world.

Personal pages, for user generated content.

A sandbox for user generated code for mods, and special features.

Profiles are to be simple in nature, but expandable to link or feed from other sites. Ie, we don't want to force members to create a blog here on CFA, but if they want to display a feed of their blog or even another profile from somewhere else, that could be cool.

MSN status

Profile music player, once again to feed from somewhere other than the profile.

Youtube

onlinelife, facebook, myspace or other social networking links

Moods (custom Christian ones)

Christianfora blog connector

Bible tag, including version select

Prayer broadcast option (ie like an amber alert to other forums, myspace, email, and via sms to prayer warriors)

The to do list

Administrative Staff

Assistants with planning

Graphics folks

Make no doubt about it, there is a profit motive.

Albeit, while the intent is not to get rich with treasures on earth, there do need to be sound business practices in place, in order to ensure that bills are paid, and a good witness is shown on the operating side of the website. Certainly, any ministry, who doesn't pay their service providers promptly and in full is not setting a good example at best, and may be a stumbling block at worst.

When this website achieves profitability, 23-1/3% will be donated as follows:

• 10% will be donated to accredited seminaries for the training of pastors. Leviticus 27:30-33, Numbers 18:21; 2 Chronicles 31:4-11; Nehemiah 10:37

• 10% will be donated to faith based organizations selected by staff. Deuteronomy 14:22-27; 12:17

• 3-1/3% will be donated for the poor. In this case, donations will be sent to World Vision. Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 26:12

It would be ideal to provide a compensation package for staff. However, the overhead associated to provide such is substantial, and the complexity of paying staff on an international site might prove very problematic very fast.

Yet, 1 Corinthians 9:7-14 is pretty clear. 7Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its grapes? Who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk? 8Do I say this merely from a human point of view? Doesn't the Law say the same thing? 9For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”[b] Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10Surely he says this for us, doesn't he? Yes, this was written for us, because when the plowman plows and the thresher threshes, they ought to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12If others have this right of support from you, shouldn't we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ. 13Don't you know that those who work in the temple get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.

Thus, staff compensation is within the members hands. Each staff member has an amazon wish list, and should any member wish to provide compensation to them via a wish list purchase, they may do so. This alleviates the tax headache and associated overhead of employees, and in addition provides for ease of crossing international borders, which can be difficult from a financial point of view.