Forum Mission Statement and Rules

[UntoHim]

Mission Statement
Welcome to the Local Church Discussions forum! We are pleased to give you a warm welcome to this venue.

Our mission is to, in the words of the apostle Peter (1 Peter 3:15) “But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, but with gentleness and respect” Additionally, in Acts 17:11 “Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.”

Our open discussion of the teachings and practices of the Local Church of Witness Lee are a response to searching the scriptures to see whether those teachings and practices are truth, are scriptural, and a valid reason for the hope that is in us.

This forum is administered and moderated by former members of the Local Church of Witness Lee. Many of the forum participants also are former members of the Local Church of Witness Lee. As such, we believe we have experiences beneficial to others who have left the Local Church and have been damaged while faithful to that group. Our desire is to share with others who were hurt and broken by their experiences, and hopefully help others find their way back to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the true Gospel.

To that end, we will be working hard to ensure that this forum comes in alignment with that purpose. The following Local Church Discussion forum guidelines should not only help you understand how to act within the community, but also help you understand what to expect from others in this venue.

1. As a Christian forum, we will not promote other non-Christian religions, including atheism and agnosticism. We will not promote or discuss alternative lifestyles including lifestyles of sexual orientation. Topics or posts of such nature will be deleted.
2. Respect other users. No flaming or abusing fellow forum members. The accounts of members who continue to post inflammatory, abusive comments will be locked permanently after one clear warning is issued by moderators.
3. No spam. All automated messages, advertisements, and links to competitor websites must be approved by the moderators. Unauthorized links will be deleted immediately.
4. Post in relevant sub-forums. Messages posted in the wrong topic area may be moved to the correct sub-forum by moderators.
5. Harassment. No threats or harassment of other users will be tolerated. Any instance of threatening or harassing behavior is grounds for deletion from the forums or locked account access.
6. Adult content. No profanity, pornography or discussions of a sexual nature are allowed. Posts containing adult material will be deleted.
7. Illegal content, including copyrighted materials, intellectual property violations or illegal activity is prohibited. Re-posting of copyrighted materials is allowed on a limited basis and under the guidelines of the fair use doctrine.
doctrine. Any posts of copyrighted materials outside the guidelines of fair use will be deleted without notification.
8. Quoted material should appear between “quotation marks”, and for the benefit of the reader, whenever possible, please include reference to the author and source document.
9. One simple guideline should cover all your posts: Be helpful, polite, considerate, and respectful of others, just as you would like others to be to you.