SharperIron

It’s that time again! SharperIron is inviting anyone with writing talent to submit an article for our 3rd annual Writing Contest. This year, we’ll be selecting up to four winning articles and awarding each a spot on the front page as well as $75 (but you could win a good bit more! See below.) If you submit more than one article, you might even win more than once.

The SharperIron moderating and admin team has learned a thing or two the last couple of years. As far as policy is concerned, we’ve got a better idea of what sort of tool a forum comment policy is, what it needs to do for us and what it needs to include.

Please consider this post as being intentionally below our usual front page standards. “Intentionally,” because we’re coming off of a holiday and I haven’t completely taken my heels off my desk yet.

What I aim to do here is share some pretty much random thoughts on the year past and the one head from a SharperIron point of view.

Introductory observations

What follows is the fruit of discussions that have been taking place among the SharperIron moderators and admins over many months, but especially the last six weeks or so. A few points might help frame it properly. First, the team is fairly diverse. We are not all Baptists. We are certainly not all Calvinists, though probably none of the non-Calvinists could be described as Arminians either. Several us are “hard” cessationists when it comes to the “sign gifts,” but some are softer cessationists and one or two aren’t sure. Several of us are, or have been, pastors—but again, not all of us. Also, though the points below reflect the beliefs of the moderators and admins, not everyone on the team is enthusiastic about publishing every one of these points in a list of distinctives—mostly out of concern about the relative importance of one point or another in the overall body of Christian doctrine. In short, probably none of us would say all of these are equally important and some would see one or two as perhaps better left unsaid.

The doctrinal assertions below are not intended to further restrict those who may participate in the forums either now or in the future, nor do we claim that they are beliefs that are essential to fundamentalist identitiy. They are nothing more and nothing less than what the moderators and admins (and most other volunteers) currently believe in some areas that are of special concern.

What is SharperIron’s role in maintaining sound doctrine among believers? For a couple of years now, a consensus has been growing among the site’s moderators and admins that we need to clarify how we see the answer to that question.

To put the question another way, to what extent and in what way is SI responsible for promoting and defending solid, biblical doctrine? Then, on the nuts and bolts level, how does our answer to that question apply to regulating membership and the contents of posts? An important third question adds a layer of complexity: how particular or comprehensive do we want to be in whatever doctrinal regulating we do?

Though the moderators and admins are not completely agreed on the answers to all of these questions, we have arrived at general agreement on a few points. This two-part series of posts is the result. The aim here is two-fold:

Whys and wherefores

SharperIron is not a church or fellowship of churches. Consequently, though there is some overlap in purposes, the site does not bear the responsibilities and goals of a church or group of churches. Though we have more in common with educational institutions that aim to equip local churches, SI’s character and purpose don’t fit precisely in that mold either.

If you value what SI provides, we would welcome your help.
Just head over to the donation page for more info.

Should we answer critics or ignore them? Though critics should not be lumped in with fools too hastily, Proverbs 26:4-5 might be of some help in answering this question. Apparently, sometimes we should not answer fools, but sometimes we should.

The long awaited 2010 Writing Contest restuls are in. There were numerous strong entries this year and we wish we could give awards for many more of them. Many thanks to all of you who contributed articles!

Our 2010 Writing Contest ended over a month ago. So some of you are probably wondering, when will the winners be announced? Well, this is not that announcement!

But it’s coming soon. Several excellent articles were submitted this year, and we’ve already posted a few of them. Our panel of volunteer judges is slowly narrowing the choices down to three winners. We should have the decision nailed down in a couple of weeks.