As I say on the Home Page, Solomon's Porch is a wiki-based community where Christian folks can encourage, strengthen, mentor and teach one another as they work together to advance God's Kingdom in this generation.
Serious, active Christians are widely scattered throughout our country and around the world. We live in cities and small towns, we work in giant corporations, in small-businesses and on family farms. We love our Lord Jesus and want to present ourselves approved to God as workmen who do not need to be ashamed. But our world is a difficult, dangerous place; as one of our ancient mentors put it "many evils disturb us on all sides and so many wants distress and oppress us." We need fellow believers to teach and admonish us in love, to strengthen and encourage us, and to remind us that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
God Almighty has been at work and is still working in and through each one of us. We are shaped by great ancestors (pioneer missionaries, inner-city teachers and church planters, country preachers, God-fearing farmers, ordinary laborers, poor immigrants from Ireland, Holland, Italy or Eastern Europe, University Professors and Seminary graduates). In the last 200 years, these people have prayed for us. They have asked God to prepare, strengthen and use us to advance His Kingdom in this generation. We are shaped by great ancestors, but we've been learning as Christ has brought us to this point in history. This is our time and place.
Several of you have asked me "What is your motivation? Why are you doing this?" Those are good questions. This is what I've been thinking for many years:
Since Al Gore invented the Internet, I've been looking for ways to use blogs, web pages and wiki's to strengthen Christians around the world. As an historian, it's as if I have discovered a whole city full of Christian libraries, archives, schools, churches, seminaries, sermon collections, journals, letters, books, articles and tracts. These documents record 500 years of Christian thought, preaching, teaching and practical Christian service. Much, if not most, of this wisdom is being lost in this generation.
It's not that these precious resources are unknown or unavailable. Many have been scanned and published on-line. Many others have been re-printed. The problem is that the wisdom is not readily available to modern Christian folk. Who is likely to read a 700 page commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, published in 1585? How many modern Christians are comfortable reading sermons or books in King James English? And then there is the issue of attention span. Our fore-fathers were used to lengthy, multi-faceted logical arguments, while we communicate in brief e-mail messages, texts and tweets. What to do?
The first thing that Solomon's Porch is about, is reclaiming the wisdom from our past, translating it into simple English and presenting it in small pieces for reading and reflection. And since it's a wiki, everything is connected to everything else. Users can run searches on key words, tags or topics. And everyone can add comments or questions. Eventually we will develop a great FAQ section and a powerful, practical knowledge base. If Solomon's Porch does nothing else, it must do this.
We have a lot to offer this world. God has been doing great things in and through us, but He can do much, much greater things as we work together for His glory. In the corporate world we have a joke about corporate group-think and committee-centric leadership. The saying is "None of us is dumber than all of us." This is often true in business, but it need not be true in the church. Jesus Christ is the head of His Church and the Holy Spirit strengthens and guides each one of us. So, in the church, the impact of the whole thing is much, much greater than the sum of the parts.
So Solomon's Porch will be an easily accessible place where we put together the best parts of many different Christian heritages (Methodist, Presbyterian, Puritan, German Reformed, Bible-Church, Charismatic, Baptist, Charismatic-Calvinist --- to name a few) and the best parts of many different Christian ministries (past and present). As a community we will look at, discuss and brainstorm about what God has done and what He's doing. We will mash a lot of it together and see what happens.
How will things be organized? Solomon's Porch is a wiki. It will include blogs, forums, comments and hundreds of workspaces. We will turn individuals loose to follow their interests as the Spirit leads (or more likely has been leading for some time already). Folks in Memphis, TN, who are doing inner-city work could open a workspace titled Memphis (fill in the blank). They might describe five keys to their success so-far. Folks in San Jose or Fresno, CA might just be browsing at Solomon's Porch and say "Hey, we could add keys 4 and 5 from Memphis to what we are already doing! This is an answer to our prayers!" Someone could establish a workspace to publish parts of the Heidelberg Catechism (classic instruction for children in Q&A format). Someone else in South Africa or Australia could say "This will be easy to adapt for our new believer's class. The Questions, Answers and Bible texts are already written out in English."
And so it will go. Solomon's Porch can include as many schools, as many libraries, as many teaching spaces and seminars, as many topical outposts (Great Revivals / South Asian Missions / Anointed Sermons / Puritan Prayers / etc.), and as many established or start-up ministries as there are individuals or groups to set up and run them.
Barnabas
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