A Newsgroup is a worldwide communications center whereby messages and documents can be exchanged from around the world by anyone - then they are indexed and permanently stored. Advertisements will be filtered out of this moderated group. No e-mail is involved. You participate whenever you desire. -------------------------------------------------------------- The newsgroup is NOW operational. Use your newsreader OR your web browser. Participate through the web via Google at http://groups.google.com. This involves "registering" with them if you desire to post. Please do, otherwise, you will only be able to read the postings. You can even get a free email account from Google to "protect" your main email address. Neat. Click here to go right to the newsgroup: http://groups.google.com/ If your newsreader is already properly configured the newsgroup can be accessed here: news:alt.religion.christian.home-church See below for more information about newsreader configuration and your ISP. -------------------------------------------------------------- Charter: Christianity emerged in a social environment which was visibly religious, whether through the eyes of the Romans, Greeks, or Jews. Surprisingly, friends (and foes) referred to this new Christian movement as a "religion without temples." The first Christians saw _themselves_ as the temple - spiritually indwelled by the Living God. Today, this tradition is being revisited. Tens of thousands of home churches, also known as house churches, are known to be in existence worldwide. Each is unique, most are independent or self-contained. All aspects of home church life and world-view shall be open for discussion: rationale, practice, history, and future. Posts should be relevant and readable as plain text. Encoded binaries will not be permissible. Advertising, also forbidden. Moderation information: Moderators will be using a combination of human and robotic moderation. The purpose for using robomoderation is to improve message turnaround by excluding humans as much as possible from the chain of events which lead to posting approved messages. The end result will be more real-time discussions, less time spent in the moderation process, and a reduction of spam. Opposing viewpoints and postings shall be welcomed - not rejected - as long as they are related, directly or indirectly, to home church culture and perspective. Moderator Team: Jim Sutton, goodwordusa%att.net Michael Gastin, hcmod%rochester.rr.com Zane Anderson, zane%housechurch.org [Substitute the % character with the @ character in these addresses.] Now, participation with a newsreader: Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) must first add this new newsgroup to their list. Reach them at an address like this: news@yourISP.com and usenet@yourISP.com. Send the message below to both addresses. Presuming your ISP, as an example, is aol: news@aol.com, cc: usenet@aol.com. America Online has already added our group, by the way. Subject: Please add new newsgroup Please include this new newsgroup to your list. Thank You. alt.religion.christian.home-church Christian Home Churches. (Moderated) Group submission address: archc%stump.algebra.com Moderator contact address: archc-board%stump.algebra.com Xref: news.isc.org control.newgroup:279755 Free newsreaders are available from a number of sources. Some versions of Netscape have the newsreader built in. Windows and Mac users can also download a popular Microsoft email/newsreader program called "Outlook Express." CompuServe and America Online have newsreaders built into their free software. Look for an "Internet" or "Newsgroups" icon. http://www.newsreaders.com/ http://extra.newsguy.com/appsite/newsredr.htm