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This article was started by Dave Leach R-IA Bible Lover-musician-grandpa (talk) 09:59, 28 September 2019 (UTC). Interaction from other writers will be distinguished with horizontal lines above and below. Your response to anything you read here is most welcome. Please add your response next to what you are responding to. If your reaction is not to any specific part of this article, please add general comments on the "Discussion" page.

Overview

Saltshaker Forums are designed to serve in a mission given to churches by the Bible but discouraged by traditions and apathy: shining light in Darkness. Shining Light In Darkness includes involvement in politics to the extent politics is involved in Darkness, but it is not limited to politics.

Secular meetings are kept orderly by Robert's Rules of Order. Saltshaker Forums are not just kept orderly, but kept respectful and bathed in love and humility, by the following rules based on Scripture which you are invited to help improve.

God's rules for fellowship discussions are important because moving from talk to action about very important matters makes agreement more important, and makes the discovery of disagreement more disturbing. God's rules help develop the relationship skills we need to work and reason together in harmony.

We need rules that keep discussion orderly, productive, sensible and friendly

Titus 1:10 For there are many unruly [insubordinate, disobedient] and vain [Gr: senseless, 
or mischievous] talkers and deceivers... 11 Whose mouths must be stopped,

1 Peter 5:5 ...Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility:...

Luke 22:26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger;
...he that is chief, as he that doth serve.

“Rules” help the “unruly” become productive. “Law is...made...for the lawless”, 1 Timothy 1:9. But it isn’t just “the other guy” who is in need. We need help, ourselves, developing our ability to reason with others even when we disagree, in Christian love.

Our culture provides a school for these relationship skills which The Darkness has nearly destroyed: Family. God offers another school of skills able to heal families and other relationships: the 1 Corinthians 14 Fellowship we seek to re-establish. As conflicts arise, we need to continually meditate on the Word of God for solutions.

Jesus established a new measure of authority, which has become the foundation of Western Civilization: service. People choose authority which they judge will best serve them.

Our groups may choose a moderator, or to only have rules and to mutually share the function of moderating, depending on the size and personality of the group. The group needs to make a decision its members can honor.