Tek7 (Legacy)
CGA & ToJ President
Greetings, all Tribe of Judah members.
As many of you know, Tribe of Judah formerly operated several game servers on a dedicated server rented from ServerBeach. Some time before June 2005, ServerBeach changed its Terms of Service to allow adult content on its servers. When Plankeye, our former Server Operator, discovered this, he shut down the servers and terminated the account with ServerBeach. I and other staff members supported his decision.
As of December 5, 2005, it has been nearly five months since our servers went offline. Wanting to explore alternatives to relying solely on member donations, a plan for selling advertising on future game servers was devised. Efforts to sell advertising have met with no results, despite hard work and effort on the part of Mr. Slice, Tribe of Judah's Fundraising Manager.
Tribe of Judah began accepting donations via Paypal on July 10, 2005. Our fundraising efforts continue today.
I am not writing this to shame members or "guilt-trip" anyone. I am writing to explain the purpose of our game servers, past, present, and future.
The purpose of renting and operating our own game servers has been, is, and will be to create opportunities to glorify God and minister to others. When we pay for and operate a game server, we set the rules. This not only means creating a friendly environment for Christian gamers, but also welcoming and developing relationships with non-Christians. It means preaching the Gospel, both through word and deed, without concern for violating server rules or Terms of Service.
While I encourage members to make friends and have fun playing their favorite games online, our first purpose is to glorify God and serve Him. If you ask "How can one serve God while playing computer games?" many of our members could answer your question. The gaming community at large is viewed as a hostile and rude environment. Operating servers where love and friendliness replace hostility and rudeness opens up many windows of opportunities to encourage Christians and witness to non-Christians.
We are Christians first and gamers second. Let us never forget this.
That being said, I recognize many members do not have the funds to contribute. Many members are too young to open Paypal accounts. (We currently only accept donations via Paypal.) Others are under financial pressure before giving tithes to their local church, let alone after. 2 Corinthians 9:7 states: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
(On the topic of tithes, I'm going to take this opportunity to reiterate a point previously discussed on the forums: Donations to Tribe of Judah should not be considered tithes. If you attend a local church, you should be giving your tithe to that church. I won't deliberate on the amount of the tithe; that is a complicated topic and not the subject of this post. Tithe to your local church first; any donation to Tribe of Judah after that should be considering an offering, not an additional tithe.)
I hope that you read this in the manner it was intended: as an explanation of my desire for Tribe of Judah to serve God and bless Him for his grace toward us as individuals and as a group.
EDIT: View the full version of this thread, including replies, here.
As many of you know, Tribe of Judah formerly operated several game servers on a dedicated server rented from ServerBeach. Some time before June 2005, ServerBeach changed its Terms of Service to allow adult content on its servers. When Plankeye, our former Server Operator, discovered this, he shut down the servers and terminated the account with ServerBeach. I and other staff members supported his decision.
As of December 5, 2005, it has been nearly five months since our servers went offline. Wanting to explore alternatives to relying solely on member donations, a plan for selling advertising on future game servers was devised. Efforts to sell advertising have met with no results, despite hard work and effort on the part of Mr. Slice, Tribe of Judah's Fundraising Manager.
Tribe of Judah began accepting donations via Paypal on July 10, 2005. Our fundraising efforts continue today.
I am not writing this to shame members or "guilt-trip" anyone. I am writing to explain the purpose of our game servers, past, present, and future.
The purpose of renting and operating our own game servers has been, is, and will be to create opportunities to glorify God and minister to others. When we pay for and operate a game server, we set the rules. This not only means creating a friendly environment for Christian gamers, but also welcoming and developing relationships with non-Christians. It means preaching the Gospel, both through word and deed, without concern for violating server rules or Terms of Service.
While I encourage members to make friends and have fun playing their favorite games online, our first purpose is to glorify God and serve Him. If you ask "How can one serve God while playing computer games?" many of our members could answer your question. The gaming community at large is viewed as a hostile and rude environment. Operating servers where love and friendliness replace hostility and rudeness opens up many windows of opportunities to encourage Christians and witness to non-Christians.
We are Christians first and gamers second. Let us never forget this.
That being said, I recognize many members do not have the funds to contribute. Many members are too young to open Paypal accounts. (We currently only accept donations via Paypal.) Others are under financial pressure before giving tithes to their local church, let alone after. 2 Corinthians 9:7 states: So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
(On the topic of tithes, I'm going to take this opportunity to reiterate a point previously discussed on the forums: Donations to Tribe of Judah should not be considered tithes. If you attend a local church, you should be giving your tithe to that church. I won't deliberate on the amount of the tithe; that is a complicated topic and not the subject of this post. Tithe to your local church first; any donation to Tribe of Judah after that should be considering an offering, not an additional tithe.)
I hope that you read this in the manner it was intended: as an explanation of my desire for Tribe of Judah to serve God and bless Him for his grace toward us as individuals and as a group.
EDIT: View the full version of this thread, including replies, here.
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