New frontapage. This should finally make some sense…
Project Diktuon is an effort to strenghten the network of mature Christians willing to build the Kingdom of God in Europe.
Diktuon is the Greek word for net. It’s used e.g. in Matthews 13:47:
Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore.
The fishes in this parable stand for people. The net pulls the fish closer to to God and closer to each other. Then they become nutrition.
The idea of Project Diktuon is simply to create a critical density – critically many of these high-quality Christians connecting to each other critically much – and see what happens. And that’s what Project Diktuon is all about. Read more in the Dream.
Who?
So who exactly should be involved? What does “mature Christian” mean? I’m not going to give a definition. But I have written a number of texts and I believe that if you read them you should get an idea. I think these things are quite basic, and have listed them with virtually no argumentation.
- Credo lists some of the basic beliefs you should hold.
- Grand Plan gives an eagle eye overview of the history of salvation.
If these things are not as self evident to you or you cannot produce the biblical arguments yourself, then Diktuon is probably not for you. The same applies to the following texts, where I have presented some of the goals of Project Diktuon.
- Unity in Christ
- Obedience to God
Finally, here are some thoughts about what we should keep in mind, in case we find it hard to get along with each other. These are not biblical truths, but nevertheless help in getting along.
Together these texts should give an idea about who am I looking for. I don’t care if you are great or small, all I’m interested in is your heart and mind. Actually, I expect that most of you are plain nobodies, like I am. But if you find that what I have said here reflects your heart and mind, you are one of those I’m looking for, and you should expect to find similar people. But if you find that you cannot accept or commit to some of these things, then this is probably not for you.
Here are some more specific indicators that this might not be for you:
- If you are not ready to face your fellow Christians as fellow human beings, but insist on pertaining to some role on either side.
- If your own denomination, nationality or race is so dear to you, that it prevents you from unity with other Christians.
- If you do not want to do the will of God or want to do something that is not His will.
- If you just want to argue or prove other people that you are right and they are wrong.
Having said that, these documents are still a work in process. If you think I have mistaken somewhere, give feedback. You can find versions of all these texts are in the blog, where you can comment them.
And if you want to give some positive feedback, I’m not going to refuse that either.
What?
As Christians we are bound to Christ. And In Christ we are bound to one another. Yet we may not know about each other. There may be people with similar issues on their hearts, who live fairly close by, but we know nothing about. This is what Project Diktuon tries to address – strengthen the our unity that we may meet one another in real life.
I believe that when we earnestly seek God and His will and come together, He will let His creativity and power flow through us in countless ways. And I want to be advancing that. That’s what Project Diktuon is all about. And that’s why I created this site, Diktuon.net. Diktuon.net is an Internet platform to provide tools for unity, communication and co-operation for people, who are committed to build the Kingdom of God in Europe.
While this network is essentially about individual people being in contact with individual people, Diktuon itself is a totality. It can only be grasped from it’s knots, or nodes: individual people. Thus building the network is essentially building these relationships.
How?
To build this inherently social network, Project Diktuon has the following goals:
- Seek people of God and bring them together.
- Establish a strong community.
- Create critical density of these people.
- See what happens.
As for me, I created this site, try to establish some of the basic values and goals to communicate what kind of people I’m looking for. On the other hand I’m putting up some other basic Internet infrastructure that you could use: like a private social networking site, ability to blog either publicly or in private, ability to publish your own homepages and email services. All this is nearly done.
To reach the goal of gathering people with right kinds of hearts and minds, no-one can just sign up. This is a social network. Someone in the network should already know you and be convinced that you too share these values. Then you can be invited to the network.
Next, I’m going to tip about this to a few people, who can further help to refine on these values and goals and might find these services useful.
Then I’ll set up an association, whose members will be the registered members of Diktuon.net and therefore share these values and goals. And I will hand this project and Diktuon.net to that association – to you, if you are part of it.
So my ultimate aim with all this is that it would be all yours, all ours. That you’d get to take this thing where ever you want. I for one would like to be part of it.
Issues
Diktuon.net is in alpha state. Some of of the relevant planned pages are still on the works. You can track additions on the blog.
Much needs to be done. The most critical thing is finding the right people and getting them involved. I trust in you to do that.
I believe these basic values here need to be somewhat refined. I’ve mostly come up with them by myself, and one as such they only have a limited viewpoint. Rather these pages should be seen as a starting point for discussion. Nor do I think they are comprehensive or theologically flawless, as I am not academically educated theologian. They are merely an attempt to communicate a basic idea of some basic and fundamental issues in Christianity.
Technically one of the most important parts of Diktuon.net is to establish a social networking site for this community. Some of technical issues need to be taken for, like security, scalability and extensibility. Also I the services and terms of services need to be work on.
Please give feedback and ask questions. I can give initial peeks to the workings for some people, but I really don’t want to let this loose until I am clearly communicating what this is about. I think I’m being unclear in many issues, so ask me that I could clarify.
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An update on the frontpage. Added some more info. I’m afraid I’m still miscommunicating many things.
Project Diktuon is an effort to strenghten the network of mature Christians willing to build the Kingdom of God in Europe.
Diktuon is the Greek word for net. It’s used e.g. in Matthews 13:47:
Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore.
The fishes in this parable stand for people. The net pulls the fish closer to to God and closer to each other. Then they become nutrition. And that’s what Diktuon is all about.
As Christians we are bound to Christ. And In Christ we are bound to one another. Yet we may not know about each other. This is what Project Diktuon tries to address.
The idea of Project Diktuon is to create a critical density – critically many critically high-quality Christians connecting to each other critically much – and see what happens.
I believe that when we earnestly seek God and His will, and come together, He will let His creativity and power flow through us in countless ways. And I want to be advancing that.
That’s what Project Diktuon is all about. And that’s why I created Diktuon.net. Diktuon.net is an Internet platform to provide tools for unity, communication and co-operation for people, who are committed to build the Kingdom of God in Europe.
While this network is essentially about individual people being in contact with individual people, Diktuon itself is a totality. It can only be grasped from it’s knots, or nodes: individual people. Thus building the network is essentially building these relationships.
To build this inherently social network, Project Diktuon has the following goals:
- Seek people of God and bring them together.
- Establish a strong community.
- Create critical density of these people.
- See what happens.
The idea is that you get to do it. For your part.
Two communities
Actually my plan is to create two communities. One half open and one fully closed. Both of them working on an invite only manner. I start by working on the open community, which for all people who commit to these values. Basically I think that would be all Christians. However there are some Christians that are should not join.
- If you are not ready to face fellow Christians as people, with no roles on either side, this is not for you.
- If your own denomination is so dear to you, that it prevents you from unity with other Christians, this is not for you.
- If you do not want to do the will of God or want to do something that is not His will, this is not your place.
- If you find you want to argue or prove other people that you are right and they are wrong, this is not for you.
The second community is closed and with a lower profile. Technologically it lives in a different, more secure space, and can be detached from the more open community if need be.
Issues
Much needs to be done to achieve these goals. The most critical thing is finding the right people and getting them join. I trust in you to do that. However, the question is, who are the right people.
One of the most important parts of Diktuon.net is to establish a social networking site for this community. The most important thing in this is to find the right people. Second, clear community guidelines need to be established. Third, some technical issues need to be taken for, like security, scalability and extensibility.
The ideas on these pages are by no means final, but rather a starting point for discussion. Nor do I think they are comprehensive or theologically flawless, as I am not academically educated theolgian, but merely an attempt to communicate the basic idea of some basic and fundamental issues about Christianity.
Here are some tips on where to start reading:
- The Dream speaks of the big picture, why I started this project.
- Credo tries to communicate some basic toughts and values I believe the community should share.
- The FAQ gives a good overview of What, Who, When, Where, How and Why
- Read some guidelines about linking before you link to this site.
- The Blog shows the latest additions. Please put your comments there.
- My personal blog
This Dikton.net is in alpha state. Some of of the relevant planned pages are still on the works. You can track additions on the blog.
Please give feedback and ask questions. I can give initial peeks to the workings for some people, but I really don’t want to let this loose until I am clearly communicating what this is about. I think I’m being unclear in many issues, so ask me that I could clarify.
Here’s some initial thoughts about terms of service. They are also the terms that are valid for now. Feedback please.
Terms of service, version 1, valid as of October 29 2009
For now, this service – diktuon.net – is provided by private person Tuomas Nurmi to private persons. If you don’t like it, complain to me. I reserve myself an irrecoverable right to be wrong and to change my mind.
Some of the services provided are social networking platform, email platform and blogging and CMS site management platform.
For now, I also reserve myself the sole right to invite people to the community. I do take suggestions.
There is a plan to organize an association to formally own and run services provided by diktuon.net. The purpose of the association is to maintain and develop the services and promote the values and goals of Project Diktuon. The members of the association are the registered users of diktuon.net
By registering to the service, you commit either to join such association or leave the service as it is formed.
Note, that as the project goals and the rules of the association are still being drafted, you have a chance to influence how they will turn out to be, before the association is formed. One of the things to be decided is the member acceptance policy for the association.
You reserve full copyright to any content you post. Make sure you have that in the first place. By posting it, you practise your copyright by giving diktuon.net right to store, reformat and distribute that content and agreeing that you wont restrict those rights later. For example, if you publish a public post, and later regret, diktuon.net is not responsible for removing all traces of it.
You are responsible for your use diktuon.net, for any content you post to here and for any consequences thereof. The content you submit, post, or display will be able to be viewed by other users of the Services. Some of it may be viewed by third parties, depending on various privacy settings. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others under these Terms.
By registering to this site you state that you are committed to the values and goals of Project Diktuon as described under <a href=”http://diktuon.info>http://diktuon.info</a>.
Especially you
1) recognize that Holy Spirit has immersed you in the death and resurrection of Christ.
2) Commit to authentic and encounter other registered people as individuals who are in Christ, rather than any roles you or they may have e.g. as representatives of any organisations
3) Recognize due to being in Christ that you have a unity with other members of the service dispite all the differences you may have
4) You want to be obedien to God and do His will.As a rule you should be here with your own name. There are some legitimate reasons why you should not do that. Technically, I don’t need to know your name, only your heart. So if you want to remain anonymous, convince me. Note however:
1) If you want to stay anonymous, you must make clear that you are being anonymous, e.g. by putting “Anonymous” in your screen name.
2) As this is essentially a social network, any anonimity is relative. Some will know who you are, and many will get a good clue.While my vision is that people who love Christ can do whatever they like in this service, there are some topics I do not tolerate. The reason is that while it is possible to discuss about them in a constractive manner, in my experience the odds that your counterpart could do that too are so low that it is not worth the risk. Rather these tend to cause arguments, make people focus in rather irrelevant issues and deviate from Christ.
1) Discussion about the age of the world and how it was created. Includes topics about flood.
2) Discussion about how and when people should be baptized.
3) Discussion about accurate end time events. (Especially rapture.)*
4) Discussion about women as priests.In addition:
1) Don’t speak evil of anyone behind their backs. This applies both to members and non-members.
2) Don’t spam in any way. Including comments and internal messages.
3) Don’t harvest visitors in unethical ways. E.g. using tricks to push your site up in search engine counts.
4) Do not give share username and password. Membership is personal. If you think someone else should have access, let them be members themselves.Diktuon.net does not store personal information about you other than that you have provided in your profile. It is your responsibilty to see that that information is correct.
The server logs automatically some activities, like IP addresses. This information may be used to develop and protect diktuon.net and is in any case automatically deleted after a period of time, typically one week or month.
I was asked what is a mature Christian? How do I define one?
Well, I don’t. But I can share some thoughts I have about spiritual maturity. Feel free to comment.
Spiritual maturity is work of God in us. We don’t make ourselves grow, He does. What we can do, is slow Him. I’ve heard that it takes at least 20 years to become a man of God, and the only thing one can do is to slow the process. When you walk that path, you will understand why. I have still a long way to go. Yet I assume that there is already some maturity in my life.
The four phases spiritual maturity can be described as follows.
- Me
- Me and Jesus
- Jesus and me
- Jesus
I’d say that around phase 3 we can start to talk about some sort of maturity.
Spiritual maturity is marked by fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. These are really characters of Christ, that are expressed in the life of a Christian, when that Christ get room in the life of that person. The person himself may be more of less ignorant about them. After all, they are fruit of the Spirit, not something he does himself. To that person they are just the normal way to behave. Making this kind of action is most natural thing to do is precisely what the Spirit does.
Maturity is reflected in the words and in deeds. For the mouth speaks out of hte overflow of heart – and if the heart is filled by Jesus, this is reflected in what the person says. And if the tongue spits out bitter words, obscenities, coarse jokes, bad talk about other people or lies, that too tells something about that persons heart. Likewise, sexual immorality, greed, envy and jealousy are not signs of mature Christian life.
Instead the mature Christian is obedient to Lord and does His will. On one hand it is natural for him, but on the other hand it means continual conscious choices to do the will and not be tempted into something else. The immature Christian is governed by the circumstances, for a mature Christian God is the circumstances. So, in a way, mature Christian is governed by the circumstances as well 
Mature christian is one who knows his God. He is not tossed back and forth by the latest religious fashion or latest buzzwords in teaching, or impressed by mere great rhetoric. Instead he knows the truth himself and God’s love dwells in him. Mature Christian needs not to be taught about Christ, for he knows Him, and can learn to know Him better by himself.
Maturity means also taking responsibility of your own life, and then possibly of the lives of others. A part of this responsibility is refusing to act on ones own. Mature person wants to be a subject to a community of others. He is aware if his own deep imperfection, but accepts also his maturity. He does not think more or less of himself.
As maturity is relative, there are different stages of it, as described above. Between immaturity and maturity I’d say is also a kind of pre-maturity. People, who want to be mature, and see their deficiencies in that respect, but don’t quite consider themselves as mature yet. Sometimes this self-image is the only thing that sets them apart from people who could be characterized as mature. Sometimes there are more rough edges to be evened out. But as we all have those, the difference is a line drawn in water.
It is the will of God that all Christians would be mature. As I seek to build a community of mature Christians, I am not only seeking those who are already mature. I also want to incorporate people who are somewhat pre-mature, in the hope of creating an environment where they can mature. For we all have way to grow, and we all can help each other on that path. I for one hope to find people, who can help me in my immaturity.
Unity, first attempt. Somewhat disorganized, I think? Can’t think too clearly about it right now, feel free to feedback
Unity – Creating a critical density of mature Christians in Europe.
The aim of Project Diktuon is to create a critical density of mature Christians in Europe. This is different from a critical mass: even in nuclear bomb the question is about density – enough high quality substance in small enough space. Likewise, we want to bring many high-quality Christians into a web of connections with each other and tighten that network.
The purpose of God is to have children. He wants people to be part of His family. And if we are of one family with Him, we are of one family with each other. Christ did not leave us here alone. He left us here together. And it is His will that we live here together, loving one another.
As we are immersed in the death and resurrection of Christ, we are of one being with Him. We literally have a connection. In Christ we are children of God, His younger brothers and sisters. This applies to all Christians, so we are one in Christ, even with people we have never met.
The unity in Christ is reality to all people in the Kingdom so we need to act accordingly. We need to embrace everyone, who is in Christ, with brotherly love, and welcome them to our communion. As we are of one body, we must accept unity in holy communion with each other. To reject a person, in whom Christ lives from the the holy communion, is to reject Christ.
Our unity with each other is founded on the fact that we are in Christ and Christ is in us. When we want to conquer our differences and work on our unity, we do it by seeking Christ, not by seeking each other. We will find each other at His cross. We wont find agreement by you starting to think like I, or I starting to think like you, but by each of us surrendering our minds to Christ, so that He would teach us how He thinks.
We need to seek the truth and not assume we have found it. When we seek the truth, we seek Christ, who is Truth. Therefore there is never harm is seeking the truth. To seek the truth is to be ready to relinquish what we believe to be true for what we learn. Therefore to seek the truth is to be aware of our own fallibility and to be humble. If we cease to seek the truth, we cease to seek Christ.
To seek Christ is to focus in what we have in common in Him, and not to side issues that separate us. To respect Christ is to respect all those, who are in Christ, even when we think or act differently. If Christ wants either of us to change, it is His task to demand and cause it, not ours.
This means that we need to consent to unity of Christians. Not in our own terms, or the terms of the other Christians, but in the terms of Christ. Our unity is not just a good idea, it’s a fact. To renounce that fact in words or deeds is to renounce Christ. The path to unity and unanimity is obedience and submission to Christ.
Path to this consenting is a path of prayer. As we pray, we surrender more of our lives to Christ. We need to pray together and for each other. As we do that, we surrender more of our relationships to Christ and consenting to unity becomes our desire and we start to work together for common goals. We need to encounter each other and everyone else praying, so that people would see Christ in us. As we submit to the teaching of Holy Spirit, we learn to pray like this as naturally as we breath.
No Christian is an island. We belong to God’s family, and we have to take care of one another. We are both those who need to be taken care for and those who need to look after others. But no-one of us is alone, no-one can leave their siblings alone, or do anything in the kingdom alone. Even Jesus sent His disciples two by two, never alone.
Our actions as individuals have to grow from real, living human-sized communities. These communities have to emerge organically from the people, and they cannot be established by an outside authority. Similarly, Project Diktuon is about supporting people in these communities, helping people to bear fruit in their current contexts, and not establishing new ones.
Our most important community is our own family, and the most important place to build the Kingdom is at our own home. Our homes are the places where we can be real ourselves and let others see us and our lives as we are.
These communities, such as families and micro-churches are natural building blocks in the kingdom. They are places to share care, love, attention and prayer. These small communities are where we live our authentic everyday life. There we can be the representatives of God’s grace to each other and to those following our lives and serve our communities and surroundings with the gifts God has trusted us.
While it is important to team up, to be remain functional these communities also need to be small enough. Typically the upper limit for the size is about a dozen. Thus the growth of such communities leads organically into their multiplication, as they divide when new people join them.
The communities are the context, where we can experience we belong to something larger than just ourselves. These communities themselves belong to an even bigger context, the Body of Christ. Thus each of us is individually a subject in the Kingdom of God.
We need to work for the good of the Kingdom, even when it does not serve our immediate benefits or those of our community. When the Kingdom prospers, the people of the Kingdom prosper. We need to remember that our goal is is better than an own goal.
We need to appreciate our differences as the richness of God’s creation. God has called us to be His children and reflect His likeness. We must not try to convert others to think or act like we do, but to seek together Christ and His ways and let everyone mature in their own faith. And accept, that they might end up somewhat different than we. To expect others to be like our ideals, is to replace God with our ideals. Our unity is not based on how we see each other, but in us being in Christ.
We want to reach all of the Kingdom and welcome everyone who is in Christ and commits to these values to this the Diktuon Network, irrespective of their religious background or their position within their religious context.
