The past week or so involved me purchasing the domain, installing and setting up the forum software--we use myBB. I had considered using phpBB but it's not open source the way myBB is. Since Radix Fidem is relatively an "open source Christianity," I thought myBB was a choice more in line with our philosophy.

I also installed a cert on the domain so the address will be https and not http (and plus a lot more secure), but for some reason the stylesheets do not load. There is most likely a configuration setting somewhere that I've missed. So for now, access the site at http://radixfidem.org (but you knew that already  ). Fixed! http now redirects to https, and all the site resource URLs have been updated.

We use the Tawny theme. Some javascript and stylesheet URLs in the header had to be modified to correct the path to the assets. Other than that, the theme has been unchanged.

I'm the "old man" at 61, a grandfather, an Army veteran (artillery and military police), and while technically retired, I volunteer in computer tech support. I was educated and ordained as an evangelical clergyman, but quickly found myself pulled and pushed outside traditional church ministry. I began writing and exploring a different approach to religion on a blog and somehow managed to attract an audience. I have been a public school teacher in secondary Social Studies, so I tend to teach a little government, politics, economics and history at times. I do okay with geography, sociology and psychology. I like to pretend that I'm a writer with a whole bunch of ebooks published online.

I'm also quite the fan of Linux -- Xubuntu is my favorite. I always have time to answer questions about Linux in particular and computer technology in general. I won't twist your arm about Linux; I can help with some Windows stuff, as well. Like Jay, I work out a lot, but I'm limited by arthritis and injuries. I take long bike rides in good weather and often take pictures of the scenery, and post them on my blog, which is linked below.

...seeing as I'm an elder and should lead by example, right?

Newly-minted middle-aged husband and dad, I work as a software designer (user experience designer, more precisely). Most of my free time, besides family things, involve a lot of reading and writing. Exercise comes into play, almost daily (resistance training, running/walking, cycling), but it's not an obsession. I have a vaguely paleo-based diet, but that is also not too much of an obsession. I also enjoy a good sci-fi movie and good cup of black coffee. I generally ignore politics and have no use for watching sports sports.

In the past I was heavily involved in music, mostly of the metal variety. Those days are behind me, as the genre doesn't hold my interest a great deal. There's a ton of great new bands out there...I just don't have the wherewithal to pay attention. I am more interested in video game music, from 8-bit all the way to full-blown symphonic tracks.

The link to my personal blog is below if you'd care to know more.

Edits: added some content, links, and small changes.

A Brief Introduction
We here at Radix Fidem are a church based on the ANE (Ancient Near East) philosophy of heart-led living. We hold that the heart, as opposed to the mind, is the best and only way to connect to the divine nature of God; it employs our sensus divinitatis, our "sense of the divine," and is the way we as created beings can partake in God's plans here on earth. It is not the "heart" of Occident pop-philosophy, which equate the with fleeting sentiment or worldly desires. The heart is separate from our rational faculties, which only hold use in discerning and manipulating the physical domain. 

By this commitment, and others, we distinguish ourselves from the tradition of the majority of established western Christianity. We are not the first to do this, for sure, but we are one of the very few who are calling it out emphatically as a corporate distinctive.

A Less Brief Introduction
Ed, our Senior Elder, wrote a book that explains in detail what we're called to do, both here in the forum and outside of it. Below are links to forum posts, but the book in its entirety can be read on Smashwords for free.
Summary
Introduction
Chapter 1: A Matter for the Heart
Chapter 2: Two Realms
Chapter 3: Cascading Dependencies
Chapter 4: Not By Human Power
Chapter 5: The Covenant
Chapter 6: A Pattern for Living
Chapter 7: How We Live
Chapter 8: Not Green
Chapter 9: Implications
Epilogue

Extended Reading
Read Ed's new book, The Heart of Biblical Living, at Smashwords.

About the book:

"We are Radix Fidem, a Christian community. We would like to see a revival of the Ancient Hebrew outlook behind the Bible. We aren't trying to build up our own organization, but hope to develop an informal society of like minded people alongside their current church affiliations. To that end, we offer this examination of what we believe will help people discover something long ignored in Church History, which we call heart-led Christian faith. This isn't a long book, so we hope you'll take the time to investigate whether our experiences have any use for you."

Leadership Team
Click here for our eldership team. They function as essentially the admins of this site, and are denoted by an "Elder" designation in the user title, which is visible on forum posts, etc.

Ed Hurst - Senior Elder
Jay DiNitto (jaybreak) - Junior Elder and main admin for this site

About User Titles
Any registered user can change their title to whatever they want, but "Church Elder" titles are reserved for actual church elders, who belong to the actual "Elder" forum user group. We presume the honor system regarding user titles, but if you are not a Radix Fidem elder and you change your user title to "Elder," you'll receive a warning and/or possible ban.

If there's any doubt as to who is an elder and who's not, always check the Elder user group page. Non-elders will not be listed there.

Misc
Our analytics page - info on traffic, visitors, etc.

You can automatically subscribe to all forums and all new posts, etc, by using the "Automatic Subscriptions" dropdown, on your profile's options page. It's under the "Messaging and Notification" section.