“A blessing from God’s Pockett”? Yes, Pockett is spelled correctly. For sixteen years (an eon on the Internet!) Australian Graham Pockett has been running and editing his website, Anointed Christian Links (ACL). ACL is an alphabetical listing of “well over 2,500 non-commercial [Christian] sites,” many of which, in Pockett’s opinion, “could give you weeks, or even months, of browsing.”
All these sites are submitted by their respective owners and representatives, but Bro. Graham personally visits each submitted site and determines whether it meets the guidelines he has set down for inclusion on Anointed Christian Links. And those guidelines are pretty straightforward:
- Is it non-commercial? And,
- Is it Christian?
On the latter point, Pockett has a broad and simple definition: Does the group / church / ministry agree with the basic tenets of Christianity as expressed in the ancient Nicene Creed? That creed is clearly reproduced on the “Submit Your Site” page. Those who submit their sites must state that they agree with the creed. Brother Graham explains his reasoning:
If the group/individual you are requesting a listing for cannot unequivocally confirm the Nicene Creed, please do not ask for a listing. This is one of the most basic of all Christian “statement of beliefs,” but there are groups calling themselves “Christian” which do not completely agree with this creed (often because they don’t believe in the Trinity). There will always be doctrinal disputes between Christians, but at some point we must draw the line and say: “This is what I consider to be the minimum belief for someone to call themselves Christian.”
Please, do not write and say: “Such and such a listing should not be there because they have faulty doctrine.” Maybe I agree with you; maybe I agree with them; but I will simply ask, “Are they Christian?” (i.e., do they believe in the Nicene Creed?).
So just because a site is listed doesn’t mean Bro. Graham endorses what’s on it. But he has made his site the Internet embodiment of the motto of the Evangelical Church Alliance (the group with which I hold my ministerial credentials):
In things essential, unity;
in things nonessential, liberty;
and in all things, charity.
Oh, one other thing. Like any webmaster, Pockett hopes that other sites will link back to Anointed Christian Links, yet he doesn’t make that a condition of being included on his site. But he has been kind enough to list not only this site, KernelsOfWheat.com, but also our main site, Finest of the Wheat (and our long-retired Parbar Westward Bible Teaching site before that); so it seemed the least I could do to give him and ACL a write-up. The more people know about Anointed Christian Links, the more groups who list with it, the more valuable it becomes as a resource. Thanks, Brother Graham, for your labor of love!