Writer's Guidelines

FCET publishes articles solely on the basis of what is written in that article. It is not possible for us to know exactly what a person believes, or teaches, or how they even act, outside of their involvement with FCET -- since this is a rather "loose knit" group of believers. Thus, as much as we would like to be able to do so, we are really not able to endorse the person whose article we publish. Rather, it is the article that we endorse. Having said this we do not even guarantee that the article is '100%' correct, but rather, 'good enough' to qualify as being publishable!

Godly Character

Notwithstanding, FCET would, as much as possible, like to know that those individuals whose articles are published are living upright, morally acceptable lives, according to the standard of morality found in the Bible, God's word. If anyone knows a reason why a particular person's articles should not be published, or a particular person's article(s) that was/(were) already published should be recalled/(deleted from our data base), please contact us and we'll look into it. We will take all cases very seriously, but will not entertain accusations against someone in good standing unless the accusation is provided by at least 2 or three witnesses. (1 Timothy 5:19)

All Welcome

FCET accepts articles from all believers, young and old in the faith, male and female. Articles that are written by believers having been saved less than approximately 8-10 years should not constitute topics that are deep in theological or didactic (teaching) material, according to the warning given in Scripture about those who wish to teach, "Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." (1 Timothy 3:6)

Personal Testimonies

FCET gives preference to personal testimonials of what the Lord has done in a person's life, over and above teaching material. This is not because personal testimonies are, in and of themselves, better than teaching material. Teaching material is very important and we do provide a steady stream of teaching through our articles. However, for the most part, we have found that Christians often hesitate to share their personal testimonies of what God has done in their lives, when, in fact, it is precisely these testimonies which can, and do, have such a great impact in the lives of unbelievers. For this reason, we put a higher priority on the sharing of personal testimonies. If you are a Christian believer, no matter "how great" or "how small" your personal testimony is, it is worth sharing, and important to share! We therefore heartily welcome personal testimonies, including, but not limited to, your salvation testimony (how it was that you came to put your faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins).

Controversial Articles

Unless requested, articles that are controversial in nature and/or challenge doctrines held by other believers will not normally be welcomed unless that author has first published both their personal testimony as well as other articles which may be considered "less abrasive". For example, we encourage individuals to send us personal testimonies for publication and we expect that a person who wants to engage in writing articles of a controversial nature will have first submitted, and have had published, at least 5 articles with us that can easily be said to be "non-controversial". A good example of what we mean can be had by clicking one of the links in the previous section.

Length

FCET currently has no policy on length of article that we will receive. Generally speaking, we do not like to send out articles that exceed 1500 words on a regular basis, though we may do this sometimes (approximately 20% of the articles we send out exceed 1000 words in length). On a 'per grouping' basis, the majority of articles received are in the 501-1000 word range, and we have also published fine articles, which may include poems, prose, and personal salvation testimonies, that are less than 500 words in length. A general rule to follow when writing is, use the least number of words possible that conveys your message.

Guideline Summary

If you are interested in submitting an article for publishing, based on the previous sections, we would therefore suggest that you keep to the following guidelines to maximize the potential of getting your article published:

1. Focus on sharing a personal testimony of something that God has done in your life. Start with your salvation testimony: How you came to trust Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.
2. Try to keep the length under 1500 words. Less than 1000 words would be even better (if possible).
3. When writing, make sure that you stick to a 'theme' that would, generally-speaking, be of interest to most readers. Make sure you don't wander all over the place, or try to put too much in one article.
4. Your article must be glorifying to God and must make our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ "look attractive".
5. The article should help to motivate individuals to put their faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, and/or to live a Godly life, and/or spur them onto good works.
6. The article should encourage, and/or exhort, and/or fall under at least one of the categories for the purposes of Scripture which are described in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and Romans 15:4:
   • "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17) In other words, your article should help people understand godly (biblical) doctrine (teaching), and/or reprove them, and/or correct them, and/or instruct them in righteousness, in order to help spur them on to good works.
   • "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." (Romans 15:4) In other words, your article should help people to have hope. This hope must be Christ-centered.

Become an Author

If you want to become an FCET author, you must first be signed up with us (enrollment is entirely free). If you have already signed up with us, please click on "Contact Us" at the top of the page. We do not guarantee that articles will get published, but most do! All will get reviewed and all will receive a response. Before you write us, please understand that the review process usually involves sending several emails back and forth, so that we can clear up any syntax, grammatical, or other issues. Once you send us your publication, you must respond to all the emails that we send you in a prompt manner (in no more than 24 hours per email) so that we can properly follow through to the point where we can get your publication published. This is an important step that will ensure that your publication gets published in the quickest, most convenient mannern possible. A failure to respond to our emails could result in your publication not getting published, or in substantial delays in getting it published.

Third-Party Sources

Less than 5% of the articles that are published fall into the "third party" category. By "third party" we mean material that has not been sent to us, but rather material that we have specifically sought out.  However, we will only publish this material with permission. Full credits, and a link back to the author's website (if provided), will be included with the publication. As with all of our publications, the publication will appear posted on our website as well as be sent out to our distribution list. We generally do not publish a link instead of the article because we like to have the article sitting in our own repository which then makes it searchable by our readers and much more user-friendly to our audience. However, we will still provide a link back to the author's website, if one is provided (we will also include the author's contact email address at the bottom of the article, if the author requests it, though we do not think that is a very good idea, because any email address that appears on a website will eventually get incorporated into a spam email database that eventually gets widely circulated around the globe).

Contact Us!

Finally, we are human, too! And sometimes, believe it or not, we may forget to review publications that get sent to us, or they may get lost in the pile, or trapped in some spam filter in which case we may not even be aware that something was sent to us. If you have sent us your publication and have not heard a response back from us in, say, a week (or two weeks at the very outside), please contact us and let us know. We are not afraid to be told that we are a little slow sometimes - because sometimes ... we are! So please, write us! Your testimony, and your writings, are important!

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Version 1.2. Dec 2006