Tuesday, August 28, 2007

sbc Impact!

I have always remained a rather quiet voice in the Southern Baptist blogging scene. I have read many Southern Baptist blogs, commented on a few, and unfortunately, flamed out on a couple. It REALLY caught me off guard when blogging buddy Geoff Baggett emailed me about an exciting new venture he was praying about and asked that I might join him on this excursion.

After twenty-four hours of prayer, reflection, and emailing some of my good blog friends (you know who you are and I am grateful to you all), I decided that I would join Geoff and several other contributors on a collaborative blog entitled sbc Impact! The bar is raised really high for this blog. It is envisioned to become an open forum for safe, courteous, humble dialogue about a multiplicity of issues with not just Southern Baptists but prayerfully Christians of any stripe, without degenerating into the fire-fights characteristic of some blogs.

I am grateful to be included among the likes of Geoff Baggett, Rob Ayers, SelahV (aka Hariette Peterson), Bowden McElroy, Roger Ferrell, Les Puryear, David Rogers, and Cyle Clayton. Lady and gentlemen, please know I am praying for each one of you in this venture. May it bless God, be a benefit to Christian readership, lead us to a deeper and more committed relationship with Christ, and a greater level of service and ministry.

I would like to invite you to the site to check it out. I am humbled by this opportunity and pray that I will perform adequate to the task and bless many people, and that I might grow a bit on the way, too. The official launch is Saturday, September 1. Hope to see you there!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Tony: Great introduction to Impact. I hope we are each used of God in our own special way to meet the needs of others in their walk with the Lord.

We have a tremendous task ahead of us--the challenge and opportunity to me is quite daunting. I pray we all will be found faithful to give honor and praise due our Savior's name. selahV

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're participating in that, Tony, and I've already got it in my Google Reader, just waiting for the launch!

I don't know how much I'll comment over there, but I will be reading!

And it was great to see SelahV will be there, too -- even taking off the mask and using her real name...wow! ;)

Tony said...

Thanks for the good words. I pray that indeed we are a blessing and will reach many folks!

Tim A said...

Tony,
It is good to hear of this venture. I think they picked rightly. I am sure it will be a blessing.
There has been too much accusation and innuendo on some of the other blogs.
God bless all who are involved with this endeavor.
Tim A. Blankenship

Anonymous said...

Bro. Tony ,

I , to am looking forward to visiting and reading what "sbc Impact " will have on christain living .

I most likely want do a lot of commenting cause " I don't want to get into a situation where I'll scorch my bottom and have to sit on the blisters ?" Been enjoying the comments on the other post also !

What I'm saying is I have not studied theology as extensive as most of ya'll . I'll probably read most of the time , but I think its great that ya'll offering this forum ?

Blessings.
Ron.

Tony said...

Tim,

We have set the bar pretty high on this blog so hopefully there will be no foolishness. I hope you drop in from time to time over there.

Ron,

You are welcome to participate in any discussion you want both at my two blogs and at the new impact site. And, I have studied theology but I am far, FAR from knowing as much as I ought or would like.

So, we could use your iron sharpening our iron, OK?

Blessings be upon both you brothers in Christ.

Anonymous said...

My personal opinion: The more we can minimize the distinctions between those who have "studied theology" and those who have learned through other methods, the better off the body will be.

If the Lord puts something on your heart and urges you to speak, Ron, then don't let your lack of formal training cause you to shrink back.

Of course, it's probably not at all appropriate for me to leave this on someone else's blog, so I'll officially say that this applies to any comments you might want to leave on my blog. But I have a hunch, knowing what I know about Tony's heart, that he would agree with me on this.

If I'm wrong, Tony, just delete my comment here :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, ooops....somehow I didn't realize Tony had already addressed that. It does sound like he agrees with me! :) whew...

Tony said...

Brother Ron,

I don't think I need to emphasize how welcome you are here. You get out of hand, and I'll sic your preacher on you. :)

And I agree with what Steve said 110%.

Anonymous said...

Bro. Tony ,
Sicking Bro Gordon on me won't help cause I think he turns his computer on twice a month ?
I kinda new when I was growing up I was taught that be proud of what I had , cause everyone has to put their pants on one leg at a time but in some discussions I have to look up all them big words to get the meaning of what ya'll write .
Steve thanks my friend for them kind words and I just don't comment on some topics because they stir my dander up and I had rather read than comment .

Blessings to all.
Ron.

Anonymous said...

Ron: I'm always looking up the multi-syllable words too. :) When I first started blogging, I spent more time at the dictionary than I did reading. It's getting easier now. They keep repeating the same words--only problem is, they don't all think it means the same thing. Now that is another kettle of fish to fry.

Hey Steve, all ya had to do ask. I woulda been glad to introduce myself. I will still be using selahV. takes too long to spell my real name. :) and it's not near as cute as selahV

Anonymous said...

selahV, well I read several (4 or 5, I think) pseudonymous* bloggers on a regular basis, so I'm kind of used to people revealing their names when they want to (or not when they don't want to). I assumed that you wanted to remain mysterious, so I didn't want to intrude on that :)

I'm still looking for SelahI, SelahII, SelahIII, and SelahIV, though, now that I've found SelahV...hehe

*multisyllabic word of the day

Tony said...

Ron,

You don't need a sesquipedalian vocabulary to participate in my blog. Just be able to put your pants on one leg at a time, brother!!!

;)

Anonymous said...

Bro. Tony,

See what I'm talking about. " Sesquipedalain Vocubalatory ". SelahV I see what you talking about them probably don't know what the words mean either , just got them memorized ?

My dictionary was copyrighted in 1971 and it don't even list the word "Sesquipedalian " ? It might mean unknown words trying to convince the readers I know sumpen !

I guess the word would be good for another topic to write on sometime if the true meaning could be discovered ?

Blessings.
Ron.

Anonymous said...

Ron: it means, of all things, LONG. Can ya beat that one? Lands alive. Ya need the internet dictionary, Ron.

Steve: There is no one-V, two-V, three-V, or four-V. All there is, my friend, is selahV
selah for pause and think on it. V for victory in Jesus. And a play on the French phrase C'est la vie. Make sense now? If not, that's life. :)

Anonymous said...

selah, you crack me up!! :) I had gotten the pun with "c'est la vie", but didn't realize the "V" stood for victory in Christ. That's awesome.

I was just joking with the I, II, III, IV stuff, pretending that V was a roman numeral.

bad joke. I don't think I'll quit my day job yet ;)