Who Said Blogging Was a Waste of Time?

So, the SBC Annual Meeting is almost a week behind us and the Baptist Bloggers have mostly all chimed in their thoughts regarding the historic events of the past few days. Bobby Welch stirred up a hornet’s nest when he addressed the bloggers during his closing address by saying, “if we’d spend less time on these websites that we’d be able to spend more time witnessing? “Do you think if we spent less time blogging we might have more time to do some baptizing? Do you think if we spent less time fumbling around with those computers we might have more converts?” Welch advised the crowd not to gloat that he’s chiding “them bloggin’ boys. Why, you run around with that wireless telephone up in your ear all day long like a pacifier. “You think if we’d spend less time with those wireless telephones and more time on the street we wouldn’t win more people to Jesus?” It just goes to show how much folks do not get the dynamics of the blogosphere. If you address it in a disparaging way, the little people with computers and blogs are going to write about it. Pretty elementary, really.  He is also dead wrong, but that’s already been covered exhaustively.

My Own Thoughts:

• Surprise of the Bloggers,    Thoughts on the Convention,    Cooperative Program Analysis Cooperative Program Analysis

The Thoughts of Other Baptist Bloggers:

• Art Rogers-Analysis of the convention – 6/14 
• MartyDuren’s take on the Bobby Welch quote
• Marty Duren’s analysis of the SBC Meeting 
• Ben Cole’s wrap-up and analysis of political connotations – Condi Rice 6/16 
• Micah Fries 6/15 
• Micah Fries 6/14 – Tuesday night meeting in suite    
• Micah Fries 6/14 – Take on the election    
• Jeff Richard Young on politics at the SBC 6/17    
• Arkansas Razorbaptist on Condi Rice speech 6/15   
• Arkansas Razorbaptist on Calvinist issues 6/16   
• Wade Burleson on alcohol issue 6/14   
• Wade Burleson on presidential vote and bloggers meeting at the Sheraton 6/14   
• Tad Thompson on presidential election and the role of bloggers 6/13   
• Paul Burleson’s take onGreensboro, including comments on the bloggers 6/16   
• Dorcas Hawker’s links to other bloggers’ take on the convention 6/16   
• John Stickley on Bobby Welch’s comments re: the Bloggin’ Boys 6/14   
• Ronnie Floyd’s reaction to the election 6/15   
• Kiki Cherry’s response to Bobby Welch 6/15     Doug Cherry’s response to Bobby Welch 6/16
• Tim Sweatman on IMB Chairman John Floyd’s comments re: Executive Sessions 6/14
• Tim Sweatman's Notes from Frank Page’s press conference 6/13   
• Joe McKeever (New Orleans DOM) provides a different take on the convention 6/17   
• Cliff Cummings excellent synopsis of the entire convention through a series of posts   http://gracefullwords.blogspot.com/2006/06/historic-day-in-greensboro-with-few.html   http://gracefullwords.blogspot.com/2006/06/greensboro-one.html
• Tom Ascol’s Failed Resolution on Integrity of Church Membership   
• Ben Cole’s Failed Resolution on Baptist Dissent   
• Bowden McElroy’s Questions about the Annual Meeting 6/16   
• Kevin Bussey’s thoughts re: Condolezza Rice’s speech    
• CB Scott on the Young SBC   
• Steve McKoy on Alcohol Resolution    
• Steve McKoy on Pastor’s Conference and Young Leaders Meeting   
• Justin Taylor on SBC Resolution Against Alcohol 
• Joe Thorn is Encouraged - Things Are Changing
• Paul Littleton on possible Open Theism at the SBC Annual Meeting   
• David Phillip’s synopsis of the Tuesday events    
• David Phillip's possible implications of the Alcohol Resolution    
• David Rogers on The Blessings of Blogging
• Rick Thompson's Top Six Factors in the Election of Frank Page

Source Material:

Wes Kinney’s Famous Charts on CP Giving:    Jerry Sutton    Frank Page    Ronnie Floyd

Other News Sources, Blogs, & Articles:   

• Time Magazine   
• TheWashingtonPost 
• Dallas Morning News

Steven Taylor at Poliblog:

• The Standard Anti-Blogging Argument?
• More on the SBC Election
• Bloggin' Baptist, Redux

So, as I’ve been reading the blogs, I really felt that someone needed to chronicle the collective wisdom of Baptist Bloggers for posterity’s sake in the wake of the convention. Some have said that it is the first time that bloggers have been significant in affecting the course of a major institution in the U.S. While, there were many other factors involved, I feel that bloggers brought those things to light and helped give them a voice.  I put together a basic synopsis of opinion from the convention so that it can all be in one place. I picked out the pertinent and most original posts from a wide array of Baptist Bloggers and also added in the mainstream media’s take as well. Whatever your opinion on the 2006 SBC Annual Meeting in Greensboro, NC, there is no doubt that it was a significant event in the annals of communication and technology. 

In my opinion, through populist sentiment, the Southern Baptist Convention has begun a course change. As in the turning of any large ship, it is incremental and takes a great deal of time. It is encouraging that those who are seeking the course change are not liberal or moderate, but rather, rock solid conservatives who want to see us behave differently, follow scripture instead of tradition, and cease narrowing the parameters of cooperation. What if Wade Burleson had not publicly opposed the new IMB policies on baptism and private prayer language? What if Marty Duren had not launched SBC Outpost prior to all of this. What if folks like Art Rogers and Wes Kinney had not gotten involved in the process of reporting vital information to the rest of us through basic research and commentary? The IMB policies would be on the books unopposed and we would just have to deal with it. Now, I believe we are entering an era where these things will hopefully be dealt with in a positive way. The results remain to be seen, but I feel that Greensboro, 2006 had a lot to do with that. So, hopefully, this post will be a good resource to help chronicle the mood of bloggers in the week following the convention. Hopefully, we will not soon forget what brought us to this point so that we stay humble before the Lord and deep in prayer for the future.  Keep reading:

Comments

[chrismc2000]

Alot of people are missing what is happening... The internet isn't something keeping us away from our mission field. IT IS A MISSION FIELD. If you look at most people under the age of 25 they spent a vast amount of their free time on the internet using IM, blogging, and on social networking sites like myspace. The internet is a place where this generation comes together to socialize and talk - If christians aren't present in this sphere of influence then what? The enemy is big time present! Pornography, Predators who use the web to find targets of opportunity to pray on, Advertising... Christians need to be out on the web proclaiming the gospel just as much as we need to be in our workplaces and in the coffeeshop...

[chrismc2000]

BTW - Alan, just wanted to make sure you realize that this post requires a typepad account for anyone to post comments? Your other posts haven't been that way...

[Shane Pike]

chrismc2000, I think you're exactly right. The Internet is the marketplace of Paul's day. Had he been alive now instead of then, I'm quite certain that he would have had a significant Internet presence of some sort.

The problem I see is that anyone encountering Baptist bloggers on the Internet today quickly encounters not saving grace, but exhaustive (and exhausting) infighting amongst themselves and between themselves and the convention. That's never going to do those who are seeking any good.

I agree with Alan that we're better off that the trustee vote got widespread coverage, but I hate that it was through public blogs that who knows who is reading. What's the alternative? I don't know. I don't think it's healthy for Baptists to be sniping at each other publicly, but there may be no other forum that works as well.

I'm thinking this through as I write, and maybe it's just our tone that we need to change, not the forum. From personal experience, and many of you can attest to this, few people treat each other as visciously as Christians treat each other. That's certainly holding true in the blogosphere these days.

[Alan Cross]

Thanks for the good word, Shane. Those comments are always appreciated. I definitely want to be a witness to what God is doing and always be positive in my approach. I am frustrated by people who try to cut others out of serving the Lord for unbiblical reasons, but even in my frustration I try to always let my conversation be full of grace and seasoned with salt. That is my goal, anyway. Thanks for the encouragement to continue to do so. You are right on the money.

[Jeff Richard Young]

Dear Brother Alan,

What a great collection! Thanks for including me.

Love in Christ,

Jeff