Anniversary...

[David Flick]

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Today (March 13, 2011) marks the 11th anniversary of the BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums. BL.Com became reality 72 days after the SBCNet Discussion Forum, hosted by CompuServe, ceased operations at midnight on 12/31/1999. Several current BL.Com members were regular members on SBCNet. I can't remember all of those who discussed and debated over on SBCNet, but I do remember that Bruce, Ed Pettibone, and William Thornton were regulars at SBCNet. I believe Lamar Wadsworth, Michael Davis, and Dave Roberts may have been others who came to our forum from there.

Bl.Com is Bruce Gourley's creation. He invited me to to become the first moderator. Shortly after we began operations, he invited Ed Pettibone to be a moderator. The rest is history. It's hard for me to comprehend that this discussion forum has completed 11 years and is beginning the 12th. Time passes rapidly when one is having fun.

My purpose of writing this post is two fold. First, I want to wish us a Happy 11th Anniversary. I recognize my own biases and personally believe that BL.Com is the premier of all Baptist discussion forums.

Secondly, I am announcing my resignation as a BL.Com moderator. It's time for me to hang up the moderator's keyboard. I want to publicly thank Bruce for inviting me to to be one of the moderators. Although I'll be giving up the moderator's job, I'll retain some of the minor behind-the-scenes management of the . I will retain management of the page, page, page, and the page.

I have enjoyed being a member & moderator of the BL.Com Forums for the past eleven years. I want to thank all of my BL.Com friends for the enjoyable discussions and debates through the years. I've had the opportunity of personally meeting many of the BL.Com regulars. This will be my 7075th post. That's 6.05% of all posts with an average of 2.94 posts per day. I'm not going away. I'll continue posting messages to the forums. I'm simply retiring as an active moderator.

Happy Anniversary to BL.Com and thanks to all my friends for supporting me as a moderator.

Richest Blessings,

[Dave Roberts]

David, thanks for sharing this important anniversary note with us. You have done excellent work here, and I value having gotten to know you personally as well as on the board. Keep contributing to this mealange of opinion and fact. We need you!

[William Thornton]

11 years is a long, long time for this stuff. I recall fondly those early years, before you and I became friends, when you would mercilessly beat me up online. Ah, the good old days.

Many folks who have been here a long time have gone through significant changes in life and ministry: You from DOM (and one of the best mission trips I've ever taken a group on was to Chickasha) to American Baptist. Timothy, a relative latecomer here, from ABC to UMC. Ed to ABC. Bruce from Montana to Auburn, Macon, back to Montana. Fox seems to be about the same, though.

Your 7075 posts don't account for at least two resets that I can recall.

I hate to see you resign as moderator and wish OK were closer to GA so we could have some genuine face-to-face fellowship.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: David, Thanks for the reminder of this anniversary. I hope you enjoy your retirement as much as I do. Friday and Saturday we where attending a NYS Regional Missions Conference and did not take the laptop with us, however I did not feel the first twinge of BL.C withdrawal, such as I would have a few short years ago .

Also I want to thank you for the behind-the-scenes work. I really enjoy the Bloggers page, Local Church Links page, Baptist Postcards & Old Photographs page. I don't visit and the BL.Com BBQ Restaurants page very often, even thinking about BBQ is not on my diet.

I do hope to see you get back to posting more, You used to be pretty close to my total which with this post in 8080. There are several people I would like to see come back. Other than Bruce and your self Chris was the first participant here that I had the privilege of meeting in person.

And before I go I want to include our honorary moderator ML, In the list of long time contributors. Sadly these boards are not the same since her Death.

[Haruo]

Thanks be to God for your tenure here, David, and thanks to you for your help to me, especially on Cheyenne hymns.

[Tim Bonney]

David,

Thanks for all your hard work on the forum! As William has said, a lot happens in 11 years.

Tim

[Bruce Gourley]

Eleven years, it is hard to believe. David, since you forewarned me of your retirement, I've been thinking of all these years we've worked together on BL.Com. Not only are you the first moderator of the site, it would be quite proper to call you the co-founder, as well. Because of our participation in the old (last millennium!) SBC forum, I realized that an open Baptist forum was needed, but knew that it would take a small group of dedicated folks to make it work. So to you (and Ed) go the credit for making BL.Com what is was and has become. Your contributions I can never repay, and will remain forever grateful to you for these past 11 years.

As others have noted, a number of us have made significant career changes (wanted or not) and moves since 2000. As to moves, David is one of a few of us (?) who have remained all along in the same state.

Back in 2000, cell phones were only becoming commonplace. Google had only been around for about a year, and was not yet very popular. MySpace and Facebook were unheard of (and MySpace has pretty much sunk back to unheard of status). Many of us were still using a dial up connection to get on the Net!

Life chugs right along, and David's retirement as moderator also makes me think of people no longer with us. Marilyn (still makes me sad thinking about her), Ralph Storm (no longer a part of BL.Com), and others. Many of us have our Baptist fingers in other pies these days: while David yet pastors in Oklahoma, Ed and Trudy are pursuing ministries not envisioned in 2000, William has turned his attention to blogging, and even Fox is a blogger. By the way, blogging was not very popular back in 2000!

I'm grateful to all who have contributed (and are contributing) to making BL.Com what it is. And thanks in no small part to David Flick, BL.Com became and is a nice little Baptist home on the Web.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Bruce, Trudy may never forgive that spelling of her name.

[Bruce Gourley]

[Sandy]

You've done an excellent job, David. A lot of Baptist history has been recorded here.

[Neil Heath]

As a relative newcomer to these boards, joining in 2006, I quickly came to appreciate David's contribution to keeping things on a more or less even keel (easier said than done, I assure you!). And I learned later as a fellow moderator of his care and concern to resolve problems that arose as redemptively as possible, even calling me here is Ga. to discuss how we could best resolve a thorny issue in a way that was best for all.

Some of his work behind the scenes will never be known by all who read here, but David, I'm grateful for your part in making BL what it has become. You will be missed as moderator (no doubt we'll still seek your advice from time to time), and I'll be watching for your posts to continue to enlighten and entertain. The Golden Spurs must not disappear either.

Like William, I wish we were close enough to visit, eat BBQ, and swap stories. God bless you, and don't be a stranger around these parts!

Neil

[David Flick]

[Stephen Fox]

some we had lost along the way mighta ben recorded here. Maybe we can do that at the present reminder.