Honorable Mention . . . The Right Place for the Edge of the Inside

Who wouldn’t like to make the rankings among Christian blogs? In 2012 I entered the SBC Blue Collar Blog Contest over at SBC Voices and won. I did not win for any other reason than a well-oiled campaign elevated to winning heights by two of my biggest fans, if not readers, Kimberly and Tommie. What’s a Dad to do? Enlist their help! They and a bunch of friends not normally associated with SBC groups thought it would be fun to vote for me.

Adam Walker Cleveland, who recently made Jared Moore’s Top 250 Christian Blogs, asked at the time, “So what?” I started a post to answer Adam. It is still in draft mode likely to never make it out. In short, I was going to wax on about how blogs retain a democratic Baptist distinctive. Popularity does not always equate to mainstream. Adam made the top 250 (212), I made Honorable Mention (7). The results, according to Jared’s method, were based solely on traffic. He differentiated his list from Church Relevance’s Top 200 Ministry Blogs that utilizes a different rankings system.

I was surprised that many of the blogs I regularly read, like Adam’s, did not rank higher. Same goes for David Fitch (193), Homebrewed Christianity (145), J R Daniel Kirk (184), or even Steve McCoy (152), Joe Thorn (142) and Marty Duren (146), among many others in my Feedly and Feedspot readers. Many of my favorites did not make either list.

After thinking about it more I think Honorable Mention fits The Edge of the Inside best. It is not that I would mind being in the top ten, which obviously would mean being read more widely. Any writer would like to be read more. But, Honorable Mention represents the edge. Close enough to be included. Far enough away to miss being in anyone’s echo chamber. I like that.

Thanks to Jared for the Honorable Mention.