From Trickle to Torrent: Welcome SBC Outpost!

The Mississippi River is often called the 'mighty' Mississippi because of the awesome size and power of the river near its entry into the Gulf of Mexico. Over forty percent of the continental United States drains into the river along its route to the Gulf. At New Orleans, the mighty Mississippi is over two hundred feet deep and carries into the Gulf of Mexico enough water to fill one hundred and sixty six semi-trailers of water per second. The movement of water at the Mississippi's mouth is so powerful that nearly a half million metric tons of sediment pours into the Gulf of Mexico every day via the river.

But the Mississippi has its start in a much more humble fashion.


Two thousand three hundred and twenty miles north of the Gulf of Mexico is a little picturesque lake called Itasca, where a small stream, less than three feet deep, overlows Lake Itasca. This little stream is the beginning of the Mighty Mississippi.


The Gulf of Mexico is due south of Lake Itasca, but the Mississippi, in contrary fashion, embarks on its trek by flowing due north. The first of many indications that this river itself and the history that surround it are, as Mark Twain said, "in all ways remarkable."

The word Itasca is a fabricated name made up by borrowing and splicing together halves of two latin words, "veritas caput" which translates as "true head." 19th Century survyer Henry Schoolcraft made up the name (with a little missionary help since only the missionaries in those days knew Latin) and it has stuck. Mr Schoolcraft was the first person of European descent to visit Lake Itasca or at least the first person of European descent who was expressly searching for the source of the Mississippi when he arrived there in July 1832.

SBC Outpost and Other SBC Blogs: A Trickle That Grows More Powerful

Today, July 2, 2007, marks the beginning of a new SBC Outpost. Several Southern Baptists will be making contributions on this new and revamped blog. SBC Outpost joins the stream of blogs that are leading to change in the Southern Baptist Convention. The flow of information grows greater with every post and new entrant into the SBC blog world. Contrary to the expecations of some, the presence of SBC bloggers will only be magnified in the coming months as the Southern Baptist Convention returns toward a more conservative, missional and peaceful place among evangelical Christianity - a place where we belong.

Frankly, for those of us who tire of reading what it is that we as Southern Baptists are supposed to be against, we read with anticipation those posts that highlight what we as Baptists are for - and are actually doing - in the area of church missions, church plants, and church ministry.

Welcome, again, SBC Outpost into the Southern Baptist blog world.

You join the flow downstream - not to the left, or the center, or the right - but to the powerful reason for our existence as a cooperating convention - the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to unreached peoples everywhere.

Blogs are making a difference.

In His Grace,

Wade Burleson