New Blog Title

As you may have noticed, I've re-titled the blog.  It was "Doug Hibbard's Blog" and now it's "Obvious and Ordinary---The Online Musings of Doug Hibbard."  If you haven't noticed, that's ok.  If you don't change the link on your blog, I probably won't notice yours either. 

Why the change?  Well, I'm kind of trying it out.  I started blogging as "BubbatheRev" and then decided that wasn't really the title I wanted to go by.  So, I went to "Doug Hibbard" since, well, that's my name.  It's also still my web address: http://www.doughibbard.com will be my web address for as long as I can afford to keep it renewed.  I like having my own name.  Someday, hopefully, I'll get the .net too. 

However, I decided that perhaps "Doug's Blog" was a bit boring or maybe just bland.  Anyway, it's an option to go back to.  However, I was looking for something catchy.  Wade Burleson has "Grace and Truth to You," and Dan Phillips has "Biblical Christianity," and the various other great bloggers all use some type of name.  Well, except Tim Challies, but he's "The World's Most Famous Christian Blogger" according to some people, so he's the exception that proves the rule.

What did I come up with? "Obvious and Ordinary."  Why?  Here's some reasons:

1.  One of my nicknames in high school was Captain Obvious.  I'm sure some of you qualified for the same name.  Statements like "It's hot" in an Arkansas summer are pre-qualifiers.  I had such moments as "when the lights go out, it gets dark out here" at a high school football game.  I even had a hat with my name and title.  Was the only specific gift I remember from my 16th birthday.  So, there's part of the Obvious.

2.  There's also this: much of what I write is about seeing the things that, in hindsight, are obvious in how God works and who He is.  Not all of it is, and, in fact, much of it's not so obvious on the front end.  It's perhaps more of a "That should have been obvious" feeling, but I was aiming for a short title.

3.  Ordinary.  I have wanted, and still often do want, to be famous, amazing, or important.  Not just to be important to my children and amazing to my wife, but world-renowned for something.  Or for several things.  One part of how I'm seeing God correct me is to point out that I am called to be quite the opposite.  I'm ordinary.  And this isn't a bad thing.  I'm an ordinary pastor of a mostly ordinary church.  We aren't setting records at giving or baptisms or missions, and I'm not setting records with blog readers or using up all my free podcasting bandwidth.  I haven't been invited to preach at great conferences (or mediocre ones).  Neither have I been nominated for high offices in the denomination.  In fact, last year I was initially informed I had been placed on one of the most influential committees, and then was put on something much lower.

And I'm learning to be ok with this.  Part of what I want to blog about is how God is at work through ordinary people like me and like most of my readers.  How God works through ordinary activities, ordinary jobs, ordinary life circumstances. Not that I'd turn down that speaking gig, mind you, but rather that I need to not need to get it.  I need to go through life happy if it never comes.

4.  Ordinary, also, because it's a liturgical term, and many of my readers don't get liturgical.  You're going to have to look that word up, aren't you?  A liturgy is an organized, formal order of worship that is standard throughout a group of people.  That's the short form definition.  The typical liturgy has the Ordinary and the Proper, the latter of which changes based on times, seasons, and church historical events.  The ordinary is nearly the same every time, every place.  It's the root, the grounding, of the worship service.  Through all times and seasons, there are things we need reminded of.  So, ordinary.  And those who know me know that Proper wouldn't have worked.  Plus, being Baptist, I didn't want to mislead my Orthodox brethren by using Ordinary, Proper, and Common and have them thinking I was one of them.  You're welcome to be here if you're not Baptist, but I shouldn't con you into thinking I'm not.  We all have our faults, after all…

5.  Obvious and Ordinary: Basically, the blog of a normal person, seeking to serve the One True God, in ways that aren't really meant to attract worldwide fame and fortune.

Now, dear readers that have gotten this far: I need your opinions.  Does it work? Should I just go back? What other ideas have you got?

Doug

 

PS---In my search for fame and fortune, I am available on Amazon Kindle for $0.99 a month.  Here's the link: .  I don't think anyone's ever even looked at it, and the graphic is 3 blog changes behind.  I need to fix that.