A little over a year ago I began this adventure in blogging. I am not vain enough to think these things I write have had any sort of significant impact on society, but hopefully they have made a few people laugh, given others pause for reflection, and inspired some to dig further into a thing or two or three that piqued their interest. In the introduction to The Manofesto (found on The Welcome Wagon page) I made mention that this is a work in progress. To some degree I am “stuck in my ways”, in some cases to my detriment and in others to my everlasting relief. However, I am all for growth and progress, and the time seems right for The Manofesto to evolve, to take that next baby step. To that end, I want to address a few changes on the horizon.

First of all, in the 10th edition of Random Thoughts, published nearly one year ago (7/11/2009), I wrote “I seriously doubt if I will ever get into Twitter…..but never say never.” I am glad I put the “never say never” stipulation in there, because it has been laid upon my heart that now is the time to become a part of Twitter Nation. I am not sure why I have been so reluctant. I suppose I figured that anything I had to say could be said here or atleast on my Facebook page. Plus, when an entity’s most renown supporter is Ashton Kutcher it is underwhelming at best. But two thoughts occurred to me. First, Jesus commanded his disciples to “make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you”, and He also said “come…follow Me…I will make you fishers of men”. Now I know that it is highly unlikely that Christ was referring in any way to Twitter, but I also am open to new ways to spread The Good News and if I at some point tweet a thought or a scripture that touches even one person and points them down the correct path then hey…why not??

The second thing that occurred to me was that Twitter is a good fit for Random Thoughts. In fact, it seems like the perfect marriage. Therefore, beginning on July 4th 2010 I will be utilizing Twitter for my pithy comments & quick jabs and will be closing the Random Thoughts section here at The Manofesto. I will transfer all archived Random Thoughts to the Potluck section. This will enable me to react quicker to events rather than having to wait sometimes several days or even weeks until I have enough thoughts to justify a blog entry. It will also allow me to use the blog to focus on lengthier, more substantial subject matter, something I feel is a necessary step. We’ll still have some fun writing about movies and sports and other pop culture minutia, but I feel like the majority of what I write needs to be a bit meatier.

The final new development (for now) that I want to address is a possible talk show version of The Manofesto. Now this is not something that is going to happen soon, like the Twitter thing. This is something that I am in the process of pondering and exploring, but something that I feel strongly will happen in the not-too-distant future. My college pal Deb, whose blog Real Widows is linked here, has recently gotten together with a fellow “widster” and started a show on BlogTalk Radio. I have done a cursory assessment of what BlogTalk has to offer and it seems user friendly enough and something I could manage easily. Also, I have been talking with my friend The Owl for awhile now, encouraging him to do his own podcast. Whether we will end up doing something together or separately remains to be seen. I know we both have a lot of opinions about things and share a similar desire to spread Jesus’ teachings to the masses, so we’ll see what happens. I may even talk some other friends into joining in or atleast contributing on occasion. Much more prayerful consideration needs to be put into this particular idea, but I feel confident in saying that eventually there will be yet another outlet through which I unleash my unique perspective.

Please be sure to start “following” me on Twitter beginning 7/4/10, and stay tuned for more information down the line about how plans for the show on BlogTalk Radio are progressing.