BLeach

This Blog Has Moved

I started this blog in October 2005. For more than four years, I've had the privilege of recording my journey on this site. 

• Leading a Church
• Meeting a Girl
• Getting Engaged and Married
• Having a Daughter
• Leaving for Philly
• And so much more...

My life has been full of change this year, so why not on the blog as well!

This will be my last post here. But please--hold back the tears! Because starting today I'll be picking up the story over at www.bradleach.net.  hope you'll link on over and/or subscribe to the new feed.

I want to thank each of you for taking the time to read this blog. If you've read it once, or one-hundred times; if you've been following for one week, or four years. Thanks for sharing in what God has been doing in my life. I'm honored--really!

I hope we can stay connected at the new site!

Link Love

Here are some links to articles/blogs/thoughts that have intrigued me lately.  Enjoy!

• By far the best thoughts I've read on the drama that is Brett Favre. Put on your jersey and get in the game!
• An interesting survey on the way women dress and the effect it has on men. Come on ladies! Help a brother out!
• Allison Park Church just launched their 9th daughter church. Congrats to my friend Jeff Leake and his team!
• Wow. Loved this idea. If you're in local church ministry I dare you to give it a shot!
• Craig Groeschel lists what he did learn and didn't learn in seminary. Interesting conversation and I agree with most of it.
• A passionate call for the end of "Perfect Church." Challenging thoughts church leaders should wrestle with.
• Matt Chandler explains why he's chosen to teach the Book of Philippians.  Inspired me.
• My wife pulls meaning out of Gabby's crying and posts some pics of the most adorable baby in the world!
• My mother-in-law explains Samantha's triumph at the American Idol experience. She's officially a star:)

That's enough for now.  Let me know which links help you!

100,000

I checked my blog stats this morning and noticed that at some point last week this blog received visitor number 100,000.  That's 100,000 reasons for me to be grateful.

When I started this blog as a personal experiment, I wasn't even sure that I'd keep it going.  I was originally inspired by two friends and pastors, Mark Batterson and Chilly Chilton.  I loved the way their blogs drew me into their lives and ministries.

Now there are so many things I appreciate about my blogging journey.

• New friendships
• Development of old friendships
• A place to share life and vision with leaders and friends at Church of the King
• The idea exchange with other church leaders
• A brotherhood of online church planters
• A forum through which to do the hard work of putting my thoughts into words
• The opportunity to process what God is saying to me
• Becoming a practical historian by writing spiritual autobiography for my kids and grandkids
• Creation of a digital set of footprints that reveal the grand themes of my life

I feel honored by everyone who has taken time to visit my blog, share comments, and join my journey.  And I can't wait for 200,000!

Attack of the Spam Robots

It seems like the internet has decided to crash all at once!  Where's Al Gore when you need him?

The Future AG blog has been locked all day.  The explanation that Blogger posted to the author page is that the blog has been targeted by the spam prevention robots.  I really hope it's not as serious as it sounds.  I've never been attacked by a spam robot before:)

After a steady stream of phone calls and emails asking what was wrong with future AG blog I decided to post an explanation on this blog, only to find that the whole Typepad application was down.  At that point I realized that I was being targeted by an entire spam squadron. 

Anyway, we are hoping the Future AG blog will be back up any minute.  We filed our response with Blogger this morning and are just waiting on them to manually reinstate the blog as spam-free.

Until then, remember this.  Nobody's perfect...not even Google.

UPDATE:

Blogger has been unable to give us any idea as to how long it will take them to unlock the site so we decided to move it over to Typepad.  Come on over and rejoin the conversation!

Young(er) Guys I'm Learning From

Okay, so I'm still sixteen months away from turning thirty.  But I'm realizing more and more that I'm not the youngest guy on the block anymore.  Here's a shout out to a few of the younger guys who challenge me.

Steven Furtick: His passion and raw energy might remind you he's still 27.  But that's about it.  This guy's turning Charlotte upside down.

Tony Sebastian: Tony's one of my best friends from Bible College.  He was a year behind me.  He's the best youth pastor I've ever been around.  And he's been recently commissioned to move to Greece as a missionary.  Can't wait to visit him in Thessalonica:)

Nick Poole: Nick's really a thoughtful writer.  He's just accepted a position working with Jeff Leake to create a church planting movement in Pittsburgh.  Looking forward to watching how God uses him.

Tory Farina: Tory started Highpoint Church near Minneapolis less than two years ago.  He's reaching a ton of unchurched people (including most of his own neighbors)!  Everytime I talk with him he challenges my thinking.

Josh Karrer: Josh is launching Crossings Church in Glen Allen, VA.  They worked out a deal with Chipotle to give burritos to their first time guests.  Josh is a goldmine for creative outreach ideas.

Paul Stewart: Paul serves as the adult ministries pastor at Oak Hills Church.  Everytime he posts to his blog I say "why didn't I think of that!"  Paul's really a great thinker.

George Washington: Oops, wait a minute; wrong list:)

These are just a few of the young guys who stretch me.  The list is so much longer.  And if you're reading my blog and I haven't met you yet, introduce yourself!  And to those of you who haven't started your blog yet, what are you waiting for?  You know who you are.  Jerome...

Don't forget to pray for all these guys.  They're just kids:)

Check out Chilly

I started blogging eighteen months ago when two leaders inspired me to begin doing the hard work of turning thoughts and dreams into words.  One of them, Chilly Chilton, started blogging on Xanga in the early days of the blogosphere.  After 100,000 hits he's moved to Typepad.

Check out Insomnia Chronicles.

Chilly makes me laugh and cry.  And think.  And that's good:)

Not to mention we're working the same region.  So glad Chilly chose Hamtramck to plant Real Church.  God is stacking the Metro Detroit dream team for city transformation!

Two Great Friends

So glad to announce that two of my favorite people are now blogging.  Eddie and JT (Jen) serve on staff with me at Church of the King.  Eddie has been a friend since high school.  He keeps the engine of our church running by leading our prayer ministries.  You might remember him from the dancing elf post at Christmas.  Unfortunately, he's not as good of a dancer without the elf costume on.

JT and I attended CBC together.  She's been with us since the beginning and leads our children's and worship ministry. 

As a side note, although the blog is named for both of them, I'd probably expect more posts from JT:)  That is unless there's a reason to post about this guy.  The Ninja might call Eddie out.

Remembering Revival

This month marks the ten year anniversary of a special move of God that my friend Jeff Leake experienced at the church he leads.  To celebrate and remember what God did, he just finished a series of posts sharing some of his memories from the experience. 

Warning: Do not read what Jeff writes unless you want to be stretched by Jesus:)

Simple Blog

One of my 21 day goals was to simplify this blog with maintenance and readability in mind.  So here's the New Year version:)

I eliminated several things from the sidebar; hopefully nothing you'll miss too much.  If you feel compelled to surprise me with a gift I can still email you a link to my Amazon wish list!

And just to dispel any potential rumors, I am still a Michigan fan.  The color change from yellow and blue was not a result of our collapse in the Rose Bowl.

Not directly at least:)

The Slurpee Saga

The slurpee saga continues. 

It started when I stopped into 7-eleven on July 11 (7-eleven's birthday), only to discover that my local 7-eleven had discontinued their slurpee giveaways.  How does that happen on July 11? 

A few days later one of my friends informed me that David Letterman had made a deal with 7-eleven.  With renewed hope I decided to give the story by my house another shot.  Apparently these particular employees don't watch David Letterman.

I haven't seen the show in awhile, but I'm guessing that Letterman must have talked about the slurpee deal again last night (can anyone who saw the show confirm this)? 

All I know is that my blog is currently the number one google hit for anyone searching "7-eleven letterman."  This morning from midnight until 3.00 am hits were off the charts:)

So this is an official welcome to all you slurpee lovers out there!  Has anyone found a store that's actually doing this thing?