BLeach

Why Write?

I came across a thought tonight from Scott Hagan that's worth repeating.

The discipline of putting thoughts into words is grueling, but powerful and clarifying.  Only 10 percent of what you say has the possibility of coming true.  80 percent of what you write down has the chance of coming true.  A true difference maker realizes its worth the sweat and temporary isolation to turn thoughts into words.

Read that last sentence again.

Turning thoughts into words is why I teach from a manuscript.  Ocassionally time doesn't permit me to write my message out.  When that happens I usually find myself saying things to our church that I haven't even processed yet.  I don't like that for a few reasons. 

First, I want to make sure that I'm doing my best to live the things I preach.  I don't bat 1.000 on this but it's my goal.  When I write my messages out before teaching them, the work of turning thoughts into words forces me to reflect personally on what I'm going to say.

The second reason may surprise some of you.  Sometimes I have thoughts that don't actually make sense:)  Turning them into words is a good checkpoint for me to realize that before I subject others to the confusing neurosphere of Brad Leach.  For example, I just realized that I either:

A)  Just made up that word neurosphere...or

B)  Stumbled on an ingenius new concept.

For what it's worth, turning thoughts into words is also why I blog.  Blogging is digital discipleship.  It's an opportunity for me to process what the Holy Spirit is doing in my head and heart.  Blogging is also spiritual autobiography.  It is a way to cyber-share my thoughts.  If we're going to be history-makers, we've got to first of all be history recorders. 

Today I have a limited view of the story God is writing with my life, but someday I'll look back and notice a variety of experiences, including some that seemed small and insignificant at the time, and see some faith threads.  I'll notice how God used them to shape HIS-story for me. 

Blog on:)

Good Times

One more thought on this past week of youth camp.

One of the highlights of the week for me was the relationship connections.  Tony Sebastian is the youth pastor at Christian Life Assembly in Camp Hill, PA.  He and his wife Jamie also happen to be two of my best friends from college.  Spending time with them was energizing.  I also got to hang with Josh Willeford who came in for the week to lead the worship band.  He's got the church planting bug so I loved spending time dreaming with him.  Hanging with these guys made for some long nights, but they were a breath of fresh air for me.

Incidentally, I also got to have breakfast on Thursday morning with Jonathan Herron.  I've gotten to know him some through his blog.  He's planting a new church in Kent, which was only about an hour from the camp I was at.  We got to do one of my favorite things; talk church planting.  This guy is living on the edge.  Pray for him as he gets ready to launch Catalyst Church on September 10.  I think you're going to hear alot of great things coming from his ministry.

Family Bloggers

I just found out today that a couple of family members have joined the blogosphere. 

Jonathan Palmer is my cousin on my mom's side.  We get along 364 days out of the year.  You just don't want to get us together in November when Michigan takes the field against Ohio State.  He's attending North Central University in the fall.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for him.

Doug Clay is the District Superintendant for the Assemblies of God in Ohio.  It's a long story, but he's essentially my fifth uncle.  He's had a big influence on my life.  If you're in ministry, watch for great stuff to come out of his blog.

Google Giggles

It's often good for a laugh to see how various people come across my blog.  There are some unique search topics that bring people over. 

I'll periodically check statcounter to see where people are being referred from.  This morning someone came over from an interesting google search:

is it alright for assembly of god pastors to drink

I don't ever remember posting on that.  Maybe I need to:)

Blogging Pastors

I'm glad to welcome three new ministry friends to the blogosphere. 

Mike Dubbels was one of my best friends at College.  We've spent many hours dreaming out loud together.  He just joined the leadership team at Crossroads Community Church in Indiana.  He's an administrative whiz with church planting in his blood.  He's also alot better at basketball then he looks:)

Jeff Leake is one of my church planting heroes.  He pastors Allison Park Church in the Pittsburgh area.  His church now has 6 daughter churches.  Jeff's vision to plant churches helped formulate mine.  His annual church planting roundtable has been the catalyst for some new ventures that are coming up for our church.

Bobby Hawk enrolled in CBC my Senior year.  We spent alot of time together that year.  The following summer he was in our inaugural team of interns and helped us launch Church of the King.  He returned two years later and started Pontiac Family Worship Center in the inner city of Pontiac.  I'm really proud of what he's accomplishing.  I should offer a cliche warning for Bobby.  He's the king of the one-liner.  I don't think he can help it.

I'm glad to have these guys added to my blogline feeds.

100 Posts

Well, by way of update on my recent blogging journey, this is post #100 for me. 

I actually started last fall because I was inspired by some other pastors who were blogging.  I didn't know if I'd stick with it or not, but here are a few of the primary reasons why I have.

Blogging helps me process what God is saying to me.  This doesn't relate to all my posts, but many of them come out of my own journey with God.  I've found it healthy to ask myself on a regular basis, "What is God saying to me that would be worth sharing through writing?"  For what it's worth, I've never been very good at journaling.  At the same time, I have a conviction that I'm too often irresponsible with revelation.  I hear God say something and because I forget to record it, I forget it.  While my blog isn't a true journal, I'd much rather write with a keyboard then with a pen, so blogging fits my life's rhythm. 

My blog helps me share my life.  I don't believe it replaces the need for transparency in face to face relationships, but my blog has been a great relationship tool.  It helps me share my life with my family (especially out of state relatives).  It helps me share my life with our church.  I get comments every weekend from people in the church who are reading it.  Even a large percentage of our visitors tell me they've read the blog before their first visit.  I love that, and I think it will become even more useful as our church grows.  The blog also helps me communicate with friends I don't see very often.  Again, this benefit can be abused if it becomes the ONLY outlet for building relationships.  But it's been a great tool for me.

Blogging enables me to outsource ministry experiences.  There are a lot of churches that do ministry better than Church of the King, and a lot of pastors who lead better than me.  But I enjoy the opportunity to share a little of our story.  I'm blown away by church planters, pastors, and Bible College students who email me thoughts and inspiration God gave to them through the blog.

I love to write.  Blogging would be a real drag if this wasn't true.  I'm sensing more and more God's call on my life toward writing.  In school I knew that I could do it, but only recently have I viewed writing as a gift God has given me that He can really use.  I'm a big believer in the stewardship of gifts.  By not using a gift God has given us, we don't necessarily lose the gift.  What we lose is opportunity; opportunity for God to do something with it. 

Blogging has become a way for me to digitally worship.  What I mean is that in the same way a parent lights up when their child opens a birthday gift and goes nuts, God smiles when we show appreciation for his gifts by using them.  Worship is to simply bring pleasure to God. 

I believe that there is an RSS feed of Bleach that goes straight to heaven.  God reads every post.  With that said, whether my blog is read by one person a day, or 10,000, if by writing I can make God smile, I'm going to give it my best.

World Wide Web

Thomas Friedman is right. The world is flat. 

From time to time I'll check some stats from my blog to see where some of the hits are coming from.  I just checked the stats from this morning.  So far I've had visits from 4 countries outside the US.

Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands; Malaysia; Germany; Pakistan

I've also had hits from 11 states within the US.

Michigan; California; Kansas; Missouri; Texas; South Carolina; Florida; Ohio; Virginia; Minnesota; Tennessee.

You've gotta love this new world.  Never before have the ends of the earth been so close (Acts 1.8).

The Start-Up Guy

I came across Guy Kawasaki's blog the other day.  He is the start-up guru and author of several books.  He writes from a business standpoint about public speaking, vision casting and venture capitalism.  It doesn't all translate, but alot of his thoughts will make church planters think.

Here's a link to his Hindsights speech that he delivers at high school and college commencements. 

Blogging Friends

My life-long friends Paul and Crystal just entered the blogosphere.  They are preparing right now to move across the world.  They started their blog Asian Adventures as a way of sharing their family's story. 

Paul was born 5 weeks after me and lived in the house across the street from mine.  Wherever our family moved, his family also moved.  For 27 years he has been a lot of things to me including best friend, basketball teammate, college roommate, and now ministry hero.

Someday soon I'll blog about all the dead animals he used to leave on the carpet in our dorm room, the bat that lived with us as a pet, the mice that wound up in the jar of alcohol, and the pizza that sat on our bookshelf so long you couldn't tell it was a pizza.  And you may not even believe it when I tell you about the romantic candlelight song he made me play on my guitar for him and Crystal on campus one night (let's just say my brand new Doc Martin shoes ended up filled with mud). 

God's call took us to two different states after College.  Now it's taking Paul to another continent.  So isn't technology fantastic!  I can still keep up with what's happening in his life.   

Check out Asian Adventures!