Not really this blog's first post

Greetings and salutations,

Okay, so I am going to start blogging.  This is more for myself than for anyone else.  I want to get back to writing, and this seems like a good way to get started.

As it is, I am passionate about a number of things.  I am passionately in love with my wife, Katie, and our three beautiful children, Isaiah, Miriam, and Judah.  The kids are rock stars.

I am also passionate about this guy named Jesus and about the myriad ways this Galilean peasant from 2000 years ago has brought me closer and closer to wholeness.  As I get the hang of this, I envision this blog will be a place for me to work out my own Christian apologetic--an apologetic particularly conceived in and for my current city, Youngstown, Ohio.  As I go along, I will try to make sense--again, mostly for myself--of the way the God known to us in Jesus Christ brings salvation to you and to me and to the whole world.  Perhaps more often than not, I will explore the way that God's salvation is made manifest here in Youngstown.  So this blog will include conversations about all sorts of things related to my Christian faith as I live it here in the Yo!  That may include, but will not be limited to, theology, church, history, politics, book reviews, and other such things.

Ultimately, I just want to be one of the guys.

Truth be told, I am also passionate about beer.  And from time to time, I may talk about beer to the exclusion of other things.  I can just imagine which beer I will chose when President Obama invites me to a theology pub in the White House Rose Garden with Silvio Berlusconi and other notables.  If it were today, I'd most likely choose Breckenridge Brewery's SummerBright Ale.  It is like summer in a bottle.  But I digress.

So hold on, sisters and brothers.  It's likely to be a bumpy ride.  And of course, wherever we're going, I highly doubt we'll get there.

God's blessings,
Bradley+